Chapter 123

Fu Tingjun's expression was very calm, but Yuwei, who knew her well, could sense the raging fire in her heart.

Was it because of what happened to her and Zheliu?

Yuwei's heart was filled with mixed emotions.

"Miss, I... I'm fine now!" she said hurriedly, stumbling over her words due to nervousness, "Someone like me isn't worth your grief." Her eyes reddened again.

Fu Tingjun opened her eyes.

Her dark pupils shimmered with moisture, yet appeared even more black and clear.

"And then?" she asked in a low voice, somewhat hoarse.

Yuwei lowered her eyes: "Then, Jiancao fell ill... Steward Li said we couldn't have any more deaths, otherwise, we wouldn't be able to explain ourselves..."

Among those who served in her room, besides Yuwei and Jiancao who were bought from outside, Yitong and the others' parents were all hereditary servants of the Fu family. Over several generations, they had intermarried, so any hint of trouble would spread among them. If the maids in her room contracted a deadly disease and died—one or two could be explained away—but if too many died, and all from her room, combined with her own "death from illness," some maids' parents or brothers would surely become suspicious and investigate the deaths of their daughters and sisters. If any trace of evidence were found, the Fu family would risk gaining a reputation for mistreating servants. In that case, the accumulated reputation for benevolence built up over generations would be tarnished. This was the last thing the Fu family wanted.

"A doctor was called to examine Jiancao. They examined her through the bed curtain, with a cloth placed over her wrist, only saying she had suddenly developed a fever. The doctor prescribed nothing but remedies for dispelling wind and reducing heat. Not only did Jiancao not improve after taking them, but she soon..." Yuwei murmured, "Coincidentally, someone in the manor caught a cold, and Steward Li said we had infected them. The rumor spread more and more wildly, becoming more and more exaggerated. I was terrified... What if... we all died and no one investigated? One evening, somehow, Sister Yitong suddenly slipped into my room and said, 'They no longer have any scruples. Miss is in danger. Whoever gets the chance must find a way to escape and inform Miss.' Then she slipped away as quietly as she had come. I thought about Sister Yitong's words. When no one gave me water, I drank my own urine. When no one gave me food, I ate cockroaches... In a daze, I heard someone say that Xuerong, who hadn't yet reached adulthood in our room, had also died... But I didn't even have the strength to lift my hand. I thought to myself, I'm done for. I only hoped Sister Yitong could escape, and that Miss would seek justice for us and clear our names... Outside, there were cries and shouts everywhere. A group of people rushed into the wood shed where I was staying. Torchlight flickered before my eyes. I wanted to speak, to beg them to save me, but someone said: 'This woman has contracted the plague. Throw her out quickly!' When I woke up again, there were dead bodies all around me. An old man was rummaging through the belongings of the dead. I cried out for help. He was so startled he ran off, but after a moment, he came back, dragged me out of the pile of corpses, and fed me some water. I was extremely grateful," she said, but her expression became somewhat vacant, "The old man placed me among a large pile of things stripped from the dead, and pushed me on a wheelbarrow, stopping and starting, occasionally feeding me water and food. As I gradually recovered, he stopped giving me food. His eyes would occasionally rest on me, with a look like when he gazed at the silver ingots he would take out and polish twice a day—full of greed. I had seen that look in my father's eyes too... So I pretended to be dead, and he started feeding me water and food again. Once he muttered to himself, 'If I can't sell her for ten taels of silver, I'll be at a loss'... I pretended to drift in and out of consciousness. He continued feeding me, and gradually I could crawl again... One day, while he was feeding me water, I suddenly bit down hard on his neck..."

She lowered her head.

Fu Tingjun slowly sat down in the armchair.

The only sound in the room was the crackling of burning charcoal.

"Afterwards, I hid all the valuables on him, along with some water and food, in my clothes. I hid by the side of the post road for five or six days before I encountered a kind family fleeing disaster. Only then did I learn I was at Mengjia Town, not far from the manor. I found my way back to the farmstead."

"The farmstead was completely empty. The furnishings in the rooms were either smashed or missing. The beds and incense tables that were too heavy to move had also been broken. I remembered there was a granary on the farmstead and managed to open it. There was no grain left inside, but some wheat kernels had fallen on the ground. It took me seven or eight days to pick up those kernels one by one, and I gathered a whole large bowlful. Relying on that bowl of wheat kernels and the old elm tree in the courtyard, I survived."

Perhaps thinking of those difficult days, she covered her face and sobbed quietly.

Fu Tingjun turned her face away, the corners of her eyes moist.

She had Zhao Ling to protect her, and even then she had narrowly escaped death by a hair's breadth—how much worse must it have been for Yuwei?

At the thought of this, her heart warmed once more.

Zhao Ling...

She softly murmured his name in her heart, and the grievances she had harbored seemed to weigh less heavily upon her.

"When the wind blowing against my skin turned cold, a heavy rain fell," Yuwei said after a moment, dabbing at her eyes and speaking in a low voice. "Someone returned to the estate. I knew I couldn't stay there any longer, so I secretly made my way back to Huayin City. But when I asked around in the city, everyone said that the young miss had already 'died of illness' in the summer, and that the madam, stricken with grief from missing her daughter, had fallen ill and been taken by the master to his post." Her expression grew agitated as she spoke. "I knew something was amiss, but everyone was discussing the disaster at the time. When I pressed further, I heard things like 'The Ninth Miss of the Fu family never actually died—she eloped with Zuo Junjie' and 'The Fu family's young miss didn't die of illness at all—she was abducted by the refugees, and the Fu family could only claim she died of sickness'..."

Fu Tingjun was greatly astonished.

How could such rumors have spread?

The talk of eloping with Zuo Junjie at least had some semblance of plausibility, but being abducted by refugees—where on earth did that come from?

She furrowed her brows slightly as she heard Yuwei continue: "But no matter how much more I tried to find out, I couldn't learn anything further. I wanted to find someone from the Fu family to ask, but everyone from our branch had followed the madam to the capital, and I wasn't familiar with the stewards who remained. Afraid of being discovered, I could only linger near the Fu residence. That's when I ran into Mama Mi, the sworn sister of my wet nurse." She paused, a look of gratitude crossing her face. "Mama Mi quietly led me to a secluded spot in the back alley, gave me a tael of silver, and told me to leave Huayin quickly. She said that everyone who had served the young miss had either died of illness or been married off to distant places. Only Yitong—because she had been betrothed long ago, and her betrothed's family didn't mind that she'd contracted the epidemic—her father begged the First Master for a kindness, and she was allowed to marry."

"As soon as I heard that Sister Yitong was still alive, I clung to it like a lifeline and hurriedly asked Mama Mi where Sister Yitong had been married off to."

"Mama Mi said that Sister Yitong had married into the Huo family of Chengxi Village, not far from here. She also told me not to go looking for her—that Sister Yitong was already a married woman, and her parents and siblings all served in the Fu household. If I went to find her, I would only bring harm upon her. She urged me to leave Huayin County at once and never return."

Indeed—no matter how much Yitong might still care for her, she could not disregard the parents who raised her, nor the brothers and sisters who were like her own flesh and blood.

Fu Tingjun's eyes dimmed slightly.

"But I had nowhere to go at the time, and I couldn't give up, so I went to Chengxi Village," Yuwei said. "Sister Yitong was already with child. When she saw me, she wept tears of joy. In front of Brother-in-law Huo, she only said I was a distant relative who had fled the famine and, having heard she was married, had come especially to see her. Brother-in-law Huo was a simple, honest man—he even went to the market to buy a catty of pork belly to entertain me, and gave up the heated kang so that I could speak privately with Sister Yitong..." As she spoke, a look of shock and uncertainty crept over her face. "Sister Yitong told me that the Fu family had erected a cenotaph for the young miss, but in truth, Biyun Nunnery had been ransacked by refugees, and all the people the First Madame had sent to serve the young miss were dead."

"What did you say?" Fu Tingjun could no longer contain herself, crying out in alarm. "All the people the First Madame sent to serve me—they're all dead?"

Her thoughts immediately turned to Zhao Ling.

After she had regained consciousness, she had asked him what had become of Hanyan and Lü'e. The strange look that had flashed through his eyes, and his vague, evasive answer... it made her heart seize with dread.

Could there be some hidden truth behind all this?

Fu Tingjun's mind was thrown into turmoil. She fired off questions in rapid succession: "How did Yitong come to know this? What else did she say? If all the people the First Madame sent to serve me are dead, then what of the two nuns, Guohui and Guozhi, at Biyun Nunnery? Did they die as well?"

Yuwei shook her head. "Sister Yitong said that it was the two nuns, Guohui and Guozhi, who came to the Fu residence to report the death. When the two masters arrived, it was the mother-in-law of Sister Yitong's elder brother's wife's sister who went to inform the First Madame. The young maidservant attending the First Madame at the time was Daoxiang, the younger sister-in-law of Sister Yitong's cousin's husband. The two masters asked the First Madame to dismiss all those in attendance the moment they entered, and within the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, the First Madame, in a state of panic, went with the two masters to see the Grand Madame. Not long after, the First Master also arrived, and all the servants withdrew to the middle of the courtyard. But even so, the Grand Madame's scolding and the First Madame's weeping could still be heard. And when the First Master emerged from the Grand Madame's chamber, he was drenched in sweat, with dust from kneeling on his knees... That very night, Daoxiang heard from the First Madame's quarters the news that you had 'died of illness.'"

"Daoxiang was afraid that Sister Yitong would be implicated, so she sent word overnight to her own sister-in-law. Sister Yitong's cousin then rushed overnight to Sister Yitong's parents' home, and her parents hurriedly called back her two elder brothers, intending to bring Sister Yitong back from the farm to recuperate at home. But the more they discussed it, the more they felt this matter was not simple. At dawn, Sister Yitong's two elder brothers went around asking people for information. First, word spread that you had 'died of illness' at Biyun Nunnery, and then came news that Biyun Nunnery had been ransacked by refugees, and that Nanny Chen and the others had been killed by them. But Daoxiang and the mother-in-law of Yitong's eldest brother's wife's younger sister both remembered clearly that Masters Guohui and Guozhi had only come to the door once. So how could news of your death from illness and the refugees looting Biyun Nunnery come one after another from that direction?"

Fu Tingjun's face turned deathly pale, feeling as if all the strength had been drained from her body, leaving her utterly limp.

Was the killer Zhao Ling?

It was understandable that he had accidentally killed Nanny Chen when she was forcing poison down her throat, but what about Hanyan and Lü'e? How had they died as well?