Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Madam Qin looked exactly like my mother.

Even their personalities were very similar.

My mother was a woman of few words.

She worked several jobs at once and raised me all by herself.

But she never once told me she was tired.

During the year I interned as a senior in college, she collapsed at work and was taken to the hospital.

I packed my things overnight and rushed back to my hometown to take care of her.

But on the high-speed train home…

I suddenly received a transfer notification from her.

“1,128.4 yuan.”

She didn’t manage to wait for me.

The rescue failed, and she passed away.

That was the moment in my life when I hated money the most.

It was also my greatest regret.

I didn’t know whether Madam Qin looking exactly like my mother was a coincidence or something the system had arranged on purpose.

All I knew was that I would not let that regret happen a second time.

After I held Madam Qin and sobbed my heart out,

her entire shoulder was soaked through with my tears.

A little embarrassed, I wiped at it, then raised my head and said firmly,

“Punish me if you want. Even if you punish me to death, I still think what I did yesterday was beautiful.”

“I don’t care about family rules or family precepts. I just want you to get a good night’s sleep.”

“This nonsense about paying respects at the Hour of the Tiger being filial piety is absolute garbage.”

“If you only sleep three or four hours every day, it’s really easy to get exhausted and die suddenly!”

“I won’t allow you to die. I just won’t.”

Madam Qin, who had just been putting on such a stern, severe front, froze.

Her mouth parted slightly as she stared at me in utter disbelief.

Probably because my emotions had shifted too quickly, she couldn’t react at all.

After some internal struggle…

she still braced herself and gently patted my back to comfort me.

“But… but these are the family rules.”

I immediately shot back, “Who made those rules?”

“Naturally, the First Patriarch of the Qin Family.”

“Then where is he now?”

“What childish nonsense. Naturally, he has passed away.”

“Exactly. Since he’s dead, then let the rotten rules he made die too.”

This time,

I was going to make sure she lived to a ripe old age.

Anything that affected her health

could all go straight to hell!

Madam Qin immediately covered my mouth.

She glanced at the ancestral tablets behind her and shook her head.

“You girl. Saying things like that in the ancestral hall-you’re far too bold.”

The corners of her mouth lifted slightly before she changed the subject.

“You must be too idle on ordinary days, which is why you keep thinking such strange thoughts.”

“Then I shall punish you by putting you in charge of the four main shops on West Street. If you manage them well, all the profits will be yours. If you don’t, don’t blame me for not letting you eat dinner.”

With that,

she leaned close to my ear and lowered her voice even further.

“You don’t need to sneak into my kitchen to drug me. Just tell Nanny Fu by my side.”

“Thank you for last night. I slept very well.”

I almost couldn’t hold back the heat rising in my eyes again.

Even Madam Qin’s voice sounded so much like Mom’s.

After she left,

Xiao Huan tugged at my sleeve in a daze.

“Miss, so as long as you call her Mom, Madam Qin will soften up and let us off?”

I wiped away my tears.

“No. It’s because she’s already a very softhearted person.”

Once I got my emotions under control,

I thought of what I had seen in the bullet comments earlier about Madam Qin and her son.

So I quietly told Xiao Huan to go ask around the manor.

After waiting for half the day,

Xiao Huan told me everything she had found out.

Madam Qin’s son, Qin Jisheng, was a famous filial son in the capital.

But the person he was filial to was not Madam Qin.

It was his wet nurse, Nanny Sun.

When Nanny Sun was young, she had been full-figured and pretty.

As soon as Qin Jisheng was born, Lord Qin invited her into the manor to take care of him.

At first, Madam Qin and she had managed to coexist peacefully.

Later, when Qin Jisheng grew a little older and no longer needed a wet nurse,

Madam Qin even gave her a large sum of silver

so she could return to her hometown and live comfortably.

Who could have expected

Nanny Sun to kneel directly in front of Qin Manor, weeping and wailing in pitiful complaint?

She said she had raised the young master all this time and had developed feelings for him. She didn’t want money, only the chance to stay by his side forever.

As for Lord Qin, who knew whether he had gone softhearted or whether he and that wet nurse had planned it long ago.

He nearly took her as a concubine on the spot.

It was only because Madam Qin’s maiden family put pressure on him that the matter was dropped.

Lord Qin had held a grudge against her over it ever since.

For several years after that, he constantly dumped messes on Madam Qin and made her clean them up.

Madam Qin was so tangled up in those tedious affairs that she couldn’t free herself.

So Qin Jisheng naturally ran to his wet nurse’s courtyard every single day.

He even declared that the mother who raised him was better than the mother who gave birth to him.

These days, he often uses the excuse of traveling for business to take Nanny Sun sightseeing outside the capital.

He has turned the Sun family, who originally survived by farming, into a wealthy local household.

Every time Qin Jisheng comes home, it is only to demand the keys to the Qin family’s household management.

When Madam Qin refuses to hand over power,

Qin Jisheng and Nanny Sun go around slandering her outside.

They say she is a cursed loner whom even her own son dislikes, and a miserly old skinflint.

Although Madam Qin never says anything about it,

every time she sees her own son treating her like a stranger because of someone else’s instigation,

she sighs and frets through the night, unable to sleep.

If things kept going like this, it would be a miracle if her health didn’t collapse.

After hearing all that,

I was so furious I cursed for half an hour straight.

“Where is that dumbass?”

Xiao Huan was just as angry as I was

and cursed too. “That dumbass young master seems like he won’t be back for another half month!”

Fine, fine, fine.

Half a month, is it?

I’ll be waiting.