Chapter 10: Cao Ying's Doubts (Seeking Recommendations and Favorites)

  "How exactly did you manage to get the poison out of that little black dog?" Cao Ying's patience was even thinner than Zhao Yan had estimated, and as soon as they finished dinner, Cao Ying immediately asked Zhao Yan.

  "Are you talking to me?" Zhao Yan deliberately dug into his ears, putting on an incredulous expression. Previously, when he was conversing with Cao Ying, it was always him who initiated the conversation by asking something, and the other party would only respond with a few impatient sentences. This was the first time Cao Ying had taken the initiative to talk to him, so Zhao Yan naturally wanted to make a big deal out of it.

  "Yes!" Cao Ying knew that Zhao Yan was being deliberate, but she could only suppress her anger and speak out, because she really wanted to know how Zhao Yan had managed to get rid of the mercury poisoning. If she could figure out this problem, it would definitely shock her self-proclaimed "number one doctor in the world" grandfather.

  "Heh heh, want to know?" Zhao Yan asked again.

  Cao Ying nodded, her face already showing a flush of anger and shame. If Zhao Yan continued to be so mysterious and elusive, she would definitely erupt in rage.

  "This healing method is very complicated and can't be explained in just a few words. If you want to know, come to my room tonight and I'll give you a detailed explanation!" Zhao Yan said with a smile on his face. Cao Ying had been showing him a disdainful expression all day, and Zhao Yan was also angry in his heart. Now that he had grasped this opportunity, he naturally wanted to take advantage of it to teach her a lesson.

  Unfortunately, Zhao Yan forgot that Cao Ying had always been extremely disgusted with him and had a very strong temper. After hearing his words, she immediately became furious, stood up, turned around and left the dining hall. She would rather not know the cure for arsenic poisoning for the rest of her life than see Zhao Yan's disgusting smile again.

  "How ridiculous!" Looking at Cao Ying leaving, Zhao Yan rubbed her nose and muttered, "The thoughts of girls in the Song Dynasty are really unhealthy. I just let her discuss medical skills in the room, but who knows what she's thinking?"

  In the evening, after Zhao Yan finished washing up and resting, Xiao Douya went back to her own room to play with the little black dog. Zhao Yan didn't have much patience for raising dogs, but he was very enthusiastic about eating dog meat, so he handed over the task of raising the dog to Xiao Douya. After all, this little girl liked small animals, and having more playmates was a good thing.

  Just as Xiaodouya was discussing with Xiao Hei Gou what to name it, she suddenly heard someone else softly calling her "Xiaodouya! Xiaodouya!", and the voice seemed to be that of her good sister Miu Xue.

  At this time, Xiaodouya put down the little black dog and walked over to open the window. As a result, she found that it was indeed Xue who had come. This made her stunned for a moment before opening her mouth to say: "Xue, how did you get here?"

  "Little Bean Sprout, has the Duke gone to sleep yet?" Xunxue asked in a low voice.

  "Uh-huh!" Xiaodouya nodded.

  "Hurry up and come with me, the princess has something to ask you!" Xunxue reached out from outside the window and pulled Xiaodouya away as she walked. Although Xiaodouya was puzzled, she didn't resist and lightly jumped over the windowsill, looking extremely agile. If Zhao Yan had seen this, he would have been shocked, because he never thought that Xiaodouya, who was usually very timid, could be so nimble.

  Cao Ying's room is not far from Zhao Yan, and the two rooms are connected by a long corridor. When Xiaodouya enters the room, she sees Cao Ying sitting on a chair. Seeing Xiaodouya, Cao Ying reveals a smile and says: "Xiaodouya, how have you been these days? Has Zhao Yan given you any trouble?"

  Cao Ying would call Xiao Douya over every few days to ask about Zhao Yan's situation, so Xiao Douya didn't feel surprised and replied directly: "Fourth sister can rest assured, the Duke hasn't made things difficult for me, and..."

  At this point, Xiaodouya seemed to be in a bit of a dilemma. She bit her lip and finally spoke up: "Moreover, I think the Duke doesn't seem like the kind of person he's rumored to be. These past few days, the Duke has been very good to me, not putting on any airs at all. Even when I splashed him with water while washing my face last time, the Duke didn't hold it against me."

  "All those are false appearances, now I can supervise him, the whole inner courtyard doesn't have Zhao Yan's people, so he uses this method to win you over, even giving you some small favors, but as soon as he has the opportunity, he will immediately turn his face and become his original self, at that time you will suffer!" Cao Ying fundamentally didn't believe that Zhao Yan would suddenly change his nature, in her view, everything Zhao Yan did was done with ulterior motives.

  "It's not a small favor, the king gave me all the soap he uses to wash his face today. This soap is really good, much better than the bath beans you use, Fourth Sister. After using it, my body smells so good!" In simple Xiao Douya's eyes, how could such an expensive thing be a small favor?

  "Soap? What soap?" Cao Ying heard this strange remark, and in the past month she had gone to Zhao Yan's place only a handful of times, so naturally she hadn't seen Zhao Yan use soap.

  "Ah, it's this one!" Xiaodouya said, taking out the soap box from her bosom and opening it, then handing it to Cao Ying. This silly girl was worried that others would use her soap, so she carried it with her all day long.

  Cao Ying was not as careless as Xiaodouya, and her vision was far beyond Xiaodouya's. When Xiaodouya handed the soap to her, Cao Ying first noticed not the soap, but the box it came in.

  The soap box was brought by Zhao Yan when she crossed over, it's a semi-transparent plastic box. When Cao Ying held it in her hand and examined it carefully, she found that the box was neither gold nor jade, and the material of the box itself was hard but soft, similar to some animal cartilage, but also somewhat different. This made Cao Ying extremely surprised, she had never seen a box made of such material before.

  "Little Bean Sprout, what is this box made of? Was it also given to you by Zhao Yan?" Cao Ying asked again with a serious expression.

  "Yes, this box and soap are together, I don't know what it's made of, anyway it's just a soap box. This box looks very thin but is actually quite sturdy. This afternoon I accidentally dropped the box on the ground, and surprisingly it didn't break." Little Bean replied with her big eyes blinking, her little brain never bothered to think about complicated questions.

  Cao Ying grew up with Xiaodouya, knowing that this careless girl wouldn't notice these details. She didn't ask about the box anymore and picked up the soap to ask: "How do you use this soap? Is it really better than Yu Dou?"

  "Mmm, absolutely better than bean paste!" Xiaodouya said, letting Miao Xue help her fetch a basin of water, then hand in hand teaching Cao Ying to use soap. In fact, there was nothing much to teach, it's just that Xiaodouya herself wanted to wash again because she loved the lingering scent on her hands after using soap.

  Cao Ying washed her hands clean, then gently sniffed them and found that they smelled fragrant and were exceptionally clean. Even the ink stains from doing accounts today had been washed away. Her skin felt smooth and comfortable.

  "Fourth sister, the water left after washing with this soap is also very useful. Today, the county king used my washbasin water to rescue the little black dog." Xiaodouya was now sniffing the fragrance on her hands while boasting about the effectiveness of the soap to Cao Ying.

  "What, this soap can actually counteract the toxicity of the poison?" Cao Ying was shocked again when she heard this. She had called Xiao Douya over tonight mainly to ask how Zhao Yan had saved that little black dog. She hadn't expected it to be so simple - just using this soap to detoxify.

  Thinking of this, Cao Ying picked up the soap again and observed it carefully, but she soon shook her head and said: "No, this soap has some fragrance, but no medicinal smell. How could such a thing possibly cure arsenic poisoning? Xiaodouya, tell me in detail about how Zhao Yan saved the little black dog today!"

  "Ah!" Little Bean responded obediently, then recounted the details of how Zhao Yan had rescued the puppy today. However, she still firmly believed that the puppy was able to come back to life thanks to her washing water dissolving the poison. After the puppy woke up, it also became closest to her, as if it understood human nature and was repaying its debt of gratitude for saving its life.

  For Xiao Douya's naive words, Cao Ying just smiled calmly. She already knew what method Zhao Yan used. In fact, it was the same principle as inducing vomiting after poisoning. However, inducing vomiting is usually done when the poisoned person is conscious, and it's difficult to do on animals. Moreover, the little black dog had been poisoned for a long time and was already half-unconscious at that time, so Cao Ying thought it was doomed. But unexpectedly, Zhao Yan inserted a tube into the dog's stomach and used something she didn't know to flush in soap water and then sucked it out, repeating this process several times. The stomach was cleaned, and the little dog naturally recovered.

  However, Cao Ying was stunned again. In her opinion, Zhao Yan was just a dissolute and unprincipled young master, how could someone like him possibly understand such exquisite medical skills? This seemed somewhat unreasonable, but the fact that it had actually happened made Cao Ying suddenly feel absurd, and she even felt that she couldn't see through Zhao Yan.

  Xiao Douya watched as Cao Ying stared at her soap in a daze, which made her somewhat worried that Cao Ying would ask for it. Summoning up the courage, she said softly: "Fourth sister, this piece of soap was given to me by the Duke. If you want it, just let the Duke give you another one. After all, the Duke can make as many as he wants."

  "Oh? Zhao Yan said he would make this kind of soap?" Cao Ying asked, immediately waking up from her contemplation.

  "Yes, the king himself told me that, and he also promised to send more later, so I'll always have soap!" Xiaodouya said happily. She was a easily satisfied little girl, a delicious food or a piece of soap could make her happy for many days.

  Having obtained Xiao Douya's affirmative answer, Cao Ying fell into deep thought once again. After a while, she muttered to herself: "How can an ignorant and untalented rich boy possibly understand so many things all at once? Is this person still the original Zhao Yan?"