"The maids in the manor saw it with their own eyes, how could it be false?" Shen Minghui rebuked angrily.
“It is true that I knocked Miss Qingzhu into the lake, but I did not push her.” Looking at Shen Minghui, Li Mama emphasized, enunciating each word clearly: “I was standing perfectly fine when, for some reason, my knee suddenly went numb, I lost my balance, and bumped into Miss Qingzhu, knocking her into the icy lake water…”
"Stop making excuses!" Shen Minghui shouted angrily.
"I'm not making excuses, I'm just stating the facts!" Granny Li shouted confidently, for the first time in her life, she defied her so-called master.
"You lowly servant, you dare to argue even when you're about to die! Should I summon your former maids to confront you in person?" Shen Minghui, the high and mighty Prime Minister of Qingyan, was furious to be reprimanded by his former lowly nanny. He wished he could devour her alive.
"Prime Minister Shen, fifteen years have passed since my mother fell into the water, and Granny Li has been punished. Please do not bring up the past again!" Shen Minghui kept pressing Granny Li, and Shen Lixue could tell that he was deliberately changing the subject.
"The matter is over? Punished?" Shen Minghui laughed as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world, pointing at Granny Li: "Ask her how the matter was resolved back then?"
"At that time, Miss Qingzhu was struck by a cold and fell into a coma. Master Shen wanted to beat me to death, so I ran away overnight!" When Shen Lixue looked at her, Granny Li lowered her head, not daring to look into Shen Lixue's eyes. By the end, her voice was barely audible.
Shen Lixue rubbed her forehead. No wonder Granny Li was so frightened by her face, which was so similar to Lin Qingzhu's, that she had run away. "Granny, did you come to see me for something?"
The Prime Minister's residence was Shen Minghui's territory, which was a den of dragons and tigers for her, a person with a criminal record. She must have had a very special reason for risking her life to come to the Prime Minister's residence.
With a thud, Granny Li kowtowed to Shen Lixue: "This servant begs Miss Lixue to avenge Miss Qingzhu!"
Shen Lixue narrowed her eyes slightly, feigning ignorance as she asked, "What makes you say that, Granny?"
Granny Li straightened up, pointed at Shen Minghui, and said sternly, "Fifteen years ago, I saw him set fire to Miss Qingzhu's house!"
"Shut up!" Shen Minghui roared, his face turning ashen. He grabbed a teacup from the table and threw it at Granny Li.
Shen Lixue waved her hand to open the teacup, her gaze towards Shen Minghui as cold as ice in the dead of winter. That fire, it really was him who started it: "The one who should shut up is you, Shen Minghui!"
Shen Minghui pointed a trembling finger at Granny Li and said angrily, "She is nothing but a lowly servant who committed a grave mistake and fled to escape punishment. Her crimes are obvious, and you actually believe what she says!"
"I didn't flee to escape punishment. I just didn't want to take the blame for others and didn't want the real culprit who harmed Miss Qingzhu to go unpunished!" Granny Li said in a loud voice, her eyes filled with tears and righteous indignation.
Shen Minghui scoffed disdainfully: "You're really sharp-tongued and capable of twisting the truth. If you didn't harm Qingzhu, why did you run away?"
"Taking advantage of Miss Qingzhu's weakness after giving birth and her inability to attend to matters in the inner courtyard, you secretly eliminated all of her dowry maids step by step, and then tried to execute me without asking any questions. I didn't want to die unjustly, so of course I had to escape." Granny Li looked at Shen Minghui defiantly, her eyes flashing with anger.
Shen Minghui's face instantly turned as black as ink: "Those maids were beaten to death and sold off. They made a mistake and deserved to be punished. It has nothing to do with me. Don't make false accusations."
"At first, I also thought they had made a mistake, until you listened to others' one-sided story and cruelly tried to beat me to death. Only then did I realize that it was all your conspiracy!" Granny Li sighed and looked up at the sky, her eyes glistening with tears. She realized it too late, far too late!
"You insolent servant, shut up! As the head of this household, why should I make things difficult for you servants?" Shen Minghui's face was ashen, as if his secret had been exposed. He was furious, grabbed a cup, and smashed it hard against Granny Li.
Shen Lixue glanced at the cup but didn't make a move. The cup fell directly in front of Granny Li and shattered into pieces. The crisp sound of the porcelain breaking was shocking.
Shen Lixue looked coldly at Shen Minghui: "Prime Minister Shen, why don't you wait for Granny Li to finish speaking? If she is lying, there will definitely be flaws. I will not wrong an innocent person, nor will I let any bad person who harmed my mother go unpunished!"
Shen Minghui sat in the chair with a gloomy expression, not saying a word. His large hands were clenched into fists, his knuckles were slightly white, and the veins on the back of his hands were prominent. Deep in his eyes, there was a hidden anger churning.
Recalling the scene, large tears streamed down Li Mama's cheeks: "I originally planned to escape temporarily and wait for Miss Qingzhu to wake up before returning to explain everything to her. But who would have thought that three days later, when I secretly returned to the manor, it was already deserted. After inquiring around, I learned that Shen Minghui had taken Miss back to Qingzhou. I hurriedly followed him to Qingzhou and saw him secretly lighting a fire behind the house..."
"Shut up!" Shen Minghui's face turned ashen, and he smashed another teacup over his shoulder. "You lowly servant, what favors did someone give you to make you slander me like this?"
Shen Lixue's eyes turned cold. She raised her hand to block the teacup, which returned along the same path and smashed straight at Shen Minghui. Shen Minghui was a weak scholar, sitting in a reclining chair, and seriously ill. He could not dodge. His chest felt heavy and dull from the impact, and he was in unbearable pain. His breathing also became somewhat difficult.
He glared fiercely at Shen Lixue, took a deep breath to clear his throat, and heard Li Mama's clear, ruthless voice:
“The wind was very strong that day, and the fire spread rapidly, quickly engulfing the entire main house. I heard someone shouting, ‘The house is about to collapse! Madam Qingzhu, Miss Lixue is still in the room!’ I wanted to save Miss Qingzhu and the young lady, but the fire was too intense, and I couldn’t rush in at all…”
Shen Lixue's cold gaze, sharp as a blade, shot towards Shen Minghui: "Shen Minghui, it really was you who set fire to me and my mother!"
Shen Minghui's eyes flickered unnaturally as he stubbornly argued, "Li Xue, I am your biological father. She is nothing but a lowly servant. You would rather believe an outsider than believe me!"
Shen Lixue's gaze was gloomy, and the smile on her lips was icy and chilling: "When the old house caught fire, you abandoned me and my mother to save the gold and silver jewelry, and you even had the audacity to say that my mother was alive and could escape on her own. Do you deserve to be a husband or a father? How can I trust you?"
“Your mother is my lawfully wedded wife. We are a loving couple. Why would I want to harm her?” Shen Minghui continued to argue.
Shen Lixue smiled coldly, her eyes as cold as ice that would never melt: "My mother has taken the position of the legal wife. You can no longer marry other daughters of noble families and rise to prominence. If you divorce, my mother will take all the dowry, and you will become penniless and have nothing."
If you divorce your wife, she's a weak woman raising me, an infant, alone, and life will be very difficult. People will also accuse you of being irresponsible and ungrateful. If you want to become an official, you need a good reputation. So, I came up with this clever plan to burn my mother alive. This way, I can get rid of my mother, this stumbling block, and also gain a lot of gold and silver. It's truly a brilliant plan that kills two birds with one stone.
"Having tragically lost his wife and daughter, he was filled with grief and sorrow. He left his hometown, took a large sum of money to bribe his way into officialdom. What a nice-sounding reason! Only a despicable and shameless person like you could come up with such a thing!"
"Shen Lixue, I am your biological father. I gave you life. It's one thing for you to disrespect me, but to do this is to berate me. Is this how a daughter should behave?" Shen Minghui was furious and reprimanded him sternly.
Shen Lixue looked coldly at Shen Minghui and sneered disdainfully: "When you set me on fire and abandoned me, did you never think that you were my biological father? When you sided with Shen Yelei and reprimanded me, did you never think that you were my biological father? When you made me take the blame for Shen Yingxue, did you never think that you were my biological father? The evil deeds you committed were heinous and immoral. When they were exposed, you wanted to downplay the matter and make it disappear, and only then did you remember that you were my father. Do you, such a despicable, shameless, and treacherous person, deserve to be a father?"
"You...you..." Shen Minghui pointed at Shen Lixue, trembling with rage: "Rebellious daughter, rebellious daughter!"
Shen Lixue ignored his accusations and glanced at the tearful Li Mama: "Prime Minister Shen, you secretly arranged for my mother to be pushed into the lake and for Li Mama to be blamed, didn't you? You wanted to get rid of everyone without them knowing and take all the dowry that would help your career."
"Nonsense!" Shen Minghui slammed his hand on the table and stood up, his eyes flashing with anger that seemed to burn people to ashes.
"Whether it's nonsense or not, you know best in your heart." Shen Lixue raised an eyebrow at Shen Minghui, emphasizing each word: "I will have my godfather report this matter to the Emperor and reinvestigate the truth behind the fire back then. If you really were the one manipulating things behind the scenes, you can expect to be executed by slow slicing!"
"You...you..." Shen Minghui trembled all over, wanting to angrily rebuke Shen Lixue, but suddenly his blood surged in his chest, and a metallic taste rose in his throat. With a "pfft," he spat out a mouthful of blood, his vision went black, and his body collapsed to the ground with a thud.
A guard stepped forward and examined him carefully: "Princess, Prime Minister Shen has been poisoned and has fallen into a coma!"
Shen Lixue froze, realizing that Shen Minghui couldn't die yet: "Summon the royal physician!"
A moment later, the physician from the prefecture came over with his medicine box on his back and skillfully took Shen Minghui's pulse, prepared the medicine, and performed acupuncture.
Fifteen minutes later, Shen Minghui slowly woke up, glared coldly at Shen Lixue, and turned his head away, refusing to look at her.
Shen Lixue appeared to be only concerned with the matter at hand, not with the person's life or death: "Imperial Physician, how is Prime Minister Shen's condition? If it's not serious, I have some questions to ask!"
The imperial physician sighed softly, "Princess, the Prime Minister's poison has been brought under control to some extent. The poison hasn't entered his heart yet, so his life isn't in danger, but..."