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  Xiao Suniang was originally a hairdressing girl of the third wife, Mrs. Lu, in the Yongning Marquis's estate. After Mrs. Lu died and the third house collapsed, her days were never good. She lost her husband early on, and her son had asthma since birth. Only one daughter was capable and worked at Mingxuan Institute.

  In June, Ming Xuan got married and had her mother and son moved to a separate villa in the southern suburbs as accompanying rooms. The master was generous and treated them exceptionally well, not only did he help Shou An recover from his illness, but also allocated high-quality ginseng every month for Xiao Suniang's treatment. Unfortunately, her body had been ruined by hardships in the past, and now it was too late even if she received good care.

  The doctor had said three months ago that we should do our best and leave the rest to fate.

  Although she had mentally prepared for it, when the day finally arrived, Xiaosu's heart couldn't help but feel fearful and scared. This was her closest kin, after all. If she really did let go, she and her brother would no longer have a mother.

  But in the dead of night, it was the coldest time of the day, she didn't dare to disturb the young lady and her husband in the main house, so she could only turn to Dan Hong who slept in the next room for help.

  Dan Hong put on her clothes, got up and opened the door. She saw that Xiao Su had already cried into a tearful person. She was used to being by Ming Xuan's side and had a calm and composed demeanor like a housewife. While pulling Xiao Su to the next room, she asked in a low voice, "Don't cry first, don't delay talking about serious matters. What's wrong with Mother? Is she still breathing?"

  Xiao Su wiped away her tears and replied, "Just now she suddenly shouted my name loudly. I opened the oil lamp to take a look, and her face had already turned iron-gray, with white foam at the corner of her mouth. Later, she fainted. I checked and found that there was still a faint breath in her nostrils. Now it's so late, and there are no doctors near our village, I don't know what to do."

  She choked back "I called Shou An to wake him up and let him pinch my mother's pulse, then crawled over to find sister. It's so late, and Gūyé just suffered a great deal of pain, I didn't dare disturb them."

  Dan Hong pushed open the door with a frown, and as soon as she smelled the faint stench in the room, she knew something was wrong. She sat down beside Xiaosu's bed and felt her pulse, and indeed there was an extremely weak beat. After thinking for a moment, she said, "It's probably too late to go to town to invite a doctor, but we can't just watch Mother like this without doing anything."

  She paused, suddenly patted her head "Do you still remember that yellow-clothed girl who came to our place the day before yesterday? Go think of a way to invite her over, she might have a way to make Mother wake up for a while, even if it's just to leave a few last words, it's better than her leaving like this, and in the future, we siblings will only be left with regret."

  Dan Hong said this, but it was not just for Xiao Su and Shou An, she also had her own private thoughts.

  That girl in yellow had only been here for two days, although she rarely went out, but Dan Hong knew that she was a Miao girl with highly toxic substances on her body, which could take lives in an instant. The poison could harm people, but it could also save them. With Xiaosu's life already at stake, even if they couldn't revive her from the dead, those young ladies still had questions to ask, and they couldn't just let Xiaosu take all the answers with her to the grave.

  Shou An listened and quickly wiped away her tears, saying "I know that girl in yellow clothes, sister, let's go ask her together." Xiao Su hesitated for a moment, looking at her mother who was lying on the bed, unaware of what was happening, and said "Dan Hong sister, I'll go with Shou An to ask the girl in yellow clothes, can you please take care of my mother here?" Dan Hong watched as Xiao Su and Shou An hurriedly left, and sighed softly "As it is said, when a person is about to die, their words are kind. Miss has always wanted to know what really happened when the third madam died, she asked several times but no one would say anything, can't they just tell her now that things have come to this?" She looked at Xiao Su's mother who was quietly lying there, as if slowly withering away, and shook her head saying "In the past, the people who served the third madam either died or were sold far away, not even a shadow of them could be found, except for the third madam's hairdresser, although she wasn't a personal attendant, but still considered a confidant, can't they bear to see miss not even knowing how her own mother died?" The room was quiet, without any response or even a slight movement.

  Dan Hong saw Xiao Su Niang's face turn increasingly pale, and knew that she was probably not going to make it. In her heart, she didn't know whether to feel regret or anger. Suddenly, she noticed Xiao Su Niang's eyelids twitching slightly. After thinking for a moment, she gritted her teeth and leaned in close to Xiao Su Niang's ear, saying word by word: "In the past, I was afraid of implicating myself, so I kept the truth tightly sealed, not daring to say a single word. But now that I'm about to die, what is there left to fear?"

  Her tone grew heavier: "If you're afraid of Xiao Su and Shou An, now they are settled in the dowry estate of the young lady. If you hope for their well-being, what you should fear is not the people of Yongning Hou's household, but rather our own young lady."

  As soon as the words fell, the little Su Niang on the bed suddenly opened her eyes. She opened her mouth and couldn't make a sound. Her hand, which was barely raised, pointed straight at a black wooden box on the dresser.

  He followed her gaze and saw the box, hastily took it from the dresser and opened it, only to see a few ordinary cheap silver hairpins lying quietly inside. She picked them up and asked, "What's special about these hairpins?"

  The little girl's eyes weakly shook her head, her gaze eagerly and urgently staring at the wooden box, unwilling to let go.

  Although Dan Hong was still hesitant in her heart, she didn't dare to slack off. She carefully searched and finally found that there was another inner layer. She suppressed the excitement in her heart and reached in, finally fumbling out a small object. She lifted her hand to take a look, and it turned out to be a blue sapphire earring. The gemstone looked crystal clear and beautifully cut, set with high-quality sheep fat white jade as the base, definitely not an ordinary item.

  She hastily took out the earrings and placed them in front of Xiaosu, asking tentatively "Are these earrings a reward from the third madam?"

  The little girl shook her head, muttering something incoherently, but when it came to the crucial moment, she couldn't utter a single word.

  Dan Hong saw the anger in her eyes, and in a flash of inspiration, he asked tremulously "Could it be that the owner of this earring killed Third Madam?" Xiaosu nodded slightly, then let out a breath, and her whole body seemed to relax, she tilted her head and fell asleep completely.

  Dan's face suddenly changed, and she hastily went forward to test her breath, feeling a chill in her hand.

  Little Xiaosu is dead.

  The heavy footsteps outside the door made her think for a moment, but she still put the wooden box back in its original place. The blue sapphire earrings were hidden safely away. She leaned out to greet them and saw Shou An and Xiao

  In front of him leading the way, behind him followed a beautiful and charming woman, he hastily said: "Miss Huang, please come over and take a look, Little Su seems to have stopped breathing."

  Xiao Su and Shou An heard this, stumbled in, fell onto their mother's body, and immediately burst into loud wailing.

  As soon as he saw the yellow garment, his eyebrows furrowed tightly. "You've called me out in the middle of the night just to see you cry and wail? Move aside, let me take a look."

  She pushed some people away, put her hand on Xiaosu's pulse, and her face didn't look good either. After a while, she turned her mouth and said, "This person's heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys are all exhausted, it's already a miracle that he can live to this day, and the two siblings have also done their best for him."

  "Don't cry anymore, with a body like hers, it's better to just go like this and be at ease rather than suffering every day."

  Huang Yi finished speaking and yawned, "Nothing's wrong, I'll just go back and sleep for a while."

  Xiao Su and Shou An were both focused on the loss of their mother at this time, who would care about Huang Yi? But Dan Hong heard a slightly different tone in her words.

  She stepped forward two steps, followed behind the yellow-clad figure, and asked in a low voice, "Miss Huang, you said that Xiaosu's heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys are all failing. What does this mean?"

  On a cold night with a sudden gust of icy wind, Huang Yi wore only a simple and thin garment, without even wearing a cloak. Yet she seemed to be not afraid of the cold at all, and said clearly and calmly: "It means that her five internal organs are all damaged. I'm not quite clear about the specific reason, but if it's not because she encountered something extremely heartbreaking, then it must be because she was poisoned by someone else. Generally speaking, it can't escape these two possibilities. Otherwise, at Xiao Su Niang's age, it shouldn't be like this."

  She finished speaking and didn't bother to chat with Dan Hong anymore, then turned around and entered the guest house.

  Dan Hong's hand stroked the blue gemstone earrings, and she remained silent for a long time.

  The place where Xiaosu lived was not far from the main house, and the cry shook the sky. Mingxuan also felt that something was wrong, so she quietly got up, and immediately a little maid came to report: "Xiaosu is gone." Mingxuan was taken aback, turned her head to tuck in Pei Jingchen's quilt, whispered a few words, and then put on a large cloak and went out of the house. Although according to the rules, when a slave dies, the master does not need to appear, but Xiaosu was different. In the past, she was one of the trusted hairdressing girls by the side of the third madam, and also one of the few remaining old people in the third house who had not died or been sold. She went personally to see off Xiaosu, which represented not only her appreciation for Xiaosu but also her respect for the late Madame Lu.

  Lao Shu and the others were all experienced old men, and Xiaosu's funeral had long been prepared, so they were busy but not chaotic. The people on Zhuangzi got along with each other day and night, and had already become a family, so everyone was working together in an orderly manner. Xiaosu was just a low-ranking slave girl, and it was not possible to keep her spirit at the main house. Several daughters-in-law from the village cleaned her body, changed her into mourning clothes, and then sent her into a nanmu coffin. When dawn broke, they pulled it to a charitable cemetery not far away to hold the funeral.

  After tossing and turning for half the night, Ming Xuan finally calmed down and was about to let out a sigh of relief.

  Dan Hong then took out the blue sapphire pendant from her bosom and handed it over, telling Xiao Su Niang everything that had happened before she died. She furrowed her brow and said, "This pendant, I always feel like I've seen something similar somewhere, it's quite familiar."

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