Mysteries of the Great Zhou Dynasty

Chapter 111 Amnesia
"Sixth Prince, you mustn't!" Rong Junye stretched out his hand to stop him, blocking the Sixth Prince with his body.

"Let me go!" The Sixth Prince's eyes were resolute, his former cowardly and easily bullied demeanor long gone. "Saving lives is the priority!"

“That’s right, I told you not to run away, you can’t escape… Little Six, let’s go pick Dream Eater flowers and make flower wreaths, okay? The kind you made for me last time!” Rui’er smiled broadly and grabbed the Sixth Prince’s hand, as if she were truly an innocent and naive girl. Only those who had seen her indifference when she just poisoned the girl would know how terrifying this fickle girl was.

"Last time?" The Sixth Prince seemed a little confused, completely forgetting that he had ever made a flower wreath for Rui'er. "When did I ever make a flower wreath for you?"

"Never mind, it's not important, let's go!" Rui'er stuck out her tongue, realizing she had said the wrong thing.

"Wait! The antidote!" Rong Wanyin stopped Rui'er, who was about to leave, and opened her palm.

Rui'er tossed over a small roasted bean: "Here, this bean can cure all poisons!"

Rong Wanyin caught it immediately. Since it had indeed been effective for Mo Yun before, she had no doubts and handed the beans to Changfeng so that he could eat them.

To everyone's surprise, Changfeng's condition did not improve. As the number of tiny, hair-thick worms that could be vaguely seen wriggling in the blisters increased, Changfeng rolled on the ground in agony.

"The antidote you gave us is fake!" The crowd glared angrily.

Ruier made a face: "Hahaha, silly girl, you got tricked! Because there's no antidote at all!"

"No antidote?"

"That's right! The Bone-Eating Shadowless Powder—shadowless—it doesn't even have a shadow! It's just ordinary itching powder! Look how scared you all are, hahaha, so funny, so funny!" Rui'er clapped her hands happily. "Then just boil the leaves from that tree over there and wash it! Remember to be quick, otherwise the maggots will hatch and burrow into the flesh, and even my master couldn't save you. The Bone-Eating Powder is shadowless, but the rotting flesh is real."

Upon hearing this, everyone didn't have time to think much and had no choice but to try anything, dividing the work among themselves: some picked leaves, while others boiled water.

Rui'er seemed quite pleased with the lively scene, patting the powder off her hands: "We're leaving now, we'll play with you again next time! Next time you can try my other medicines."

Following Rui'er's method, it worked! The blisters on Changfeng's body disappeared one by one.

"That's great!" Mo Yun couldn't contain his excitement. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"But... what about the Sixth Prince?" Rong Junye asked gravely.

"We'll have to think about this carefully." Yan Mingzhang sighed as he looked at the spot where the Sixth Prince had left.

For a moment, no one spoke; only the chirping of birds mingled with the sound of the wind.
-
The sun rose, and the sunlight was a bit dazzling. Rong Wanyin felt very tired, her whole body ached, and her head was splitting. Where was she?
Rong Wanyin vaguely remembered passing through a cave and a sea of ​​pink flowers, and then she seemed to have arrived at Medicine King Valley...

Rong Wanyin got up and pushed open the door, seeing that Yan Mingzhang and the others had also gotten up, all of them looking exhausted.

Rong Wanyin suddenly saw a figure appear outside the house—it was her eldest brother!

"Big brother!" Rong Wanyin rushed forward excitedly. Seeing that her brother was unharmed, a huge weight was finally lifted from her heart. Rong Junye saw Rong Wanyin and said with a look of surprise, "Why did you come today? Didn't I tell you to come in three days?"

Upon hearing this, everyone's expression changed drastically. They exchanged glances, feeling extremely uneasy.

Yan Mingzhang stepped forward and tentatively asked, "Brother Miquan, it's been three days since you entered Medicine King Valley! We arrived yesterday, and today is your fifth day in the valley!"

Mo Yun looked at Yan Mingzhang with a puzzled expression: "That's not right, sir. We arrived the day before yesterday, and General Rong has been in the valley for six days."

Changfeng also spoke up: "Yes, sir, today is the sixth day!"

"Huh?" Everyone was completely confused. Why were everyone's memory points different?
Rong Junye looked blank and muttered, "How come I don't remember anything about it?"

"Wait a minute, it says yesterday, but I remember we walked through a sea of ​​pink flowers, and then I don't remember anything after that. My memory isn't even a complete day," Yan Mingzhang recalled. He considered himself to have a pretty good memory, so how could he completely forget how he got to this room?

“I’m just like you!” Su Zhan and Rong Wanyin said in unison.

"Mo Yun, what's the last scene you remember?" Rong Wanyin sensed something was off. "Tell me about how we came out of the flower field."

“Yes, don’t miss any details!” Yan Mingzhang added, “This is very likely the reason why you and Changfeng are different from us.”

Mo Yun nodded: "I remember we walked through the sea of ​​flowers and met a girl named Rui'er. She said she was the Medicine King's apprentice. Because I was bitten by a carrion rat, she gave me a bean as an antidote. We asked her about the whereabouts of the Sixth Prince and General Rong, and she told us to come to this bamboo house. Then, we found General Rong in the bamboo house. And then..."

"Later, we were here getting information from General Rong when Miss Rui'er arrived with the Sixth Prince. We wanted to take the Sixth Prince away, so we had a conflict with her. She sprinkled some kind of powder, and I got red blisters all over my body..." Changfeng continued, "Later, she said that as long as the Sixth Prince went to play with her, she would give me the antidote, wait a minute..."

Changfeng and Moyun suddenly realized something and exclaimed in unison, "It's a bean! She gave each of us a roasted bean! It can cure all poisons!"

“I understand! So, is it possible that what caused our amnesia was actually a toxin? And since beans can cure all poisons, they also cured this toxin?” Rong Wanyin continued.

"Then why did Mo Yun and Chang Feng only remember it for one more day than us?" Su Zhan asked, puzzled.

"There are two possibilities. First, they have completely detoxified, but were later poisoned again. Second, the toxin was not completely detoxified, but only suppressed for a day."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"We've been poisoned?" Su Zhan looked at everyone anxiously. "Did that Rui'er poison our food? Otherwise, we..."

“No, it’s not food,” Yan Mingzhang interrupted, holding up two handkerchiefs in his hand. “I just noticed that I had a white handkerchief tied around my wrist, and my wrist was a little sore, so I untied it. And there was a word on my wrist!”

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at him. They saw Yan Mingzhang roll up his sleeves, revealing his wrist, where a character was indeed carved with a knife.