"It seems Mother has taken a grudge against her son," Bai Yinan said self - deprecatingly with a bitter smile.
Madam He cast a cold glance at him and angrily flicked her sleeve. "How dare I?"
Bai Yinan stood upright. He slowly raised his head, his eyes extremely calm as he looked directly at Madam He. "Since Mother has said such things, if I still don't let Mother go back and insist on keeping Mother in the Bai Mansion to recuperate, I'd really be an unfilial son."
Saying this, he took a step back, making way, and bowed deeply to Madam He with clasped hands. "Then, son respectfully sees Mother off."
Madam He glanced at him sideways.
She always felt that there was something odd about Bai Yinan, but she really had no mind to figure out what it was.
Seeing that Bai Yinan finally agreed to let her go, she snorted and led a group of servants towards the door in a grand manner.
But after walking just a few steps, perhaps due to nervousness making her overly anxious or the panic causing distraction, an old nanny who had tightly covered her sleeve in front of Feng Linyuan suddenly stumbled and lost her balance, falling forward.
She had been walking closely behind Madam He.
Now that she lost her balance and lunged forward, the first one to suffer was Madam He.
Madam He only heard a scream from behind. She instinctively looked back and saw the nanny's face only inches away from her.
She froze, not knowing what to do for a moment.
"Madam!" the nanny shrieked at the top of her lungs.
She was tall, unlike Madam He who was small - framed, old, and had just caught a cold.
If she fell on Madam He, Madam He's bones would surely break, and she might spend the rest of her life in bed like her eldest son, Bai Yizhang.
Madam He was so scared that she instinctively closed her eyes.
The scream suddenly stopped.
The expected impact never came. Madam He carefully opened one eye.
She saw the nanny in a distorted posture, her body leaning forward almost fifty degrees, about to touch her.
Suddenly, a hand reached out and firmly supported her.
Before anyone present could react, the hand that had caught the nanny gently pulled up along the sleeve it was holding, and the nanny was pulled back to her original position.
At the same time, her sleeve was also pulled up.
One after another, purplish - blue bruises came into everyone's view.
"This..."
Bai Yinan's pupils constricted, and his face instantly turned as white as paper.
"The nanny should be more careful when walking. It would be bad if she fell on Madam," the owner of the hand said softly.
But at this moment, the nanny looked at the person and had long lost the gratitude she had just felt.
She panicked and withdrew her hand, her forehead covered in cold sweat. "T - t - thank you, Marquis."
Feng Linyuan's lips curved slightly, but not at her. Instead, he smiled at Madam He. "It seems the servants of the General's Mansion still need Madam to discipline them well. They can't even walk steadily."
Madam He opened her mouth wide, looking at him in horror as if seeing a ghost. She couldn't say a word for a long time.
It was Bai Sheng who reacted quickly. She called out to Madam He. "Grandmother, if we don't go back soon, Father will be worried."
Madam He was brought back to her senses. She quickly replied, "Coming, coming..." Then she led the group and fled in a hurry.
Watching the departing backs of the group, Bai Yinan felt as if all his strength had been drained. His straight body instantly slumped, and he slumped into a chair.
"Dad!" Bai Nianjin quickly stepped forward, looking worriedly at her father's devastated appearance.
Bai Yinan's eyes were fixed on the direction where Madam He and the others had left. His eyes gradually filled with a mist of tears. His lips trembled, and finally, he burst into tears.
"Zheng'er, it's all Dad's fault... Dad is sorry for you..."
Feng Linyuan looked at Bai Yinan like this and finally felt a bit of pity. He sighed and turned away without looking anymore.
The show was over. Madam He and Bai Sheng failed to hurt Bai Zheng as they wished and instead suffered the consequences.
Especially Bai Sheng. At only seventeen years old, she had lost the chance to be a mother.
No wonder Madam Zhao cried so loudly.
One daughter died young and the other was infertile. Who could bear such a result?
But in Feng Linyuan's eyes, the most hurt person today was neither Bai Sheng nor Madam Zhao, but the middle - aged man in the guest room at this moment, crying like a child in despair.
Today's events were like a collapse of his whole belief in the first half of his life.
The mother he had respected the most in his life turned out to be so venomous that she would harm her own granddaughter. The family affection he had regarded as the pillar of his life had betrayed him in the most disgraceful way.
In fact, he should have known earlier and cut off relations with such a family.
But he was reluctant and couldn't bear to do so, so he had always whitewashed the surface peace in a self - deceiving way.
When the bloody truth was revealed, the first one to be hurt and the most deeply hurt was the one who had invested the most feelings in Madam He and the General's Mansion.
But Feng Linyuan knew that even though he felt pity, he couldn't tell Bai Yinan at this moment the truth that Bai Zheng was actually unharmed.
Only by making Bai Yinan completely disappointed in Madam He and the General's Mansion to the core, and after a rebirth like a phoenix, could he finally let go of this non - existent family affection and his one - sided wishes over the years.
Only then would the other side completely lose the chance to harm the Bai Mansion.
Only by not caring at all could one be invulnerable to all poisons.
Thinking of the entanglement and reluctance on Bai Zheng's face when she said these words, Feng Linyuan's gaze out of the window softened.
This fool, even at such a moment, was still worried about her father first.
He Kang'an sat there in a daze, listening to Bai Yinan's cries. He didn't know what to do for a moment.
When Madam He left, of course, she didn't take him with her.
He had completely betrayed Madam He just now. He couldn't go back to the General's Mansion. Where else could he go?
Thinking of this, his eyes suddenly widened. He slapped his head hard and quickly crawled on all fours in front of Feng Linyuan, kowtowing heavily.
"Marquis, save me!"
"Don't worry. This marquis won't lay a hand on you," Feng Linyuan said indifferently without turning back.
He Kang'an's face was full of panic. Hearing this, he looked up and pleaded.
"It's not about me, but... but my two children. Cousin will surely not let them go when she gets back! Please, Marquis, please save them..."
Only then did Feng Linyuan remember that Madam He had indeed threatened He Kang'an with his two children, telling him not to reveal the location of the evidence.
But He Kang'an was still forced by him to tell it.