After the evening banquet, Song Yi stayed in the main courtyard of the Second Branch. Li Shi personally helped him remove his outer garments and specially brought him a bowl of calming soup. “You’ve had a hard journey. Drink this soup and rest early.”

Song Yi took a few sips from her hand but then refused more. Suddenly he asked, “I heard that Xiao Yi fell ill some days ago?”

Li Shi’s heart skipped a beat, but she immediately acted as if nothing was wrong, handing the glass bowl to Su Zhi with a smile. “Indeed. She had a quarrel with her Fourth Sister. Both are children—they don’t know their own strength when they fight.”

Song Yi shook his head with some concern. “What do you mean they don’t know their own strength? When children play together, naturally they don’t know their limits. Otherwise, why have so many nannies and maids following them around? Yet not a single person went to mediate or help—what kind of conduct is this?! And Fourth Girl—she’s the older sister after all. No matter how excessive Xiao Yi’s behavior was, she shouldn’t have struck so harshly!”

This was probably how parents throughout the world thought—their own children were never at fault; the fault always lay with others.

The anger in Li Shi’s heart suddenly surged up, the ruthlessness in her eyes nearly impossible to conceal. However, she quickly covered it up and still smiled gently. “It’s precisely those nannies and maids who didn’t serve well. I’m truly worried about this matter, but unfortunately those are all people left behind by elder sister. It’s not appropriate for me to do anything about them.”

“What’s inappropriate about it?” Song Yi interrupted her without hesitation. “If they’re unsuitable, replace them all. This time she took a fall and ended up like this—who knows what trouble they’ll cause next time.”

Song Yi returned home and didn’t ask first how she had been all these days, didn’t ask about Song Chuning, but instead opened his mouth to talk about Song Chuyi’s illness. Li Shi’s anger intensified, and her tone couldn’t help but become somewhat stiff. “Don’t you know her temperament? Although I’ve devoted my whole heart to her, there’s still a barrier between us after all. If I even interfere with the people around her, how will others view me?”

Seeing her pretty face turn pale and her thin lips pressed tightly together, Song Yi knew she was angry.

“Forget it, forget it.” He pulled her to sit beside him and said, “I know it’s difficult to be a stepmother. However, you come from a scholarly family and are virtuous. You still shouldn’t neglect the children’s upbringing.”

As soon as he softened his tone, the chill surrounding Li Shi instantly dissipated completely, and her previously tense face immediately showed some smile.

“Don’t I know all this? You have eyes too—how I’ve treated those two all these years, can’t you see?” Li Shi nestled in Song Yi’s embrace, her hands circling his neck, her voice growing lower and lower. “I know that in the past, we wronged elder sister…”

The romantic scenes in the back room of Qingliang Temple were vivid in his mind. Cui Shi’s disbelieving look while pregnant with a big belly was still carved in his heart. His temples throbbed several times. Combined with his brother-in-law Cui Yingshu’s various interrogations during this trip to Jinzhong, his heart sank heavily as if falling into an ice cellar.

Li Shi naturally noticed his strange behavior and roughly guessed what Song Yi was thinking now. However, she wasn’t panicked at all and said wistfully, “If only we had been more careful back then… Now when I see Little Six, I feel like I stand a bit lower. I only want to care for her well for elder sister’s sake. Even if she wanted the moon from the sky, I would wish I could climb up and pluck it down for her.”

“A’Ning has become more sensible lately. She often gets angry with me because I favor Little Six a bit more. When she’s not throwing tantrums, she cries secretly behind people’s backs…” Li Shi wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. “It truly breaks my heart to see this. Little Six is certainly pitiable, but what has our A’Ning done to deserve this? In the end, it’s all the sin I’ve committed. I only hope that someday when I draw my last breath and go to the underworld, I can apologize to elder sister.”

This struck right at Song Yi’s heart.

Yes, Song Chuyi who had lost her birth mother was certainly pitiable, but Li Shi had already done her utmost to treat her well, at least making up for some of the loss. Yet their young daughter Song Chuning shouldn’t be neglected either—after all, they were the ones who brought her into this world.

The more Song Yi thought about it, the more his head ached and his heart panicked. His hands trembled somewhat involuntarily. After a long while, he squeezed out a few words of comfort, sighing heavily with some guilt. “Don’t think about it anymore. The dead cannot be brought back to life. Let’s sleep.”

Li Shi sobbed quietly for a while, then suddenly seemed to remember something. She tugged at Song Yi’s lapel and rested her head on his chest. “Second Brother, do you think Nanny Xu might know something?”

Song Yi felt as if someone had poured a basin of cold water over him in winter. His entire being instantly became alert, with not a trace of sleepiness left. His spine stiffened, and his voice couldn’t help but take on a solemn tone. “Nanny Xu? How would she know… Has she said something to Xiao Yi?”

Li Shi reached out to gently stroke his chest. “No, no. I’m just speaking idly. It’s just that last time Little Six went to kneel in the ancestral hall, it made me uneasy after all. I’m truly afraid that Little Six has been instigated by someone, that she’s believed those unreliable rumors, and has come to hate us…”

The veins on Song Yi’s forehead throbbed. After a long silence, he said in a muffled voice, “Find an opportunity to send that Nanny Xu away. However, she was close to Zhanmei after all, so don’t treat her too poorly. Send her to some estate to live out her years. Send her far away and never let her return.”

Li Shi had been waiting for exactly these words from Song Yi. No one understood Song Yi better than she did. How much effort had she devoted to Song Yi! Now she had deliberately obscured the matter of Song Chuyi going to the ancestral hall, making Song Yi think that Song Chuyi had become suspicious about Cui Shi’s death. Someone like Song Yi—on the surface appearing refined and upright, but in reality like a child who had never grown up, without any real principles. After all these years, he was still guilt-ridden over Cui Shi’s death, feeling guilty whenever it was mentioned. This was also why Nanny Xu often cried about Cui Shi in front of him—because crying worked every time, and she could get whatever she asked for.

But now with this poison administered, the suspicious and sensitive Song Yi would no longer be able to face Song Chuyi with a clear conscience in the future.

Li Shi curved her lips with satisfaction, smiling with triumph. The inner quarters ran deep indeed. Did she think that by diligently practicing etiquette and rules to curry favor with Old Madam, she could rest easy? Dream on.

She had waited a full five years until today to administer poison against Song Chuyi for the first time, precisely so she could crush her completely with one blow and ensure she could never rise again.

Just wait. When Cui Shi died back then, it was too sudden—she hadn’t had time to experience much suffering. But Song Chuyi had plenty of days ahead to taste all these hardships. She would make sure Cui Shi and Cui Shi’s children all tasted the bitterness she herself had suffered back then.