I’m Here To Send You To The Other Side

The sun shone in from outside the room as the door was opened. Song Caitang squinted as she watched someone walk in and come closer to her.

And when she realized who it was, she was both surprised and not surprised.

It was Zhao Zhi’s aunt, the woman in charge of Prince Ping’s residence – Consort Ping.

Consort Ping was dressed in a light blue dress and tied her hair with simple accessories. Her back was as straight as ever and her expression was calm and steady.

“You were someone Zhi’er once truly cared for, so I don’t mind doing this for you. At least you won’t experience any pain.”

She sat down across from Song Caitang and slowly placed the small porcelain bottle on the table.

It was obvious what was inside this bottle.

Song Caitang did not panic or feel afraid. Her gaze shifted from the bottle to Consort Ping’s face and she looked back at the consort. “Empress Chen told you to come here? She wants to kill me?”

Consort Ping folded her hands in front of her abdomen and lowered her gaze slightly. “Eat this and you won’t feel any pain.”

Song Caitang reached for the bottle.

Then put it down again.

After thinking about it, she picked it up again and opened it. Three round, bright red pills the size of a pinkie nail were inside.

She did not consume the pills or speak. She just held the little bottle with three fingers and swayed it gently.

Regardless of what she did, Consort Ping did not react. She sat very properly in her chair and her eyes didn’t even flinch.

Song Caitang noticed that Consort Ping was wearing makeup. Her brows had been combed neatly, her lips stained with lipstick and blush had been applied to her cheeks. It wasn’t much, but still visible.

“I heard that you aren’t very familiar with Empress Chen,” she stared straight at Consort Ping with a flicker in her eyes, “but you were very close to the previous empress.”

Consort Ping calmly glanced at her. “That’s all in the past. I didn’t expect you to be so well-informed about me. You must really want to marry into the family.”

Song Caitang nearly rolled her eyes. No wonder Zhao Zhi argued with her all the time! She spoke so sarcastically!

“There is no point in playing games with me now. Since I’m already here, I’m not going to let you walk out of here alive,” Consort Ping stared at the little bottle. “Eat it.”

Song Caitang rotated the bottle, then suddenly smiled as she asked, “What did Empress Chen use to control you?”

Consort Ping narrowed her eyes. “Like the old saying goes, anything from the mouth of a dying person will be taken as kind words. But I think you ought to watch what you say.”

“I’m already going to die, so why should I be so careful?” Song Caitang stared straight at Consort Ping. “Something you’re most concerned about – you mean Empress Chen has done something to Zhao Zhi?”

Consort Ping raised an eyebrow. “Please address him as Prince Ping.”

“So it’s not Zhao Zhi…” Song Caitang lowered her gaze to think as she murmured to herself. “Then again, given how capable he is, how could he have walked into someone else’s trap just like that?”

But the consort had no husband and no son. She had used almost every single minute of her life guarding her household. It couldn’t be for the house itself. It had to be a person.

If it wasn’t Zhao Zhi, who was it?

It had to be herself!

Song Caitang suddenly got up and grabbed hold of Consort Ping’s wrist to check her pulse.

She was a coroner and focused on examining dead bodies, but while her medical knowledge in terms of diagnosis and treatment wasn’t the best, she wasn’t completely clueless. She had studied a little about traditional Chinese medicine too.

Consort Ping had immediately realized what Song Caitang was doing and flung the younger woman’s hand aside violently. “What are you doing!”

The whole time, she had been calm and willing to talk. Yet now, her reaction was so violent…

Song Caitang’s heart sank.

“Empress Chen fed you poison, didn’t she?”

After a brief moment of agitation, Consort Ping had straightened her sleeves out and was seated elegantly again. “Miss Song, I don’t understand what you mean by that. I’ve been loyally carrying out Her Highness’ instructions. Why would she poison me?”

“Because you’re not actually loyal to her.”

Song Caitang looked angry now. “To protect Zhao Zhi back then, you told her what happened and got into her camp. That’s how you ended up dabbling in the salt business, isn’t it? Not only that, but you also silently allowed her to keep watch over you. Zhao Zhong was one of hers, but he definitely wasn’t the only one. There are others in the house, right? Your status is higher than most others and you have plenty of resources on hand. After Zhao Zhi consumed Millet’s Dream, lost his memory and ran far, far away, everything was safe and Empress Chen wouldn’t have gone all out to get rid of any of you, so I don’t think she would have poisoned you then. This poison…is something she fed you very recently, or perhaps just today…because of me, isn’t it?”

Her voice was beginning to tremble by the time she reached the last sentence.

Regardless of what Empress Chen was planning, she definitely didn’t want Consort Ping to live, but she couldn’t allow the consort to die immediately, or be found to have been murdered by her… Given the empress’ character, Consort Ping was indeed the most suitable person to do this.

Empress Chen poisoned Consort Ping to make the consort come here and make sure Song Caitang died. If the consort did it, Song Caitang would die and Empress Chen would give the consort the antidote. If the consort did not do it, she would not get the antidote and she would definitely die.

Or perhaps, this was just a setup for the empress’ pleasure. After all, once the empress took over everything, she could kill both Consort Ping and Song Caitang regardless of whether they listened to her or not. Neither of them would escape death.

Song Caitang was so furious, she began to shake.

What an evil woman!

“Tsk, Miss Song really thinks very highly of herself,” Consort Ping remained as calm as ever. She raised her chin high and stared down at Song Caitang with some disdain. “Who are you to me? Why should I be nice to you? Because you snatched Zhao Zhi from me and made him so distant toward me? Don’t you think it’s not very wise to be such a smart aleck?”

Every word she uttered dripped with sarcasm, as though she was reminding Song Caitang that she had been against this marriage right from the start!

Song Caitang picked up the little white bottle. “The pills in here aren’t poison, but harmless pills, right?”

Consort Ping narrowed her eyes. “You can eat them and find out for yourself.”

“I haven’t had the chance to speak to you very often, but Zhao Zhi talks about you a lot. When you were younger, you didn’t really like putting on makeup, and even more so after you grew older. But you’ve carefully applied makeup today. If it’s not to cover up your pale complexion caused by the poison, then what?” Song Caitang’s expression was tense. “And no matter how I play with this little bottle, you don’t seem the least bit nervous. It’s because this stuff isn’t poison at all, it won’t kill me!”

Consort Ping paused for a long time before letting out a scoff. “Your imagination is really incredible.”

“I can’t be compared to how much effort you’ve put into being the bad guy.” Song Caitang frowned slightly. “Why won’t you say what you really mean? Even my grandmother is more adorable than you are!”

Consort Ping scoffed again. “I don’t live for the sake of being called adorable by others.”

“So, you’d rather die?!” Song Caitang’s eyes reddened. “You’d let me escape after a fake death and be reunited with Zhao Zhi, while you die all alone here, bleeding from every orifice and your body gotten rid of without a trace? Then I’ll live for the rest of my life filled with guilt and regret, and whenever Zhao Zhi remembers what happened, he’d be filled with anger and resentment, so it’d always be a thorn in our flesh and we’d never end up together?”

Consort Ping was stunned by that logic. “I never thought of it that way…”

Halfway through her sentence, she noticed Song Caitang’s expression and she shut her eyes as she let out a long sigh. “I’ve been so clever all my life, yet I’ve fallen for such a simple trap. A young woman has trapped me in my own words.”

After all, logic often eluded those who were emotionally invested in a situation.

Given how rational Song Caitang and Zhao Zhi were, even if that really happened, they would be able to eventually process it and move on. It wouldn’t become a point of resentment. Song Caitang had purposely said all that.

The person who was most concerned that such a thing would happen, would lose.

But while some words were true and others were not, the tears were real.

Song Caitang started to cry. She was really feeling terrible inside.

As she had said earlier, she didn’t really have much interaction with Consort Ping. But because of Zhao Zhi, the air between them became more and more awkward. Most mothers-in-law naturally picked on their daughters-in-law, even if Zhao Zhi were an ordinary person and not a prince. To a mother, their son was the best and was even worthy of a deity. Song Caitang did really think that Consort Ping had absolutely no reason to like her.

But of course, that didn’t bother her. She did not live for the affirmation of others, and definitely wasn’t going to lower her standards in order to become what society deemed as a virtuous wife.

However, Consort Ping’s decision really touched her.

Consort Ping was willing to die for her.

It wasn’t that Consort Ping didn’t like her, but that Consort Ping liked her very much. But she couldn’t say that out loud for a variety of reasons and had no choice but to pretend to be the bad guy.

“Don’t misunderstand me. It’s not because I like you. I just don’t want Zhi’er to be sad,” Consort Ping turned her face away from Song Caitang and remained expressionless. “He likes you very much, so he will only be happy if you’re safe and living well.”

The room was very quiet. Nobody spoke for a long time.

Consort Ping couldn’t help but turn slightly to steal a glance at Song Caitang, but Song Caitang caught her looking.

“Ahem!” Consort Ping started coughing.

Why was this woman still pretending!!

“Alright, alright, I know you like me very much.” Song Caitang’s heart heaved with emotions before she collected herself and reached for Consort Ping’s wrist again to check her pulse.

This time, Consort Ping did not fling her hand away. Perhaps because she knew she couldn’t convince this stubborn young lady otherwise.

Song Caitang asked, “What poison did she feed you?”

Consort Ping shook her head. “No idea.”

“When is it supposed to take effect?”

“Apparently within half a day.”

“What time did she feed it to you?”

Consort Ping paused, then said, “Around 7 or 8am.”

“What! It’s almost 1pm now!” Song Caitang glared at Consort Ping. “Why didn’t you come over earlier!”

Consort Ping turned away and sounded a little guilty, “I…was busy making some arrangements.”

“Your funeral, you’re saying?!” Song Caitang was furious.

But there was no point in getting angry now. Song Caitang tried not to be distracted as she tried to deduce what the poison could be. Unfortunately, she had learned too little to be able to do that by just checking Consort Ping’s pulse.

“Open your mouth.”

She had no choice but to do it via observation.

Consort Ping opened her mouth to let her take a look at her tongue. But to her surprise, Song Caitang came very close and even used a hand to fan the smell toward herself.

The consort’s face reddened and she leaned back.

How could her breath smell good after she had been poisoned! She found it stinky herself!

“Good gracious! Why do you seem to have no understanding of filth!”

“Don’t move!” Song Caitang pressed her down and spoke fiercely, “What do you mean by filth? Who’s filthy? I didn’t know that!”

She had smelled corpses at all stages of decomposition. This was nothing to her.

“Stop trying to be prim and proper, or I’ll really get angry! If I get really angry, the consequences are very severe! It’ll be impossible to coax me!”

Consort Ping was stunned for a moment, but a warmth quickly filled her heart.

Girls were really different from boys. They were sweet and gentle, so they were adorable even when they were fierce. If the one speaking now was Zhao Zhi, then he would sound nasty even if he was saying nice things!

Song Caitang was an expert at dissecting bodies and assessing poisons, and she had even done an extended course on poisons. But that was on dead people. She didn’t really know what to do with a living person.

On top of that, the people from ancient times had their own way of doing things and there were many poisons she had never even hear of.

What poison did Empress Chen use? It wasn’t something that could kill a person immediately, and it had an antidote… What ingredients would be included in an antidote?

Song Caitang had rarely felt this anxious after coming to this world. She frowned as she paced the room.

Consort Ping found this situation rather interesting. She sipped her tea and asked softly, “I stopped both of you from getting married and publicly told everyone that I didn’t like you. You’ve never…hated me for that?”

“Did you sincerely dislike me? You were just acting anyway,” Song Caitang scoffed. “Besides, who cares if you like me or not?”

“If you married into my family, I’d be your mother-in-law. I could make life difficult for you.”

Song Caitang nearly rolled her eyes. “Do you really think you could make my life difficult?”
Consort Ping fell silent. She was right.

As Song Caitang spoke, she spotted a bowl of green bean soup on another table. She had asked one of the maids for it earlier. Of course, she had asked for this bowl of soup because she wanted to find out what Empress Chen’s attitude toward her was at that time.

But now…

Her eyes lit up. She picked up the bowl of soup and thrust it at Consort Ping. “Drink it!”

Consort Ping stared blankly at the bowl of green bean soup.

“What are you staring at? Drink it! I didn’t eat any of it! It’s just cold because it’s been here for a long time now.”

Green bean soup was able to neutralize certain toxins, so without knowing what poison was in the body or what the antidote was, this was the least she could do.

“So what if you’ve consumed some of it? Someone of my age wouldn’t be too particular about that.”

Consort Ping had no idea what Song Caitang was trying to do, but she obediently drank everything in the bowl.

Song Caitang felt that she had to do more. The poison in Consort Ping’s body was like a ticking time bomb, because nobody had any idea when it was going to explode. She was good at cracking cases, but not very good at diagnosing poisons or finding their antidotes.

If she couldn’t tell what poison it was, she could attempt to analyze the sort of person Empress Chen was.

What was the empress doing, what was her goal, what she was thinking about when she fed the consort this poison… She might even find out where the antidote was hidden!

It was a good plan. Song Caitang turned to look at Consort Ping. “You’ve been working with Empress Chen for such a long time, so I’m sure you understand her to a certain extent.”

“I don’t really know her that much,” Consort Ping shook her head as she spoke very cautiously. “The more I know, the more danger I would be in.”

Song Caitang understood that.

She smiled faintly and said, “Since we’re in this situation and there’s nobody else around, don’t you think we could speak nicely and more honestly to one another like mother and daughter?”

She wanted Consort Ping to be more cooperative so that they could get out of this sticky situation together. But Consort Ping still didn’t want to speak her mind and kept wanting to shoulder the burden herself. Song Caitang had to fix that.

Consort Ping glared at her. “You’re an unmarried young woman and you’re calling us mother and daughter? Do you have any manners?!”

Song Caitang was expressionless. “You’d rather I call someone else my mother?”

Consort Ping glowered at her. “You wouldn’t dare!”

Call someone else her mother so that she would become someone else’s daughter-in-law? No way!

“I finally understand where Zhao Zhi’s domineering behavior comes from,” Song Caitang burst out laughing. “His expression is just like yours now.”

Consort Ping was surprised. “He’s…like me?”

Song Caitang nodded. “You were the one who taught him and brought him up, so he learned his temperament, his character and way of doing things from you. If he doesn’t resemble you, who would he resemble?”

Consort Ping felt some tears well up in her eyes.

This was the first time anyone had said that Zhao Zhi was like her.

Song Caitang took her hand and looked straight into her eyes. “You must have faith in yourself, and you must have faith in him, and you must definitely have faith in his judgment. We aren’t flowers grown in a greenhouse, who need you to protect us and support us in order to grow. We can take responsibility for our own lives, we can hold our own fort and we can protect and care for you too.”

Consort Ping’s eyelashes trembled slightly.

“So, don’t hide anything from me and tell me everything, will you?”
Song Caitang’s eyes glowed brightly as though there was a flame burning inside. “We’ll both walk out of here alive!”