Chapter 49 — The Medicine Bearer Through the Chaos

Fateful Night

Three days after the incident with the Le Lo, Tinh Tan's condition stabilized, her fever subsided, her heart rate was regular, and she could even sit up and chat with the maids for a few moments every afternoon. Kinh Ba Van decided to adjust the duty schedule, reducing it to only one person per night instead of the entire team of three as before, thinking that the most dangerous period was truly over.

That night, it was Tinh Yen's turn to be on duty. She stayed in the palace alone, checked Tinh Tan's pulse and temperature every hour according to regulations, and recorded it carefully in the monitoring book. Everything went normally during the first half of the night, Tinh Tan slept peacefully, breathing was regular, with no unusual signs.

Near the end of the third watch, a young palace maid brought a bowl of tonic medicine, saying that this was a regular medicine regimen sent by the Pharmacy according to schedule, which Au Ba Tuong himself had checked and signed to confirm before leaving the evening shift. Tinh Yen took the medicine bowl and, according to her careful habit, smelled and tasted it a bit before giving it to Tinh Tan - a habit she learned from Lieu Nguyen, never putting any medicine into the patient's body without verifying it herself.

The medicine cup has a normal taste, nothing different from previous times. She woke Tinh Tan up to take the medicine, then let her continue to rest, then returned to taking notes on the small table next to the bed.

About half an hour later, Tinh Tan suddenly stood up, clutching his chest, face pale, and breathing unusually fast. Tinh Yen quickly rushed forward, checked her pulse, saw her heart beat erratically, her lips began to turn purple again - signs worse than the first night of poisoning.

"Miss Qin! Can you hear me?" She shouted loudly, and at the same time called for the maid on duty outside to run to report the emergency, her hands constantly performing first aid movements, acupuncturing the Nhan Trung acupuncture point, massaging her chest to maintain circulation.

The entire palace quickly became chaotic, the sound of people running loudly, and the sounds of calling each other echoed throughout the hallway. Kinh Ba Van, Ngan Ba Thuyen and Au Ba Tuong were summoned that night, rushing to the emergency room with Tinh Yen for nearly two hours straight, using every possible measure to try to stabilize Tinh Tan's critically unstable heart rate.

By morning, the condition was temporarily stabilized, but Tinh Tan fell into a coma much deeper than the last time, with a weak pulse and shallow breathing, a critical state that even Kinh Ba Van was not sure about the possibility of recovery.

"What happened?" Kinh Ba Van asked, his voice was stern and cold. When the emergency temporarily subsided, his eyes scanned each person in the room.

"I... I only used the exact bowl of tonic that was sent on schedule, and checked it carefully before giving it to Lady Qin." Tinh Yen replied, her voice still shaking because she had just gone through a stressful emergency.

A guard sent to check at the Pharmacy returned shortly after, bringing news that made the whole room fall into a heavy silence. "Your Excellency, the records at the Medicine Warehouse show that there are no tonics scheduled to be sent to Lady Qin's palace tonight. Tonight is not the scheduled medicine session."

Tinh Yen was stunned, feeling like there was a stream of cold water pouring straight into her heart. "It's impossible... I received the bowl of medicine from a palace maid. That person said that this was a scheduled medicine, checked and signed by Doctor Au himself."

All eyes in the room turned to Au Ba Tuong. He turned pale and stammered his explanation. "I... I did not sign off on any medicine for tonight! My shift ended in the afternoon, I did not return to the Pharmacy after that!"

"So who gave that cup of medicine to the palace maid to bring up?" Kinh Ba Van asked harshly, ordering the guard to immediately find the palace maid who brought the medicine during the night.

But when the guard returned, his face was filled with confusion. "My lord, none of the palace maids on duty tonight recognize the person who brought up that bowl of medicine. No one knows who the palace maids that Doctor Do described are."

The room fell into a cold silence. Tinh Yen stood there, clearly feeling the look of suspicion that was gradually forming in the eyes of the people around her - if no one confirmed bringing the bowl of medicine, if there were no records recording the existence of that medicine, then in everyone's eyes, her story sounded like a clumsy excuse for a fatal mistake she made herself.

"I'm telling the truth, Lord Chancellor! I absolutely did not fabricate anything!" She said, her voice starting to shake with real panic, realizing how dangerous her situation was turning.

Kinh Ba Van looked at her for a long time, his eyes were complicated, mixed with remaining trust and the pressure of the reality before him. "I'm not in a hurry to conclude anything right now." He said, trying to keep his voice calm. "But Lady Qin's condition is critical, everything must be reported to the top according to the correct procedure. Doctor Do, from now on you are temporarily not allowed to continue participating in Lady Qin's treatment, waiting for the results of the investigation to be clear."

Tinh Yen bowed her head, had no words to refute, clearly felt the ground under her feet was gradually collapsing. She glanced at Au Ba Tuong and saw that he was also standing still, his face as pale as hers, but in his eyes, instead of sympathy, there was a flicker of selfish fear of someone who was secretly happy that this disaster did not fall on him.

Before leaving the palace, while the guards were still searching the room looking for the used cup, Tinh Yen accidentally glanced at Lo Tam standing in the corner of the dark hallway. Different from his usual withdrawn appearance, his eyes were strangely calm in the face of the chaos going on, not showing any signs of panic like the other palace servants. When he caught her gaze, he quickly bowed his head and retreated deeper into the darkness, but that short moment was already engraved in Tinh Yen's mind, even though at this time she was still too panicked to fully consider its meaning.

Another guard returned to report, holding a small ceramic cup found in the trash near the side kitchen. "Master Chancellor, I found this cup, there is still medicine residue inside." Kinh Ba Van personally inspected and smelled it, his face darkened.

"There is a smell of unclean that has not been carefully prepared, mixed with the taste of qi tonic." He said, his voice heavy. "If it is indeed the cup of medicine that Doctor Do just gave to Lady Qin, this is no longer a simple mistake, but a serious mistake in dispensing the medicine, enough to cause the crisis just now."

"I didn't add any flavor to that medicine! I tasted it myself before giving it to Lady Qin. If there was unprepared o dau, I would definitely have recognized it right from the tip of my tongue!" Tinh Yen objected, her voice almost pleading, but those words no longer seemed to have enough weight in front of a bowl of concrete evidence lying before everyone's eyes.

Kinh Ba Van did not respond immediately, only signaled the guard to seal the cup as evidence. His eyes when looking at Tinh Yen no longer held the complete trust like the previous days, instead there was a hard-to-name torment between reason and emotion.

When it was dawn, the news that Tinh Tan was in critical condition after using an unknown medicine from Do Tinh Yen spread throughout the Thai Medical Institute, each person telling a different version, getting further and further away from the original truth. Tinh Yen was taken to a separate room in the guest house, with guards standing guard outside, waiting for an official decision from higher levels in the royal court.

Sitting alone in a small room, listening to the steady footsteps guarding outside the door, Tinh Yen looked down at her own hands - the hands that had saved countless lives over the years, were now suspected of being the tool that caused the death of a life she had tried her best to save. She remembered Ngan Ba Thuyen's words from the other night — about a similar incident that happened twenty years ago — and realized that, perhaps, she had just become the latest victim of a scenario that had played out more than once in the history of this vast and shadowy citadel.

She took out half a piece of jade talisman from the red cloth bag, clasped it tightly in her palm, as if just by touching it, she could find a little strength from the deceased - Mrs. Khue, Lieu Nguyen - the people who taught her that, no matter how battered the situation is, a clear conscience is still the only thing that no one can take away, no matter how much all external evidence turns away from the truth.