Chapter 1: Livid To Death
“Hong Ye, did Xiao Ge’er go to the school today? Cough cough.”
As soon as the words were spoken, Jiang Ruanxi coughed violently, raised her hand to cover her mouth with a handkerchief, and after the coughing eased a bit, she removed the handkerchief and found specks of blood on it. Jiang Ruanxi seemed accustomed to it, folded it, and set it aside.
Seeing this, Hong Ye felt full of heartache, stepped forward to gently stroke her back, frowned tightly and said, “Madam, with your current condition, you should mainly take care of your own body first. Why worry about the young master?”
“You know as well as I do that the marquis values Xiao Ge’er the most and instructed me to teach him carefully. He is at the mischievous age now, doesn’t know any better, and if he offends the tutor…”
Thinking that Hong Ye wouldn’t understand even if she explained, she waved her hand to get out of bed. “I’d better go see for myself to feel at ease.”
“Madam, your body.” Hong Ye stopped her.
She felt it was unfair for Jiang Ruanxi.
Jiang Ruanxi was this ill, but Lin Ningkun had never come to see her, yet Jiang Ruanxi didn’t seem to mind and treated Lin Ningkun’s stepson as her own.
“I’m fine.”
Hong Ye couldn’t dissuade her and could only help her up.
After dressing, there was a bit of confusion in her eyes, not knowing where to find him. Hong Ye saw her confusion and said, “Madam, when I got up this morning, I saw the young master leaving through the back door.”
Jiang Ruanxi knew Lin Xiao’s mischievous nature and assumed he had sneaked out the back door to play, so she followed the back door out of the marquis manor.
At the entrance of the marquis manor lay a beggar dressed in patched clothes, but who looked very clean.
Seeing his pitiful state, Jiang Ruanxi squatted down and gave him a few copper coins.
The beggar glanced at the copper coins on the ground, looked up at her, and couldn’t help shaking his head. “Madam originally has a noble fate, but unfortunately, someone swapped your fate…”
Hearing this, Jiang Ruanxi’s body stiffened, thinking she had misheard. “What did you just say?”
“To be honest, Madam’s features indicate a noble fate, and this fate was innate from the womb. You should have had a lifetime of deep blessings. But unfortunately, it was swapped later, causing madam to be plagued by misfortune and deceived by others. And now Madam’s features carry a baleful aura, I’m afraid approaching death is near.”
Jiang Ruanxi’s face instantly turned ghastly pale, her body swaying involuntarily, nearly falling. Hong Ye quickly supported her, calling worriedly, “Madam.”
Jiang Ruanxi waved her hand to indicate she was fine.
After confirming she was okay, Hong Ye turned to the beggar and scolded, “You beggar, spouting nonsense. Madam, don’t believe his ravings.”
“I studied under the Nameless Daoist of Nameless Valley, dedicated to the study of physiognomy. This time descending the mountain is just for training. I told Madam this only because she has a kind face, and I couldn’t bear for her to be deceived to death without knowing the truth.”
The beggar was displeased at being doubted, raised his hand pointing to the nearby alley. “If Madam doesn’t believe, why not go take a look in the alley next door and see.”
Jiang Ruanxi followed his finger to look.
That alley led to her neighbor to the west.
“Madam, don’t believe his words. Finding the young master is what’s important.”
Jiang Ruanxi’s mind was now full of the beggar’s words, and she also wanted to verify it.
Because she was originally the legitimate daughter of Rongyi Marquis Manor, but from birth, she had been taken away and raised in a merchant family, leading to her being looked down upon by her husband’s family for so many years in the Lin Family due to this identity.
Now she only wanted to know the truth.
“Mother.”
A familiar cry came, and Jiang Ruanxi’s body stiffened.
This voice was Lin Xiao’s, but he always called her mother, so who was this “mother” for?
Jiang Ruanxi’s body was trembling as she wanted to continue walking over, but her body couldn’t muster even a bit of strength.
Seeing this, Hong Ye supported her body, step by step toward that family’s house.
Through the door crack, she finally saw the scene inside but was too shocked to speak.
The layout inside was exactly the same as the courtyard of Rongyi Marquis Manor.
No, more precisely, exactly the same as Jiang Xuerou’s courtyard.
A spacious courtyard with waterfall-like flowing water in the center, the entire courtyard full of blooming plum blossoms, red and white interspersed, clearly carefully tended.
“Mother, Xiao’er misses you so much. Why doesn’t that woman die sooner, so I can see mother every day.”
The vicious words laced with disdain pierced like countless needles into Jiang Ruanxi’s heart.
“Mother’s Xiao’er be good. In the marquis manor, you must never say such things; it’s bad if people hear.”
The familiar voice filled Jiang Ruanxi’s eyes with disbelief.
This was Jiang Xuerou?
The fake eldest daughter who had replaced her since childhood as the legitimate young miss of the Jiang Family.
But hadn’t she married into Zhenguo Marquis Manor and become a widow?
Why was she here?
“Hmph, so what if they hear? I’m not afraid. That woman forces me to study every day, so annoying. To secure her position, she keeps nagging me to succeed, to make a name for myself, to support her later.”
“You ah…” Jiang Xuerou looked at Lin Xiao with heartache but deliberately kept a cold face, pointing at his forehead coquettishly.
“Alright, don’t blame our Xiao’er. That woman doesn’t deserve to be Xiao’er’s mother at all.”
A jade-like man came out from inside, already past thirty, but looking still in his early twenties. Especially when looking at Jiang Xuerou, his eyes shone brightly like stars.
That crazily infatuated look made Jiang Ruanxi’s heart ache.
If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn’t believe her cold and aloof husband could have such passionate emotions, just not toward her.
But Dingning Marquis Manor and Zhenguo Marquis Manor were in-laws; Lin Ningkun’s sister had married the old marquis of Zhenguo Marquis Manor, and Jiang Xuerou was the widow of the old marquis’s deceased son, so by seniority, she should call Lin Ningkun uncle.
Yet they had shamelessly gotten together.
Jiang Ruanxi felt disgust, a nauseating feeling.
She clutched her chest, suppressing the disgust in her heart.
“Brother-in-law is right; she doesn’t deserve it anyway.”
At this moment, from under a red plum blossom tree nearby, a man in black clothes emerged; that was her second brother Jiang Changjun.
He looked at Jiang Xuerou with full affection.
“You were originally the legitimate eldest daughter of Rongyi Marquis Manor. Jiang Ruanxi took your place, stole everything from you, making you live in darkness these past years.”
“Fortunately, brother-in-law is devoted to you, personally built this courtyard for you. Now, as long as you endure until she dies, you can see the light again.”
“Alright, today is the day our family reunites. Why mention that outsider?”
Soon, a beautiful woman came out from the inner courtyard, holding a bowl of hot soup.
“Xue’er be good, drink this bowl of medicine. Once your body recovers and that person dies, you can go out openly, and we’ll truly reunite.”
Jiang Ruanxi’s breathing quickened, her heart as if slashed by a thousand knives, because the people here included her husband, her mother, even her brother.
She had been abandoned outside at birth and adopted by a kind merchant family.
In the year of her coming-of-age ceremony, Rongyi Marquis Manor sent people to bring her back and arranged her marriage to the Lin Family.
After Lin Ningkun married her, he hurriedly went to take up an official post elsewhere, leaving her to manage the declining Lin Family.
Though confused and helpless, she relied on the dowry from her adoptive father and mother to barely hold the family together.
Five years later, Lin Ningkun returned, bringing a child, saying it was the orphan of a close friend he had to care for well, and entered him into the family register.
At that time, her whole heart was on him, and she trusted him deeply, so she never doubted the child’s background.
Even though Lin Ningkun was always unwilling to share her bed, as long as she could stay by his side like this, she was willing.
Later, because of this child, her parents and brother, whom she hadn’t contacted after marriage, began visiting the manor frequently, drawing closer to her. She only thought this child was her lucky star and put even more effort into him.
“Great-grandmother, great-grandfather, uncle, mother and father, and Xiao’er—we are the real family.”
The childish voice was crisp and clear, yet infinitely mocking.
Looking at the harmonious scene before her, with her parents, siblings, and the man she loved most—it was the scene she had dreamed of, but unfortunately, their smiles were not for her.
She bit her trembling lips, clutched her grieving chest, her eyes already bloodshot. No matter what she gave, she, Jiang Ruanxi, had always been just an outsider.
“Miss, what’s going on?” Hong Ye asked, full of doubt.
Jiang Ruanxi only felt her ears buzzing, her heart in agonizing pain as if being wrenched.
She hadn’t expected that the family she had carefully pleased had never seen her as family.
The person she loved most had never given her sincerity, only used her.
The child she had carefully raised saw her as an enemy.
Jiang Xuerou’s heart suddenly contracted, triggering a violent coughing fit, and she spat out a mouthful of blood.
She looked up, and in a daze, seemed to see the disgust in Lin Ningkun and Lin Xiao’s eyes, the indifference in her own parents’ and brother’s gazes, and the triumph in Jiang Xuerou’s eyes…
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