Shen Qingwan looked at her and said word by word, “Whether I am a wife or a concubine is not for you to decide. However, these two children are now under my name, which makes them mine. I’ll ask one last time—where is my daughter?”

Holding the child in her arms, Shen Qingwan’s presence was overwhelming.

Su Ruoyun trembled with rage, her lips quivering, yet she dared not truly provoke Shen Qingwan.

“That girl went missing some time ago. She kept crying for her mother and ran off while the servants weren’t paying attention. Lu Wenzhao sent people to search for her, but they couldn’t find her,” Su Ruoyun explained.

The moment she finished speaking, Xiao Chen coughed twice and spoke in a tiny voice, like a mosquito buzzing, “Mother, she’s lying. I saw her abandon my sister. She had someone drag my sister into a carriage and take her away. She must have gotten rid of my sister.”

Tears welled up in Xiao Chen’s eyes, and his small face scrunched up in grievance.

Upon hearing this, Shen Qingwan’s anger surged.

Without hesitation, she kicked Su Ruoyun in the stomach.

Caught off guard, Su Ruoyun fell to the ground instantly.

Lu Tianyang started wailing in fright, but Shen Qingwan ignored him.

Instead, she stepped on Su Ruoyun’s delicate, fair fingers.

“Aah—!”

Su Ruoyun screamed in agony, her face contorted with pain as she cried for help.

Yet, when Shen Qingwan’s cold gaze swept over the onlookers, none of them dared to step forward.

“Speak! Where did you take my daughter?”

Shen Qingwan’s tone grew sharper as she increased the pressure under her foot.

Su Ruoyun’s forehead broke out in a cold sweat, her elegant makeup smudged, and her once-pristine hairstyle now in disarray.

“I… I only had someone throw her outside the city! I don’t know where she is now. Ah—my hand! I am the Prime Minister’s daughter! How dare you treat me like this? I won’t let you go!”

Even at this point, Su Ruoyun still spat threats.

The guards, finally realizing the gravity of the situation, hesitated no longer.

After all, she was the Prime Minister’s daughter—if something happened to her, their own heads would be at risk.

Realizing this, the guards quickly surrounded Shen Qingwan, trying to force her into submission.

Shen Qingwan narrowed her eyes at Su Ruoyun, her voice icy. “Su Ruoyun, I’ll be waiting for the Prime Minister’s revenge. Let’s see if your family kills me first or if I get rid of you first.”

She never sought trouble, but she was never afraid of it either.

She always acted with a clear conscience. If someone dared to provoke her, there was only one response: fight back.

“Mother, the bad woman bullied Grandma and even hit her! They won’t let Grandpa see a doctor. They are horrible people!” Xiao Chen accused, his little face full of indignation.

Shen Qingwan was stunned.

Lu Wenzhao had personally brought his parents here—so why was he treating them so badly?

She didn’t know exactly what had happened, but she couldn’t just ignore the old couple.

“Xiao Chen, do you know where your grandparents are?”

The child in her arms nodded and pointed to a remote courtyard in the westernmost part of the estate.

As Shen Qingwan left, Su Ruoyun, supported by her maid, struggled to get up.

Meanwhile, Lu Wenzhao was drenched in cold sweat from pain.

“Ruoyun, get me a doctor, quick!” Lu Wenzhao no longer cared about dealing with Shen Qingwan.

The excruciating pain from below terrified him—he had a dreadful feeling that if this continued, he might become completely useless.

If that happened, wouldn’t he become a eunuch?!

Su Ruoyun, unaware of where he was injured, quickly summoned a doctor.

When the doctor finished his examination and shook his head, Su Ruoyun’s heart sank.

“Doctor, how is my husband?” she asked anxiously.

The doctor sighed. “The other injuries will heal with rest, but… his lower body’s injuries may never recover.”

At first, Su Ruoyun didn’t quite understand.

But the moment she did, the doctor had already left after prescribing some medicine.

Lu Wenzhao… was ruined.

Realizing this, Su Ruoyun felt her world collapse, while Lu Wenzhao seethed with hatred, wishing he could tear Shen Qingwan apart.

Meanwhile, Shen Qingwan carried Xiao Chen toward the direction he had indicated.

Xiao Chen, his voice pitiful, continued, “That bad woman didn’t give Grandpa and Grandma any food. I wanted to bring them some, but she wouldn’t let me. She even hit me.”

Shen Qingwan’s anger burned hotter.

Reaching a secluded courtyard, she entered with Xiao Chen in her arms.

“Mother, Grandpa is inside,” Xiao Chen said clearly, pointing toward a locked room.

The house was eerily silent, as if no one was inside.

Shen Qingwan strode forward and, after confirming with Xiao Chen that Lu Wenzhao’s parents were inside, she kicked the locked door open.

The force of her fury was so strong that if the door had been made of iron, she still would have left a dent in it.

“Grandma!”

The moment the door burst open, a putrid stench hit her in the face.

Ignoring the smell, Shen Qingwan saw an elderly woman collapsed on the floor.

Xiao Chen screamed in fright upon seeing his grandmother on the ground.

Shen Qingwan quickly set him down and rushed to check on the woman.

“Mother!”

She hurriedly lifted the frail old woman, relieved to find that she was still warm—just unconscious.

“Mother, why is Grandpa sleeping with his eyes open?”

Just as Shen Qingwan was about to move the elderly woman to a couch, Xiao Chen’s innocent voice rang beside her.

She turned her head—only to see Lu Wenzhao’s father lying on the bed, his face deathly pale, his eyes wide open, staring toward where his wife had collapsed.

One of his hands hung limply off the bed’s edge.

From just one look, Shen Qingwan could tell—he was dead.

Only a dead person’s face would look so rigid and ashen.

And from the way he was staring, it was clear—he had been watching his wife collapse, unable to move due to his own weakness, until he… took his last breath.

The winters in the capital weren’t freezing to death, but they were still bitterly cold. Lu Wenzhao’s mother had clearly been lying on the ground for a long time, dressed in thin, worn-out clothes.

The fabric, though once of fine quality, was now filthy and tattered.

Shen Qingwan had no time to care about the dead Lu Wenzhao Sr.

“Xiao Chen, don’t go near your grandfather,” she warned before pressing on the elderly woman’s philtrum (the space above the lip).

A long moment later, the old woman finally stirred.

“Daughter-in-law?”

Lu Wenzhao’s mother looked at Shen Qingwan in disbelief before her eyes turned red with emotion. “It’s really you? Oh, thank heavens!”

Tears streamed down her face. Her voice was weak, barely above a whisper.

Her lips were so dry that they had cracked and peeled.

Shen Qingwan quickly took out a water pouch and brought it to her lips.

“Mother, have some water first.”

Lu Wenzhao’s mother gulped it down, drinking hastily. She drank so quickly that she choked, coughing violently.

When she finally regained her breath, she urgently pointed to the bed.

“Hurry—give some to your father-in-law. He’s barely holding on!”

Shen Qingwan turned her head toward the motionless man on the bed.

Her heart sank.

It was too late.