Yunchu’s Vengeance - Chapter 99
Chapter 99 - Who Is More Vicious Than Whom
The sky was just beginning to grow faintly bright.
Concubine Tao's courtyard was in absolute chaos; maidservants continuously bustled in with basins of steaming hot water, only to emerge carrying out basins filled with blood-red water.
Piercing, agonizing screams echoed from within the room as the experienced midwife instructed Concubine Tao on how to exert her strength, yet no matter what, she simply could not push the child out...
Yun Chu stood in the courtyard, her expression turning somewhat heavy.
After Madam He's scheme against Concubine Tao last time, she had assumed the child in Concubine Tao's womb possessed a tenacious life force and would successfully make it to full term.
Never had she expected that the second plot would arrive with such terrifying speed, and moreover, on this exact same day at the break of dawn—the very same time the fourth young master of the Xie family had been born in her past life.
Even though the current circumstances differed vastly from her past life, were certain events destined to happen regardless?
Suppressing her turbulent thoughts, she cast her gaze toward Madam He, who stood before her with lowered head, alongside Xie Shiyun, whom Madam He held by the hand. Yun Chu spoke in an icy tone, "Madam He, what on earth is going on here? Explain yourself clearly!"
"Replying to Madam, Yu Ge'er has been unwell these past few days and unable to sleep soundly, so this concubine kept him with her in bed. Who could have anticipated that right around the first watch of Yin hour, he suddenly became restless and insisted on finding Auntie Yu," Madam He murmured submissively, keeping her eyes cast down. "Before dawn had even broken, how could this concubine bear to let a young child wander outside alone? I tried coaxing him to sleep a little longer, but who would have thought he would suddenly bite me..."
As she spoke, she exposed a clear set of teeth marks on her arm for Yun Chu to see, and continued, "The moment he bit me, he bolted outside. I chased after him the entire way, but perhaps because it was still dark, Yu Ge'er lost his bearings and somehow ended up running straight into Concubine Tao's courtyard. At that time, the servants were just changing shifts, and no one was stationed at the courtyard gates, so Yu Ge'er rushed headfirst inside. By the time I followed him in, I saw Concubine Tao tumbling down from the steps outside the room onto the ground, while Yu Ge'er was standing there looking completely stunned..."
"Madam, it is entirely this concubine's fault! It was my failure to properly look after Yu Ge'er that caused Concubine Tao to go into premature labor!"
Madam He wore a look of utter, self-reproaching guilt.
At that moment, Xie Jingyu and Tingyu also arrived.
Tingyu bolted forward like an arrow released from a bow, rushing to Xie Shiyun's side. Squatting down, she wrapped her arms tightly around her son and pleaded, "Yu Ge'er, quickly tell Madam and the master that you didn't push Concubine Tao! Hurry up and tell them!"
Xie Shiyun stood frozen in place, unable to squeeze out a single word.
"Since you refuse to speak, I have no choice but to assume it was you," Xie Jingyu said, his brows furrowing heavily. "You're only three years old, yet you dare commit such an act?"
Tingyu hastily stepped in to shield Xie Shiyun behind her. "Master, Yu Ge'er has always been timid. When I was raising him, he wouldn't even dare step on an ant—how could he turn into someone like this the moment he entered Madam He's courtyard? I refuse to believe Yu Ge'er would ever do such a thing. I beg the master to thoroughly investigate this and clear Yu Ge'er's name!"
Before Xie Jingyu could reply, the midwife's jubilant voice rang out from inside the room: "She's delivered! The baby is out, it's a young master!"
Xie Jingyu felt a sudden release in his chest, followed immediately by a tight frown. "Why hasn't the sound of the child crying been heard?"
Before his eyes, the scene from back when Yun Chu had given birth seemed to replay itself—it, too, had been a premature birth, accompanied by basin after basin of bloody water being carried out, and a baby born without a single cry...
Yun Chu's expression remained devoid of any strong emotion.
True to form, it was identical to her past life; moments later, the weak wails of an infant finally pierced the air.
"Amitabha, as long as the child is fine, that's all that matters!" Old Madame and Lady Yuan rushed over as well, joy plastered across both their faces. "It's a young master! Our Xie family has added another descendant, wonderful!"
Yun Chu shook her head silently.
This child was born frail and sickly; by half a year old he wouldn't even be able to lift his head, and by two or three years old he still wouldn't be able to speak, remaining dull-witted and sluggish until Old Madame ultimately despised him to no end...
After reveling in her joy for a brief moment, Old Madame lowered her gaze, spotted Xie Shiyun standing off to the side, and instantly felt a surge of fury flare in her chest. "Jingyu, Yu Ge'er's boldness is completely out of hand! Had Concubine Tao not possessed a robust constitution, that could easily have resulted in two lives lost! Tell me, how should this matter be handled?"
Xie Jingyu pinched his fingers together and turned his gaze toward Yun Chu. "Madam, what do you think?"
Yun Chu spoke in an indifferent tone. "Why don't we wait until Concubine Tao catches her breath, and I will question her directly about what transpired?"
Just then, the midwife emerged carrying the infant wrapped in a swaddling blanket. It was a fair and clean little boy, his eyes tightly shut as he nestled inside the quilt.
Xie Jingyu glanced at him briefly before immediately withdrawing his gaze. Lady Yuan, on the other hand, affectionately cradled the baby in her arms for a good long while before finally handing him over to a wet nurse.
Without so much as glancing at the baby, Yun Chu strode directly into the delivery room to check on Concubine Tao's condition.
"Auntie Yu, go question Yu Ge'er properly and find out what really happened!" Xie Jingyu commanded coldly. "Madam He, follow me!"
Madam He pressed her lips into a tight line, lowered her head, and trailed obediently behind Xie Jingyu into a nearby side chamber.
The moment they stepped inside, Xie Jingyu's face darkened completely. "He Lingying, speak—was this your doing?"
Hearing her true birth name, Madam He fell into a momentary trance. The days when they had first met, understood each other, and fallen in love felt as distant as a past lifetime.
"Yulang, it wasn't me," she whispered plaintively. "An Ge'er is already grown and has achieved success; I have no need to resort to such things..."
"If not you, then who else could it possibly be?!" Xie Jingyu's eyes burned with fury. "A month ago when your scheme failed, you hatched yet another plot, and this time you even exploited a three-year-old child! Had I not known you well enough, I truly would never have suspected you. Your scheme this time was meant not only to kill the unborn child, but also to provoke me into driving Yu Ge'er away in a fit of rage, leaving no one in the Xie estate to threaten An Ge'er's position, wasn't it?!"
He had almost fallen for Madam He's rhetoric, genuinely believing Yu Ge'er was to blame.
Yet upon second thought, Yu Ge'er was merely three years old and currently running a fever. At the crack of dawn before daybreak, no matter how ignorant a child might be, he wouldn't wander about aimlessly at such an hour.
Madam He must have implanted those ideas into Yu Ge'er's head.
"I never imagined you possessed such ruthless methods!" Xie Jingyu narrowed his eyes. "Four years ago when Yun Chu suffered a fall and went into premature labor, was that also your handiwork?! I truly misjudged you!"
Back when Yun Chu became pregnant, he had brought Madam He into the Xie residence to serve as a managerial matron within his courtyard.
Only after Yun Chu's children suffered premature deaths and she lost her fertility had he seized the opportunity to bring his three children from the outside back home all at once.
At the time, he had simply felt everything proceeded a bit too smoothly, but looking back now, that smoothness was terrifyingly unnatural.
Although he despised the two children in Yun Chu's womb because they lacked Xie bloodline, he had never once intended to scheme against the children to cause a premature birth or early death...
Catching the subtle shift in Madam He's expression felt like a lightning bolt crashing down upon his head.
He had never once revealed to Madam He that those two children were not his own flesh and blood; how on earth had Madam He dared to make a move against the mistress of the household...
If she could dare move against Yun Chu, then plotting against Concubine Tao one time after another suddenly seemed entirely plausible...
"Master, why are you looking at me with such a gaze? Do you find me vicious?" Madam He suddenly smiled bitterly. "You overestimate me. With all those loyal and devoted maidservants surrounding Madam, how could I possibly find an opportunity? On the contrary, look at yourself—four years ago, you were the one who personally discarded those two newborn infants while they still drew breath. How are you any better than me?"
Xie Jingyu's heart suffered a violent, jarring jolt.
"An unborn child does not count as a human life; no matter what I did, I never took an innocent life," Madam He articulated every single word with chilling clarity. "Those two babies still carried the Xie family's bloodline, yet you cast them out into the freezing snow... I knew you did it so that Madam would wholeheartedly dedicate herself to raising An Ge'er and the others; I knew you were doing it for An Ge'er's benefit. Therefore, I locked this secret deep inside my heart, refusing to utter a single syllable even when Madam subjected me to harsh interrogations…”