"But you said there's no young master in the Gong family. Why was A-Xiu's body put in the secret passage?" Xue Lian asked, confused.

  "I really miss her..." A soft, almost tender expression crossed 'Xiao Dun'er's face. "She was quite beautiful, especially her eyes..." He suddenly turned to Xue Lian. "Her eyes were just as beautiful as yours."

  "You... you′re the man Xue Lian liked. Shen Ma said you were the young master of the Gong family, but you said there's no young master..." Xue Lian stammered in disbelief.

  "The Gong family has no heirs. That old man never had a son. He was indeed the young master of the Gong family, but only because that old man adopted him as his godson!" Old Madam Gong, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke.

  "I didn't lie to you. The Gong family really doesn't have a young master—only a young dy, haha!" 'Xiao Dun'er leaned in close to Xue Lian, a twisted smile on his face.

  Xue Lian felt the blood in her veins boil with rage. "The ghost I saw in the 'tomb room'—it was you pretending to be her, wasn't it? I knocked you out, and you knew it! Maybe you weren't even unconscious at all. And all that nonsense about the five embroidered shoes... you were just lying to me! They must have all died right here in this room!"

  "That's right. We had Shen Ma help us find 'Xue Lian,' and then we pnned for her to marry into the family. You were too young when you left, and I think Shen Ma couldn't remember everything clearly. So we had to wait for each 'Xue Lian' to come through the door and see if they seemed familiar with this pce," 'Xiao Dun'er said.

  "Did Shen Ma not know any of this?" Xue Lian asked, her voice trembling.

  "She knew that all five Xue Lians had died, and she also realized that all the Gong family members were gone. We were afraid she would figure out that we were the ones who killed them. That's why we started with the ghost tricks—to make her think it was A-Xiu's spirit killing everyone, Xiao Dun'er expined.

  "So, when I came to the Gong family, you used the same method to deal with me, trying to make me think there were ghosts, to make Shen Ma believe it even more," Xue Lian said, her voice steady with realization.

  "However, you're much more troublesome than the previous five. You know too much, so I had to lead you into the secret passage and create another story to test you," 'Xiao Dun'er replied.

  "You were disappointed. At that time, I still hadn′t regained my memories from childhood, so you already assumed I wasn′t part of the Gong family," Xue Lian said, her eyes narrowing as she pieced it all together.

  "I wasn't sure at first. You're smarter than the first five Xue Lians. You found the secret passage and uncovered the secrets in the well. Even though you didn't remember anything when I told you so much in the secret passage, your intelligence is just like your father's. You managed to find the Gong family's hidden pce so quickly. If you weren′t a member of the Gong family, how could you have discovered it so fast? That's why we still believed you might be Xue Lian. We needed to test you again in the ancestral hall, and sure enough, you are the Xue Lian we've been looking for," 'Xiao Dun'er said.

  "What exactly do you want to know? Why is that one sentence my father told me so important?" Xue Lian asked weakly, her voice filled with exhaustion and confusion.

  "That old fool! He married a third wife just to get a son, but who knew that he wasn't destined for one? Only that damn girl from the third wife gave birth to a daughter, whom he doted on like a jewel. He even stopped paying attention to his own godson." Old Madam Gong gritted her teeth as she spoke, filled with bitterness. "But he knew his time was short, and he was aware that there were people in the Gong family eyeing his wealth. You were too young at the time to inherit the Gong family's fortune, so that old fool hid it all in one pce and only told you where it was."

  "So, you've been going to such lengths to find Xue Lian just for the Gong family's fortune. But how did you know that my father had told me where the wealth was hidden?" Xue Lian asked, her voice filled with realization.

  "I just happened to pass by here, and I accidentally saw it. Unfortunately, that old fool was speaking so quietly that I couldn't hear a word!" Old Madam Gong's voice suddenly became much younger.

  "You... you're not Old Madam Gong!" Xue Lian suddenly thought of something, her mind racing. How could an elderly woman have such a young voice?

  "Haha..." Madam Gong ughed, her voice now sounding seductive. "You really are just like your father, such a clever person!" As she finished speaking, the wall behind the tablet shifted to the right, and a person stepped out. She was of medium height, with a well-proportioned figure and a beautiful, seductive face. She looked to be around thirty years old.

  "You... who are you?" Xue Lian felt like she recognized the person but couldn't pce her at that moment.

  "Come on, dear, aren't you going to greet your second mother?" The woman ughed enticingly.

  It suddenly clicked for Xue Lian—she was the second concubine. Xue Lian shook her head in resignation. "So, the old dy has been dead for a long time, hasn't she? Maybe her body is still in that well."

  "Those two old fools, we sent them to the underworld to 'help' them along," 'Xiao Dun'er said, moving toward the second concubine and wrapping his arms around her.

  "You two..." Xue Lian wasn't surprised by the affair between the concubine and the godson—such things were common in the rge estate. Instead, she felt a wave of disgust.

  "Those two old fools, they made me their godson, but always treated me like an outsider. They should have died long ago!" 'Xiao Dun'er sneered with malice.

  "I've always treated you well," the second concubine said seductively, gazing at him. The two of them began flirting right in front of Xue Lian.

  Disgusting, disgusting, Xue Lian thought. How could the old man have married such a woman as his second concubine and adopted someone like this as his godson? The Gong family's misfortune.

  She had figured out the truth. It was often simple when id bare, but what came next? Death! Xue Lian knew that no matter what she said or did, she was going to die.