24 - Venomous Siniang

Chapter 24 – Venomous Siniang

On the other side, ShangguanYan, who was pretending to be ill in the house, followed Di Jing’s instructions and waited for someone to come to take her pulse and give a diagnosis to treat her illness.

It was true that she was poisoned but it was just that the poison would not hurt the body and there was also an antidote. However, the antidote was a unique medicine concocted by Divine Doctor Zhao and no other doctors would be able to cure the illness.

She did not know who Di Jing was waiting for but she knew that he was luring the snake out of its hole using her as the bait. He had also told her to wait for the other party to make an appearance then she will know who they are waiting for.

For the past few days many doctors had come to see her but the person she is waiting to arrest at first sight did not turn up until a servant came to report that a female doctor was here to see her. When the servant brought the female doctor in, Shangguan Yan realized that the person she had been waiting for had finally arrived.

She recognized the woman with just a glance. No wonder Di Jing said that once the person shows up, she would know……..the female doctor in front of her now is the woman in the painting that Di Jing had once shown her.

“ Furen , this is Jiao Siniang who is here to treat you.” Di Jing walked to the side of the bed and said in a loving tone similar to a husband talking affectionately to his wife.

Although Shangguan Yan was wearing a special veil over her face that made it hard for others to see her face clearly, she could see the expressions on the faces of the other people. She noticed that when Di Jing was talking to her tenderly, Jiao Siniang’s gaze seemed a little bit envious.

She pursed her lips then showed a sly smile and suddenly took the initiative to reach out to hold Di Jing’s palm. Delicately and softly, she called out. “ Xianggong ……”

Di Jing was stunned and then subconsciously held her soft body and called her softly. “ Niangzi ………”

(Instead of calling her ‘Furen’ which is a formal and respectful title, DJ called SY ‘Niangzi’ meaning ‘Wife’ which is an intimate way of addressing her.)

“ Xianggong , this Concubine’s body had caused you trouble. This Concubine’s illness…….it’s afraid this illness can’t be cured.”

“Nonsense…….don’t worry. Regardless of how much time or how much money is spent, Xiangggong will find a cure for you.”

“In case……..in case this Concubine can’t be cured and will remain this ugly for the entire lifetime, will Xianggong be disgusted with this Concubine?”

“If that is the case, then it’s God’s will. In your Xianggong ’s heart, you will always be the most beautiful. You are my cherished Niangzi and I will never leave you.”

“ Xianggong is so good.” Shangguan Yan took the initiative to snuggle into his arms and Di Jing hugged her with both arms. He embraced her very naturally as though she is his officially wedded wife.

Shangguan Yan’s performance was very realistic. When she snuggled into Di Jing’s chest, at the same time, her gaze fell on Jiao Siniang’s face. As expected, she noticed the envy on Jiao Siniang’s face and although Jiao Siniang tried hard to conceal it, she still could not hide her jealousy.

Not only will women make mistakes but men will do the same as well! That Jiao Siniang was interested in Di Jing and for her to come today, it was probably because she harbored ulterior motives.

Shangguan Yan was certain so she continued with her act. She pulled away shyly from her husband’s embrace and said in embarrassment. “Look, I had forgotten there are outsiders present, and let the doctor witnessed this as a joke.” She deliberately emphasized the word ‘outsiders’.

Jiao Siniang walked forward with a smile. “ Furen , don’t be dispirited. Siniang is not talented but still came to give it a try. Perhaps, an antidote can be found to cure you.”

Just look at her seductiveness, how can this tone be used when speaking to women? Her words were solely aimed at melting men!

In her heart, Shangguan Yan felt it was amusing. Di Jing’s ‘honey trap’ was indeed useful. This Jiao Siniang took Di Jing as her prey but she did not know that Di Jing is the actual ruthless hunter. A hard-hearted man who has no mercy for women and that Yan Niang in Yue Fang is a living example!

Even when she met him she was also framed and thrown into prison. So, she was not at all worried that Di Jing would be enticed by this Jiao Siniang’s beauty. On the contrary, she sympathized with this Jiao Siniang who is still unaware that she had walked right into his trap.

“Then I offer my gratitude to this Doctor.” Shangguan Yan slowly raised her hands to gently lift the veil covering her face to reveal a sorrowful-looking ghostly face.

“Ah!” Jiao Siniang sucked in a breath and stared at Shangguan Yan’s face. First, she put on an expression of shock then showed a sympathetic expression and apologized guiltily.

“ Furen , please forgive Siniang. It was not done on purpose but it was too shocking, so…….”

Shocking? It seems more like delight, right?

Shangguan Yan suddenly felt that this Jiao Siniang was amusing. It was obvious that she was gloating in her heart but she still pretended to be compassionate. Shangguan Yan was happy to act along with her and immediately put on a shameful expression.

“This Doctor is too serious. It’s this concubine’s face that is truly ugly and it frightened this Doctor. It’s a sin.”

“Ai, Furen must not say that. In fact, Furen’ s face is only covered with rashes and just a little swollen. It’s not a big problem.”

This Jiao Siniang is indeed a fool. She even deliberately say it aloud to remind her of the ugly face and was even afraid that other people would not know about how ugly she looks.

Shangguan Yan was very cooperative, pretended to feel inferior, and said with admiration. “Doctor, you’re very kind and look so beautiful as well.”

“ Furen , don’t praise me.” Although her words were humble, the pride in her eyes was not humble at all.

Shangguan Yan could not help but wonder why Di Jing wanted to capture this Jiao Siniang. This woman is not dangerous at all and does not know to control her thoughts. With one glance, it can be deduced that she is a pawn who works under orders and is a scapegoat.

“ Xianggong , should the Doctor start to treat this concubine now?” She looked at Di Jing with an implicit meaning in her question.

The foolish bird had already flown into the net, so when are you pulling in the net?

She had no intention to let Jiao Siniang treat her to avoid giving the other party a chance to make a move on her.

In fact, the moment Jiao Siniang stepped into the house, Di Jing could have given the order for her to be arrested. However, he did not do so immediately just because he wanted to hear Shangguan Yan call him ‘ Xianggong ’ in her tender and charming voice. Every time she calls him, it would make his heart pound.

He had to force himself to pretend then only could his feelings be concealed. It was until she hinted a reminder to him that he sighed silently and reluctantly gathered his thoughts. With a smile on his face, he straightened up his body and said……..

“Use medicine.”

Although he seemed to be saying those words to Jiao Siniang, it was a signal for his order to be carried out.

Jiao Siniang was oblivious to the situation and before she could react, she suddenly felt a pain in her back. Her acupuncture point was tapped.

Her eyes widened in surprise and the next instant, her jaws were caught and dislocated.

Everything happened in a blink of an eye and the speed it was done was unexpectedly fast. Before Jiao Siniang could not even see who was the other party, she was already immobilized. She could not call for help or consume poison to commit suicide.

“My Lord, it’s done.” The man who immobilized Jiao Siniang immediately clasped a hand over his fist and bowed to Di Jing with a broad smile.

The man was dressed in gray clothes, tall and majestic exuding the heroic air of a martial expert, restrained and unassuming.

Shangguan Yan recognized this person.

He is one of the Four Great Constables, Ao Yuanjie. His appearance surprised her as she did not see him on the way here, so he must have hidden in the shadows……..but what happened to Constable Qiu?

Di Jing nodded to Ao Yuanjie. “Well done. For you to handle this minor case is deemed to be a waste of your powerful abilities. I thought it would be difficult to capture this criminal but didn’t expect it to be this simple.”

“No, my Lord is right to be worried because this Jiao Siniang’s nickname in Jianghu is Venomous Siniang. Poison is concealed all over her body from head to toe. If we don’t make our move first and let her get an advantage, even if we capture her, half of us would either be injured or dead.”

Ao Yuanjie’s words surprised all the guards who were posing as servants including Shangguan Yan.

Venomous Siniang? Venomous Lady of Death?* So this woman is a poisonous scorpion! She had underestimated this woman. However, it should be true that for one of the Four Great Constables to handle this case, it must be a difficult case to deal with. Then she stared at Ao Yuanjie’s hands…….no wonder he had to wear gloves!

( Venomous Siniang? Venomous Lady of Death? – Si means four and has the same pinyin as ‘dead/death’. Niang means lady or mother and when the two Chinese characters are placed together, they form the words ‘Si Niang’ meaning Fourth Lady but the pinyin also sounds like Lady of Death. In the raws, the second part Venomous Lady of Death was written as 毒死娘 . These are only word-play, so just ignore them. )

Ao Yuanjie continued. “Although this humble one had tapped her acupuncture point which made her unable to act rashly, it was to prevent her from consuming poison or using her mouth to spread the poison. It’s imperative to dislocate her jaws but this would make it difficult for my Lord to interrogate her.”

Can’t speak, how to conduct an interrogation? Can’t move, how to make her write?

Even Shangguan Yan found it to be a problem.

Di Jing pursed his lips and then smiled. “That’s alright. This Officer doesn’t need her to speak and only just to listen to this Officer’s questions.”

Suddenly, his expression turned cold. “Guards, bring the things up.”

Under Di Jing’s orders, two guards immediately stepped forward while holding a box each and brought them in front of Di Jing.

Di Jing took out the jade flute from the first box and asked. “Do you recognize this jade flute? If you do, blink your eyes twice and if you don’t, roll your pupils one round.”

Jiao Siniang just stared at him without blinking or rolling her eyes.

Di Jing asked again. “Do you know where is Tian Chongyang?”

Tian Chongyang was the deceased Lord Tian in the grave robbery case.

Di Jing straightaway asked for the whereabouts of Lord Tian to pry for information from Jiao Siniang.

Jiao Sininag turned her head to the side this time and did not even look at him.

Di Jing put the jade flute back into the first box and then took out a black bottle from the other box.

“After the failure of the late-night mission to break into the imperial capital’s prison carried out by death warriors, five of them committed suicide by consuming poison and they bled from their seven orifices. This bottle contains the poisoned blood drawn from their bodies. Was it you who gave them this poison?”

(The seven orifices are 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils, and the mouth.)

As soon as the words were spoken, it was not only Jiao Siniang who was secretly shocked but Shangguan Yan who was at the side was also a little surprised.

The poison was given by Siniang?

It turned out that Di Jing already had a clue. It was a wasted effort for her to secretly steal the blood-stained handkerchief and sent it off to Divine Doctor Zhao to be examined. She wanted to find the source based on the poison but it turned out that someone was a step ahead of her.

Humph, if she had known, she would not have wasted effort on it!

Di Jing opened the lid, poured the blood into a white porcelain dish, and directly placed it in front of Jiao Siniang. Because the blood was mixed with the poison, it had yet to coagulate and appeared to be a mixture of black and red.

Jiao Siniang stared at the black blood without any expression.

“If it’s yes, blink twice…….and if it’s not, just roll your eyes.”

Jiao Siniang still ignored him and also did not look at him. She planned to waste time in this way.

“This Officer only wants to catch the big fish hiding behind the scene. It doesn’t matter if you, this little fish, are let off.”

As he said, the majestic look in Di Jing’s eyes turned into pity as though he felt reluctant to let this beauty perish just like this.