Night had fallen deep. The great fire that had burned for over an hour was finally extinguished. Songtao Courtyard had been burned beyond recognition—the trees inside were all scorched, and the small pets that had been kept there hadn’t been able to escape. The tragic scene was shocking to behold.
The neighboring household of Scholar Zhao, the not-too-distant household of Minister Chen, and the nearby residence of Earl Ping’an all sent people over to inquire about the news and ask if help was needed.
Song Jue dealt with them all one by one.
Before long, people from the Five Cities Military Commission also arrived, saying the fire had been so large it had alarmed the night-watch soldiers, and they had come to ask if assistance was needed.
Old Madam Song was tormented by all these miscellaneous matters until her head felt like splitting. In her heart, she deeply detested this fire and couldn’t help stamping her feet, ordering First Madam to definitely supervise Lady Lin Hai in conducting a strict investigation.
She had suffered a terrible fright and truly couldn’t hold on any longer. After thinking it over, she decided to have both Song Chuyi and Song Yan stay together at Ningde Courtyard to make do for the night.
Song Yan had already awakened. Opening his pitch-black eyes to watch the courtyard where he lived reduced to ashes, he gradually stood up with his sister’s support. He turned his head to scan the crowd, then suddenly pointed in the direction of the second branch’s main courtyard and raised his head, speaking clearly to Song Ren: “Uncle, I saw Nanny Yu. Before the fire, she came to my room to deliver embroidery patterns to Zhenzhu, and even made a special point of paying her respects to me.”
Song Ren and his wife exchanged glances, both recalling who this Nanny Yu was, and were immediately shocked and alarmed.
If their speculation was truly correct, then this Nanny Yu was truly audacious beyond measure!
“Someone come!” Song Ren immediately turned his head to order Lin Hai: “Take some people and detain that Nanny Yu—no, detain everyone from the second branch’s main residence together and bring them all to Taoran Residence!”
Song Chuyi followed Song Yan’s pointing finger toward the second branch’s direction but didn’t immediately become angry.
She only felt it strange—in her past life, this Nanny Yu hadn’t seemed particularly loyal to Li Shi. In the early period, she had been quite faithful, but later for some unknown reason she had fallen out with Li Shi, who had sent her far away to a manor in Jiangnan.
Would such a person who would offend Li Shi over other matters truly take such desperate risks for Li Shi’s death, risking her life and her children to fight to mutual destruction?
Moreover, Nanny Yu was just a servant—where did she get the audacity to run to her master’s courtyard late at night to commit arson?
Taking ten thousand steps back, even if she had such audacity and was indeed wholeheartedly devoted to Li Shi, where did she get the opportunity? The second branch now was different from before. Everyone knew Li Shi had committed crimes and the second branch had lost power. How had she managed to avoid the residence’s patrolling servant women and brazenly entered the garden to reach Song Yan’s residence?
Unless someone else was directing her from behind.
But Li Shi was already dead, and the Li family didn’t have the audacity to so quickly extend their hands back into the Song residence. So who was so impatient to utilize the residual value of Nanny Yu and her ilk to kill Song Yan?
She dug her nails into her flesh, forcing herself to think again and again, but ultimately came to no conclusion.
If speaking of possibilities, everyone in the Li family and Song Chuning were all possible, but Song Chuning was after all still just a six-year-old little girl… Immediately, she widened her eyes in disbelief. A six-year-old age naturally couldn’t be so ruthless and vicious, but what if she too had been reborn into another’s body? What if the soul residing in her six-year-old body was also decades old?!
She was so shocked by her own thought that she froze somewhat, until Song Yan pulled at her hand and shook it, bringing her back to herself.
Old Madam Song was looking at the siblings with some concern: “Whatever needs to be said can wait until tomorrow. Yan’er has been badly frightened—tomorrow we should find an imperial physician to examine him. Tonight, just make do in the canopy bed at my place.”
Old Madam Song’s mind was unsettled, and she felt deep lingering fear. The Cui family people were still in the capital, and Lady Cui had even heard to have entered the palace to pay respects to the Emperor and Empress. If something had happened to Song Yan at this critical juncture, she didn’t dare imagine the consequences. Today’s fire was also extremely suspicious, as if someone had calculated that Song Chengru would be on night duty at the Western Garden, and that Song Ren and Song Jue would both be at a social gathering at Earl Ping’an’s residence before returning home… The more she thought about it, the more her hair stood on end, her facial expression unable to hide her震怒震anger and fury.
However, Song Chuyi instinctively knew they couldn’t wait until tomorrow. Since Nanny Yu dared to risk her life to do this thing that would almost certainly result in death, she must have made up her mind to die. If the night-watch women were careless for a moment, the person might be gone.
“Grandmother…” She lowered her head to look at her younger brother, momentarily unable to make up her mind. Perhaps because he had just experienced the great fire, Song Yan was gripping her hand tightly. At this moment, she truly couldn’t bear to abandon Song Yan.
First Madam also urged them to return to their rooms to rest, especially Li Qingzi—she was pregnant but not yet three months along, and her pregnancy was somewhat unstable. If something else went wrong at this time, there would truly be nowhere to cry.
“Qing Tao, you’ll have to work hard tonight.” Song Chuyi steadied herself and turned her head to look at Qing Tao: “Go with Hong Yu to Taoran Residence to keep watch. You absolutely must not let Nanny Yu seek death. As for the rest, we’ll sort it out tomorrow.”
The moon hid behind the clouds. Outside Ningde Courtyard, two bright cowhide palace lanterns emitted dim yellow light. Song Chuyi looked at the still-shaken Song Yan, only feeling she had a heart full of things she wanted to say, yet couldn’t speak a single word.
Since her rebirth until now, she had been racking her brains planning for his future, but she had neglected the present. If this time Song Yan had met with disaster…
Guilt and self-reproach truly left her unable to speak half a word. After a long while, her tears finally fell onto her hands. Looking at Song Yan, her voice low as she apologized: “I’m sorry, A’Yan. I’m sorry.”
Song Yan instead smiled. Just as he had done a thousand times before, he reached out to grasp Song Chuyi’s hand: “Elder Sister, I know you don’t dislike me.”
When they were small and played games together, because of Li Shi’s instigation, Song Chuyi had always been unwilling to bring along this clingy little tail, always pushing him to the other side, finding him a burden.
But after returning from the Cui family, Song Yan had gradually noticed something different—every time they went to pay respects to Old Madam, Song Chuyi would definitely sit beside him. When he and Third Brother had a snowball fight by the lake, upon returning to the courtyard there would be hot chicken soup sent by Nanny Xu along with ginger tea to ward off the cold… His maternal grandmother and aunt had both told him that he and his sister were the only blood-related siblings that Cui Shi had left in this world, and they should love each other and support one another.
He wasn’t very talkative. Aside from being close to Third Brother, he didn’t have other siblings he played well with. Only toward Sixth Sister, his blood sister, did he forever hold the warmest affection.
“You can’t predict the future—how can this be blamed on you?” Song Yan’s still somewhat pale face bloomed with a bright smile.