Swallow Holding Branch’s words were abrupt and confusing, leaving the listeners baffled. The Marquis clearly sensed something amiss—medicine, after all, carried some degree of toxicity, so how could one take it every day?
Moreover, since his eldest daughter-in-law was with child, anything she consumed had to be handled with extreme caution.
Yan Tingbai’s expression darkened. As a husband, he knew his wife Madam Bai’s condition best. A healthy person wouldn’t take medicine unless…
The Marquis lowered his voice further. “Oh, where did Sister Yuan hear Grandmother say that?”
Swallow Holding Branch shook her head, doing her best to act like a three-year-old child. “I was playing hide-and-seek and overheard it secretly. Grandmother was… whispering!”
For a child, life revolved around eating and playing, and hide-and-seek was likely her favorite game at three. Otherwise, the maids attending to her wouldn’t have habitually coaxed her with phrases like, “Once Sister is better, we’ll play hide-and-seek again, alright?”
A child’s small stature meant she could easily hide in some nook or cranny and accidentally overhear a little secret, right?
As for where she heard it—she was just a child, and she had been ill. How could she possibly remember everything clearly?
Right?
“Why does Sister Yuan think taking medicine means Grandmother is good?” the Marquis continued to ask.
“Mother says, medicine bitter, but good.” Swallow Holding Branch wanted to say “good medicine tastes bitter but cures illness,” but she wasn’t yet speaking fluently and often stumbled over her words, forcing her to phrase it this way.
Both the Marquis and Yan Tingbai understood her meaning. Madam Bai had likely said “good medicine tastes bitter but cures illness” to coax the child into taking medicine when she was sick.
But the child only half-understood, thinking that since Madam Wang was giving Madam Bai fetal-protecting medicine, it meant Madam Wang was being good to Madam Bai!
So that meant Madam Wang was good!
“Father, Guirou isn’t ill, and the pregnancy is stable,” Yan Tingbai said with a grim expression. This was no longer a hint but a clear indication that Madam Wang intended harm toward Madam Bai.
The Marquis didn’t change his expression but instead coaxed Swallow Holding Branch, hoping she would reveal more of what she had overheard.
Swallow Holding Branch tilted her head and deliberately spoke in a disjointed manner, pausing between phrases. “Grandmother says give Mother medicine every day… nourish, belly big, good for baby.”
Yan Tingbai’s expression not only darkened but turned almost black. Even without medical knowledge, he knew that an overly large baby would be difficult to deliver.
Deliberately using fetal-protecting medicine to enlarge Madam Bai’s fetus—Yan Tingbai simply couldn’t believe his stepmother had done this unintentionally. If it were unintentional, why hadn’t she done the same for his sister-in-law? After all, both daughters-in-law were pregnant, and his sister-in-law was her own niece, wasn’t she?
How could she show such favoritism?
“Grandfather, why doesn’t Grandmother eat melon?” Swallow Holding Branch’s words once again left the father and son bewildered. What did this mean?
“How did Grandmother say she wouldn’t eat melon? Sister Yuan, think carefully, alright?” The Marquis patiently coaxed the child, sensing that Wang Shi’s words couldn’t be so random—this “melon” likely had something to do with “taking medicine.”
“Grandmother says, wait till October, melon ripe, falls off. Keep covering it, won’t come out, even good ones will rot.”
After speaking, Swallow Holding Branch pretended innocence and looked at her grandfather. “Grandfather, why does Grandmother cover the melon? If she doesn’t eat it, why doesn’t she give it to someone else?”
Swallow Holding Branch’s words were muddled, but the Marquis was no ordinary man. He immediately guessed what Madam Wang’s original words had been.
It seems they intended to give the eldest daughter-in-law fetal-protecting medicine to forcibly enlarge the fetus. A larger fetus is already difficult to deliver, and if something were tampered with when the time came for the birth, preventing the child from coming out…
Childbirth itself is already a perilous ordeal, and with such delays, it would be a miracle if both mother and child survived.
Madam Wang hadn’t stated it so explicitly, which was why the child had misunderstood.
Yan Tingbai, who was present, snapped back to reality, trembling with anger as he looked at his own father. “Father, what do you have to say about this?”
If justice wasn’t served for the eldest branch, he wouldn’t stand for it.
The Marquis turned and glared at his son. Getting worked up over every little thing, so impatient—how would he ever be fit to take charge in the future?
The Marquis thought he should confirm the details again to avoid misunderstanding Madam Wang. He turned and half-embraced Swallow Holding Branch. “Sister Yuan, did Grandmother say she wanted to give your mother fetal-protecting medicine every day? And when the time was ripe, to cover it up and not let it come out, letting it rot sooner or later? Is that what she said?”
“Yes, yes,” Swallow Holding Branch nodded, then added coquettishly, “Grandfather, don’t let the melon rot. I love eating melons. Can you give it to me?”
The Marquis and Yan Tingbai fell silent. They couldn’t explain to a three-year-old child that this “melon” wasn’t the kind you could eat—it was alive.
Swallow Holding Branch, of course, understood perfectly. She said this purely to wound their hearts. The bloodline they cherished so dearly, an unborn child, was nothing more than a disposable “melon” in Madam Wang’s eyes.
How would the Marquis and Yan Tingbai feel about that? How could they not?
Of course, they had to get to the bottom of the truth.
They believed Swallow Holding Branch’s words, after all. How could a three-year-old child fabricate such a story on her own if she hadn’t heard an adult say it? And with such logical reasoning and coherence, no less.
In reality, these words were indeed made up by Swallow Holding Branch on the spot. Unable to speak openly to her parents about her past life, she could only use this method to warn them to be wary of Madam Wang and the second branch.
Swallow Holding Branch didn’t know whether Madam Wang had discussed these matters with others. However, thanks to her ten years of drifting as a spirit in the mansion in her past life, she was very familiar with some of Madam Wang’s tactics.
The plot by the second branch and Madam Wang to cause her birth mother’s death along with the unborn child was definitely not a spur-of-the-moment idea. Madam Wang wasn’t the type to act recklessly in the heat of the moment. She was exceptionally skilled at slowly scheming, quietly achieving her goals without drawing attention.
Swallow Holding Branch’s mother, Bai Guirou, was no daughter of an obscure, low-ranking family. She came from a collateral branch of a prestigious scholarly clan and had her own family backing her. If something were to happen to her suddenly or if her death seemed suspicious, the Bai family would undoubtedly become suspicious and investigate the cause. The Bai family wouldn’t let their daughter die in vain.
That was why Madam Wang and the second branch devised the plan to make her mother’s death appear as a result of difficult childbirth. But such things couldn’t be accomplished overnight. How to discreetly enlarge the fetus, how to replace labor-inducing medicine with fetal-protecting medicine—all of this required bribing the midwife and the doctor who prescribed the medicine. They also had to quickly eliminate the evidence afterward, solidifying the narrative that her mother had died from difficult childbirth.
By killing the matriarch of the eldest branch, Madam Wang and the second branch aimed to tarnish Yan Tingbai’s reputation, make him infamous, cause the Bai family to shun this son-in-law, and leave him isolated and helpless, waiting for death.
Engaging in illicit relations with a maid before the spirit tablet—there must have been a young woman involved, and likely some mind-altering drug as well.
Such matters cannot be arranged overnight. Swallow Holding Branch believed that as long as Madam Wang and the second household had taken similar actions or exhibited suspicious behavior, it would be enough for the Marquis to investigate them thoroughly.
The old master was not only the head of the marquis’s household but had also served as a high-ranking official in the court before falling ill. His perspective would never be confined to the trivial affairs of the inner household, and his methods were far beyond what Madam Wang could match.
If the old master truly intended to investigate something, he would undoubtedly uncover some traces of evidence.