Yuling appeared at the door of her courtyard just after dawn, carrying a porcelain pouch of medicine and a faint smile that didn't reach her eyes.
"Physician He sent new pills," the maid said, setting the pouch down beside a chipped teacup. "Said they'll strengthen your spirit."
Bai Ningwei didn't reply at once. Her eyes drifted to the seal or what remained of it. The crimson wax was smeared, the stamp pressed too deep on one edge and barely visible on the other.
Someone had opened it.
Carelessly.
Or deliberately.
She slid the pouch closer, fingers brushing against the faded characters written across the folded instructions.
The handwriting was neat, too neat. Almost like the script she'd found days ago in her mother's old bundle. She still remembered the shaky lines of a prescription tucked between torn silks, the exact same hand.
"He's either lazy," she murmured, "or someone else is writing his prescriptions for him."
The System flickered to life in the corner of her mind.
[Contaminated Input Detected. Origin: Civilian Class – Medical.]
[Recommended Action: Observe. Interrogation may follow. Results are rarely clean.]
Charming.
The physician's courtyard sat nestled between two plum groves, hidden behind a wall of quiet respectability. When Ningwei stepped inside, the scent of dried herbs stung her nose. The apprentices looked up in surprise, but none dared stop her.
She walked with slow purpose, cloak dragging slightly behind her, veil tucked beneath her chin.
She was a dead girl come back to life.
Let them stare.
Physician He was hunched over his desk, squinting at a scroll when she entered. His hair had thinned further since she'd last seen him, and his sleeves were stained with ink and something darker.
He looked up and nearly dropped his brush.
"Th-Third Miss…?" he stammered.
"I heard you were still alive."
"I am."
She smiled politely. "It's a stubborn habit."
He chuckled, weakly. "How fortunate. The heavens must have shown great mercy."
She didn't sit. "I wanted to thank you. For the medicine."
"Ah- yes. Of course. A modest tonic. Gentle and strengthening."
"The seal was broken."
He froze.
"I assume that was mercy, too?"
He cleared his throat. "An apprentice may have mishandled it. These things… happen."
She stepped closer. "I was reviewing my previous treatments. The ones before I collapsed. Do you remember them?"
Physician He glanced toward a cabinet. "Your condition had weakened, if I recall. Adjustments were necessary."
"Adjustments," she echoed. "And who requested them?"
"I… I cannot remember. One of the maids, perhaps. Or… Lady Ruolan occasionally advised on your care."
Ningwei tilted her head. "Lady Ruolan?"
"She was concerned. Said your energy was unstable. Wanted to ensure a proper balance."
So the elegant older sister knew her way around poisons, then. Or at least how to order them.
"You're a doctor," she said, softly. "But your hands shake when you lie. That's not a good combination."
"I only followed instructions," he said quickly.
"Cowards always do."
She turned without bowing.
"Did you get what you wanted?" Yuling asked as they returned to the courtyard.
"I got confirmation that fear makes people sloppy," Ningwei replied.
Back in her room, she lit the oil lamp and unpinned her scroll from the wall. Ink pooled on the tip of her brush as she added new notes in careful strokes.
Physician He - coward, obedient
Bai Ruolan - controls physician's actions, manipulates perception
Old Madam Bai - watching, silent
Dosage Doubled, Day Before Collapse.
She sat back, staring at the words like they might rearrange themselves into something simpler.
They didn't.
Later that afternoon, while Yuling scrubbed the floors and pretended not to eavesdrop, a maid arrived to deliver clean bedding.
She was chatty - too chatty - and in the middle of gossiping about spring silks and honeyed cakes, she said:
"Second Miss Bai often visits the physician's rooms. Brings tea, sits with him for hours. She's very filial."
Ningwei's brush paused mid-stroke.
Filial daughters didn't bring tea to trembling men behind locked doors.
She said nothing aloud, just nodded, and waited until the maid left to mutter, "Even the maids are part of the stage play."
The System flickered again, more insistently this time.
[Network of Influence: Detected.]
[Token Threshold: Not Yet Met.]
Of course not.
That night, she walked the length of the hallways with bare feet, silent as dusk. The wooden panels whispered beneath her steps, and behind the papered walls, voices rose and fell.
"She came back from the dead, you know."
"They say she saw ghosts."
"No one would bother poisoning her. What's there to gain?"
"She's her mother's daughter. Trouble."
Ningwei didn't flinch. She walked past every voice, past every judgment.
In her room, she placed the unused pills beside the lacquered box that held her pendant. The cinnabar stone pulsed faintly under the lamplight, not alive, not dead.
Just waiting.
Like her.
She stared at it, then at her reflection in the polished lid. It didn't look like her. Not really. The body was Bai Ningwei's, but the eyes…
The eyes were older.
"If they buried this girl once," she said quietly, "they'll try again."
She picked up the brush.
"I'll just have to return the favor."
[Investigation Progress: 18%]
[Stability: Holding.]
[Emotional Deviation: Acceptable.]
[Next Recommended Action: Pressure Point Identified — Bai Ruolan.]
And for the first time, the System added something else.
She touched the pendant again, but it didn't react.
Not yet.