The vitality in the prefectural yamen seemed to vanish all at once, with silence everywhere so oppressive it felt terrifying.
Concubine Bai cowered in her room, having lost all her usual composure. At the sound of the door opening, she startled so badly that Xiang Lian couldn’t help but stumble back a step in fright.
Only after seeing clearly who had come did she relax with a sigh of relief, collapsing into her chair listlessly and waving her hand at him weakly as she asked, “How is it?”
Last night, the main courtyard had been in chaos all night long, crying and shouting mixed into complete disorder. The sounds carried faintly on the wind, frightening her so much she couldn’t sleep peacefully—every time she closed her eyes, she would be startled awake.
Originally, whether Song Linlang died or not actually made no difference. With her half-dead appearance and having completely fallen out with Xiang Yunzhang, she couldn’t stir up any trouble at all. If it were up to Concubine Bai’s wishes, she would have preferred that Song Linlang live on for a few more years.
But who could have known whether things were truly so coincidental, or if Song Linlang had deliberately chosen this timing to disgust her and Xiang Yunzhang—she actually picked this exact moment to go to the King of Hell’s palace.
She didn’t know if Xiang Yunzhang had seen the look in Xiang Mingzi’s eyes yesterday when she looked at the two of them—a gaze filled with fury mixed with hatred wishing them dead, making even her, a seasoned actress who had played many roles, feel a chill down her spine.
She also didn’t know what wild accusations Xiang Mingzi might make when Old Madam Song arrived!
Xiang Lian shook his head, his rotund body rolling onto the daybed, nestling comfortably into the thick Hangzhou satin cushions with only his head sticking out for Concubine Bai to see. “Probably won’t make it. People going in and out are all crying terribly. That usually fierce one—what’s her name, Nanny Zheng—her eyes are so swollen from crying she can barely see.”
Concubine Bai grew somewhat agitated. She stood up, walked a few steps, twisted his ear, and scolded him while pinching her handkerchief, “Who asked you about that?! I’m asking what the doctor said!”
Nanny Zheng had clearly been trying to pin the blame on her yesterday, and she had indeed met with the madam alone. If the doctor said something troublesome on top of that, it would truly be a headache.
Xiang Lian cried out “Ow, ow!” a couple times, rolled away to dodge Concubine Bai’s hand, his two eyes spinning in a circle before he looked at Concubine Bai with a laugh, his tone somewhat mocking, “Concubine Mother, you’re really ruthless. Did you know her old madam was coming, so you prepared arsenic for her in advance?”
Arsenic?!
Concubine Bai’s face turned deathly pale without a trace of color. She stared at Xiang Lian with wide, disbelieving eyes. After a long moment, she mechanically turned her neck to look toward the direction of the main courtyard, her voice trembling violently, “What arsenic?”
She vaguely felt that somewhere there was a great net spreading open toward her—even toward the entire Xiang family. But instinctively, she also felt her own thoughts were laughable. Could Song Linlang really use her own life to frame others? Moreover, Old Madam Song hadn’t even arrived yet, and Xiang Yunzhang was still after all the local magistrate—surely he could control what these people said or didn’t say?
Xiang Lian propped his chin on one hand, his expression appearing quite leisurely. He raised his eyebrows and repeated, “Just arsenic. Didn’t Doctor Yao say that she consumed an excessive amount of arsenic, which caused her condition to worsen beyond recovery?”
Concubine Bai’s face became wooden as she slumped into the chair. She felt her mind turn into complete chaos. She glanced sideways at her son, but her heart felt utterly empty without a single thought.
At this moment, a young maid pushed the door open and entered, breathlessly calling out to Concubine Bai, “Concubine Mother, Concubine Mother, our family’s old madam has arrived!”
Our family’s old madam?
Concubine Bai’s eyeballs rolled. She seemed to come back to life, grabbed Xiang Lian to pull him up, and rushed outward both alarmed and delighted, “Quickly go welcome your grandmother!”
Old Madam Xiang had traveled all the way, dusty from the road, yet her appearance remained immaculately arranged—not even a hair out of place. Her whole person sat with a stern face in the upper seat of the flower hall, listening to whatever Xiang Yunzhang was saying.
Concubine Bai shot Xiang Lian a look, then quietly pushed him from behind. In just a few moves, she had Xiang Lian kneeling before Old Madam Xiang.
Xiang Lian had always been Old Madam Xiang’s precious darling, naturally understanding Concubine Bai’s meaning. He reacted extremely quickly, properly kowtowing to Old Madam Xiang and formally greeting her.
Old Madam Xiang set aside her previous stern expression and put on a warm, kindly smile. She personally helped Xiang Lian up, but with just one look, she knew something was wrong. She turned to look at Xiang Yunzhang and Concubine Bai, her expression severe, “How have you been taking care of the child? Why does he look so haggard?”
Xiang Yunzhang opened his mouth but didn’t know how to respond, furrowing his brow with a troubled expression.
It was Concubine Bai who gently and weakly shook her head, taking the blame upon herself, “It’s all this concubine’s fault for not properly caring for the eldest young master…”
Old Madam Xiang’s face immediately darkened. She lovingly stroked Xiang Lian’s face, her voice like ice and snow in the depths of winter, “I know you’re all spineless people who can’t make decisions.”
She laughed mockingly while looking at her own son, “But that decisive wife of yours—where is she? Not helping you manage things?”
Old Madam Xiang had fought with Song Linlang for so many years and could enumerate her crimes like counting family treasures.
Concubine Bai kept her head lowered, not daring to speak. Xiang Yunzhang also tried to speak several times but closed his mouth again. The hall fell somewhat cold and quiet for a moment.
Just then, from outside suddenly arose waves of crying, each louder than the last. On such an evening without sunset, it added a few degrees of eeriness and terror.
“What’s going on?!” Old Madam Xiang was so startled she stood up, her brows showing considerable displeasure. “What is this wailing like someone’s died?”
The elderly were very superstitious about such things—for instance, one must not hear crying sounds in the evening, must not open umbrellas in ancestral halls, cannot see dead people after traveling far, and so on.
Xiang Yunzhang and Concubine Bai exchanged glances, but both seemed to understand something. They hastily stood up.
Sure enough, soon a servant who had been keeping watch at the main courtyard came running in frantically to report the news, “The madam… she’s gone!”
Old Madam Xiang was shocked. She knew that the Song family would soon be sending people, and now Song Linlang had died at this critical juncture—how could the Song family let this go?
What a spoiled young lady—even in death, she didn’t know to pick a good time to die, specializing in creating trouble and unpleasantness for people.
She stood still for a while, holding Xiang Lian in her arms so he wouldn’t hear. She sneered coldly, “What did I say back then? A young lady from a high-ranking family who spent every day soaking in honey jars and medicine pots—our family couldn’t afford to keep someone like that. It would have been better to find someone of matching social status. But you refused to listen, thinking your mother would harm you. Now look—the household is no household, the wife is no wife, and even the daughter she raised only knows how to fight against you!”
Xiang Yunzhang kept his head lowered, not listening to his mother’s words. She had never said a kind word about Song Linlang, and now that the woman was dead, she still had to take the opportunity to mock her a few times before feeling she hadn’t suffered a loss.