“So whose head does Madam Shi’s death ultimately fall on?” Ye Yaming asked.

“Naturally, the Prince Zhennan’s wife,” Lu Guanyi said. “I had my people bury the trail deep, deliberately making the surface clues point to me. When investigated further, the authorities would find all evidence pointing to the Marquis’s wife. On this point, she didn’t even find the accusation problematic; she thought Madam Shi was killed by people she sent, only that the person died too easily.”

“What has happened to her now?”

“Dead. She left a suicide note and swallowed gold.”

Knowing that women tended to be soft-hearted, Lu Guanyi lowered his head to look at Ye Yaming and explained: “She had long harbored thoughts of death, planning to follow her son. I suspect she even wanted to take the Prince Zhennan down with her, but refrained for fear of implicating her maiden family. Death might have been a form of release for her.”

Recalling that beautiful woman who faced the world with exquisite makeup even while experiencing the extreme pain of her son’s critical illness, Ye Yaming nodded in agreement, feeling a pang of sympathy.

She was a pitiful woman, but also a ruthless one. With her son harmed and her husband unwilling to seek justice for her and their son, she must have grown to despise the Prince Zhennan.

“Regarding Madam Shi’s death and Lu Guanyu’s injury, does your father suspect you?” Ye Yaming asked.

Lu Guanyi smiled faintly: “It doesn’t matter what he thinks. This was something I had to do. I couldn’t allow one or two venomous snakes to remain there, ready to bite you at any time. Your safety is most important.”

Some things, even between husband and wife as intimate as they were, were difficult for him to share with Ye Yaming. After all, it involved his father’s reputation. If his father lost face, he would have no face before Ye Yaming either.

The father and son had never discussed these matters. But Lu Guanyi guessed that Lu Zhongyong’s feelings toward Madam Shi and Lu Guanyu were quite complex.

Madam Shi, the legitimate daughter of Duke Wei and the Empress’s younger sister, had fallen in love with Lu Zhongyong at first sight, willing to marry him and bear his children. For Lu Zhongyong, who didn’t have high status at the time, this must have been a form of validation, right?

And even if Lu Guanyu wasn’t a child born under Lu Zhongyong’s expectations, he still carried his blood. Lu Zhongyong certainly wouldn’t want to see his son die before even marrying.

Yet these two people also symbolized Lu Zhongyong’s shame.

A man of integrity, a first-rank general, yielding to Duke Wei’s power by submitting to a woman who had harmed his original wife, having children with her. And when Duke Wei’s household plotted rebellion, even though married daughters weren’t implicated, Madam Shi and Lu Guanyu still had the blood of the Shi family flowing in them—they were of one mind with Duke Wei’s household.

Therefore, anyone in court could attack Lu Zhongyong on this point, and they would be right on target. These were existences that could drag Lu Zhongyong into hell.

With one dead and one rendered stupid, it could also be a form of liberation for Lu Zhongyong.

So when Lu Guanyi used the Prince Zhennan’s wife as a tool to kill Madam Shi, then used her death to provoke Lu Guanyu, causing Lu Guanyu to move against him first—with both testimonial and physical evidence present—and in the end only made Lu Guanyu stupid rather than killing him, he felt he had gone to great lengths to consider his father’s feelings from all aspects.

If not for the fact that his father had treated him well, he wouldn’t have needed to be so circuitous.

Being able to do this much, he considered himself a truly filial son. As for whether his father was happy about it or not, he really couldn’t take that into account.

Ye Yaming glanced at him and changed the subject: “For our two children, I’ve given them pet names: the boy is called Pingping, and the girl is called Anan. These names may be common, but I hope our children will lead peaceful and smooth lives. As for their formal names, would you like to name them, or should we write to your father to do so?”

“You name them,” Lu Guanyi said. “You suffered so much to give birth to them. No one in this world has more right to name them than you.”

“Only the right to name them?” Ye Yaming looked at him, her beautiful eyes blinking.

“What else do you want?” Lu Guanyi lowered his head, gazing at her, with only her reflection in his eyes, his voice deep. “Whatever I have is yours if you want it.”

Ye Yaming looked at him, saying with particular seriousness: “They are to me what the Prince Zhennan’s wife’s son was to her. I will not allow anyone in this world to harm them, otherwise, they become my mortal enemies.” Including you.

The couple was still deeply in love, and Lu Guanyi had never done anything to harm her or the children. She wouldn’t say anything to hurt their relationship, but warnings needed to be sounded, especially regarding the children.

“I feel the same,” Lu Guanyi caught her unspoken words.

She feared he might be like the Prince Zhennan or other men who took concubines and kept mistresses, hurting her and the children for the sake of others.

He lightly kissed her lips, almost like making a vow: “I will not allow anyone to harm you and the children. I will never harm you all.”

“I’ll remember what you said today.”

“Mmm…”

…

With Ye Yaming’s smooth delivery, they needed to send people to share the good news with everyone who cared about her. With Lu Guanyi present, Ye Yaming entrusted this task to him, so she could focus on her postpartum recovery.

Due to his job transfer, Lu Guanyi had a month’s leave; adding another month for recovery from his injuries, he had a full two months off.

For the first month, the couple focused on recuperating, while also taking care of their babies. Their days were unprecedentedly quiet and leisurely.

But once Ye Yaming completed her postpartum confinement, these leisurely days disappeared forever.

The final batch of dark tea was ready. After personally tasting and inspecting each one, she needed to deliver this batch to the court to be sent to the Great Jin.

October 1st was the delivery date, and Chen Zhen arrived in Lin’an two days early. He visited Lu Guanyi and presented two gold necklaces for the children.

On the delivery day, Ye Yaming took a carriage with Lu Guanyi to the tea factory.

The teahouse had storage for tea, but the space was limited. The quantity of dark tea from Lin’an, Huizhou, and Minzhou was too large, so the Ye family had built several large warehouses at the tea factory to store the dark tea and assigned people to guard it.

Besides the Ye family’s guards, Ye Yaming had specially hired constables from the local government office to take shifts guarding the tea. Of course, she paid these constables generously for their overtime, so they were very willing to accept this task.

Knowing the importance of this tea to the court, tea merchants like Wang Kuan, despite being green with envy, didn’t dare to cause any trouble.

When Ye Yaming arrived, Chen Zhen was already there, talking with Ye Chongming, Ye Hongchang, and Ye Jiaxing.

Seeing Lu Guanyi and Ye Yaming enter, he rose to his feet and cupped his hands in greeting: “Official Lu, Madam Lu.”

Chen Zhen was in his fifties, an extremely capable official, but even now he was only a fourth-rank official, one rank lower than Lu Guanyi. This inevitably made one sigh at how quickly promotions came in the military.

Of course, this also had to do with Lu Guanyi having the Crown Prince behind him and being Lu Zhongyong’s son.

“Official Chen,” Ye Yaming greeted him from behind Lu Guanyi. “Thank you for the gifts you sent the other day, Official Chen. It was thoughtful of you.”