C5 The Nose Knows

5% of the Yinn Group shares? Had Madame finally gone senile...or was the trauma of her grandson's car accident too much for her to handle, and she had some sort of mental breakdown without them realizing it? They grumbled among themselves, wondering how the Madame of the Yinn family could foolishly throw away so much money to an 'outsider'. Just about everyone of the Yinn relatives were consumed with enviable jealousy.

Yinn Tianze had always been covetous of his older brother...which may explain why he jumped at the opportunity to swoop in, and nab Yinn Siyan's fiancee...and he was seething as he ranted, "Grandma; what the hell are you thinking?! My brother's still in a coma; and you want to give away all of our family property to a stranger?" Qiu Xiyun wanted to keep her mouth shut, but she couldn't help herself; Yinn Tianze just kept getting under her skin. She flippantly quipped, "Evidently math isn't someone's strongpoint...5% doesn't constitute 'all of' something....And, by the way; technically...it's Grandmother's property; so, I don't understand why you're getting so worked up over this."

Once again, Qiu Xiyun managed to get Yinn Tianze's ire to skyrocket, and his face turned fiery-red, while his piercingly glaring eyes exuded infuriated rage. He lashed out at her, "No one's talking to you; whore!" Qiu Xiyun was taken aback; and, although she was infuriated, all she was able to say was, "Whore? I'm a whore?" Yinn Tianze snapped back, "Yes; you're a whore! What else would you call someone who rapes a 'vegetable' for money?! A whore. So don't try going to 'candy coat' it just because you're my brother's 'stand-in' wife, now."

Qiu Xiyun took a moment to recompose herself. She took in a deep breath; then, slowly exhaled. And once she decided that she had calmed down enough...and, regained control over her emotions...Qiu Xiyun displayed a small smirk and resolutely told him, "You just said it yourself...whether 'stand in', or not...I am Yinn Siyan's wife, now...and not some 'stranger'. That also means I'm your sister-in-law, as well...'stand in', or not. So I suggest you watch your attitude when you speak to me, Yinn Tianze." She paused briefly before continuing. "Also...since we established that I am his wife...it's customary that property between husband and wife is shared. And, in this case, we're only talking about 5% of the shares...I'm pretty sure that, unlike you; Siyan definitely won't be as petty over the matter, when he wakes up."

Yinn Tiaze was fuming; because, as hard he tried, he was no match for her. No matter how much he berated and ridiculed Qiu Xiyun, her typically well-tempered poise and eloquent mastery of speech would always overshadow his spiteful outbursts and ranting tirades of acerbic derogatory remarks and insults.

Nevertheless; Yinn Tianze was about to keep verbally 'battling it out' with Qiu Xiyun...when, Zhao Qiuxian abruptly intervened. "Enough...don't you say another word; Tian! You have no right to question my decision to give away those 5% shares of Yinn Group. Like Xiyun said; it's my property, not yours. And; she was also correct when she said that now that she's Yan's wife...and, your sister-in-law...you need to watch how you speak to her and be more respectful. How dare you call Xiyun a whore; you ungrateful brat! Apologize to her, this instant!" Yinn Tianze snidely muttered, "I thought you said not to say another word." The Madame immediately shot over a fiercely rebuking glare to Yinn Tianze, who cringed and shuddered from the intense, reproachful look delivered by the Yinn family's matriarch. There was nothing left to do but to submit to her command...so, he sneered at Qiu Xiyun while 'biting his tongue' as he disdainfully muttered, "I apologize...'sister-in-law'."

Zhao Qiuxian momentarily remained sternly staring at Yinn Tianze with discerning eyes, before saying, "I suppose I should be thankful that you still maintain enough sense of familial responsibility and respect to listen and do as I say...and, hopefully one day, you'll be more sincere, and mean it when you apologize to your sister-in-law." The Madame delivered one last quick, rebuking glare to Yinn Tianze...who immediately looked away and averted his eyes to the floor...and, then...in a more calm, dignified manner...informed all the relatives present, "Though it's true that I'm more than willingly bestowing Xiyun with these shares as an expression of my goodwill and gratitude for her marrying into our Yinn family...not to mention as compensation for any hardships that she has, or will, experience from doing so...this arrangement had been originally decided upon by Yan, himself. He wanted to see to it that his wife wasn't treated unfairly. I, of course, totally agreed with Yan and promised him that I would carry out his request."

Months before his car accident...from the moment they were officially engaged...Yinn Siyan had discussed the arrangements for the 5% Yinn Group shares transfer over to his bride-to-be on their wedding day with Zhao Qiuxian. He sincerely hoped that his future wife wouldn't be looked down upon, or bullied by other Yinn family relatives in the future and he figured that handing over a stake in the Yinn Group to her was the best way to achieve this. However, these shares originally were to belong to Qiu Xiangying...Yinn Siyan had never expected that these should would inevitably be handed over to Qiu Xiyun in the end.

Qiu Xiyun mused in her mind, "I'm guessing Xiangxing had no clue about the shares transfer Siyan had arranged for her; or else, she never would've left him for Tianze, and gone through with the wedding. I bet she'll be 'kicking herself in the butt until she' black and blue' once she gets word of this." Suddenly...a huge, impish grin emerged upon her countenance as she thought to herself, "Forget that...I can't wait to see Lin Mi's reaction when she hears about it. She's going to freak out."

Naturally...even though they quietly seethed, loathing every word Madame had spoken regarding the Yinn Group shares...nobody dared to oppose, nor say anything further about it. Even the fuming Yinn Tianze opted to keep his mouth shut at that time. Meanwhile...Qiu Xiyun contently sat beside Zhao Qiuxian, happily eating those deliciously savory dishes.

After returning from the dining room, Qiu Xiyun immediately went up to their bedroom so that she could avoid any possible further confrontations with the few Yinn relatives who decided to go back to the estate, to continue visiting Madame. When she entered the master bedroom, it was apparent that the chamber maids had tidied up the room and had left the curtains drawn open. Qiu Xiyun slowly walked in front of the bed...gazing down upon Yinn Siyan as she passed by... and, stood over by the two large French windows, basking in the soothingly warm, afternoon sunlight radiating through the glass panes.

Qiu Xiyun took a moment to close her eyes, in an attempt to relax and alleviate some of the tension left in her head from the stressful altercation at the restaurant, when she soon heard what sounded like someone moving things about in the bathroom. She immediately opened her eyes; and, warily approached the bathroom. Qiu Xiyun had nearly reached the door when someone suddenly stepped out....He was a small, rather delicate-looking man, attired in a white, male nurse's uniform.

A bit startled by his sudden appearance; Qiu Xiyun reactively jumped back, and gasped. The stranger immediately conveyed an amicable smile to her. "My apologies. I didn't mean to scare you. You must be the new Young Mistress of the Yinn family...it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Allow me to introduce myself...my name is Li Qi, and I'm here to attend to the Young Master's therapeutic massage." Instantly relieved and quickly calmed, Qiu Xiyun delivered a terse nod, and smiled. "Nice to meet you, too."

The male nurse went over to the bed, and proceeded to massage Yinn Siyan. Upon seeing this, Qiu Xiyun suddenly began to recall what happened the night before and she immediately felt embarrassingly shy for some reason. She quickly averted her eyes away from the bed, trying to shake off that awkward feeling.

Qiu Xiyun was aimlessly meandering about the overly-spacious master bedroom...intentionally avoiding looking over towards the bed, where the male nurse continued massaging Yinn Siyan...when she happened to closely pass by a running humidifier, in one of the corners of the room and suddenly took in a whiff of a faint, vaguely familiar scent wafting in the air. She asked the male nurse, "Pardon me, Li Qi, you wouldn't happen to know what was added into this humidifier's water, would you?"

"Yes; Young Mistress...it's a special type of essential oil imported from overseas. Because of the Young Master's current state, other than the standard practice of therapeutic massage to keep the patient's blood circulating; aromatherapy can also be useful to aid in the treatment and recovery of comatose patients. That essential oil has been found to help relax the nerves and facilitate in the healing of wounds...particularly with those involving deep tissue damage."

"Is that so?" Qiu Xiyun lowered her head down closer to the humidifier; then, took in an elongated stiff. Again, the scent smelled vaguely familiar, but clearly the proportion of water to essential oil undergoing the diffusion had weakened the scent. But, for some strange reason, a 'red flag alert' had popped into her mind. "Excuse me, Li Qi; but, do you mind if I take a look at the essential oil added to the humidifier?"

Being that Qiu Xiyun was now the Yinn family's Young Mistress...even if only for a day...the male nurse couldn't refuse her request even if he wanted to, which he saw no reason not to, anyway. "Not at all; Young Mistress."

The male nurse retrieved what looked like a plastic fishing tackle box to Qiu Xiyun, opened it up, and skimmed his fingers along a couple of rows of vials of essential oil; then, after finally coming across the essential oil used for Yinn Siyan, handed it over to her. "Here you are, Young Mistress; this is it."

Qiu Xiyun looked down upon the reddish-brown vial and her face instantly contorted to an expression of concerned trepidation, as she read the label on the vial. Although the label was in English, Qiu Xiyun was certain that she recognized a term which was written on the label. That initial 'red flag alert' then accompanied with 'resounding bells and whistles'.

She quickly unscrewed the cap, and raised the vial to directly under her nostrils, and took in an elongated sniff. Qiu Xiyun frowningly scowled...nearly throwing it down to the floor to smash; at once she recognized the scent, and confirmed her suspicions. She glared at the male nurse; as she chastised, "Why in the world would you use something like this of all things to treat Young Master Yinn?! Do you even have any idea what this is?!" Qiu Xiyun rushed over to the humidifier and shut it off.

The male nurse was taken aback and totally confounded by the her sudden outburst and just stood there motionless, with a quizzical expression etched on his face. Observing his reaction, Qiu Xiyun started thinking that perhaps the male nurse really wasn't aware of what it was; and, she took in a deep breath to try calm down and recompose herself. She informed him, "This essential oil contains 6HRS...forget about what you heard about it relaxing the nerves; this stuff will not only damage the nervous system...it will eventually destroy it."

Qiu Xiyun was a medical student at C University, primarily studying in the fields of biochemistry and pharmacology. During her time at school, she attended a couple of classes and seminars focusing on neurotoxins and experimental drugs. 6HRS was often a topic of discussion at these classes and seminars. It was a relatively new neurotoxin, which had quickly found its way into the 'Black Market' and become the latest bioweapon of choice among a number of small terrorist factions. 6HRS had a distinctly strange fragrance to it, which was why it left such a deep...though subconscious..impression in Qiu Xiyun's 'olfactory memory bank' and how she managed to vaguely recognize its scent in the air...even when infused into an aromatic essential oil.

Qiu Xiyun was utterly perplexed, unable to fathom how something like 6HRS would appear within the Yinn family...not to mention; why in the hell was it in an essential oil being used to treat Yinn Siyan. She continued to explain, "6HRS is a highly concentrated airborne neurotoxin which overtime will breakdown and destroy an organism's nervous system. If the Young Master is kept exposed to this poison for a long time, forget about him waking up from his coma...he'll surely die from it." She leaned into towards the male nurse, and whispered in his ear, "And; the same goes for anyone else exposed to it."

The male nurse's face instantly turned pale, and his legs gave out, causing him to fall to floor on his buckled knees. "That's impossible ...how can that be? It...no way; how could that...?"

Qiu Xiyun shoved the vial of contaminated essential oil into her pocket; then, firmly grasped hold on the male nurse's uniform collar, and yanked him up from he floor. "Pull yourself together, Li Qi; now is not the time to fall apart. Dispose of humidifier's water with that essential oil in it, right now! And, quickly, tell me who's...no, better yet...once you're done dumping that water, have whoever's in charge of overseeing the Young Master's treatment report here, immediately!...While you do that, I'll go get and inform my grandmother, and inform her about what's happening."

The thirty-something year old male quietly stood before Zhao Qiuxian with his head subserviently lowered, after just having given his account of the Young Master's treatment. His name was Xia Mao; and, he was in charge of Yinn Siyan's daily care.

Zhao Qiuxian was intensely pondering over both accounts told to her regarding her comatose grandson's treatment...or, in Qiu Xiyun's opinion, gross mistreatment...displaying a demonstratively grave expression ingrained upon her countenance. After a few minutes of unnerving silence, the Yinn family Madame fiercely glared at Xia Mao, while furrowing her eyebrows. She sternly asked him in an inquisitorial manner, "Is what Xiyun said true, Xia? Was the essential oil you had them use for Yan's aromatherapy laced with some sort of potentially deadly neurotoxin? Did you know about it? Why would you do such a treacherous deed? How could you betray me like that, Xia?! Why...why?! Answer me!!"

Xia Mao was in a panic-stricken state...incessantly trembling, as his palpitating heart pounded within his chest, as beads of rapidly formed sweat ran down his paled face. He anxiously lunged forward, taking a few steps and beseechingly pled, "Please, Madame, I'm innocent! I'm innocent, I tell you! You've known me for so many years...and you know how earnestly I've served the Yinn family. I would never do anything to betray you, Madame, nor do anything that would bring harm to the Young Master. You know this, right? Please, Madame, pay no mind to the Young Mistress's false accusations. Don't listen to her nonsense...don't allow her to slander me."

Xia Mao was clearly nervous and frazzled...and desperate...like a cornered rat. He vehemently lashed out, trying to put Qiu Xiyun's credibility into question, "Madame, please, she's still an outsider in the Yinn family...and; a young one, at that. How much can she possibly know about essential oils used in aromatherapy, let alone about the Young Master's condition, and treatment regiment. Fact is, Madame, the Young Master himself has been using this essential oil for awhile now. He had always been fine with it before...so why is it a problem now that she's come?"

Qiu Xiyun saw a glimpse of festering resentment in Xia Mao's eyes and heard the desperation in his inflection...and she could 'smell' the guilt slowly seeping out from him sweating pores. She started to formulate some sort of a hypothesis...slowly 'putting together two and two'...and she now believed that there was 'more than meets the eye' to Yinn Siyan's accident...perhaps this so-called accident even involved some sort of conspiracy behind it.

Because of his powerful status and extreme wealth, it's no wonder that there would be people jealous of Yinn Siyan and Qiu Xiyun was convinced that foul play was behind his accident...and that it was intentionally designed to get rid of Yinn Siyan. But, fortunately for him...but, unfortunately for the conspirators...he didn't die. And, because of that unexpected turn of events, a new plan of attack was put into place...and thus the 6HRS laced essential oil was prescribed for Yinn Siyan's aromatherapy treatment. Yet, another turn of events...Qiu Xiyun had discovered the lethal substance being unsuspectingly administered via the humidifier vapors before the desired effect occurred.

Qiu Xiyun slowly shook her head, as an impish little grin emerged across her lips; then, she informed Xia Mao, "It's true that I may be young...at least, younger than you that is...but as far as what I can know...sorry, hate to burst your bubble, there...but, it just so happens that I'm a post-graduate medical student majoring in biochemistry and pharmacology, at C University. And I have attended classes and seminars on topics covering various neurotoxins...including 6HRS. So; I'm fairly familiar with it."

Xia Mao was struck momentarily dumbfounded over this revelation and found himself obviously disadvantaged if he were to continue contesting Qiu Xiyun's credibility over the matter of whether or not the essential oil was lethal...putting him a bit of a quandary. However, he decided to keep on challenging her. "So what if you're a graduate student...a graduate student is still just a student. What practical experience do you have in the field, huh? That's what really counts."

Qiu Xiyun maintained her calm composure, continuing to grin, as she confidently retorted, "He's right about that, Grandmother, so I'll conceded to him on that point. There are those out there who are way more knowledgeable about 6HRS than I am...some are even experts that specialize in that field, with years of 'practical experience' under their belts....Perhaps we should find one of them, and bring them here to consult over this matter." Qiu Xiyun turned to Xia Mao, and expanded her grin. "Then we'll find out who really is correct about the essential oil...irrefutably ending this dispute, since having practical experience in the field is what really counts."

There was no doubt in Zhao Qiuxian's mind that Qiu Xiyun must have been right when she spoke about all the adverse effects and potential danger its exposure was to Yinn Siyan. But still, there was a slight hesitation on her part.

The reason for the Madame's hesitation was because that particular essential oil was strongly recommended by...and later procured by one of the younger generation Yinn family members, who always had a good, strong, affable relationship with Yinn Siyan. Zhao Qiuxian saw absolutely no reason to believe that he would do anything to maliciously hurt Yinn Siyan on purpose...let alone attempt to kill him...nor did she see any reason to distrust said relative, whatsoever....And it was that hesitation on the Madame's part that slightly irked Qiu Xiyun.

"Grandmother, you need to take action...and, now! We're talking about Siyan's life here, after all!...Using an essential oil containing 6HRS is highly suspicious, if you ask me. And 6HRS is definitely not something you'd find on the shelves at your neighborhood corner drug store...meaning someone went out of their way to get their hands on it. What if someone's actually trying to kill Siyan with it?" Qiu Xiyun noticed an indication of disbelief lingering in Zhao Qiuxian's eyes...she was evidently trying to dismiss the possibility that anyone in the Yinn family would be plotting to kill her grandson and she tried to convince the Madame to give her even the slightest benefit of the doubt that she may be onto something...and, at least bring in an unbiased outsider to come in and objectively investigate the situation. "Grandmother...if this turns out to be case of me just overthinking things too much, and it turns out that I'm actually wrong...I'll personally apologize to everyone."

Seeing how relentlessly unyielding Qiu Xiyun was in not dropping the issue, Zhao Qiuxian made up her mind to pursue the matter. The Madame instructed Xia Mao, "Alright then, Xia, go and summon Master Alva to come here. If he asks why I'm calling for him for now, just tell him that I just wanted to invite him over for a cup of tea."

Master Alva was an internationally renowned aromatherapist, considered to be the leading authority in aromatherapy treatment and the essential oils used for it. Rumor had it that over the years, he had become peculiarly temperamental and moody, and rather difficult to get along with...eventually becoming a bit of a recluse. But, ever since their childhood, Zhao Qiuxian and Master Alva had maintained a pretty good friendship...so, since she was inviting him, naturally, he would show up.