The Cornflower Witch

Book 3: Chapter 54: Mandrake Poison

After a night of lively conversation with Hu Tao, Sylutia took a carriage back to her residence, arriving quite late.

Opening the door, she set down the gift box in her hand—a parting gift from Madame Mared, filled with the Fox Family’s newest pastries.

A glass candle lamp flickered in the living room, left specifically for her. Lovier and Aurora were already asleep.

After changing out of her dress, Sylutia went to the bathroom to bathe, soaking in the hot water for a while before slipping into her pajamas and heading to the bedroom.

Lovier was curled up on the small bed, hugging her pillow. Aurora lay beside her cloth dolls. Sylutia looked at her own bed, where a small, exquisitely crafted doll sat propped against the headboard, motionless.

With a flicker of thought, a thin thread shot from her fingertip and connected to the slumbering doll. It rose into the air, helping Sylutia spread and smooth the blanket, then carried the glass candle lamp from the living room and set it by her bedside. After completing these tasks, the Black Kite Puppet returned to the headboard and stopped still.

Releasing the command thread, Sylutia nodded in satisfaction, pulled back the covers, and climbed into bed.

“Good night,” she whispered softly to the doll, then closed her eyes.

She was tired today, too.

—Deep Night·Pinecone Street—A few lonely lamps flickered on the quiet street. This was Asra District’s building material supply center, home to countless shops selling timber, stone, furniture, and decorative products, as well as a gathering place for a large number of construction workers.

Unlike Chive Street, controlled by the Fire Pig, this place wasn’t lively at night. A multitude of construction laborers squeezed into shacks to sleep, the only sounds the hum of mosquitoes and the uneven chorus of snores.

Deep within the block was an open clearing piled high with slabs of stone and timber. Night patrols occasionally wandered by. Lifting a manhole cover at the corner of the clearing revealed a long tunnel leading underground.

This was the stronghold of the headman “Four Fingers.” He commanded the numerous construction and decoration jobs in Asra District, and on Pinecone Street, he was an underground ruler whose every call was answered by a hundred voices.

But tonight, the ruler of Pinecone Street was having a rough time.

“Are you saying I’ve been poisoned?” Four Fingers groaned, waking groggily with a hand clutching his throbbing forehead, and asked the gang physician beside him.

“That’s right. Someone poisoned you,” the other replied with a serious nod.

“If I hadn’t used a Rare purification potion just now, you’d probably be ascending to heaven by now.” “Ascending” was a euphemism for dying.

“Damn it, who poisoned me?” Four Fingers shoved his remaining four fingers into his hair, rubbing his scalp in agitation as he tried to calm himself and rapidly recall who was most likely responsible.

“I’d guess it was that woman you’ve been seeing lately,” the physician answered directly.

“In the hour you’ve been unconscious, I’ve questioned everyone around you thoroughly. She had the most opportunity and the best means to poison you.”

“How is that possible?” Four Fingers first refused to believe it, but then shook his head quickly.

“I saved her from the Spider Woman. If it weren’t for me, she’d have been ruined by now. Besides, with the Spider Woman taken down, she has no one else to rely on but me. What good does it do her if something happens to me?”

“Why would you think that, boss? Since when do you assume people only act when there’s a benefit? That’s completely baseless.”

“Some people just love to go crazy or do stupid things. What can you do about it?” The physician said he’d seen far too many similar cases.

“Alright, even if it was her, can I still recover now?” Four Fingers felt his body was awkward and unresponsive.

“Hard to say.” The physician shook his head.

“The poison you took is very special. The poisoner probably knew you’d find a physician afterward, and ordinary toxins wouldn’t have worked. They weren’t bold enough to use a fast-acting poison, so they went with a slow one. It’s called ‘Green Sprout Poison.’”

“This toxin comes from common plants—for instance, when certain seeds begin to sprout green, they produce similar toxins. The poison that got you is extracted from the root tuber of the ‘mandrake.’ When it sprouts, you slice off the green bud, grind it, and press it to get the toxin.”

“Enough, this isn’t a lecture hall, and your teaching license was revoked long ago. Get to the point—how do I cure it?”

“I need a potion. I can brew it, but the process is troublesome. It has to reach ‘Rare’ quality to be effective. If it doesn’t, it won’t cure you, and it’ll have side effects.”

“I know the theory, but alchemical crafting requires fine detail work, which I’m not good at. My hands always shake. You’ll need to find a skilled alchemist or professional pharmacist.”

“If I dared to touch those pharmacists the officials treasure so much, I wouldn’t even need you to cure me—law enforcement would kill me the next day.” Four Fingers felt he had no energy left to argue with the physician.

“Then I’ll have to try. The best I’ve ever managed was ‘Superior’ quality.” The physician sighed.

“I’ll write down the materials you need later, but I’ll warn you now—they’re not cheap. With your wealth, you can probably afford ten sets of ingredients. If you fail all ten times and can’t recover, you’ll be disabled for life.”

“Don’t say that. If I’m disabled, the Fire Pig and his crew won’t let me live to old age. They’d be happy to send me off early.” Four Fingers waved his hand.

“Hurry up and get ready.”

“Alright.” The physician wrote a list, had Four Fingers sign it, then took the slip and left to find someone.

After the physician left, Four Fingers groaned in pain against the headboard for a while before calling in his trusted guard.

“Tell ‘Spicy Face,’ ‘Blue Toad,’ ‘Yellow-Eyed Mongoose,’ and the others to find some capable people who won’t be traced back to us. Get them to stir up trouble for the Fire Pig. Make him so disgusted he can’t sleep, and his men are in chaos. That way, we can survive this dangerous period. Understand?”

“Understood.”

“Good. Go.” With that, Four Fingers covered his head and lay back down.

Over the next few days, several strange incidents occurred on Chive Street. First, a spice warehouse burned down, filling the night air with the enticing aroma of countless precious spices. Then, a distinguished guest visiting Asra District found a white worm in their meal and flew into a rage, forcing the restaurant to shut down on the spot, with its owner taken into custody.

Not long after, a school reported that there were problems with recently supplied food ingredients, and some students suffered from poisoning.

Faced with these issues, the officials managing Asra District frantically pressured the Fire Pig. After all, this underground headman had always helped handle wholesale food imports and the stability of restaurant kitchen laborers. Now, with so many problems cropping up, if the Fire Pig couldn’t resolve them properly, his position as headman would be over.

Besieged by constant inquiries and reprimands from the authorities, the Fire Pig had no choice but to temporarily abandon his plan to completely eliminate Four Fingers and instead focus his energy on dealing with these sudden major and minor incidents. Only by doing so could he prove his worth as the underground headman.

By this point, the Fire Pig realized that Four Fingers must be the one behind it all. But he had to comply—he couldn’t disregard the officials’ demands. Still, he wasn’t the type to swallow a frame-up meekly.

While calming the situation, he repeatedly contacted officials he had worked with or was familiar with, making them understand that these incidents weren’t his doing but were orchestrated by someone else stirring up trouble. Eventually, the finger-pointing all pointed to the recently vanished Four Fingers.

After learning the full story, the authorities summoned both sides again and forced them to reconcile, ordering them not to cause any more conflict or incidents in Asra District.

Both parties agreed publicly, shaking hands with a smile. But behind the scenes, both sides began crafting more detailed and covert plans, because from the day Four Fingers had been poisoned into a coma, there was no room left for backing down or reconciliation.

When someone wants to kill you, how can you forgive them? Do you have to die for it?

Obviously, both sides wanted to live and the other to die. This hatred had become an unbreakable knot, quietly brewing in the shadows of Asra District.