Dad, open the door. I'll bring your mistress back for you.

"What is this secret technique you just mentioned?" The Duke's wife asked doubtfully, with a barely perceptible tremor in her voice.

Ziyuan looked at the dark blue clothes scattered on the ground beside the bed. The color was dignified and steady. Since it appeared here, it must be the clothes of the Duke's wife.

Normally, these clothes would have been carefully taken care of by special maids, but now they looked wrinkled.

The maids were busy running back and forth, and seemed not to have noticed the existence of this dress. It was most likely that Shen Chuning used it to wrap stones. The Duke's wife suddenly woke up, so no one noticed the existence of this dress.

"Madam, when you saw this stone, was it wrapped in a piece of clothing?" Ziyuan asked softly.

The Duke's wife paused for a moment, recalling that when she opened her eyes just now, what Shen Jingwan was holding in her hand was indeed a piece of cloth, and then nodded to indicate that it was indeed the case.

Ziyuan glanced at the lines on the Duke's wife's ears again. Her tone was somewhat heavy. "This stone has too much evil energy. It has been placed in your bedroom for a long time. It has affected your body. Do you often experience palpitations?"

The Duke's wife turned to her two daughters-in-law, who shook their heads hastily. "If it weren't us, how could we reveal our mother's true condition to outsiders?"

Mrs. Shen San also echoed: "Mom actually suffers from heart palpitations? Why has no one ever mentioned it to me? I can show my filial piety to Mom."

Shiyuan continued, "Originally, the Duke's wife had just had a normal fall, which wouldn't have resulted in a coma. However, due to the presence of this stone, the situation has become extremely serious."

"Although I have prepared a medicinal soup for you, it is slow to take effect. I need to use the secret method of our witch clan to improve its effectiveness."

"However, this secret technique will damage the lifespan of the caster. Miss Wan is risking her own safety in exchange for alleviating your pain."

After hearing this, the Duke's wife began to believe it a little, but she still said stubbornly, "Everything depends on your words. You and that evil girl were originally brought here by Qimei. How do I know you're not trying to exonerate her?"

Ziyuan brushed off the dust nonchalantly. "Madam, you may choose not to believe me. You can even drag Miss Wan out and execute her. The key is that the evil spirit on this stone has not yet completely dissipated. It's hard to say whether your body can withstand the next accident."

Upon hearing this, the Duke's wife's face flushed crimson instantly. "You... you actually dared to curse me!"

After saying that, she covered her chest with her hands and gasped violently.

Seeing this, Nanny Wei hurried forward, trying to help the Duke's wife calm down: "Drag this bold lunatic out."

The two maids at the door received instructions to come in and capture Ziyuan, but before they got close, they were stopped by the Duke's wife.

"Wait a moment."

"Can you really dissolve the evil energy in this stone?"

Hearing the words of the Duke's wife, although Ziyuan remained calm on the surface, a smile appeared in her eyes, and Shen Jingwan also breathed a sigh of relief.

"Madam, you can try it. At least it won't do you any harm."

The Duke's wife finally nodded in agreement, but still asked Wei Ma to monitor Ziyuan and Shen Jingwan.

At Ziyuan's instruction, Shen Jingwan burned the clothing wrapped in the stone in the southwest corner of the yard.

The flames engulfed its remains, and the remaining ashes were placed by Shion in an ebony box along with the stones.

Ziyuan wrote some incomprehensible words on a piece of yellow paper and asked Shen Jingwan to drip her own blood on it.

Then, he pasted the yellow paper on the outside of the ebony box, handed it to Wei Ma, and asked her to send the box to the ancestral tomb of the Duke of Qing for burial.

The whole process took two days. As time went by, the Duke's wife gradually recovered, and she believed Ziyuan's words more and more.

Considering that Shen Jingwan had taken great pains to take care of her for several days at the Duke of Qing's mansion, the Duke's wife did not mention again that she felt Shen Jingwan was going to throw a stone at her.

……

At the door of Shen's house.

Shen Chuning was about to get on the carriage when Madam Shen San and Shen Jingwan got off the carriage.

Shen Chuning stopped and said, "Mother... No, Third Aunt is back. Is the Duke's wife okay?"

Madam Shen nodded slightly. "Although you have been adopted by the Second House, the Duke's wife is your grandmother after all. She is ill, and as a younger generation, you should go visit her."

Shen Chuning glanced at Shen Jingwan, who looked haggard and could barely stand. "Third Aunt, this is a bit unreasonable. Is it really unreasonable to ask the girl from the next room to take care of the sick? Since someone is going to show filial piety, An Ning will not join in the fun."

"Aning..." Mrs. Shen San hesitated to speak.

Shen Chuning interrupted Third Madam Shen's chatter, "Didn't Third Aunt take Master Ziyuan with her when she left? Why didn't she come back with him?"

Madam Shen San replied dejectedly, "Master Ziyuan stayed to recuperate your grandmother... and the Duke's wife. He will return when he is fully recovered."

"Oh..." Shen Chuning raised a meaningful smile at the corner of her mouth.

This was a move she had arranged to help Madam Shen San. She knew exactly how much Madam Shen San valued Master Ziyuan.

Shen Chuning tried her best to help Mrs. Shen San eliminate the hidden dangers around her, but Mrs. Shen San abandoned her like a worn-out shoe.

Shen Chuning shook her head silently, thinking that this move was a compensation for Mrs. Shen San's kindness in giving birth to her.

"Aunt San and Sister Wan, please go back to your room and rest. Aning has an appointment, so she'll leave first." After Shen Chuning finished speaking, she got on the carriage without looking back.

"Wan'er? Wan'er?" Mrs. Shen called Shen Jingwan, but saw her standing there motionless.

Mrs. Shen called her several times before she came back to her senses, "Mother, what happened?"

"Are you exhausted?" Mrs. Shen asked with concern.

"Mother, Wan'er is fine, let's go back." Shen Jingwan said as she helped Madam Shen San into the gate of the Shen Mansion.

Shen Jingwan's originally calm mood became like a drop of water falling into a boiling oil pan when she heard Shen Chuning mention Master Ziyuan, stirring up turbulent waves in her heart.

She originally thought that Master Shiyuan was helping her out of kindness, but unexpectedly, he had ulterior motives and was only trying to control her.

Her ears kept echoing with the words that Master Ziyuan whispered in her ear when they left at the Duke of Qing's Mansion.

……

The carriage that Shen Chuning was riding in stopped at the entrance of Juxian Tower.

After she got off the carriage, she met Zhou Lin again, but when she was about to say hello to Zhou Lin, she saw his evasive eyes.

Shen Chuning was puzzled, as they were clearly fine on the Lantern Festival.

Shen Chuning hurriedly chased after him, "Brother Zhou Er, I heard from Zhou Lan that you went to the north to see General Zhou off. When did you come back? Why didn't you go to the Shen Family School after you came back?"