Your grand uncle—from Qianqian’s bloodline, he was commonly addressed as Ah Héng (横) by your grandfather and great-grandfather.

He was also the father of Hongchen, and another child, who we referred to as Xiao Sēn (森).

The wife of your grand uncle was a woman named Wǎn’er (婉儿).

The marriage life of your grand uncle cannot be considered pleasant—at least, from an outsider’s perspective.

Wan’er was very obsessed with alchemy; but her interest in it didn’t lie with concocting medicinal pills. It was the opposite; she was interested in concocting poison.

Due to Wan’er having a background in alchemy, she got along well with Yu’er—more so than her actual mother-in-law, Qianqian.

With Yu’er’s support, Wan’er was given plenty of resources to concoct poison. This was what resulted in Ah Heng’s tragedy.

Regardless of medicinal pills or poison, the creator of these medications must have someone to test them out on.

Since they were husband and wife, Wan’er figured that she may as well use her husband as her experimental subject.

This resulted in Ah Heng being fed poison on a regular basis; and over time, it caused him to develop a physique, which made him completely immune to them.

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Just as Ah Heng had thought that his days of suffering were over due to his attainment of this physique, Wan’er had said—

“If I could concoct a poison that could kill my dear husband, wouldn’t I have created the greatest poison in this world?”

“My wife, you…?”

“My dearest, for the sake of my ambition, cooperate with me for a while longer.”

The marriage between Ah Heng and Wan’er—to most of our clansmen, we could only see it as a tragedy.

………

“Can this really be considered…-?”

Having a difficult time forming a phrase to describe Ah Heng and Wan’er’s marriage, the 11-year-old child turns silent, whereas his father says—

“The fact that Ah Heng was willing to keep this marriage until the very end—perhaps, this is just another form of true love? Being able to die in one another’s arms with a smile on their faces—regardless of how their relationship may have appeared to others, I do not believe we have any rights to judge them at that point.”

“…”

As the father raises his right hand, and presses it to his chin, the child sees—that the scale-like patterns on the former’s hand have advanced, to cover half of their index finger.

Smiling faintly, the father adds—

“The poison pills that Wan’er had concocted weren’t your stereotypical poison. Some of them had beneficial effects—such as raising the strength of one’s cultivation base for a set amount of time, or to aid with cultivation itself. However… As they were poison pills, the price for using them… It wasn’t very pleasant, so only the extremely desperate would dare to use them.”

“…I see.”

Recalling something, the father remarks—

“I seem to recall a rumor being circulated around by our clansmen back then—that Ah Heng and Wan’er’s relationship had started with Wan’er poisoning Ah Heng to seal the deal.”

“Uh?”

“…Some of the female members of our clan, most of them seem to have purchased a similar poison as an insurance item.”

“…?”