Sometimes, the more a person does, the more plainly their flaws show. Tang Bohong’s performance of protecting his younger brother actually planted suspicion in everyone’s hearts. There was no need to say more about Xiao Zheng Shi — Lang Jiuchuan had already made Tang Bohong’s two-faced nature clear to her, and so the more she watched, the more certain she became that the man before her was a venomous serpent lurking in the shadows, waiting to open its mouth and strike.

As for the eldest sister-in-law — she did not yet know the full truth, but she had circulated through the inner chambers of the great families for years, and had herself been born into a distinguished household. There was no dark dealing she had not heard of before. No matter how honest and steady Tang Bohong might appear, no matter how respectful he was toward her — it still could not outweigh the fact that he was not her own flesh and blood.

So the look in her eyes as she regarded Tang Bohong cooled by several degrees.

Just then, Chengle Earl — having received word — hurried in as well. His wife gave him the situation in a few brief sentences, and his gaze went instinctively to his eldest son, his brow furrowing.

Tang Bohong felt his heart plummet straight downward, like a stone dropped into a well.

They suspected him.

Chengle Earl ordered men to take Limping Li away under watch, and sent someone to urgently summon another physician. As for Tang Bohong, he said only this: “Eldest son, you personally stand guard over this Limping Li. Do not let anything happen to him. Not in any way.”

The tone made the warning unmistakable.

Tang Bohong forced a bitter smile and put on the look of a wounded man. “Father, your son understands.”

Chengle Earl looked at him like this, and did not know quite what to feel — but the most important matter at hand was still his second son’s leg, and he had no time to spare for Tang Bohong’s feelings.

Tang Bohong, seeing there was no longer any place for him here, withdrew. As he was leaving, he glanced once more at Lang Jiuchuan — only for an instant, but that gaze carried something that had been steeped in poison.

Lang Jiuchuan laughed inwardly and looked back at him with perfect composure. Her presence expanded and swelled, and the dark gleam within her eyes pressed toward him with an overwhelming, dominating force.

You’ve offended me regardless — do you think I’d be afraid of you?

Tang Bohong’s pupils contracted sharply. A cold sensation crept upward from the soles of his feet all the way to the crown of his skull.

This girl looked so frail and thin — yet her presence was overwhelming. Who exactly was she? A Little Heavenly Master? Could she be someone from the Xuan lineage — and how had his sister-in-law come to associate with someone like this?

This was bad. Had they already discovered that the geomancy of the Falling Blossom Courtyard was wrong?

The thought hit Tang Bohong like a wave of ice. His face went completely ashen, his breathing unsteady, and he left in a hurry.

Lang Jiuchuan gave a cold, quiet laugh. She didn’t need to do anything at all — this man had already given himself away.

While waiting for the new bone-setting physician to arrive, both Chengle Earl and his wife questioned Lang Jiuchuan about her identity. Tang Bozhen had already fainted from the pain again. Xiao Zheng Shi had no intention of concealing anything — but she had Lang Jiuchuan wake Tang Bozhen back up again first, so he could hear everything too.

As for whether Tang Bozhen was in agony or not — well, he deserved to suffer every bit of this.

Once Tang Bozhen was conscious, Xiao Zheng Shi explained Lang Jiuchuan’s background, and everything that had happened since she had entered the household. Strangely, though she was gravely ill, she had now been talking for so long and yet felt not the slightest exhaustion — only a kind of charged, restless energy.

“That is the whole of it. I would not have believed it myself, but by now I have no choice. When we were first married, setting up the courtyard should have been your responsibility, Mother — so how did it come to be arranged this way? Those willow trees as well — they do not grow to that size in three years. They were already giving full shade. And most importantly, that incense burner tripod — he brought it in himself. It is a funerary object from a burial offering. Someone wanted me dead.”

Everyone present turned to look at Tang Bozhen.

Tang Bozhen was completely stunned. “The courtyard was already my residence when we married. The pond and the willow trees — Elder Brother suggested I plant them. That old pear tree too — he was the one who mentioned it. He said you loved pear blossoms and pears both, Zhenzhen, and that’s why I had it transplanted. As for the incense burner tripod — I bought it at the Shifang Pavilion, but it was Elder Sister-in-Law who brought it up. She said you wanted to pray to Guanyin and ought to have a proper incense burner, so I went and got one.”

At these words, the expressions of Chengle Earl and his wife turned ugly — especially the Earl himself. His daughter-in-law was dutiful, his eldest son had always seemed honest; the household had been known for brotherly harmony, and it had been one of his great sources of pride outside, that his family had never had the kind of bitter infighting between brothers that ruined other clans. But now — he had been soundly slapped across the face.

He looked at Lang Jiuchuan, who sat placidly to one side, having just pulled away the paper screen that had hidden all of this, and asked in a somewhat dry voice, “Can geomancy really be this uncanny? Is there not some chance of error?”

The eldest sister-in-law’s face darkened. So he wanted to protect his eldest son and daughter-in-law? She would have none of it. This matter had to be brought before the old Dowager Consort for judgment. Had he not heard what the Little Master said — living in that place long enough would bring one death and one injury, and most of it had already come to pass, with only the death still outstanding.

Lang Jiuchuan looked at Chengle Earl with a faint, unreadable smile. “Whether geomancy is uncanny or not, the Earl need only consider what would happen if someone tampered with your own ancestral grave plots. And the Earl would do well not to make an enemy of a geomancer. A geomancer who wishes you ill need only lay down a formation, and they can kill a man without leaving any trace.”

Chengle Earl’s face went dark. That would certainly bring ruin upon the entire family — who did not know that ancestral burial plots were chosen through careful divination by a geomantic master, selecting a site with auspicious energy to shelter one’s descendants? If someone were to tamper with those, how could the family continue to flourish and prosper?

As for making an enemy of a geomancer — who would be so foolhardy? One need not look elsewhere — just consider the Xuan clan. Who would dare cross them?

Xiao Zheng Shi spoke at this moment. “My health has not been good, and things have come to this point. Since the second master appears to have a close female companion of some kind, why not say so plainly here before Father and Mother? I will personally welcome her into the household as a companion for the second master.” She looked at Tang Bozhen with cool contempt. “If what she wants is the position of second young mistress, then let the second master give me the letter of separation. I will take my dowry and leave this household immediately — and gladly step aside.”

She was a daughter of the Zheng family. She would not suffer indignities quietly. If she did not tear Tang Bozhen’s pride apart here and now, she was not fit to carry the name Zheng.

Tang Bozhen, hearing this, forgot entirely about his pain. He looked first at his parents, then at Lang Jiuchuan, and said, “What — what are you talking about — there’s no such thing.”

“Still talking nonsense.” Chengle Earl slapped the small table beside him, rattling the teacup on top. “Your own page has already told us — at the poetry gathering you were exchanging lingering glances with a concubine-born daughter from the Changping Marquis household, and you secretly met her in a lakeside pavilion. When someone else came by, she panicked and shoved you — and that is how you went tumbling and broke your leg.”

Xiao Zheng Shi’s face went black. She was staring at Tang Bozhen hard enough to bore holes through him.

Tang Bozhen was dumbfounded. He could not believe that his own father — rather than covering for him — had laid his secret bare in front of his wife without a moment’s hesitation. Was this truly his father?

Sensing his wife’s look that could cut a man to pieces, Tang Bozhen grasped for an idea and said, “I only exchanged a few remarks with her about a poem — nothing more happened. Aiyah — my leg, my leg — Mother, my leg is about to fall off!”

The eldest sister-in-law’s heart ached for her son, but seeing the expression on her daughter-in-law’s face, she knew who was in the wrong here. “Second daughter-in-law,” she said, “perhaps wait until the second master’s leg has been properly set before we discuss this further. Be assured — your father-in-law and I stand entirely on your side. Whatever shameless hussy it might be — without our approval, no one climbs over your head. As for children — there is no need to rush. Wait until both your bodies are fully recovered. You are still young — it has been barely three years since the marriage. There is time.”

Chengle Earl also said with a frown, “That is right. No concubine may be taken before forty, and if a son is still lacking by then — I will have the Dowager Consort herself vouch for this!” He could only hope this outcome was enough to satisfy the Zheng family, given that the household’s private affairs had now been exposed.

Tang Bozhen heard this, and every little scheming thought in his head was doused completely.

He was finished.