Yuanbao blinked. When did the young miss learn how to draw talismans?
“Third Master! The ancestral hall is on fire!” Mu Si rushed back in a panic.
Shen Yunhuai’s face darkened as he stared at the blaze. “Do I not have eyes?!”
So what his sister-in-law meant by “prevent fire”… was literally fire prevention.
Mu Si shrank his neck. “Madam and Steward Lin are still in the ancestral hall.”
“Dead?”
“No…” Mu Si recalled what he had seen, his expression twisting as if he had swallowed something disgusting. “Madam and Steward Lin escaped… they… they—”
“Spit it out!”
“They were acting indecently together!” Mu Si blurted out, unusually articulate for once.
“What did you say?!”
“I saw it with my own eyes. I wouldn’t dare lie to Third Master.” Mu Si dropped to his knees, voice firm.
Shen Yunhuai’s face turned ashen. He strode forward. “To the ancestral hall.”
The marquis’s residence had many people, so the fire was quickly brought under control.
It did not spread further.
By the time Shen Yunhuai arrived, Madam Meng was covered in soot, trembling in shock, while Steward Lin supported her.
“Mother, what were you and the steward doing in the ancestral hall? Why did the fire suddenly start?”
Madam Meng’s legs went weak as she cried. “I was offering incense to your father, I don’t know how it suddenly… suddenly caught fire! It must be Wen Jiushu’s filthy deeds angering the Shen ancestors. Yunhuai, we cannot keep her in this household—she will disturb the ancestors and bring chaos to the family!”
Her clothes were disheveled.
Wasn’t it you who was doing indecent things that angered the ancestors?
Shen Yunhuai’s gaze turned deep and cold. “Mother, why is your head injured? And why does Steward Lin’s face look like he was beaten?”
Madam Meng trembled.
Guilty and flustered.
Just moments ago, she and her cousin had been in the heat of passion. Who would’ve thought… who would’ve thought the old Marquis’s ancestral tablet would suddenly fall and smash into them?
She had been struck until her head bled, and her cousin’s face looked as if it had been slapped repeatedly, swollen and bruised.
It was truly bizarre!
Normally, when they were intimate in the ancestral hall, she would only feel nervous—but today, she was genuinely terrified.
Even her cousin had gone soft from fear.
Then, for reasons unknown, a strange wind blew through, toppling the candlestick and setting the ancestral hall on fire.
The two of them hurriedly pulled up their clothes in panic, nearly getting trapped inside.
“I saw the fire and tried to protect your father’s tablet, I accidentally hit my head—it’s just a small injury, nothing serious. Yunhuai, don’t worry. It’s just your father’s spirit tablet…”
Madam Meng was still shaken. From now on, she would never let her cousin fool around in the ancestral hall again…
Perhaps the Shen ancestors truly were watching them!
Shen Yunhuai let out a cold laugh.
If it were before, he would have believed her—and even been moved, thinking his stepmother risked her life for his father’s spirit tablet.
But now?
He wasn’t stupid anymore.
“So Mother means… Father’s spirit tablet wasn’t saved?” he asked flatly.
Madam Meng frowned.
In the past, Shen Yunhuai would only care whether she was injured. She had raised him like a dog—obedient and easy to control.
So why did it now feel like the dog was about to bite back?
“Third Master,” Steward Lin interjected smoothly, “the ancestral hall was full of flammable items, which fueled the fire. It spread too quickly. I did my best to stop it—please don’t blame Madam. She is also heartbroken.”
Shen Yunhuai glanced at him. “Steward Lin is quite… devoted.”
His tone was laced with mockery.
The kind of “devoted” that was clearly sarcastic.
You two defiled the ancestors and dirtied the ancestral hall—it deserved to burn.
Madam Meng forced out a few tears. “It’s all my fault… I failed as a stepmother and allowed your elder brother to marry such an improper woman. The ancestors are blaming me…”
“What does this have to do with Sister-in-law?” Shen Yunhuai said coldly. “She wasn’t even in the ancestral hall.”
You committed the act yourselves and angered the ancestors—yet still want to smear her name?