Yan Qing left the door immediately after finally coaxing Lu Nianfu away.
Something must have happened, otherwise the young lady wouldn't have asked about the past for no reason. He wondered how she found out that the person behind him was Shuhua. Could it be that Shuhua let it slip?
He turned out of the shop and bought a piece of osmanthus cake when he passed the street corner.
After so many years, she still loved sweets.
Qiangwei and Ziwei, after attending to Madam Ban as she slept, discussed their next move outside with tears in their eyes: "Ziwei, can you tell? Madame has lost the will to live."
Ziwei nodded: "The Earl is becoming more and more cruel. Forget about Madame, even you and I can barely stand it. Look at the women in the back courtyard, dead or fled, how many are left now? Even the most favored ones, Suxin and Suyue, have quite a few scars on them."
To be selfish, if there were more concubines, the Pingning Earl would have more people to vent on, and he wouldn't target their Madame so relentlessly.
As the two were discussing, a few meows suddenly came from the back door.
That was the secret signal they had arranged with Yan Qing.
The Sandalwood Courtyard was the most secluded in the manor, separated from the main street by only a wall. There were few people in the courtyard, and if it were targeted by scoundrels, Madame would be in danger. However, seclusion had its advantages; it was also easier to bring people in.
Qiangwei and Ziwei exchanged glances and ran to open the door.
Yan Qing, to them now, was undoubtedly a life-saving straw.
Yan Qing slipped in and saw two women weeping. They were no longer young and had long passed the age of crying over every little thing. Yan Qing was startled and instinctively peered inside the room: "What happened?"
Qiangwei gritted her teeth and knelt down with a thud: "Young Master Yan, please take Madame away."
Yan Qing was stunned, his eyes instantly dimmed: "If she were willing, I would have taken her away twenty years ago."
In fact, they all knew that it wasn't that she was unwilling, but that she couldn't.
Because at that time, he had no power and no money, and there was very little he could do.
Twenty years ago, the Ban family was implicated and exiled. The Pingning Earl, who was still a Crown Prince at the time, proposed to marry her, which was a life-saving straw sent to the Ban family. By marrying into a prominent family, Madam Ban could not only avoid the hardship of exile but also provide some assistance to her exiled family.
That was already their family's only way out.
How could she refuse?
After she got married, Yan Qing abandoned literary pursuits and turned to business. But by the time he had the ability to provide a better life for her and her family, Madam Ban's daughter was already five years old. Just when he thought she would have a peaceful and happy life forever, Qiangwei found him with a letter in her own handwriting.
Every gift from destiny is priced in the dark. The life-saving straw that was extended to the Ban family eventually turned into a soul-hooking chain demanding compensation, tightly clasped around Ban Shuhua's neck.
The man who appeared benevolent and gentle in front of others, even a bit timid, not only had a penchant for abusing his wife but was also poisoned.
The poison was concocted by himself and was said to prolong life. It was unknown why it went wrong. After much research, he discovered that by using the heart's blood of his close relatives as medicine, not only could the onset of the poison be alleviated, but it could also make him energetic and vigorous.
The world said that the old Pingning Earl was a fierce tiger who sired a dog-like son. The Earl himself was an exceptional physician, yet he had a mediocre son.
But they didn't know that the Pingning Earl was not without talent; his talent was simply misapplied.
The only thing Madam Ban was fortunate about was that the brute, the Pingning Earl, had more than just Xi Xi as a daughter. She helped him take many concubines, which even made her a laughingstock in the capital. But she didn't care, as long as it could help her daughter share the risk, she was willing to be a laughingstock or even be cursed by thousands.
But perhaps Heaven also felt that such a method of prolonging life was inhumane. Despite the large number of women, only Xi Xi and Weiyang were born as girls in the Pingning Earl's manor.
As a mother, Madam Pingning, who had been beaten into submission by the Pingning Earl, did something significant.
She colluded with Yan Qing and bribed Lu Chaosheng to find a way out for her daughter.
It was just that no one expected that the daughter she had painstakingly sent out of the capital would return in such a manner and be targeted by the Pingning Earl again.
Qiangwei led Yan Qing through the hall. Yan Qing glanced around, his shock undisguised: "Your Madame lives here?"
The house looked alright from the outside, but the furnishings inside were not even as good as those of an ordinary wealthy family. It was so sparsely furnished that it didn't look like a room but more like a meditation room for a nun or a monk.
Qiangwei silently shed tears and led him into the room: "Young Master Yan, please."
Silence spoke louder than words.
Her actions were enough to explain everything.
When he saw Madam Ban lying on the bed, lifeless, his anger reached its peak. The simple room exuded the scent of medicinal liniment for bruises. Qiangwei lifted the hem of her sleeve, revealing crisscrossing whip marks that were shocking to behold.
"Young Master Yan, please take Madame away, otherwise, she will lose her life."
Yan Qing closed his eyes in heartbreak: "Why is this happening?"
The last time he saw her, she had clearly told him that the Pingning Earl had lost interest in her and would no longer lay a hand on her.
Qiangwei cried: "The Earl failed to harm the Eldest Young Lady, so he came to vent his anger on Madame. Young Master Yan, the Eldest Young Lady's blood is his medicine, he will not give up. If he fails once, he will vent his anger on Madame each time. But if he succeeds, and something happens to the Eldest Young Lady, Madame will have even less reason to live."