"Prefect Yan suddenly fell gravely ill? He's sick again?"
Gong Wensheng's voice held three parts surprise, three parts suspicion, and four parts something impossible to put into words.
Qi Shiyun had been washing up. On hearing the news, she ran straight back to the room in alarm, afraid of missing some major incident.
The servant continued his report. "Yes, Marquis. The messenger said he suddenly fainted before dawn. Several doctors have already examined him, but none of them could identify the illness. Young Master Yan is running around in circles with anxiety. He's already sent for people from the Five Poisons Cult."
Medicine and poison had never been separate disciplines. Experts in poison were generally experts in medicine, and the reverse was also true.
Hearing that the Governor's Residence had sent for people from the Five Poisons Cult, Gong Wensheng grew even more surprised. "Could he really be ill?"
Qi Shiyun caught Gong Wensheng's meaning and volunteered a question. "Mother, do you suspect Prefect Yan is pretending to be ill? Why?"
"Yuyi, you've never spent time in officialdom. You don't understand that feigning illness is a basic skill for Great Yu's officials. Especially when something difficult to resolve comes up, pretending to be ill is the best way to dodge it. Right now, a storm is brewing over Miao Prefecture City. As its prefect, the Governor of Miao Prefecture is under the greatest pressure. If I were him, I'd pretend to be ill too and let everyone else fight it out."
Qi Shiyun: "..."
She did understand, but Nine Heavens did not work that way. Nine Heavens was more like an army, where military orders carried the weight of mountains. Anyone who dared shirk them could forget about ever being promoted.
Compared to those schemers in the outer court, promotion