Seeing the Marshal arrive, Bai Jin hurried forward and said, “Marshal, we have come under the Director’s orders to apprehend a suspect.”

“Apprehending a suspect has brought you all the way to Zhuo Xin Courtyard?” The Marshal’s authority was absolute and brooking no challenge, even though he knew the Shun Cheng Law had been issued under his own hand.

Still, the Marshal quickly steadied himself. “What offense was committed?”

He knew that Shi Ting would not act so rashly. If he had sent people to make an arrest, there had to be a reason.

“Poisoning with intent to murder.” Bai Jin replied respectfully.

“Just this one little maid?” The Marshal glanced at the maid, who had been frightened to the point of nearly losing her composure, and a look of disdain crossed his face. “She would know how to administer poison? And who was she trying to poison?”

“In reply to the Marshal — it is our Director.”

Everyone in the courtyard heard this and went wide-eyed with shock. Madam Shi was also stunned.

“What happened?” The Marshal said gravely.

Bai Jin proceeded to recount the day’s events in detail. “The one who delivered the confection was this maid. I personally went to receive it. When I asked her which courtyard she had come from, she said the Seventh Young Mistress had sent her to deliver it.”

“I do not recognize this maid.” Yan Qing walked over from beneath a banyan tree, first offering a bow to both the Marshal and Madam Shi.

“This maid looks unfamiliar to me.” She walked up to Little Cui, her clear and perceptive eyes resting steadily on her. “You were sent by me?”

Little Cui by now was so thoroughly frightened that her soul had nearly left her body. She dropped to her knees at once. “Marshal, please spare my life. It was Elder Sister Shuangxi who sent me to deliver it. She only said it was a confection for the Seventh Young Master — I had no idea there was poison inside.”

“Shuangxi?” Madam Shi looked around and indeed did not see Shuangxi. Her voice became somewhat urgent. “Where is Shuangxi?”

Yingtao replied, “Shuangxi was just now in the Eldest Miss’s room with the Eldest Miss.”

“What are you all standing there staring for — bring her here.” The Marshal’s brow creased into a frown, and his authority made itself felt immediately.

The moment the Military Police Division arrived at the front courtyard, Shi Yuan had already heard the news. She had not expected Shi Ting’s people to move so quickly.

“Eldest Miss, our affair has certainly been exposed. What do we do?” Shuangxi was both alarmed and terrified, now deeply regretting that she had allowed greed for wealth to lead her to climb into the same boat as Shi Yuan.

Shi Yuan also sensed that the situation was grave. After pacing back and forth in the room several times, she went to the wardrobe and took out a box, hurriedly stuffing in some clothes and money.

“Eldest Miss, what are you doing?” Shuangxi panicked.

“The only option now is to run.” Shi Yuan grabbed Shuangxi’s hand. “Shuangxi, come with me. If you stay, you will die too.”

“But my family is here. If I simply flee, what will become of my family? The Seventh Young Master will not let them off.”

“Right now saving your life comes first — why are you worrying about all of that?” Shi Yuan pulled and tugged, but Shuangxi would not budge. She finally let out a frustrated grunt. “Fine. If you won’t go, then stay here and wait for death.”

Shi Yuan said no more, picked up her box, and made straight for the rear gate.

By the time the Military Police officers came looking, all they found was Shuangxi standing rooted to the spot, tears streaking her face.

Shuangxi told them everything. The reason she did not run was that she had one request — she alone had done this and was willing to face the consequences, but she hoped her family would not be implicated.

“Wretched creature.” The Marshal’s face flushed crimson with fury. Since Shi Yuan had fled, he could only point at Madam Shi and berate her. “What a wretched creature you raised. To think she could do something so outrageously unfilial.”

Madam Shi quietly grumbled inwardly — that is your child too, so why is it entirely my responsibility? Though she thought this, she only dared think it, and did not dare talk back to the Marshal openly — all the more since Shi Yuan was genuinely in the wrong this time.

“Her son’s life is a life, but my son’s life is nothing? Monstrous. To think she could come up with such a scheme — to think she could actually go through with it.” The Marshal’s brow was knotted tightly. “Issue my orders — recall all the people sent out to search. If she has the ability, let her figure it out herself. If she cannot, then let the Liao household figure it out.”

“Marshal, you absolutely must not.” Madam Shi implored. “Qing’er has not yet been found. If you withdraw everyone now, that child will have only a slim chance of surviving. Marshal, Qing’er is your own grandchild — he is the flesh and blood of the Shi Family.”

“He bears the Liao name, not Shi.” The Marshal cast a fierce glare. “From this day forward, I have no daughter named Shi Yuan. The Shi family’s doors are forever closed to her.”

With that, he turned on his heel and left, heedless of Madam Shi’s desperate pleading.

“Marshal, you cannot be so heartless. You cannot.” Madam Shi felt the world go dark before her eyes and toppled backward. Yingtao beside her quickly caught her.

“Quickly — quickly send people out to find Eldest Miss. She is alone out there — she may be in danger.” Madam Shi thought of Shi Yuan and felt a stabbing pain in the center of her chest. That was the child she had carried for ten months — the flesh she had brought into the world.

“Since that is settled, we will take our leave.” Bai Jin gave a wave of his hand, and the Military Police officers immediately formed two neat lines.

“Sister-in-law, we are going first.” He gave Yan Qing a salute, then turned and led his men away.

Yan Qing smiled at him and also prepared to leave.

“Stop right there.” Madam Shi came storming forward, and without a word, she swung her hand in a slap.

But the slap never landed. Murong stopped it midair.

Yan Qing kept the faint trace of a smile at the corner of her lips, her gaze resting steadily on Madam Shi — as though she had always known that slap would never reach her.

“First Madam, what has Yan Qing done wrong, that First Madam would personally discipline her with her own hand?”

Madam Shi was briefly at a loss for words.

“Could First Madam be blaming me for making the mango pudding? But it was Eldest Sister who repeatedly urged me to make it for Qing’er. How is it that the one who did all the work ends up being the one who is not forgiven?”

“Hmph. You knew all along what Shi Yuan intended to do. Why did you not stop her?”

“First Madam, that argument does not hold. If I had known that Eldest Sister was going to take something I made and use it to harm my own husband, there is every reason I would have stopped her. If Eldest Sister had succeeded today, I would be an accomplice — someone who had helped kill her own husband. First Madam, I have a belly full of grievances with nowhere to direct them. How is it that the one doing the harm turns around and acts the aggrieved party?”

In this matter, Madam Shi was indeed in the wrong.

“Shi Yuan is his own blood sister. How could he have the heart to do this.” What Madam Shi meant was that even if Shi Ting knew it was Shi Yuan who had done it, he should have smoothed things over quietly and buried the matter, not brought it before the Marshal.

“First Madam may feel that Eldest Sister has been wronged. But while Eldest Sister is First Madam’s own dearest one, Xingzhi is no less the dearest one to the Second Concubine. They are both kin — so why could Eldest Sister have the heart to raise her hand against her own younger brother, while Xingzhi is condemned for fighting back? What Xingzhi did was nothing more than act according to the law. How did he end up being cast as the one who struck first?” Yan Qing gave Madam Shi a small bow. “First Madam, one truly cannot apply such double standards in life.”

Even after Yan Qing was gone, Madam Shi was still seething. It was Yingtao who tilted her head to one side and asked, “What does ‘double standards’ mean?”

Not long after Yan Qing turned to leave, she came across the Second Concubine. Luo Huaimeng had heard about what happened and hurried over. She had not seen the events unfold, but she had caught Yan Qing’s remarks.

“Mother.” Yan Qing hurried forward to greet her.

Luo Huaimeng, in a rare gesture, gave her a slight nod, and the corner of her mouth lifted very faintly.

Yan Qing stared at her in a daze, and even after Luo Huaimeng had turned and walked away, she had not yet come back to herself.

She still remembered the first time she had seen that expression — it had been on Shi Ting’s face. She had not been quite sure and asked him at the time: “Were you just smiling?”

One truly cannot help but say it — a cold expression must be hereditary. Now she found Shi Ting pleasing to look at no matter how she looked at him, because whenever he faced her, he was always smiling, his eyes forever lit with indulgence and warmth.

But thinking back on the past, she suddenly realized that Shi Ting had always been a cold-faced sovereign — especially when they had first met. The expression on his face in those days could have frozen a person solid.

Yan Qing could say with certainty that the Second Concubine had just smiled at her — even if the smile had left almost no trace at all.

At that thought, Yan Qing felt her mood soar, and even her footsteps quickened.

Murong could not help but pick up her pace to follow. “Miss, slow down.”

Once they returned to the courtyard, Murong finally had the chance to ask, “Miss, do you think Eldest Miss has truly fled?”

Yan Qing made a sound of affirmation. “Of course she fled. If she stayed, all that awaited her was punishment at the Marshal’s hand. Between a daughter who married away and a capable son, the one the Marshal values is naturally the son.”

“Well.” Murong let out a sigh. “Miss, if the one taken hostage had been the Marshal’s own grandson, what do you think he would have done?”

“The outcome would be the same no matter whose child it was.” In the Marshal’s eyes, power stood supreme above all else. Everything else came after.

So no one should consider themselves too precious. When the moment demanded it, he was capable of sacrificing anything.

Shi Ting had grown up in this household — he had surely long since seen through all of it.

“Then what will become of Young Master Qing’er? The Marshal has recalled all the people he sent out, and his mother has fled.”

“There is still the Liao household.” Yan Qing had a fairly clear sense of how events had unfolded. Qing’er would certainly come out of this unharmed — after all, that was Liao Wenfa’s legitimate son. As long as Liao Wenfa appealed to those above him, they would not allow a subordinate’s child to become a sacrificial pawn. A favor done at no great cost that also solidified loyalty — why would they refuse?

The reason all of this had been set in motion in the first place was most likely that the other side did not want to let the Shi household benefit without paying a price. Even in defeat, they would make the Shi household suffer some losses.

What a pity that Shi Yuan was not equal to the task — achieving nothing while making everything worse.

“Miss, after what Eldest Miss has done this time, First Madam will surely add another mark against us.”

Yan Qing let out a helpless sigh. “Even without Shi Yuan’s affair, she and we would still be as fire and water.”

First Madam had the Meng Family behind her, and the Meng Family was a force even the Marshal did not dare move against lightly. Bringing First Madam down from her position as the primary wife was no simple matter.

If it were that easy, San Yitai Du Linghua would have done it long ago without waiting until now.

To move against First Madam, one would first have to shake the very roots of the Meng Family.