Chapter 6
Edward Quan ·
An attendant stepped forward and wrenched Wet Nurse Qian’s arms behind her back.
Wet Nurse Qian still tried to scream.
“This old servant only spoke up for the real young lady! The marquis’s household is trying to kill me to silence me—!”
A handkerchief was shoved straight into her mouth.
At last, it was quiet.
Su Wanning shuddered all over. Perhaps she finally understood that tears didn’t always work.
She crawled two steps forward on her knees.
“My lord, I truly know nothing.”
“They only told me I was of the marquis’s blood. They said if I didn’t come, Elder Sister Mingyi would live out the rest of her life under my identity.”
“I was afraid.”
She looked up at Ji Huaiyue, tears streaming down her face.
“I suffered for sixteen years in the Su household. When someone finally told me I should have been the marquis’s daughter, how could I not believe them?”
I spoke.
She froze.
I walked toward her one step at a time.
“Then who exactly urged you to come?”
Su Wanning’s face turned deathly white.
Ji Huaiyue’s gaze was ice-cold.
“Who told you?”
She clutched her handkerchief tightly and refused to answer.
At that moment, Auntie Du helped my mother into the hall.
Mother was elderly, her hair half white. She usually hated noisy places most of all.
Yet today, supported by Auntie Du, she walked in one steady step at a time.
Steward Liu followed behind her, carrying a sandalwood box.
Mother first looked at Ji Mingyi.
Mingyi’s eyes reddened at once.
“Grandmother.”
Mother gave a soft “Mm” and drew her close.
“Don’t be afraid.”
Just those two words made Ji Mingyi burst into tears.
When Mother looked toward Su Wanning, her gaze turned cold.
“You say you are of the Ji family’s blood.”
“Very well.”
She raised her hand.
Steward Liu opened the wooden box and took out an appendix to the family genealogy and a yellowed document.
Mother handed the document to Ji Huaiyue.
“Sixteen years ago, Shen gave birth to a boy. The genealogy records it. The midwife, the female physician, and the clan relatives all left their fingerprints as witnesses.”
“In the winter of that same year, Lu Cheng’an, a border deputy general, and his wife were killed in battle. Huaiyue brought their orphaned daughter home and entered her into the Ji family genealogy as his adopted daughter.”
“The heir’s branch has no daughter who was lost outside the household.”
“Ji Mingyi never occupied anyone’s place.”
Ji Mingyi covered her mouth, sobbing soundlessly.
Su Wanning’s legs went limp, and she sank to the floor in a daze.
Granny Zhou had been trembling so badly she could barely stand. Suddenly, she began knocking her head against the ground.
“Please spare me, Old Madam! My lord, spare me!”
“It was Liu Cheng! Liu Cheng used to work at the Northern Frontier grain depot. He urged us to come!”
“He said the marquis’s household had once registered an extra baby. People outside also said Miss Mingyi was the heir’s daughter. If we insisted she’d been switched at birth, the marquis’s household would accept us for the sake of its reputation.”
Ji Huaiyue asked coldly, “Did Su Wanning know?”
Granny Zhou shrank her neck and instinctively glanced at Su Wanning.
Su Wanning snapped, “She’s lying!”
Granny Zhou was so frightened she began to cry.
“Miss, you can’t put all the blame on this old woman!”
“Liu Cheng told you about the people in the marquis’s household and taught you to call Miss Peiyao ‘Little Sister’ as soon as you met her.”
“He said there would be many people at the betrothal procession, including the Duke of Jingguo’s household. The marquis’s household wouldn’t dare turn against you in public.”
“If you cried pitifully enough and ruined the marriage, you would have room to maneuver afterward.”
By now, Su Wanning had even forgotten to cry.
At last, I understood why she had arrived at exactly that moment.
Ji Huaiyue ordered his attendants, “Go arrest Liu Cheng.”
“Take Qian and Zhou to the magistrate’s office as well.”
The attendants accepted the order.
Su Wanning sprang to her feet and tried to grab Ji Huaiyue’s robe.
“My lord!”
“I wasn’t the mastermind. They deceived me, too!”
“I only wanted a good life. What did I do wrong?”
Ji Huaiyue stepped back, avoiding her hand.
“There is nothing wrong with wanting a good life.”
“But trampling on someone else’s good name and taking her marriage—that is wrong.”
Su Wanning turned to me again.
“Paternal Aunt, please.”
At last, she properly addressed me by that title.
“You’re about to marry into the Duke of Jingguo’s household. You have everything.”
“If I’m taken to the magistrate’s office, my whole life will be ruined.”
I looked at her. My heart did not stir in the slightest.
“When you came through our door, you were trying to ruin my marriage.”
“When you pressured Mingyi to leave, did you ask what would become of the rest of her life?”
The last trace of color drained from Su Wanning’s face.
Mother closed her eyes, as if exhausted.
“Today is Peiyao’s happy betrothal day. Don’t let these people sully the household.”
She turned away, her voice sinking.
“Take them out.”
9
As Su Wanning was dragged outside, she was still crying.
She cried about her miserable fate, the marquis’s household’s heartlessness, and how Mingyi and I refused to accept her.
But this time, no one spoke up for her.
Wet Nurse Qian and Granny Zhou were gagged and escorted out through the residence gates.
Ji Huaiyue sent his attendants to arrest Liu Cheng.