Plotting with You: The Forensic Scientist in Ancient Times!-Chapter 372 - 371: Usurping the Nest

"What’s so special about your family’s ancestral secret recipe?" Zhu Yu asked curiously after hearing this, noticing Jiang Hong’s expression change slightly. Fearing he’d become overly cautious like a startled bird, he quickly added, "I don’t need you to tell me what the recipe is, just what the dyed fabric looks like will do."

Upon hearing Zhu Yu’s question, Jiang Hong immediately grew wary, thinking this was a new trick by those thieves to steal the secret recipe. But as he listened further, he relaxed, weakly saying, "The dyeing recipe has been passed down in my family for generations.

I haven’t personally dyed with it, but I’ve seen a piece of silk left by my ancestors. It’s extremely light and thin, you can wear it over other clothes, and it won’t obscure the color of the fabric beneath. In daylight, it appears to glimmer with an added luminescence, giving it a shimmering effect.

At night, the silk radiates a gentle light, as if draped in moonlight, making the wearer look like Chang’e in the Moon Palace.

Previously, dyeing this kind of silk required many expensive materials, and one mishap would ruin everything. The costs were extremely high, so few would even consider it."

"What do the people who locked you up look like? Do you remember?" Lu Zhang asked from the side.

Jiang Hong took a few breaths, then shook his head: "I don’t know... that person wore a veil hat all the time...

Even without it, they used a fan or something to cover their face. I couldn’t see their appearance clearly."

As he spoke, Jiang Hong’s face changed, initially just pale and weak, but now seemed even more pained. His emaciated body writhed in agony on the bed.

"What’s going on?" Yan Daoxin was the first to notice something amiss and quickly took Jiang Hong’s wrist, placing fingers on his pulse, "Earlier the pulse was just weak, but now it’s erratic!"

"It must be acting up again..." Jiang Hong gritted his teeth, his voice forced out through clenched teeth. As he spoke, he scratched his arms and body, adding new blood marks to the already tattered inner clothes. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Didn’t you say their strange medicine wasn’t effective on you earlier? Why is it acting up now?" Yan Daoxin wondered.

Jiang Hong scratched himself, painfully saying, "That strange medicine truly was ineffective, so they made me take something else later. When it acts up, it’s indescribably awful, making me feel like ripping out my own insides...

They said they’d give me the antidote if I revealed it, but there’s no way I’d give them my ancestors’ secret recipe..."

"That’s truly vicious!" Yan Daoxin furrowed his brows into a knot, "Murdering people, stealing land, and to use such torturous things for an ancestral secret recipe!

But don’t worry, from your pulse, it shouldn’t be life-threatening, just sheer torture to make you suffer. I’ll think of a way to see if I can neutralize it later."

Tears immediately fell from Jiang Hong’s eyes, wetting his once dry, sunken eye sockets. If he could get up, he would have probably knocked his head to thank Yan Daoxin.

"Tonight... they might come to the cellar to torture me again... if they find out I’ve escaped, will they..." Jiang Hong, overwhelmed with discomfort, was also reminded by this pain, bringing up a concern.

"Don’t worry, just rest well, you don’t need to worry about anything else." Lu Qing reassured him, "This is Divine Doctor Yan, I’ll ask him to find a way to make an antidote for you.

But before that, we need your help for something. See if there’s anything improperly marked here."

Saying this, he gestured towards the runes. The rune quickly took out the Immortal Castle layout map, which Lu Qing and Lu Yan had drawn together, and handed it to Jiang Hong.

Jiang Hong, mustering his spirit, carefully reviewed the map and was surprised, saying that there weren’t that many high walls in the Immortal Castle before.

This small courtyard was originally where Jiang Hong and his family lived. Although it was somewhat distant and secluded from other villagers’ houses, there weren’t as many barriers, and certainly no absurdly high walls enclosing the houses like a prison.

Zhu Yu speculated that the reason for building high walls in the Immortal Castle was partly to prevent easy escape from inside, and also for the processions delivering "incense" to each courtyard every night.

To prevent the wind from dispersing the smoke, there needed to be high walls to ensure that the courtyards were tightly enclosed, making it more secure.

Knowing the high walls were erected later, Lu Qing didn’t ask Jiang Hong more about the Immortal Castle’s orientation but inquired about any relatively secluded areas surrounding the castle that offered good vantage points without exposing one’s presence.

Jiang Hong, gathering his strength, relied on his memory to point out several spots outside the castle.

Lu Qing didn’t exhaust his energy further, allowing Yan Daoxin to perform acupuncture on several points to temporarily alleviate Jiang Hong’s physical discomfort. Soon he fell into a deep sleep, and then he instructed others to continue resting.

The time after that night passed quietly, and the next morning, the dazed-looking servants routinely came to deliver food.

However, this time, just as they set the items down, Fu Lu appeared from behind and quickly incapacitated them with a few swift karate chops, rendering them unconscious on the ground.

Fu Lu, carrying the sachets swapped out the previous night, quietly snuck out of the small courtyard and headed swiftly towards the courtyard where the Protectors rested. He found that the two shifts had exchanged, with those who quietly drank the night before sleeping off the intoxication, while those with swapped sachets went out.

Fu Lu quickly fed pills to those Protectors deeply asleep, and soon the room fell silent as they all passed out.

The two of them tied up each unconscious person, took their clothes, and snuck back to the small courtyard, distributing the outfits to others.

Everyone selected accordingly to their stature and changed into the Protector disguises, hanging sachets on themselves.

Zhu Yu and Yan Shu initially planned to leave with the others, but since Yan Daoxin and the unconscious Jiang Hong still needed care, they chose to stay behind to assist Yan Daoxin.