Before long, everyone in the manor had been summoned to the study by Duke Pingguo. Not only the entire Fifth Branch, but even the First Young Master, Fourth Young Master, as well as Seventh Young Master and Eighth Young Master were all called in. Aside from the Fourth Young Mistress who didn’t attend due to her pregnancy, all the masters of the household who had any say in matters were already gathered in Menghua Pavilion.

When Fifth Young Master and Fifth Young Mistress entered, both wore expressions of slight confusion. Yu Ning glanced at Duke Pingguo’s face, then looked worriedly at Seventh Miss, before turning her head to whisper a few words with Yu Tai. The two then fell silent, respectfully taking their seats at the far end, following the example of First Young Master and First Young Mistress by staring at their toes without speaking.

Xu Fengjia led Seventh Miss in, his face wooden as he took his seat below Duke Pingguo. Duke Pingguo sat high behind his desk, carefully paging through those two yellowed family genealogies several more times before raising his head. His stern gaze swept around the room as he slowly said, “The reason I’ve called you all here today is that the matter from three years ago finally has an answer.”

At these words, everyone’s color changed in alarm. First Young Mistress immediately raised her head, glancing at Duke Pingguo in shock before looking questioningly toward Seventh Miss.

Seventh Miss’s face was grave as water. She shook her head at First Young Mistress, ignoring her silent signal.

Even First Young Master couldn’t help himself. He made as if to stand, “Father, such a momentous matter—Mother has returned to the manor, should we not…”

Before he could finish, Madam Xu had already crossed the threshold. Everyone immediately rose to pay their respects, then took their seats again.

Duke Pingguo seized this opportunity to look over each of the household’s masters in turn.

The smile on Fifth Young Master’s face had naturally faded. His expression now carried a trace of hidden worry, with a hint of excitement faintly visible. Fifth Young Mistress wore a face full of curiosity mixed with vague concern. She looked at First Young Mistress, then at Fourth Young Master, as if trying to guess who the real culprit might be.

Duke Pingguo couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

This time, Yu Jing truly couldn’t clear her name even if she jumped into the Yellow River.

For a moment, he felt a slight regret: had he known of Yu Jing’s capabilities, he shouldn’t have found him such a wife. Zhang Shi was simply too capable, which was why she couldn’t be controlled by her husband at all. Now things had come to this—the entire Fifth Branch would be implicated because of her.

He glanced at Madam Xu.

His wife’s expression was solemn, all her thoughts seemingly blocked behind that frost-covered mask. Even with Duke Pingguo’s intimate knowledge of her, he could only vaguely detect a trace of satisfaction and almost endless anger in her heart.

After all, Shanli was her own niece whom she’d watched grow up—she had been very fond of her…

Looking again at Fengjia and Yang Shi, this young couple wore grave expressions, but truly hadn’t revealed a single thought for him to see.

For such a thing to happen in the family was truly a household misfortune. Moreover, the Fifth Branch was the Grand Dowager’s favorite, so how to handle this matter appropriately and proportionately left even Duke Pingguo feeling deeply troubled for a moment.

Yang Shi was no ordinary daughter from some common family who could be casually molded and shaped at will. If his handling couldn’t convince her completely, and she went back to her natal family to complain, with another appeal to the palace, many things would become unclear…

Duke Pingguo glanced at Yu Ning and Yu Tai again. Seeing the innocent curiosity on these two children’s faces, he couldn’t help but sigh deeply in his heart before saying coolly, “Let Yang Shi explain this matter.”

Seventh Miss glanced at Duke Pingguo, then had no choice but to stand again. She began from Doctor Zhong, then spoke of Yu An.

“Although Fifth Sister was waiting outside the room at the time, she very likely didn’t hear what Doctor Zhong said, and naturally wouldn’t have paid attention to who else was inside listening.” Seventh Miss said coolly, her gaze wandering uncertainly around the room. It drifted to Fifth Young Mistress’s face, but before she could react, shifted away again.

Duke Pingguo suddenly asked Madam Xu, “You brought Yu An, didn’t you?”

Only then did everyone realize that Madam Xu had been delayed because she went to fetch Yu An. Madam Xu’s expression remained unchanged as she nodded. Naturally, someone went out to bring Yu An in.

The young girl wore a frightened expression. After entering and paying respects to her parents, she stood with her head lowered while Duke Pingguo asked, “Three years ago, the day before your Sixth Sister-in-law passed away, you entered Mingde Hall to visit her, didn’t you?”

Yu An nodded, her voice like a mosquito’s hum, “After the incident, Yu An repeatedly recalled it many times, so I remember this matter very clearly. At that time, when Yu An entered the room…”

Though the young girl looked quite timid and her voice wasn’t loud—seeming to fear Duke Pingguo to the utmost degree—her tone was very steady, and her account quite clear. She described the scene inside the main room while waiting that day very vividly.

When she finished, Duke Pingguo instructed her, “You may go. This doesn’t concern you.”

As an unmarried daughter awaiting marriage, neither she nor Yu Ping were qualified to participate in family secrets. Yu An obediently turned around. She gave Seventh Miss a meaningful look, then curiously examined First Young Mistress and Fifth Young Mistress, as if searching for the possible culprit between these two, before being led out by an old nanny.

Duke Pingguo listened as those two light footsteps gradually faded into the distance. He raised his head again, surveying everyone.

The First Branch couple needn’t be mentioned—apart from their initial surprise, they had only exchanged a few glances before becoming like clay statues again, simply waiting for a result.

The Fourth Branch even less so—Fourth Young Master was completely confused. He fundamentally didn’t know the details of what had happened in Mingde Hall at that time.

But the Fifth Branch couple’s performance was different.

Fifth Young Mistress still wore a face full of curiosity and nervousness, as if she too wanted to know who could be so conscienceless. Anyone who didn’t know better would never connect her with the culprit. However, a trace of faint gloom had already appeared between Fifth Young Master’s brows…

Duke Pingguo glanced at Seventh Miss again.

Yang Shi was also looking at him, those water-clear eyes seeming to overflow with faint mockery—

Duke Pingguo started slightly. When he looked more carefully, he saw Yang Shi tilt her head slightly at him, as if silently asking whether she could continue her account.

He exhaled lightly and nodded at Yang Shi with authority, listening as her clear voice continued.

“With Yu An’s testimony, the suspects naturally fell to the old nanny and Little Songhua. We’ve separately employed methods to secretly investigate the backgrounds of these two people. The old nanny’s history is clean, but Little Songhua has a sister who married and moved to Guangzhou. Her brother-in-law is a battalion commander in the military. When Shengluan went south to Guangzhou the second time, he served under his command.”

She didn’t look toward any particular person, as if merely analyzing for the air itself. But the atmosphere in the room still tightened sharply with this statement. The tension in the air seemed to spark with electricity—just the slightest friction could ignite it.

Fifth Young Mistress’s heart trembled violently.

Suddenly, she knew everything was finished—she had lost completely.

No wonder Yang Shi had been abnormally quiet recently. Though she herself had repeatedly used the concubine issue to make Seventh Miss lose face before Duke Pingguo, Yang Shi hadn’t taken offense, hadn’t even retaliated once.

So she had put all her energy into this…

She quickly flashed a glance at Yang Shi. This stepwife with her plain features and smooth manner didn’t look at her once, but continued her account, describing in detail how she had tortured Little Songhua to obtain her confession, admitting that she had been urged by her parents to mix several medicinal ingredients into the medicine packet.

As if she had no answer at all, completely unaware which thread Little Songhua was connected to behind the scenes.

Fifth Young Mistress couldn’t help but sneer coldly in her heart.

Brilliant—truly brilliant tactics. She had been outplayed by one move. This time, she had truly lost as thoroughly as possible.

If not for last year’s incident, what did it matter if they traced it to Wu Xun’s family? Wu Xun’s family had always been her hidden connection, with no surface relationship to anyone. But she had been too careless, treating Yang Shanheng like her foolish older sister, making her arrangements too obviously theatrical.

She had also truly underestimated this quiet little concubine-born daughter who never spoke an extra word. Who would have thought that while she appeared gentle on the surface, privately she was so shrewd and ruthless? With just one thread, she had maneuvered and turned things until she pulled up a whole string of gourds from beneath the water. And she could remain completely unmoved, allowing Fifth Young Mistress to grasp the concubine stick and thrust it straight at her heart—yet she could endure it all without any response, until she held ironclad evidence, then strike the winning blow in one move… This person was truly like an assassin—often just one sword thrust was enough to determine everything.

She lowered her eyes, maintaining that innocent expression while rapidly calculating in her heart.

Since things had reached this point, denying everything would be the stupidest response. Great families cared above all about face. If it came to the point of torturing her, there would likely be no more courtesies between the Zhang family and the Xu family, and this fool Fifth Young Master’s days in the household would become even harder.

But this matter wasn’t entirely without hope for survival…

It was obvious—the Duke’s wife had returned this morning, and by evening, the Duke had called everyone in to hear Yang Shanheng recite “The Cases of Judge Bao.” Looking at his expression, it seemed this matter had first gone through the Duke’s wife before reaching the Duke, who had only just learned of it before calling everyone in for confrontation.

This didn’t seem like his usual practice. Even she herself would have first gathered all the physical evidence and personally investigated again, waiting until she was certain the evidence was ironclad with no room for sophistry before calling the couple in for confrontation.

To be so rushed—it was probably to leave the Fifth Branch a thread of room to maneuver…

After all, Fifth Young Master was also Duke Pingguo’s biological son. If he could protect him, the Duke still would.

Fifth Young Mistress looked at Fifth Young Master again and sighed deeply in her heart.

This fool probably still hadn’t grasped the Duke’s intention and was already resigned to his fate, unable to think of a single solution.

People like Duke Pingguo—almost every action had its own purpose. His unusual urgency tonight naturally had its purpose too.

Losing meant losing. Even with Duke Pingguo’s help, there was no possibility of turning this around. Yang Shanheng had the Yang family behind her, the Sun family, and even the currently favored Consort Ning in the palace. With her natal family being so powerful, how could Duke Pingguo possibly cover this up?

Besides, Duke Pingguo probably had no intention of helping her turn things around. What he hoped she would do was definitely not make excuses and quibble.

Since she had already lost, what use were any regrets, remorse, or resentment? What was needed now was to minimize the damage from this entire affair and protect the Fifth Branch’s interests to the greatest degree!

Countless ideas immediately flooded Fifth Young Mistress’s mind as she fell into deep thought.

Seventh Miss’s account had also reached its conclusion. After reading Little Songhua’s confession once, she picked up Qiu Zhi’s confession and read it aloud.

“Upon reaching the capital and settling in Coal Lane, my aunt came to visit me the next day. She said there was a marriage match she could tell me about, and mentioned that the few small tasks I had done for the noble person were all to that person’s satisfaction. The noble person intended to send me to Guangzhou to continue helping me establish myself. I was both shocked and delighted, immediately agreeing on the spot.”

She paused, then continued reading, “Question here: Who is your aunt? Answer: My aunt is the wife of the manor’s steward Wu Xun.”

As these words were spoken, the atmosphere in the room immediately changed subtly. It seemed that in an instant, something was shattered with a crash, and then a swarm of bees flew past. Though ultimately only silence remained, the buzzing of thoughts was even noisier than the bees’ humming.

Seventh Miss didn’t pause because of this. “Question here: What evidence is there? Answer: The two families’ genealogies serve as proof.”

Everyone’s eyes immediately turned to those two yellowed books before Duke Pingguo, then all converged on the Fifth Branch.

Seventh Miss put down the confession and sat back beside Xu Fengjia, also fixing her gaze on Fifth Young Mistress.

By this point, Fifth Young Master’s expression had finally changed.

The false calm on his face had been shattered by Seventh Miss’s words. From his expression, anyone could easily see that this usually cheerful and smiling eldest son who possessed some depth of character had now completely lost his composure. Guilt, shame, shock, fear… countless emotions swirled across his face in succession. Finally, it seemed only a blank confusion remained. As if seeking help, he turned his gaze toward Fifth Young Mistress.

But Fifth Young Mistress’s face was wooden. In complete contrast to her earlier performance, the curiosity and excitement on her face seemed to have been washed away by floodwater, leaving it completely clean. Only those dim eyes seemed to hint at her master’s complex feelings. She slowly gazed at everyone present—Duke Pingguo, Madam Xu, Fifth Young Master, Fourth Young Master, First Young Master and his wife… Finally, her gaze swept past Xu Fengjia and locked with Seventh Miss’s eyes.

The four eyes met. For a moment, neither had any reaction.

Seventh Miss’s heart was filled with mixed emotions. She thought of Fifth Miss, Little Luowen, Little Liujiang…

After the sighs, regrets, melancholy, and sorrow had passed, what remained was ultimately just a trace of victorious joy: the relationship between Wu Xun’s family and Fifth Young Mistress was now ironclad. This matter had reached the point where there was no possibility of reversal—the Fifth Branch was finished.

She curved her eyes at Fifth Young Mistress, revealing a brief smile, then quickly pressed her palms together, closed her eyes and murmured softly, as if offering her own prayer to Fifth Miss.

Fifth Young Mistress’s eyes immediately dimmed.

She slowly stood up, walked to the center of the floor, lifted her skirt, and slowly knelt down, pressing her forehead against the cold blue brick floor.

“All of this was done by this concubine of my own volition,” she said clearly. “Having committed such a grievous error in my deranged state, I now have not a single word to offer in my defense. I ask Father to mete out punishment.”

A trace of deep satisfaction immediately flashed through Duke Pingguo’s eyes.