Chapter 46 — The Medicine Bearer Through the Chaos

Night Report from the Harem

The alarm bell rang out in the middle of the night, tearing apart the usual quiet atmosphere of the Thai Y Vien guest house. Tinh Yen jumped up from the bed, her heart was pounding. Before she could calm down, she heard loud footsteps running down the hallway and the calls of the night nurses.

"What's up?" She asked a medical student who just ran past the door, still hastily buttoning her shirt.

"The palace post reported that Tinh Tan suddenly had a seizure and lost consciousness! Lord Chancellor Kinh has summoned all senior royal physicians and a number of doctors capable of handling emergency treatment!" The doctor responded quickly, then continued running towards Chinh Duong.

Tinh Yen stood still for a moment. The name Tinh Tan was not unfamiliar to her - she had heard other doctors mention this concubine a few times during after-hours conversations. She knew that she was one of the favored concubines. She had for many years suffered from a chronic blood disease, often requiring regular medication under the care of a team of specialized royal physicians.

She quickly put on proper clothes, brought along a surgical kit and personal emergency medicine box, and quickly ran towards Chinh Duong following the hustle and bustle of people gathering. There, Kinh Ba Van stood in the middle of the yard, his face with a rare tension, assigning manpower to each group preparing to leave for the palace.

"Are you here too?" He asked when he saw Tinh Yen squeezing into the middle of the crowd. His eyes glanced at her briefly and then looked at Ngan Ba Thuyen standing next to her.

"I came right away when I heard the news, Lord Chancellor. If you need more people, I am willing to contribute." Tinh Yen replied, her voice urgent but determined.

Kinh Ba Van was silent for a moment, then glanced at the file in his hand - the file clearly recorded Nhiep Dinh Toan's comments last year, about Tinh Yen's special ability in diagnosing rare poisons. He nodded decisively. "Okay, you go with Doctor Ngan and Doctor Au's team. If this is really poisoning and not simply a relapse of an old illness, your abilities can be useful."

The group boarded a special horse-drawn carriage licensed to enter and exit the forbidden palace in the middle of the night, galloping quickly through the quiet streets, through several layers of strictly guarded city gates, each time they stopped, they had to present their identification cards and were subject to careful inspection by the guards. The deeper you go inside, the more solemn and stuffy the atmosphere becomes - the rows of magnificent palaces are engulfed in darkness, with only a few rows of lanterns hanging high casting pale yellow light onto the marble walkways, with absolutely no sound other than the hurried footsteps of the medical staff.

Tinh Tan's palace is located deep in a separate garden, the air inside is filled with the scent of agarwood mixed with the smell of herbal medicine being prepared in a corner of the room. Tinh Tan lay on the bed, his body convulsed, sweat drenched the brocade blanket, his originally delicate face was now pale as if there was no life left, his lips were purple, his breathing was interrupted. Several palace maids stood around, faces unable to hide panic, an elderly eunuch standing nearby kept clasping his hands and praying for something in his mouth.

"Get out of the way, let the Chancellor take a look!" A guard shouted loudly, clearing the way for the medical team to enter.

Kinh Ba Van stepped forward, quickly felt the pulse, checked the pupils, and asked the maids about the onset of symptoms. Ngan Ba Thuyen and Au Ba Tuong also immediately got to work, each checking a different aspect according to their assignment. Tinh Yen stood back a step, observing the patient's overall condition before approaching, a habit she learned from Lieu Nguyen - always look at the whole picture before going into details.

"What medicine did Lady Qin take today?" She asked a maid standing closest, her voice small but clear.

"It's still the usual regimen of blood-boosting medicine, prescribed by specialized royal physicians for many months." The palace maid replied, her voice trembling. "But tonight, after dinner, Lady Qin had a little more nutritious bird's nest soup that she... prepared herself, saying it was to help her sleep better."

Tinh Yen remembered that detail, walked closer to the bed, looked more closely at the color of Tinh Tan's nails, tongue, and a trail of foam left at the corner of her mouth. She gently lifted her eyelids and saw that her pupils were abnormally small, different from the usual signs of a relapse of a common chronic blood disease.

"Shrinking pupils, convulsions all over the body, foaming at the mouth — this doesn't look like an old flare-up." She spoke softly to Kinh Ba Van, who had just returned after asking after the other maids. "It's possible that it was poisoned by a highly toxic herb that affects the central nervous system."

Au Ba Tuong, standing nearby, frowned slightly. "What evidence do you have to confirm that? Lady Qin has a history of blood diseases for many years, and a severe attack can also cause similar symptoms."

"Chronic phlebitis attacks are usually not accompanied by such obvious pupil constriction, and rarely cause this much foaming at the mouth." Tinh Yen replied, her voice still remaining calm even though she clearly felt skeptical eyes focusing on her. "I have encountered a number of similar cases of herbal poisoning at the border, when soldiers accidentally used medicinal herbs growing wild near the barracks."

Kinh Ba Van silently considered, then ordered a palace maid to bring the remaining bird's nest soup to check. He sniffed, tasted a little with the tip of his tongue and then spit it out immediately, his face suddenly changed color. "There is a strange, slightly numb taste on the tip of the tongue. Not the normal taste of bird's nest." He said, his voice low. "Take this sample, it needs to be examined carefully."

While waiting to determine the cause, emergency treatment must still be carried out in parallel to save Tinh Tan's life. Tinh Yen proposed an emergency detoxification method combined with acupuncture to stabilize the nerves, which Kinh Ba Van approved after a moment of consideration. She and Ngan Ba Thuyen coordinated to needle the An Than, Noi Quan, and Tuc Tam Ly acupuncture points, while another group prepared the antidote according to Kinh Ba Van's instructions.

Tinh Tan's convulsions gradually subsided after nearly an hour of struggling, but she still did not wake up, falling into a deep coma. Although her breathing was more stable, it was still weak. Kinh Ba Van stood silently beside the bed for a long time, his face heavy with worry - because he understood better than anyone that the life of a favored concubine in the palace was not simply a medical case, but also entailed countless political consequences if something unexpected happened.

"From now on, set up a team to constantly be with Lady Qin, taking turns closely monitoring all developments." He ordered, his voice stern. "Doctor Ngan is in charge, Doctor Au and Doctor Do take turns assisting. There absolutely must not be any mistakes."

Tinh Yen bowed her head to obey, both worried for Tinh Tan's life and feeling a vague insecurity creeping in - the strange taste in the bird's nest soup, its unclear origin, and the fact that the concubine was the one who personally prepared extra dishes that night, all evoked unanswered questions, questions that she had a hunch would be much longer and more complicated than a normal emergency case.

Before leaving the palace, Tinh Yen lingered for a moment, observing the elderly eunuch who was still standing in the corner of the room, his hands trembling as he rearranged the pile of blankets and pillows that had become dislodged during the emergency. He had a thin figure, pale skin because he rarely went outdoors, eyes lowered to avoid all glances, an excessive aloofness that made her slightly notice, even though at that time she had no basis to suspect anything specific.

"Have you been here serving Lady Qin for a long time?" She asked, her voice light as if she were having a normal conversation.

"Miss, it's been more than three years." The eunuch replied in a low voice, not daring to raise his head to look straight. "The slave's name is Lo Tam, always dedicated to serving Lady Qin, never letting any mistake happen."

"I don't mean to blame, I'm just asking for more information about Lady Qin's daily life situation." Tinh Yen reassured, but still remembered that name in his heart, along with the excessive tension in his voice - something that a physician accustomed to observing human expressions could hardly ignore.

Leaving the palace, she looked back once more, seeing Lo Tam still standing in place, her eyes following the group of medical officers leaving until the last figure disappeared behind the door, a small detail that somehow lingered in her mind all the way back.

When it was nearly dawn, the medical staff temporarily withdrew, leaving only the team on duty under Kinh Ba Van's orders. Tinh Yen stood in the small garden in front of the palace, looking at the first sunrise dyeing the horizon pink in the distance behind the magnificent palace roofs, thinking to herself, she had just crossed a new threshold of the Royal Medical Institute - not the threshold of medical knowledge, but the threshold of a dangerous world of royal politics, where each dose of medicine, each diagnosis, could carry the weight of both a life and a political undercurrent that no one had anticipated.