Having made up her mind, Madam Wan said, "In that case, I will go to Guanju Courtyard. Is the medicine ready?"

Madam Min called out, and Hu Mama immediately came out from behind the door, carrying a small bamboo basket. She went to Madam Wan and opened the basket to show her.

"This is the medicinal soup that Madam asked me to brew. It's just come out of the pot. It should still be warm when it's delivered to the eldest young lady, just right for her to drink," said Granny Hu, her face full of kindness.

Madam Wan smelled the aroma of ginseng soup, and without suspecting anything, she took the small bamboo basket and went outside.

The young lady stood under a peach tree in the courtyard waiting for her. When she came out, she didn't ask any questions, but just wanted to help her carry the small bamboo basket.

Madam Wan nervously avoided her hand: "I can carry it myself. You're just a kid, you don't know your own strength. If you spill it, it'll be terrible."

The young lady just smiled and didn't say much. She bid farewell to Madam Min and followed Madam Wan to Madam Zhou's courtyard—Madam Min had just said that Ye Qingxue was in Madam Zhou's courtyard at the moment.

After walking quite a distance and making sure no one was behind her, the young lady lowered her voice and asked, "Aunt, what does Madam Min want you to do?"

Madam Wan didn't want to tell her the truth, but the cousin said, "It's not that I'm being nosy, it's just that when I left Ningcui Pavilion just now, I secretly looked back and noticed that Granny Hu's expression was strange. I was worried that something was amiss."

When Madam Wan heard her say this, she thought to herself that she was no match for Madam Min. She would never be able to detect when Madam Min was trying to trick her. She thought it would be better to talk to her niece and ask her for advice.

So Madam Wan looked around to make sure no one was there before pulling her cousin to a secluded spot and telling her everything in a low voice.

The young lady frowned slightly: "If Madam Min simply wanted you to persuade the eldest daughter and deliver her medicine, why would she use your cousin's marriage to threaten you?"

Madam Wan said, "That's what I think too, but didn't she say that the eldest daughter is ruthless and that she's afraid?"

The young woman pondered for a moment, then looked around, broke off a branch, opened the bamboo basket, put the branch into the medicinal soup, and once the branch was soaked in the soup, she took it out and sprinkled it on the place where the ants had formed a nest.

The ants eagerly tasted the medicinal soup, and the originally sparse ants quickly gathered into a clump, but after a while, all the ants stopped moving.

The young woman poked at them with a twig, but it had no effect; clearly, the ants were all dead.

Madam Wan's pupils contracted sharply, and she was about to scream when her cousin covered her mouth.

The cousin said, "Aunt, Madam Min wants to kill the eldest daughter, and you are the knife in Madam Min's hand."