Chapter 42: Why did the secret eldest house except Cui Lingyan who was sent to the Qi family...

Hearing the sound, Cui Lingyin looked towards the door and saw at a glance that the person who pushed the door open was Yao Ma, who was beside Bian.

Nanny Yao was struck by the smell in the room. She frowned and covered her nose with the handkerchief in her hand. Her eyes then fell on Madam Wen, who was lying on the bed with a pale face, and Cui Lingyin, who was standing by the bed with a wound on her forehead.

"The Second Young Miss has been registered under Madam's name since she was young, and has been raised by Madam. Normally, she and you, Auntie, aren't close. Now it seems all this was just an act for Madam. The Second Young Miss and Auntie Wen have such a deep mother-daughter bond, why would they need the care of Madam, their legal mother?"

Madam Wen's face paled even further as Madam Yao spoke, her eyes etched with panic and unease. She instinctively glanced at her daughter, Cui Lingyin, who was guarding the bedside. She felt a surge of guilt, regretting not having sent her daughter back to her room sooner, instead leaving her to care for her in the side room. When word reached Bian, and Madam Yao exaggerated the story, any lingering sympathy she might have felt for Lingyin vanished.

Cui Lingyin also heard the sarcasm in Yao Ma's words, and there was a hint of annoyance in her eyes. Now that she was down and out, even a servant dared to mock her in person and did not take her, a girl from a marquis's mansion, seriously.

She patted Madam Wen's hand in a gesture of comfort, then stood up and bowed slightly to Madam Yao, saying, "Madam, come here. Does Mother have any instructions?"

Seeing that she was not in a state of panic but was forcing herself to remain calm, Aunt Yao was a little surprised. However, although Cui Lingyin had lofty ambitions, her status as a concubine's daughter meant that if she took a wrong step, she would never be able to recover. No matter how arrogant she was, it would be useless.

With this in mind, Madam Yao stated her purpose directly: "Last night, the old lady was furious about the second young lady's matter. She had a headache in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep well all night. This morning, the lady knelt in the corridor of the Xilan Courtyard to apologize. She knelt for half an hour before the old lady called her into the house. The old lady said that after the third young lady and Prince Lu are married, the second young lady will be married off to the south, far away from the capital. This will prevent people in the capital from mentioning the second young lady and thinking of the scandal of the sisters fighting in the Marquis' Mansion. The lady agreed and told the young lady to fend for herself."

When Cui Lingyin heard what Aunt Yao said, her face turned pale, her body swayed and she almost fell to the ground.

Madam Wen struggled to get up regardless of the injuries on her body, but as soon as she moved, big beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.

"No, Yin has made a mistake and I am willing to accept the punishment. If the old lady and the mistress are angry, I am willing to commit suicide to apologize. I also beg the old lady to let Yin stay in the capital and not marry her off far away!"

As Madam Wen spoke, she burst into tears, deeply regretting that she had been soft-hearted and listened to her daughter, thus making this irreparable mistake.

Seeing the mother and daughter in this state, Madam Yao sighed softly inwardly and said, "Young lady and concubine, please take care of yourselves and stop making trouble. Otherwise, the old lady will not allow you two to stay in the mansion until the third lady marries into the Duke of Weiguo's mansion. The old lady doesn't want to cause any more rumors, but if she really loses her last bit of compassion, there's no doubt that something bad will happen to the young lady and concubine."

After saying this, Aunt Yao looked at Cui Lingyin, whose body went limp and fell to the ground, with a sigh on her face, and turned and walked out of the ear room.

After Madam Yao left, Concubine Wen climbed down from the bed, enduring the pain. With a tearful voice, she said, "Yin girl, what should I do? The old lady wants to marry you off to the south, and you'll never be able to come to the capital again. Besides, the old lady is tired of you now, so how can she find a good marriage for you? If you marry there, you won't have the support of the Marquis' Mansion. Who would treat a bastard like you well? If people get to know these rumors in the capital, Yin girl will never be able to hold her head up high again. You'll be manipulated."

"If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have been so soft-hearted when I saw you in pain. I shouldn't have listened to you and spread those rumors, putting you in this situation. But there's no such thing as regret in this world. I'm filled with remorse. It's all my fault. I've hurt you, little girl Yin!"

Concubine Wen burst into tears, feeling as if the sky was falling. She only had Yin Yatou as her daughter in her life, and her only hope was that Yin Yatou would have a good marriage, so that she could know whether her daughter was living a good life in the mansion.

But the old lady planned to marry Yin to the south, and she would never be able to return to the capital in her life. She didn't even dare to think about it.

Could it be that after Yin Yatou marries and moves south, she will be driven to the farm by the old lady, and this will be the life of the mother and daughter?

Thinking of this, Madam Wen hugged Cui Lingyin in her arms with heartache, and kept saying that she was sorry for Cui Lingyin.

Cui Lingyin's face was pale, and her eyes were blue with fatigue. At this moment, they were red. The expression in her eyes changed again and again. After a long while, she suddenly said, "Auntie, what do you say about me marrying into the Qi family and marrying Qi Shaozhang?"

Madam Wen was stunned, her face filled with surprise, as if she hadn't heard her daughter's words clearly. After a while, she took a deep breath and said with some disbelief, "Yin girl, how is this possible? We were the ones who started those rumors before. Zhan and Qi Shaozhang hate us so much that they can't wait to let you marry into the Qi family."

Madam Wen lowered her voice a bit, glanced at her daughter furtively, and said with some uneasiness, "And Madam Wen has heard that Qi Shaozhang is very arrogant. When those rumors came out, Qi Shaozhang was so angry that he wanted to move out of the mansion. It was only because Zhan was afraid of causing trouble and causing more gossip that she persuaded him to stop."

How could such a man take Yin Yatou, a notorious concubine from a marquis's mansion, as his wife?

If she became a concubine, even if she was willing, the Marquis' Mansion and the old lady would not be able to lose face.

Madam Wen felt that Cui Lingyin was confused, which was why she had such thoughts.

Cui Lingyin looked at Madam Wen, her eyes rolling. Her voice was soft but struck Madam Wen's heart hard: "Madam, do you still remember what I told you when we were little? She said I had a dream and was in a nightmare. She told me not to tell anyone, never to mention it in my life."

Madam Wen was stunned at first, but when she understood what Cui Lingyin meant, her face suddenly changed and she looked at Cui Lingyin.

"You haven't forgotten that incident yet?" Madam Wen was a little bit unbelievable.

Cui Lingyin gave a bitter laugh and looked intently at Concubine Wen. Her voice was filled with a hint of coldness as she murmured, "I forgot. I was young then and didn't understand anything. Concubine Wen told me I was possessed by a nightmare. She also said that if I said the wrong thing, my mother would get tired of me and I would be looked down upon and recorded under Concubine Wen's name, just like the other concubines from wealthy families who were bullied. So all these years, I thought I had forgotten it, but I dared not forget it."

"It's been a long time, and I haven't really thought about it anymore."

"But after what happened yesterday, why did that dream become so clear? Aunt, are you still trying to tell me it was just a dream? And it wasn't what Mother and Madam Yao said in private, saying they drugged our pregnant aunt, causing our third brother to be born sickly."

"My aunt just thought it was because she was too tired to manage the household affairs, but she didn't dare to take the blame on herself. Seeing that Cui Lingyan was white and plump and had a better figure than Cui Shenbo, she said that Cui Lingyan had robbed her son of his nutrients while she was still in her womb, which was why my third brother was weak and had to fall ill from time to time."

"But actually, I really heard what Mother and Aunt Yao said that day. It wasn't a dream, nor was I possessed by a nightmare. Yin'er isn't stupid. When I was little, my aunt lied to me and I didn't dare to speak out. After all these years, don't you realize that you've heard something truly extraordinary?"

Madam Wen's face was solemn, her eyes filled with panic. She subconsciously glanced out the window and lowered her voice, "But it's been so many years since the incident, and we have no evidence. Your reputation has been ruined now, and even if you report it to the old lady, she won't believe you. Besides, if the old lady and the mistress are cruel, they might really kill you for this matter."

Cui Lingyin lowered her head and spoke meaningfully, "Auntie, I've called Madam Bian mother for so many years, so there are things I understand. Auntie, why did my eldest aunt stop getting pregnant after giving birth to twins? Why has Auntie Liu been so doting on her for the past few years, yet she's still so still? Why is the eldest son in the family, besides Cui Lingyan, who was sent to the Qi family, the only one left with the sickly Cui Shenbo?"

"I don't have any evidence, but I guarantee that if you look into it carefully, my mother wouldn't have played no role in this."

"Is the eldest son so unlucky that he can't even give birth to a healthy son? Or is it that someone is interfering and wants their son to inherit the title, so they did something secretly? Could it be that Auntie doesn't know about the secrets of the harem?"

Madam Wen stared at Cui Lingyin, as if she was meeting her biological daughter for the first time.

After a long pause, Madam Wen finally said, "Even if Madam is afraid and asks you to take control, the Qi family may not agree to this."

Cui Lingyin clenched the handkerchief in her hand, then loosened it in an instant. "Then it depends on mother's ability. Besides, I've only ruined my reputation a little, but I'm still a daughter of the Marquis' Mansion, and marrying him to Qi Shaozhang won't be a disgrace to him. Don't the Qi family want to be more involved with our Ningshou Marquis Mansion? I don't believe that Zhan brought her two children to the capital this time just to stroll around. Zhan probably wants Cui Lingyan to marry Qi Shaozhang. Now that Cui Lingyan is Lu Bingzhi's woman, I, a concubine of the Marquis' Mansion, won't be a disgrace to the Qi family. Moreover, if this marriage goes through, Qi Ruorou will be my sister-in-law, and she can choose a good marriage in the capital."

"Besides, now that I'm the daughter-in-law of the Qi family, even if Cui Lingyan becomes successful in the future, she wouldn't be able to bring up that matter again, right? After all, I'm her cousin-in-law after all. She's received a lot of favors from the Qi family, so how could she possibly mess with me?"

"I've thought about it and decided that rather than being married off casually by the old lady, I'd rather use my wife's leverage to get her to find a way to facilitate my marriage with Qi Shaozhang."

Cui Lingyin grabbed Madam Wen's hand, her face cold as she said, "Madam, I did make a mistake and ruined my reputation, but reputation is important, but it's nothing compared to profit. I want to take a gamble. What do you say, Madam?"

Madam Wen hesitated for a long time, and finally nodded.