News of Her Whereabouts

Upon hearing this, the First Madam frowned. "A woman named Qingye came to plead for the eldest young master. After investigating, it turns out that it was Matron Wang from the sewing room who sent her. Later, Jingtai also came, saying that the second brother sent him."

She rubbed her temples. "Jing'an and Jingli have always had a good relationship. He's from the second branch of the family, so it's inconvenient for him to come to me to plead for them. Sending Jingtai is understandable. But there's a problem with Qingye, isn't there? Matron Wang and Matron Li from the second branch have always been close. If someone from the second branch doesn't come out to relay Lady Wei's instructions, how dare Matron Wang act on her own?"

She sighed deeply, "Let's wait and see. Caidie should be back soon."

After a while, Caidie returned and reported, "At the ancestral hall, only the second and third young masters went to see the eldest young master; Qingye also went, but she didn't enter the ancestral hall, she just stood outside for a while and then left." She looked up, "No one went to the main courtyard either."

The First Madam and Matron Zhou exchanged a glance.

"Madam, it's late. This old servant will help you to rest," said Matron Zhou.

Marquis Pinghuan, Zhao Yuanxun, was in poor health. He often had trouble sleeping and sometimes coughed. In order not to disturb Lady Zhu's rest, he would spend most of the month resting in the front yard.

When he was young, he would occasionally rest in his concubine's room for the sake of having offspring. After Zhao Jingtai was born, he stopped going to his concubine's room. He would either rest in the main house or in the front yard.

Caidie could tell that Matron Zhou had something to say to the First Madam, so she didn't follow her into the inner room, but instead stayed outside to keep watch.

Matron Zhou noticed that the First Madam was somewhat dejected, so she racked her brains to try and comfort her. After all, this was a rare opportunity to test Lady Wei's reaction. Who knew that Lady Wei was so composed, and they couldn't find any flaws in her expression.

Of course, this also shows that the First Madam wasn't ruthless enough. If the eldest young master had been made to kneel all night, and if he were truly Lady Wei's son, Lady Wei would probably have become restless.

However, if that were the case, the first to become restless would inevitably be the Old Madam and the Marquis. Once the Old Madam and the Marquis inquired about it, before Lady Wei could make any move, the First Madam would have to abandon this plan.

Was it precisely because the Lady Wei had considered this point that they remained completely still and took no action?

"Madam, it's not like we came away empty-handed," said Matron Zhou in a low voice as she helped the First Madam remove the hairpins from her hair.

"Are you talking about Matron Wang?" the First Madam asked listlessly.

"No," said Matron Zhou. "The Second Madam usually cares deeply for the Second Young Master. Every night, she sends a servant to deliver a late-night snack to him, watching him eat and fall asleep before leaving. But not tonight. It's already this late. Usually, the person delivering the snack would have gone to the front courtyard by now, but Caidie just said that no one has gone to the main courtyard."

The First Madam paused in taking out the earrings, and through the bronze mirror, she exchanged a glance with Matron Zhou's reflection.

Was Lady Wei's behavior tonight an overreaction, stemming from a guilty conscience?

After a long while, once Matron Zhou had helped her remove all her jewelry, she sighed dejectedly and said, "It's no use, still no use. This is still just our guess, it can't be taken seriously."

Matron Zhou also sighed.

Indeed! Even if the Second Madam didn't send midnight snacks to the front yard tonight, what does it matter? At most, it would only make them more suspicious. It still doesn't truly prove that the eldest young master is not the eldest madam's son, but rather the second madam's.

The First Madam's agonizing struggle showed no signs of ending.

Xu Xi returned to the Tea Tasting Residence, had Dianjiang light the lamps, and sat at the table designing two jewelry pieces before going to sleep.

She didn't know how much time had passed when the system's voice suddenly rang in her mind, extremely excited. "Host, host..."

Xu Xi opened her eyes and saw only darkness before her.

The nights in ancient times were different from those in modern times. In modern cities, the night sky is polluted by various light sources, and the outside world is always bright. But in ancient times, unless it was a full moon, there was almost no light outside the window.

"Have you found out where the midwife is?" she asked.

In the dead of night, the system excitedly woke her up; there was nothing else to say but this good news.

Sure enough, the system said, "Yes, host, we've found out. Back then, she was bribed by the Lady Wei to switch you and Zhao Jingli. Fearing that the Lady Wei would kill her, she went to an unfamiliar place overnight after returning home. Because the Lady Wei gave her a large sum of money, she bribed the local officials to create a false identity. After staying there for a month, she felt it wasn't safe, so she repeated the same trick, changing her identity twice more. Over the past ten years, she has moved several times. That's why the Lady Wei and the old lady couldn't find her whereabouts."

"You're really amazing." Xu Xi immediately showered the system with praise before asking, "So where is she now?"

"In Gusu City, in the Jiangnan region, after leaving the capital, she stopped working as a midwife and instead opened a grain shop. Now she's an old lady with servants at home."

No wonder they couldn't find her; she changed her identity twice, her profession, and even her social class. Lady Wei and the old lady must have been searching everywhere for midwives, so of course they couldn't find her.

"How much money did the Wei family give her back then?" Xu Xi wondered, "Didn't it mean that the Wei family was relatively poor when the Wei family married in?" How much money would allow someone to take such a big risk?

"Wait a minute, I'll go check." The system said, then fell silent again.

Xu Xi couldn't sleep, but she didn't get up. Instead, she lay in bed and waited quietly.

Just as she was about to fall asleep again, the system's voice sounded once more, "Host, Lady Wei gave the midwife two thousand taels of silver back then; Lady Wei's wet nurse and the deceased nanny each received five hundred taels. This three thousand taels of silver is being kept safe for her by Zhao Yuanliang."

How does Zhao Yuanliang have so much money?

"The deceased Duke worried that after his death, the old lady would divide the family property, and the two illegitimate sons would receive too little to live on, so he gave each of them three thousand taels of silver. Zhao Yuanliang was completely infatuated with Lady Wei at the time. With a little coaxing from Lady Wei, he gave the money to Lady Wei for safekeeping."

"..."

Men really are all heartless bastards. The old lady almost exhausted her family fortune to treat the Duke's illness, but the Duke, on his deathbed, was only thinking about his concubine's son.

"My dear, you've worked so hard. You should rest well. I need to think of a way to get the news about the midwife out to the old lady and the first lady."

Xu Xi was extremely satisfied with the system's performance and decided to criticize it less in the future. Not only did it only charge 150 points, but it also found out such difficult information clearly and even gave her a few additional pieces of information for free.

The system that fixed its error in calculating her points is truly a good comrade.