“What kind of help does the Crown Prince need from me? Su Yufeng turned around and gave Ye Shanshan a puzzled look.
“The Crown Prince hopes that you will ask Father to produce a bottle of pills to clean his marrow and relocate his nerves,” Ye Shanshan replied in an endearing voice.
Although she was an Alchemist, she had only attained two levels of cultivation. She couldn’t produce class five pills to clean marrow and relocate nerves. Only Ye Yuxuan, who had five levels of cultivation, could successfully produce such pills.
However, the chance that the medicine would fail was extremely high. The process required a great deal of painstaking effort. The Crown Prince worried that Ye Yuxuan would refuse to help him, which was why he had wanted Su Yufeng to ask her husband on his behalf.
Su Yufeng hesitated. Normally, she would have been happy to help the Crown Prince. But right now, her plot to falsely incriminate Fifth Concubine might fall through at any moment and be exposed. She was not in the mood, so she said, “Your father has been very busy lately. Let’s wait for some time to pass first.”
“Alright!” Ye Shanshan was also aware that her father had been displeased with her and her mother, so she backed off.
Meanwhile, at that exact moment, Ye Yuxuan was pacing up and down in his residence. Qing Mama’s words had reminded him that, in the past, he had misappropriated Yun Qiaoqiao’s medicine. The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt, so he went to the Elixir Production Room and checked his secret compartment.
He did not expect to find it completely empty. Not even one bottle of the precious pills remained. Instead, a piece of a dark green jade ornament was nestled in the cabinet of the secret compartment. It was carved with an auspicious image of a dragon and phoenix.
With one glance, Ye Yuxuan recognized it as the jade ornament that the Crown Prince always carried on him. He immediately exploded with rage.
D*mn it! That must be why Su Yufeng and her daughter went to search Ye Jiuge’s residence with such great fanfare tonight. They wanted to shift the blame to Ye Jiuge.
On more than one occasion, the Crown Prince had tacitly expressed that he wanted a bottle of pills that could clean his marrow and relocate his nerves. Ye Yuxuan had always pretended not to get the hint. Such pills could also be used as supplements for advancing the stages of cultivation—all the more so when it came to pills produced by Yun Tianwei. Their effect was superb. Ye Yuxuan could not even bear to use them for himself, so how could he possibly give them to the Crown Prince?
No wonder the Crown Prince had visited him personally some time ago to appeal on Su Yufeng’s behalf; he had even invited Ye Yuxuan to the Gong Residence for alchemy purposes. As it turned out, he had wanted to get his hands on these pills for a long time.
Out of all of them, he hated Su Yufeng and her daughter the most. He had not expected them to help the Crown Prince devise a plan to steal his medicinal pills and use the incident to frame Ye Jiuge. Although he despised Ye Jiuge, he was not so stupid as to be taken in by their deceit.
Ye Yuxuan pressed on the jade ornament roughly with his thumb. The veins on his arms became pronounced. He wished that he could find the Crown Prince at once and confront him.
However, the Crown Prince had already spread the news about the disappearance of his jade accessory. If Ye Yuxuan went to the Crown Prince rashly, not only would he not be able to regain possession of his pills, the Crown Prince might even make a false countercharge against him.
Just as Ye Yuxuan was oscillating between rational thinking and anger, Song Bai consulted him from outside the Elixir Production Room in a soft voice, “Old Master, Qiu Mama wishes to see you. She has an urgent matter to discuss with you.”
“Ask her to wait for me in the External Parlor.”
Ye Yuxuan slipped the carved jade ornament into his pocket and walked out scowling. As soon as he saw Qiu Mama, he was shocked. Qiu Mama, who always appeared presentable, now had disheveled hair and was wearing ragged clothes as if she were a madwoman living on the side of the road.
The moment Qiu Mama saw Ye Yuxuan, she kneeled down with a thud and cried, “Old Master, I implore you to redress these grievances on my behalf!”
“If you have anything to say, speak properly. Why are you crying?” Ye Yuxuan furrowed his brows.
“Old Master, Madame has gone mad. To eliminate the threat of Fifth Concubine, she went so far as to order servants from the Su Clan to hurt my son and coerce me into helping her frame Fifth Concubine,” Qiu Mama sobbed.
Ye Yuxuan was already in a fit of rage because of the pills. When he heard Qiu Mama’s words, he blew a gasket. He yelled at her furiously, “Why didn’t you mention this before?”
“I was afraid that Madame would harm my son, so I did not dare tell you.” Qiu Mama cried so hard that she grew short of breath.
“Go to hell, slave!” Ye Yuxuan kicked Qiu Mama.
Qiu Mama’s body slammed into the door like a calabash rolling on the ground. She violently threw up a mouthful of blood. Forcefully, she propped up her body. Coughing up blood, she wailed in a heart-rending manner, “Old Master, Madame’s ambitions are as wild as the wolves. She instructed servants of the Su Clan to capture Fourth Miss and sell her to an illegal artisanal workshop. She even asked me to bury one thousand silver taels and Fourth Miss’s Slave Contract in Fifth Concubine’s courtyard. I could not bear to make life difficult for Fifth Concubine any longer, so I swapped the silver taels to stones.”
Ye Yuxuan shook with anger. So that was why Su Yufeng and her daughter had wanted to help the Crown Prince steal his pills—to ask him to help them falsely incriminate Fifth Concubine. This was truly unacceptable.
Ye Yuxuan was furious, and he took out his anger on Qiu Mama. He was going to kick Qiu Mama again when he noticed her head lolling to the side. There were no signs of breathing.
The familiarity of this scene struck him: Hadn’t Chen Fuhan, the man who’d had a clandestine love affair with Fifth Concubine, died the same way?
“Su. Yu. Feng!” Ye Yuxuan gritted his teeth as hatred seeped into his bones.
If Su Yufeng had merely wanted to bring Fifth Concubine and her daughter to their knees, he would not have felt such loathing for her. However, she had gone so far as to help the Crown Prince steal his medicinal pills. That crossed the line. If he did not punish Su Yufeng severely, that b*tch would surely overstep his authority.
Meanwhile, at the Zilin Residence…
Ye Jiuge had just removed her ninja garb when Qing Mama entered her room with a happy face.
“Eldest Miss, I heard that Old Master was extremely furious when he brought servants over to Shuimo Garden,” she said.
“So fast?” Ye Jiuge raised her eyebrow in surprise. She had just pulled the ruse at Shuimo Garden. Why would Ye Yuxuan rush over there so eagerly before she could even lure him into her trap?
“I was informed that, before Qiu Mama passed away, she went to Old Master and told on Madame,” Qing Mama spoke in a soft voice.
“Before she passed away… Is Qiu Mama dead?” Ye Jiuge was stunned.
“That’s right. I learned that Qiu Mama has been poisoned to death, but the specifics are unclear. I just know that Old Master was extremely furious. He immediately brought Gan Mama and servants from the torture chamber along with him to Shuimo Garden.”
“Let’s go and have a look.” Ye Jiuge took Qing Mama with her and walked out of their residence.
The first glimmer of light was shining in the sky. The domestic servants were cleaning their respective residences. Every now and then, they would huddle together to whisper to each other. When they saw Ye Jiuge walk by, they stopped speaking immediately and saluted her.
Judging by the servants’ expressions, Ye Jiuge knew they were gossiping. However, it was hard to blame them, as yesterday’s commotion had been considerable.
First, Su Yufeng and Ye Shanshan had brought servants over to her residence to terrorize them. Now, it was Ye Yuxuan’s turn to rush aggressively to Su Yufeng’s residence. The situation had not only taken a new twist, but it had also become unpredictable.
Ye Jiuge bumped into Seventh Concubine at the entrance to Shuimo Garden.
“Good Morning, Eldest Miss!” Seventh Concubine appeared with her hair adorned with a hairpin bearing Chinese snowbells and moon ornaments, fashioned in the “edging towards the clouds while being drawn in by fragrance” hairstyle. Wearing a chartreuse floral dress, she was as beautiful as a flower by the shore in full bloom.
Ever since conflict had erupted between Madame and Fifth Concubine, the Seventh Concubine had been living very comfortably. All this while, she had held the authority to run the household firmly in her hands.
Ye Jiuge had a feeling that Su Yufeng would want to sort out Seventh Concubine later, so she had not yet moved against her. The Seventh Concubine was usually an extremely shrewd woman. She had never appeared before Su Yufeng. Contrary to her normal pattern, she had come to Shuimo Garden today. It seemed that she already knew about Qiu Mama.
Since the news had traveled to her so fast, this woman must not be as simple as she appeared.
