“You madwoman—a madwoman!”
Xie Yuyin stared in shock at the woman in the Citang, her dress stained with blood, her hair disheveled and face pale in the firelight.
She couldn’t help but shudder: “Shen Shuangyue, you dare burn my father’s memorial tablet—my eldest brother won’t spare you!”
“When has he ever spared me?”
Shen Shuangyue lifted her head in the firelight, her soft voice carrying a chill that made one tremble.
“Since I married into the Xie Jia, I have never slackened for even a moment. I honored my mother-in-law, treated my younger sister-in-law kindly, looked after everyone in this household—I would have carved flesh from my own bones to nourish them. Yet when have any of you ever shown me the slightest kindness?”
“Four years ago, I got what I deserved, so I bore no grudge against your cruelty. I caused my elder sister’s death and was willing to endure anything to ease my conscience. But Mother, was it truly I who took the Sunjia’s betrothal gifts?”
Her voice was not loud, yet it struck into people’s hearts like an axe and chisel, her gaze falling upon Xie Yuyin.
Those clear, cold eyes held no trace of emotion, yet they made Xie Yuyin tremble and involuntarily take half a step back.
“You—what nonsense are you spouting!” Xie Yuyin blustered, fierce in words but hollow inside.
Seeing this, Shen Shuangyue’s lips curled in mockery: “Whether it’s nonsense or not, you know better than I.”
She raised her eyes to look at Old Madame Xie.
“I don’t wish to pursue the Sunjia matter, nor ask where those things went. It’s nothing but another muddled affair like before. Whomever you wish to shield, Mother, I won’t dig into—but Mother should also understand.”
“Drive a dog into a dead end, and it will surely bite back.”
Old Madame Xie was so enraged her hands shook, and concealed within was a trace of barely hidden fear.
She had never been so offended by anyone. Even when Shen Wanyi was alive, she had been respectful and deferential to her—to say nothing of Shen Shuangyue, who for four years in the household had been timid and submissive in all things.
Yet now, facing that face, meeting those eyes calm as a deep pool, she felt a trace of wariness.
Old Madame Xie’s face darkened: “What exactly do you want?”
“I want the Shengyangdan.”
Old Madame Xie’s eyelids twitched as the voice came from within the Citang.
“A year ago, I obtained two life-saving pills for you, Mother. One was used to save your life; the other is still in your possession. I ask that you return it to me to save Jinque.”
Last summer, Old Madame Xie had suddenly fallen gravely ill. Every physician in the capital shook their heads, saying her life could not be prolonged. Even the Imperial Medical Academy merely told the Xie Jia to prepare funeral arrangements. It was Shen Shuangyue who, hearing that a divine physician in Feng’an possessed the power to bring the dead back to life, traveled a thousand li to reach him.
She exhausted every effort to obtain two spirit pills from the divine physician. By the time she rushed back to the capital, Old Madame Xie had only one breath left, and it was only after taking the medicine that she recovered.
Never had Old Madame Xie imagined that Shen Shuangyue would want to take the medicine back—and to save a lowly servant girl, no less. That was a life-saving treasure!
“If you merely wish to save Jinque, I can order the best physicians summoned for her…”
“I only want the Shengyangdan.”
Jinque’s bones had been broken by the caning, and she had lost too much blood. Even finding a physician might not save her life.
“But the Shengyangdan is not with me…”
“Is it truly not, or are you simply unwilling to part with it?”
Shen Shuangyue knew Old Madame Xie’s temperament all too well. Since that grave illness, she had been exceptionally protective of her life—even the slightest chill would send her seeking physicians and medicine, carefully nursing herself. That life-saving pill she always carried on her person, never even parted from it when she slept at night.
“It is said that after death, one’s soul passes into the Yellow Springs. Back then, the old Count overcame all objections to marry my mother, a concubine-born daughter of the Wei Family, and the two of you stood by each other for decades. Surely you would not wish for the old Count to find no peace in the world below.”
She held the memorial tablet close to the fire, her fingers scorched red by the flames, until even the tablet grew scalding hot.
Seeing Old Madame Xie’s grim expression yet continued hesitation to hand over the item, Shen Shuangyue’s lips curled into a mocking smile.
“It seems that in Mother’s eyes, the old Count counts for little indeed.”
She lifted her foot and kicked a cloth-wrapped piece of shrine wood into the fire. Countless sparks instantly flew up, and the flames surged fiercely, threatening to reach the high altar behind it. Shen Shuangyue, gripping the tablet in her hand, made as if to hurl it into the fire.
“Stop!!”
Old Madame Xie’s face was livid. She could disregard the dead, but she could not ignore the living.
Back then, she had been a concubine-born daughter of the Wei Family, held in little regard within the household. The Wei Family was not yet at the height of its power as it was now. The old Count had been ennobled for his military merits and was highly favored by the late Emperor—a prize in the eyes of every noble daughter in the capital. The position of his principal wife would never have fallen to a concubine-born daughter like her.
Yet the old Count had overcome all objections to marry her, and after she entered the household, he took only one concubine. Aside from her three children, he had only one son by that concubine.
Everyone in the capital knew how deeply the old Count had loved her. If she stood by today and let Shen Shuangyue burn the tablets and destroy the Bofu’s Citang, the Xie clan would never forgive her. Even Xie Huaizhi would resent her, and the good reputation she had built over so many years would be ruined in a single stroke.
“I’ll give it to you!”
Old Madame Xie tore the sachet from her waist and made to toss it to the burly servant woman beside her, but Shen Shuangyue stopped her: “I must trouble Mother to administer the medicine to Jinque personally.”
“You—”
Old Madame Xie glanced at Jinque, lying not far from Shen Shuangyue, so furious her chest ached. But things had gone too far; she could only lift her feet and walk into the Citang.
When she reached Jinque’s side, Old Madame Xie’s hands trembled as she took the life-saving elixir from the sachet. But Shen Shuangyue’s eyes never left her, so she forced down her heartache, poured out the perfectly preserved pill, and pushed it forcefully into Jinque’s blood-filled mouth.
The pill dissolved the moment it touched her tongue. Moments later, Jinque, who had all but stopped breathing, suddenly threw her head back and coughed violently.
There was blood in her mouth, and she moaned in agony, but her chest rose and fell with growing strength, and even her face, which had been whiter than paper moments before, regained a trace of color.
Shen Shuangyue wept for joy: “Jinque…”
Bang!!
A dark figure lunged at Shen Shuangyue from the corner of the Citang. She fell backward, slamming into the high altar, and the already teetering tablets atop it came crashing down in a clatter.
Mama Cen pinned Shen Shuangyue’s arms down and cried urgently, “Someone! Someone, come quickly!”
The crowd outside the Citang surged in. The tablet was snatched from Shen Shuangyue’s hands, and behind her, people scrambled to put out the fire and gather up the fallen tablets.
Old Madame Xie strode over and slapped Shen Shuangyue hard across the face: “You wretched slut!”
After being humiliated and frustrated all night, she was on the verge of exploding with rage, and the loss of that life-saving elixir made her want nothing more than to kill the woman before her.
Old Madame Xie’s face was full of fury: “What do you think you are? Nothing but a shameless woman who climbed into my son’s bed to marry into my Bofu. A lowly creature even your own family couldn’t tolerate—and you dare threaten me with burning down the Citang? Did it never occur to you that with this fire, I could take your life!”
Shen Shuangyue was pinned to the ground, unable to move, yet Old Madame Xie’s rage was still not appeased. She seized the hand that had just held the ancestral tablets and pressed it forcefully down onto the collapsed fire beside them.