Chapter 85
Chapter 85
“A counterfeit, and she really thinks she’s the real thing.”
The words rang in Mu Tingting’s ears like an echo through a mountain valley, lingering without end.
When she heard them, a surge of vicious anger erupted in her chest.
She could no longer hold herself back. Striding over to the palace maid, she grabbed her by the front of her clothes and slapped her hard twice.
The palace maid was stunned. She staggered, lost her footing, and collapsed to the floor.
But Mu Tingting’s anger still had not been vented. She stepped forward and kicked her twice more.
The act did not merely shock the palace maids nearby-even Ying’er was frightened out of her wits.
She stood frozen for a moment before she remembered to stop her.
“Miss, what has gotten into you?”
Only when she heard Ying’er’s voice did Mu Tingting slowly come back to herself.
When she looked again at the palace maid before her, beaten into such a wretched state, and then at the astonished gazes around her, fear seized her instead, and she stumbled back several steps.
Ying’er hurriedly supported her. “Miss, let’s go over there and rest for a while.”
With her maidservant helping her, Mu Tingting went to a small side room nearby, but she was still badly shaken.
Seeing this, Ying’er poured a cup of water and brought it over.
“Miss, have some water first.”
Mu Tingting leaned against the small couch, staring at her trembling hands, her face terribly pale.
She asked without thinking, “Ying’er, what just happened to me?”
Ying’er had no answer for her mistress’s behavior just now, which had been as if she were possessed.
In her eyes, her mistress had always rarely lost her temper. Even when she was furious, she would only say a few scolding words and let it pass. She would never hit anyone.
But just now…
Ying’er was deeply worried. “Miss, could it be that you’re under too much pressure? Have you been keeping yourself too tightly wound?”
At those words, Mu Tingting’s heart grew even more uncomfortable, and her head began to ache as well.
Lately, she truly had been restless, unable to eat or sleep well, tormented by nightmares every night.
Throughout the day, aside from the brief moments when she could relax while doing embroidery, her nerves were taut at all other times.
Now that she was in the imperial palace, that tension would only grow tighter.
“Go outside for a while. Let me be alone.”
Pressing a hand to her faintly aching head, she simply turned onto her side and leaned against the small couch.
Ying’er knew she was upset, so she lowered the curtains on both sides and planned to stand guard by the door for the time being.
Mu Tingting closed her eyes, but the sounds beside her ears did not quiet down. It was as if someone were prattling on with sarcastic remarks, half real and half imagined, now near and now far.
“I think Princess Ding’an was right. The daughter of a military general, and all she knows how to do is embroidery?”
“Exactly. I heard the embroidered sachet she made even received praise from Her Majesty the Empress.”
“So what? Such petty, insignificant things. Isn’t she embarrassed?”
“That’s right. Embarrassing!”
The last two words seemed to carry extra weight, echoing again and again in Mu Tingting’s ears.
In a daze, she seemed to return to that spring day four years ago, when her mother, Lady Fan, had suddenly walked into Tingshui Warm Pavilion carrying a set of clothes.
“Put this on. In a while, come with me to meet the Marquise.”
She was startled and stammered, “Meet the Marquise?”
“Yes.”
Lady Fan’s expression was solemn, her tone even more severe. “When you see the Marquise later, treat yourself as Xia Ximo. Do you understand?”
Mu Tingting was terrified and tried to refuse. “Mother, I don’t want to go…”
“You don’t want to go?”
Lady Fan stared at her coldly. “You have to go whether you want to or not. That sickly cousin of yours may not even survive this winter.”
“We spend so much money on her every day, feed her so many precious medicinal herbs, yet her body doesn’t improve at all. Are we supposed to keep supporting her?”
All of a sudden, her tone softened again. “Tingting, the Marquise has never met Ximo anyway. If you go in her place, it will be the same.”
Under her mother’s repeated urging, she half yielded and half resisted, and went to meet the Marquise, Lady Rong.
It was nothing like she had imagined.
The Marquise treated others with warmth and spoke with impeccable propriety. Her every gesture revealed the bearing of a great noble house.
She bestowed many gifts upon Mu Tingting. Every single one was precious, every single one rare.
They were things she had never seen in Xiling County.
That meeting had been a great success. Sure enough, the Marquise had suspected nothing, and Lady Fan’s eyes and brows had been bright with joy.
Yet Mu Tingting could never shake the feeling that she was a thief with a guilty conscience.
She knew her fate had changed from that moment on.
As long as she behaved and did as she was told, she would be able to marry into the Marquis Mansion.
In the future, she too would become a Marquise like that-graceful, noble, dignified, and perfectly composed.
But whenever she woke from dreams in the dead of night, she would still tremble all over from fear.
She could only confide in her mother, but all she received in return was blame.
“I wasted all that effort teaching you! Are you really willing to spend your whole life in Xiling County and marry some ordinary nobody?”
“Mu Tingting, don’t you dare disgrace me!”
Disgrace.
That word struck her like a slap to the face, forcing her to swallow every trace of panic, unease, grievance, and resentment.
Mu Tingting leaned against the small couch in a daze, her thoughts tangled like dense, overlapping stitches…
Suddenly, she opened her eyes and saw a figure in white standing beside the couch, like a thin veil of gauze, so insubstantial that it was impossible to tell whether it was real or not.
“Who are you?”
Strangely, as she looked at the white figure, she did not feel afraid.
The white shadow smiled with alluring softness. “We’ve met before. Have you forgotten so quickly?”
At the sound of that sweet, seductive voice, Mu Tingting remembered at once.
That day at Duke Du’s Mansion, on the pavilion by the lake, the woman who had been drinking with His Highness the Crown Prince.
“I remember now…”
“Then you’re not too stupid.”
The white shadow drifted over like smoke, light and airy, carrying a cool fragrance.
Only then did Mu Tingting feel a flicker of fear. “You… aren’t human?”
The white shadow laughed. “Of course not. If I were human, how could I help you?”
“You… want to help me?”
Mu Tingting seemed unable to believe it.
“Of course. Your father, Mu Zheng, came to me precisely so I could help you marry Ren Fengjue without a hitch, didn’t he?”
The white shadow leaned close beside her shoulder and breathed softly. “I can help you. I only ask you one thing-are you willing?”
Mu Tingting’s heart began to race, and the answer nearly slipped out at once. “I… of course I’m willing. If you can help me, I’ll agree to anything.”
“Very good.”
The white shadow curled her lips into a smile. “As long as you’re willing, everything becomes easy. From this moment on, you are me, and I am you.”
“I can help you obtain what you want.”
“At the same time, your body will be mine to use.”
“Are you willing?”
The bewitching words were like a wisp of faint smoke, winding back and forth beside her ear.
Mu Tingting felt as though a gentle hand were soothing her heart, slowly dispelling all her anxiety and unease.
Then an eerie smile appeared on her face, and three words slipped from her lips.
“I am willing.”
The wind stirred the beaded curtain with a soft clatter.
Ying’er noticed the movement and instinctively looked up, only to see that it was Mu Tingting.
“Miss? Are you done resting?”
Mu Tingting had risen without a sound. Compared to her earlier panic and confusion, she now looked not only bright-eyed and refreshed, but also carried a rare composure and calm between her brows.
“Let’s go. It’s stuffy in here. I want to take a walk outside.”
The remark left Ying’er somewhat baffled.
But she did not dare ask any questions. She simply followed behind Mu Tingting and walked toward the Imperial Garden.