Help! The cunning and treacherous minister and I were reborn together!

Qin was trembling with rage. "You disobeyed your mother for that poisonous woman surnamed Yuan! Fine, today I'll beat you awake, you unfilial son! Bring on the family law!"

The servants stepped forward and stripped Xiao Zong of his shirt. A thick stick, as thick as a bowl, fell on his taut muscles with a whooshing sound.

Xiao Zong gritted his teeth and endured the blows, his body leaning slightly forward with each heavy strike. Despite the freezing winter weather, beads of sweat rolled down his body.

Yuan Zhi knelt beside him, tears wetting her long eyelashes. "Stop hitting him! Mother-in-law has already ruined one son. Do you want to destroy another one too?"

Qin lowered her eyes. "So what? If it weren't for me, would he even be born? If I had known I'd raised such an ungrateful wretch, I should have strangled him the moment he was born!"

"Qin Zhen!" Yuan Zhi roared, "He's not just your son, he's also my husband! I won't allow you to treat him like this!"

Qin sneered at her, "What can you do if you forbid it? Look at these people, does anyone listen to you?"

Yuan Zhi bit her lip, glanced at everyone, and turned back in despair. "Husband, please say something nice to your mother-in-law. She'll listen. Please, please, please give in!"

Xiao Zong's forehead was covered in a fine layer of sweat, which slid down his temples.

He grabbed Yuan Zhi's arm and pulled her close, his sweaty chest pressed against hers. He turned his head and whispered in her ear.

"Since you never believed me from the beginning, why are you pretending to feel sorry for me now? Stop with your fake tears, it's disgusting!"

She had previously said she didn't want to have children, so he obtained contraceptive pills from Dr. Bao Taowei and has been taking them without interruption.

She knew about this, but she bought some potent drugs from outside and secretly drank them behind his back, without caring whether they would harm her health.

On the surface, this punishment was intended to inflict it on him, but in reality, he used it to shift the blame onto Yuan Zhi.

Only when she sees those scars can she understand where she went wrong and how to repent!

Yuan Zhi was trapped in his arms, watching helplessly as the servants swung their clubs, beating his bronze-colored body until it was covered in blood and flesh.

They were very close, their breathing erratic, and she vaguely heard that they shared only one heartbeat.

Suddenly, she felt a heat near her ear. His voice was mournful and desolate, mixed with muffled groans of pain, each sound reverberating through her heart.

Yuan Zhi pressed her hand against his wet chest, her eyes filled with absurdity.

Are you torturing yourself, or are you torturing me?

Xiao Zong chuckled self-deprecatingly, "See? You understand, so why do you always pretend to be stupid!"

"Xiao Zong, you are a despicable bastard!"

Yuan Zhi pushed him away, got up and walked out, her expression resolute, as if she really didn't intend to care anymore.

Outside the door, Dou Zhao and Chen Qing paced back and forth. When they saw her come out, they hurried to greet her.

"How is the master?"

Yuan Zhi wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and said, "She's still being tortured."

"No, I have to go in!"

Dou Zhao rushed in without saying a word.

"Stop!" Yuan Zhi shouted at him. "Xiao Zong is willing to be punished now, and I can't persuade him otherwise. What's the use of you going?"

Chen Qing, always quick-witted, said, "How could we forget about Granny Zhao? Looking around the Xiao family, apart from the young mistress, the young master listens to her the most!"

After comforting her second brother, Xiao Rong came over from Jianjia Courtyard and heard her sister-in-law and the others say they were going to invite Granny Zhao. Although she didn't understand the situation, she insisted on going with them.

Yuan Zhi said, "Chen Qing's injuries haven't healed yet, so come back to Songfeng Courtyard with me. Dou Zhao and Rong'er, you two go and invite Granny Zhao."

"……it is good."

Xiao Rong was stunned for a moment before Dou Zhao pulled her away.

As she walked, she said, "Sister-in-law, are you going back to Songfeng Courtyard at this time because you don't plan to take care of my brother?"

Dou Zhao was unsure, "The young mistress is a righteous person, she shouldn't."

Yuan Zhi did not abandon Xiao Zong. She sent Chen Qing to rescue Luo Mei, and then took Xiao Zong's official robe back to the main courtyard.

Xiao Zong was beaten to the point of near death. She threw her robe at him and said sternly, "Anyone who's not afraid of death, go ahead and hit him!"

No one dared to move rashly. Qin was about to lift her robe when Zhao, supported by Dou Zhao and Xiao Rong, lifted the curtain and came in.

"Does Madam intend to beat Yun-ge to death?"

When Qin saw her, her smile turned sinister. "So you've come after all!"

When Granny Zhao saw the exposed wounds on Xiao Zong's back, her eyes immediately welled up with tears.

"Madam, the past is like smoke, why can't you let go of yourself and your child? I know you are in pain, but Yun-ge is innocent. He shouldn't have to bear your anger and hatred!"

"That's all because of you! You promised me you'd keep that secret forever, but you didn't! You ruined my image in Congyun's eyes. It was you who took my son away!"

Qin laughed and cried at the same time, speaking incoherently.

Granny Zhao said with a heavy heart, "Madam, I have never revealed your secret. It is your many suspicions and oversensitivity that have caused you to drift further and further away from Yun-ge'er."

"I don't believe it!" Qin pointed at Yuan Zhi. "If you didn't tell Cong Yun, how could he marry this lowly woman? He's clearly trying to humiliate me!"

Granny Zhao said, "Yun-ge'er likes the young mistress. What difference is there between noble and lowly in the affection between a man and a woman?"

Qin took a step back, and when Li Mama reached out to help her, she dodged her.

Despite his severe injuries, Xiao Zong remained perfectly conscious and asked haltingly, "What...secret are you talking about?"

Qin stared at his bewildered expression and wondered: Could it be that I really misunderstood him?

"There's nothing here. That's all for today. Go back and recover!"

Qin returned to the backyard. Zhao Mama, who had been ill all winter, was now more seriously ill after being exposed to the cold wind.

Xiao Rong said, "The doctor who treated Aunt Zhang is still in the manor. I will invite him here right away!"

Yuan Zhi called out from behind her, "Take her to Songfeng Courtyard!"

"Know it!"

Xiao Zong was injured, so Dou Zhao took his place and carried Granny Zhao back to Songfeng Courtyard.

Yuan Zhi told Xiao Zong to go back and rest first, but he ignored her and sat down directly next to Zhao Mama's bed.

From childhood to adulthood, she had always protected him. Now, he suddenly noticed that his nanny's hair had turned gray, and a sense of panic gripped him.

Will his nanny leave him someday?

Xiao Rong led the doctor over, but Yuan Zhi only let the doctor into the house and urged her to go back to sleep. Knowing that something serious had happened at home, Xiao Rong stopped being willful and obediently left.

After examining her, the doctor said that Granny Zhao was physically weak and that if she did not take good care of herself, she would not live much longer.

Xiao Zong was greatly alarmed and said to the doctor, "We must cure Granny at all costs!"

The doctor couldn't guarantee anything, only saying he would try his best, and then examined the injury.

In the middle of the night, Granny Zhao woke up, saw the two of them, and smiled kindly.

"I'm relieved that you're all doing well."

Yuan Zhi's doubts deepened, and she asked, "What exactly is the secret between you and your mother-in-law?"

Zhao Mama sensed that her lifespan was coming to an end and was worried that the madam would cause trouble for the two of them again, so she decided not to hide it anymore.

"When the Xiao family was raided, the lady was defiled by that scoundrel Wang Dun. On the way to Liangzhou, she became pregnant. When the master found out, he advised her to keep the child, but the lady felt that the child in her belly was an illegitimate child and insisted on aborting it."

The master escaped under cover of darkness to buy abortion pills, but was discovered by the guards upon his return and beaten half to death. He died of illness not long after. This incident remained the mistress's nightmare and the root of all her suffering.

Yuan Zhi asked in confusion, "But what does all this have to do with Xiao Zong? Why does your mother-in-law hate her son so much?"

Granny Zhao sighed, "It's probably because the eldest young master looks too much like the master. When the madam sees him, she is reminded of her husband who died because of her, and that humiliating memory."

Xiao Zong clenched his fists. "It's my father and I who failed to protect my mother. It's not her fault."