In her youth, Lana Steiner had a full, round face and smiling eyes. You could tell she was a lively and cheerful girl with a pleasantly plump figure, not exactly slender. But the Lana of today was skin and bones. She didn’t smile as much as she used to, and there was a delicate fragility about her that would make anyone’s heart ache.

’She must be worried about having a child. Poor Aunt Lana... sigh!’

Since she was now Tang Xiaonan, she had to stop this tragedy from happening. So—

"Auntie, hold me!"

Tang Xiaonan reached out to Lana Steiner, asking to be held. Lana smiled gently and reached out for her. Frederick Thorne, worried his niece would be too heavy for his wife’s delicate legs, chuckled and said, "Xiaonan, you’re pretty heavy. Wouldn’t it be better if Uncle Frederick held you?"

"Not heavy! I want Auntie to hold me!"

Tang Xiaonan grew fussy and tried to wriggle down on her own. Frederick Thorne couldn’t dissuade her, so he let her go to Lana. Of course, Tang Xiaonan had no intention of letting Lana bear her full weight. She stood mostly on her own feet while leaning into Lana’s embrace.

Raina was still rambling on about how incredible this Miracle Worker Liu was—how one family had a big, healthy boy, another had two children, and yet another had twins... The way she boasted, this Miracle Worker Liu sounded more potent than the Goddess of Fertility herself.

"Did Linden’s mother tell you all this, too?" Byron Thorne asked irritably.

Raina froze, her expression turning awkward. After all, it wasn’t long ago that they’d had a huge fight with Linden Golding’s family. Of course, her relationship with Linden’s mother had still been good when she’d been told all this. Now, they didn’t even acknowledge each other on the street.

"Stay away from Linden’s mother from now on," Byron Thorne said, his tone turning serious. "That family has more schemes than you have hairs on your head. Ten of you wouldn’t be a match for them."

Raina was instantly furious. She shot him a fierce glare and cursed him under her breath. ’With the children here, I’ll give this damn old man some face for now. But just wait until they’re gone. I’ll show him then!’

Tang Xiaonan’s heart sank again. ’Isn’t Linden Golding the younger brother of Phoenix Golding?’

’So that means Phoenix Golding’s mother was the one who recommended this Miracle Worker Liu to Grandma?’

Lana Steiner would lose her life because of this medicine. Driven mad by grief, Frederick Thorne would die soon after. Byron Thorne and Raina, forced to bury their own son, would be so overcome with sorrow that they would become bedridden. A few years after Byron Thorne passed away, Raina would follow. After them, it would be Felix Thorne and Phoebe Huxley. The entire family, swept away one after another, as if by a great flood.

’These few packets of medicine were the fuse that would ignite the Thorne family’s tragedy!’

’Was Phoenix Golding’s mother genuinely trying to help the Thorne family, or did she have ulterior motives?’

Tang Xiaonan refused to believe that Phoenix Golding’s mother would be so kind as to help the Thorne family have more children. That old woman, just like Phoenix herself, was not a good person. She definitely didn’t have such good intentions.

It was more likely that Phoenix Golding’s mother was deliberately trying to harm Lana. Raina had said the old woman’s maiden family was from Rosillia Village. Since Miracle Worker Liu sold her folk remedies to so many people, Lana surely wasn’t the only one to have something go wrong. It was possible others had given birth to babies with defects. There was no way some rumors wouldn’t have spread, so Phoenix Golding’s mother must have heard something.

’So, for that old woman to recommend the medicine to Raina, knowing full well there was a problem with it... that’s just too vicious.’

’But why would Phoenix Golding’s mother want to harm Lana?’

The book never mentioned any life-or-death feud between the Thorne family and the Goldings. At most, there was the old business of Phoenix Golding failing to marry into the family. But that wasn’t a huge deal. After all, Phoenix and her father, Felix Thorne, had never been formally engaged; they were just dating. It was perfectly normal for things to fall through. The biggest loss for the Golding family was merely a loss of face.

’If they’d harm someone over such a trivial matter, then the Golding family is truly terrifying.’