At the thought of these things, the confidence in Mrs. Chen’s heart could not help but grow once more. Rolling her eyes in a clever scheme, she added: “The entire Huo Manor was put under house arrest all because of the eldest branch! I haven’t come demanding money and property from you, yet you turn around and fabricate nonsensical lies to dump a basin of slops over the third branch’s head, even wanting to snatch our life-saving grain—your intentions are truly deserving of death!
Setting everything else aside, I truly feel it was not worth it for Kai’er! At fourteen, he became the top candidate personally handpicked by His Majesty! His official career was originally looking bright and grand, and he was on the verge of soaring to meteoric heights, only to be ruined like this by your eldest branch!”
The moment Yin Weiyue heard this, she instantly understood that Mrs. Chen simply did not want to part with her riches and was intentionally steering the topic away, attempting to use Huo Kai’s future to morally blackmail the whole eldest branch family. That way, the eldest branch would be trapped in endless guilt and self-blame, leaving them too ashamed to ask for those money and items.
However, her words actually held a bit of truth; in the original book, the male and female leads were indeed crafted quite well.
When Yin Weiyue read the book, she was looking from a omniscient God’s perspective: the male lead was handsome, proficient in both civil and military arts, and exceptionally devoted; the female lead was beautiful, captivating, wise, and decisive, neither a saintly white lotus nor a Mary Sue. In the first ten chapters, the two had no major plot landmines, and their characterizations held up solidly; back then, she had even been a fan of their romantic pairing.
It was just that the male and female leads in the book were relatively smooth-sailing, capable of finding life even in desperate situations. Meanwhile, the eldest branch was truly tragic and miserable: in the content of the first ten chapters, the people on the eldest branch’s side died like dumplings tumbling into a pot, scrambling to leap into the boiling water one after another.
When Yin Weiyue read the book back then, her emotional bias had favored the eldest branch. Now that she herself had become a member of the eldest branch, and right at the heat of an argument where reason was hardest to control, she naturally extended her distaste to everything associated with the third branch.
If anyone was to blame, it could only be blamed on the male lead for having a mother who brought so much hatred upon herself.
“Huo Kai being able to become the top scholar at fourteen was entirely because my Seventh Brother didn’t go to take the exam! Although Seventh Brother isn’t versed in the martial arts, he was publicly recognized in the imperial capital as a grand genius, a full year younger than Huo Kai!
Back then, Seventh Brother and Huo Kai sat for the imperial exams at the same time, winning top honors back-to-back in both the provincial and metropolitan examinations, with your precious Kai’er ranking after him! Three years ago, before the Palace Examination began, the imperial court dispatched uniform scholar robes for the candidates to meet the Emperor. According to the rules of the Marquis Manor, they should have been received by the manor’s needlework department and distributed to the young masters who were taking the exam.
Yet on that day, Third Aunt dispatched your trusted confidante Nanny Song early in the morning to wait outside the main gate, taking away all the scholar robes directly, and only returning Seventh Brother’s and Second Branch’s Huo Qiu’s to the needlework department after a day and a night had passed.
After my Seventh Brother tried on the robe, he developed a fever and headache that very night, nearly dying! By the time the fever subsided three days later, dense and terrifying red rashes had broken out all over his face and body. Fearing he would offend the Imperial Countenance, he had no choice but to report sick and miss the opportunity! During those few days, the eldest branch was thrown into utter chaos, and no one noticed that the scholar robe had been quietly taken away. After disappearing for two days, it was washed clean and secretly returned to Seventh Brother’s room.”
Yin Weiyue’s words shocked everyone present.
Mrs. He and Mrs. Su knew about the matter of their brother-in-law falling ill and missing the imperial examination that year; back then, they had thought it was an accident and felt pity for him one after another, never expecting it to be connected to Mrs. Chen again.
“Third Aunt, for the sake of Fifth Brother’s academic fame, you actually had the heart to kill my Seventh Brother?!” Huo Wanying was far more direct than her two sisters-in-law. It was not that she was too impulsive, but rather that her heart ached so much for Huo Jun—during that illness back then, he had nearly lost his life.
“Fourth Sister!” Huo Dong was faint-hearted; hearing that Third Aunt wanted to kill Seventh Brother, he hid behind Huo Wanying’s back in fright.
However, the person with the biggest reaction on the scene was Mrs. Chen. The moment Yin Weiyue spoke those words, she could no longer control the trembling of her hands. Back then, she had believed she had performed this deed seamlessly without a single flaw, so much so that even Huo Anjiang failed to investigate anything out, and the whole family took it as an accident.
Back then, Mrs. Yin hadn’t even married into the family yet, so how on earth did she know?
At this moment, Mrs. Chen wished she could slap herself across the face. Originally, she had wanted to use the eldest branch’s shortfalls to coerce them, making them feel self-blame and guilt so they would voluntarily give up that half of the wealth; who knew that with just a few sentences, she had dug a huge pit for herself again.
“Nonsense! I didn’t harm him! My Kai’er is brimming with talent and immensely learned, so why would he need to scheme against him?! That was just Huo Jun’s own bad luck, and he can’t blame anyone else!”
Yin Weiyue nodded: “Yes, indeed he had bad luck to be burdened with a Third Aunt like you, who was heartless enough to soak his robe in venom extracted from the tentacles of a box jellyfish! The imperial capital doesn’t sit on the coast, so nobody in the family knew of such a villainous method. Moreover, these symptoms resemble several kinds of diseases, and the scholar robe had long been washed clean. Even if that doctor were a divine physician, it would have been impossible to pinpoint it with certainty!”
“You’re framing me! Back then, Nanny Song did collect all three scholar robes together, but that was because she was devoted to her master and anxious to deliver it to Kai’er! Who knew that after coming out of Kai’er’s courtyard, she was delayed by some matters, which was why the remaining two robes were delivered to the needlework department a day and a night late! Besides, Nanny Song was also late in delivering Huo Qiu’s robe—how come nothing happened to him?”
“Then I must truly congratulate Huo Qiu for lacking the ability to pass into the top rank, failing to catch your eye, and thus escaping a calamity.”
By the time the conversation reached this point, the color on Mrs. Chen’s face was even more volatile than the rainbows Yin Weiyue had seen in the mountain valleys in her past life. No matter what she said, she was shut down cleanly, crisply, and logically by Yin Weiyue. She hit a wall at every turn, so enraged that she was on the verge of exploding on the spot.
However, Mrs. Chen was nearly fifty years old after all, and her sanity quickly returned. The flustered look on her face gradually receded, and she then unhurriedly patted the dust off her clothes: “Hmph, you little wretched woman, I know why you’re framing me.”
She steadied her mind, shifted her tone, and replied coldly: “Isn’t it just because you seduced my son today, but he rejected you, so in your shame and anger, you wanted to retaliate against us? Although your father is a noble cabinet minister and you are a legitimate daughter, my son would rather marry the daughter of a humble sixth-rank local official in the capital than want you!”
Yin Weiyue smiled without taking up the bait. Mrs. Chen wanted to provoke her into a rage to gloss over the poisoning incident, but unfortunately, she was not the original owner. Thus, she precisely directed the spearhead back again: “Third Aunt, I thought you would ask how I came to know about such a mad, inhumane deed of yours when I hadn’t even married into the Huo family back then.”
“You, you, you…” Such straightforward words struck Mrs. Chen’s back like a sledgehammer taken completely off guard. Pointing at Yin Weiyue, she trembled all over with anger, repeating “you” for a long time without being able to utter any other words.
Yin Weiyue continued: “I heard that Third Aunt’s birth mother’s maiden family resides right along the coast, where box jellyfish can be seen everywhere in the sea. Their tentacles are venomous, a fact known to every household among the coastal residents. I also heard that Magistrate Liu Fang of Haizhou ought to call you ‘Maternal Aunt’ by seniority. Three years ago, when the Palace Examination was imminent, the Emperor had not summoned local officials, yet he came to the capital.
Originally, since Liu Fang was your relative, meeting with you after arriving in the capital was a normal affair. But what was abnormal was that he didn’t send a visit card to the Marquis Manor to pay his respects, but instead met with you secretively at Lülin Alley. Why was that?”
Having said this, Yin Weiyue gave a gentle, mysterious smile.
“Although that Liu Fang didn’t come to the Marquis Manor, on the day after meeting you, he went to my maiden family’s residence to pay his respects to my father, and they even spoke in the study for over an hour. Does Third Aunt know about this?”
In fact, Liu Fang had never been to the Yin residence in the book. Yin Weiyue had intentionally tricked Mrs. Chen only to better explain how she knew about the poisoning. At any rate, local officials would travel to the capital every three years to report on their duties, and since Liu Fang and the original owner’s father served as officials in the same court, having interactions was not surprising at all.
Hearing this, Mrs. Chen trembled all over, her eyes filled with utter disbelief.
Yin Weiyue dealt another blow: “That Magistrate Liu was utterly incapable of keeping a secret. Over that half-kilo of jellyfish venom, he was constantly on edge, wishing he could write ‘I am guilty’ right across his face. My father merely questioned him slightly, and he couldn’t hold it in, spilling everything completely. And I just happened to hear it all crystal clear outside the study.
Back then, my heart favored Huo Kai, so I was naturally willing to see his name listed on the gold board. Thus, I stopped my father from reporting this matter to the court. Now, however, you repeatedly bring up his becoming top scholar at fourteen to poke the hearts of our eldest branch! I’d like to ask: my Seventh Brother’s thirteen-year-old top scholar title was ruined by your third branch, and he nearly lost his life—how are you going to compensate for that?”
“You wicked creature!”
Just as Yin Weiyue finished speaking, she heard the hurried “thump, thump, thump” sound of a walking stick knocking against the ground. Looking up, she saw First Mrs. Feng supporting the Old Mrs., standing right at the moon gate outside the courtyard.