Chapter 14: Just How Much Did They Hate Her?

Bai Xiuming offered A Chan no enlightenment, merely stating indifferently, "I am never interested in the domestic affairs of others."

"When, then, would Your Excellency be interested?"

"When necessary."

A Chan wasn't disappointed, but a deeper scrutiny of her uncle settled in her heart. She couldn't shake the feeling that his words just now weren't spoken lightly.

However, investigating cases was the Bright Mirror Bureau's duty. Even if there were issues, they would investigate. For now, she could only await the outcome.

A Chan quickly refocused, asking Bai Xiuming, "Does Your Excellency wish to know anything else?"

"Nothing. You've been very thorough."

"May I ask Your Excellency a question?" A Chan inquired.

"Speak."

"Will you be taking my aunt's body away later?"

"As this involves a grotesque entity, her corpse must first be taken back to the Bright Mirror Bureau to ensure no further abnormalities occur."

"Then may I see my aunt?"

Bai Xiuming was slightly surprised but did not refuse, only warning, "A dead person's appearance is not pleasant to behold."

A Chan's resolve was firm: "I want to see her."

"Very well." Bai Xiuming led her inside, and A Chan followed, carefully stepping around the large pools of blood on the floor.

Xiao Lin-shi had died in her own bedroom, where there was less blood. It seemed she had slit her belly open in the outer chamber before staggering back into the inner room.

As A Chan entered, she saw Xiao Lin-shi’s corpse carefully arranged on the floor. Someone had evidently examined the body earlier, covering it afterward with a white cloth covered in red talismanic symbols.

She stepped forward and lifted a corner of the cloth. Xiao Lin-shi’s bloodless face appeared, frozen in an expression of terror, her eyes wide open as if she had witnessed something horrifying before death.

A Chan slowly knelt beside Xiao Lin-shi, the woman’s sharp words from their first meeting echoing faintly in her ears.

Humans are so fragile—so easily snuffed out.

Bai Xiuming stood a short distance behind her, watching as she remained motionless beside the corpse. "My condolences," he said.

His voice snapped her out of her thoughts, but she didn't turn to face him.

"How could Your Excellency tell I was sad? My aunt and I weren't close. She even wanted to doll me up and marry me off as a concubine to some noble family, just to benefit the Zhao family."

Bai Xiuming remained silent, listening quietly.

"But… when someone is truly desperate, if another is willing to lend a hand—even if that person isn’t particularly kind—doesn't that still make them good? What a waste that she died this way."

A Chan lowered the cloth back over Xiao Lin-shi’s face and slowly rose to her feet.

She turned and tilted her head slightly to look at Bai Xiuming. "Your Excellency will get to the truth quickly, won’t you?"

Even if the truth offers no solace to the unjustly deceased.

Bai Xiuming didn’t answer her, only saying coolly, "Let’s go," before walking ahead.

A Chan took a few steps before pausing, glancing back at Xiao Lin-shi’s still form. Now that she also had a human body, would she one day die like this?

Even if not by violence, even if of old age—a human’s life was just a few short decades.

She suddenly understood why so many desperately sought immortality. She didn’t want to die so soon, either.

After lingering a moment longer, she finally stepped outside.

The Bright Mirror Bureau guards were still questioning the Zhao household, making her wait longer.

After over half an hour, A Chan felt the cold wind pierce through her. She couldn’t help but think that if she returned early tonight, she’d need to brew some warming medicine—otherwise, she’d surely wake with a fever tomorrow.

At the thought, she couldn’t help but glance enviously at the man standing beneath the corridor, listening to his subordinates’ reports. His official robes were thin, yet he didn’t appear cold at all.

How nice it must be to have cultivation. A pity her body had no affinity for it.

Another quarter-hour passed before those taken away began returning to the courtyard one after another. At a glance, none looked good—likely terrified from their first-ever interrogation by the Bright Mirror Bureau guards.

The last to return were the Zhao family. Zhao Ming’s expression remained composed, though tense, as if holding back anger.

Zhao Wenyue seemed displeased with the manhandling by the guards but dared not speak up. As for Zhao Wensheng, he was hauled back by Jiang Kai, gripping his neck.

He was the most disheveled of them all. Once inside the courtyard, Jiang Kai flung him to the ground.

Zhao Wensheng now sat collapsed in a heap, his face ghostly pale, teeth chattering uncontrollably.

"My Lord, we got a confession. Zhao Wensheng admits he was the one who bought the fish," Jiang Kai reported with a salute.

Bai Xiuming approached slowly. Zhao Wensheng trembled, trying to scrabble backward, but his body refused to obey. "I didn’t know… didn’t know Mother would die… He said no one would die, truly!"

Bai Xiuming halted a few steps away, looking down at him. "Who is 'he'?"

Zhao Wensheng seemed in some kind of trance, offering no reply.

Bai Xiuming glanced at Jiang Kai.

Jiang Kai stepped forward and stomped on Zhao Wensheng’s hand. The agony drew a sharp cry, snapping him back to awareness.

Jiang Kai paid no heed to Zhao Wensheng’s father standing nearby, hauling the young man up by his collar with a snarl. "When our Lord asks you a question, tell the truth. Lie, and I’ll chop off a hand. Understood?"

"Y-yes!" Zhao Wensheng nodded frantically.

"Then answer!" Jiang Kai snapped.

"It was someone from the gambling den! I—I met a gambler there… He said his village had live fish… Eating it… eating it…"

"Eating it would do what?"

"Eating it… would turn the fetus into… into a monster."

This shocked A Chan. Zhao Wensheng had fed Xiao Lin-shi widow fish to stop her from having that baby.

"You didn’t want your mother to have the child. Why? A little brother wouldn't have been a threat."

The word "brother" seemed to trigger Zhao Wensheng. His voice rose sharply. "It wasn't even born yet—what brother? Ever since she got pregnant with that bastard, nothing I did pleased her! I gambled a few times, and she stopped my allowance! I couldn’t even eat with my friends without being mocked! She told Father I was hopeless, that I should be sent back to the countryside—banned from the capital until I passed the civil service exams!

"Ha! She just thought I’d never succeed at anything, so she wanted to replace me with a new son!" Zhao Wensheng’s voice shook with rage, but no one there felt sorry for him.

Even his biological sister Zhao Wenyue was staring at him in utter disbelief, while Zhao Ming was so enraged he looked ready to lunge forward and beat his own son to death right then.

Pinning all his mistakes on an unborn child—they should have just sent him back to their hometown and never allowed him to return.

"So you wanted to make her lose the baby?"

"Yes, I thought about poisoning her, but that would've been too obvious. Later, when I snuck into an underground gambling den, I met that man. He told me about people in his village who accidentally ate that strange fish and had deformed babies. So I gave him ten taels of silver and had him deliver the fish to me daily."

"How did you make your mother want to eat the fish?" Bai Xiuming asked again.

"Grinding the fish bones into powder and having someone drink it would make them develop an intense craving for fish. That method was also told to me by that man."

"And then? What else did you do?"

Zhao Wensheng looked confused: "N-nothing else. I just had the fish delivered to the kitchen for my mother to eat every day. I didn’t do anything else."

"Then why did she cut her own stomach open?"

"I don’t know!" With that, Zhao Wensheng threw himself on the ground, kowtowing desperately to Bai Xiuming. "My lord, you've got to believe me, I truly didn’t mean to kill my mother. I made sure multiple times with that man—eating that fish wouldn’t kill anyone. I just didn’t want that fetus to be born. How could I ever kill my own mother?"

Before Bai Xiuming could speak, Zhao Ming bellowed in fury, lunged forward and kicking the kowtowing Zhao Wensheng over: "That's bullshit! Even now, you still dare to lie!"

"I didn’t! I really didn’t, Father! I didn’t kill Mother!" Zhao Wensheng grabbed onto Zhao Ming’s leg, sobbing as he protested the accusation.

As a bystander, A Chan watched this absurd scene, temporarily speechless.

Perhaps Zhao Wensheng truly hadn’t intended to kill Xiao Lin Shi, like he said—only to prevent the child from being born.

But to feed his own mother something so dangerous without hesitation, just to abort his own brother—whatever humanity he had left, it wasn’t much.

Seeing the father and son in a chaotic struggle, Bai Xiuming tilted his chin up slightly and ordered, "Separate them."

His subordinates immediately stepped forward, pulling Zhao Ming away and hauling up Zhao Wensheng, who was now bloodied and bruised from his father’s beating.

Zhao Wensheng seemed unwilling to stop, still trying to kowtow to Bai Xiuming.

Bai Xiuming regarded him coldly and said, "I believe you didn’t want your mother to die. Then why did she? Did you say anything to her that you shouldn’t have?"

"No, I didn't say anything at all! I’ve been at the gambling den all this time. The fish were sent straight to the kitchen—I never even saw my mother!"

Bai Xiuming glanced at Jiang Kai.

Jiang Kai stepped forward and whispered, "My lord, I’ve sent men to investigate the underground gambling den he mentioned. The people there have been brought in, and the man who sold him the fish is being hunted down."

"Mm." Bai Xiuming raised a hand, and Zhao Wensheng was dragged aside.

Then Bai Xiuming turned his gaze to Zhao Wenyue, who was trying to soothe Zhao Ming.

"Zhao Wenyue."

The moment her name was called, Zhao Wenyue flinched as if doused with ice water.

"M-my lord." Shaking, she turned around, her head bowed, not daring to meet Bai Xiuming’s eyes.

Sensing his daughter’s terror, Zhao Ming gripped her hand, seemingly offering some comfort.

"I heard you bought your mother a jade hairpin in Yongshan?"

Zhao Wenyue automatically denied it: "I didn’t."

Seeing Jiang Kai approach her, she quickly corrected herself, almost screaming, "N-no, no! I gave the hairpin to my mother, and after that, I don’t know anything! It was just an ordinary hairpin bought from a market stall!"

"Just an ordinary hairpin? What did the seller tell you?"

"Nothing at all."

"Is that so? But people saw you spoke at length with the stall owner."

"I didn’t."

Seeing her stubbornness, Bai Xiuming didn't push it. Instead, he ordered, "Jiang Kai, I want that hairpin seller brought before me by tomorrow."

"Rest assured, my lord. He’ll be caught before dawn."

As Jiang Kai spoke, Zhao Wenyue’s face turned ghostly pale.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but her hand was squeezed tightly. Glancing at her father beside her, she ultimately shut her mouth and said nothing.

The exchange between father and daughter wasn’t obvious, but anyone watching closely would have noticed the subtle gestures.

Bai Xiuming saw it. So did A Chan.

Zhao Wenyue’s reaction might as well have confirmed that the jade hairpin she’d given Xiao Lin Shi was definitely dangerous—and she knew it.

"Lord Zhao," Bai Xiuming said coldly, "if you obstruct this official’s questioning again, I’ll have no choice but to send you to the prison for a few days."

Zhao Ming’s expression changed. "My apologies, Lord Bai! This official was only worried about his daughter."

"Escort Lord Zhao out. Treat him well."

"Yes."

Zhao Ming tried to speak again, but two Bright Mirror Bureau Guards gagged him and dragged him away, leaving only the terrified Zhao Wenyue behind—now with no one to rely on.

Bai Xiuming took two deliberate steps forward. "Zhao Wenyue, I’ll give you one chance. Speak now, or wait until the seller is caught and die with him. Choose."

Zhao Wenyue had never faced such a situation before. With her father taken away and with death hanging over her, she no longer dared to hide the truth.

Shaking, she confessed: "That man said… the hairpin was carved from enchanted jade gathered north of the Northern Wastes. Just wearing it would slowly alter someone’s personality. I only wanted my mother to agree to my marriage with Xue Lang!"

"Is that all?" Bai Xiuming seemed dissatisfied.

"A-and… he warned that at first, wearing it might cause hallucinations or headaches, but the effects wouldn't be severe. Just taking it off would stop it."

"Did she take it off?"

Zhao Wenyue fell silent.

Her mother had loved the hairpin she’d gifted her, wearing it constantly these past days—never once removing it.

But… but her mother had seemed completely normal, showing no signs of distress. She’d assumed the seller was just scaremongering.

At this point, the pieces fell into place.

Xiao Lin Shi had eaten the widow’s fish sent by her son and worn the jade hairpin gifted by her daughter. One day, whether from terrifying hallucinations or some unknown change, she had—in a fit of horror and madness—cut open her own belly and died.

A Chan averted her gaze from the Zhao siblings, who kept pleading their innocence. If not for Xiao Lin Shi’s corpse still lying in the main hall, she might have thought this all a farce.

How could something so absurd exist in this world?

For a mother’s own children to separately plot against her—how deep did their hatred run?