Upon returning to Lotus Lane, Shiyiniang immediately shared the news with the Old Dowager.

The Old Dowager pressed her palms together and spoke words that were identical to what Her Highness the Empress had said: “May Heaven grant a son this time.”

Nanny Du smiled and withdrew to carry out the task.

A young manservant came rushing in. “Old Dowager, Madam — the Second Young Master has returned!”

Those attending in the room either glanced toward the Old Dowager and Shiyiniang, or lowered their eyes and pretended not to have heard. The smile on the Old Dowager’s face receded slightly, and the previously cheerful atmosphere cooled by several degrees.

The young manservant stood there at a loss.

Shiyiniang quickly said, “Why are you still standing there — go invite him in at once!”

The manservant fled with evident relief.

Shiyiniang then instructed Hupo: “Go tell Lian Jiao in the Second Young Master’s quarters to prepare hot tea and warm water quickly. When the Second Young Master returns to his rooms, there should be someone there to attend to him.”

The atmosphere in the room eased at that. Those who were to carry the news to Xu Siyu’s quarters went off to do so; those who were to prepare tea and refreshments set about their work; and smiles returned to everyone’s faces.

Xu Siyu strode in hurriedly.

“Grandmother, Mother!” He paid his respects quickly to the Old Dowager and Shiyiniang. “How is my yiniang now?”

He wore a sapphire-blue plain silk robe, his face travel-worn, the skin beneath his eyes shadowed a purplish grey, his expression haggard.

The Old Dowager looked at him once, then slowly lifted her teacup and took a quiet sip before speaking unhurriedly. “Have you seen your father yet?”

Xu Siyu’s face flushed crimson all at once. A flicker of shame crossed his features, and just as he was about to speak, the Old Dowager continued: “You have been away from home for some time, have you not? Now that you have returned, propriety dictates that you first go and pay your respects to your father, and ask whether he has anything to say. He may not speak of it, but he has had you in his thoughts all along. You ought to let him see for himself how you have been getting on in Le’an. And then there are Siqin and Sijian — you grew up together from childhood, your bond with them is no ordinary one; you should at least go and say hello. After that, there is Zhen Jie’er, Zhun Ge, and Sijie…” She paused slightly, her gaze settling on Xu Siyu. “This hurried, frantic manner of yours — what does it look like!”

Beads of sweat had already gathered at the tip of Xu Siyu’s nose. The moment the Old Dowager finished speaking, he at once replied respectfully: “It is all your grandson’s rashness. I will go now to change my clothes and pay my respects to Father, and then go and greet my elder brother and the younger ones.”

The Old Dowager gave a satisfied hum and said, “Go then.”

Xu Siyu bowed unhurriedly and withdrew.

A shadow fell over the Old Dowager’s expression. She called Shiyiniang closer and spoke quietly to her: “By the look of him, I fear he cannot wait even a moment longer. Arrange for someone to accompany him presently. Qin Yiniang may be confused in her mind, but upon seeing her son, who can say whether she will grow more confused still, or suddenly come to her senses. Whatever words are spoken, whatever transpires — every detail must be reported back to me. Otherwise we may believe he knows nothing, when in truth he knows everything.”

The implication was clear — a suspicion as to whether Xu Siyu had been involved at all.

As thoughts turned swiftly in her mind, Shiyiniang could not help but wonder inwardly: was permitting Qin Yiniang and Xu Siyu this final meeting a compassionate gesture out of regard for the bond between mother and son? Or was it in fact a means of ascertaining whether Xu Siyu had played any part in the sorcery affair?

She gave an involuntary shake of her head and pressed the thought down to the deepest recesses of her heart, turning her mind instead to the question of whom to send along with Xu Sizhun to the Fallen Leaves Mountain Villa.

If Qin Yiniang said only a few confused words, that would be manageable — but if she said something she ought not to have said, then whoever was sent to listen would likely end up sharing the same fate as Cha Xiang…

Shiyiniang’s brow furrowed slightly, and for a long while she said nothing.

Seeing that she had not spoken, the Old Dowager glanced at Nanny Du beside her and said in a low voice: “I think there is no need to send anyone else. Send that Lian Jiao from Siyu’s quarters. She is his personal attendant — Wenzhu and the others have served Siyu all the way back from Le’an and must be exhausted from the journey; it is only right that those who have stayed at home should relieve Wenzhu and the others for a time.”

Lian Jiao and the rest had, by virtue of serving Xu Siyu, always been on close terms with Qin Yiniang.

Someone had to go. If not one, then another…

Shiyiniang suppressed the unease within her and answered, “Yes.”

Afterward, the Old Dowager could not help but sigh to Nanny Du: “Everything about her is fine — it is only that her heart is too soft.”

Nanny Du smiled. “There is no perfect person in this world. Besides, each person has their own way about them. What you see as a failing, Madam — it may well be precisely what the Marquis values in her.”

The Old Dowager gave a small nod and said no more.

The Fallen Leaves Villa lay to the southwest outside Yanjing, some thirty-odd li from the city. The soil there was poor — even in years of favorable weather, the fields yielded little — and anyone with any strength in their limbs had long since gone into Yanjing to find work, leaving behind vast stretches of empty land that gave the place an air of desolation. The Xu family’s holdings at Fallen Leaves Mountain had originally been part of a great-great-grandmother’s dowry. Though there were several dozen mu of farmland, the villa itself covered no more than four or five mu.

By the time Xu Siyu and his party arrived, it was dusk. A few crows flapped noisily overhead.

Xiao Lü’zi could not suppress a shudder and stepped forward to knock at the gate.

Word had already reached the villa in advance, and a serving woman came at once to answer the door.

“Second Young Master, you have finally come.” The woman dabbed at the corners of her eyes with her handkerchief. “Our Qin Yiniang has been waiting for you.”

Xu Siyu stood with his hands clasped behind his back at the top of the entrance steps, looking down from above at this unfamiliar serving woman before him. The corners of his mouth turned downward, his expression taking on a faint severity. “Where are the maids and serving women who were attending to my yiniang?” He made no move to enter.

The serving woman hesitated slightly. “Two who had not been infected were taken back to the main residence some time ago. A few others were unlucky — they are already gone…”

Before she could finish speaking, Xu Siyu pressed sharply: “So what you are saying is that apart from the two who were not infected at the very beginning, everyone who attended my yiniang is gone!”

The serving woman was no fool. She turned his words over in her mind, found nothing amiss in them, and then answered, “Yes.”

Xu Siyu’s expression remained impassive. Without another word, he lifted his foot and walked inside.

The serving woman hurried forward at a half-trot to precede him and lead the way.

Xu Siyu said nothing, following silently in her wake.

“When did Cui’er die?” At the bend in the corridor, he suddenly asked her.

Xu Siyu’s pace was brisk, and the serving woman, if she let her attention slip even slightly, found herself overtaken. She had been trotting along the whole way — a few steps walking, a few steps jogging — and when he spoke, she was quickening her pace to keep ahead of him, all her attention on her feet. She hastily replied: “Cui’er died on the second day after arriving.”

“How did she die?” Xu Siyu’s pace quickened further.

The serving woman was forced to keep up, but her strength was not equal to it and she began to breathe hard. “She hanged herself!”

Xu Siyu halted without warning. “Malaria is difficult to treat, certainly — but given our family’s resources, our finances, our manpower, it is not as though it were untreatable. Why would she hang herself?”

The serving woman let out a quiet breath of relief.

These questions — Nanny Du had prepared her beforehand with answers to all of them.

“Sores began appearing on her face. She could not bear it, and in a moment of despair, she took her own life.”

Xu Siyu gave a nod and walked on, his bearing upright as a pine.

The serving woman hastened to follow, leading Xu Siyu and his party to the side chamber where Qin Yiniang was lodged. She then said, “Second Young Master, be careful not to be infected. I will open the window — you may speak to Qin Yiniang from beside the window frame.” With that, she pushed the door open and went inside.

A stale, medicine-laden air rushed out to meet them.

Xu Siyu stood at the doorway and surveyed the room.

It was a sweltering day, yet the latticed windows were shut fast and papered with Korean paper, making the room quite dim — though the ceiling was high enough that it remained cool and shaded within. The black-lacquered furniture was a little old, but everything had been tidied and kept immaculately clean. The altar table and side tables, however, were bare, stripped of every ornament, lending the room a forlorn and cheerless air.

“Yiniang has grown somewhat confused,” the serving woman said, following the direction of his gaze and offering an explanation with a smile. “So the things were all put away.” She shifted her body carefully to one side. “Second Young Master, when Nanny Du came two days ago on behalf of the Old Dowager and the Fourth Madam to pay a visit, she only looked in from a distance…” The implication was plain: she was suggesting he take one look and leave.

Xu Siyu had barely heard what she was saying.

Against the far wall sat a black-lacquered canopied bed hung with drapes of pale blue cotton gauze. The figure lying in it was impossible to make out clearly — but one arm, adorned with a jadeite bracelet, hung limply over the edge of the bed.

He recognized that bracelet.

It was the piece his yiniang had treasured most among all the gifts his father had ever given her. A vivid, water-green jade, like a pool of spring water. His yiniang had often admired it in the mirror and said: “…I am a little plump, you know — this suits me best.”

The memory surfaced and passed, and Xu Siyu’s vision blurred.

The bracelet was the same bracelet — clear and verdant green — but the arm, the arm had grown as thin as a hollow reed stalk… as though it could not even bear the weight of that bracelet, hanging there without strength.

Xu Siyu murmured “Yiniang” and ran inside.

But very quickly, he froze at the bedside.

He no longer recognized the person lying in the bed.

A wax-yellow complexion. Sunken eye sockets. Cheekbones jutting out sharply… lying motionless there, the chest barely rising and falling.

“Yiniang!” He knelt at the bedside in sudden alarm, one hand gripping that dangling, skeletal hand tightly, the other reaching gently beneath Qin Yiniang’s nose.

Qin Yiniang shot upright without warning.

Xu Siyu was startled out of his wits.

With a strength entirely beyond what he had expected, Qin Yiniang wrenched her hand free from his grip.

“Who — who — who?” Her voice was shrill and frantic. “Who are you?”

As she demanded, she scrambled backward on all fours, pressing herself into the corner of the bed.

“I am the birth mother of the Second Young Master of the Marquis Yongping household. If you dare harm me, the Second Young Master will return and call you to account.”

Xu Siyu stared at Qin Yiniang with an expression of utter shock — her gaze was vacant, unfocused.

She had gone blind.

The realization lodged in his throat like a fishbone. He could not speak.

Qin Yiniang waited, and when no cold mockery came as it used to, she tilted her head and listened.

The room was utterly quiet, save for the faint sound of breathing and the faint grassy fragrance drifting through the air.

“Second Young Master!” Her face broke into an expression of startled joy. “Second Young Master, you have come back. You have come back to see me.” Her hands swept through the air in a frantic, searching motion. “I knew it. I always knew you would come back to see me.”

Xu Siyu caught those frantic, grasping hands.

“Yiniang,” his voice was thick with grief, “I have come back to see you.”