After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Lu Zhiyuan reached out and stopped Commander Ma: "Don't rush to fight. The most important thing right now is to find out the cause of the old man's death."

His gaze shifted to Jinzhi, the little girl's eyes swollen from crying: "How did your foster mother die?"

Jinzhi sobbed, "He beat her to death! He owed a lot of money and didn't dare let his new wife know. To pay off the debts, he tricked his new wife out of the pawnshop by pretending to be the steward of the Marquis's mansion, and sold everything that could be sold in the pawnshop. To cover the losses, he tricked these relatives and friends under the pretense of making money, and pawned or sold their things. Seeing that he had torn down all the things and walls, in desperation, he turned his attention back to Mother."

Jinzhi clenched her fists. "I don't know where he heard the gossip, but he thought that my mother was hiding money from him and forced her to hand it over. When my mother didn't have it, he locked her up and didn't give her any food or water. My mother was so hungry that she had no choice but to quench her thirst with rainwater and dirty water and fill her stomach with weeds."

Jinzhi covered her face, sobbing and tears streaming through her fingers. She cried for a long time before finally managing to stop, then choked out, "I went to him to beg, and he beat me up and demanded money to redeem my mother. I gave him all the money I had begged, but he only gave my mother water to drink."

Jinzhi sobbed, “He said that people won’t die if they don’t eat, but if they want to eat, they have to take out the money they’ve hidden. I didn’t hide any money, I really didn’t hide any money, but he didn’t believe me. He beat me, and when I hurt me, he took me to see a doctor and used my injuries to extort money from the doctor.”

Lu Zhiyuan grasped the key point, looking into Jinzhi's eyes and said, "Is this not the first time he's done this?"

Jinzhi nodded: "It worked the last few times, but this time, Mother was unwilling. He is Mother's child, and Mother doesn't want him to continue down the wrong path. Mother tried to persuade him, but he threw away Mother's medicine. When Mother went to pick up the medicine, he pushed Mother to the ground and used an old piece of clothing as a pad to beat Mother. Just two blows, just two blows, and Mother's mouth and nose bled, and she didn't move at all."

Where were you when your foster mother was being beaten?

“In the woodshed.” Jinzhi stretched out her hand: “I was locked up with his dog. This brother saved me. I know this is the yamen, and I know there are coroners in the yamen. I brought that piece of clothing with me. The blood on it is my mother’s.”

“You damned little beggar, I should have my dog ​​bite you to death.” Chen Yaozu pushed through the crowd and rushed to the prison door, trying to grab Jinzhi: “What good will it do you to kill me?”

“And you? What good would it do you to kill your mother?” Jinzhi retorted, wiping away her tears. “Did you notice that when you hit your mother, she didn’t beg for mercy like she usually does? You were her hope in this world. She was extremely disappointed in you, and she didn’t want to live anymore.”

Chen Yaozu shouted, "She deserves it! Knowing I needed money, she still hid her treasures. I'm her son, her only son. If she doesn't leave the treasures to me, who else does she want to leave them to? You, a little beggar?"

"You want your mother's treasure, don't you?" Jinzhi took a deep breath and walked towards the prison door. A short while later, she returned carrying a heavy box.

Chen Yaozu's eyes lit up, and he kept urging, "This is it! Give it to me. With this box of treasures, I can turn my life around."

"Watch closely!" Jinzhi grabbed the box and slammed it down, causing everything inside to fall out.

The baby wore a little bib, a small dress, and tiger-head boots. There was also a rattle drum, twigs, pebbles, and half a half-eaten black cornbread. Among all the things, the most eye-catching item was a hairpin. It was carved from wood, with two peach blossoms, one large and one small, shaped at the tip. The larger blossom was in full bloom but missing a petal, while the smaller one was a poorly formed bud. The hairpin was very rough, like something made by a carpentry apprentice.

Chen Yaozu was stunned. He hadn't expected that the treasure chest he had been longing for would contain a pile of garbage. He laughed and cried, sometimes angry, sometimes roaring, like a real madman.

Jinzhi ignored him and squatted down to pick up the broken wooden hairpin.

“This was carved by your own hands for your mother when you were six years old. You said that when you grew up you would earn lots and lots of money, and that when you had money you wouldn’t let your mother work so hard. You said that the two peach blossoms on the hairpin were one for your mother and one for you. You said that you were clumsy and had carved off a petal, but that when it was replaced with a silver hairpin or a gold hairpin in the future, it would be perfect.”

Jinzhi held up the wooden hairpin.

“You’ve grown up and become rich, but you’ve forgotten the promise you made to your mother when you were little. You’ve given all your money, all the money your mother saved for you, to the gambling den. The hairpin you promised your mother when you were six years old, your mother can never wear it again.”

Those long-forgotten images began to flash uncontrollably in Chen Yaozu's mind.

He remembered his young mother reaching out to him as he was learning to walk. He tiptoed and giggled as he ran into her arms. The scene shifted, and his mother looked at him with pleading eyes, while he mercilessly slammed his fist into her.

He remembered when he first entered school, his mother, fearing he would go hungry, would stuff him with delicious food. He recalled that winter, when heavy snow shrouded the door, and his mother, dressed in thin clothes, rubbed her hands together as she sewed a cotton coat for him. Yet how had he treated his mother? He had left her hungry and poorly clothed.

That thing called conscience returned. He gripped the prison door, knelt on the ground, and murmured, "Mother—"

Jinzhi pried his hand open and shoved the wooden hairpin into it: "You have no mother anymore, and I have no mother either!"

A gust of wind, seemingly from nowhere, made the candlelight in the cell flicker, as if a ghost had silently arrived.

Chen Yaozu confessed to killing his mother and attempting to blackmail the clinic using her corpse. He begged for death, but then told Lu Zhiyuan and the others something else as they left the cell.

He originally intended to extort money from another clinic, but someone gave him a note instructing him to cause trouble for the Xie family. There were quite a few people with the surname Xie in the capital, and he hadn't connected this clinic with the General's Mansion or the Marquis of Pingnan's Mansion. If he had known, he wouldn't have dared to lead people to cause trouble even if he had eight hundred lives.

The noisy night finally quieted down.

Inside the carriage, Physician Jiang asked Lu Zhiyuan, "Was Chen Yaozu's mother really beaten to death? Two punches—that would be incredibly powerful. Even through clothing, there would be obvious marks. Yet, there are no signs of forceful blows on the old woman's body."

Lu Zhiyuan, lying on Xie Chaoyun's lap, mumbled, "The old lady's cause of death was complicated! It wasn't just a simple stomachache, but rather stomach discomfort and a ruptured spleen. The stomach discomfort was due to the food she ate not being digested. The ruptured spleen was caused by repeated beatings, hence the lack of visible external injuries. Whether she took painkillers or not, whether Chen Yaozu punched her or not, she wouldn't have lived much longer."

Xie Chaoyun stroked her hair and looked out the car window: "So, Chen Yaozu's two punches hastened her death."

Lu Zhiyuan closed her eyes: "He caused the old man's stomach and spleen problems. He is a real murderer and should pay for his mother's life."

Da da da……

The carriage drove through the quiet, deserted streets and stopped in front of the Marquis's mansion.