When Du Xueyi married Lady Fang, he intended to spend his life well with her.
The fifteen-year-old bride shyly leaned into his embrace, her slender waist so delicate it seemed it might break with a little force.
Pitying her youth, he drank the Bizi Tang before each intimate encounter, planning to wait until she was a bit older in a couple of years before having children.
He never expected to be sent to war just two months after their marriage, nor did he anticipate that Lady Fang would become pregnant.
He never suspected any wrongdoing on her part, simply assuming that the physician who prescribed the medicine was incompetent and that the decoction had failed to prevent conception.
While he felt sorry for Lady Fang having to become a mother at such a young age, he also hoped the war would end soon so he could return home to see his wife and child.
But what he awaited was Lady Fang’s betrayal.
If he had taken the Bizi Tang, could the child she conceived still be his?
Lady Fang’s maid gave him the answer: Lady Fang had been involved with that man even before he went to war.
With immense restraint, he convinced himself that the child was innocent.
Yet, the more he had looked forward to meeting his daughter before, the more he resisted the child after learning the truth. The most he could do was allow her to grow up in the mansion.
As for seeing her—that was naturally out of the question.
But he never imagined the child would be abused.
Her thin arms were covered with dense needle marks, her back crisscrossed with whip scars, and her watery eyes filled with fear and unease.
At his slightest touch, her small body trembled and shrank away.
“Guards, drag this wretched servant out and interrogate her thoroughly—who gave her the audacity to abuse her mistress?” Du Xueyi had no experience dealing with children, so he turned and kicked the old nanny instead.
His face was cold with murderous intent.
The previous wet nurse who cared for the child had died, and this old nanny had just been brought in, yet the needle marks on the child’s arms were fresh.
He hated Lady Fang, but he could not tolerate these lowly creatures bullying a child right under his nose.
“Spare me, Marquis!” The old nanny broke into a cold sweat, terrified. How could she have expected that the Marquis, who had returned half a year ago and never paid any attention to the young mistress, would suddenly appear here?
The guards obeyed and dragged her out.
Soon, the old nanny’s shrill screams echoed from outside. The child, already huddled in a ball, grew even more terrified.
“Don’t be afraid.” Wei Qingyan, who had come with Du Xueyi, crouched before the child and gently stroked her cheek.
“It’s all over now. No one will dare bully you from now on. Your father will protect you, and your aunt… will protect you too.”
Her voice was so gentle that the child’s guarded expression softened slightly.
Bending down, Wei Qingyan lifted the child, resting her small head against her shoulder. She gently stroked the back of the child’s neck, and the little one, who had been too afraid to cry, let out a soft whimper like a small animal.
Since her mother’s death, she had never been held so tenderly.
Du Xueyi’s expression darkened.
The whip marks on the child’s back forced him to believe that the scene Wei Qingyan had shown him earlier was real, however unbelievable it seemed.
Then, that scene with Lady Fang… must also be true!
She did not hang herself—she was strangled by her maid and the old nanny from the grandmother’s courtyard, working together.
His grandmother had deceived him!
But in a family like theirs, what chance of survival did Lady Fang have after committing such an act?
His grandmother had always valued the family’s reputation more than life itself.
He closed his eyes, glanced at the child nestled in Chang Qingnian’s arms, and said quietly, “If what you say is true, then everything that has happened in this mansion is connected to her Yuanqi.”
If she eloped with someone first, then even if Grandmother ordered her to be dealt with, it was her own fault. What grievance could she possibly have?
I was negligent with this child before, and such things will not happen again in the future. But my greatest mercy only extends to letting her grow up in the manor.”
He didn’t care whether Chang Qingnian’s visit was truly due to the entrustment of Lady Fang’s ghost or if she was using the pretext of ghosts and spirits to express grievances on Lady Fang’s behalf.
He hoped this matter would end here.
Upon hearing these words, Wei Qingyan turned to look at Du Xueyi. The gentleness on her face vanished in an instant, replaced by icy coldness in her eyes. In a flash, she shifted her position and appeared behind Du Xueyi, kicking him in the back of the knee.
Caught off guard, Du Xueyi fell to his knees with a thud. Just as he was about to flare up in anger, he heard the woman say,
“You said that if it were a daughter, you would hold her in the palm of your hand, give her the best of everything in this world, and ensure she would only laugh with joy in this lifetime, never shedding a single tear from grievance.
You said that while away on campaigns, you couldn’t witness her birth, but upon returning home, you would accompany her every day as she grew up. Is this… how you kept your word?”
In Lady Fang’s letters to Du Xueyi, she spoke most often of the child.
Du Xueyi often boasted about it in front of her and even demanded a set of golden bowls and chopsticks from her, forcibly making her the child’s “godfather.”
After killing Wu Yuchu, she had originally planned to come find Du Xueyi today. Unexpectedly, upon returning to the inn, the room was shrouded in Yuanqi—it turned out to be Lady Fang.
Three years ago, when she awoke, her eyes gained the ability to see things ordinary people could not, and she took on a new duty: to redress the grievances of the wrongfully dead and guide them into Lunhui.
But she never expected that the child Du Xueyi once described as a glutinous rice ball would be harmed to such an extent, nor did she expect Du Xueyi to be so foolish.
But she is not my child.
Du Xueyi roared inwardly, but in the end, he didn’t voice these words.
Then, he realized something and abruptly looked up, his mind buzzing.
These words—he had only ever spoken them to the General.
“Who are you?”
Why did she know about Yulan Shan?
Why did she know what he had said to the General?
Why did her tone of reprimand sound so similar to the General’s?
Seeing that he was still fixated on her identity rather than the grievances of the child and Lady Fang, Wei Qingyan’s anger surged. She kicked him again, sending him sprawling to the ground.
“When did I teach you to be so foolish? Believing one-sided words and jumping to conclusions without seeking verification.
If only you would set aside your prejudice and calmly think it through, you would find this matter full of suspicious points. If only you had taken a proper look at the child, you would see how much she resembles you in your childhood.
Du Xueyi, have these years of peaceful living fed your brains to the dogs?”
Disappointment flickered in Wei Qingyan’s eyes. “I will take the child to Fengxiao Yuan to settle her first. I give you half a day to uncover the truth, then come see me.”
The child resembles him?
He hadn’t looked closely earlier. Now, wanting to see again, he found the child’s face nestled in the woman’s embrace as she carried her out of the room.
Why could someone visiting for the first time so naturally mention Fengxiao Yuan? That courtyard was where the General used to hide as a child to escape the strict Lady Wei.
She said this matter was full of suspicious points, and he had jumped to conclusions without seeking verification.
His initial anticipation had been replaced by anger over Lady Fang’s betrayal, and he had been unwilling to even mention it—how could he have investigated?
Now, thinking back, how credible were the words of a maidservant who had killed her mistress?
One huge wave after another crashed over Du Xueyi’s heart.
Shock, joy, anger, fear—all these emotions surged through him at once, leaving him unsure of what expression to wear.
He truly needed to investigate this properly.
He rose from the ground and saw a guard approaching to report, “Lord Marquis, the old woman has confessed, saying she was instructed by the young mistress.”
Wei Qingyan, who was walking into the courtyard, paused slightly.
When did Anyuan Houfu gain a young mistress?
The small body in his arms trembled uncontrollably upon hearing the guard’s words. Wei Qingyan held her tighter and looked up at the sky.
In a place invisible to ordinary eyes, a mass of black energy intertwined and coiled, expanding larger and larger, as if about to devour the entire marquis’s residence. Within the black energy, a trace of blood-red color eventually materialized.
Wei Qingyan’s heart sank, and he strode toward Fengxiao Yuan with the child in his arms.