Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

Master Zhang hurriedly grabbed the yellow paper talisman from the offering table, dipped it in cinnabar, and was about to stick it on Xi Yueli's forehead.

But his wrist was stopped halfway. Helian Jing stood up from his chair at some point, walked over, and lightly touched his wrist.

"What's the rush?" Helian Jing's voice was authoritative. "Let Miss Xi finish speaking."

Master Zhang's wrist trembled, and the peach wood sword slipped from his hand, falling to the ground with a clatter.

Fang's eyes went completely blank for a moment. She looked at Xi Yueli, who was standing in the center of the candlelight with her hands bound, her pale and thin face revealing something in the flickering light that made people afraid to look directly at her.

Her knees suddenly buckled, and with a thud, Fang fell to her knees.

She knelt beside the prayer mat, looking up at Xi Yueli, tears welling up unexpectedly, washing away the makeup on her face and leaving streaks of white.

"It wasn't me... I had no choice at the time..." Fang's voice was broken into incoherent sentences. She reached out to grab Xi Yueli's skirt, but Xi Yueli took a half step back to avoid her.

"He doesn't want me anymore... How am I, a young woman, supposed to live with this pregnancy...? I can't... I really can't..."

No one in the ancestral hall uttered a sound. The candlelight crackled and popped, sending a spark flying.

Xi Yueli looked down at Fang Shi kneeling at her feet. Her pale face remained expressionless, and her eyes were as cold as ice.

In the past, every time she faced Fang's schemes, she tried her best, persevered, and used all her clarity of mind to dismantle them.

But as she stood there, looking down at her kneeling stepmother begging for forgiveness, she felt no sense of relief. It was as if she had finally let go of something she had carried for too long, only to discover that it had never truly belonged to her.

Xi Yueli withdrew her gaze and turned to Xi Mingyuan, whose face had turned ashen, sitting in the hall.

"Father, an old woman I helped years ago, her daughter saw that Fang was pregnant, and that she poured a basin of bloody water into the ditch in the back alley in winter. You can check every word I say."

She paused for a moment, then her gaze returned to Fang's face, who was kneeling on the ground.

"Mother, you just said you 'had no choice.' But you had a way to marry into the Xi family, a way to give birth to Xi Yuefu, and a way to be the mistress of the household for over a decade. Why couldn't you just wrap that baby girl in a mat before throwing her away?"

Fang knelt on the ground, trembling like the last leaf on an autumn branch. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but only muffled sobs came out of her throat.

"Enough." Xi Mingyuan stood up abruptly. His face was as white as the candle paper in the hall.

What happened in the hall was completely beyond his control. He now only wanted everyone in the hall, especially Prince Chen, to disappear from the ancestral hall immediately.

"Someone come here! The lady is unwell, help her to rest!" he called out towards the door.

Two old women came in to help Fang Shi up. When Fang Shi was dragged up from the ground, her legs were still weak, and she was practically carried out.

Xi Yuefu stumbled after Fang Shi and chased after her. Before leaving, she glanced back at Xi Yueli, her eyes filled with a mixture of fear and hatred.

The only people left in the hall were the old lady, Xi Mingyuan, Taoist Zhang, Helian Jing, and Xi Yueli standing in front of the prayer mat.

Xi Mingyuan turned to Helian Jing, trying to regain a respectful demeanor, and cupped his hands in a gesture of respect: "Your Highness, there has been unrest at home tonight, and I have been truly rude. Please, Your Highness, move to the main hall for tea—"

"No need." Helian Jing had already stood up, picked up a yellow talisman that Zhang Daoshi had ruined from the mess of ritual implements on the offering table, twirled it on his fingertip, and then threw it back on the table.

His gaze swept across Xi Mingyuan's face, then landed on Xi Yueli, lingered for a moment, and he didn't say anything more.

He stepped out, and as he reached the door, he turned to Xi Mingyuan and said, "Lord Xi, your household is rather unsettled."

The sentence was devoid of emotion, light and airy, yet Xi Mingyuan could sense the weight beneath it.

All the officials in the court knew that Prince Chen was in charge of the Tian Shu Division, which was responsible for more than just maintaining order in the capital region.

Helian Jing left, and the Xuanjia Guards also withdrew, leaving the ancestral hall suddenly half empty.

Master Zhang huddled behind the offering table, wishing he could disappear into it. A single glance from Xi Mingyuan startled him so much that he didn't even dare to pack up his ritual implements. He grabbed the banner and slipped away through the side door.

Only the three members of the family remained in the ancestral hall.

The old lady sat at the head of the table, her fingers gripping the armrest still trembling slightly. She hadn't said a word from beginning to end, but her gaze remained fixed on Xi Yueli's face.

This granddaughter was forced to drink talisman water, bound with hemp rope, and almost nailed to a pillar with a peach wood sword tonight, but she never begged for mercy or cried out that she was wronged.

When she stood there dismantling the Fang family's property, the look in her eyes was something the old lady had only ever seen on the face of one type of person in her sixty years of life—a person who had ever held a knife.

However, when this granddaughter was born, the sorcerer determined that she was "cursed by evil spirits that clashed with the royal family." She was abandoned outside and raised until she was eleven years old before being brought back to the mansion. When she was brought back, she was as thin as a sick cat and didn't even dare to make eye contact with people.

Where would a child who doesn't even dare to make eye contact get those eyes?

"Li'er," the old lady finally spoke, her voice a little hoarse, "what you just said... did you really just hear it from others?"

Xi Yueli met her gaze calmly: "Grandmother, that person told me that Father went to Willow Lane to investigate what happened around the ninth day of the second month sixteen years ago to that woman surnamed Fang who lived alone. He'll find out soon enough."

Xi Mingyuan stood in the hall, the veins on the back of his hands bulging and then pressing down, pressing down and then bulging again.

Everything he had experienced tonight had left him numb, but the only thing he was clear about was that Fang had just knelt on the ground, crying and admitting it. Regardless of whether the abandonment of the baby was real or not, Fang's own words had already sold her out.

"Father," Xi Yueli suddenly spoke, her tone becoming calm.

"I know you're in a difficult position tonight. Prince Chen is watching from the outside, and your grandmother is overseeing things from the inside. Plus, the Fang family's matter involves old grievances from sixteen years ago. You're unsure how to handle this."

She took two steps forward, and Xi Mingyuan subconsciously took half a step back, then froze.

"I've thought of a compromise for you," Xi Yueli said. "You should confine Fang Shi to the courtyard for now, forbidding her from seeing outsiders, until you've investigated the matter in Willow Lane before taking further action. This way, you can explain things to Grandmother. As for me—"

She suddenly smiled, a very faint smile. "Tonight I drank talisman water, was bound with hemp rope, and was chased around like a ghost. You and Grandmother both saw it. With my current condition, let alone hurting anyone, my legs were shaking after standing for half an hour."

"If you don't believe me, have a doctor take my pulse right now and see if my bones are strong enough to take down two servants."

Xi Mingyuan actually called out towards the door, "Someone, go and fetch a doctor."

The doctor arrived quickly; it was Doctor Wang, who often treated patients in the household. As he took the pulse, his brows furrowed more and more, and finally he stepped back to give his reply.

"My lord, the eldest daughter's pulse is weak and shallow, and she is deficient in both qi and blood. Several tendons and veins show obvious signs of overwork and damage, which should be due to not getting rest for several days and the external injury she suffered last night."

"But the manor says that the eldest daughter injured two servants? This..." Doctor Wang shook his head, not saying the words "impossible," but the meaning of his shake of the head was already very clear.