The male supporting character was actually myself.

"Damn it, who said the ghost at the Eighteenth Concubine's place is Li Jiangchen's biological mother?" He angrily smashed a teacup and said furiously, "Someone is deliberately stirring up trouble. It must be Li Jiangchen who arranged for someone to spread rumors to achieve his goal!"

Zhang Ziqiu raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. She was secretly pleased. Sure enough, people who became addicted to opium were irritable and easily angered. Li Dongchen had already shown some signs of this. If he continued to smoke, he would soon become eccentric, lose interest in everything else, and only think about smoking opium and indulging in pleasure.

Li Dongchen grew angrier the more he thought about it. He had thrown a stone to distract the maid who was brewing the medicine in order to poison that vile woman. Who knew that by sheer coincidence, someone would catch him, exaggerate the situation, and stir up trouble by saying that it was haunted, and then bring up the matter of elevating the status of Li Jiangchen's birth mother.

I never expected that Li Jiangchen, who was away fighting at the war, would make such a meticulous arrangement. With his military merits and the gossip of some sycophants he bribed, his mother, who came from a lowly background, climbed up the ranks step by step.

"Hoo!" Feeling depressed, he climbed onto the kang (a heated brick bed), casually pulled out a pipe from under the mattress, stuffed in a large piece of fine black tobacco paste, lit it, and began to puff away and enjoy the smoke, as if only this thing in the world could relieve his worries.

As he inhaled the faint smoke, it traveled through his lungs, and then he exhaled it. Li Dongchen felt an indescribable sense of comfort throughout his body.

His brain started working at lightning speed, and a feeling of floating on clouds washed over him. His gloomy mood suddenly brightened—maybe the rumors of the ghost story would actually benefit him!

Weren't all the servants bribed by Li Jiangchen, and taking advantage of any disturbance, they started spreading rumors that the Marshal's Mansion was haunted and that it was Li Jiangchen's biological mother who was unwilling to accept it?

If the eighteenth concubine causes a commotion after drinking the soup mixed with such a large dose of medicine, she will either miscarry or suffer a massive hemorrhage, resulting in the death of both mother and child. In any case, one bowl of medicine is definitely not enough to save her. At that time, the old man will definitely hold the ghost Li Jiangchen's birth mother accountable in his anger!

Then, I'll guide him a bit to make the old man think that Li Jiangchen's dead mother is a jealous ghost who caused a ruckus in the mansion, which is why the concubines couldn't have a safe pregnancy and ended up having miscarriages or losing their lives.

Given how eager the old man was for his pregnant concubine to have another child, he would absolutely hate the mother and child!

Haha, this is probably a case of "a blessing in disguise"!

Li Jiangchen's cleverness backfired. His whereabouts were secretive and the powder dissolved easily in the soup, so there was no problem. He could take the blame for the ghost incident and secretly make sure that the pregnant women were either dead or badly injured, so that they would never be able to get pregnant again!

"A cigarette before bed is like being in heaven, so comfortable!" Li Dongchen was enjoying himself immensely, and the worries in his heart were completely relieved. He felt happy from the inside out, and casually threw down his cigarette and rolled to the side to go to sleep peacefully.

He knew that Zhang Ziqiu, that stupid woman, would clean up his mess.

She wasn't entirely useless. Although she would dawdle and complain every time she was asked to buy tobacco paste, she was actually quite obedient and had the school's funds to support her spending lavishly, always managing to buy back a lot of high-quality tobacco paste.

With her covering for him and handling the aftermath, he didn't have to worry about anything.

Zhang Ziqiu estimated that it was about time, went inside, cleaned up and hid the smoking lamp and pipe, and looked at the sleeping Li Dongchen. A satisfied smile appeared on her lips.

"Lieutenant Li, how's your investigation going?" Li Tianxing asked solemnly as he sat in the living room of the Eighteenth Concubine's courtyard, calming the concubine who was crying and trembling with fear after hearing the news.

"I personally interrogated the person involved and thoroughly inspected the kitchen," Lieutenant Li said with a salute and a firm voice. "All those who knew about this have been apprehended. Currently, there are a few rumors circulating among the servants, and some even involve the concubines who died in previous years."

The subordinate believes that the poisoning was indeed caused by human intervention, not by ghosts.

The maid who was brewing the medicine first heard a clear knocking sound. Her subordinate checked the kitchen door and found no marks. Then she responded that she heard rustling sounds in the yard, so she opened the door to check and found a dark shadow moving against the south wall. She was so frightened that she cried for help.

My subordinates have checked carefully; the girl is standing some distance from the kitchen.

If someone were to enter the kitchen and poison her, she wouldn't be able to notice in her panic. Therefore, her subordinates focused their search on the kitchen entrance and found half a fresh shoe print on the damp ground behind a water tank.

After questioning everyone and confirming that no one who entered the courtyard at the time of the incident had approached the water vat, and considering the freshness of the shoe prints, the subordinates suspected that the person who drugged the girl hid behind the water vat when luring her out.

Furthermore, the subordinates found a stone at the base of the south wall. This piece of gravel was exactly the loose stone from the anti-slip steps behind the water vat, fitting perfectly without any discrepancies. It can be deduced that the culprit managed to sneak into the courtyard by evading the guards. He first tried to lure them in by knocking on the door, but when that failed, he hid behind the water vat and casually picked up a stone, throwing it into the dead bushes at the base of the south wall to make a noise.

As the maid who was brewing the medicine fell for the trap and left the kitchen, the steward slipped in, poisoned the medicine, and quickly left. At that time, neither of the doors on either side of the kitchen courtyard was locked. The steward, along with the servants, came in through the right passage to check the situation. If they moved swiftly, the culprit would have left through the left door and would have missed them.

Li Tianxing's face was so gloomy it was almost dripping with water. "So, someone had planned this all along, meticulously scouting the place, just waiting to drug the concubine! Doctor Yang, tell me your findings. What kind of drug is it?"

"Reporting to the Commander, based on the smell and appearance, I preliminarily deduce that it contains a large amount of safflower and musk, as well as some Western medicine."

Based on Lieutenant Li's description and observation of the medicine pot at the scene, such a large dose added to the decoction would have caused the eighteenth concubine, even if she was young and healthy, to miscarry or even bleed uncontrollably, resulting in the death of both mother and child.

The person who added the powder to the medicine pot had a clear objective: to kill the child in the eighteenth concubine's womb.

After answering, Dr. Yang hesitated for a few seconds and lowered his voice, saying, "After the incident, Lieutenant Li immediately blocked the news. If the villain who poisoned the medicine wasn't among them, he probably wouldn't know that the concubine didn't drink the medicine after it was broken. In that case, why not turn the tables on them?"

"What if we seal off the entire mansion and search it one by one?" Li Tianxing's anger flared up, and he said coldly, "There's more than just this one concubine who's pregnant. Since she wants to harm my offspring, she must have prepared a lot of drugs. Wouldn't it be clear if we just searched her out?"

Doctor Yang quickly waved his hand to stop them, "Searching the Marshal's mansion is not advisable; it might alert them. Especially since these drugs are easy to hide. If they're determined to kill, they won't let anyone find them so easily. Besides, there are many women in the mansion. If someone happens to have these drugs on hand and it's discovered, wouldn't it be easy to misunderstand an innocent person?"

“That’s right. There are many people in the manor, and many gossips. If we can’t find the real culprit, it will definitely alert the other party.” Lieutenant Li nodded in agreement. “As the saying goes, it’s easy to dodge a spear in the open, but hard to guard against an arrow in the dark. The other party is in the dark, while you concubines are in the open. The more we guard against them, the harder it will be to catch them.”

"I have sent all those currently aware of this matter to another residence for safekeeping. The concubines' residences will be kept under strict surveillance, though not overtly so, until the other party makes their move and is caught red-handed!"

The head steward breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that he was also going to be sent to the villa; he didn't want to get involved anymore!

However, just as he breathed a sigh of relief, he suddenly felt an itch on the top of his head. He instinctively looked up and was immediately terrified, collapsing to the ground with a thud. "A ghost! There's a ghost!"

Chapter Fifty Old Stories

The head steward, who was hiding at the doorway and hadn't entered the hall, watched as a woman in flowing white robes floated into the darkness, flew to the roof, and disappeared. He collapsed to the ground, his face ashen, his body trembling, and he nearly wet himself.

"Where's the ghost?" Lieutenant Li reacted the fastest, instinctively drawing his gun and jumping into the yard to look up. The butler's eyes were fixed on the roof, which was completely empty. "What do you see?"

The head steward, feeling guilty, stammered and before he could even utter a word, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the opposite wall, where, under the light, the silhouette of a slender woman was revealed!

"It's...it's Aunt Liang!" he exclaimed in shock, large beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. He was so frightened that he was practically out of his mind.

The servants' rumors are true!

Having risen in status through her son, is Aunt Liang finally going to seek justice for herself now that she knows her son is second only to the emperor?

The butler trembled with utter despair; what was bound to happen had finally come…

Lieutenant Li, who had his back to the wall, turned around but still saw nothing. He stared at him suspiciously and asked coldly, "Madam Liang is the second young master's birth mother. I heard you've been treating him differently and bullying him quite a bit. What? Are you feeling guilty and afraid her ghost will come looking for revenge?"

Upon hearing the word "revenge," the head steward, who was already terrified, trembled even more violently.

"Click!" Lieutenant Li felt his behavior was really strange, so he casually cocked the gun and pressed it against the man's head, trying to provoke him. "What have you done that made the ghost hold a grudge? Tell the truth!"

The authoritative rebuke, coupled with the cold muzzle of the gun on his forehead, shattered the last line of defense for the terrified head butler. He cried and kowtowed, "General, spare me! General, I was forced into this! These things have weighed on my mind for many years, I really... I conspired with the eldest young master to target and bully the second young master so that he would fall out of favor or even die young, to prevent them from discovering the evil deeds I had committed..."

Seeing that the situation was not good, Li Tianxing comforted the eighteenth concubine and let her go back to her room to rest. He then dismissed the servants and sent them all to another courtyard for strict guard, as Li's adjutant suggested. Only when he, Li's adjutant, Dr. Yang, and the head steward were left in the hall did he let him tell the truth and promised to give him a lighter punishment because of his surrender.

"That was...that was more than twenty years ago." The exhausted head butler felt he couldn't bear the ghost story any longer, so he decided to come clean and at least stop bearing such immense pressure. Even if he died, he would be at peace.

He knelt in the center of the hall and slowly recounted the events of many years ago.

At that time, Li Tianxing did not yet have the large army he would later have; he was just starting out, holding the title of commander-in-chief and raising the banner.

The eldest son's legally wedded wife, his birth mother, was in charge of many affairs of the inner court, while Li Tianxing was busy conquering territory and expanding his power, often spending the night in military camps or even going to the battlefield, and hardly ever concerned himself with family matters.

Although he had many women while fighting, he was in his prime and focused on developing his career, so he had no interest in indulging in pleasure. Most of those women were just playthings to please him. He would keep them by his side when he liked them, and when he got tired of them, he would just give them some money to get rid of them.

At that time, there was a female opera student whom Li Tianxing had taken a liking to while watching a play. She was beautiful, had a graceful figure, and a gentle personality, which pleased him greatly. He brought her directly into the mansion and officially made her his third concubine, and he favored her for a while.

Later, due to his busy military affairs, Li Tianxing had no time to return to the mansion to spend the night with his third concubine. In addition, while on the march, he inevitably had new beauties in his arms, and his third concubine was gradually neglected.

"The lady originally just disliked the third concubine's favor and often deliberately made things difficult for her. Who knew that after a while, when the third concubine was serving the lady a meal, she suddenly started gagging. At that time, the lady was not pregnant and had not yet given birth to any children in the mansion. She immediately became alert and asked me to find a traveling doctor outside the mansion to take the third concubine's pulse."

Sure enough, the traveling doctor said that the third concubine was pregnant!

The lady feared that if the third concubine gave birth to a child and regained favor, it would threaten her position. So... after the diagnosis, she announced that the third concubine had contracted the plague and needed to recuperate alone to avoid infection, so she arranged for her to stay in the small courtyard at the back, Qinglang Garden.

At the time, I was just a errand boy, but I gained the lady's trust because of my task of finding a doctor.

When the third concubine moved to Qinglang Garden, she was unaware of the truth. She genuinely believed she was ill and was deeply grateful for the madam's comfort. She had no suspicion whatsoever about the medicine that was brought to her, and although it was very bitter, she still drank it under the madam's smiling gaze..."

The head butler still can't forget what happened that night.

It was early summer, and it was still early after dinner. His wife called him into her room and gave him a packet of herbs and a packet of red powder, instructing him to personally brew them and then dissolve the red powder in a bowl before serving it to his third concubine.

The steward, who was a errand boy, knew that this was definitely not a good thing, but the lady promised that if he handled this matter well, he would be promoted and would no longer have to do things at the mercy of others.

If he doesn't obey, since he already knows the secrets of the manor, he will naturally be executed. Not only him, but his entire family will also die silently in the chaos of the world.

He hesitated for a long time before finally deciding to compromise.

After all, he was just a nobody with little influence, how could he possibly stand up to the Marshal's wife?

In this chaotic world, starving people are everywhere and blood flows like rivers. What is the death of a concubine who is an orphan and out of favor compared to protecting one's own family and achieving success?

So he brewed the medicine, added the red powder to dissolve it, and brought it to the third concubine. Under the gentle, smiling gaze of the madam, she drank it all.

After about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the third concubine said she felt unwell and tossed and turned on the kang (a heated brick bed). Then blood started dripping down her body. She cried out in pain and begged for mercy, rolling around on the bed, but the bleeding only increased and couldn't be stopped.

The lady had long ago instructed that, in order to prevent the spread of the epidemic, everyone else in the nearby courtyards be evacuated. The empty Qinglang Garden was only filled with the Third Concubine, who was locked in her room, banging on the doors and windows and screaming.

The steward, still a servant, sat in the courtyard, trembling as he listened, barely managing to get through the night. The Third Concubine's voice grew softer and softer until it finally fell silent.

He didn't dare open the door until dawn was breaking. The once beautiful third concubine lay in a pool of blood, her hair disheveled and her clothes torn. Her face was contorted, her complexion as white as paper, her eyes wide open in death, her mouth agape. Her hands were still gripping the door frame tightly, her fingernails had fallen off, and the door frame was covered with scratches and bloodstains.

She died around midnight, and when he went to check on her, the third concubine was already stiff.

The lady only glanced at it and was clearly not satisfied. She covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief, casually told him to clean it up, and left.

The young and inexperienced steward was seeing a corpse for the first time, especially one that had been poisoned by the very medicine he had personally prepared. He was so terrified that he remained stunned for a long time before slowly recovering.

He steeled himself, straightened the body of his third concubine, cleaned away the bloodstains, tore off her tattered clothes, and haphazardly put a clean garment over her to cover the scratches on her body. He then placed her on the kang (heated brick bed) in another room, pretending that she had died there.

They then hurriedly cleaned and painted over the bloodstains all over the room.

Once everything was arranged, the lady ordered someone to buy a coffin to bury her and sent someone to inform the commander who was still in the military camp that the third concubine had died of the plague and should not be kept in the coffin for long; she should be burned immediately to prevent the spread of the disease.

From then on, any woman who had been favored by the Marshal and had a child would be placed in Qinglang Garden by the Madam under the pretext of being sick. The steward would personally brew medicine, add red powder, and watch them drink it. Without exception, those poor women either bled to death or died from illness or starvation after miscarriage because they had no one to take care of them.

"boom!"

Li Tianxing's face turned ashen as he slammed his fist on the table, making a clattering sound as the teacups rattled.

"How many lives has that wicked woman killed? And it was you who did it every single time?"

"Yes, it was me... Every time someone was imprisoned in Qinglang Garden, Madam would give me herbs and red powder." The steward lay on the ground, trembling and saying, "At first, Madam's dosage was not accurate and caused two mishaps. Some women were smart and immediately knew that she was the one who poisoned them. There was even a strong farm girl who almost escaped but was caught because she was bleeding too much."

From then on, the lady began to study the dosage carefully, administering the medication gradually so that the patient would not notice the change. Sometimes, it would take several days of medication before the symptoms suddenly appeared, and even in death, the patient would gradually weaken and would not have the strength to shout or make a fuss before dying.

Until... until the Marshal brought back Concubine Liang..."

Aunt Liang is Li Jiangchen's biological mother, a homeless woman whom Li Tianxing took a liking to during his military campaign.

At the time, she was away fighting, and since she wasn't a delicate person, she was quite favored by the commander-in-chief, so she stayed by his side. When she returned to the commander's mansion, she was already more than eight months pregnant.

The lady's own eldest son had not yet learned to walk. Seeing the general bring back a pregnant woman, she was filled with resentment, but she still pretended to be gentle and virtuous and assured her husband that she would take good care of Concubine Liang. She also suggested that they hold a formal marriage ceremony after Concubine Liang gave birth to her child.

Li Tianxing trusted her greatly, so he left the pregnant Aunt Liang behind and went to attend to his military affairs.

The lady dared not make things too obvious, so instead of acting immediately, she had him, who had been promoted to the position of steward, personally supervise the brewing of the pregnancy-stabilizing medicine. When it was delivered, she added a small amount of red powder to the medicine bowl.

Even though Aunt Liang and her son were lucky to survive, it was unclear whether it was because she was in good health or because the dosage of the medication was too cautious. It wasn't until more than half a month later that she showed signs of premature labor under the influence of the medication.

The lady specially arranged for a midwife to tamper with the delivery while the medication was in effect, so that she could kill Aunt Liang and the baby in her womb.

However, Li Tianxing, who had few children, was extremely concerned about the mother and child. In addition, the situation was stable at the time, and he rushed back immediately after hearing the news. The midwife, feeling guilty, did not dare to kill the baby, but deliberately turned the baby's position so that Aunt Liang would die from postpartum hemorrhage.

Li Jiangchen was lucky; with her mother's last efforts, she broke through the amniotic sac and was born successfully, becoming the second child in the family and the last child in more than twenty years.

The butler, feeling guilty and obedient to his mistress who held the lives of his family in her hands, deliberately targeted the young second son even after his mistress's death, hoping that he would die young under the bullying of the eldest son.

In this way, he could rest easy and no longer worry that the second young master would find out the truth and take revenge on him.