Since that day, Qi Yue and Madam Chen had barely met. Later, consumed by the affairs of the pharmacy and the young Prince Sima, Qi Yue hadn't returned home at all, only sending someone daily to report that she was well.

Stepping through the door now, she realized things seemed vastly changed; the household servants and maids were nowhere to be seen.

Zhou Maochun was just walking out.

"Godfather."

Qi Yue called out quickly.

"Oh, you're here. Don't fret, you won't die yet. Tomorrow morning, probably."

Zhou Maochun said.

Qi Yue stomped her foot.

"Godfather!" she cried.

Zhou Maochun merely grunted a couple of times.

"I know, I know. My condolences."

He continued.

"Is there truly no saving her?" Qi Yue asked.

Zhou Maochun shook his head.

"You're a physician yourself; don't you understand what a doctor means when they say that?" Zhou Maochun remarked, then immediately felt it was amiss. Inferior doctors often used that phrase, so he hastily added, "What a doctor like me means when I say that..." But then he recalled how he’d once said someone was beyond saving—like Madam Xie with the foreign object in her throat—only for Qi Yue to bring her back to life. So, how should he put it? While he was wrestling with this, Qi Yue, ignoring him, stomped her foot and ran inside.

Cai Qing heard the commotion and stood waiting outside the door, watching Qi Yue offer a tearful salute before entering.

Qi Yue stepped into the inner room.

The room was as it always had been, yet the difference was the absence of any medicinal scent.

Qi Yue paused at the doorway for a moment, seeming afraid to disturb Madam Chen, and softened her footsteps.

"Aunt," she called softly.

Madam Chen stirred and turned her head.

"Yue Niang, you've come?" she asked.

Madam Chen’s face remained unchanged, lightly made up, wearing a gentle smile, but her eyes… "Aunt, you... you can't see anymore?" Qi Yue stepped closer and waved her hand in front of Madam Chen's face.

Her gaze was unfocused.

"It's alright, I can still hear,"

Madam Chen said with a slight smile, extending a hand.

Qi Yue quickly took it and sat down on the kang.

She couldn't bring herself to believe that someone in this state would lose their life by the next morning.

Or perhaps, was this a final surge of energy before death? She instinctively reached out to check the pulse.

Madam Chen smiled and gently pulled her hand away.

"No need. It’s real. I know my own life."

She laughed. "This isn't an illness. It’s years of accumulated poison."

Poison? "What poison?" Qi Yue asked. "Why is there no cure?" Madam Chen smiled but remained silent.

Given Madam Chen's status, if she truly wanted to find a cure, what in this world could she not find? It must mean there was truly no remedy.

"People here might not know, but perhaps I do. Tell me what the poison is?" Qi Yue held Madam Chen’s hand tightly and said.

People here? "Let's not talk about that; it’s nothing. I should have died long ago,"

Madam Chen chuckled, avoiding the topic.

"What do you mean, 'should have died long ago'? Who is fated to die?" Qi Yue pressed anxiously.

"They say my father once intended to use poison to harm others, and later I also tried to use poison. So, dying this way now... it couldn't be more fitting."

Madam Chen laughed.

"The past is the past; it has nothing to do with now,"

Qi Yue insisted anxiously.

"How can it have nothing to do with it?" Madam Chen shook her head, looking at Qi Yue with her sightless eyes.

"Without the past, how can there be a present? Without your kin, how can there be you?" Qi Yue looked at Madam Chen.

Silence settled in the room for a moment.

"We still have to try,"

Qi Yue said, beginning to stand up.

Madam Chen held her back.

"Yue Niang, Chang Yuncheng has already left, hasn't he?" she asked.

"Yes,"

Qi Yue replied.

"But I will soon join him."

"What if I asked you to promise me not to go?" Madam Chen questioned.

Qi Yue sat back down.

"Fine. I promise you."

She agreed readily, surprising Madam Chen, who seemed unprepared for the answer, yet perhaps expected it.

"Will I be able to die in peace then?" she asked with a strained smile.

"I would rather you live restlessly, Aunt,"

Qi Yue stated. "Aunt, at a time like this, stop fussing. Let's quickly find a way to save your life."

Madam Chen released her and lay back down, the weak smile still on her face.

"Yue Niang, so many people died..." she murmured. "Only you are left. How can you be willing to discard the past?" Qi Yue felt a jolt in her heart.

Of course, she could discard the past, because she wasn't the original Qi Yue Niang.

"Yue Niang, you must stay in the capital; do not go looking for Chang Yuncheng again."

Madam Chen looked at her again. "I am doing this for your own good."

Qi Yue sighed.

"Why? Aunt, what reason is there that you must separate me from the person I love?" she asked.

Madam Chen looked at her.

"For your bloodline, for your clan,"

she said, reaching out to grip Qi Yue's hand again. "Yue Niang, you must reclaim what has been lost from your kin and your bloodline. That is yours, it belongs to your family!"

"Aunt, what belongs to you in this world is yours, and if it is lost, it simply means it wasn't meant to be yours. We shouldn't force things; the most crucial thing is to safeguard what you already possess,"

Qi Yue explained, lowering her head only to raise it again. "I repeat what I said: I am Qi Yue Niang, simply Qi Yue Niang, an orphan with no parents."

Madam Chen flung her hand away.

"Did the blood flowing in you flow for nothing?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"No. I live happily, joyfully, openly, and cleanly. That is enough to honor this flesh and blood; the blood did not flow in vain,"

Qi Yue asserted, reaching out to pull Madam Chen’s hand back. "Aunt, you must let go too."

Madam Chen trembled slightly.

"They gave birth to you in vain, they lived for you in vain... Why didn't you burn to death with them back then? Why did your relatives want you to live on?" She suddenly raised her voice. Though Madam Chen couldn't see, Qi Yue offered her a slight smile.

"I think they simply wanted me to live,"

she said.

Madam Chen froze, and the image of Old Madam Chang surfaced in her mind.

"What do I want? I want nothing. What is there to want? As long as she lives well!" Old Madam Chang turned, looked at her, and said lightly.

"That won't do," she stepped forward, grasping Old Madam Chang's hand. "Mother-in-law, she is herself. She is the only bloodline of their family. The palace will be selecting new consorts soon. Mother-in-law, don't worry, I can get her into the palace. Let her enter the palace, let His Highness enter the palace—that is His Highness's..." Old Madam Chang shook her off.

"Xue Niang, you've gone mad,"

she said. "That is His Highness's, but not Yue Niang's. It's all over. It's all over. Stop thinking about it!"

"No! His Highness is still waiting! His Highness is unwilling to accept it! His Highness let her live; she cannot have lived for nothing!" Madam Chen grabbed Old Madam Chang's hand again. "I can give her this—I can give her the chance to enter the palace..."

"The Empress and His Highness do not want resentment! After so many years, they have long accepted it, Xue Niang. Wake up. It is you who cannot accept it, not them!" Old Madam Chang gripped her hand and said sternly. "They want nothing else. Only that this only child lives well! I will give her the entire Marquisate of Dingxi, so she can live carefree! That will suffice! Then the Empress and His Highness can rest in peace."

Not enough! Not enough! How could that be enough! All of you—you just want to trap them. To suffocate them! You don't want them to live at all! Madam Chen suddenly waved her hand; the illusion vanished, replaced by utter darkness.

"Yue Niang, listen to me. Of course, I want you to live. And live well, too,"

she said, reaching out again to grasp Qi Yue's hand. "Yue Niang, my heart for you—why can't you understand?" Qi Yue's hand moved away; Madam Chen, unable to see, grasped at empty air.

"Although this shouldn't be said, especially at a time like this, but..." she began, "Aunt, I think everything you've done, perhaps, wasn't for me, but for yourself, right?"

Madam Chen’s expression paused momentarily, then she smiled again, reaching up to touch her chest.

"For me? I did it for myself?" she repeated, tears mixed in her laughter.

"Isn't that so?" Qi Yue looked at her. "For your obsession, or perhaps for your own sense of duty, you were determined to fulfill your own wishes. What does that have to do with me? Did you ever care about my obsession or my wishes?" Madam Chen looked at her and smiled again, then her smile faded.

"I must be a villain in your eyes, then?" she said. "Well, the villain will see the bad deed through to the end. Yue Niang, do you know how your relatives, how your father, died? Do you know who you truly are? If you don't listen to me and leave, I will keep this secret buried in my heart; no one else in this world will ever know. But, if you disobey me..." She paused here, taking a deep breath, lifting her head slightly from the bedding to look in Qi Yue's direction.

"I will tell my family about this matter. Then, Yue Niang, I can assure you, you definitely won't live, let alone go looking for that Chang Yuncheng,"

Madam Chen stated, emphasizing each word.

Qi Yue's expression froze as she stared at Madam Chen.

Suffocating silence descended upon the room.

Just then, the door was pushed open.

"Who is it?" Madam Chen startled, sitting bolt upright and shouting, "Is that Cai Qing?" Qi Yue turned her head to watch the old madam walk closer, step by step.

"It is I,"

she said slowly.

Madam Chen's face remained panicked; her sightless eyes turned towards the sound of the voice.

"Aunt? Where is Cai Qing? Where is Cai Qing? You... how did you get in? When did you arrive? What did you hear?" she babbled repeatedly.

The Old Madam of Duke Deqing walked over and sat down beside the bed. She seemed tired from the walk and paused to catch her breath.

Qi Yue watched her, but the Old Madam never once looked at Qi Yue, as if the young woman wasn't even in the room.

"Don't worry. I'll watch things here. No one can just walk in here, rest assured,"

The Old Madam of Duke Deqing said.

Madam Chen slumped back, defeated, turned her head away, and closed her mouth.

"You don't worry either. I didn't come to question you about anything, nor do I need you to answer me,"

The Old Madam of Duke Deqing continued. "Haven't you always wanted to know how your father died? I have come to tell you now."

Madam Chen smiled faintly and closed her eyes.

"I have wanted to say this to you for a long time, but you never would listen to us, never listen to anyone, never listen to a single word that didn't suit your wishes,"

The Old Madam of Duke Deqing spoke, then gave a slight laugh. "Now, you can't move, you can't run away, and finally, you can listen to me quietly."

Qi Yue hesitated for a moment, then turned to leave.

"You, child, stand still for a moment too,"

The Old Madam of Duke Deqing called her back.

Qi Yue stopped her movement.

"I know you don't want to listen either, but still, listen. Whether it is good news or bad news, this is the last time,"

The Old Madam of Duke Deqing said.

For the complete plot development, thank you to Shui Shui’er, Yi Pian Fu Yun 1, Yi Jin Guo Yi, Lan Yang Yang Hao, Ga Gu Bao Bei, Xia Xi, Ti An, and Jin Qin for the safety talismans rewarded today.