Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Marquess’s expression darkened. “Later, when we wanted to see Ah Qiao, Shen Zheng blocked us at every turn. One day he’d say the child was sick, the next he’d say she wasn’t at the residence. I had people watch for half a month, only to discover that Ah Qiao had never once been taken out of the Princess’s Mansion.”

“When I finally forced my way in with my men, I found her in a woodshed.”

His voice trembled with a suppressed rage.

“She was only six months old, tossed beside a pile of firewood, wrapped in a blackened, tattered rag. The bowl she ate from contained sour rice water, and the ladle she drank from had ash floating in it. When she saw people, she didn’t cry or fuss; she just stared straight at you.”

My fists clenched until my knuckles cracked. My nails dug into my palms, but I felt nothing.

Was Gu Ruan blind?

Wasn’t she always the smartest one?

When she was little, she used to trick me like it was a game. How could she have possibly chosen a piece of trash like that?

“What about that Shen Zheng?”

“The Sixth Princess is protecting him. He’s still holding office at the Hanlin Academy.”

The Marquess gave a bitter smile. “It’s not that our Marquis Manor hasn’t tried to file a formal complaint with the Emperor, but the Sixth Princess just has to have a good cry in front of His Majesty, and the matter is simply dropped.”

I took a deep breath, forcing down the fire rising in my chest.

“You know Gu Ruan and I didn’t get along, right?”

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll mistreat Ah Qiao?”

The Marquess’s Wife looked at me seriously for a long time.

“Ah Ruan said her younger sister has a kind heart.”

“She said that when you were small, you went to the river to catch fish and ended up falling face-first in the mud. When you finally caught the biggest one, you gave it to the hungry old woman next door.”

“She said that although you have a sharp tongue and scold her harshly, whenever someone bullied her, you were the first to rush forward and beat them black and blue.”

I suspected she was lying to me.

“She… she really said that?”

Kind-hearted?

Gu Ruan would say that about me?

Shouldn’t she have said I was unreasonable, crude, reckless, smacked my lips when I ate, and snored in my sleep?

I took Ah Qiao home.

The Marquess’s Wife gave me fifty thousand taels in silver notes.

No one could refuse that much money.

My father just happened to be a pauper, and as a pauper’s daughter, I naturally couldn’t refuse either.

The little brat gripped my hand tightly the whole way. Her fingers were short and soft, but her strength was absurd; I couldn’t pry them off.

Even after we entered the gates of the General’s Manor, she didn’t let go. She just kept her large eyes wide, looking around curiously.

My mother was in the main hall cracking melon seeds. She was about to speak when she saw me return, but her gaze immediately fell on Ah Qiao.

She looked behind me repeatedly, a glimmer of expectation appearing on her face. “Where is your sister?”

My mouth opened, and the words “she’s dead” hovered on the tip of my tongue before I forced myself to swallow them back down.

“I don’t know.”

My mother frowned and asked again.

“You don’t know? Didn’t you go to the Marquis Manor to see your sister? And where did this child come from?”

“I picked her up.”

“Picked her up where?”

She crouched down to look at Ah Qiao, pinching her cheek affectionately. “She’s so beautiful, like a doll from a New Year’s painting. But hurry up and take her back to her family, otherwise they’ll be worried.”

“I’m not taking her back.”

I turned my face away. “Her mother didn’t want her anymore.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, Ah Qiao tugged at the corner of my clothes, her voice soft and sweet. “Auntie, hungry.”

My heart tightened.

My mother heard it.

“What did she call you? Is this Ah Ruan’s child? Where is she?”

She slowly stood up, the color draining from her face inch by inch. Her eyes stared straight at me as if trying to see through my soul.

I knew I couldn’t hide it anymore.

Steeling myself, I told her everything about Gu Ruan.

After listening, my mother didn’t say a word. She turned and walked straight toward the study.

I followed her and saw her crawl under my father’s desk, pulling out a dust-covered crate. From inside, she dragged out two maces.

I recognized them.

Years ago, my mother had lived in the Borderlands for several years. When she had nothing to do, she would practice martial arts with the army wives. These two maces were her favorite weapons.

She slammed one of them down in front of me. “Xiaoxiao, are you coming with me or not?”

Looking at her gritting her teeth in fury, a strange, sudden spark of anger flared up in my own heart.

“No.”

Even as I said it, I felt I was being a bit much.

But in all the years I was growing up, when had my mother ever been willing to risk her life for me like this?