Forensic Imperial Concubine

"What's wrong?" asked Howard.
"Oh my God!" Diana turned her head away immediately and began to retch.
From the reaction of the people around him, Howard finally realized that something was terribly wrong on his back, but he
couldn't see anything. He could only see the horror in the eyes of others as they stared at his back with their dilated pupils.
"What on earth is wrong, Harper?" he asked anxiously.
"Fire starter!" Harper instructed the secret guards, ignoring Howard's question, as if she did not feel it was important to answer
him at the moment. Harper stretched out her hand. Without wasting a moment, one of the secret guards handed her a fire
starter. Harper blew the fire starter to light a fire from it. Then she put it straight to Howard's back. His back was covered with
blood-sucking insects. The scene was so gory and bloodcurdling that it made everyone go speechless. It seemed as if the
insects had been on his body for a long time because they had sucked so much blood that they had bloated. Their skin had
become thin as if it would break out any moment to let out the excess blood.
"Your Highness, what kind of insects are these?" asked a secret guard in a trembling voice.
"These are leeches. I should have been more cautious. I had forgotten that such hot and wet places like swamps are infested
with such bloodsucking insects. All of you, check each other's bodies for such leeches. If you find them, don't try to pull them out
with your hands. Instead, you should burn them with fire. When they feel hurt, they will fall from your body. Otherwise, their
poisonous tentacles will be left in your body. And if that happens, even I won't be able to save you."
The secret guards were left aghast to witness the dense covering of leeches on Howard's back. They had goose bumps all over
their bodies and their faces turned pale the moment Harper asked them to check each other. Immediately, they gathered in small
groups, took off their upper clothes quickly, and checked on each other. Leeches were found on the bodies of quite a few of
them. Fortunately, there were not so many as they were found on Howard's back.
When Howard saw the leeches falling to the ground from his back, he was freaked out too. Had it not been for Harper who had
made him take off his clothes to check if there was anything wrong with him, Howard wouldn't have even realized until all his
blood was sucked away.
After getting rid of the leeches on Howard's back, Harper passed a general instruction for everyone without considering anything.
She said, "Take off your pants and check your whole bodies to see if there is any leech left elsewhere. Take off all your clothes
and shake them for a few times, to make sure that there is no leech left on your clothes as well."

"Yes, Your Highness,"
the twelve secret guards answered in a unified voice. But Howard felt too embarrassed to take off his pants in front of Harper.
After a moment of hesitation, he said, "I will check myself with the secret guards. After all, you are a female."
Harper stared at Howard for a moment and then realized that what he said was right! It was not until then that Harper realized
the gender difference between Howard and her. She had almost forgotten that she was a woman. Immediately, she turned away
and walked to Diana. "Take off your clothes," she said.
There was no leech on Diana's body. Perhaps that was because she practiced voodoo arts every day. As a result, low-grade
poisonous insects such as leeches dared not get close to her. However, a large part of her skin was exposed to the air, so she
was likely to be bitten by some poisonous insects. Harper thought that it would be more troublesome if she was bitten by some
unknown poisonous insect and got infected.
"Brother, take off your coat and give it to her!" Harper waved her hand pointing towards Diana. She gestured Howard to make
haste. Among all the men present there, only Howard wore a coat. The secret guards wore tight clothes, which made it easy for
them to make a quick movement.
After the leeches had been removed from Howard's body, his back was left dripping with blood. When he heard Harper's order,
he took off his coat immediately and threw it at Diana.
"No... Err... I don't need..." Diana stammered as the coat landed on her lap before she could even refuse properly.
"There are too many poisonous insects here. And you have too much of your skin exposed to the air. You know better than me
what will happen if you get attacked by the poisonous insects of the swamp," Harper explained to Diana in a stern voice. Harper
then took a bottle of medicine and threw it to the secret guards. She took another bottle in her hand and approached Howard.
"Apply it to your wound," she ordered.
Howard reached out his hands for the medicine. Harper looked at him in a meaningful manner while handing over the medicine
to him. "Can you apply it by yourself?" asked Harper.
Howard turned towards the secret guards with the hope that he could avoid being touched by Harper once again. However, to
his dismay, he found that none of them was available to help him apply the medicine. Having no other option left, he turned back
and allowed Harper to apply the medicine on his back. Harper applied the medicine in a very rough and violent way. Howard
squirmed his face in pain, but dared not complain. After all, it was only because of his own negligence that he had landed up in
such an awkward situation.

When they finally settled down after dispelling the insects and applying medicine on the wounds, the secret guards took out the
dry food they were carrying with them. But to their utter disappointment, they found that the food had gone bad after getting wet
in the rain and could no longer be eaten. They turned to Harper and said, "Your Highness, please wait for a moment. We will find
something to eat."
"No, that's not necessary," Harper said, shaking her head. She looked around the place, then continued, "No need to wander
around in this place. Otherwise, it's easy for you to get lost in such a dense swamp. Just look around in the nearby places. If you
can't find anything to eat nearby, you can take pills for the time being."
Upon Harper's words, the corners of the shadow guards' mouths twitched. They resisted the urge to exchange looks with each
other in front of Harper. They doubted that the pills could satiate their hunger. Harper looked at them in their eyes in a way as if
she could read their minds. Then she threw a bottle of pills to each of the secret guards and said, "Take one pill three times a
day. You won't feel hungry."
No matter how convincingly Harper said that the pills would satiate their hunger, it was hard for them to believe in what she said.
Yet, they obeyed her orders because they dared not question her. After they swallowed the pills, they were indeed taken aback
by the sheer magic of the pills. Neither did they feel tired nor heavy. Rather, they felt as if they just had a full course meal that
made them more energetic than before.
A faint smile appeared on Harper's lips to see all the secret guards satiated after taking the pills. Then she moved her gaze
towards Diana. Her eyes fell on Howard's coat in Diana's hand. "Tie your neckline, cuffs, and legs tightly to prevent anything from
getting into your clothes." Harper cautioned Diana.
"Yes, Your Highness."
Diana put on the coat of Howard's, which hung loose on her body, making her look a little funny. But she thought that it still was
better than having her skin exposed to the air in this ghastly swamp. As Diana pulled the coat a little tighter around her body, she
could not resist being curious about why Harper hadn't checked on her own body.
"Don't you want to check on yourself? I can help you!" asked Diana.
"No poisonous insect can get close to me," Harper said as her face broke into a wide smile.
Hearing that, Diana immediately remembered that a drop of Harper's blood could propel death for the most poisonous insect. All
the insects inside this swamp would not even come close to Harper, because the stronger the venomous creatures were, the

better equipped they would be to identify what was harmful to them.
With such thoughts in her mind, Diana turned her face away from Harper and mumbled, "Monster!" Harper heard that, but she
simply pretended not to. All of a sudden, she shot three silver needles in the same direction at the same time. The secret guards,
Howard and Diana turned towards the direction in which the needles were shot. The needles ended up piercing the bodies of two
thick poisonous snakes who were struggling in pain. Harper had hit them in their hearts in one go.
"Here! We have our supper now," Harper said in a serious tone. "Let's have the snake meat soup this evening."