Chapter 177 The Suffering of Going Their Own Way

The older brothers filed in, their faces plastered with ingratiating smiles.

"My dear sister, we heard you were sick. This is a little something that your brothers pooled together to prepare for you. It took us a lot of effort to do it."

The tokens they carried were clearly hastily made to meet the minimum requirements.

A few shriveled ginseng roots were hastily wrapped in faded red paper, the oiled paper even bearing mold spots, mixed in with the gloomy herbs, emitting a stale smell.

These items, let alone the imperial gifts, were inferior to even the most common goods in a slightly well-known pharmacy in the capital, exuding an air of perfunctory care.

Shen Yiqiu leaned against the couch, watching coldly, without pointing out their clumsy performance.

"What brings you brothers to visit me today?"

The eldest brother, Song Tianhan, stepped forward first, rubbing his hands together:

"Yiqiu, we brothers are really worried about you being sick. After all, blood is thicker than water, and even if bones are broken, they are still connected by tendons!"

"Yes, yes, we were all blinded by greed before, and that bitch Song Sangyu stirred up trouble. Now that we think about it, we really regret it. In the end, we are the family connected by blood!"

Third Brother and Fourth Brother also nodded in agreement:

“Yiqiu, for the sake of the fact that we also share half the blood of the Marquis of Yongjia, let bygones be bygones! Grandmother in heaven would also want to see us siblings living in harmony, wouldn’t she?”

Upon hearing this, Shen Yiqiu was so angry that she laughed instead:

"For the sake of Marquis Yongjia? Ha... Aren't you mistaken? Shen Zhaohua is my grandmother, the one who bestowed upon me the surname Shen, and entrusted me with my title and everything else. What connection does she have with your Song family? Why should we give you face because of her?"

The eldest brother's face instantly froze, but he still forced a smile and said:

“Sister is right, we misspoke. But… I have so many official matters to attend to lately, I’m really short on funds… Could you perhaps help me out a bit first? Wait for me…”

Shen Yiqiu interrupted him without hesitation, looking at him with great interest:

"Put in good faith? If I remember correctly, your idle official position, brother, was long ago suspended by your superiors because you spent your days loitering in cockfighting arenas and neglecting your duties. What do you need to bribe for someone without an official position? To bribe the cockfighting arena owner so he can leave you a good job?"

When Song Tianhan was exposed, his face turned a deep purplish-red, and he shut his mouth in bewilderment.

Seeing this, the second brother quickly stepped forward:

"Yiqiu, don't listen to your brother's nonsense. It's...it's like this, you took all of Grandmother's dowry, and Song Qingming and that little slut have emptied the Song family's coffers. Now the mansion is just an empty shell!"

"Second brother, the people in my yard also need to eat! Just consider this as repaying the kindness of raising green bamboo before, lend it to your second brother to tide you over, and I will definitely pay you back in the future!"

Shen Yiqiu glanced at it and quickly looked away:

"Borrowing money to tide you over? I'm afraid you're going to borrow it to fill the bottomless pit of your lover Yu Yi, aren't you? I heard that Young Master Yu Yi returned to Nanfeng Pavilion in all his glory a few days ago. What, Second Brother, are you in a hurry to put on a show because you haven't saved enough money to redeem yourself?"

Upon hearing this, the other older brothers immediately glared angrily at Song Wenbin:

"You! You're still spending money on that vixen?!"

"What a misfortune for our family! We can't even afford to eat, and we still have to borrow money to see that little bitch?"

Song Wenbin shrank back dejectedly, not daring to say another word.

Third Brother Song Haochu then seized the opportunity, took a deep breath, forced a heartfelt expression, and called out:

"Sister Yiqiu..." Then he called out towards the door, "Come in!"

With a blood-soaked bandage wrapped around her head, and looking so thin she seemed like she could be blown away by a gust of wind, Ying'er walked in shakily, carrying a crying, hungry baby.

Upon seeing Shen Yiqiu, Ying'er knelt down with a thud, tears streaming down her face before she could utter a word.

Her voice was mournful and weak, as if she were about to die at any moment:

"Young Miss... I beg you, please spare my child and me... My child hasn't eaten all day. It was all Ying'er's fault before. Ying'er kowtows to you... I only beg you to give me a bite to eat..."

Shen Yiqiu looked at her expressionlessly:

"Ying'er, you already put on this pitiful act when you first entered the Song family. Now you're bringing it to my Shen family to perform it again. Don't you get tired of it? Don't you have any new tricks up your sleeve?"

Ying'er's crying paused for a moment, then she cried even harder:

"Young Miss, Ying'er is telling the truth! Look at the child, he's dying... Please have mercy..."

Shen Yiqiu's gaze swept over the expensive pearl hairpin in her hair and the shimmering brocade she wore, though dirty, made of superior material. She sneered:

"That pearl hairpin in your hair is enough for an ordinary family to live on for a year. That shimmering brocade you're wearing is worth no less than a hundred taels of silver. If you pawn just one of those items, wouldn't you have enough money to feed your child?"

Before Ying'er could explain, she waved her hand at the nanny beside her:

"The child is innocent. Take him away and find a wet nurse to feed him properly."

The nanny stepped forward and carefully took the child.

Shen Yiqiu then looked at Ying'er, whose expression had changed slightly, and said slowly and deliberately:

"Today, this child has drunk the milk of my Shen family, and is therefore considered a member of my Shen family. You can no longer take him away. If you want to back out now, it's not too late."

A flicker of secret joy flashed across Ying'er's eyes, and she instantly felt relieved. She never wanted this burden in the first place, and following Song Haochu, who had nothing, meant there was no hope for the future. She couldn't wait to get rid of this burden.

She immediately kowtowed and said:

"Thank you, Miss! Thank you for taking me in! It's a blessing for my child to have you by his side!"

After saying that, he stood up nimbly, showing no sign of weakness or illness.

Song Haochu was stunned and quickly grabbed her:

"Ying'er! What do you mean by this? Didn't we agree that we came here... to ask Yiqiu to help us out of consideration for the child, and then we'd go back to our lives?"

Ying'er flung his hand away, her face showing undisguised contempt:

"Living a life with you? What kind of life is it to live with a piece of trash like you? If it weren't for the fact that you were the young master of the Song family, who would have stayed with you? To suffer your mother's scorn and the rudeness of the Song family's servants! I was truly blind!"

After saying that, she walked out without looking back.

Song Haochu watched her retreating figure, opened his mouth, and finally lowered his head in dejection.

The scene froze for a moment.

The fourth brother, Song Yutang, who had been silent all along, stepped forward, his face full of embarrassment. He pursed his lips a few times but could not make a sound.

He had made things difficult for his younger sister a lot back in the manor, so now that he was being asked to plead for her, he wanted to save face for her.

Shen Yiqiu spoke first, her tone sarcastic:

"Is Fourth Brother here to extort money too?"