Chapter 412.1: Consequences

With Gong Jiu personally investigating, things naturally won’t be that simple anymore. The soup was left alone, but the chicken inside, as well as the various other ingredients were all extracted one by one.

Gong Jiu then had the soup water separated into three portions. All the ingredients were also separated into three. The chicken was broken down even more, the bones into bones, the meat into meat.

Gong Jiu used several different ways to examine. All the things inside all didn’t have any problems. Even so, Gong Jiu didn’t rashly come to a conclusion. The results of the investigation not having any problems didn’t mean that there really weren’t any problems. Perhaps it was just him not being able to detect, that’s all. In this aspect, it just reflected Gong Jiu’s strict and cautious attitude.

Of course, this kind of examination, in Jing Wan’s eyes, was actually still very shallow. At most, one can only know whether it was harmful or not, and based on the predicted direction, use a few kinds of special methods to examine. Placed in her past life, any component was all able to be analyzed clearly. However, Gong Jiu’s methods were already much more impressive than others.

“This chicken has problems. I’d watched it go into the pot. In this period of time, it’s impossible for the chicken to be this tattered.” Gong mama who’d been following by Jing Wan’s side suddenly opened her mouth.

Upon hearing this, everyone all unanimously looked towards her.

Gong mama curtsied, “When this servant came to the imperial kitchen to prepare the antique soup for wangye and wangfei, one had inadvertently saw this chicken going into the pot. Originally, one was thinking that this was probably prepared for one of the imperial consorts to use after the evening banquet, but turns out, her Highness Shu Consort didn’t eat chicken soup that was stewed for too long. Calculating by the time, even if stewing until now, it would still be far from this.”

Hearing Gong mama say this, the people of the imperial kitchen also successively nodded, “Right, right, this chicken, from the looks of it, should have been raised for about two years, so it can’t break down this easily.”

Under normal circumstances, majority of people would all overlook this situation. However, although Gong Jiu came from the shadow guards, he has never entered the kitchen before. Even in the past when carrying out missions, it was still nothing more than roasting a bit of wild catch, and for the most part, it was just eating before fully cooked. That’s why, it was very normal for him to not know about this.

In this moment, Gong Jiu brought out Eunuch Mu’s learning spirit, deciding that after going back, have the matters in cooking thoroughly learned, so as to avoid overlooking similar circumstances in the future.

“Already can’t get anymore results from this chicken. ———-Is there another chicken similar to this one in the imperial kitchen? It’s best if it’s still alive.” Gong Jiu turned towards the general manager of the imperial kitchen and asked.

“Yes, yes, this little one will immediately let someone bring over?” With Shu Consort Qin falling to poison, the greatest suspicion precisely fell on the imperial kitchen. At this time, they naturally wished more than anyone for this matter to be investigated clearly, because only by investigating clearly, can they have the chance of surviving. No one wished to die wrongfully for no reason. Only three of the stewards were needed for the investigation, so they had temporarily freedom. The rest of the imperial kitchen had all gotten detained by the Imperial Guards.

“What are you wasting your breath for, quickly go.” Le Cheng Emperor coldly ordered.

That steward shivered, hurriedly leaving.

Inviting a few imperial guards to help out, he used the cage to have the remaining chickens brought over. There were still a dozen or so chickens.

historical

Gong Jiu used the needle on every chicken, yet he couldn’t help but slightly frown. These chickens were all normal, and appeared to also be very lively. Under normal circumstances, if living creatures were fed poison, and that poison can poison a person to death, then there was no reason for the chicken to still be perfectly fine. “What about similar chickens that have already been slaughtered, is there any abnormalities?”

The abnormalities being asked about now obviously was asking whether or not there were other cases of the chicken meat falling apart too quickly.

The general manager of the imperial kitchen hurriedly let someone go investigate. Although quite a bit were used, and all the dishes differed to some extent, the chicken head, chicken feet, and such parts were all still present. Aside from Shu Consort Qin, no one else had ordered a whole chicken.

And once Le Cheng Emperor found out that a similarly tattered chicken had actually been served during the evening banquet, his heart turned even colder, even suspecting whether or not he’d already taken a trip to the gates of the underworld.

Before Gong Jiu could examine those chicken heads, another steward of the imperial kitchen just tremblingly discovered a problem, “G-general M-manager, this chicken, t-there’s, there’s one too many.” The things entering the imperial palace, all needed to be strictly inspected, and all things had a fixed quota. Chickens naturally were also the same.

The following results for the most part can confirm, that extra chicken just happened to be the problematic one. Because they were all pulled out from the chicken coop and directly slaughtered, and moreover, there were several people specifically in charge of butchering, in addition to some imperial chefs disdaining the young eunuchs not handling it well enough, they would even personally set to the task themselves. And the one for Shu Consort Qin was mixed in the previous batch and slaughtered together. After all, it was in the middle of winter. Slightly setting aside wasn’t a problem either.

As such, unless someone in the imperial kitchen knew that this chicken was different from other chickens after getting butchered, otherwise with this many people in the imperial kitchen, big chefs and small chefs, dealing with ingredients daily, also knowing that one can’t slack on the job in the slightest, being careful and cautious, in addition to a pair of sharp eyes, the differences definitely can’t escape their eyes. Anything with the slightest bit of disparity, for the sake of being safe, regardless of whether or not it had problems, all would toss and not use. As such, it was highly likely that Shu Consort Qin was just unlucky.

Then, exactly who was this chicken targeted towards? Or was it that regardless of who, as long as someone collapses, they will have achieved their goal? Or it would be even better if it’d just happened to be Le Cheng Emperor falling for the trap? Perhaps there was also a follow-up move? At present, it was first figuring out that chicken’s origins. However, this matter wasn’t within Gong Jiu’s scope of responsibilities.

When butchering, all the chickens were perfectly fine. Towards this bit, Gong Jiu still held suspicion.

“Is it possible that this chicken from the start just got fed some medicine, the amount very little, far from the point of where the chicken will die after once or twice, and afterwards, accumulate little by little over a long period of time. The chicken may appear to have very healthily survived, but in reality, has already become a poisonous chicken?” Based on her knowledge of drug resistance from her past life, Jing Wan thought of such a possibility. However, if it’s poison, it should accelerate the destruction of the body and die even quicker. Did the possibility of producing resistance exist?

Upon hearing this, Gong Jiu’s eyes suddenly lit up, cupping his hands towards Jing Wan, “Wangfei is wise, this little one had a sudden flash of insight.”

With Gong Jiu suddenly doing this, Jing Wan really was somewhat caught unprepared, subconsciously yielding, unable to bear.

However, Li Hong Yuan promptly reached out to stop her, and Jing Wan wasn’t able to avoid. His own wife was just thin-skinned.

Le Cheng Emperor also laughed in amazement, “Old six’s wife, no need to avoid. Your manor’s manor doctor is right, there’s nothing you can’t bear.”

Jing Wan couldn’t follow-up Le Cheng Emperor’s words, just lowering her head, pretending to be embarrassed.

“If wangfei’s guess is correct, then this kind of chicken’s quantity won’t be many. In a hundred, to be able to perfectly raise one or two is already not bad. And what they’re fed can only be half-finished poison. Finished poison, even if just a tiny amount like the tip of a needle, the chicken still can’t possibly survive. Judging from her Highness’s situation, she was precisely poisoned today, or more accurately tonight. Just don’t know whether the other half of the poison came from the food or some other object.” Gong Jiu stated.

“This is implying that just coming in contact with one of them won’t have any problems? At least, won’t be as serious as Shu Consort’s situation?” Jin Qinwang, who’d been serving as the perfect background board this whole time, finally opened his mouth.

“Yes, just coming in contact with half, then coming in contact with the other half after two hours, all won’t have any problems.”

“It’s not easy to raise a poisonous chicken. Having meticulously spent a year or two raising, even successfully bringing into the palace, one naturally can’t waste it in vain. If it was aimed towards a certain person, then in this matter, there must’ve been some slip-up. If it was just for the sake of causing a disturbance, then when unsure whose mouth the poisonous chicken will enter, to want to achieve one’s goal, the other half of the poison needs to be scattered broadly, so the possibility of it being in the food is far greater than in a certain object........”

When Li Hong Yuan said this, Le Cheng Emperor’s blood froze again, even seemingly feeling a bit unwell, suspecting whether or not he’d also been poisoned.