By the time Liu Wan reached the Front Courtyard, one servant's body had just been carried out.
She hurriedly covered Wanwan's eyes and looked at Xie Jinqiu, who sat in the seat of honor. Beside him stood Xu Rourou, holding a child and staring at her with venomous resentment.
If Xie Jinqiu had always looked sickly before, he now looked like a man basking in a spring breeze of success, his smile gentle.
Nothing about him suggested he was someone who would poison her.
Now, at last, he had stopped pretending.
Seeing Liu Wan return, he slowly rose. "You're back, Sister-in-law. You have no idea how chaotic the residence has become during these few days you spent at your parents' home. Their monthly wages were only delayed by two months, and these servants turned the world upside down. They actually dared to incite others to cause trouble."
"Madam, Madam, we weren't causing trouble! We only wanted to ask Fourth Master when our wages would be paid. My child is sick, and I don't even have the money for treatment. We can't afford to wait any longer!"
"A Sheng only asked how there could be no money for wages when Concubine Xu could afford abalone and blood swallow's nest, and Fourth Master beat him to death."
A Meng, a familiar-looking middle-aged man, actually broke down crying in front of everyone.
Perhaps his child's condition truly was urgent.
And A Sheng, who had been beaten to death and carried out, had been his fellow worker, a hardworking, honest man.
Liu Wan's heart ached. Just one less mouthful of abalone or blood swallow's nest would have paid for A Meng's child's treatment.
She looked at Xie Jinqiu. "Though money is tight in the residence, when I handed the account books over to Mother-in-law