She felt that Ming Lingyi was a trustworthy person.

Mrs. Wang clearly had something to say to Ming Lingyi in private. The others were perceptive and began to file out, leaving Granny Wang and Ming Lingyi alone.

"Granny Wang, what did you want to say to me?" Ming Lingyi asked.

Mrs. Wang lifted her hand and grabbed Ming Lingyi’s sleeve. "My silver... it’s all... all in the flowerpot in the main hall. You... you go get it later and share it with everyone."

After she spoke, she started coughing in fits and starts.

Ming Lingyi was about to say that everyone helped not for a reward, but before she could speak, she heard Granny Wang continue, "This old body of mine... I’m afraid it’s not going to make it..."

Last winter, she had been bedridden for over half a month.

Dragging her broken body along, she had somehow managed to survive another winter.

But now, she feared it was the end.

’The heavens must be coming to claim me. Otherwise, why would I fall in the courtyard I’ve lived in for decades?’

The feeling of lying unconscious on the ground was truly awful.

She had regained consciousness a few times, but each time she woke, she was completely alone. She wanted to call out, but she had no strength. All she could do was lie on the ground and wait for death.

At her age, the only thing she truly couldn’t let go of was what happened to her only daughter years ago. Aside from that, there was nothing left that made her want to cling to this world.

She had originally thought she would surely die this time. She’d lived long enough, so if death was coming, so be it. But she never expected to wake up again in a clinic.

And the person who had saved her life was, of all people, the Miss Ming from next door, whom she had always looked down on and considered a bit foolish.

"These Silver Taels are useless to me now. It’s better to give them to the people who took care of this old woman... Also, coming to this clinic, you must have spent some silver, right? I... I... COUGH, COUGH... I can’t let a young lady like you be the one to foot the bill," Granny Wang said.

Ming Lingyi replied, "Why are you saying such gloomy things? I’ll pretend I didn’t hear a word about the money. When you’ve recovered, you can reward everyone yourself. I can’t be the one to make that decision."

"HA HA—" Granny Wang laughed through her coughs. She knew she hadn’t misjudged her. If it had been anyone else, they’d probably already be scheming for the little money she had at home. "You don’t need to comfort me." Her gaze fell on an apricot tree outside the clinic window.

The apricot blossoms were still just buds on the branches, yet to bloom.

Every year around the Qingming Festival, there was always a light, drizzling spring rain.

The rain would dampen the apricot blossoms, and their petals would drift down, blanketing Shangjing.

’I wonder if I’ll be able to see such a spring scene this year.’

Granny Wang’s energy was failing. After speaking with Ming Lingyi and taking her medicine, she drifted into a groggy sleep.

Ming Lingyi returned to the shop with Aunt Gui and the others.

On the way, Aunt Gui sighed. "That Aunt Wang has had such a hard life. It’s a good thing everyone’s willing to pitch in and help now. Otherwise, sigh..."

Xiao Chun, who was beside Ming Lingyi, was the most curious. Plus, she and Aunt Gui were on the verge of becoming "gossip buddies." She immediately asked, "Aunt Gui, is Granny Wang’s entire family gone? That can’t be, right? Doesn’t she have any children?"

Aunt Gui said, "Old Aunt Wang only had one daughter."

"Then where is her daughter?"

"Dead," someone else answered.

"What about her son-in-law? He can’t be dead too, can he?" Xiao Chun asked with a frown.

"Ha, it would be better if he were," Aunt Gui said.

Hearing this, Xiao Chun’s ears perked up.

"He’s that Landlord Liu now," Aunt Gui began. "The Liu Family used Wu Niang’s dowry to buy him his official position. Now he’s a proper official. He’s not in the same boat as us common folk anymore. He looks down on us, of course, and moved to the East Market long ago."

The markets surrounding the West Market were mostly inhabited by commoners.

Those with a bit of silver and an official post would often choose to live in the markets near the East Market.

That Landlord Liu was one of them.

"The most hateful part is that Wu Niang never had any children. That shameless Liu! While Wu Niang was on her deathbed, he adopted a child. Otherwise, her dowry should have been returned to her family. And the worst part? That ’heir’ is clearly the illegitimate child he had with his own cousin, who he’d been sleeping with for ages! Now that bastard is parading around as a proper young master! Sigh..."

Xiao Chun was filled with righteous indignation. Her hands were clenched into fists, as if she were about to rush out and fight someone at any moment.

"How shameless!" Xiao Chun’s face was red with anger. "Isn’t there anything that can be done? Hasn’t anyone reported him? Who knows if Granny Wang’s daughter was murdered by that wretched Landlord Liu?"

After saying this, Xiao Chun couldn’t help but look at Ming Lingyi. "Miss, isn’t that how all the faithless men in the storybooks are written? To bring his illegitimate child into the family, he poisons his first wife..."

Her Miss had told her all this from the storybooks she read. Xiao Chun herself couldn’t get into them; the sight of all those densely packed words gave her a headache.

Ming Lingyi gave Xiao Chun a helpless look. "Don’t make wild accusations. You need evidence for everything, or else it’s slander. Landlord Liu could even use this opportunity to sue you, and then you’d be left to rot in jail."

Xiao Chun: "...Miss!"

She knew her Miss just loved to scare her.

Mrs. Wei couldn’t help but chuckle hearing the exchange between the mistress and maid, but she also spoke up, "Miss Ming is right; you need evidence for any accusation. Even if we all think Landlord Liu’s heir looks exactly like him, we have no proof. Besides, his distant cousin was brought into the Liu Family years ago as a concubine. Liu never took a new primary wife. To outsiders who don’t know the truth, they all say he’s a man of deep feeling and righteousness, who refused to remarry for years because he missed his late wife so much. And now, Liu has promoted that concubine to be his official wife. The reason given was something about how she’s managed the household for many years, and even if she has no great merits, she’s certainly toiled hard. Tell me, what can we outsiders do? We’re just common folk, and that man, Liu, is already an official... A commoner suing an official—that’s not an easy thing to do."

Besides, they were all just neighbors. This was obviously a messy business, and not everyone was willing to get dragged into the muck.

Back when Granny Wang’s husband was still alive, didn’t the old couple go to the Liu Family? And what was the result?

"Sigh, forget it, forget it. It’s all water under the bridge now," Aunt Gui said. "I think Aunt Wang has let it go, too. Otherwise, wouldn’t she have gone and made trouble for that family again over all these years?"