Yunchu’s Vengeance - Chapter 107
Chapter 107 - Such a Coincidence
Xie Jingyu rose from the daybed.
"My head hurts a little; it is likely just a slight chill. It is of no consequence, and there is no need to call for a physician."
Yun Chu spoke up, "If the pain is severe, you should still call for one as appropriate. Do not let it delay your attendance at morning court."
Xie Jingyu nodded in agreement.
He could hear that Yun Chu still held a trace of lingering concern for him; therefore, she could not possibly have come here with the intent of seeking a divorce.
Yun Chu turned around and picked up a packet of medicine from the maid Tingshuang's hands. "Husband, this is a medicinal diet prescribed by Divine Doctor Si for the two of us as husband and wife. If you take it for half a year and then share a bed, you will be guaranteed to bear a son in one stroke."
Xie Jingyu's heart skipped a heavy beat.
After everything that had transpired, she still wished to bear children with him?
"An'er and Ping'er deceived me for so many years; I can no longer bring myself to treat them as my own flesh and blood," Yun Chu wore an expression of profound distress. "I am eagerly longing to have a child of my own—surely Husband can understand, can you not?"
Xie Jingyu's face was filled with deep emotion. "It is I who have wronged you, Wife; it is all my fault. Rest assured, Wife, I will definitely cooperate with the physical conditioning and sire a legitimate son who shares the blood of both of us."
He instinctively wanted to reach out and clasp Yun Chu's hand.
Yet recalling the scene of her endlessly washing her hands the other day, he still managed to suppress the impulse.
He instructed the servants to go and brew the medicinal decoction.
"This medicine is to be taken once every two days, and I will have someone send it over every alternative day," Yun Chu said, and with that, she turned to leave.
"Wife!"
Xie Jingyu called out to stop her.
The moment he closed his eyes, the image of Madam He dying with her eyes unclosed would surface in his mind; he desperately needed someone to accompany him and talk.
Yun Chu paused her steps. "Is there anything else, Husband?"
"I..." Xie Jingyu racked his brains, pressing his fingers against his temples as he said, "The fourth child still has no given name since his birth. Do you have any good suggestions, Wife?"
Yun Chu's expression remained tranquil and detached.
"The fourth child was born prematurely, and the physician said his constitution is weak. In that case, why not—" Xie Jingyu mused for a moment before offering, "Let us call him Xie Shikang, Kang'er."
Yun Chu's fingers halted.
In her previous life, the fourth child had also been named Xie Shikang—a name she herself had chosen.
In this lifetime, many things had changed drastically, yet the child was still given this same name. It truly felt like a terrifying, inescapable wheel of destiny.
"Then I shall go and inform the Old Madam," Yun Chu stated. "We can discuss further when to enter Kang'er into the ancestral registry."
Not wishing to linger any longer, she turned around and walked away.
Stepping out of the inner chamber, she saw two maidservants brewing medicine outside. Her expression grew dark and murky as she pressed her lips tightly together and continued on her way out.
Upon arriving at the Hall of Longevity and Peace, before she had even stepped inside, she was greeted by the suffocatingly pungent stench of herbal medicine.
Following the events of this recent ordeal, the Old Madam's constitution was truly broken; after vomiting multiple mouthfuls of blood throughout the night, she now lay pale-faced upon the daybed, sipping her medicine.
Lady Yuan sat nearby attending to her, sighing as she said, "Old Madam, your physical decline is undoubtedly the handiwork of that wretched Concubine He! To think she would resort to such witchcraft and sorcery right here in our Xie estate—how does the Old Madam plan to deal with her?"
"Mother, Concubine He committed suicide in fear of her crime," Yun Chu stepped across the threshold as she spoke. "Considering that she served Husband for a time, I took it upon myself to order a thin coffin to be prepared for her burial."
"W-What?!" Lady Yuan accidentally knocked over the medicine bowl in her hands. "Concubine He committed suicide? How could something like this happen?"
Although practicing witchcraft was a heinous crime, it was not punishable by death; how had she ended up taking her own life?
A person who had been alive and breathing just yesterday had suddenly died today...
"Cough, cough, cough!" The Old Madam broke into a violent fit of coughing, cutting short Lady Yuan's train of thought. "Go and fetch another bowl of medicine."
Lady Yuan hurriedly scrambled to her feet, took a fresh bowl of medicine handed over by a maid outside, and fed it carefully to the Old Madam. "The physician said your illness stems from grief and melancholy trapped within your chest, which is why the affliction flared up. Our Xie estate has experienced far too many events lately; needless to say you, even I feel a lingering sense of dread. Fortunately, with Chu'er here, it is nothing major. Just think about it: before Chu'er crossed our threshold, I lay bedridden for over a decade, yet the moment Chu'er entered the house, this illness of mine cured itself. Chu'er is the auspicious star of our Xie estate; Old Madam, this illness of yours will heal in no time."
Yun Chu narrowed her eyes.
She recalled the last time she accompanied Xie Jingyu to the Marquis Xuanwu's Manor—she remembered a particular remark made by Marquis Xuanwu:
"Five years ago, Lord Xie begged at my doors, asking this Marquis to part with an extremely rare divine medicine..."
Could it be—
A horrifying hypothesis rose within Yun Chu's heart.
After the Old Madam finished her medicine and drifted off to sleep, Yun Chu and her mother-in-law Lady Yuan walked outside.
"Mother, I wish to ask you a question," she began with a faint smile. "Five years ago, did Mother take a miraculous divine medicine begged for by Husband, which was how your illness was finally cured?"
Lady Yuan replied, "I had been ill for more than ten years, and Jingyu had begged for countless divine medicines, yet after taking so many of them with no effect whatsoever, I had long since abandoned all hope. Who would have thought that on the very second day after you married into our family, Jingyu brought over a single medicinal pill for me to swallow, and my illness gradually vanished. It must be that your presence brings good fortune wherever you go; otherwise, how could there be such a coincidence that my illness suddenly cured itself?"
Indeed. How could there ever be such a coincidence?
Why was it precisely on the second day after she entered the family that Xie Jingyu managed to procure the divine medicine?
If someone claimed it had nothing to do with her, she wouldn't believe a single word of it.
She had never given these matters any thought in the past, but looking back upon them now, every single detail sent a freezing shiver straight through her bones.
Xie Jingyu, oh Xie Jingyu—just how many things was this weak, hypocritical man, this scum unworthy of being called a human being, still keeping hidden from her?
Yun Chu returned to her own courtyard.
Tingshuang came forward to report, "The Eldest Miss has also fallen ill and has called a physician to prescribe medicine... As for the Eldest Young Master, he seems completely unaffected and continues to attend classes at Huide Academy as usual."
Yun Chu could only feel that this concubine-born son was cold and selfish to a truly terrifying degree.
To have personally driven his own biological mother to her death just last night, only to act as if nothing at all had happened and go off to school the very next morning.
For a child of only twelve years old to possess such a chilling state of mind...
She instructed, "Arrange for a reliable and discreet person to go and find out what Marquis Xuanwu has been up to these past few days, and which places he has frequented."
It was truly a pity regarding Madam He. Believing Madam He to be an insider, she had laid out such a massive grand trap, only to fall short of discovering the exact information she sought.
Right now, she had no alternative other than to consciously brave the mountain knowing full well tigers lurked within, and seek out Marquis Xuanwu to investigate the truth firsthand.
There were a few page boys and stewards in the Xie estate's front courtyard who were also part of Yun Chu's faction, though they had not been specifically cultivated by her. While their loyalty was passable, they had never handled any specialized tasks, leaving Tingshuang somewhat uneasy about employing them.
She walked out to the front courtyard and her eyes instantly locked onto Yu Ke, who was currently feeding the horses.
Yu Ke had come to the Xie family entirely because of her. The Mistress had assigned him no specific duties, leaving him to wander aimlessly about the front courtyard most of the time.
Her mind drifted back to that day by the lakeside when he had draped his cloak over her shoulders.
Everyone else's attention had been entirely focused upon the Mistress—herself included—and only this single man had noticed that she was likewise drenched from head to toe...
"Tingshuang?"
Catching sight of Tingshuang appearing in the front courtyard, Yu Ke's face broke into a smile before he somewhat awkwardly and nervously shuffled over toward her.
"The Mistress has a task that requires someone to handle it," Tingshuang adopted an utterly official, business-like demeanor. "If you happen to have nothing else on your hands..."
"I have nothing to do; I'm completely free," Yu Ke chuckled with honest, rustic warmth. "Just give the orders."
Tingshuang briefed him on the details of the task before turning to leave.
Yu Ke scratched the back of his head in bewilderment.
The Mistress had told him that he would remain in the Xie family for half a month, and if after half a month he still failed to satisfy Tingshuang, she would simply find Tingshuang a different match.
Watching the days tick by one after another without the slightest shred of progress, it was enough to make a man anxious to death…