Chiyin examined the sachet with an uncertainty of a child given something forbidden to try.
His nimble fingers fiddled within the corners and then opening while his eyes shifted around in deep thought. Like he was trying to find some dirty little secret.
Whatever Yinyue thought of Chiyin's carefree personality, having him around was an advantage. Hidden deep under the show of flamboyance and ignorance of a wastrel was a secret know-it-all.
He knew how to exploit the vast information networks of the Qisha syndicate that stretched across the Central Plains.
Unlike her, Chiyin and the other syndicate members could wander into other states without restriction. From their travels and the networks, the Qisha syndicate amassed an extensive collection of knowledge and trinkets from places forbidden to her.
Chiyin was the one who organised the collection in their secret headquarters. He was also often the first to learn about new discoveries. This allowed the syndicate to study different medical techniques and rare poisons.
Chiyin pulled out his needle holder and unrolled it, revealing several types of acupuncture needles. His fingers ran along the tips of the needles and selected a silver needle to test the residue left along the edges of the sachet.
Yinyue could predict the result — the silver needle won't change color. She also tested the powder left in the inn.
She expected a question to pop out of his mouth. Instead, he lifted the folded sachet to his nose.
"DON'T—" Yinyue yelled.
Too late.
His body started swaying from the effect of one sniff.
Yinyue smacked her forehead in dismay. She was dealing with a man-child acting on idiotic impulses when no one supervised him. As a physician, he should have known better not to smell strange powders without questions. Nope, he just had to snuff it in.
Chiyin's nostrils tingled from the faint sweet smell while his vision blurred. The world spun around him, throwing him off balance. He felt like a leaf drifting in the wind. The distorted image of Yinyue greeted him, making him stagger back.
He squinted for a moment. His mind went through strings of swears and curses to fling. In a spark of clarity, the cause of his disorientation flashed through his brain — a hallucinogenic drug.
He shook his head, trying to shake off the effects and waving the packet in front of her face.
His legs didn't connect with the rest of his body, causing him to stumble around until he found a nearby rock to sit on in the swirling image of a courtyard. He was swimming like a drowning man in an ocean of dizziness.
Pain — he needed pain to snap out of the hallucinogenic effects. After steadying himself on the rock, he fumbled into his sleeve pocket for his needle holder.
His face scrunched up, followed by wincing. Yinyue guessed he must have pricked himself. A while later, he pulled out a fine golden needle with his swollen fingers. She noticed the tiny bleeding holes in his fingers.
"That… damn… thing…," he cursed and stabbed the needle into the front of his wrist. "They …made… it …so …fine…"
His speech didn't slur from a small whiff off the sachet but the world moved together with his speech in slow motion.
"What's so fine?" Yinyue asked, now very curious about the powder in the sachet. Chiyin knew what it was. Under the sunlight, her uncle's pupils in the eyes dilated into huge black discs, a symptom of sedation.
Maybe she should have warned him before giving him the sachet. She noticed he kept massaging his temple with the other hand.
"CUNUB."
Yinyue furrowed her eyebrows at the nonsensical word Chiyin uttered, wondering if it was the effect of the powder.
"Huh?"
"MAFEI!" He insisted.
Mafei was a plant which most Central Plains physicians used for sedating patients in pain.
Yinyue pursed her lips and shook her head. "Can't be Mafei."
He wanted to explain that in the Xirong's territories, there was a plant species that resembled Mafei.
His forehead tightened — the attempt at clarification came out wrong. Chiyin took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His mind searched for a way to organize his now messy thoughts into coherence.
"Not our Mafei," Chiyin said after a long pause. "Cunub. Is a Xirong name. Different plant. Similar to Mafei. Maybe a cousin of the Mafei plant."
Cunub, a relative of their Mafei plant, grew as a common weed in the wilderness of certain Xirong territories. The Xirong shamans smoked it to induce trances, while their healers used the sap of the cunub as a sedating or a numbing drug.
Smugglers sold the fresh or dried cunub leaves in the Black Mountains. He bought some on the sly to experiment with whenever they had a supply.
Chiyin found smoking Mafei relaxed him but smoking cunub created hallucinations which lasted for a while. He tried to figure out how to extract an effect from grinding the cunub leaves into powder. His experiments never preserved its hallucinogenic or sedative properties.
The small amount he snuffed from Yinyue's sachet made his world more colorful. Like the time he smoked cunub. He could see random patches of colours flashing in the air. Given in small amounts, the cunub's sap can cause hallucinations.
"Where did you get this?" Chiyin asked while trying to stand up. Much to his chagrin, he fell sitting back on the rock. His mind clear but his legs still wobbled.
"The Simurg knocked us out in the inn with this powder. And dumped 01 on me," Yinyue replied. "We found the powder all over the floors."
An alarm went off in Chiyin's head — the Xirong may have weaponized the cunub. If scattered in the right direction of their enemies, the Xirong, especially the Simurg, had the upper hand.
"Tell me…what happened to you when they used cunub on you?"
"Knocked my men out. Made me drowsy, blurred my vision." Yinyue folded her arms. She couldn't tell Chiyin the entire story of Ashina dropping into her bathtub with an unconscious 01.
Like Hushiyi, Chiyin was overprotective. Any slight to her 'honour' may get 01 killed to preserve what they defined as her dignity.
Dayan societal expectations ingrained the men from childhood with the ridiculous thought that women were helpless, pure creatures who needed their protection from being sullied. Never mind a woman who can wield a sword in battle.
Yinyue wore men's clothing for that reason. To distract the simpletons from thinking of her as a defenseless lamb. She remembered how soldiers used to grumble about having to protect her. Now they don't. They saw her as a killing god after fighting alongside her.
Unfortunately, her uncle or brother didn't share the same sentiment. In their eyes, she would be always that little girl.
Before marriage, the men in the woman's family protected them. After marriage, the duty fell on the husband and then the maternal family as a fallback.
In her first life, the damn societal tradition didn't work out well.
"Can I have this?" Chiyin dangled the sachet. "And I also need to send a message."
His sudden change of topic surprised her. He didn't push for details — an unusual behaviour. The mention of a message made her uneasy.
She almost wanted to ask what message he wanted to send, but thought it prudent to refrain. There are ways of extracting information without being direct.
"Message? By horse or by my eagles?"
"Eagles? You use those damn birds? Instead of peregrines?" The condescending tone of his voice made her feel like a little girl who disobeyed instructions.
"Do you want to use the eagles or not?" She asked with impatience.
He needed to find a way of countering the powder's effect. The only way was to gather as many samples of the powder to test any synthesized antidotes. But the time taken for her to travel from the inn took too long.
By his estimates, the innkeeper may have already tidied the place up.
"Fine. Eagles it is. But did you ask the inn to keep more samples?"
"Of course," she replied. "We're not stupid."
"Good. Let's go see that 01 then…"