17. An End To The Tale

                                    

                                          
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It had gotten dark, and LanFen sat alone, staring at the draping white cloth that covered her mother.
She held her mother's hand in a tight grip, and was overcome with the irony...
This was the same hand she had held and kissed before she left, while promising to return and bring back delicacies from the South.
'Isn't death what I brought back?' She thought, as endless tears ran down her face, falling onto the same hand she held, which was now cold and stiff.
But as she cried, equal parts of grief and anger wormed through her heart...
She had desperately hurried back to Camellia City, but had been too late, and she was met with the discovery that Xu Liling had even ordered servants to throw her mother's corpse out the manor.
'Wasn't it bad enough that they killed her?! Can humans do a thing like this?!' But no matter how many times her mind asked the questions, there were no answers.
Only one thing was clear... She was now completely alone in the world.
A night of crying passed, and a few of the servants had pulled her away, so they could prepare Wang ShanMei for a small funeral.
The heavens seemed to understand LanFen's loneliness and grief, and the grey clouds poured endless torrents of rain. The funeral itself was attended by a small group of the Zhao Family servants, who had helped LanFen arrange it, andnow braved the rain, so she wouldn't feel alone.
A few of them had donated food, wine, and cheap joss money for the funeral, and the Zhao Family carpenter had even made a wooden coffin for free.
After the funeral, the servants left her alone, but the elderly maid LanFen had entrusted her mother with, had remained at the grave with LanFen, bowing to her for almost half a day.
LanFen didn't blame the woman, yet the woman still remained bowing, because LanFen hadn't hadn't said a word to her.
"A thousand words cannot express my regret!" The woman said, pulling LanFen out of her thoughts. "I should have been suspicious when Matron Xu sent over food and medicine suddenly... I fed it to her myself, thinking it would save her life! "
But LanFen hadn't even realized she was still there, and she rushed to help her up. "Please get up, Aunty... You hold no blame. The guilty one is Matron Xu and Clan Leader Zhao. Thank you for caring for us."
"Wait!" the woman stopped her and handed her a small package. "Lady Wang opened her eyes on your birthday, which was a few days after you left...
"I was surprised when she pulled herself up, and then disappeared somewhere. She brought this back that evening, but only passed it on to me, after she realised she had been poisoned."
LanFen accepted the package, bowed respectfully to her, then turned and left.
However, what the woman had said earlier replayed in her head, reconfirming what she had heard in the Wang Manor.
Xu LiLing had poisoned her mother...
.
The next day, LanFen had boldly confronted Zhao Min Xue and Xu Liling for murdering her mother, accusing them of poisoning her slowly, and then dealing the final blow, before she could return.
But the accusations of a grief-stricken, fourteen year old 'boy', were too easy for Zhao Min Xue and Xu Liling to brush off, and they had threatened the family of the Maid, so she wouldn't be able to say anything.
After that, Xu Liling had put up a spectacular oct, making sure a crowd was listening.
"Despite your mother's evil ways, we allowed Trash like the two of you to remain here in the Zhao Family, and even fed you, out of the goodness of our hearts! And now you dare to accuse us?" Xu Liling pitifully sobbed on her husband's shoulder.