Old Man Qi, feeling confident his sons could carry everything out smoothly, went to bed early. Madam Wu, on the other hand, could not fall asleep no matter how hard she tried. She anxiously paced around her home, afraid that Qi Yuancheng and Qi Yuanxiu would do something wrong.

It was understandable. The old man and their eldest son mucked everything up the last time she asked them to do something — the fool had managed to bring her children home even under such difficult conditions! What if an accident happened this time around as they attempted to suffocate her to death?

Madam Wu was kept awake by her anxiety.

However, they did have two men on their side. Killing a woman with something wrong in the head and then finishing up with the three little children was surely not a high order...

Madam Wu finally heard the sounds of disheveled footsteps outside. Elated, she pulled her cotton robe tighter around herself and opened the door. Seeing her two sons, she asked happily, "Have you finished what I asked you to do?"

"Far from it! Mother, you won't believe it! Both of us fell into the fool's trap instead!" Qi Yuancheng rubbed his face, ice-cold to the touch. He looked displeased; whether it was because of the cold or his fury, one did not know.

"What do you mean, 'fell into the fool's trap'?" Madam Wu was puzzled. "Yuanxiu, tell me!"

"This happened." Qi Yuanxiu licked his lips before starting on a long-winded explanation of everything that had just happened, scratching the back of his head all the while.

Madam Wu looked calm at first, but her expression morphed into astonishment when the story ended.

"Huh?"

"Mother, everything I said was true," Qi Yuanxiu said.

Madam Wu was now thoroughly confused. "The two of you entered her room in the middle of the night, and quietly at that. And you tell me the fool was waiting for you behind the door, brandishing an ax? That's impossible."

"That's what I thought too, but the reality is really that bizarre." Qi Yuancheng pursed his lips. He thought about it again. He had been at the scene himself and still found everything extremely strange.

Madam Wu's face was somber. She sat still, completely silent.

Qi Yuanxiu said after brief consideration, "Mother, maybe what my fifth brother said was actually true."

"What did he say?" Madam Wu asked.

"Didn't he mutter something like 'Qi Qingyao's not stupid anymore'?" Qi Yuanxiu's voice gradually lowered to a whisper as he spoke.

Before he could finish, Madam Wu's cut him off, her voice rising an octave higher than usual. "That's impossible…"

Qi Yuanxiu could only offer silence in return.

That was the truth! Why did his mother refuse to believe it?

Qi Yuancheng thought about his brother's words. After a long time, he asked, "If… Mother, I'm just saying, if… if she's really not a fool anymore, what should we do?"

"If she's really no longer a fool…" Madam Wu had not considered this possibility at all, so when Qi Yuancheng brought it up, she completely froze. She sat there, silent for a long time before speaking reluctantly, "That's impossible!"

Qi Yuanxiu shrugged, defeated. "I know that's impossible too, but there's the slightest possibility that it's true. What if it is? What if she's no longer a fool anymore? What are we gonna do then?"

Once again, Madam Wu fell quiet.

This time her silence persisted for much longer, and she paced around the room as she had before her sons' return.

After a while, her eyes glinted deviously. "We do nothing!"

"What does that mean, Mother?" Qi Yuanxiu questioned.

Madam Wu regained her calmness. She sat with her hands concealed under her sleeves.

The candlelight flickered before her, alternating between fading over and spotlighting her face.

Her smile was one full of cunning and evil.

"If she's not stupid anymore, the Qi family will no longer need to take care of her."

Qi Yuancheng and Qi Yuanxiu froze.

Madam Wu said with conviction, "Think! Even though the girl hasn't gotten married yet, she's already nineteen! Most other girls are married with kids at this age!"