The next morning when they got up, neither showed any unusual signs. After dealing with Fourth Lang and Fifth Lang, who were very angry about not being woken up last night, they went together to Leshan Residence to pay their respects. At Leshan Residence, Xu Fengjia even intimately chatted with Fifth Young Master in low voices about trivial matters in their aristocratic social circle.
Because yesterday at Tanzhe Temple had indeed been tiring, the Grand Dowager’s spirits weren’t very good. After saying a few words to Duke Pingguo, she asked Fifth Younger Madam, “Did you give her the safe childbirth talisman?”
Fifth Younger Madam hurried to reply with a beaming smile, “When Liao Shi received the talisman, she was so happy she wiped away tears. She said she wanted to come thank Old Ancestor this morning. I said if she came in the morning with people coming and going, she hasn’t started showing yet, and if there was any collision causing something to happen, that wouldn’t be good. So I had her come in the afternoon instead to keep Old Ancestor company.”
Before the Grand Dowager could speak, Duke Pingguo had already asked, “Who is Liao Shi?”
A trace of displeasure flashed in Fourth Younger Madam’s eyes. She hurried to explain to Duke Pingguo, “She’s one of Fifth Brother’s chamber women, the one who recently became pregnant. This time when going out, Grandmother specially sought a safe childbirth talisman for her.”
To so honor a mere chamber woman was really somewhat excessive. Duke Pingguo stroked his beard but didn’t say anything more. He changed the topic and asked Xu Fengjia, “What have you been busy with lately, never at home? The other day Commander Jiang from the Thousand Household Office came to speak with me. I asked, and there weren’t any major matters at the office either.”
Xu Fengjia said naturally, “It’s just that certain person has come up with many new ideas again…”
Before he could finish speaking, both the Grand Dowager and Duke Pingguo hurriedly said, “Be careful with your words. Is His Majesty’s status something you can casually discuss?”
They immediately stopped asking. Duke Pingguo couldn’t even be bothered with Liao Shi’s matter and dismissed Xu Fengjia. “Go be busy with your affairs. You don’t need to worry about family matters.”
Fifth Younger Madam’s expression immediately became somewhat cooler. Xu Fengjia nonchalantly agreed. Fourth Young Master also said, “If there’s anything you need help with, Sixth Brother, just speak up.”
“We’re family after all.” Xu Fengjia said with a smile. “Fourth Brother, those words are too distant.”
The atmosphere in Leshan Residence immediately became even more harmonious.
Now that the case had progressed to this point, any arrangements would have to wait until Commander Liao brought back the genealogy. Xu Fengjia still had matters to attend to, but Seventh Miss had nothing much to worry about besides household affairs. In the afternoon, after sending Yiniang Mao to Leshan Residence to pay respects to the Grand Dowager, she sat cross-legged idly on the kang, then took out the confessions and other materials she had obtained these past days to review.
Currently, the materials in her hands that could be considered evidence weren’t actually many. There was one confession with Xiao Songhua’s own signature and fingerprint, confessing that she was instructed by someone to mix two foreign substances into the medicinal herbs, detailing the whole story, including the relationship with the Wu Xun family, which was all recorded. Additionally, her brother-in-law Qiu Zhi had another confession, confessing his kinship relationship with the Wu family and Xiao family, and also admitting the fact that over these years he had continuously received silver from the Wu Xun family. However, Xu Fengjia had been cautious and made two versions of the confession. The first included the one hundred and fifty thousand taels in ship deeds, while the other didn’t mention the ship deeds at all.
If this matter of one hundred and fifty thousand taels was reported upward, it would inevitably implicate the Grand Dowager, and would require explaining the usury matter. This whole affair had already been stirred by Fifth Younger Madam and Seventh Miss into such a complicated fog that it couldn’t be explained in just a sentence or two. Seventh Miss pondered for a long while before finally securely storing away the confession that included the ship deeds together with the deeds and account book. Then she contemplated these two flimsy confessions again.
“Why was there suddenly an additional dose of saffron?” She couldn’t help murmuring to herself again.
Of course, Xiao Songhua’s confession also mentioned that she hadn’t discovered any trace of saffron in the small medicine packet she received—only some brownish seed-like objects. Seventh Miss had long since examined both medicinal herbs up close and knew that according to her description, those should be wang buliuxing.
But if drugging someone could only use medicinal herbs in their original state without any disguise, then there would be no such thing as drugging in this world. Anyone examining the herbs against the prescription before brewing medicine would make problematic herbs unable to hide. In fact, just among the drugging methods Seventh Miss knew of, there were soaking herbs in liquid, dyeing them, or fumigating them. Saffron in particular was also a small substance that could easily be dyed and cut to mix with wang buliuxing, and wang buliuxing’s appearance was really similar to too many other herbs, making it indeed harder to distinguish.
But the problem still existed: given Fifth Younger Madam’s character, why would she add saffron in addition to wang buliuxing?
Her motive for drugging was now quite obvious—Fifth Younger Madam would never want Fifth Miss to immediately hemorrhage and die. At most, she hoped Fifth Miss would have unstoppable bleeding and from then on develop an illness. Best would be if she became unable to manage the household, allowing her to continue managing for a while longer and slowly, imperceptibly, restore the fifty thousand taels diverted for usury back into the accounts.
To achieve this goal, one dose of either wang buliuxing or saffron would have been enough. To be more vicious, use saffron—saffron in Great Qin was famously known as a sterilization drug. To be more merciful, choose wang buliuxing, since wang buliuxing didn’t have such a bad reputation. Using both together would mean desperately wanting Fifth Miss dead…
Was Fifth Younger Madam such a person? Though she might dislike Fifth Miss very much, she definitely wouldn’t destroy her own plan for that reason. How could a woman like Fifth Younger Madam possibly act on impulse? After all, though Fifth Miss was domineering, she really wasn’t a difficult enemy to deal with. After her death, when she herself was replaced, Fifth Younger Madam suffered several setbacks in succession—all situations that would never have occurred while Fifth Miss was alive. With Fifth Younger Madam’s intelligence, how could she not have thought of this?
But if there was a second person secretly aware of all this who added another herb to the one dose of medicine, her capability would be alarmingly great. Setting aside the couple Madam Xu and Duke Pingguo, only the Grand Dowager, Fourth Younger Madam, and Eldest Younger Madam could possibly have done it.
But would Eldest Younger Madam put effort into such a matter? If she wanted to compete, when Fourth Younger Madam framed her for looking at account books at home that year, she would have fought Fourth Younger Madam tooth and nail—Seventh Miss was quite certain this was also part of Fifth Younger Madam’s plan at the time. She would just sit on the mountain watching tigers fight and reap the fisherman’s benefits. As for Fourth Younger Madam, there was even less to say. Her greatest wish in life, it seemed, was just to weather life’s storms hand in hand with Fourth Young Master. She had no interest whatsoever in managing the household.
If that was the case, why would she target Fifth Miss? Even if Fourth Young Master had designs on the heir’s position, he should have gone after Xu Fengjia.
To be honest, if not for investigating the Qiu Zhi connection and the matter of Xu Fengjia’s attack at sea that year, she would still suspect Fourth Young Master more…
Seventh Miss sighed somewhat irritably, then propped her chin in thought for a while before calling Lixia in and instructing her, “Take a few baskets of those Huzhou zongzi they sent yesterday to the Grand Secretary’s residence. While you’re at it, send word to Madam that Fifth Sister’s matter finally has news. Once everything is settled, I’ll visit my natal home.”
After thinking a moment, she smiled again. “It seems Little Fuquan has a bit of affection for Zhongyuan. What do you think Zhongyuan’s feelings are?”
Lixia immediately smiled with pressed lips. “What else could it be? If she weren’t interested in Fuquan, how would Fuquan dare ask about her in front of you?”
“So that’s where I was being set up.” Seventh Miss couldn’t help showing a smile. She propped her chin and sighed. “I was originally worried that with Zhongyuan’s temperament, looking down on this one and that one, she might delay her life prospects. This way is best. This autumn, I’ll let you all out to marry. Starting today, you can also keep an eye out for who might replace your position.”
Lixia’s eyes immediately reddened. “This servant can’t bear to leave Young Madam…”
Seventh Miss gave Lixia a look. “Don’t say such things. Serving me for over ten years isn’t enough? In the days ahead, you’ll also be buying people to serve you!”
Thinking of these years since she had transmigrated, though every step was fraught with danger, not daring to take a wrong step or make a wrong move, she had indeed lived in luxury and comfort. More than ten maids surrounded her, living only for her expressions—how could she not feel emotional? She glanced at Lixia, wanting to say something, then swallowed it back, only repeating, “In the future, you’ll also be someone of high status being served by others.”
Without waiting for Lixia’s response, Seventh Miss lowered her voice to ask her, “How much dowry have you saved for yourself? Don’t tell me all these years’ wages were sent home to help your family.”
Lixia’s face immediately flushed. She lowered her head and nervously fidgeted with the sachet at her skirt hem, murmuring, “Not at all. Father and Mother treat me very well. They let me save all my wages myself, and said when I marry, they’ll supplement me with two hundred taels for my dowry.”
Over these years following Seventh Miss, Lixia naturally hadn’t lacked for silver and jewelry. Calculating this way, her dowry would be close to a thousand taels—about what a wealthy country gentleman would give when marrying off a daughter. Seventh Miss nodded, then instructed her, “In the future, don’t break off contact with the sisters in the household. When you’ve all become matrons, then we’ll truly have a firm foothold in the Duke’s residence.”
Lixia nodded in understanding. Just as she was about to say more, Shangyuan’s voice came from outside. “Young Madam, Madam Sun has sent fresh pond lotus roots, and also brought several bolts of new fabric bestowed from the palace.”
Seventh Miss hurriedly ordered, “Bring her in to speak.”
The visitor was actually Qingming, a trusted wife from Second Miss’s side—she had also been a maid by her side in the past. She paid her respects to Seventh Miss, then smilingly conveyed Second Miss’s greetings on her behalf before saying, “Our madam said to ask if the Heir’s Wife has time to visit Duke Dingguo’s residence.”
Because Sun Liquan had gone south to Guangzhou and no one knew when he would return, Duke Dingguo’s residence, though not exactly closed to visitors, had always kept a low profile. Except for New Year’s festivals and when noble ladies paid court, Second Miss hadn’t actively contacted Seventh Miss for quite some time. Seventh Miss immediately took note. “I’ll definitely visit tomorrow.”
When Xu Fengjia returned, she discussed it with him. Since Xu Fengjia needed to stay home waiting for Commander Liao’s news, the next morning after handling household affairs, Seventh Miss sent word to the Grand Dowager, had a carriage prepared, and set out from Dongzhi Gate Avenue. She entered deep into Stone Tablet Alley in Mingyu Ward to reach Duke Dingguo’s residence.
Though their last meeting had been during the Dragon Boat Festival court celebration, when the two sisters met, they still held hands and inquired after all their relatives before each taking their seats and discussing life’s trivial matters.
Seventh Miss saw that Second Miss had a touch of worry between her brows and knew this time she had something to say. She wasn’t anxious, just lowered her head to sip tea without speaking, waiting for Second Miss to begin.
Second Miss was silent for a while, then smiled. “Speaking of which, I still haven’t thanked you and Sixth Sister for the Crown Prince’s matter.”
Seventh Miss couldn’t help raising one eyebrow in surprise. She said with a smile, “Actually it was all as it should be. I wonder if this matter has been investigated to the bottom yet?”
The matter of the Crown Prince’s kidney essence depletion at such a young age had naturally caused quite a stir in the rear palace. However, this matter ultimately had little to do with Seventh Miss. As long as the Crown Prince could keep his life, it was still the Sun family’s affair. Second Miss had always been a shrewd person—why would she suddenly bring this up?
“Inside this, it’s still the Niu family causing trouble.” Second Miss let out a long sigh. “They went through twists and turns to bribe a young eunuch. Ever since the Crown Prince was established in the Eastern Palace, they’ve used every method to entice him to look at various lewd pictures and texts… Many filthy things—I don’t know how he brought them into the palace. The Crown Prince’s health hasn’t been good since childhood, and the child is heavy-minded with weak kidney essence. Being seduced like this, he learned many things he shouldn’t have known. Back and forth, it became like this. Fortunately, the matter wasn’t too late. Imperial Physician Quan prescribed several medicines, and now there’s already great improvement.”
Though she was a Yang family daughter, she was even more a Sun family wife. When speaking of the Niu family, her tone of grinding teeth was much heavier than Seventh Miss’s. But Seventh Miss truly felt neither pain nor itch, only sighing a few sentences to accompany Second Miss before asking casually, “The Second Imperial Prince should be three months old now?”
“The hundred-day celebration was a few days ago,” Second Miss showed a faint smile again. “Now the Empress doesn’t care about the Second Imperial Prince’s matters at all—she lets Noble Consort Niu handle everything herself. Let’s see how long she can be smug.”
Then she sighed with Seventh Miss, “It would be best if Sixth Sister’s child is a boy. The situation in the palace would be much more stable.”
“The Crown Prince’s status was established early, and he’s the legitimate eldest son. Second Sister shouldn’t worry too much.” Seventh Miss took a sip of tea and consoled Second Miss a few sentences, also saying, “It would be best if Sixth Sister can bear a boy who grows up peacefully and honestly to his teens before being enfeoffed. Then her life will have something to look forward to.”
Though both hoped Sixth Miss’s child would be a boy, the meanings behind their words were vastly different. Second Miss was after all the Sun family’s principal wife—in many situations, she could no longer only stand on her own position.
Second Miss paused, as if only then awakening to the flavor in Seventh Miss’s words. She became somewhat embarrassed and covered it up, saying, “Look at me, chatting about all this nonsense for so long without getting to the main point…”
She was silent again for a while before saying with some difficulty, “Actually it’s not really a big matter—maybe I saw wrong. It’s just that the other day when we went to burn incense at Wanshou Temple, I seemed to see a young lady on the street who looked quite similar to your residence’s deceased Second Miss…”