Chapter 306: Rotten to the Core! Never a Kind Person
"You and General Wei..."
Su Daiyue didn’t finish her sentence, but a look of understanding and melancholy flashed in her eyes.
"Women from families like ours... none of us get to marry for love." She seemed to be looking through Ji Qingwu, seeing her former self.
"I truly wish I could be a man in my next life, free from the confines of these inner chambers. I want to see the world outside."
Ji Qingwu, in a way, was someone who had returned from that outside world. ’Soaring freely is wonderful,’ she thought, ’but it also comes with countless dangers.’
’What you can’t have always seems the best.’
Ji Qingwu said, "Miss Su, perhaps it’s best to focus on living the rest of your life well."
"And don’t call me Miss Su." Su Daiyue placed the tiger-head shoes in a velvet pouch and put it away. "Don’t use my given name, either."
Ji Qingwu’s eyes were clear as she gazed at her, full of confusion.
Su Daiyue murmured, "You have such beautiful eyes. They must have never seen any of the world’s disgusting filth."
Just as Ji Qingwu was pondering the cause of the rift between Su Daiyue and Su Fengyue, Ma Pozi’s voice came from outside the door.
"My lady, the master has returned. Do you wish to see him?"
Su Daiyue said, "Nanny, you may come in." But just raising her voice slightly sent her into an unstoppable coughing fit.
When Ma Pozi came in and saw how miserably she was coughing, she pushed past Ji Qingwu and hurried over to pat her back.
"My lady, you need quiet rest. You shouldn’t be seeing guests. Let me help you lie down." Su Daiyue was still trembling from the coughing fit, unable to catch her breath.
Ji Qingwu’s gaze fell on the dirt under Ma Pozi’s fingernails.
Ma Pozi asked, "The master is back. Shall I go and ask him to come over?"
Hearing her former wet nurse offer to fetch Song Wei, Su Daiyue grew even more agitated. A whistling, wheezing sound came from her throat.
"No! Don’t call him! I don’t want to... to see him again!"
’Song Wei didn’t rush back because he was worried about his wife,’ Ji Qingwu realized. ’It’s because his father-in-law, Prime Minister Su, came in person. It would be a disaster if Su Fengyue discovered that Su Daiyue has been poisoned.’
Ji Qingwu seized the arm Ma Pozi was using to pat Su Daiyue’s back, pulling the old, wrinkled hand with its loose skin into view.
"What are you doing!"
Ma Pozi instinctively tried to yank her hand away from Ji Qingwu’s grasp, but she couldn’t break free.
Ji Qingwu’s voice was laced with ice. "You’re the one who poisoned her. Was it because Mr. Song’s deceased mistress was your daughter?"
Su Daiyue’s wheezing abruptly stopped. Ji Qingwu’s question so stunned her that her breath caught in her throat.
Ma Pozi denied it vehemently, her eyes wide. "So that’s your game, you lunatic! Trying to frame me to clear your own name! What nonsense are you spouting? How could I possibly harm my lady? I watched her grow up! We’ve been through so much together. She would never believe an outsider like you!"
Ma Pozi tried to pull her arm back, but she couldn’t break the grip of Ji Qingwu’s slender, delicate-looking hand.
Ji Qingwu lifted the woman’s arm higher. "This red residue under your nails... it’s difficult to wash off, isn’t it?"
Ma Pozi’s fingernails were stained a pale red, but the deep crimson under them was nearly impossible to remove completely.
Ji Qingwu continued, "The juice of red living hemp leaves can only be washed away with lye. Ordinary scented soap won’t work."
Ji Qingwu had already explained the nature of the poison moments before.
Hearing the words "red living hemp leaves" again, Su Daiyue felt as if a hand were squeezing her heart, the pain so sharp she couldn’t think.
She sobbed, "Nanny, how could you... why would you... How could it be you...?"
Ma Pozi lowered her head, her face falling into shadow. "I always knew this day would come," she said, her tone unreadable. "I just didn’t expect it to be so soon."
When she looked up again, her slanted eyes shone with the light of vengeance fulfilled.
"My Xiao Ying was pregnant! And you, you venomous bitch, had her killed! If you hadn’t, my grandson would have been the firstborn son of the Song family. At least half of this family’s immense fortune would have belonged to them!"
Su Daiyue closed her eyes. "Nanny, you could have just told me."
’If she had told me sooner,’ she thought, ’out of respect for her, I might have let that mistress into the household as a concubine.’
Her suspicions confirmed, Ji Qingwu released Ma Pozi’s hand and silently retreated behind a folding screen to watch the confrontation unfold.
’This is more dramatic and twisted than a storybook,’ she thought. ’Right and wrong, love and hate, all tangled together. It’s impossible to say who’s truly at fault.’
"Tell you?" Ma Pozi sneered. "My lady, I was the one who ’leaked’ the news to you in the first place."
"I thought Song Wei would do right by Xiao Ying. She was carrying his first child, after all."
Ma Pozi hadn’t wanted Xiao Ying to be a mere concubine, living her whole life under Su Daiyue’s thumb. She had wanted Xiao Ying to become a proper consort, give birth to the eldest son, and then work with her from the inside to usurp the main wife’s authority.
Ma Pozi spat, the spittle landing on Su Daiyue’s face.
"Who could have known that Song Wei was such a complete and utter coward!"
"He didn’t dare tell you his mistress was pregnant. When you found out, he didn’t dare protect her. He just stood by and watched as you had Xiao Ying and their child killed."
"And now, it’s your turn. Your retribution has finally come!"
Su Daiyue completely broke down, covering her ears and shaking her head.
"Nanny, you’re not like this... you’re not... Is this a dream? You’re lying to me..."
Seeing her lose control, Ma Pozi twisted the knife. "Back when the Su Mansion was hiring a wet nurse, who would abandon her own flesh and blood to feed someone else’s child if not for the Silver? My own Xiao Ying had to drink rice gruel."
The betrayal hurt Su Daiyue more than losing her own child. She pounded her chest in anguish.
"Then you should have left! Why did you stay by my side when I was at my most helpless?"
Ma Pozi said, "I only pitied you, a tiny little thing huddled in the woodshed. If I had known you’d grow up to be so vicious, I never would have been kind to you. I should have let you burn up with fever and die!"
With nothing left to hide, Ma Pozi chose the words that would wound Su Daiyue most deeply.
"Why was your birth mother locked away in the rear courtyard? Why did she go mad? Do you truly not know?"
"I thought you Sus were a respectable family of scholars. I took the job as a wet nurse thinking I could find a good match for my Xiao Ying someday. But your Su family... you’re utterly rotten! Rotten to the core—"
Ji Qingwu’s eyes flew open.
Ma Pozi looked down in disbelief, her hand going to her chest.
Her fingers came away stained with warm blood. This time, it wasn’t just under her nails; her entire hand was soaked in the blood that gushed from the wound.
"Nanny, you know what I had to endure to survive in the Su Mansion until my marriage. You of all people should know my temperament. I have never been a good or kind person."
She pulled the silver hairpin out without a hint of hesitation, watching the old woman’s body collapse to the floor as if it were a pile of sludge.
"Go on. Go join your daughter."
Su Daiyue said, "I’ll be along shortly."