After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Lu Zhiyuan recognized the black things; they were the seeds of a kind of grass. The seeds themselves were not poisonous, and eating them raw would not cause any harm to the human body. They produced a slight toxicity when steamed over charcoal; small amounts would not cause any problems, but if the toxins accumulated to a certain level, they would erode a person's internal organs.

Physician Jiang picked up a bowl of rice porridge that had cooled down and tested it with the silver needle he carried with him. The needle did not change color. He immediately asked the person who cooked the porridge, "Was this porridge made with the same rice?"

The old man first glanced at the woman holding the child, then nodded hesitantly.

“Slightly poisonous, undetectable by a silver needle.” Lu Zhiyuan crushed the black seeds. “Raw seeds are colorless and odorless. After being steamed over charcoal, the seeds burst open, and the seed coat floats in the rice porridge, looking like impurities. Ordinary people wouldn’t notice this. The poison isn’t in the seed coat, but in what’s inside the melted seed coat. It blends with the rice porridge, giving it a slightly sweet taste.”

When rice porridge is ingested, toxins can adhere to the intestines.

Initially, those poisoned will not feel anything. However, as they consume more rice porridge, they will experience a dry, itchy, and sore throat, requiring a large amount of water. This is because the throat is more delicate and sensitive than the stomach and intestines. Since the symptoms resemble common cold symptoms, those poisoned will not pay attention and will not consider that these symptoms are related to the rice porridge they regularly consume. They may even double their rice porridge intake in an attempt to recover.

Subsequently, they will experience burning sensation in their stomach, abdominal pain, fever, and persistent high fever.

When the skin begins to ulcerate, it means that the toxins have already invaded their internal organs, and even a miracle worker would find it difficult to save them.

"Does Miss mean we can only wait to die here?" The woman hugged her child tightly. "Rather than die in this painful way, it would be better for you to kill us."

"Sister-in-law, please don't say that. We'll find a way." Physician Jiang looked at Lu Zhiyuan: "Yuan'er, we do have a way, don't we?"

“Yes!” Lu Zhiyuan nodded: “I know the antidote. Most of the herbs can be bought from pharmacies in the city. For the rest, you can go to my uncle. He should be able to help.”

He found paper and pen and quickly wrote down the prescription: "For those with mild poisoning, take the medicine according to the prescription to detoxify. For those with more severe poisoning, the symptoms will be relieved after taking the antidote, but the damaged organs cannot be reversed and will not return to their pre-poisoning state. For those with skin ulcers... give them some painkillers."

He handed the prescription to another imperial physician and asked Commandant Ma to go with him to buy the medicine.

The people in the shacks were relocated, separating those who were not poisoned, those with mild poisoning, those with severe poisoning, and those with skin ulcers that were beyond treatment. There were more than a hundred people in the shacks, and each one needed to have their pulse checked to confirm their condition.

Fortunately, the imperial physicians in the Imperial Medical Academy were all experienced and not just empty names. After Lu Zhiyuan explained the symptoms to him, they quickly got the hang of it.

“There are still thousands of people outside the city.” Xie Yubai walked up to Lu Zhiyuan: “Tell your second uncle, can your prescription really cure the poison?”

"My second uncle doesn't believe me?"

"It's not that I don't believe it, it's that I'm afraid of overlooking something." Xie Yubai said bluntly, "This prescription was also taught to you by your beggar master."

“My beggar master has a hidden past.” Lu Zhiyuan applied her real experience to her fictitious beggar master: “My master was originally married and had a daughter. He was a doctor and often went out to treat patients. If the patient was far away, it would take seven or eight days to go. My master only cared about practicing medicine and saving lives, and neglected his wife.”

"His wife left with their daughter?" Xie Yubai frowned.

Lu Zhiyuan gently shook her head: "His wife has fallen in love with another man, but she is unwilling to divorce Master. She is after the money Master earned with his medical skills. Master knows this, but he doesn't resent her. He knows that if he hadn't been away from home for so many years and hadn't fulfilled his duties as a husband, she wouldn't have betrayed him and been with someone else."

Lu Zhiyuan performed acupuncture to remove the poison from the young child. "Although my master didn't blame her, he knew that their marital bond had run its course. She didn't want a divorce, so he let her go, but he came home even less often. When my master turned thirty, his daughter suddenly fell ill. Just like the other poisoned villagers, she first had a dry, itchy throat, then a persistent high fever, and finally died from ulceration all over her body. My master had practiced medicine for many years and saved countless lives, but he couldn't even find the cause of her illness. He could only watch helplessly as his daughter died."

Needling requires a great deal of mental effort. It may seem easy, but in reality, it requires concentration and cannot afford to make the slightest mistake.

"The loss of his daughter caused the master to question his medical skills, and he drank heavily every day, living in a daze. This time, his wife asked for a divorce and remarried a man she loved, taking all his property with her. One very ordinary afternoon, the master was drunk as usual, and in his daze, he walked to his ex-wife's house. Through the courtyard wall, he heard her arguing with that man, and heard her say that she had killed her daughter for that man."

"Where did the seeds come from?" Xie Yubai seized on the key question: "Was the man she was in love with also from Southern Chu?"

“The seeds are not unique to Southern Chu, but grow on cliffs, and some birds that live on the cliffs feed on them.” Lu Zhiyuan glanced at her second uncle: “This plant may exist wherever birds fly.”

I found paper and pen and drew the plant from my memory.

It's very ordinary, nothing special.

Xie Yubai was captivated by the plants in the painting and didn't press the matter further, much to Lu Zhiyuan's relief. If her second uncle were to ask her how the man knew these seeds could kill, she truly wouldn't be able to come up with a story.

Strange people attacking the city, poisonous seeds injuring people—these are all plot points not found in the original text. I don't know why they appeared. After thinking about it, perhaps they are related to her own experiences.

She had encountered people parasitized by strange insects during a mission. These people were local indigenous people who had a habit of drinking untreated water and eating raw meat. The insect eggs entered their bodies through untreated water or raw meat, parasitizing their brains and turning them into zombie-like monsters.

Locals believed they were possessed by evil spirits and tried to exorcise them by cutting off their heads and burning their bodies. However, some indigenous people continued to fall victim to the evil spirits, to the point that the entire tribe almost perished.

The story of the poisonous seed is based on a biologist who accidentally discovered this seed while conducting species research. The biologist had an inappropriate relationship with his female assistant. The assistant became pregnant and wanted to take his place, but the biologist was unwilling to divorce his wife.

He has always cultivated an image of a harmonious family and a loving marriage. A divorce would inevitably damage his image, and no one would support his research anymore. Secondly, his wife comes from a prestigious family, and her family would not let him off the hook.

Unable to divorce, he was left with only the loss of his wife. He devised a plan to kill her with poison seeds, and did it flawlessly. It wasn't until years later, when he was arguing with his successful female assistant, that his daughter, who was visiting her father, overheard them and realized that her mother had not died of illness.