Chapter 5
On my wedding night, I brought my husband’s pregnant mistress into his family home.
However they tried to suppress it, the news spread through the residence before dawn.
The old madam smashed a teacup in fury.
Not because Liu Ying’er was pregnant, nor because Song Jin had behaved disgracefully.
She was furious that someone had dared use her household to attack a child of Song blood.
The marchioness had not slept all night. Dark shadows rimmed her eyes, yet her first response on seeing me was a frown.
“How could you bring a woman of such dubious origins straight into this residence?”
“Mother, she is carrying my husband’s child.”
“That has yet to be established. Who knows whether she is?”
Liu Ying’er knelt on the floor, her face white.
Song Jin was about to speak. I spoke first.
“Mother is right.”
“We must be careful where the family bloodline is concerned. Once the child is born, there will be time enough to establish the truth.”
“For now, let us settle her in the western side courtyard and put more people on guard.”
“If the child is not my husband’s, you may deal with her as you see fit.”
“If it is, we will have kept a child of this family from being left outside.”
I paused.
“And no one will be able to say that this great household could not find room for an unborn baby.”
The marchioness’s gaze sharpened abruptly.
I kept my head lowered, the picture of obedience.
But the old madam spoke slowly. “We shall do as Lingyi suggests.”
It was the first time she had called me by name.
Only after Liu Ying’er had been settled did Lady Cui finally arrive.
She was a graceful, gentle-looking woman in lake-blue brocade.
On hearing what had happened the night before, she covered her mouth in shock.
“A token from the purchasing office? How is that possible?”
She immediately ordered a thorough investigation.
Before the old madam, she also punished two stewards for failing to keep the tokens secure.
Everything was done swiftly and neatly.
Too neatly, unfortunately.
As though she had prepared for it.
When we dispersed, she made a point of coming to my side.
“To face something like this as soon as you marry in, sister-in-law… You have been treated most unfairly.”
I smiled. “We’re all family. There is no need to speak of unfairness.”
“How generous you are. Still, that woman is carrying his eldest son. In future, you…”
She broke off meaningfully.
I lowered my head and stroked the jade bangle on my wrist.
“The child will have to call me Mother.”
Lady Cui’s smile stiffened as she looked at me.
Back in our courtyard, Qingdai closed the door before she could contain herself no longer.
“She was plainly trying to set you against that woman!”
“Why didn’t you tell the old madam she probably had something to do with the attack on Miss Liu?”
“Because there isn’t enough evidence.”
“That broken token…”
“Would someone committing murder carry her own household token, just in case people couldn’t trace it back to her?”
Qingdai stared.
I slipped off my bangle and set it gently on the dressing table.
“It was planted.”
“But who would want to frame the second young madam?”
“Framing her wasn’t the point.”
I looked at myself in the bronze mirror.
“They wanted us to fight.”
Had I insisted today that Lady Cui was responsible, I would at once have made an enemy of the sister-in-law who had managed this household for years.
To protect herself, she would have treated me as a mortal enemy in turn.
While we fought each other, the person truly responsible could watch safely from the shadows.
Qingdai shivered.
“Who could it be?”
“We wait.”
“For what?”
“For her to act again.”
Whoever had failed to dispose of Liu Ying’er would never stop there.
Sure enough, three days later, safflower appeared among the ingredients of her pregnancy medicine.
The herbs had come from the household storeroom.
The requisition slip bore Lady Cui’s seal.
Lady Cui fell to her knees before the old madam, swearing vehemently that she had done no such thing.
The old madam looked grim, but did not immediately punish her.
I took the prescription, read it, and asked the woman in charge of the storeroom, “Has anyone rearranged the medicine cabinets recently?”
She shook her head.
“Everything is where it always was. Safflower on the third row, eucommia bark for the pregnancy medicine on the fifth.”
I asked again, “Can the person who collected the herbs read?”
The little maid knelt on the floor, weeping, and said she could not.
“Who told you which packet to take?”
“It… it was Mistress Feng from the main kitchen.”
When Mistress Feng was brought in, she charged headfirst at a pillar before anyone could question her.
Fortunately, Song Jin reacted quickly and kicked her away.
She fell to the ground. A tiny porcelain bottle rolled out of her sleeve.
The woman physician examined it and identified a deadly poison.
Had Mistress Feng died there, Lady Cui would never have cleared her name.
I walked over and crouched before her.
“Your son owes a gambling house three hundred taels of silver, doesn’t he?”
Her head snapped up.