Chapter 11

Madam Zhai started, then offered a fawning smile. “What do you mean, Madam?”

“How dare you stand there grinning?” Hongyuan snapped.

Seeing the cold smile with which I watched her, Madam Zhai finally began to understand.

Her eyes shifted, but she held her ground. “I don’t understand what Madam means.”

I sat in the seat of honor, thoroughly disgusted by her stiff neck and fearless air.

“You think no one will discover what you’ve done because you were discreet? What have you been saying to Yun, to make her hate You so much? My sister entrusted the girl to you on her deathbed, and you repay her with such heartless betrayal!”

During our time together, I had noticed how coldly Yun treated You.

After my confrontation with Lady Li, I had asked Yun why, as his elder sister, she had not helped him while Cong bullied him for so long.

If the two of them had stood together, he could hardly have been bullied so badly.

Yun had faltered, unable to answer.

I had understood then that someone must have been deceiving and manipulating the child.

And that person was Madam Zhai, the very person Yun relied on most!

Madam Zhai’s face stiffened, but she recovered almost at once. “I don’t understand your accusation, Madam,” she said, aggrieved. “Everything I do is for the young lady’s good!”

I drew a deep breath. Some people would not weep until the coffin was before them.

Hongyuan sneered. “Madam Zhai, didn’t you tell the young lady that your former mistress died because she gave birth to You? That without You, her mother would still be alive?”

Had I not hidden someone in Yun’s rooms for several days, I would never have learned of those poisonous words!

Exposed, Madam Zhai shook her head in panic. “No! I never said that! I swear it! I never said any such thing!”

I stared at her and spoke slowly. “I understand every one of your little schemes now. After my sister died, you quarreled with Madam Song, You’s nurse. So you drove a wedge between the children, to make Yun acknowledge only you and listen only to you!”

Nor had she stopped there. She had said plenty of things like, “No one else truly cares for you, young miss. I’m the only one who does.”

“As for the reason,” I said with a cold laugh, “it must have been your good-for-nothing brother. You stole Yun’s jewelry to pawn it. Madam Song found out, so you resorted to this stupidity!

“Bring him in!”

At my words, Lüqi hauled forward a shifty-looking man whose face was bruised and swollen.

The instant Madam Zhai saw him, she cried, “Baogen! What happened to you?”

Resentment flickered in her eyes. “Madam, why have you seized my brother? He’s innocent!”

“Insolent woman!” Hongyuan shouted. “How dare you speak to Madam that way?”

I waved her quiet. “This brother of yours excels at drinking, feasting, gambling, and visiting brothels. He uses the earl’s influence to bully men and prey on women. His wickedness is notorious. If you weren’t still of some use, I’d have had him flayed alive already.”

The man called Baogen cried out, “Sister… save… me…”

I had Lüqi take him away. Then I told Madam Zhai, word by word, “Had you merely pilfered a few things, I might have tolerated you. But setting Yun against You shows a rotten heart. I cannot keep you.”

Madam Zhai wiped her tears and raised her chin. “Madam, my former mistress assigned me to Yun. If you dismiss me, Lady Yue will never agree!”

She still dared invoke my mother?

She certainly had nerve!

I laughed coldly. “Mother said long ago that everything was to be done my way. She gave me your contract already. I can dispose of you however I please.”

If Mother had not given me her word beforehand, I would never have waded into this mess!

Still unwilling to give up, Madam Zhai said in a panic, “Yun has been with me since birth. She can hardly bear to be apart from me. If you drive me away, aren’t you afraid she’ll resent you? Hate you?”

“You’re a nurse,” Hongyuan said angrily. “You think far too highly of yourself!”

I knew what Madam Zhai was trying to do. She was using Yun against me.

The child was still little. There was much she did not understand.

I was not her birth mother, after all. If I forcibly drove Madam Zhai away, Yun might well grow to resent me.