“You know, you know… Hahaha, you actually said you knew…” Wang Yuyan laughed like a madwoman. “Father, you’re going to regret this.”
She pulled several sheets of paper from her robe and threw them at Wang Quan’an. “Father, read them yourself.”
Wang Quan’an did not even glance at them.
Wang Yuyan picked them up and raised the evidence in her hand. “Father, the year my mother died, Gao Shengmei brought Wang Chuning to you. She cried and told you that she couldn’t forget the bond you two had shared as childhood sweethearts, and that she had wept day after day. That was why, after her former husband died, she had left that wealthy merchant’s household and come looking for you.
“But what was the truth? She was dissatisfied with her lonely life and had an affair with the local magistrate. When her husband, who ran a flour shop, discovered them, she infuriated him to death. Only then was she driven out by her in-laws.”
Wang Yuyan advanced toward Wang Quan’an step by step. “Father, now that Mother is dead and the truth has come to light, does your heart ache? Your wife treated you so well. You’ve lost the person in this world who loved you most and was best to you, while the woman you’ve yearned for all this time is nothing but a vain, vile, promiscuous slut.”
Wang Quan’an raised his hand at Wang Yuyan again. With a single glance from Yan Tongshu, the Shenwu Army’s sword flashed from its sheath and pointed straight at Wang Quan’an’s throat.
Wang Yuyan looked at Wang Quan’an through her tears. “You don’t believe me?”
Wang Quan’an let out another contemptuous laugh. “I believe you. And then what?”
Wang Yuyan’s pupils suddenly widened. “You believe me? A woman as vile as her…”
Wang Quan’an’s gaze remained as cold as ever, as though he were looking at a stranger. No—Wang Yuyan’s entire body trembled. That gaze looked more like the way one looked at an enemy.
Wang Quan’an stared directly at her. “Mei’er and I grew up in the same village. We were childhood sweethearts. When we had no money for food, we stole offerings and eggs together. We were beaten together and nearly died together. What kind of person she is—I know better than all of you. But so what?”
Wang Yuyan shook her head in disbelief. “No. If you knew all that… then why? Mother said you were only cold to her because you misunderstood her—because you misunderstood that she had forced you and Gao Shengmei apart, and that she had driven Gao Shengmei away.
“She said that one day you would see that she was the only person who truly loved you, cared about you, and treated you well. You would discover Gao Shengmei’s true nature and realize that introducing Gao Shengmei to that wealthy merchant had been entirely for your sake. And that Gao Shengmei deserved every beating she received from that merchant.”
Wang Yuyan wept bitterly, but Wang Quan’an remained unmoved. “Then your mother deserves the fate she has met as well.”
“You’re not allowed to say that about my mother!” Wang Yuyan shrieked.
Wang Quan’an looked at Wang Yuyan with utter disgust. “I’m sickened by the way you act. You’re exactly like your mother.”
Wang Yuyan stared at him in disbelief and rushed over to him. “Tell me why! My mother treated you so well. She always gave in to you and took care of you. No matter how late you came home, she would wait for you.”
Wang Quan’an shoved Wang Yuyan to the ground. “Who asked her to?”
Seeing that his beloved wife and daughter were about to be imprisoned, the resentment Wang Quan’an had accumulated for more than a decade could no longer be contained.
He looked down at Wang Yuyan from above. “Mei’er and I were childhood sweethearts. We had pledged ourselves to each other long ago. She was selfish, vain, greedy, and obsessed with money. Did you think I didn’t know that? Did I need your mother to come running over and arrogantly play the good person?
“If she hadn’t schemed against us and introduced that short-lived, alcoholic, wife-beating, sick rich merchant to Mei’er before I returned home, would Mei’er have married him just to become a wealthy widow?
“If your mother hadn’t been so sinister and vicious, interfering between us, that merchant wouldn’t have pursued Mei’er. In a few days, I would have returned, and Mei’er would have married me. She wouldn’t have been abused and beaten by that doomed bastard for years, or been forced to climb into another man’s bed just to survive. Do you know how much my heart hurt when I learned what had happened to her?”
Wang Yuyan screamed back, “Gao Shengmei was the one who abandoned you! She abandoned you for wealth and glory! Mother only wanted to meet the woman you loved and see what she was like. She never intended to break you apart.
“It was Gao Shengmei who wasn’t good enough for you. When Mother discovered that she was selfish, vain, promiscuous, and involved with countless men, she realized Gao Shengmei was unworthy of you. That was why she plotted to make her marry the wealthy merchant and let her suffer the consequences of her own choices.
“Mother only introduced them. She never forced Gao Shengmei to do anything. Gao Shengmei chose to give up on you herself!”
Wang Quan’an roared back without yielding an inch. “If your mother hadn’t introduced another rich man to her, Mei’er would have chosen me! I promised her that I would return home in glory and marry her!”
Wang Quan’an crouched down in front of Wang Yuyan. “You and your mother are exactly alike—equally disgusting, equally affected and hypocritical. I’ll tell you the truth: I married your mother to take revenge on her. To destroy her entire family.”
Wang Quan’an touched the jade pendant at his waist, tears glimmering in his eyes. “Mei’er made this for me when she was fourteen. I’ve worn it every day since. She and I were both orphans. We depended on each other as we grew up. We stole together, ran together, slept together. We even ran confidence tricks together—she would lure men upstairs while I kept watch…”
Wang Quan’an sank completely into his memories.
He had grown up as an orphan in a beggars’ den. The first time he met Gao Shengmei was in a pile of corpses.
He had found a copper coin on one of the bodies when Gao Shengmei came running over. She viciously bit him and snatched the coin away.
Later, holding a grudge, he stole half a flatbread that Gao Shengmei had hidden.
Once, he went to steal from the home of a wealthy family holding a birthday banquet. By coincidence, Gao Shengmei had come to steal from the same place.
The two of them hid in a pile of straw, waiting for an opportunity.
Unfortunately, the birthday feast was crowded and lively, with people coming and going and guards patrolling everywhere. They never found a chance to act.
At last, the banquet ended. A servant carried out a bowl of meat for the big black dog in the rear courtyard.
The two of them seized their opportunity, grabbed the bowl, and ran. Once they had escaped, they hid beneath a bridge and fought over the chicken, devouring every last piece. They even chewed the bones to pieces and swallowed them.
From then on, he and Gao Shengmei became partners in deception and fraud. There was nothing they hadn’t done.
When Gao Shengmei was fourteen, she seduced a man. He was a scholar whose wife had only recently given birth. In exchange for one bowl of rice, he asked Gao Shengmei to sleep with him.
It was an entire bowl of rice. Gao Shengmei agreed.
But he was unhappy about it, so he informed the scholar’s wife.
The scholar’s wife brought people to catch them in the act, and he fled with Gao Shengmei.
He never told Gao Shengmei that he had been the one to alert the scholar’s wife. Believing that he had helped her escape, Gao Shengmei was grateful to him and personally made the jade pendant he still wore at his waist.
Later, he needed to study, but he had no money. Sneaking into the village school to listen in all the time was not a long-term solution.
So he coaxed Gao Shengmei, promising that once he passed the imperial examinations, he would return and marry her. He persuaded her to join him in running honey traps.
Gao Shengmei had a delicate, clean-cut face. Once she washed up, she could even be considered quite pretty.
Gao Shengmei’s job was to lure men—specifically, those who had built their fortunes with the help of their wives yet still enjoyed seeking out women and having affairs. She would seduce them into bed, and then he would notify the man’s wife and bring her over to catch them in the act.
He would then burst in while the couple was together, pretending to deliver the warning. Most men, terrified of their wives, would reward him with a considerable sum of money.
Of course, there were times when things went wrong. Once, they were exposed and beaten until their faces were bruised and swollen. They had nearly died.
Sometimes, Gao Shengmei would secretly keep the gifts those men gave her. She would also bluntly tell him that her greatest wish was to marry into a wealthy family. Even if it meant becoming a rich man’s concubine or mistress, as long as she could live a life free from worry over food and clothing, dressed in fine clothes and covered in gold and silver, she did not care what she had to do.
Gao Shengmei was illiterate, vain, greedy, and profit-driven. He knew all of that. He knew it all.
But was he some kind of good person himself?
He had deceived the girl he loved into seducing men and helping him run honey traps. After passing the prefectural examination, he had accepted gifts from seven merchant families hoping to marry their daughters to a successful candidate.
Neither of them was a good person. That was precisely why they were a match made in heaven.
Wang Quan'an spoke with a mocking edge. “Do you think I had money for my studies and examinations? I was an orphan, a stinking beggar. Where would I have gotten the money to study? To survive, Mei'er and I gave up almost everything along the way.
“Your mother met Mei'er only once, yet she dismissed everything about her and rashly passed judgment, casually evaluating another person and thoughtlessly playing with her fate. She said Mei'er was greedy and profit-driven, but what else could she have been? Everyone in this world loves wealth and glory. Everyone wants power and riches. I’m the same! What right did your mother have to dismiss Mei'er simply because she wanted those things too? She knew nothing, yet she acted as though she knew everything—self-righteous and clever in her own mind.”
At that, Wang Yuyan finally understood the relationship between Wang Quan'an and Gao Shengmei.
The two of them had clawed their way out of the same mire. They had met when they were young and powerless, survived hardship side by side, and refused to abandon each other. They were also a partnership whose fates were bound together by the same utterly despicable nature.
Their unusual childhood experiences had made Wang Quan'an completely dependent on Gao Shengmei.
That was why he could never leave her. Anyone who tried to come between them would be crushed.
And because Gao Shengmei knew that Wang Quan'an indulged her no matter what, she had dared to attack Wang Yuyan without restraint.
She knew that Wang Quan'an would protect her regardless of the consequences.
Moreover, Gao Shengmei had little understanding of the world. She had clawed her way up from the bottom through deception and fraud, so she had no limits whatsoever and used the most vile and despicable methods.
When Wang Quan'an finished speaking, the corners of his mouth twitched into a smile. Lowering his voice, he leaned close to Wang Yuyan’s ear and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, “You think Mei'er was the one who crippled your brother’s leg? You’re wrong. It was me. Mei'er merely provoked him into riding a horse. I deliberately chose the wildest horse for your brother, which was why he fell.
“Not only that, I deliberately arranged for someone to crash into the physician’s carriage and delay his treatment, leaving him lame. Half of your blood comes from your mother. You’re disgusting—so disgusting that I can’t bear to look at you for even a moment.”
“I’ll kill you!” Wang Yuyan lunged at Wang Quan'an, but unfortunately, she was too weak and was no match for him.
Wang Yuyan stared at Wang Quan'an with bloodshot eyes. One day, she would take his life. She would make him kneel before her mother’s grave, kneel before her and her brother, and weep bitterly as he begged them for forgiveness.
This case had Niu Er’s testimony. Sedative powder and the jadeite had been found on Wang Chuning. Wang Yuyan had already confessed, while Wang Chuning and Gao Shengmei had more or less admitted their crimes as well. As long as the owner of the Charming Blossom House was summoned and questioned, the case could be closed.
Yan Tongshu asked Jade, “Where did you lose the handkerchief you used when committing the crime? And what exactly was the process?”
Jade was only a maid carrying out orders. Now that her crime had been exposed, her psychological defenses had completely collapsed. She answered woodenly, “In the Plum Garden. While the Eldest Miss was distracting the Second Miss, I drugged the Second Miss before she could make her move. Then I dragged the Second Miss toward the side room. I used a stone to make a noise and lure Qiaoxin away from the door, then put the Second Miss inside the Eldest Miss’s room.
“When Qiaoxin returned, she saw someone through the crack in the door and assumed it was the Eldest Miss without checking. After moving the Second Miss, I went back outside the courtyard and waited for my young mistress to return. I buried the handkerchief beneath the thick layer of dead grass by the entrance. After waiting for a while, the Master and Madam arrived. A little later, the Eldest Miss returned, and we appeared together.”
Yan Tongshu ordered someone to look for the handkerchief. Sure enough, they found it.
Just then, frantic cries came from the entrance.
“My lord, my lord… Please come out quickly… Something’s happened… The Concubine, the Concubine has suddenly started bleeding heavily. She’s dying…!”
What?
Ning Yuan’s face instantly turned deathly pale. He abruptly turned toward Yan Tongshu, his voice trembling. “Lord Yan, a human life is at stake. I beg you to show mercy.”
Yan Tongshu immediately ordered his men to let him pass.
The maid scrambled into the courtyard, stumbling and sobbing, tears and mucus covering her face. “My lord, please go and see her! The Concubine suddenly went into labor. It seems the baby is premature… We can’t find a physician or a midwife! The older women have tried everything, but—but the bleeding won’t stop! The bedding beneath her is completely soaked through!”
Ning Yuan swayed where he stood. “I’m going now.”
He turned and ran.
The maid followed him, crying.
A human life was at stake—and what was more, it was a pregnant woman giving birth prematurely.
There was not even a physician present.
Yan Tongshu could no longer concern himself with the case. He ordered his men to keep watch over the prisoners and hurried after them.
Ning Yuan rushed into the room and seized Tantai Mingzhu’s icy hand. His voice trembled as he asked, “How are you feeling? Don’t be afraid. I’m here. I’ll find a way to save you.”
Tantai Mingzhu lay on the bed, her face pale. Sweat seeped from her skin in layer after layer, soaking through the inner garment on her upper body until it clung tightly to her flesh. Below her waist, the bedding was drenched in broad patches of dark-red blood, a horrifying sight.
She lay there barely breathing, tears and sweat blurring together across her face until it was impossible to tell one from the other.
The winter air was bitterly cold, so all the windows had been shut to keep the pregnant woman warm. As a result, the smell of blood had nowhere to escape. It filled the entire room—a strong, nauseating odor of iron mixed with a sickly sweetness that churned the stomach.
Fenghe, Tantai Mingzhu’s personal maid, was so terrified that she seemed barely conscious. All she could do was repeat through her sobs, “A physician… There’s no physician… What are we going to do…?”
Yan Tongshu hurried to the bedside and took Tantai Mingzhu’s pulse.
The moment Ning Yuan saw Yan Tongshu checking her pulse, he understood. He bent both knees and knelt before Yan Tongshu.
“Lord Yan, please save Mingzhu and our child.”
The longer Yan Tongshu felt the pulse, the deeper the furrow between his brows became.
“The pulse is deep, rough, and rapid. The beats are deeply submerged and irregular… This indicates that the mother has suffered serious damage, and the child’s life is rapidly slipping away…”
But this pulse was clearly far too rapid and thready.
Yan Tongshu turned to the nursemaid, who had already begun to panic. “When did she start having contractions?”
The nursemaid said anxiously, “N-not even half an incense stick ago. Concubine Dantai was resting inside while we servants waited outside. Suddenly, we heard her cry out softly. By the time we went in, she was already bleeding…”
Before the nursemaid could finish, her body suddenly went limp, and she collapsed straight toward the floor.
“Ugh—”
Tantai Mingzhu suddenly vomited, expelling a large amount of sour fluid.
She was in the late stages of pregnancy and had had little appetite, so she had barely eaten anything that day. There was already quite a bit of vomit on the floor, indicating that she had thrown up repeatedly before this. During pregnancy, vomiting was generally caused by the enlarged uterus pressing against the stomach, reducing the space in the stomach and slowing gastric emptying. Vomiting during a miscarriage, on the other hand, was usually psychological, brought on by unbearable pain.
But neither explanation seemed to fit Tantai Mingzhu’s condition.
Yan Tongshu looked toward Fenghe. Fenghe’s hands were trembling, while the other maids in the room were coughing softly.
A sudden miscarriage. Vomiting during the miscarriage. The other people in the room coughing. Someone fainting…
Yan Tongshu abruptly looked at Tantai Mingzhu. “Do you have a headache?”
Tantai Mingzhu nodded with difficulty.
Yan Tongshu quickly turned to the other two maids and the nursemaid, who was struggling to sit up. “Are you feeling dizzy, weak, short of breath, and like you want to cough?”
Everyone nodded in unison.
Ning Yuan asked in panic, “What’s wrong, Lord Yan?”
“Quick!” Yan Tongshu sprang to her feet, her expression grave. “Move to another room. Move Concubine Dantai to another room. You—”
She pointed at Fenghe. “Go find the monks at Xiangguo Temple and have them bring over a set of clean clothes.”
Yan Tongshu grabbed Ning Yuan by the arm. “You—you’re the least poisoned. Go find, find silver needles and scissors. Have them boil the water somewhere else. Replace all the stoves, utensils, bowls, cloths—everything—with new ones! And medicine. Xiangguo Temple has a dispensary. Have them bring ginseng, aconite, angelica, chuanxiong, poria, and anything similar.”
“What poisoning?” Ning Yuan asked, completely at a loss, his mind blank.
“Don’t ask!” Yan Tongshu was frantic as well, and she cut him off sharply. “There’s no time for questions. Save them first!”
Yan Tongshu ran outside to call for help. Just then, Pearl and Jinbao came hurrying over after hearing what had happened. Yan Tongshu immediately grabbed them, and together they carried the barely conscious Tantai Mingzhu into the room next door.
Yan Tongshu crouched beside the bed, wiping the sweat from Tantai Mingzhu’s face as she said, “Don’t be afraid. In a moment, breathe with my rhythm.”
Tantai Mingzhu’s breathing was as faint as a thread. Her lips moved weakly. “The… baby…”
From her pulse, there was no doubt that the child could not be saved.
But at a moment when her life hung by a thread, the mother’s will was of the utmost importance. Yan Tongshu clasped her cold hand, her gaze firm. “Don’t be afraid. We’ll fight together.”
Tantai Mingzhu nodded with tears in her eyes, though her vision had already blurred so badly that she could no longer see anything clearly.
Fenghe brought the clean clothes. Together, she and Yan Tongshu changed Tantai Mingzhu out of the garments soaked through with blood.
As soon as the change of clothes was finished, Ning Yuan returned with the silver needles and medicine.
The nursemaids replaced everything in the room, then began boiling water again.
Pearl sterilized the silver needles and handed them to Yan Tongshu. Yan Tongshu took them and inserted them into Tantai Mingzhu’s Baihui, Renzhong, Neiguan, and Zus Sanli points. She then applied heavier needles to the Yinbai and Duanhong points to secure the Chong meridian and stop the bleeding.
When the hot water arrived, Yan Tongshu ordered the nursemaids to prepare a detoxifying decoction.
She herself began using acupuncture to induce uterine contractions and help expel the dead fetus from Tantai Mingzhu’s womb.
People hurried in and out of the room as basin after basin of bloody water was carried away.
At first, Tantai Mingzhu let out soft moans. Later, she could no longer make a sound.
The entire room fell deathly silent.
Ning Yuan did not dare disturb Yan Tongshu as she treated Mingzhu. He could only stand rigidly to one side, as motionless as a wall.
At last, the lifeless fetus slipped from the womb.
“Ah—!”
The nursemaid assisting Yan Tongshu caught sight of the placenta expelled with the fetus and screamed, stumbling backward onto the floor.
The nursemaid was in her forties. Although she was not a midwife, she had assisted many midwives in cleaning newborn babies and had naturally seen placentas before.
But this placenta was far too strange.
It was a rotten mess—swollen, pale, and waterlogged. It looked nothing like a normal placenta.
And the fetus was covered in bloody spots from head to toe. The sight was horrifying.
Pearl, who was helping stop the bleeding nearby, was frightened as well. But after following Yan Tongshu for the past six months, she had seen plenty of corpses and was no longer as afraid as she once had been. She took a deep breath, forced herself to remain calm, and comforted Tantai Mingzhu, who was weak and semiconscious.
Yan Tongshu was still administering acupuncture and had no time to spare. Ning Yuan grabbed the panicking nursemaid, his eyes bulging with rage, and hissed in a low voice, “Shut up. Don’t disturb Concubine Dantai.”
“Yes, yes.” The nursemaid came to her senses. Realizing that she had lost her composure, she quickly steadied herself and went to fetch hot water.
Ning Yuan’s gaze remained fixed on the dead fetus. His face shifted between ashen white and livid green, his expression as ferocious as a demon’s.
Who?
Who had poisoned Mingzhu and tried to kill both her and their child?
If he ever found out who was responsible, he would skin that person alive, tear them limb from limb, and grind their bones to dust!
At last, Tantai Mingzhu was pulled back from the brink of death.
Yan Tongshu was utterly exhausted, her hands and feet weak with fatigue.
She left the room and found a spot to lean against the wall. Pearl gave Tantai Mingzhu the last bowl of medicinal broth, then came over to Yan Tongshu. Her legs gave way, and she sat down beside her.
She had nearly died of fright. It was the first time she had ever seen so much blood.
That Concubine Dantai was truly pitiful. Her life had been hanging by a single thread, and several times Pearl had thought she would not survive.
Jinbao had stayed outside, helping boil water. When he heard that Tantai Mingzhu was alive, he hurried over.
Seeing that Yan Tongshu and Pearl were safe, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After resting for a while and regaining some strength, Yan Tongshu stood up. Jinbao quickly helped Pearl to her feet, as her legs were still weak.
Yan Tongshu looked ahead, her gaze cold and sharp.
Who?
Who could be so vicious as to poison a seven-month pregnant woman and nearly cause the deaths of both mother and child?
Yan Tongshu opened the room where Tantai Mingzhu had originally been staying.
The situation had been so urgent that she had not had time to think about where the poison had been hidden. She could only replace every item Tantai Mingzhu had worn or used.
Now, at last, she could carefully inspect this strange room.
So many people had been poisoned together. Tantai Mingzhu’s symptoms were the most severe: headache, vomiting, and miscarriage. The placenta had been abnormally large, pale, and edematous, while the fetus had been covered in edema and extensive pinpoint hemorrhages.
Combined with the others’ symptoms—general weakness, coughing, and dizziness—this was clearly heavy-metal poisoning.
The key question was where the culprit had placed the poison and when it had been administered.
Everyone else had suffered only mild poisoning, while Tantai Mingzhu had been poisoned most severely. It was obvious that the culprit’s target was the pregnant Tantai Mingzhu.
Who had a grudge against Tantai Mingzhu?
Of the people she had encountered at the temple that day, there were only two possibilities: Wang Yuyan and Wang Chuning.
Both women wanted to marry Ning Yuan and become the heir’s principal wife. And Tantai Mingzhu, carrying the only heir of the Earl of Yu Kingdom, was their natural enemy.
Especially judging by her performance today, Tantai Mingzhu was not a particularly discreet person.
But Wang Chuning did not seem clever enough for that. What if Gao Shengmei were involved as well?
Yan Tongshu had Pearl summon Fenghe, the maid who had always served at Tantai Mingzhu’s side.
Fenghe entered with her head bowed and knelt to thank Yan Tongshu. “Thank you, Lord Yan, for saving my mistress. I will never forget your great kindness.”
Yan Tongshu told her to rise. “You and Tantai Mingzhu are close?”
Fenghe nodded, her eyes reddening. “I’m not a maid from the Earl of Yuguo’s residence. I came here with Concubine Dantai and have served her since we were children.”
Yan Tongshu nodded.
A personal maid like this was usually deeply attached to her mistress and utterly loyal.
Yan Tongshu asked, “Did Concubine Dantai show any unusual symptoms or discomfort today? Exactly when did they first appear? What things did you and Concubine Dantai both come into contact with?”
