Meeting Yao Shi’s incredulous gaze, Pang Xiao smiled slightly. “I called you Old Madam. Just like in other wealthy families, addressing someone directly by their status rather than through familial relations. Don’t you find this more satisfactory? Have I been neglecting you in daily life?”

“What are you saying! You heartless thing, is this how you treat your own mother!”

Pang Xiao sneered coldly. “If it were an outsider who wanted to harm my wife and kill my children, I would have twisted their head off long ago! I’ve been polite enough to you, Old Madam!”

Tears streamed down Yao Shi’s face, soaking a large patch of her clothing. “You’re really going to estrange yourself from me. For the sake of an outsider…”

“Old Madam, please don’t use those shrewish tactics you learned in the marketplace on me. And don’t think of playing the victim. You put safflower in the chicken soup for your own daughter-in-law, wanting your own grandchild’s life—even marketplace shrews wouldn’t do something so vicious. You are my mother, and I’ve always felt familial affection for you, but since you want to kill my children and show me no familial love, from now on I can only respect you as Old Madam. Taking good care of you until old age is the limit of what I can do.”

“You, you!” Yao Shi was so angry she could barely breathe.

Pang Xiao was her only hope in this lifetime. Yao Shi never imagined that he would disregard her wishes for the sake of an outsider and speak such cutting words.

Seeing that Pang Xiao was serious, Yao Chenggu felt shocked, angry, but mostly regretful.

Actually, this matter shouldn’t have developed to this point. The blame lay with Yao Shi being too stupid, directly bringing a bowl of chicken soup with safflower, letting everyone know she was the one who did it, giving them no chance to deny it.

“Dafu.” Yao Chenggu tried to mediate. “You’re old enough now to be sensible. No matter how wrong your mother was, she’s still your birth mother who gave you life and raised you. For you to say such hurtful words for the sake of someone else—isn’t that wrong?”

“Old Master.” Pang Xiao looked at Yao Chenggu. “I understand what you’re saying. But please understand that I’m only showing this restraint because of the debt of birth and upbringing. If it were anyone else who dared to kill my children and wife, I would have turned hostile long ago.”

Hearing that Pang Xiao’s form of address for him had also changed, Yao Chenggu’s face instantly turned deathly pale. His beard trembled along with his quivering lips.

The servants of Pine Crane Hall knelt on the ground, each one stunned like wooden chickens.

After sorting through the cause and effect, they finally understood they were merely innocent fish affected when the city gates caught fire. The real wrongdoers were their Old Master and Old Madam—the masters they had loyally served.

Who would have thought that this grandfather-daughter pair, who looked so respectable, would actually do something as unconscionable as giving their own pregnant daughter-in-law safflower to cause a miscarriage. So heartless and insane! Since the Prince couldn’t deal with them due to their relationship, he could only redirect his anger toward these servants.

Who told them to be people of Pine Crane Hall?

So all that talk about Tatar spies from the beginning was just an excuse.

Now the servants’ dissatisfaction with Yao Shi and Yao Chenggu had reached its peak. Pang Xiao’s treatment of them actually made them feel he was quite humane—he didn’t deal with them harshly but gave them silver as dismissal compensation.

The courtyard fell into an eerie silence. Yao Chenggu stared at Pang Xiao while gasping for breath, unable to say a word.

Yao Shi leaned against the corridor pillar, sobbing so hard she couldn’t speak, crying miserably as if she had suffered the greatest injustice.

Pang Xiao turned back and waved at Huzi.

Huzi immediately understood and began leading the Pine Crane Hall servants away with the two Jinghu Guard brothers.

Though they were being dismissed, they still needed to be questioned before being released.

The servants became panicked again over this matter, each loudly protesting their innocence.

Amid this chaos, a hearty voice came from outside: “What’s going on here?”

Everyone looked toward the courtyard gate to see Ma Shi walking over with furrowed brows.

Seeing all the Pine Crane Hall servants being driven out, Pang Xiao standing in the courtyard with a dark expression, Yao Shi crying as if her parents had died, and Yao Chenggu looking like a frost-bitten eggplant, Ma Shi had some vague suspicions.

“What did you all do?” Ma Shi quickly entered and walked to Pang Xiao’s side. “Dafu, tell me what happened.”

Facing Ma Shi, Pang Xiao tried to restrain his anger, smiling to comfort her. “Grandmother, it’s nothing. Pine Crane Hall might have had some spies infiltrate, and they put safflower in the chicken soup Old Madam sent to Yi Jie’er. I brought people to investigate. You know the current tense situation at court. Our manor is our own home—we can’t allow spies to infiltrate behind closed doors.”

The subsequent explanation was dry and hollow. Ma Shi couldn’t listen to the rest. Just hearing how Pang Xiao addressed Yao Shi made her angry, and learning that the chicken soup Yao Shi sent to Qin Yining contained safflower—this simple statement was enough for Ma Shi to guess what had happened.

She was very clear about how Yao Shi and Yao Chenggu disapproved of Qin Yining, thinking she was unchaste and that the child might not be Pang Xiao’s. If she hadn’t understood this, she wouldn’t have confined Yao Shi directly.

She had thought that since Yao Shi was an adult who would still need to move about the manor, keeping her confined indefinitely would look bad to the household servants. Though Ma Shi was angry with Yao Shi and felt her daughter’s character had gone astray, she was still her daughter, and as a mother, she still felt pity.

So Ma Shi had released Yao Shi last night and explained things clearly, telling her to live quietly and not think about unnecessary matters.

Who knew that after just one night, Yao Shi had forgotten all her teachings and would be such a cruel mother-in-law as to give her pregnant daughter-in-law safflower, wanting her own grandchild’s life!

“You, you!” Ma Shi’s face turned red with anger. She rushed forward and kicked Yao Shi behind the knees. “Kneel down! You wretch!”

Yao Shi was already swaying from crying. With Ma Shi’s kick, she immediately fell to her knees with a thud. Having cried herself weak, she supported herself with both hands on the ground tiles as tears and snot dripped down, wetting a small patch of the ground.

Ma Shi gritted her teeth, clenching her fists tightly, raising them high toward Yao Shi. “I really want to punch you to death! What were you thinking? Did you forget what I told you last night? Did you forget my instructions? You never listen to anything I tell you. It was one thing to act that way before, but now you want to harm your own daughter-in-law—your conscience has been eaten by dogs!”

With an angry roar, Ma Shi’s fist struck hard on Yao Shi’s back, producing a dull thudding sound.

Yao Shi was immediately knocked flat on the ground, coughing up phlegm streaked with blood.

Seeing Ma Shi strike with deadly force, Yao Chenggu immediately panicked and rushed forward to protect Yao Shi. “What are you doing!”