Chapter 2
I lay facedown on my bed, sobbing so hard I could barely breathe.
Mother came straight to my courtyard after returning from the mountain temple, where she had gone to pray for blessings.
She sat beside me, gently patting my back.
“Who made our Yunqian so upset? Tell Mother, and I’ll set them straight for you.”
I choked on my sobs, unable to form a complete sentence. Mother tenderly wiped the tears from my cheeks with a silk handkerchief.
Then my brother’s voice sounded outside.
“Song Yunqian, I brought back your favorite pastries from the riding grounds…”
He had not even finished speaking when he saw Mother emerge from my room. She frowned at him.
“Did you steal your sister’s things again?”
Realizing something was wrong, my brother hurriedly set the pastries on the ground and fled the courtyard.
As he ran, he called back, “I didn’t take anything! That happened years ago!”
Mother snorted. “If you did nothing wrong, why are you running?”
I wiped my tears and called Mother back into the room.
“It’s not Brother’s fault. Mother, I… I don’t want to marry into the Yongning Marquis Estate anymore…”
Concern filled her face.
“Why not? I made inquiries about Xie Ze. He is handsome, honorable, and one of the finest young men you could hope to find.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to marry at all. I want to enter Miaoyin Nunnery and spend every day chanting sutras for you and Brother. All I want is for you to live in peace.”
“What has gotten into you? Why would you suddenly want to become a nun?” Mother’s gaze shifted to Xiaohong, who stood nearby looking evasive. “You follow your young mistress everywhere. Do you know what happened to her?”
Xiaohong turned pale and dropped to her knees.
“My lady learned the truth of her birth, so…”
I immediately knelt before Mother as well and forced each word from my lips.
“A young woman came to our gates today and claimed she was your real daughter. She said she was the daughter of Father’s mistress and that, for some unknown reason, the two of us were switched at birth…
“Father and Madam Liu must both know. They did it deliberately to deceive and hurt you.
“Mother, I will enter the nunnery. I won’t keep occupying the place of the Song family’s eldest legitimate daughter, and I will never join them in wronging you…”
Mother stared at my reddened eyes for a long moment.
“That’s all?” Instead of growing angry at the truth, she gave a small laugh. “Then I didn’t waste all these years loving you.”
At her unruffled expression, I sniffled.
“Aren’t you upset to learn I’m not your real daughter?”
Mother brushed the tears from the corner of my eye and smiled.
“Silly girl. After they took you away, I switched you straight back.
“You may not resemble me the way your brother does, but I know you are my daughter.
“It’s fortunate you don’t look like me. Otherwise, finding you a good husband would have been difficult.”
I stared at her.
She switched us back?
Nothing had changed. I was still Mother’s own daughter…
When I remained speechless, Mother rose and pulled a copper hairpin from Xiaohong’s hair.
She took my hand, and I flinched.
“There’s no need for a blood test. Whatever you say, Mother, I believe you.”
Mother smiled and pressed the head of the copper pin against the back of my hand. A moment later, she clasped the hairpin tightly in her own palm.
A red rash soon appeared on my skin.
She opened her hand. The same rash had risen across her palm.
“Anything except gold or silver jewelry gives me a rash. People in my village used to laugh that a lotus-root digger like me had such a delicate affliction.
“You were raised in comfort and wore only gold and silver, so we never discovered that you inherited it from me.
“Liu Yuyao could not enter the Song household back then. She persuaded your father to switch you with her daughter so that her child could take your place as the legitimate daughter of the family. Your father was truly heartless. To please her, he was willing to ruin your entire life.”
After Father passed the imperial examinations, Mother followed him from the countryside to the capital, where even the dust seemed touched by nobility.
Everyone said she was a country woman who could survive only by depending on him.
But that day, for the first time, I saw hatred in her eyes.