In early December, every household began bringing out large urns to steam glutinous rice wine. The sky was filled with the scent of burning wheat straw, mingling with the fragrance of glutinous rice, enveloping everyone’s good mood in a mist of joy.

Yet the families along this street had somehow heard some news and for some unknown reason abandoned their work at hand. They didn’t even have time to collect the wine urns by the river, and rushed swiftly toward the crowd like a swarm of bees.

Some busybodies in wine shops and teahouses noticed this and curiously craned their heads out to look, asking in confusion, “Hey, what’s going on? Our Qingzhou City has always taken the rice wine steaming custom as seriously as New Year’s—why are these people acting so strangely?”

A server came up to refill their tea. Seeing them, he smiled with his towel draped over his shoulder and struck up conversation. “You gentlemen clearly just returned from traveling and don’t know that a major incident has occurred in our city! All these people are going to watch the excitement. If my family wasn’t waiting for my monthly wages, I’d have to go watch too. This really is something so extraordinary you’ve never even heard of it!”

Several young men in brocade robes exchanged glances and smiled with interest. “Oh? Then we really must hear about it and broaden our horizons. What major incident has occurred?”

The server smacked his lips, finally finding a legitimate reason to slack off. He quickly bowed and spoke with flying spittle, “You don’t know! Our Qingzhou City’s Prefect, he actually allowed his concubine to murder his lawful wife! And he even conspired with a witch doctor to burn his own daughter to death!”

The group was somewhat stunned, their expressions showing both disbelief and suspicion as they looked down from the building—this crowd of commoners was indeed heading toward the prefectural yamen.

“Yan Tang…” A handsome young man in red robes frowned and looked at another refined and elegant young man, asking, “Didn’t you return this time specifically to visit that aunt of yours?”

Guo Yantang had already stood up in disbelief, leaning out the window to look, then forcibly suppressed his anger and sat back down. He turned to look at the scratching his head server and questioned, “Surely you’re not making up stories?! The Prefect’s lawful wife came from a prestigious family—how could his concubine possibly be so bold as to dare harm the lawful wife?”

The server’s face turned red at his distrustful gaze. He excitedly insisted it was true and pointed to the packed teahouse full of customers. “My young master, would I risk my life? If this matter weren’t true, would I dare say such things to slander our parent official? See today’s full house? They’ve all come to watch the excitement—even people from neighboring counties have made special trips to see! With such a huge commotion, do you think this matter is real or not? The Prefect even wanted to kill his own daughter to silence her, but unfortunately was a step too late. She was rescued by her lawful mother’s family. The lawful wife’s family filed a complaint before the Governor, and now the Governor has already arrested the Prefect!”

Guo Yantang couldn’t quite describe his current feelings. When he came last year, Song Linlang was still perfectly fine…

He caught the key point in the server’s words and asked with a cold face, “Madam Xiang’s natal family all came?”

If the Song family had sent people, then what happened to Song Linlang was most likely true. He hadn’t expected that this Xiang Yunzhang, Magistrate Xiang, whom his mother looked down upon, would actually have the audacity to not only allow concubines to lord over his lawful wife but also viciously poison his lawful wife to death.

The server nodded, still looking somewhat sad and pitiful. “Who says otherwise? They’re all from prestigious families, yet they couldn’t protect their own daughter. I heard the old madam even fell ill from anxiety.”

At this moment, the Old Madam Song who was supposedly ill with anxiety according to the server was sitting perfectly fine on a couch. She listened coldly with perked ears to the commotion outside for a while, then sneered, “Public opinion can melt metal; accumulated slander can destroy bones. Xiang Yunzhang’s official career has come to an end.”

Song Chuyi was using a small hammer to crack walnuts for her to make walnut milk. Hearing this, she also pulled up the corners of her mouth in a mocking smile. “Water can carry a boat but also overturn it. Even the Emperor must consider public sentiment—how much more so a mere prefect? He’s already reached the point where heaven and earth are outraged. Even heaven itself cannot protect him.”

Old Madam Song watched Song Chuyi concentrate wholly on shelling walnuts. The fierce ruthlessness in her heart was strangely suppressed somewhat. She touched Song Chuyi’s head and sighed, “It’s also thanks to you. In this battle of public opinion, we truly did nothing yet won thoroughly and completely. Xiang Yunzhang’s reputation is also ruined.”

“That’s actually not the most important thing.” Song Chuyi shook her head and looked at Old Madam Song. “Even without all this discussion and bad reputation, you and Uncle Li wanting to deal with Magistrate Xiang wouldn’t be difficult. He’s been a prefect for so many years—he couldn’t possibly be truly clean. Even if he wanted to be clean, I’m afraid his concubine and mother wouldn’t let him be clean. What’s important is that after this battle of public opinion, the Xiang family has no reason to keep holding Cousin.”

Previously, no matter what, Xiang Mingzi still bore the surname Xiang. No matter how capable the Song family was, they couldn’t go against clan law and human ethics. But now everyone knew what kind of family the Xiang family was—poisoning the lawful wife for the sake of a concubine, burning the legitimate daughter for the sake of a concubine-born son. What right did such a family have to continue raising Xiang Mingzi?

Moreover, rumors were already circulating among the common people that the concubine poisoned the lawful wife under the instigation of Old Madam Xiang—Old Madam Xiang despised the lawful wife for producing no children over the years and had even begun looking for a replacement wife.

Plus, on the day Song Linlang’s body was seized, quite a few people witnessed it with their own eyes. Third Master cried tears and snot, the scene was heartbreaking and moving… If Miss Xiang remained in such a conscienceless and deranged family, who knows if she’d end up with the same fate as Madam Xiang. Many people hoped the Song family could take Miss Xiang away.

Old Madam Song was somewhat lost in thought and didn’t speak for a long while.

Only after Song Chuyi had picked out all the walnut kernels and placed them in a fine white porcelain jade dish did she come back to her senses and nod.

Song Chuyi pulled the blanket up higher for her and turned to leave.

Old Madam Song called her back, hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Xiaoyi, did you guess something?”

Song Chuyi’s steps thus stopped. She turned back to look at Old Madam Song, thought for a moment, pursed her lips, and nodded. “After Aunt Li helped us find Yun He and the others, I saw you keep Nanny Wang and Nanny Zheng alone for a while. Afterward, Third Uncle went to seize Aunt’s remains. At that time, I vaguely guessed something…”

Old Madam Song gave a bitter laugh, then felt this matter truly had no one she could tell—she couldn’t hold it in until returning home to tell Old Master Song. Therefore, her voice was heavy as she sighed, “She calculated the time of our arrival and poisoned herself.”

Song Linlang, who had always regarded Xiang Yunzhang and the Xiang family as her whole world, finally before her death thoroughly ruined Xiang Yunzhang once and for all. And this single strike was enough to ensure Xiang Yunzhang would never recover.