She entered the hall with familiarity, passed the glass screen depicting the Longevity Sea House Adding Stakes, and stood beside the life-sized Three Stars of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity Immortal Mountain Pine and Bamboo Bonsai. A voice reached her ears…
“It has been confirmed that the maid who tampered with the eldest lady’s teacup has a cousin whose mother’s sister once served Madam Wang.
The medicine in the teacup was of imperial origin, specifically developed by the Imperial Medical Academy for the young imperial grandsons.
When Madam Wang’s nephew was young, he had a poor appetite, couldn’t eat, and detested the taste of medicine. Madam Wang’s brother obtained appetite-stimulating medicine from the Imperial Medical Academy for the child to take.
Last year, Madam Wang’s brother acquired more of the medicine, but strangely, none of Madam Wang’s nephews or nieces took this appetite stimulant due to poor appetite.
Yet this past January, Madam Wang’s brother went to the Imperial Medical Academy again to buy appetite-stimulating medicine for a child.”
In the inner room of the Hall of Peaceful Longevity, Old Man Yan Tang stood before the Marquis, rambling on about what he had uncovered.
He cautiously observed the Marquis’s expression, hesitating whether to continue. The earlier information wasn’t particularly serious, but what followed was the crucial part—he feared it might aggravate the Marquis’s condition!
“Speak!
What storms and waves haven’t I weathered? This old bones can still endure it.” The Marquis half-closed his eyes, urging Old Man Yan Tang to continue.
Swallow Holding Branch pricked up her ears, preparing to listen intently, when suddenly there was movement behind her. She turned to see her own father crouching stealthily behind her, peering around.
Yan Tingbai made a “shush” gesture to his eldest daughter, and the two of them stretched their ears in unison, eager to hear what Old Man Yan Tang would say next.
“After the eldest lady was diagnosed with a pregnancy pulse this year, she arranged for the two midwives who had previously delivered her children to live in a residence under her name.
We investigated these two midwives and found nothing particularly unusual about them on the surface. However, their family members left the capital one after another under various pretexts and have not returned to this day.
We questioned the neighbors of these two households and discovered that Zhou Quanjia from Madam Wang’s side had contacted them.
Because Zhou Quanjia has a large mole on her chin, the neighbors remembered her quite vividly.
They said that after Zhou Quanjia contacted the midwives’ families, the families seemed to have quietly come into a fortune, as they left by oxcart.
The areas where their relatives lived were not paved with bluestone slabs—the muddy roads left deep footprints with every step.
When the midwives’ families departed, the oxcarts they rode in left deep wheel ruts in the road.
Strangely, when they left, the adults walked alongside the carts, while the children and two or three bundles rode inside.
The muddy road was pressed so deeply that the midwives’ neighbors speculated they must have hidden gold, silver, or jewels, which would explain the unusual weight.”
Old Man Yan Tang grew increasingly cautious as he spoke this part. Although there was no direct evidence, the more suspicious it seemed, the more it suggested Madam Wang’s ill intentions.
The Marquis’s hand on the bedding involuntarily clenched. After a moment of silence, he spoke again, “Continue.”
“We also found that every time Doctor Xu examined the eldest lady’s pulse and prescribed medicine, Zhou Quanjia would subsequently fall ill.
Then she would go to Sunny Spring Hall where Doctor Xu practiced, and coincidentally, it was always Doctor Xu who treated Zhou Quanjia. After taking her pulse and prescribing medicine, not a trace of medicinal scent could be detected in Zhou Quanjia’s home.
The two adopted daughters who worked for Zhou Quanjia had complained, saying their foster mother often rewarded them with dried hawthorn berries. These didn’t fill their stomachs—in fact, the more they ate, the hungrier they felt. They truly couldn’t understand why their foster mother brought back so much hawthorn from the pharmacy.
Apart from this, Zhou Quanjia also kept two young, delicate, and very beautiful girls.
We investigated and found that both were from impoverished families—either with sickly parents or young siblings to support—and had no choice but to sell themselves.
After Zhou Quanjia bought them, she didn’t make them work. Instead, she kept them well-fed and cared for in their rooms.
Moreover, the parents and families of both girls moved away afterward and disappeared without a trace.
But we discovered that the two girls knew where their parents and relatives were and still maintained contact with them.
Following this lead, we found that the parents and relatives of both girls were living comfortably on the estate of Madam’s sister-in-law from her maiden family.”
At this point, Yan Tang’s father fell silent. Although the evidence seemed speculative, when coincidences piled up, they were no longer mere coincidences.
Madam Wang indeed harbored ambitions for the eldest branch’s title and intended to do something to the pregnant eldest daughter-in-law.
Yan Tang’s father dared not dwell on it, but the Marquis did!
Since Wang Shi had acted, her intentions couldn’t be as simple as merely eliminating the eldest branch’s bloodline. In this world, people come and go, all driven by profit.
Wang Shi and the second branch’s motives were not hard to guess—what they wanted was the title of the Jingyuan Marquisate.
With this goal in mind, killing a fetus or the eldest daughter-in-law wouldn’t directly lead to the title changing hands.
But if the eldest son, while in mourning or after his wife’s death, committed some wrongdoing—such as impregnating a maid during the mourning period or violating his mother’s maidservant—it wasn’t impossible for the title to be transferred.
After all, Wang Shi’s maiden family was not insignificant, and helping her own nephew ascend to the position of Jingyuan Marquis was within their means.
The Marquis felt a throbbing pain in his head, his vision twisting and spinning before him, and a persistent buzzing filled his ears.
Seeing the Marquis’s pale complexion, Yan Tang’s father panicked: “Master!”
Swallow Holding Branch also paled and, forgetting to hide, rushed forward to check. But Yan Tingbai behind her moved faster. He darted into the inner chamber, went straight to the bedside, and pulled open the drawer of the small table beside the bed with practiced ease, retrieving a small porcelain bottle.
Yan Tingbai poured out two pills, dropped them into a cup, dissolved them in warm water, and worked with Yan Tang’s father to force the medicine down the Marquis’s throat.
Swallow Holding Branch turned and ran out of the Hall of Peaceful Longevity. Her short legs carried her through the covered walkway and past the moon gate, until she reached the main hall of Cloud-Grasping Pavilion, where she found Madam Bai checking tally tokens: “Mother, doctor, Grandfather sick.”
Swallow Holding Branch gasped for breath, her words coming out in short bursts, but Madam Bai understood. She immediately sent Fu Quan to fetch a doctor and hurried to the Hall of Peaceful Longevity with Nanny Li in tow.
Swallow Holding Branch followed closely behind, returning to her grandfather’s inner chamber, only to find the old man had already recovered somewhat. He waved his hand, signaling his eldest son and daughter-in-law not to make a fuss:
“I’m fine. If the imperial physician’s medicine is useless, a folk doctor will be even less effective.”
The Marquis gasped for breath, his expression utterly weary. Suddenly learning of the schemes of his wife and second son, even after having weathered countless storms, he could not help but feel distressed and sorrowful over the strife between his own flesh and blood.
The Marquis turned to look at his eldest son and daughter-in-law, who were filled with concern: “You two go back. I won’t be dying just yet.”
How could he dare to die before cleaning up this mess?
“Then, Father, rest well. We’ll take our leave now.” Yan Tingbai, along with his wife and child, bowed to the old man before departing.
Swallow Holding Branch, held in his father’s arms, turned to look at the old man. Now that he knew the truth, what would he do?
Yes, what should be done?
The Marquis was also pondering what to do.
Both were his own flesh and blood. No matter how despicable or inhuman his second son was, he was still his own child. It was his own failure as a father to have raised him poorly. If there was any fault, it lay with him first.
He could not completely abandon the second branch for the sake of the eldest son, nor could he condone the wicked deeds of Wang Shi and his second son. He had to find a perfect solution.
The old man sank into deep worry, lost in thought.