Feng Ce Was Still Alive

"Senior Yang, he's in the back," Tang San called out toward the end of the corridor.

Yang Wudi brought the Breaking Clan medicine chest into the dungeon, first checking Feng Ce's pulse before prying open his eyelids to take a look. He withdrew two silver needles from the case and drove them into the other man's neck, waiting until the tips turned pale green before letting Tang San hold down the prisoner's shoulders.

"The poison is smeared on the hemp rope at the binding, and it touched his lips."

Yang Wudi poured two drops of clear liquid from another medicine bottle, letting one fall onto the hemp rope and the other onto the rim of the bowl Feng Ce usually used for drinking water. The hemp rope rapidly blackened, while the bowl's rim remained unchanged. He handed his medicine to Tang San, telling him to feed it at the proper hours and not to stop just because the man had regained consciousness.

Xiao Wu lifted the old bedding on the stone bed, revealing a seam torn open by fingernails along the inner edge. The cotton in the interlining was clean; Feng Ce had relied on it to block the second rope shoved into his mouth. She raised her eyes to look at the guards, who retreated one by one, none daring to admit they had ever seen this bedding.

"Leave the rope and bedding," Qian Renxue said. "I want the names of everyone who handled them, without a single omission."

Tang San removed that section of hemp rope, and a small, damp clump of cotton was indeed wedged inside the knot. Officer Tao reached out to touch it, but Xiao Wu blocked him.

"You said just now that there was a physician looking after him. Who changed his ropes?"

Officer