#verdtea poison

[murderedbyhomework]

I don't think we're emotionally ready for this, but can Li Lianhua eat spice?

Okay so we know the Bicha/Verdtea poison neutralises the allergens in peanuts so it doesn't affect Li Lianhua. That implies a certain level of personalisation to Li Lianhua's immune system in general, but also shows that any sort of "toxin", even the kind of allergen that seems to only affect Li Xiangyi relatively mildly, gets neutralised by the poison. Presumably, his body can't absorb that allergen.

So peppers are spicy because of something called capsaicin, which burns your tongue and creates the feeling of pain. That's probably classified as a "toxin" by the poison, right? So can Li Lianhua taste spice?

If he can't, it would absolutely explain why, to Fang Duobing's horror, he added red peppers to the lotus seed dessert he made him for during the Cailian Manor case. Li Lianhua was a street kid, which means he doesn't really have a very solid grasp on what most people consider tasty food and suitable flavour combinations. Then he's poisoned, and if the poison causes him to be unable to taste spice, it absolutely stands to reason that he doesn't think chillies don't belong in deserts. He probably thinks "oh the color is pretty, I don't get why people low key die when they taste them. Let me add them to this dessert for my new friend and see if he reacts as hilariously as other people do to it".

Actually now that I think of it, what other foods would the poison affect?

[omgpurplefattie]

Actually, I was having shower thoughts today; one of them turned into a chapter of my fic that I just posted, the other was -- how about the verdtea poison being some sort of neurotoxin two agent poison, AKA novichok?

One thing that is very fun about MLC is that everything you need actually exists in Ancient Fantasy China at the wave of a hand; for example, when Fang Duobing needs a car to get Li Lianhua to Guan Hemeng in a hurry, his mum has already invented a car.

So why not this?

Nobody says there can't be a lichen involved, either; after all, there were no purely synthetic substances yet, so everything had to be made analytically from natural materials.

But the approach to poison seems similar, and novichoks are not contagious but may continue to be toxic in some situations, hence the one brother in the King of Hell case catching the verdtea poison.

@eirenical @murderedbyhomework @willowcatkinblossom @kingsandbastardz

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episode 10

"Since you have been poisoned with the deadliest poison, no poison can harm you anymore." --Monk Wuliao

I've been thinking a lot about this line lately, and its potential repercussions. In context, this is Li Lianhua remembering Monk Wuliao's words from when he was healed as much as he could have been from the Bicha Poison 10 years ago. Shortly before these remembered words, there is a flashback wherein it is revealed that Li Xiangyi had a nut allergy that made him break out in hives. That bowl of food he's eating is a nut porridge brought to him by Yun Biqiu. (There are less dangerous ways to see if this person is your former sect leader, Biqiu! O_o;;;) Anyway, as he is eating this nut porridge, and remembering this line, Li Lianhua is distinctly NOT breaking out in hives.

The conclusion that we are clearly supposed to draw is that the Bicha Poison has prevented the "toxin" of the nuts from harming its host.

...but why stop there?

If a nut is a poison for the purpose of this mechanism of action, then what about other drugs/medications? After all, to quote one of my favorite sayings: "Healers and poisoners are folks with similar skill sets and wildly different philosophies." Or to put it as I learned it in my toxicology class in vet school: "All medicines are poisons at the right dose."

So if a nut can be a poison, then medications CERTAINLY are. And if the Bicha poison recognizes the nut as a poison and prevents it from acting, then we can assume it would do the same to any medications.

That explains why Medicine Demon's priceless potions DON'T WORK.

That explains why the snake bites DON'T WORK.

That explains why Guan Hemeng's medicines DON'T WORK.

It also explains why Li Lianua is so convinced that Fan Duobing's pill from Tianji Hall and Di Feisheng's Wangchuan Flower WON'T work.

Because once you've been poisoned by Bicha Poison, NO OTHER POISON WILL HARM YOU... or help you.

And taking that a step further, it means that every time Li LIanhua has been sick or injured or in need of pain medication in the past ten years, NONE OF IT WOULD HAVE WORKED. And considering how much more fragile he is now than he used to be, that absolutely breaks my heart.

Just imagine that every time he was ill or injured, he had to weight the benefits of using Yangzhouman to heal himself versus the risk of using too much and shrinking the time he had left even more. How many times must he have chosen to just power through and hope he makes it to the other side? No wonder he's so reluctant to let Guan Hemeng examine him and try to help. No wonder he doesn't want to waste everyone else's precious medications on himself. He knows they'll do nothing.

...excuse me while I go cry in a corner now. TT^TT

[murderedbyhomework]

Fun stuff in mlc fanfic part 2/?

The Bicha/verdtea poison is Yin in nature apparently, and women are mostly more yin in nature while men are yang in nature. Yangzhouman is also extremely yang in nature, so cn fanfic writers decided that what if Yangzhouman was essentially the ancient wuxia equivalent of T, so when Yangzhouman eventually burns out llh becomes more feminine biologically, and Bhante Wuliao and his Fanshu (those needles with The apparent cosmetic surgery functions where llh no longer looks like lxy despite being played by cy still) complete the transition process by somehow using the bicha poison as a medium and burning it out. So essentially, transfem llh ft mildly bastardised yin and yang theory and questionable wuxia logic.

[murderedbyhomework]

Modern au Li Xiangyi would absolutely take red bull and coffee together, or even mix it together so he can pull more all nighters and run around doing more stuff. Multiple people have expressed concern for his taste and health. He does not care. The Bicha/verdtea Poison gets past him because he can't taste it over how bad red bull plus coffee mixed together tastes like.

His coffee order would be black coffee no sugar by the way, at least in front of other people. That way he thinks people will take him more seriously instead of viewing him as a child with a sweet tooth. Fang Duobing sees him secretly dumping 2 packets of sugar into his coffee one time and has never forgotten about it.

[omgpurplefattie]

Okay, that all makes a lot of sense. I wasn't taking neurotransmitters into account, blaming the impaired senses on a possible side effect of the main problem of the epinephrine feedback cycle being out of whack, but yes, that would very much not help the poisoned person.

As for the suppression of allergies, I've already spun a hypothesis in my last reblog of this behemoth, but that might be a load of bull.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episode 10

"Since you have been poisoned with the deadliest poison, no poison can harm you anymore." --Monk Wuliao

I've been thinking a lot about this line lately, and its potential repercussions. In context, this is Li Lianhua remembering Monk Wuliao's words from when he was healed as much as he could have been from the Bicha Poison 10 years ago. Shortly before these remembered words, there is a flashback wherein it is revealed that Li Xiangyi had a nut allergy that made him break out in hives. That bowl of food he's eating is a nut porridge brought to him by Yun Biqiu. (There are less dangerous ways to see if this person is your former sect leader, Biqiu! O_o;;;) Anyway, as he is eating this nut porridge, and remembering this line, Li Lianhua is distinctly NOT breaking out in hives.

The conclusion that we are clearly supposed to draw is that the Bicha Poison has prevented the "toxin" of the nuts from harming its host.

...but why stop there?

If a nut is a poison for the purpose of this mechanism of action, then what about other drugs/medications? After all, to quote one of my favorite sayings: "Healers and poisoners are folks with similar skill sets and wildly different philosophies." Or to put it as I learned it in my toxicology class in vet school: "All medicines are poisons at the right dose."

So if a nut can be a poison, then medications CERTAINLY are. And if the Bicha poison recognizes the nut as a poison and prevents it from acting, then we can assume it would do the same to any medications.

That explains why Medicine Demon's priceless potions DON'T WORK.

That explains why the snake bites DON'T WORK.

That explains why Guan Hemeng's medicines DON'T WORK.

It also explains why Li Lianua is so convinced that Fan Duobing's pill from Tianji Hall and Di Feisheng's Wangchuan Flower WON'T work.

Because once you've been poisoned by Bicha Poison, NO OTHER POISON WILL HARM YOU... or help you.

And taking that a step further, it means that every time Li LIanhua has been sick or injured or in need of pain medication in the past ten years, NONE OF IT WOULD HAVE WORKED. And considering how much more fragile he is now than he used to be, that absolutely breaks my heart.

Just imagine that every time he was ill or injured, he had to weight the benefits of using Yangzhouman to heal himself versus the risk of using too much and shrinking the time he had left even more. How many times must he have chosen to just power through and hope he makes it to the other side? No wonder he's so reluctant to let Guan Hemeng examine him and try to help. No wonder he doesn't want to waste everyone else's precious medications on himself. He knows they'll do nothing.

...excuse me while I go cry in a corner now. TT^TT

[omgpurplefattie]

Reblogging again for the addition.-

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episode 10

"Since you have been poisoned with the deadliest poison, no poison can harm you anymore." --Monk Wuliao

I've been thinking a lot about this line lately, and its potential repercussions. In context, this is Li Lianhua remembering Monk Wuliao's words from when he was healed as much as he could have been from the Bicha Poison 10 years ago. Shortly before these remembered words, there is a flashback wherein it is revealed that Li Xiangyi had a nut allergy that made him break out in hives. That bowl of food he's eating is a nut porridge brought to him by Yun Biqiu. (There are less dangerous ways to see if this person is your former sect leader, Biqiu! O_o;;;) Anyway, as he is eating this nut porridge, and remembering this line, Li Lianhua is distinctly NOT breaking out in hives.

The conclusion that we are clearly supposed to draw is that the Bicha Poison has prevented the "toxin" of the nuts from harming its host.

...but why stop there?

If a nut is a poison for the purpose of this mechanism of action, then what about other drugs/medications? After all, to quote one of my favorite sayings: "Healers and poisoners are folks with similar skill sets and wildly different philosophies." Or to put it as I learned it in my toxicology class in vet school: "All medicines are poisons at the right dose."

So if a nut can be a poison, then medications CERTAINLY are. And if the Bicha poison recognizes the nut as a poison and prevents it from acting, then we can assume it would do the same to any medications.

That explains why Medicine Demon's priceless potions DON'T WORK.

That explains why the snake bites DON'T WORK.

That explains why Guan Hemeng's medicines DON'T WORK.

It also explains why Li Lianua is so convinced that Fan Duobing's pill from Tianji Hall and Di Feisheng's Wangchuan Flower WON'T work.

Because once you've been poisoned by Bicha Poison, NO OTHER POISON WILL HARM YOU... or help you.

And taking that a step further, it means that every time Li LIanhua has been sick or injured or in need of pain medication in the past ten years, NONE OF IT WOULD HAVE WORKED. And considering how much more fragile he is now than he used to be, that absolutely breaks my heart.

Just imagine that every time he was ill or injured, he had to weight the benefits of using Yangzhouman to heal himself versus the risk of using too much and shrinking the time he had left even more. How many times must he have chosen to just power through and hope he makes it to the other side? No wonder he's so reluctant to let Guan Hemeng examine him and try to help. No wonder he doesn't want to waste everyone else's precious medications on himself. He knows they'll do nothing.

...excuse me while I go cry in a corner now. TT^TT

[omgpurplefattie]

I'm not a medical person, either; I just have seen more doctors than I'd have liked to these last few years.

I guess the comparison to Long COVID is very apt here because it's an impact that happens once (one dose of poison / one infection) that destroys certain functions which then keep getting worse.

As allergies are a legitimate immune response starting up at inappropriate triggers, and the verdtea poison destroyed Li Lianhua's peanut allergy, that mean that some retraining of the immune system is part of what the poison does.

If it's a lichen or algae, in the shape of a colony of single cell organisms, then the retraining of the immune system in order to not react to whatever the next step the verdtea organism takes is probably part of its strategy. Such colonies can occasionally do very complex things, see slime moulds.

Another option for the verdtea poison would be a complex composition of herbal toxins with concatenated and partially delayed effects, starting out with inhibiting parts of the immune system and then attacking other organs; but I never like to attribute to dedicated malice if simple laws of nature suffice.

Two take-aways for future fic and meta:

Verdtea poison can't be detoxified, so the doctors involved (most likely both Guan Hemeng and the Medicine Demon (Physickmaster in @ ruiconteur's translation)) will have to sit Li Lianhua down and tell him their analysis (they probably got themselves a specimen of the verdtea 'plant' and poisoned quite a number of pitiable rats with it), and explain to him that he can go on living, but will have to work for it every single day of his remaining life. There is no miracle cure. Li Lianhua will hate it, Di Feisheng will be so disappointed because their rematch is postponed to the next life, basically (however we read their relationship(s) at that point, him wanting a rematch is probably always a given), but Fang Duobing will make it his life's work to manage Li Lianhua's health, the way I have sometimes seen wives manage their husbands diabetes -- he was sick, but she knew all about it, read the books, made sure the medication was ready and the food was suitable. Over time, the Lotus Triangle will get used to this being their life now, and a partially recovered and mostly symptom-free Li Lianhua will see the advantages of following the regimen on his own without Fang Duobing and Di Feisheng looming over him.

On the other hand, tiny microdoses of verdtea might be used to combat life-threatening allergies against very common allergens; that's something Guan Hemeng, the Physickmaster and Li Lianhua (who is, after all, something of a doctor himself) will probably work on together somewhere down the line. I could imagine a toddler from an important family with debilitating seasonal allergies getting worse from year to year (maybe the son that emperor was still hoping for when we last saw him), and these three doctors turning up and curing the kid with their method which they, of course, keep secret. That would protect Li Lianhua plus the Fang-He family from any further threat of imperial wrath (which LLH had staved off near the end of canon by giving away his seemingly only hope of being cured, hence taking himself out of the picture for the succession via the Nanyin plot line). That will allow LLH to at least exist out in the open and live his life without any fear of the emperor's guards coming down on him and his.-

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episode 10

"Since you have been poisoned with the deadliest poison, no poison can harm you anymore." --Monk Wuliao

I've been thinking a lot about this line lately, and its potential repercussions. In context, this is Li Lianhua remembering Monk Wuliao's words from when he was healed as much as he could have been from the Bicha Poison 10 years ago. Shortly before these remembered words, there is a flashback wherein it is revealed that Li Xiangyi had a nut allergy that made him break out in hives. That bowl of food he's eating is a nut porridge brought to him by Yun Biqiu. (There are less dangerous ways to see if this person is your former sect leader, Biqiu! O_o;;;) Anyway, as he is eating this nut porridge, and remembering this line, Li Lianhua is distinctly NOT breaking out in hives.

The conclusion that we are clearly supposed to draw is that the Bicha Poison has prevented the "toxin" of the nuts from harming its host.

...but why stop there?

If a nut is a poison for the purpose of this mechanism of action, then what about other drugs/medications? After all, to quote one of my favorite sayings: "Healers and poisoners are folks with similar skill sets and wildly different philosophies." Or to put it as I learned it in my toxicology class in vet school: "All medicines are poisons at the right dose."

So if a nut can be a poison, then medications CERTAINLY are. And if the Bicha poison recognizes the nut as a poison and prevents it from acting, then we can assume it would do the same to any medications.

That explains why Medicine Demon's priceless potions DON'T WORK.

That explains why the snake bites DON'T WORK.

That explains why Guan Hemeng's medicines DON'T WORK.

It also explains why Li Lianua is so convinced that Fan Duobing's pill from Tianji Hall and Di Feisheng's Wangchuan Flower WON'T work.

Because once you've been poisoned by Bicha Poison, NO OTHER POISON WILL HARM YOU... or help you.

And taking that a step further, it means that every time Li LIanhua has been sick or injured or in need of pain medication in the past ten years, NONE OF IT WOULD HAVE WORKED. And considering how much more fragile he is now than he used to be, that absolutely breaks my heart.

Just imagine that every time he was ill or injured, he had to weight the benefits of using Yangzhouman to heal himself versus the risk of using too much and shrinking the time he had left even more. How many times must he have chosen to just power through and hope he makes it to the other side? No wonder he's so reluctant to let Guan Hemeng examine him and try to help. No wonder he doesn't want to waste everyone else's precious medications on himself. He knows they'll do nothing.

...excuse me while I go cry in a corner now. TT^TT

[omgpurplefattie]

Yes, I was wondering why the poison would stick around for so long, too. Epi pens work immediately; that's the whole entire point of them.

So I guess it might be something to send the body's own epinephrine production into overdrive, but periodically, not constantly, hence the flare-up. Also, the poison didn't work immediately after ingestion, but took some hours to produce an effect. It only became effective during the East Sea battle.

It would then break the regulatory feedback cycle for epinephrine inside the body, sending it into the spirals / flareups that make Li Lianhua worse and worse until his system breaks down from some sort of cascade failure years later.

That again supports the theory that verdtea poison can't be detoxified; on the other hand, it might be manageable like many chronic conditions where parts of the body's feedback cycles are broken, like diabetes or HIV.

So Di Feisheng and Fand Duobing looking for a cure isn't pointless, either, if it's a cure that Li Lianhua will simply have to administer for the rest of his life while getting on with things almost normally.

I think I just found the missing plot bit for the modern AU fic I am writing as well as for the post-canon fic that's also brewing in my brain.

Thank you ever so much for this!!

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episode 10

"Since you have been poisoned with the deadliest poison, no poison can harm you anymore." --Monk Wuliao

I've been thinking a lot about this line lately, and its potential repercussions. In context, this is Li Lianhua remembering Monk Wuliao's words from when he was healed as much as he could have been from the Bicha Poison 10 years ago. Shortly before these remembered words, there is a flashback wherein it is revealed that Li Xiangyi had a nut allergy that made him break out in hives. That bowl of food he's eating is a nut porridge brought to him by Yun Biqiu. (There are less dangerous ways to see if this person is your former sect leader, Biqiu! O_o;;;) Anyway, as he is eating this nut porridge, and remembering this line, Li Lianhua is distinctly NOT breaking out in hives.

The conclusion that we are clearly supposed to draw is that the Bicha Poison has prevented the "toxin" of the nuts from harming its host.

...but why stop there?

If a nut is a poison for the purpose of this mechanism of action, then what about other drugs/medications? After all, to quote one of my favorite sayings: "Healers and poisoners are folks with similar skill sets and wildly different philosophies." Or to put it as I learned it in my toxicology class in vet school: "All medicines are poisons at the right dose."

So if a nut can be a poison, then medications CERTAINLY are. And if the Bicha poison recognizes the nut as a poison and prevents it from acting, then we can assume it would do the same to any medications.

That explains why Medicine Demon's priceless potions DON'T WORK.

That explains why the snake bites DON'T WORK.

That explains why Guan Hemeng's medicines DON'T WORK.

It also explains why Li Lianua is so convinced that Fan Duobing's pill from Tianji Hall and Di Feisheng's Wangchuan Flower WON'T work.

Because once you've been poisoned by Bicha Poison, NO OTHER POISON WILL HARM YOU... or help you.

And taking that a step further, it means that every time Li LIanhua has been sick or injured or in need of pain medication in the past ten years, NONE OF IT WOULD HAVE WORKED. And considering how much more fragile he is now than he used to be, that absolutely breaks my heart.

Just imagine that every time he was ill or injured, he had to weight the benefits of using Yangzhouman to heal himself versus the risk of using too much and shrinking the time he had left even more. How many times must he have chosen to just power through and hope he makes it to the other side? No wonder he's so reluctant to let Guan Hemeng examine him and try to help. No wonder he doesn't want to waste everyone else's precious medications on himself. He knows they'll do nothing.

...excuse me while I go cry in a corner now. TT^TT

[omgpurplefattie]

Reblogging again for the tags from @willowcatkinblossom :

This is in fact not too long but deeply fascinating! I love how everyone in this advanced fandom brings their advanced knowledge to the table.

In fact, some of the more outlandish sicknesses and substances in MLC are rooted in reality -- both the treeman syndrome and the wangchuan flower are! So bicha / verdtea (as per @ruiconteur 's translation) would be a plant that contains natural epinephrine?

A quick look at Wikipedia tells me that some single-celled organisms produce epinephrine as well, so the verdtea would be some lichen or algae? Like. The kind that consists of colonies of single cell organisms. And it would probably produce that potent poison only under very specific conditions.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episode 10

"Since you have been poisoned with the deadliest poison, no poison can harm you anymore." --Monk Wuliao

I've been thinking a lot about this line lately, and its potential repercussions. In context, this is Li Lianhua remembering Monk Wuliao's words from when he was healed as much as he could have been from the Bicha Poison 10 years ago. Shortly before these remembered words, there is a flashback wherein it is revealed that Li Xiangyi had a nut allergy that made him break out in hives. That bowl of food he's eating is a nut porridge brought to him by Yun Biqiu. (There are less dangerous ways to see if this person is your former sect leader, Biqiu! O_o;;;) Anyway, as he is eating this nut porridge, and remembering this line, Li Lianhua is distinctly NOT breaking out in hives.

The conclusion that we are clearly supposed to draw is that the Bicha Poison has prevented the "toxin" of the nuts from harming its host.

...but why stop there?

If a nut is a poison for the purpose of this mechanism of action, then what about other drugs/medications? After all, to quote one of my favorite sayings: "Healers and poisoners are folks with similar skill sets and wildly different philosophies." Or to put it as I learned it in my toxicology class in vet school: "All medicines are poisons at the right dose."

So if a nut can be a poison, then medications CERTAINLY are. And if the Bicha poison recognizes the nut as a poison and prevents it from acting, then we can assume it would do the same to any medications.

That explains why Medicine Demon's priceless potions DON'T WORK.

That explains why the snake bites DON'T WORK.

That explains why Guan Hemeng's medicines DON'T WORK.

It also explains why Li Lianua is so convinced that Fan Duobing's pill from Tianji Hall and Di Feisheng's Wangchuan Flower WON'T work.

Because once you've been poisoned by Bicha Poison, NO OTHER POISON WILL HARM YOU... or help you.

And taking that a step further, it means that every time Li LIanhua has been sick or injured or in need of pain medication in the past ten years, NONE OF IT WOULD HAVE WORKED. And considering how much more fragile he is now than he used to be, that absolutely breaks my heart.

Just imagine that every time he was ill or injured, he had to weight the benefits of using Yangzhouman to heal himself versus the risk of using too much and shrinking the time he had left even more. How many times must he have chosen to just power through and hope he makes it to the other side? No wonder he's so reluctant to let Guan Hemeng examine him and try to help. No wonder he doesn't want to waste everyone else's precious medications on himself. He knows they'll do nothing.

...excuse me while I go cry in a corner now. TT^TT

[kingsandbastardz]

(Non-medical person popping in with questions) When I saw the comments of vascular issues, I immediately thought of long covid symptoms that often occur in several common groupings. So there are blood clotting, mitochondrial dysfunction, heart/vascular, lung/vascular, and brain/vascular leading to sight/hearing issues and mental health problems like severe depression -- and there is chronic inflammation too that creates more issues the longer it goes on. Antihistamines were one of the things ppl were using to manage it plus a lot of anti-inflammatory herbal stuff that's common use in Chinese medicine.

The Bicha symptoms are like all of that rolled into one. Is it possible bicha poison behaves like a persistent virus? (I'm thinking extreme chronic fatigue etc... or I guess like HIV that's mentioned above) my question is why would it cause other toxins/ poisons to no longer have an effect? Is it the immune response?

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episode 10

"Since you have been poisoned with the deadliest poison, no poison can harm you anymore." --Monk Wuliao

I've been thinking a lot about this line lately, and its potential repercussions. In context, this is Li Lianhua remembering Monk Wuliao's words from when he was healed as much as he could have been from the Bicha Poison 10 years ago. Shortly before these remembered words, there is a flashback wherein it is revealed that Li Xiangyi had a nut allergy that made him break out in hives. That bowl of food he's eating is a nut porridge brought to him by Yun Biqiu. (There are less dangerous ways to see if this person is your former sect leader, Biqiu! O_o;;;) Anyway, as he is eating this nut porridge, and remembering this line, Li Lianhua is distinctly NOT breaking out in hives.

The conclusion that we are clearly supposed to draw is that the Bicha Poison has prevented the "toxin" of the nuts from harming its host.

...but why stop there?

If a nut is a poison for the purpose of this mechanism of action, then what about other drugs/medications? After all, to quote one of my favorite sayings: "Healers and poisoners are folks with similar skill sets and wildly different philosophies." Or to put it as I learned it in my toxicology class in vet school: "All medicines are poisons at the right dose."

So if a nut can be a poison, then medications CERTAINLY are. And if the Bicha poison recognizes the nut as a poison and prevents it from acting, then we can assume it would do the same to any medications.

That explains why Medicine Demon's priceless potions DON'T WORK.

That explains why the snake bites DON'T WORK.

That explains why Guan Hemeng's medicines DON'T WORK.

It also explains why Li Lianua is so convinced that Fan Duobing's pill from Tianji Hall and Di Feisheng's Wangchuan Flower WON'T work.

Because once you've been poisoned by Bicha Poison, NO OTHER POISON WILL HARM YOU... or help you.

And taking that a step further, it means that every time Li LIanhua has been sick or injured or in need of pain medication in the past ten years, NONE OF IT WOULD HAVE WORKED. And considering how much more fragile he is now than he used to be, that absolutely breaks my heart.

Just imagine that every time he was ill or injured, he had to weight the benefits of using Yangzhouman to heal himself versus the risk of using too much and shrinking the time he had left even more. How many times must he have chosen to just power through and hope he makes it to the other side? No wonder he's so reluctant to let Guan Hemeng examine him and try to help. No wonder he doesn't want to waste everyone else's precious medications on himself. He knows they'll do nothing.

...excuse me while I go cry in a corner now. TT^TT

[willowcatkinblossom]

Oooh that is a super interesting idea about verdtea being lichen or algae! I totally did not know that they could produce epinephrine!

(Also please take everything I said about epi with a lot of salt because I'm in still in med school and I just learned these yesterday 😂 Some of Li Lianhua's symptoms do fit with the idea of too much epinephrine though. For example, epinephrine may be causing high blood pressure which can lead to headaches, heart palpitations, blurry vision, etc. but it is still kind of a stretch, sorry)

But I also did a quick search and it looks like there's a plant called Ephedra (麻黄 máhuáng) that has been used in Chinese medicine and produces ephedrine which is a sympathomimetic similar to epinephrine. But tbh the most interesting thing about the Bicha poison is like, why does it stick around for so long? And epinephrine definitely doesn't really fit in that case :(

There's also a lot of Li Lianhua's symptoms that make me think of some kind of chronic vascular (blood vessels) issue. When the poison flares up, it seems like he has some jugular vein distension (that scary vein thing happening on his neck) which can indicate heart failure? But also the coughing up blood makes me think esophageal varices (more scary veins but inside the esophagus) from portal hypertension (liver damage causing high pressure in veins and things get backed up). These two things happening together could also be caused by blood clots...maybe.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook | Lian Hua Lou | 莲花楼 | Episode 10

"Since you have been poisoned with the deadliest poison, no poison can harm you anymore." --Monk Wuliao

I've been thinking a lot about this line lately, and its potential repercussions. In context, this is Li Lianhua remembering Monk Wuliao's words from when he was healed as much as he could have been from the Bicha Poison 10 years ago. Shortly before these remembered words, there is a flashback wherein it is revealed that Li Xiangyi had a nut allergy that made him break out in hives. That bowl of food he's eating is a nut porridge brought to him by Yun Biqiu. (There are less dangerous ways to see if this person is your former sect leader, Biqiu! O_o;;;) Anyway, as he is eating this nut porridge, and remembering this line, Li Lianhua is distinctly NOT breaking out in hives.

The conclusion that we are clearly supposed to draw is that the Bicha Poison has prevented the "toxin" of the nuts from harming its host.

...but why stop there?

If a nut is a poison for the purpose of this mechanism of action, then what about other drugs/medications? After all, to quote one of my favorite sayings: "Healers and poisoners are folks with similar skill sets and wildly different philosophies." Or to put it as I learned it in my toxicology class in vet school: "All medicines are poisons at the right dose."

So if a nut can be a poison, then medications CERTAINLY are. And if the Bicha poison recognizes the nut as a poison and prevents it from acting, then we can assume it would do the same to any medications.

That explains why Medicine Demon's priceless potions DON'T WORK.

That explains why the snake bites DON'T WORK.

That explains why Guan Hemeng's medicines DON'T WORK.

It also explains why Li Lianua is so convinced that Fan Duobing's pill from Tianji Hall and Di Feisheng's Wangchuan Flower WON'T work.

Because once you've been poisoned by Bicha Poison, NO OTHER POISON WILL HARM YOU... or help you.

And taking that a step further, it means that every time Li LIanhua has been sick or injured or in need of pain medication in the past ten years, NONE OF IT WOULD HAVE WORKED. And considering how much more fragile he is now than he used to be, that absolutely breaks my heart.

Just imagine that every time he was ill or injured, he had to weight the benefits of using Yangzhouman to heal himself versus the risk of using too much and shrinking the time he had left even more. How many times must he have chosen to just power through and hope he makes it to the other side? No wonder he's so reluctant to let Guan Hemeng examine him and try to help. No wonder he doesn't want to waste everyone else's precious medications on himself. He knows they'll do nothing.

...excuse me while I go cry in a corner now. TT^TT