Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace

Yui Mei promptly began her story while the two of them were enjoying the sesame dumplings.

“Actually, there is a patient that is currently being guarded at the penitentiary. Is it possible for you to visit her?”

Yui Mei  broached the topic. She then started to tell Chen about how she met Xu, but she just glossed over the information regarding poppy juice.

Chen listened until Yui Mei finished talking, then he drank the tea to wash down the sesame dumplings before replying.

“I see, so feng shi, huh. Folks claim that illness to be the work of angry spirits, or even curses.”

Chen’s focus was not on Xu being a courtesan, but on her illness.

“Really?”

“What, you didn’t know about this?”

Yui Mei was surprised when she heard that.

Mei Na didn’t mention that when they talked about feng shi.

Chen was taken aback, so he explained further.

“The joints hurt when feng shi is severe, right? There are people who claim that they can see it on the person’s face if the condition turns worse.”

“Oh, so that’s what it is.”

Yui Mei could see where they were coming from when they claimed it was a curse.

Even in her previous world, the human face was also the subject of eerie stories, and this fact didn’t change even if the world did.

‘Well, it’s true that there are cases of joint pains getting worse if left untreated.’

The expression of the person suffering from it might have been quite ghastly, and it had been interpreted in a distorted way, becoming the reason for that person to be shunned.

“It’s a condition that existed since a long time ago, and people do know that it’s a disease, but this concept of curse and divine punishment is deep-seated for some reason. Maybe that Xu Zi girl also grew up in a household believing in this prejudice.”

This was Chen’s conjecture regarding Xu’s condition.

“Hmm, now that you mention it, I do think that’s plausible.”

Yui Mei hmm’d in agreement.

Rheumatism tended to be hereditary in nature.

If one of the family members suffered from this illness and she saw that person being shunned, it would be possible for her to think that this was a disease that must be hidden from other people.

In Mei Na’s case, it was known as a common illness among the commoners who overworked their fingers and joints during hard labor. Because of this, there was no room for it to become something ‘special’, or even treated as a curse.

In that case, it would be possible that the claims of this disease being a curse or perhaps a possession of evil spirits could be attributed to the affluent people who do not have to do manual labor in their life.

‘Those taoists priests tend to swarm over the rich rather than the poor, for sure.’

Thanks to Chen, Yui Mei finally understood one of the possible reasons why Xu hid her illness, and it made her feel relieved.

“So, will you go to the penitentiary?”

Yui Mei asked once again, and Chen rubbed his jaw in response.

“Hmm, let me see. I’ve never been to the penitentiary before. But if I have the permission to enter, then I’ll visit her at the very least.”

Chen took a sip of tea, then he suddenly slapped his thigh.

“Oh, right, speaking of the Ministry of Justice, a person recently came here asking to see the actual poppy juice. I didn’t ask the reason, but did something happen, like, an adverse reaction to the drug or something? Girl, do you know anything about this?”

Chen asked a barrage of questions.

It seemed that the investigation of the poppy juice had already begun.

The Ministry of Justice probably wanted to check the poppies’s appearance and state before it was burned to ashes.

Yui Mei feigned surprise.

“Oh dear! Poppy juice? Isn’t that a very expensive medicine? I don’t have an inkling about that, but I hope it won’t turn into a huge incident.”

Yui Mei didn’t reveal that she was the person who discovered the incident, and continued talking as if she wasn’t related to any of this.

Chen didn’t even doubt her in the slightest.

“It’s been known for a long time that poppy juice can be used for evil deeds. But then, it’ll be a problem if this medicine gets banned because of this.”

Chen remarked, looking bothered about the whole thing.

It seemed that he was concerned about this point.

“Poppy juice is a pain killer, so there are lots of times when it’s used for treating the soldiers. Besides, the army will probably stop the poppy juice from being banned, right?”

“It’ll be great if that is the case.”

Chen heaved a deep sigh after listening to Yui Mei’s words, then he took another sesame dumpling and popped it in his mouth.

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T/N: Hello everyone! Sorry for the very long wait, we finally have enough chaps to start Hundred Blossom Palace again, although it would be a one to two chapters per week posting to allow more time for author-sama to post more chaps 🙂 Thank you so much for your patience <3