The banquet came to an end in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. In fact, Commodus had already left during the second half of the banquet. Zhang Heng wanted to leave too, but considering the image he created earlier, he had to wait until the end of the banquet. Lucilla's visit this afternoon also reminded him that as he became more and more famous, more and more people were paying attention to him.
A banquet like this was a rare opportunity for every participant. It was an important occasion for them to exchange feelings and make friends. If Zhang Heng wanted to maintain his previous image of being obsessed with power, he couldn't leave too early.
Therefore, although Zhang Heng was not interested in this banquet, he still had to pretend to be interested on the surface.
He couldn't remember how many glasses of wine he drank. The Roman nobles liked to drink with lead glasses. Other than that, red lead could effectively reduce the sour taste in wine. Besides, the aqueducts that supplied water to the city were often made of a mixture of pottery and lead. There were also all kinds of tableware, kitchen utensils, jewelry, and cosmetics. Lead products were almost everywhere … not to mention that the Roman ladies liked to use red lead or cinnabar (red mercury sulfide) to make lipstick.
It was not difficult to understand why the Roman nobles were so difficult to have children.
However, Zhang Heng did not care much about it. Anyway, he would only stay in this quest for a year and a half. When he returned to the real world, his body would recover to the state it was before he entered the quest.
So in theory, as long as Zhang Heng did not drink himself to death within a year and a half, chronic poisoning like this would not matter. However, when Zhang Heng drank with a young man, he suddenly felt dizzy.
If it were an ordinary person, he would probably think that it was because he drank too much tonight. However, for a well-trained assassin like Zhang Heng, it was easy for him to realize that there was something wrong with the wine. Not to mention that he met Dadatis not long ago, and the latter used the same method to plot against him. Naturally, Zhang Heng would pay special attention to similar situations.
So after taking the first sip, Zhang Heng immediately reacted. While eating the bread, he secretly spat the remaining wine in his mouth into a clay pot filled with honey. After that, Zhang Heng pretended to be drunk and accidentally knocked the clay pot to the ground. Immediately, a maid went to clean up the debris on the ground.
The other maid helped Zhang Heng up and said, "His Majesty has instructed that if you are drunk, you can rest in the room upstairs."
Although he had spat out most of the wine, he could feel that the small sip he had taken earlier had taken effect. Not only did his head become dizzy, but his breathing also began to accelerate, and his pupils dilated. Fortunately, the amount was small enough, and it was still within Zhang Heng's control. Zhang Heng estimated that he still had about 80% of his strength left. Compared to drinking all the wine and being slaughtered, at least he had enough power to protect himself in his current state.
At first, Zhang Heng was a little surprised. After all, this was the palace, probably the most difficult place to poison in all of Rome. Not to mention that there were so many guests tonight. Now, it seemed that he was the only one who was poisoned. This meant that the person who poisoned him had to control all the maids, and the other party even prepared a room for him.
In other words, Commodus probably knew about this. Even if he did not know, he had acquiesced to this situation. Thinking of this, Zhang Heng had already guessed who poisoned him, and he felt relieved.
The maid helped him to a room upstairs. Unlike the splendor of the banquet hall below, this room was empty. There were only two chairs facing each other.
The maid put Zhang Heng on one of the chairs, lit the lamp, and left.
Zhang Heng immediately closed his eyes. He seized the time to feel the state of his body, and then analyze what he had drunk before. With that, he could try his best to pretend that he had drunk all the wine.
Zhang Heng had Level 1 herbology skills. In addition, the knowledge that Dadatis taught him also included some toxicology content. From his physiological reaction, Zhang Heng speculated that the glass of wine he drank might have contained scopolamine.
Ordinary people might not know what scopolamine was, but most people should have heard of the truth serum.
The original truth serum was discovered by an obstetrician and gynecologist. In order to reduce the pain of the pregnant woman, he injected some plant alkaloids extracted from scopolamine into the pregnant woman. He found that the pregnant woman would answer questions truthfully in an unconscious state. In Chinese medicine, there were also precedents of using scopolamine to treat mental mania and relieve pain.
Scopolamine stimulated the respiratory center, and at the same time, it had an obvious inhibitory effect on the cerebral cortex. It matched Zhang Heng's previous physical reaction, but the smell was mixed up by something. Fortunately, the numbness on his tongue did not lie. Besides, scopolamine itself was highly toxic. Logically speaking, if one wanted to achieve the effect of the truth serum by directly ingesting scopolamine, the dosage should be enough to kill him. However, based on Zhang Heng's current feeling, even if he finished the glass of wine, it should not be enough to poison him.
In other words, the other party's purpose was not to take his life. There should be some means to eliminate part of the toxicity of scopolamine.
That was the information that Heng had gathered during this period of time.
After that, he heard someone calling his name in his ear.
Zhang Heng opened his eyes, but he did not see anyone in the chair opposite him. The voice calling him came from behind him.
"Don't worry. I just want to ask you a few questions," the person behind him said.
"Who are you? What's wrong with me?" Zhang Heng muttered. He tried to turn his neck, but he could not seem to turn it.
"You drank too much wine. I think you should take a good rest. Don't worry, I will take care of you. As for me, you should have heard of my name before. I am Altrus. Like you, I am His Majesty's advisor. "
"You are Altrus, the guy that everyone talks about who hides his head and never shows his true face?" Altrus smiled when he heard what Zhang Heng said.
He did not seem to mind Zhang Heng's verbal offense. "Yes, I know some people say that about me. I don't care. You and I are both advisors. You should know that our work is to serve His Majesty. As long as His Majesty trusts us, it doesn't matter what other people think."
Altrus paused and then said, "Well, enough of the gossip. Let's get down to business."
"What business?"
"As I said, I want to ask you some questions. You just have to answer me truthfully. Let's start with the southeast city. You did a great job there, but I want to know what agreement you made with the Jewish gang. I know Lockheed, and I know that the old man will not be scared by a thousand imperial guards. So, I want to know what you promised Lockheed. Is it written autonomy or something else?"
Lockheed's plan to deal with Elder Divo Braille was a confidential matter. Only the four people present at the time knew about it. Lockheed even made Zhang Heng swear not to tell anyone about it. Otherwise, with Divo Braille's influence in the Senate, it was likely to bring a lot of trouble to the southeast city.
So Zhang Heng planned to make up a lie to deal with this question. However, the next moment, he suddenly remembered the inexplicable words that Lucilla said before she left. At that time, it sounded a bit like a threat from Lucilla, especially the first half of the sentence. 'Don't think that no one knows what you've done.'
But now, Zhang Heng suddenly realized that Lucilla was probably reminding him of something, especially when the guy from the Beehive named Cornu was also present. Zhang Heng did not know if the latter was from the Hounds or the Balance Blade.
Zhang Heng realized that he had to make a choice. If this question was a test from Altrus, once he answered the wrong question, Altrus might soon find out that the truth-telling serum had lost its effect. So after a moment of silence, Zhang Heng said, "They asked me to deal with someone."
"Who?"
"Elder Divo Braille. He is too greedy. Lockheed doesn't like him. I shouldn't have told him. I promised Lockheed that I would not tell anyone."
Altrus snorted. Zhang Heng tried to judge from Altrus' tone if he already knew about this matter. Unfortunately, Altrus did a good job of concealing his emotions. He said softly, "It's okay. I will keep it a secret for you. We are friends, aren't we?"
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