Yunchu’s Vengeance - Chapter 106
Chapter 106 - The Death of Concubine He
Madam He slowly ceased her weeping.
Looking toward her two children, she asked with a heart-wrenching expression, "I wonder how Weiqi'er is doing..."
"Rest assured, I will arrange for someone to look after Weiqi'er," Xie Shian said. "It is getting late. Drink it."
Madam He accepted the porcelain vial. She caught a whiff of its rich, heavy fragrance, and she believed what the children had said—this poison would not cause pain; she would simply fall asleep, and everything would be over.
Yet how could she be resigned to this?
The He family had yet to be cleared and restored.
The children had yet to reach adulthood.
She had not even caught a final glimpse of Yulang.
Madam He closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and swallowed the sweet poison from the vial down to the very last drop.
Hardly had the poison settled into her stomach when the doors of the woodshed were pushed open.
It was Yun Chu who walked inside.
With a complex expression on her face, she spoke, "An'er, Ping'er, leave the matters here to me to handle. You two are exhausted; go back and rest."
Having witnessed her own birth mother drink the poison with her own eyes, Xie Ping was utterly shattered, her entire body trembling incessantly. Upon hearing Yun Chu's words, she did not dare cast another glance at Madam He, and grasping her maid's hand, she fled hastily outside.
Xie Shian was merely holding himself together through sheer willpower. The task that fell to him had already been completed, and he could no longer bear to watch Madam He draw her final breath.
He stood up, staggered when his legs failed to steady him, and after bracing himself against the wall to straighten his posture, he walked out.
Tingshuang and Tingfeng kept watch by the entrance, pulling the doors of the woodshed shut behind him.
Although Madam He had consumed the poison and indeed felt no pain, her gaze fell upon Yun Chu as she suddenly gave a wretched laugh. "The one who made the decision was the Old Madam, the one who provided the poison was the Master, the one who fed the poison was An'er and Ping'er, yet the Mistress has managed to wash her hands clean of all this."
"Am I not here to collect your corpse for you?" Yun Chu looked down at her from a position of absolute superiority. "They always say that when a person is on the verge of death, their words are kind. He Lingying, I have a few questions for you, so you had best answer me honestly."
Hearing her maiden name, Madam He fell into another brief daze.
She sneered. "I've fallen to this state, and your handiwork is surely behind it, isn't it, Mistress? Do you really think I will answer your questions?"
"To be able to guess that my handiwork is involved proves you aren't completely stupid," Yun Chu curved her lips into a cold smile. "I might as well tell you further: Xie Shiwei's act of angering Marquis Xuanwu also had my secret instigation behind it. How is that—surprised?"
"You!"
Madam He genuinely had never imagined that this matter was also connected to Yun Chu.
She wished she could reach out and choke the life out of the person standing before her.
Looking down at her, Yun Chu slowly continued, "If you do not answer my questions properly, the fates of Xie Shian and Xie Ping will turn out precisely identical to Xie Shiwei's."
Gritting her teeth, Madam He demanded, "Just when did you find out they were my children?"
For a long time, she had sensed that the Mistress was deliberately targeting the children, but not a single person had ever believed her.
No wonder the Mistress seemed to have transformed into an entirely different person, and why almost everyone in the Xie estate had faced the Mistress's punishments. As it turned out, the Mistress had known all along that the Xie family had deceived her.
Yun Chu did not answer her lingering doubt, instead asking, "Four years ago, the pair of children I gave birth to—where on earth were they taken?"
A shock shuddered through Madam He's chest, and she lowered her head. "Weren't the Mistress's children re-buried right beside your Yun family's ancestral hall? Why come asking me about it?"
The moment those words left her mouth, she felt her legs grow weak, as if they could no longer support the weight of her body. A sensation of life slipping away washed over her with terrifying clarity...
"The price for telling a single lie is Ping'er's dowry," Yun Chu said with an air of absolute nonchalance. "I will give you one more chance."
Madam He bit down hard on her lips.
"Still refusing to talk?" Yun Chu smiled faintly. "If you refuse to cherish this final chance, then don't blame me. An'er and Ping'er..."
"I'll talk, I'll talk!" Collapsing limply onto the straw mat, Madam He spoke in a voice that had lost all its previous vigor. "That pair of the Mistress's children was handed over to the Master by the wet nurse. The Master carried the infants out of the Xie estate with his own hands; aside from the Master himself, not a single soul knows where the children were cast away."
Yun Chu closed her eyes. "At that time, were the children still alive?"
Madam He gave a self-mocking laugh.
So the Mistress knew everything after all. Yulang had thrown away children who were still breathing—how could the Mistress possibly let Yulang off?
Yet right before her death, Yulang hadn't even come to take a single look at her. Why on earth was she still worrying about such a wolf-hearted, ungrateful man!
"Yes, the children were still alive," Madam He felt as though drawing breath had become an arduous task. "Mistress, I've answered everything you asked. I beg of you—even if you cannot bring yourself to treat An'er and Ping'er kindly, please, please do not ruin their future prospects. I'm begging you, Mistress..."
Using the very last shred of her remaining strength, she grabbed hold of Yun Chu's ankle.
Yun Chu gently lifted her foot, and Madam He tumbled onto the straw mat like a withered autumn leaf.
Lying upon the mat, she drew ragged, labored breaths, gasping heavily. Suddenly, she broke into a violent fit of coughing as blood spilled from the corners of her mouth, her eyes widening to their absolute limit. Just like that, her breath cut off entirely.
Yun Chu let out a soft sigh.
Xie Shian and Xie Ping had joined forces to drive Madam He to her death, yet right up until her dying breath, the ones she cared about most were still those two children.
Gazing at Madam He's unblinking eyes filled with eternal grievance, Yun Chu shook her head and stepped out of the woodshed.
As she walked out and raised her gaze, she caught sight of Xie Jingyu standing at the entrance of the small courtyard.
"Husband has arrived," Yun Chu said. "Concubine He kept saying she wished to see Husband one last time, but she failed to have her wish granted even upon her deathbed, which is why she passed away with eternal grievance in her eyes, unable to close them in peace."
Xie Jingyu's eye rims turned red.
He and Madam He had met in their youth, walking side by side through so many years—how could he possibly have the heart to watch her transform from a living, breathing person into a cold corpse?
He had wronged Madam He, and he had wronged Yun Chu as well. He had no idea how to face any of this.
Turning on his heel, he walked away.
Yun Chu's voice rang out flatly, "Does Husband truly not wish to go inside and take one last look?"
Xie Jingyu's footsteps paused for a fraction of a second, but without turning back, he strode straight ahead.
Yun Chu's gaze turned glacial.
Why on earth had she married such a selfish and cowardly man?
She instructed the mammas in the courtyard, " Prepare a thin coffin and bury her."
Not daring to draw a loud breath, the servants hurried off to carry out the task.
Back inside his study, Xie Jingyu sat in silence for over an hour before the suffocating palpitation in his chest finally began to slowly subside.
When he stood up and made his way back to the woodshed once more, he discovered that it was completely empty. Upon making inquiries, he learned that Madam He's corpse had already been hauled away outside the city walls...
Throughout that entire night, Xie Jingyu barely managed to sleep a wink, for the moment he closed his eyes, those two blood-filled, hollow eyes of Madam He would appear before him, staring at him with a tragic, piercing gaze.
He regretted not going to see Madam He one last time, regretted not allowing her to close her eyes in peace...
Rising in the morning, a splitting headache pounded against his temples, making him entirely unfit to attend the early morning court session. He hurriedly dispatched a page boy to request sick leave.
After lying down on the daybed for a short while, a servant came in to report, "Master, the Mistress has arrived."
Xie Jingyu felt a lingering reluctance to face Yun Chu.
He had deceived her by claiming that the mother of An'er and the other children had passed away, which was what had led Yun Chu to pour her entire heart and soul into raising them. The mere fact that Madam He was now dead did not mean he no longer needed to explain this deception.
There had already been precious little affection left between them as husband and wife; with this development, whatever little remained was utterly wiped out.
He was terrified—terrified that Yun Chu would demand a divorce.
If she truly proposed a divorce, should he agree, or should he refuse?
Did he even have any room to refuse?
At that moment, the study doors had already been pushed open, and Yun Chu walked in. "I heard from the page boy that Husband fell ill and even requested leave from the court. Why haven't you called for a physician?”