Phoebe Huxley had already accepted the medicine. She truly wanted to give Tang Xiaonan another little brother. Even though she was already forty, she’d always been in excellent health, so having another child would be no problem at all. She had a distant cousin who gave birth to a son at forty-six—she even went through postpartum confinement at the same time as her daughter-in-law!

She was six years younger than her cousin and in even better shape. Having two more wouldn’t even be a problem.

But when they heard Tang Xiaonan talk about a little brother with a long tail, everyone froze. A long tail?

"Lana ate this, and the little brother grew a tail... Frederick cried."

Tang Xiaonan grew anxious, and her stutter came back. She didn’t dare speak too clearly, so she could only offer a few vague keywords. ’The rest is up to the adults to figure out,’ she thought.

"Tang Xiaonan, in your dream, you saw Lana give birth to a baby boy with a long tail, is that right?" Frederick Thorne’s face was twisted with such desperation that it looked almost menacing. Tang Xiaonan got scared and instinctively shrank into Phoebe Huxley’s arms.

"Don’t scare her," Lana Steiner reminded him gently. She was just as anxious, her earlier joy instantly vanishing. ’It would be better to not have a child at all than to have one with a long tail.’

Frederick Thorne reigned in his emotions a bit, but he was too frantic to completely hide his distress. Tang Xiaonan understood how he felt, so she nodded forcefully, pointed at the packet of medicine still in Phoebe Huxley’s hand, and declared, "You can’t eat this."

"Is there something wrong with the medicine, Tang Xiaonan?"

"Can’t eat it. It’s bad medicine."

Tang Xiaonan’s tone grew heavier, her little face grave. ’Something terrible will happen if they take it. The other medicines just caused stomach problems at worst, but this one will harm the fetus. It would be a total disaster to take this.’ 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"But Linden’s mother said plenty of people in her village took it and gave birth to healthy baby boys," Raina muttered under her breath. She had spent ten yuan to get it, after all.

"You actually believe the crap that old hag spouts? Stay away from her from now on!" Byron Thorne chided in a stern voice.

Raina didn’t dare say another word, but inwardly she was already cursing Linden’s mother. ’That old bitch must have conspired with Mystic Liu to scam me. I have to get that ten yuan back!’

Phoebe Huxley was so frightened she flung the medicine packet away. She would never dare take poison, and she certainly didn’t want to give birth to a monkey. ’My mother-in-law is so damn unreliable! That bitch Phoenix Golding and her whole family are rotten to the core. She must be doing this on purpose to harm me.’

Phoebe Huxley, who rarely put much thought into things, found her mind working at lightning speed whenever it involved Phoenix Golding. Her thoughts grew deep and complex. In no time, the conspiratorially-minded Phoebe Huxley had cooked up a perfect, premeditated plot.

"That old bitch is definitely doing this on purpose! She knew this medicine was poison, so she deliberately told you about it, Mom, so that my sister-in-law and I would take it, give birth to monsters, and bring disaster upon the Thorne family."

Tang Xiaonan’s heart skipped a beat. ’Holy crap, Mom’s mind is really something else. She actually pieced it all together. That’s exactly what I was thinking! This must be that mother-daughter telepathy.’

"What nonsense are you talking about? We’re all from the same village. Why would anyone do something like that?" Felix Thorne chided, thinking Phoebe Huxley was just babbling nonsense.

The people of Millstone Peak could be rough, but they were also simple and honest folk. They were all neighbors who had lived side by side for decades. They might bicker and get into minor squabbles, but nothing life-threatening had ever occurred. Something as insidious as harming a child was unthinkable; it was just too depraved for anyone to even consider.

"Why wouldn’t it be? Wasn’t it that bitch Phoenix Golding who hurt Tang Xiaonan’s hand? Her whole family is scum, so why wouldn’t they do this? You just can’t stand to hear me say a bad word about your old flame, can you!" Phoebe Huxley sneered.

Felix Thorne’s face darkened, a flush of shame and anger rising in him. Just as they were about to start arguing, Frederick Thorne suddenly spoke up. "I think my sister-in-law has a point."