Chapter 1
Edward Quan ·
The day the Duke of Jingguo’s residence brought my betrothal gifts, the real daughter of the Marquis of Yongning—switched at birth years ago—also returned to our household. Double congratulations, all at once.
I had risen early and dressed carefully to welcome her.
The moment I entered, I saw an unfamiliar young woman in coarse clothes sitting upright in the seat of honor. Beside her, she had casually placed my dowry inventory and marriage contract.
“Little Sister, have you come to see the betrothal gifts the Duke of Jingguo sent me?”
I walked straight up to her and took the dowry inventory and marriage contract out of her hands.
The girl in coarse clothes trembled all over, her tears falling faster.
“I never meant to fight Little Sister for anything. It’s just that this marriage bestowed by the Duke of Jingguo is Father and Mother’s way of making up for the years I spent wandering outside.”
“If you truly want to marry into that household, I can let you enter as an honored concubine!”
“Rest assured. We are sisters, after all. I won’t mistreat you.”
Everyone in the hall wore a different expression.
The steward from the Duke of Jingguo’s residence was holding the marriage contract, his hands stiff with shock.
I held the dowry inventory and was speechless for a long moment.
There was no doubt she was the real daughter.
But she was the daughter of my eldest brother, the heir of the Marquis of Yongning.
And I was the Marquis’s wife’s own legitimate youngest daughter.
This betrothal had always been mine.
1
I looked at her for a while, then asked, “What’s your name?”
She froze slightly, apparently not expecting me to neither cry nor make a scene, and to calmly ask her that instead.
An elderly woman in gray beside her immediately stepped forward and took her arm.
“Our young lady’s given name is Su Wanning.”
“The silver lock Madam put on her when she was a baby is still there. So are her swaddling clothes. Even the cinnabar birthmark behind her shoulder matches.”
“She isn’t some nobody who came from outside to impersonate our young lady and grab a fortune.”
After saying this, the old woman shot me a cold glance.
“Some people have already taken our young lady’s parents for sixteen years, and now they even want to seize her marriage.”
Auntie Du, who stood behind me, darkened at once.
“How dare you! Do you know whom you’re speaking to?”
Su Wanning hurriedly tugged at the old woman’s sleeve.
“Wet Nurse Qian, please don’t.”
Then she turned toward me, tears shining in her eyes.
“Little Sister didn’t do it on purpose.”
“She occupied my place for sixteen years. It’s only natural that she can’t let go all at once.”
“But once Father and Mother know their real daughter has returned, they surely won’t let an outsider marry into the Duke’s household in my place.”
I gave a soft laugh.
“Do you know who the Duke of Jingguo’s marriage decree was granted to?”
Su Wanning was stunned.
Wet Nurse Qian’s expression stiffened, then she raised her voice at once.
“Of course it was granted to our young lady!”
“She suffered for sixteen years. Now that she has finally found her way home, this marriage should naturally go to the real daughter of the Ji family.”
I lowered my eyes to the marriage contract.
It was written clearly and plainly:
Ji Peiyao, the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Yongning.
If this young woman really was my eldest brother’s daughter, then she should be calling me her paternal aunt.
I folded the contract.
“The Duke of Jingguo’s betrothal gifts are still waiting outside. We can talk about the rest later.”
Su Wanning’s face paled slightly. Tears clung to her lashes.
“Little Sister, are you refusing to yield?”
I looked at her.
“Yield what?”
“Your parents? Your identity? Or my betrothal?”
She clutched her handkerchief, a hint of hurt in her eyes.
“Why do you have to say such cruel things?”
“I’m only taking back what has always belonged to me.”
I pressed my palm down on the contract and enunciated each word.
“Su Wanning, if you truly are my eldest brother’s daughter…”
“Then you should call me Paternal Aunt.”
2
Su Wanning froze for a moment.
Then her tears fell even harder.
“Paternal Aunt?”
She shook her head slightly, as though I had said something absurd.
“Little Sister, I know you’re unhappy about being an adopted daughter with no status or recognition, but you shouldn’t try to deceive me with something like that.”
Wet Nurse Qian immediately stepped in front of her and pointed at me, scolding, “What a sharp tongue!”
“First you stole her identity, then you stole her marriage. Now you even want to take advantage of your seniority?”
Auntie Du trembled with anger.
“My young lady is the Marquis’s legitimate daughter. The heir is her own elder brother. Did no one teach you any manners before you entered this residence?”
Wet Nurse Qian sneered.
“Her own elder brother?”
“Who in this household doesn’t know that the young lady awaiting marriage is the one the Ji family has cherished and raised all these years?”
“Now our young lady has returned with the proof of her birth, and you claim this one isn’t a fake daughter but her paternal aunt?”
“What’s next? Will the marquis’s household make up a family tree on the spot just to avoid acknowledging our young lady?”
The faces of several servants in the hall changed.
I swept my gaze across them.
Not one dared to raise their head.
Su Wanning tugged gently at Wet Nurse Qian’s sleeve.
“Wet Nurse, please stop.”
“Little Sister Mingyi probably only acted this way because she’s afraid things will be awkward now that I’ve come home.”
Ji Mingyi was the girl my eldest brother, Ji Huaiyue, had raised under his roof—the “false heiress” they were talking about.
A few days ago, the Su family sent a letter saying the daughter they had raised was actually the child switched at birth all those years ago. Only then did our household quietly reopen the investigation into the old case.
But before the truth was established, Su Wanning had already barged in.
She bit her lip, her eyes rimmed in red.
“Little Sister, I know you’re unwilling to accept this.”
“But you had our parents’ wealth and comfort for sixteen years. Do you still want me to come home and bow to you as a junior?”
Her words made me laugh.
“Those comforts came from my own parents raising me. When did they become yours?”
Wet Nurse Qian stood beside her, indignant, and pursed her lips.
“Shameless! You occupied the magpie’s nest for sixteen years, and still dare to say they raised you?”
Auntie Du could no longer hold back.
“Slap her!”
Wet Nurse Qian shrank back, but still stiffened her neck to argue.
“What? Did I strike a nerve? Now you want to silence me by force?”
“Everyone, come and see! The real young lady has just returned, and she can’t even get a fair hearing!”
The servants who had been carrying in the betrothal gifts outside craned their necks to look inside when they heard her shouting.
Su Wanning’s face went pale, as if Wet Nurse Qian’s outburst had frightened her. But she did nothing to stop it.
I saw it all, and my heart turned colder.
The two of them were playing good cop and bad cop.
One cried that she didn’t want to fight for anything; the other slung mud at me with every sentence.
I handed the marriage contract to Auntie Du.
“Put it away carefully.”
Su Wanning’s eyes immediately followed it.
Wet Nurse Qian grew even more anxious.
“That is our young lady’s marriage contract! What gives you the right to take it?”
As she spoke, she reached out to snatch it.
Auntie Du blocked her.
Wet Nurse Qian took the opportunity to drop to the floor, slap her thighs, and wail.
“This is outrageous!”
“The false daughter raised by the marquis’s household bullies the real daughter, and now she lets her servants steal the marriage contract!”
Su Wanning hurried to crouch and help her up, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Wet Nurse, please stop making a scene.”
“If Little Sister insists on this marriage, I’ll yield it to her.”
“I’ve already suffered for sixteen years outside the household. A little more hardship won’t matter.”
She made it sound so generous.
But once those words spread, it would become a story about me forcing the real young lady to give up her marriage.
I stepped in front of her.
“Su Wanning.”
She looked up at me with tear-filled eyes.
I said, “If you truly want to return to your family, wait until Mother comes home.”
“If all you want is the Duke of Jingguo’s marriage…”
“Then I can tell you right now.”
“You have no chance of getting it.”
The color drained from her face.
Wet Nurse Qian suddenly sprang to her feet and swung a hand toward my face.
“You impostor! How dare you threaten our young lady?”
3
Wet Nurse Qian’s slap came fast and vicious.
Auntie Du shoved her away.
“You old hag, how dare you!”
Wet Nurse Qian staggered back two steps and caught herself against the corner of a table. Then, as if she had just found undeniable proof of some terrible crime, she began shrieking.
“She hit me!”
“The false young lady is relying on the marquis’s household to bully the real young lady and beat her to death!”
Su Wanning immediately rushed over to help her.
“Wet Nurse Qian, are you all right?”
As she spoke, she looked up at me, disappointment filling her eyes.
“Little Sister, if you hate me, just take it out on me.”
“Wet Nurse only lost her temper because she was worried about me. Why did you have to humiliate her like that?”
I laughed in sheer exasperation.
“She tried to snatch my marriage contract and claw at me. Somehow that means I humiliated her?”
Tears rolled down Su Wanning’s cheeks.
“That marriage contract should have been set aside until the investigation was complete.”
“You rushed to put it away. Isn’t that because you’re afraid the Duke of Jingguo’s household will learn the truth?”
Wet Nurse Qian joined in.
“That’s right!”
“The betrothal gifts haven’t even come through the door yet. It’s not too late to sort things out.”
“As soon as the Duke’s household learns who the marquis’s true bloodline is, they certainly won’t mistake the bride!”
After saying that, she actually tried to rush outside.
“This old servant will summon the Duke’s people in to settle this!”
Auntie Du blocked the doorway.
“Without my young lady’s permission, no one is allowed to go outside and spread lies.”
Wet Nurse Qian raised a hand to shove her.
Su Wanning didn’t stop her.
She only stood behind them, wiping away her tears with a handkerchief.
I was about to speak when a loud announcement suddenly rang out from beyond the hall.
“The Duke of Jingguo’s betrothal gifts have arrived—!”
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
But Su Wanning’s eyes lit up.
It was as though she had finally been waiting for someone who could take her side.
She quickly wiped away her tears, straightened her coarse clothes, slipped past Auntie Du, and hurried to the entrance ahead of me.
Wet Nurse Qian followed right behind her, her back straightening too.
The Duke of Jingguo’s household had sent Steward Xu An.
He had served at the Duke’s residence for thirty years and was extremely particular about etiquette.
Today he had brought a team of young servants carrying the betrothal gifts into our household. Red silk covered the carrying poles, and the inventory was enclosed in a brocade box. It was an impressive display.
Xu An had been smiling broadly.
But as soon as he entered the main hall, he saw Su Wanning standing in front with red-rimmed eyes.
His smile froze.
Su Wanning gave him a graceful curtsy.
“Steward Xu, you’ve arrived at just the right time.”
“I am the true daughter of the Marquis of Yongning.”
“Please pause the betrothal procession for a moment. Don’t mistake the bride.”
Xu An’s hand, holding the brocade box with the gift inventory, stopped.
He looked at Su Wanning, then instinctively turned toward me.
Seeing him hesitate, Su Wanning thought she had struck the crucial point and hurried one step forward.
She was dressed elegantly today, with only a silver hairpin in her hair.
It made her look all the more fragile and pitiful.
“Steward Xu, I know this has come as a shock. The Duke of Jingguo’s household must be in an awkward position.”
“But marriage is a matter of propriety and legitimacy.”