The sickly son died young? After the marriage exchange, I will bring prosperity to his entire clan f

As Du Mingxian saw Hongtao off, she felt more and more that she had acted impulsively. If it weren't for Du Mingxian protecting her along the way, she might have died on the road with her grandson, and she would never have had the chance to see Hongtao again.

"Don't worry, since fate has brought us together, I will help you find out the cause of Hongguo's death."

Madam Dong stared blankly at her, then knelt down on the ground and kowtowed twice. "If it weren't for you along the way, Chengbao and I might have been gone long ago."

“I am willing to serve by your side in the future, but... but I have no one else in my family. Chengbao is still too young to do anything and can only be a freeloader.”

Du Mingxian had no intention of taking Dong Shi in, but given Dong Shi's condition, she said, "Then let me help you find out the cause of Hong Guo's death. If I can help you take revenge, then you can sell yourself to me after the revenge is done?"

Madam Dong kowtowed heavily, her head touching the ground and she did not raise it again. "Madam is kind-hearted. It is my blessing to have Madam's protection. No matter what the final outcome of the investigation into Hongguo's death is, I am willing to serve by Madam's side."

Du Mingxian: "..." This Dong Shi has been a widow her whole life, yet she is still so stubborn.

Finally, the two agreed that Du Mingxian would help Dong Shi find out the truth, and Dong Shi would stay by Du Mingxian's side. However, Du Mingxian would need to support Cheng Bao, and Dong Shi would sign a contract of servitude, but Cheng Bao would not sign it.

That was settled. Du Mingxian went back to her room and made a simple relationship diagram, then focused on the Crown Prince. No matter how she thought about it, she still felt that the Crown Prince was the most likely candidate.

The next day, she went out and found Qiu Shu, asking him to investigate where the prince's fiancée was during the days when Hong Guo died.

What a coincidence! The Tian family's ancestral home is in the same county as the Hongguo family's.

If the Crown Prince really had an affair with Hongguo, the child would belong to the Crown Prince. But the young lady of the Tian family wouldn't agree to that. The eldest son of a concubine couldn't be born before her legitimate son, so she killed Hongguo.

This line of reasoning makes sense.

But... if Hongguo is related to the Crown Prince, then why didn't Princess Ming give Hongguo a contraceptive?

Logically, given that the Crown Prince is a playboy with a constant stream of women around him, Princess Ming would surely order all women with whom he has a relationship to drink contraceptive medicine; that would be reasonable.

The Crown Prince sleeps with many women; if Princess Ming hadn't given such an order, there would probably be a multitude of children in the Crown Prince's courtyard by now.

So what exactly is the reason?

And then there's this Miss Tian. Mr. Tian is just a schoolteacher, a scholar who passed the imperial examinations, and doesn't have any particularly deep background. How come he's so arrogant and presumptuous in front of the daughter of an official?

There's definitely something fishy about the engagement between the Crown Prince and Miss Tian.

Firstly, the two are of unequal status. If it were because of love, then the prince would not sleep with other women and would wholeheartedly guard the woman he loves most, even if this woman has no status or background. This is the most reasonable explanation.

Secondly, the news was released that the Crown Prince was engaged to Miss Tian because he liked her, and that the two were deeply in love. So how could the Crown Prince be a playboy?

So contradictory.

The more Du Mingxian thought about it, the more she felt that this Miss Tian had a secret, so she put a question mark after Miss Tian's name.

After analyzing all this, Du Mingxian felt that she could thoroughly investigate this Miss Tian in the next few days.

So she began a life of leaving early and returning late. Dong stayed home every day taking care of the children. She didn't understand anything and looked forward to Du Mingxian coming back every day so she could talk to her.

That day, Du Mingxian returned after following Dong Chengbao. Dong Chengbao had already gone to sleep, but Madam Dong had been waiting patiently. She was very happy to see her return. "Madam, you haven't eaten yet, have you? I'll go get the food. It's been kept warm in the pot."

Du Mingxian, who had originally planned to go back to her room and grab a bite in her spatial dimension, immediately abandoned the idea. "Okay."

Du Mingxian was eating, and Madam Dong was watching over her. After Du Mingxian finished eating, Madam Dong looked at her and said, "Ask me anything you want to ask."

"You've been leaving early and coming home late these past few days. I... is there any progress on the Hongguo matter?"

"I have a guess, but I still need to verify it. I'm checking it out these past two days."

"May I hear it?" Madam Dong asked cautiously.

Seeing her like this, Du Mingxian was willing to say a few words to her, "Based on the current analysis, the Crown Prince of Ming and his fiancée are the most suspicious. It is unlikely that the illegitimate son of the Ming Prince's Mansion would take Hongguo out of the Ming Princess's courtyard."

"Firstly, a son born out of wedlock wouldn't dare, and secondly, Hongguo doesn't like men, so she would never think of climbing the social ladder. Therefore, she herself would not associate with these people."

“The Prince Ming’s family has deep feelings for the Princess Ming, but he also has women in his harem. Each of those women comes from a respectable background. Hongguo is just a little girl and is not worthy of the prince’s attention.”

"These are some things I've investigated about the Ming Prince's Mansion recently, and I've made some eliminations, so these two are the most likely candidates now."

“If the Crown Prince Ming wants a maid in the Crown Princess’s courtyard, his mother will definitely give her one. If it’s just the Crown Prince Ming, and Hongguo has no choice but to have something happen with him, the Crown Princess will definitely send someone to give Hongguo contraceptive medicine.”

"This is also something I can't understand: why would a red fruit get pregnant?"

"Aside from that, there's also the Prince Ming's fiancée. Her ancestral home is in the county you often visit. Hongguo is just a maid in the Prince's mansion. Normally, it would be difficult for her to even leave the Prince's mansion. How could she have ended up there?"

"If the person is still in the city, they're gone. Who would throw a corpse that far away from the city? Even if they wanted to dispose of the body, there are plenty of mountains near the city. They could just throw it into any mountain and destroy the body completely."

"So the person must have died in that county. The only people who could have gone to that county and were related to the Ming Prince's Mansion are the Ming Prince's heir and his fiancée."

"I've been investigating the Crown Prince's fiancée these past few days to see if I can find anything."

After hearing this, Madam Dong became even more determined to become Du Mingxian's servant. She had helped her so much without any kinship, and if she didn't do something in return, she would really be letting her down.

"Could you tell me which wealthy family it is? Although we belong to Ping County, we are quite far from the county seat. We often prefer to go to Dong County, which is closer to us."

"Over the years, I have sometimes gone to the county to buy things, and I have heard of wealthy families."

"The Tian family, Mr. Tian is a teacher at Wangshan Academy in the prefectural city, and his daughter is engaged to the heir of the Ming Prince."

"The Tian family?" Madam Dong shook her head after hearing this. "I've never heard of them, and I probably have never had any contact with them."

Du Mingxian wasn't surprised at all. It was normal that the Dong family hadn't heard of them; there were many wealthy families in the county, and the Dong family was just a small farming household.

“When I was selling my daughters, I asked around at all the wealthy families in Dong County in order to find them a good place, but I had never heard of any Tian family.”

"Has it been so long that you've forgotten?"

Madam Dong shook her head. "Although I'm a grandmother now, my memory is still pretty good. I'm sure there's no such thing as a Tian family."