Chapter 1249

At dusk, she had just changed her clothes and stepped out the door when she ran straight into Ximen Wudi.

Tian Jiao paused, displeased, and said, "What are you here for? I have no interest."

"Oh? Is that so?" Ximen Wudi replied lightly, "Then might my lord tell me why you insist on helping me?"

Tian Jiao said, "Because you catch my eye."

She said it casually, not revealing a single trace of her true thoughts.

Ximen Wudi was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "My lord, I have a question I wish to ask you."

Tian Jiao said, "Go ahead and ask."

"Does my lord happen to know my maternal uncle by marriage?" Ximen Wudi asked.

Tian Jiao was startled for a beat, then nodded. "I've met him twice, but that's all."

"Then does my lord know the Qin family's Fourth Great-Aunt?" Ximen Wudi asked again.

"Who is your Fourth Great-Aunt?" Tian Jiao countered.

Ximen Wudi said, "My Fourth Great-Aunt's name is Qin Yumei."

Tian Jiao suddenly understood. "I've heard my mother mention this person. I only ever heard my father bring her up—Qin Yumei was a beautiful woman. Are you certain she is your great-aunt?"

"My great-aunt's surname is Qin," Ximen Wudi said. "As far as I know, my great-aunt is already dead. My lord, instead of racking your brains to find relatives for me, you would do better to spend more effort investigating the other members of the Qin family. For instance, my two uncles."

Tian Jiao's heart began to pound, vaguely guessing what he meant by those words.

She asked, "Are you implying the Qin family is suspected of embezzling silver?"

"Yes," Ximen Wudi said. "My great-aunt was a widow; the Qin family did not divide any of the family property to her. She only managed to support her household by relying on a single distillery left behind by her husband.

After she married into my father's family, she couldn't earn five thousand taels in a year either. But our family doesn't lack that sum of silver—what reason would she have to embezzle so much? Unless she had long known that the distillery her husband left behind was a fake."

"Your great-aunt was ill," Tian Jiao blurted out.

"... What?" Ximen Wudi was bewildered.

1068 sent people to investigate thoroughly.

Tian Jiao explained, "She suffered from a severe case of delusional disorder. Her delusion was a strange one—no matter whom she met, she would claim the other person harbored designs on her life, and she would even attack people. She was half-mad to begin with, and her mental state only grew worse.

In the end, she went completely mad."

Ximen Wudi was stunned.

Does Tian Yulan also have some illness?

Tian Jiao continued, "I've heard her husband's posthumous child is about to reach one month old."

She looked at Ximen Wudi. "What sort of people are your Qin family, exactly?"

Ximen Wudi said, "I will send people to investigate this matter thoroughly."

Tian Jiao nodded. "Then I'll trouble you with it, Ximen Wudi."

Ximen Wudi smiled. "It's but a small effort."

Tian Yulan had been hiding behind the door curtain, eavesdropping, and at these words could not help but curse Tian Jiao a fool.

This stupid Ninth Sister of hers actually dared to tell Ximen Wudi the news that Qin Yumei was a madwoman! What if Ximen Wudi investigated Qin Yumei and the trail led back to her?

The night was thick, the moon hung high.

Tian Yulan sat by the windowsill stitching a shoe insole; her stitches were rough, and her fingers were covered in wounds.

Suddenly, her ears twitched; she keenly detected an unusual sound outside.

She quickly hid under the quilt, then stealthily made her way to the side of the table, drew the sword at her waist, and carefully went outside.

A fit of urgent coughing came from the courtyard.

"Cough, cough..."

Along with the coughing, another aged male voice rose: "I told you, we can't stake everything on this girl. Where is she clever? She probably figured out something was off long ago. What do we do now?"

"Of course we leave here and head back to Jingcheng."

"Are you afraid the Tian family will learn what we've done and take revenge on us?"

"Have you forgotten, we still have one child? If the Tian family wants revenge, they'll surely have to find that child..."

"That bastard..."

The two men's conversation drifted intermittently into Tian Yulan's ears.

Tian Yulan's face went deathly pale.

She gripped her sword, stood rigid in the darkness, her whole heart as though plunged into an icy pit.

Tian Tian, you truly harbor no good intentions—how dare you scheme to frame me!

Tian Jiao, how vicious you are!

Tian Yulan gritted her teeth, wishing she could rush out and tear her to pieces!

But she knew she was no match for Tian Jiao; setting aside Tian Jiao's Wu Gong, her maids and old women alone were more than enough to deal with her.

Her only chance of winning was to wait until Tian Jiao was sound asleep.

It would only take a moment, and Tian Tian's door would open; she would slip out amid the chaos. By then Tian Tian wouldn't know what had happened either.

Unfortunately, Tian Yulan was thinking too far ahead.

Tian Jiao was not in the room at all.

She had long anticipated Tian Yulan would play a trick, so under some pretext she had Tian Yulan deliver medicinal herbs, while she herself returned alone to the West Cross-Courtyard.

In the West Cross-Courtyard, the maids had all retired for the night.

She silently vaulted over the wall, lifted two jars of wine from beneath the bed, and tiptoed toward the East Wing Room next door.

The lamp in the East Wing Room was still lit.

Tian Tian was practicing calligraphy.

She wasn't going to sleep tonight.

Once she finished writing, Tian Jiao pushed the door open, stuffed two jars into the chest at the head of her bed, and said, "I brought you some wine."

Tian Tian looked up in surprise.

"You're not sleeping, you're writing?" she asked.

Tian Jiao said, "How can I study if I don't sleep?"

Her bookshelf was piled with papers filling half the room.

Tian Tian's bookshelf was filled entirely with all sorts of medical texts. She studied medicine every day.

Tian Tian had great perseverance.

She had never once thought of taking the imperial examinations. She only wanted to cure her grandmother, so her grandfather would no longer suffer.

Her grandfather had once been a physician; saving lives was his lifelong wish. Unfortunately, he died a death not worth dying.

1069 The Crime of Being Born of a Concubine

On his deathbed, her grandfather urged her to find their grandmother's blood relatives and have them treat her.

She studied hard, delved into medical skills, and made all kinds of friends—all for this purpose.

She hoped she could achieve something and bring glory to the Tian clan.

But she knew even more clearly that she was not a child born from Tian Yulan's womb; her talent was ordinary, her aptitude dull. Even after more than ten years of study, she could hardly match Tian Yulan.

She could only rely on herself to seize opportunities.

She wanted to cure her grandmother's illness.

Only when grandmother recovered could she stand upright before others, no longer bearing the crime of being born of a concubine.

"So the Mr. my big brother hired for me is a madman," Tian Tian sighed.

Tian Jiao raised an eyebrow.

"How did the Mr. your big brother hired become a madman?"

Tian Tian said, "Do you know my situation? My background."

"What's wrong with your background?" Tian Jiao looked completely puzzled. "I heard from your sister-in-law—she told you, didn't she—that your father and mother are both merchants."

"My mother's dowry shop sold silks and fabrics, but she had a colleague who loved eating pastries. So my mother spent money to buy a batch of fresh lychees.

Who would have thought, my mother's colleague actually turned out to be a madman!"

Tian Jiao's eyes went wide as she stared at Tian Tian in disbelief.