Duke of Chu's Mansion
The old lady woke up in the middle of the night, thinking of the dream that was too real. Could it be that God had opened his eyes and called the second son's wife over without waiting for dawn?
"Second son's wife, you told me a story about a cuckoo occupying a magpie's nest during the day. I thought about it for a long time at night and always felt that you had something else in mind. Did you discover something?"
Upon seeing this, Madam Chu Er described to the old lady the situation of meeting Dan Ruo:
"She looks so much like my sister-in-law. What if she is of the Chu family's bloodline? And she is also my eldest sister-in-law's daughter. She has a close relationship with my Chu family."
"At first I was wondering if my eldest brother had conceived that daughter long before my eldest sister-in-law became a widow. But when I calculated the dates of the pregnancy, I found that my eldest brother was serving as an official in the south during that time and could not return to the capital without an imperial decree. The dates don't add up."
"That means someone stole the daughter of our Duke of Chu's mansion away. It's unclear whether the one in the mansion is real or fake. As for whether they were twins or switched in some way, mother will have to take action herself."
The old lady came from a long-standing family and had been managing the harem for many years. Even though she had handed over power to the Yang family in recent years, with hundreds of slaves and servants in the mansion and many complicated matters, it was impossible for what had happened to leave no trace.
Within a few days, the old lady found out the truth.
It's mainly the emperor's behind-the-scenes fanning the flames. It all depends on how the Duke's Mansion handles it. If the old lady plays deaf and dumb, the emperor doesn't mind intervening in his ministers' family affairs.
It happened to be the fifteenth day of the lunar month, and the two main masters of the Duke's Mansion came to have a reunion dinner with the old lady.
The old lady gave birth to two sons and one daughter, both of whom were legitimate children from the first and second wives. The youngest daughter was born weak and died two years after her marriage. Therefore, few people knew the youngest daughter's appearance. This was also the reason why the second lady took a long time to remember Danruo the last time she saw her.
After the old duke passed away, the rest of the illegitimate sons were divided up by the old lady.
Before dinner, everyone sat in the hall and chatted with the old lady.
Mrs. Yang recently had a grandson and she loves him so much that she can't stop talking about him.
All she said was about how smart and favored Princess Kang's one-month-old son, Chen Ge'er, was. The empress dowager said that Chen Ge'er looked a lot like the emperor when he was a child.
Duke Chu looked at Yang with gentle eyes, doting on her as he had for decades.
The Second Master had an indifferent expression on his face, but he sneered in his heart. Chen'er was not the emperor's grandson, so how could they resemble each other? It was just the Empress Dowager's wishful thinking, calling a horse a zebra and deceiving herself.
The emperor was born into a military family and was in good health. He was only thirty-six years old this year and had never had any major illness. Normally, he would have no problem living another twenty years.
Prince Kang is now extremely anxious and worried. Although he is still young, he has no great talent. A lot of things have happened in the past twenty years.
The second house doesn't want to be tied to Prince Kang along with the first house.
He was still young and was being favored by the emperor. In addition, he had a family background that lasted for a hundred years. Why should he get involved in the dispute over the royal succession? Just like now, the court had changed, the emperor had changed his surname, but the family was still a family.
The Second Lady received the Princess's advice, and after consulting the Old Lady, she leisurely drank a sip of tea.
"Speaking of resemblance, I met a girl at the princess's mansion a few days ago. She looked very much like my sister-in-law when she was young. My sister-in-law also looked like my mother. I thought she must be my mother's granddaughter, so I sent someone to invite my mother's granddaughter back."
Yang's eyelids twitched, and she saw her maid leading Danruo into the hall.
Dan Ruo saluted the old lady, and then was half-carried by the red-eyed old lady to sit on the old lady's couch. She couldn't help but choked up and said, "She looks exactly like my sister Yan."
Dan Ruo calmly accepted the stares of everyone in the room.
The old lady was dreaming, but in fact it was the Reincarnation Pearl that took her back to the past. Of course, the price was that Danruo had to give it one tenth of the merit points he had gained from practicing in this world.
Madam Chu had not reacted to seeing her face for several days, and coupled with the box of poisonous snacks sent by Xiao Danzhu, Danruo became anxious and agreed to Baozhu's unreasonable request.
The original owner's face was 50% similar to her deceased aunt. She specifically asked the Reincarnation Pearl to find the image of her aunt, and drew a 70% likeness of herself based on her aunt's appearance. Coupled with the deliberate imitation of her expression, she naturally made the old lady lose her composure.
There is no other way. There was no DNA in ancient times. If you want to get back the identity of the original owner, the more similar the better.
Dan Ruo hugged the old lady back and slowly helped her calm down.
After a moment, the old lady gave Yang a sidelong glance and said, "Big brother's wife, what else do you have to say?"
Yang looked at Duke Chu with grievance. Although Duke Chu was confused, he immediately protected Yang:
"Mom, if you like this girl, just adopt her as your godparent and keep her by your side as a keepsake. It's unreasonable for you to blame my wife."
Seeing that the eldest son had been biased towards Yang for decades, the old lady wished she could stuff this idiot son back into the womb.
The old lady loved her eldest son too much and hated Yang to the core. She was a concubine's daughter of a minor official, but she relied on her beauty to seduce her eldest son into marrying her.
The eldest son threatened to commit suicide several times, but Yang finally agreed to let her marry him. However, she got married during this period. After thinking that Yang was married, the son was heartbroken for two or three years and finally agreed to marry his niece.
Unexpectedly, the good times did not last long. Two years later, after Yang's husband died, she hooked up with her son again, forcing her niece to death. From then on, her family severed ties with her.
The old lady didn't want to pay attention to her eldest son's stupid words, so she asked the nanny beside her to tie up the witness.
Yang's hand clenched the handkerchief tightly beneath her sleeve. She had been in charge of the household for many years, and the servants knew what to say and what not to say. Besides, the maids and servants in her daughter's courtyard had all been transferred to remote farms, where they would be sold far away if they found fault.
But this old woman looked very unfamiliar.
Nanny Guan handed the old woman's confession to the Duke and the Second Master.
This person was one of the midwives who delivered Yang when she gave birth to a daughter. When the midwife was bathing the child, she remembered there was a red mole on the sole of her foot.
When the child was just about to turn two years old, the maids in the yard failed to take good care of her and caused the young lady to fall into the lotus pond and develop a high fever. All the maids and servants in the yard were punished by Yang and sent to the farm.
Yang personally took care of the young lady in the yard for half a year, and did not let her leave the yard until she was three years old, on the grounds that the child was weak.
One day, this old woman was drinking with Ma, the old woman who was guarding the back door. She heard Ma muttering that the young lady looked a little different from when she was a child.
Two or three days later, when I went to have a drink with Ma Po again, I heard that Ma Po had accidentally fallen into a well while getting up at night two days ago. The woman was a little scared, so she packed up her belongings and ran away to another place.
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