Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I am the Third Miss of Ningguo Mansion in the capital. Having studied the four arts of the zither, Go, calligraphy, and painting since childhood, I relied on my family’s prestigious background to earn the title of the “Talented Woman of the Capital.”

Because I was the youngest daughter, my elders doted on me especially. I thought my life would continue this way forever, but I never expected that everything would change just two months before my fifteenth birthday and my hair-pinning ceremony.

It turned out that I was not of the Ningguo Mansion bloodline. I was actually a daughter of a peasant family, swapped in secret years ago due to the jealousy of a concubine. Not to mention how shocked my parents were, even I found it impossible to accept. How could it be? How could I possibly be a peasant girl?

But thinking back carefully, it did make some sense. After all, I had never looked much like my parents since I was small; it was just that no one had ever imagined it was a matter of bloodline.

My parents immediately sent people to find their biological daughter. They also sat me down to explain the gravity of the situation. It boiled down to two things: they would do everything in their power to find that child, and they hoped I would give up my position as the Third Miss.

What could I say?

Naturally, I nodded. “Ah Rou, Mother knows this is unfair to you. Mother has wronged you.”

How could I be the one wronged? Everything I had enjoyed for the past fifteen years never belonged to me in the first place. If I hadn’t been a young miss of the mansion, I don’t know what my life would be like now. Ruhua, the maid who has always served me, once told me she was sold because her family had too many children and couldn’t afford to feed her.

Thinking of it that way, I have already been very fortunate.

As long as I behave, the affection built over these years should at least ensure I have a decent life ahead of me.

So, I wasn’t wronged.

Yet, after returning to my room, I still hid under my covers and had a secret cry. Why did this have to happen to me? The thought that soon, the rightful Third Miss would naturally take possession of everything I currently had made me miserable.

Such a wonderful mother, such a wonderful father, as well as my brother, sister, and grandmother… they would no longer be mine.

But then again, they were never mine to begin with.

I didn’t sleep well the entire night.

I was afraid-afraid that the girl would resent me. Even though this wasn’t my doing, I was undeniably the beneficiary. How could I not feel guilty?

The days drifted by slowly. Trying to find an unnamed girl was difficult, no different from searching for a needle in a haystack, but despite this, no one in the family gave up. A courtyard had already been selected for her; it was in the best location with beautiful scenery. Back when it was still being built, Mother said it was for me, as my two older cousins had already married and I was the only unmarried girl left in the household.

But now, it wasn’t for me anymore.

Mother said she knew this was unfair to me, but the moment she thought of her daughter wandering out there, she couldn’t wait to give her the very best.

“I understand, Mother.”

“Ah Rou, you are also Mother’s daughter,” she said. I believed her words; after all, the feelings of all these years were never fake.

Even after my true parentage was revealed, aside from the effort they put into finding her, my family treated me the same as before. It was just that I could no longer compare to her. After all, she had none of the things I had possessed for these fifteen years.

Actually, I hoped they would find her soon. That way, everyone’s hearts might find some peace.