"You're right. None of Jingnan's previous fiancées died," said Li Wanming, her face cold in the silver moonlight.
"It was Auntie who secretly instigated people to spread rumors, distorting the annulment of those girls' engagements with Jingnan into them being killed by him! She deliberately made him bear the notorious reputation of being an ill - fated person, so that everyone in the capital would avoid him, and he could hardly move forward."
"Heh..." A soft sneer echoed in the moonlight.
"Inside the family, there were his dearest kin using evil spells, wishing for his early death. Outside, he was shunned by everyone as an unlucky person... Jingnan endured all this with great patience, but in this family, he had no place to stand."
Li Wanming pinched her fingers in her sleeve, took a deep breath, and turned to the Princess of Ning. "Mother, do you know why Jingnan was under the imperial list that year? Because he wanted to run away from home!"
"What did you say?!" The Princess of Ning choked on her breath and coughed violently.
The Prince of Ning shouted anxiously, "Quick, go and call the imperial physician..."
"No!" The Princess of Ning grabbed his sleeve and shook her head. She stared at Li Wanming, her pupils trembling violently. "Let her speak... Let her finish. I want to hear..."
"For ten years," Li Wanming's eyes were as cold as a lake covered with a thin layer of ice. "Jingnan knew better than anyone else about the dirty tricks of the second branch. The evil spells, the rumors about him being a wife - killer, he saw them all clearly! But he endured it all silently until now. Do you know why, Mother?"
Her gaze was like a knife, scraping across the pale faces of the Prince and Princess of Ning.
"Because he knew that Father cherished the brotherly bond, that you were in poor health and needed the help of the second branch, and that you had always felt guilty about what happened back then!"
"So he endured it all by himself. He pretended not to care about the witchcraft rumors, pretended not to care whether he could get married and have children in his life, and even pretended not to care about who would eventually inherit the title of the heir of the Ning Mansion!"
"He sacrificed himself to fulfill your family bond and the heart of repaying kindness!"
The Princess of Ning let out a scream and slumped limply into the arms of the Prince of Ning.
For so many years, she always thought that in this magnificent Ning Mansion, there was true brotherly love and harmonious relations between sisters - in - law. At most, Kang was a bit greedy for small gains and occasionally sold some things from the mansion. But as the saying goes, "A good family head should turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to small things." So she just let it go.
Moreover, they did owe the second branch. They just regarded it as repaying their debt...
But she didn't know that the "harmony" she had carefully maintained was just a mirage built on her son's flesh and blood!
That child who always smiled and said "It's okay" had already been severely injured by the knives of his dearest kin.
And the ones who had wielded the knives the most brutally were precisely her and the Prince of Ning, his own flesh and blood!
If they hadn't let the wolf into the house and repeatedly favored and indulged Kang, she wouldn't have succeeded in her evil schemes and almost caused Xiao Jingnan to end his life in loneliness...
But now she just found out that this so - called "benefactor" had even used the souls of her other three sons as a guide!
The Princess of Ning suddenly choked and coughed out blood. Scarlet dots splashed on the white silk handkerchief.
The Prince of Ning shouted anxiously, "Call the imperial physician! Hurry and call the imperial physician!"
"Mother is suffering from excessive anger and anxiety," Li Wanming was also shocked. She reached out to feel the Princess of Ning's pulse and said, "Father, at this hour, even if there are doctors on duty in the imperial hospital, they won't be the chief physician... How about asking my eldest sister to take a look?"
The Prince of Ning had also heard of Wanxin's name. He knew that she was a well - known female doctor in the capital, so he immediately nodded in agreement. "Okay! Go and invite her quickly!"
...
In the Jujing Hall, the lights were bright.
Wanxin put away the silver needles in her hand and said softly, "The Princess fainted because of a sudden emotional outburst, which stirred up her heart fire. Now that the congestion has been vomited out, it's actually a good thing. Your Highness need not worry. I've already given her acupuncture. I'll prescribe some medicine for the Princess to take. After a few days of rest, she'll be fine."
The Prince of Ning let out a long sigh of relief and asked someone to take Wanxin to write the prescription.
In front of the stone steps in the courtyard, Kang was kneeling in the middle, her hair in disarray.
Li Wanming stood quietly under the eaves, staring at her without blinking.
"You bitch..." Kang glanced up at her and scolded through gritted teeth. "It's not enough for you to get the position of the heir's wife. You even come to frame me..."
"Frame you?" Li Wanming laughed softly. "Auntie, you say I'm framing you... Then may I ask, was the white jade Buddha statue, the evil spells, or the spreading of rumors all false?"
"Or perhaps—" She walked closer slowly, a sudden look of fierceness in her eyes. "Was it false that Xiao Yingchu forged the ledger to frame me? Was it false that he indulged Jingbai to hide poisonous snakes in the betrothal gifts? Was it false that you used the ancestral memorial tablets to declare me inauspicious?"
She bent down and stared directly into Kang's eyes. "Auntie, Father only knows that you've been selling things from the mansion, but he probably doesn't know that you've been lending money at usury and secretly associating with powerful officials in the capital, does he?"
"You... You're spouting nonsense!"
Kang let out a shrill scream. Her face was as pale as paper, and her wide - open eyes were bloodshot, looking like a ghost crawling out of hell.
"Am I spouting nonsense?" Li Wanming took out a stack of yellowed promissory notes from her bosom. "All the money you've lent out over the years is clearly recorded here."
She pointed at the pages with her index finger. "If it weren't for this money to curry favor, how did you get in touch with the Huo Mansion and the Marquis of Xuanping's Mansion?"
"Previously, I was still wondering why the Huo Mansion would scold you so harshly just for a festival gift during the Dragon Boat Festival, scaring you so much that you didn't dare to go out for half a month. It turns out that the Huo Mansion was worried that you would suddenly turn against them and delay this profitable business!"
"I... I..." Kang's face turned ashen. She screamed shrilly, "I'm the mistress of the mansion. I should naturally make connections on behalf of the Prince. I don't need you, a little bitch, to tell me what to do..."
Slap!
A loud slap suddenly interrupted her shouting.
Xiao Yuanjie was dressed in a gray robe. His thin body was trembling with anger in the night wind.
"You... You're no mistress of the mansion at all!"
"Look clearly. You married me! A concubine - born son of the Ning Mansion, a son whose name wasn't even recorded in the family genealogy! What kind of mistress are you?"
"Sister - in - law is kind - hearted, so she handed the mansion over to you to manage. She turned a blind eye even when you embezzled money from the mansion! There are at least eight or ten phoenix crowns and necklaces in your room... Have you ever thought whether you're worthy of wearing them?"
"In the end, you even... even lent money at usury outside! You formed cliques and colluded with others. If the heir's wife hadn't discovered it in time, the entire Ning Mansion would have been destroyed in your hands!"
The angrier he got, the more he took off his cloth shoes and whipped Kang with them.
Kang was so scared that she screamed like a slaughtered pig. She quickly got up and fled. The ornaments in her already disheveled hair fell to the ground with a clatter.
The husband and wife chased each other under the moon, making a complete mess.