Qin Yutong bit her delicate lips, struggling to control her emotions, but tears were already welling in her eyes.
Meizhuang said, "Are you deeply moved?"
Qin Yutong shook her head. "Stop talking!"
Meizhuang laughed. "Why don't you want to hear any more? Because you're afraid to learn the truth, because you've already guessed that you, too, were one of the people who caused your mother's death!"
"Shut up!" Qin Yutong screamed, her tears pouring out like water through a breached dike.
Hu Xiaotian spread his arms and drew her into his embrace. Qin Yutong nestled against his warmth and began to sob silently.
Madam Meizhuang sighed. "Actually, even I don't understand why your mother had to die. Even though she had made mistakes, Master couldn't bear to kill her. I might have been able to deceive your father, but certainly not her. Why would someone as clever as she was choose a road to death, abandoning her husband and the baby in her arms?"
Hu Xiaotian said, "The way you tell it, you bear no responsibility at all. Is this your attempt to whitewash yourself?"
Madam Meizhuang gave a disdainful laugh. "Do I need to do that?" Her gaze settled on Hu Xiaotian's face. "Your betrothal back then was actually Qin Se's idea. No one understood why she chose an idiot for you, but looking at things now, her judgment truly was exceptional."
Hu Xiaotian sighed inwardly. Qin Se, the mother-in-law he had never met, must have been a woman of extraordinary wisdom. Since Meizhuang had ruled out so many people's involvement in her death, perhaps it had something to do with Ling Jiazi. Perhaps Qin Se had learned Ling Jiazi's secret, and perhaps Ling Jiazi had been willing to kill to protect it.
Hu Xiaotian said, "Did you know