Qu Zan searched the Rebudian Chieftain's corpse. After a careful search, he found a small copper box inside a hidden compartment in his belt.
He opened the copper box and saw an assortment of brightly colored medicinal powders inside.
Qu Zan sniffed them. With his knowledge and understanding of herbal medicine, he quickly recognized them as poisons the man had carried.
Dried blister beetle powder, finely ground, used for torture and interrogation. Once swallowed, it would sear the internal organs...
There was also aconite, refined into a dark brown, dry paste. It was extremely poisonous; a piece the size of a grain of rice could kill...
Qu Zan put all these poisons away.
Qu Zan returned to the ditch and continued working, finally finishing his tasks for the day. He returned to the Manor, ready for dinner.
The last twilight faded, and clusters of oil lamps lit up on the Manor's upper floor.
The Manor Owner, Bado Weilei, sat with his wife and sons on woolen cushions. Wooden bowls held buttered rice, stewed yak ribs lay before them, and servants took turns refilling their butter tea.
The corridor around the courtyard was pitch-black, with dozens of ordinary Chaba sitting on the ground.
Two large copper pots were carried into the courtyard. One held tsampa thukpa, a thin layer of oil floating on the soup; the other held boiled turnips and sheep bones. Qu Zan ladled out the food with a wooden dipper, giving each serf a bowl of tsampa thukpa.
Only after Qu Zan had finished serving did his turn to eat come.
As a Nangsheng, Qu Zan's dinner would be thin tsampa gruel: peas and a little highland barley ground into coarse tsampa, then boiled with water in a large pot into a watery paste.
There was more