While Song Yixiao was lost in thought, Madam Pang was also complaining about her son, "I doubt if that woman has been prepared, but it is not confirmed yet, is it? You just let go of someone to send the message. What if that woman actually knows nothing? In that case, we will help her get away instead."

"If Wei Mengying finds out our intention, the result will be the same whether I let the guard go back to send the message." Song Yuan just came back, whose face took on a tired expression. He uttered plainly with hidden impatience, "If Wei Mengying doesn't, what do you think she will do?"

Before Madam Pang answered, he said, "Mother, Yixiao is one of our family. Why did she live under the roof of the Prince of Hengshan?"

Madam Pang said confusedly, "It was because Madam Cao came to our home and made a fuss. I don't want you to be bothered about it. Given that she is a trouble, we could have some peace after she was expelled!"

"Yixiao didn't live a good life in the mercy of Madam Liu, which could be known by the Wei Family with a bit of effort." Song Yuan looked at her with an unidentified expression, saying, "Yet, they didn't spread the words that we maltreated the legitimate daughter until the scandal of my second wife was revealed. Evidently, she was wronged to death. Others don't believe this but our family and the Liu Family are all aware of it! Have you thought of this? Yixiao is very likely to know who actually sold her!"

"Therefore, Madam Cao tried her best to take her away!" Madam Pang finally thought through it and felt so outraged that she almost pa.s.sed out again, "Otherwise, if she stays in the Song Family, she may spill the beans one day. Now it is very nice! She is in the house and we can..."

Song Yuan said indifferently with a gloomy look, "Since Wei Mengying dares to let her come back, of course she doesn't fear that we may interrogate her. After all, we have no evidence at all. How can we reverse a conviction only in light of a little girl's statement?"

Thanks to the Wei Family, all the government officials and people knew that the Song Family maltreated the legitimate daughter. Now Song Yixiao was taken back to the Song Family. Even if she was willing to say that her stepmother was wronged, the others would believe that she was forced to change her statement by her grandma and father!

Madam Pang was also made aware of it after being tipped. Vexed and annoyed, she rubbed her forehead and asked with troubled mind, "You mean?"

"Wei Mengying showed great concern for Yixiao before she divorced me, but after she was remarried, she has kept turning a cold shoulder to Yixiao's being maltreated." Song Yuan said with a peaceful and yet hysterically cold look, "Even if it is Wei Mengying who instigated Madam Cao to take away Yixiao, she didn't do it out of concern for Yixiao. Evidently, for her, she loves herself the most. Despite the fact that Yixiao is her only birth daughter, she may abandon her if needed."

He said casually, "Therefore, as long as she is made to feel unsafe and it is hard to keep her and her daughter both safe, she will abandon Yixiao and choose to preserve herself!"

Madam Pang thought for a while and took a tumble, "Since Ms. Bo is with Yixiao, isn't it convenient for her to protect her or hurt her? Did Wei Mengying hold such a thought as she allowed Yixiao to come back with the company of Ms. Bo? Luckily, this vicious woman is no longer my daughter-in-law, or I will make her suffer!"

"Liu Zhenxi excels at investigation. If any accident happens to Yixiao in the house, it will be a piece of cake for him to find out the ringleader!" Song Yuan said lightly, "Even if Wei Mengying and Ms. Bo do nothing, it will not take Liu Zhenxi long to make up an indisputable case!"

"No wonder you released someone to send a message to that woman on purpose!" Madam Pang finally understood the ins and outs of the matter, "Madam Liu was wronged and we didn't do anything against Yixiao. The ringleader of these two incidents is Wei Mengying. However, she is Yixiao's mother anyway. If she wants to do away with her daughter, she must have an excuse!"

The excuse could be that she feared that her daughter might blurt out inadvertently the ringleader of Madam Liu's incident and yet failed to take her daughter back temporarily. Hence, she would choose to kill her daughter directly!

"My second wife's incident caught us off guard. Now she will have a taste of her own medicine!" Song Yuan took a sip of tea and said lightly, "I have my own plan. Mother, you shall not worry about it!"

They talked about some trivial things. Then Song Yuan saw his mother back to her room and then made the bed for her. After serving Madam Pang to sleep, he left for his own room.

His servants advanced to report to him, "The guard who fled away has entered the city."

Seeing that Song Yuan nodded his head slightly, the servant hedged and then continued to say, "Duke of Yan is a n.o.ble patrician so we can hardly approach him. Madam Jin has agreed to inquire about whether he is close to her ladys.h.i.+p, but she is not sure that she can talk with him at once."

"I am noted." Song Yuan took on an indifferent look and didn't care about it indeed. After all, it was Wei Mengying who would hurt his daughter. Even if Duke of Yan was really close to Song Yixiao and would like to seek justice for her, he would not do away with the Song Family.

Therefore, he replied lightly and put the matter aside. What he needed to ponder over now was to convict Wei Mengying of being a malicious mother and killing her own daughter!

Nevertheless, surprisingly, Duke of Yan, Jian Xubai, who was the hard-to-reach patrician, paid a visit himself the next day!

And he arrived at dusk!

"I went out of town for hunting and intended to go back before dusk. Yet, I met a cunny fox in the afternoon and didn't catch it until I chased after it for a long time. Hence, I came back late!" Said Jian Xubai, who was wearing a narrow-sleeved, full-skirted robe of dark red material with a belt decorated with rhinoceros' horn around his waist. His black hair, bundled with a jade ring, gleamed with a silk-like l.u.s.ter under the light, which reflected his red lips and white teeth. He was such a handsome young man.

Even though he still had the innocence of childhood amid his eyebrows, the n.o.bility of his behaviors was self-evident. Obviously, no one dared to underestimate him.

After the tea was served, he said smilingly, "Now it is too late to go back to the downtown. Coincidentally, I find your house. Would you please take me to live here for one day?"

They revealed their ident.i.ty and background before they entered the house. Now he raised the question in a precatory tone, but how could anyone dare to expel the nephew of the emperor?

"Keep your eyes on the Xieyue Villa!" While he was reluctantly receiving the unexpected visitors, Song Yuan ordered his servants with a stern face, "If anything happens to Duke of Yan in the midst of living here tonight, I will not spare you!"

Over the night, no one in the house could sleep.

Fortunately, nothing happened until Jian Xubai and his men left the next day.

"Despite his n.o.ble status, he is still young so it is easy to send him away!" Song Yuan saw them walk away and felt relieved.

However, he was proven wrong in the afternoon. The Commissioner and Vice Commissioner of the Imperial Academy of Medicine arrived and took the pulse for Madam Pang under the order of Empress Dowager!

"To express her grat.i.tude for your looking after Duke of Yan, her majesty hears that her elder ladys.h.i.+p is sick in bed so she sends us to take the pulse for her elder ladys.h.i.+p!" The Commissioner and Vice Commissioner said consistently, "We will try our best to cure her elder ladys.h.i.+p!"

To cure her elder ladys.h.i.+p?

Madam Pang was not sick at all!

If it were Wei Mengying's men who came to fly the kite, Madam Pang and Song Yuan of course had prepared a lot of ways to deal with.

However, it was the imperial doctors who came under the order of Empress Dowager!

Hence, despite their reluctance, they must face the astonishment of the Commissioner and Vice Commissioner after they took the pulse. "Your elder ladys.h.i.+p is rather healthy. Judging from your pulse, how come you feel sick in bed?"

Madam Pang was too embarra.s.sed to utter any word.

Luckily, Song Yuan was with her, "You didn't know this. My mother was diagnosed with a minor illness some time ago but because she missed my daughter too much, her condition got worse. Thus, I had to call back my daughter to look after her."

"In this case, her elder ladys.h.i.+p has a secret trouble?" The Commissioner stroked his beard and asked, who seemed to give an out to Song Yuan, "No wonder! As a saying goes, a secret trouble must be solved in a specific way. It cannot be treated as an ordinary illness."

Of course Song Yuan would take the offer, "I suppose so! Since my daughter came back, my mother's condition has started to get better evidently."

Therefore, in order to prevent Madam Pang from getting worse, her granddaughter must stay at her father's home!

However, the Commissioner and Vice Commissioner heard that and looked each other in the eye with a meaningful smile, "Her elder ladys.h.i.+p loves her daughter but I'm afraid that she is too old to raise her granddaughter on her own. She may as well worry less and have a good rest so as to live a long life!"

Obviously, what they meant was that Song Yuan must return Song Yixiao to Prince of Hengshan's mansion.

Although Jian Xubai was a duke as well as the nephew of the emperor, he went too far to intervene with the household affair of the Song Family in such a flagrant way!

Song Yuan felt helpless and couldn't help putting on a long face. He was about to refute when the Commissioner said, "It is rather admiring that her majesty shows so much concern for you!"

The Commissioner's words were inspired by the Empress Dowager?!

Song Yuan immediately swallowed back his words on the tip of his tongue.

The Empress Dowager was different from Duke of Yan. The latter one was only a duke no matter how favored he was; the former one was mother of the Emperor, who was the motherly model of the nation!

Since she gave the order herself, regardless of Madam Pang's and Song Yuan's mood, they must follow the Commissioner's hint and claimed never to forget about her majesty's favor.

As Madam Pang was "sick in bed for a long time," it was inconvenient for her to rise. Song Yuan had to bow to the direction of the imperial palace on behalf of her to suggest their grat.i.tude to the Empress Dowager and the imperial family.

"Isn't Duke of Yan only 11 years old?" After seeing the Commissioner and Vice Commissioner off, Madam Pang still felt rather puzzled, "He is eligible to get engaged now but it will be a few years before he can get married! Even if Duke of Yan is early-maturing, Yixiao is still too young!"

Could an eight-year-old girl be so seductive? Madam Pang couldn't believe it anyhow!

Having ruminated back and forth, she still thought of it ascribed to Wei Mengying, "What a shameless woman! She is dissolute and even her daughter just takes after her!"

This time, Madam Pang was right to some degree. The one behind this was Wei Mengying indeed.

The day before yesterday, after Wei Mengying learned about what happened from the guard who fled back, she summoned Yuan Xuepei and showed her hand to him, "After you go to battle, I will take care of your sister! If you want Lu Guanlun to be your brother-in-law, I can do you the favor! But you must save my daughter right now. Otherwise, I will not show any concern for her though I will not hurt your sister!"

As his soft spot was seized, Yuan Xuepei had no other choice but to obey no matter how scheming he was. Therefore, he turned to his good friend Jian Xubai for help.

This problem was merely a piece of cake for Jian Xubai who was backed by the Empress Dowager.

Currently, even though Madam Pang and Song Yuan were extremely unhappy, they didn't dare to disobey!

"Fine. Retribution for sin. This time we spare the shameless woman and her daughter. Maybe they won't be able to escape their doom in future?" In the end, Madam Pang could only persuade her son in this way, "I have only one son as you. You shall not ruin your prospect in the moment of anger. Otherwise, how am I going to live on?"

Particularly, Song Yuan had no son yet! If he died, the Song Family would have no offspring!

Therefore, while enlightening Song Yuan, Madam Pang ordered to send Song Yixiao back to Prince of Hengshan's mansion in secret, "It is not worthwhile for my son to p.i.s.s off the Empress Dowager because of such a little girl!"

Having undergone such twists and turns that were threatening and yet not dangerous, Song Yixiao still felt in a trance while standing in the yard of the Hanxia Villa, "We have come back?"

"Your ladys.h.i.+p, don't worry. We are in Prince of Hengshan's mansion now!" Every day they spent in the house of the Song Family was absolutely like a year! Now Ms. Zhao, who was also relieved with a sigh, comforted her and then added, "Miss Yuan has been waiting in the drawing room for quite a while to specially visit you. What do you think?"

Song Yixiao had learnt from her mother how she was rescued this time so she didn't find the visit of Yuan Xue'e strange. She reached out her hand to rub her eyebrows, "Let's go!"