Chapter 63 Mrs. Lu’s Past
Faced with Xu Chuchu's 180-degree change, Mrs. Lu was a little stunned.
She sat in the chair for a while before she realized what was happening and asked, "How did you know... that I have a daughter? Who told you?"
Xu Chuchu sat directly opposite her and said calmly, "No one, I guessed."
"Guess?"
"That's right," Xu Chuchu said. "Judging from their ages, you and your husband have been married for quite a while. If there were no health issues, you should have had a child long ago. But no one in this mansion, from top to bottom, whether it's you, the old lady, or the other servants and maids, has ever mentioned children."
"I thought again, given how much your old lady loves her son, if you really hadn't given birth to a child in the past few years, she would definitely seize this opportunity to attack you, but she didn't."
"So I reasonably speculate that the child does exist, but it may not be with us now."
"Also, just now your eldest uncle angrily accused you of being 'unable to give birth to a son' in public, rather than 'unable to give birth to a child'. This makes me even more suspicious that you once had a daughter."
"Of course, these are just speculations. I still need to find concrete evidence," Xu Chuchu continued. "That's why I came to your room and found this rattle and this child's clothes."
"Well, Madam Lu, my guess on this point is correct, isn't it?"
After hearing these words, Mrs. Lu was stunned for a moment.
She closed her eyes in pain, then said, "That's right. You're really good at finding traces of Nannan from these clues... but you still misjudged a lot of things."
"I'd like to hear the details." Xu Chuchu said, then nodded to Xiao Yu beside him.
"I don't know how you can tell that I used to come from a poor family," Mrs. Lu sighed. "I do come from a poor peasant family, and I have quite a few brothers and sisters. Because my family couldn't support so many people, my parents sent me to work in an embroidery workshop when I was thirteen, and then they just left me there."
"But the story between me and my husband...is not what you think it is, a story of a young woman being spotted by a wealthy businessman and then being married off to enjoy a peaceful life."
"When I met him, I had no idea he was some wealthy businessman."
"It was his first time to come to our embroidery workshop to look at the goods. He was dressed very casually, even a little shabby. Our boss thought he was running a small workshop and didn't want to waste time talking to him, so he sent me over to introduce the goods to him."
"I, I..." Mrs. Lu's eyes began to redden as she spoke of the past, and her voice gradually trembled. "I knew it wasn't easy for him, so I patiently introduced each one to him, pointing out both the advantages and disadvantages, hoping it would be of some help to him."
"In the end, he ordered a large batch of goods and even praised me in front of our boss, saying that he bought it because of my good recommendation. The boss even gave me a 20-string salary increase that month."
Xu Chuchu nodded: "Good people will be rewarded."
Madam Lu suddenly let out a shrill laugh. "Good people are rewarded? If there really were good rewards, we wouldn't be having this conversation today."
"Later, he became a regular customer of our embroidery workshop. Every time he came, he would ask me to place an order. Occasionally, he would sit down with me to drink tea and chat..." She added, "Although he never pointed it out, I could sense that he had some feelings for me."
"He's almost ten years older than me, not very good-looking, and overweight. He's nothing like what I imagined my future husband to be."
"But at that time, he was really... very gentle to me. He always spoke softly and behaved in a measured manner. He was different from those young people who liked to come to the embroidery workshop under the guise of discussing business and tease the embroiderers."
"Then he naturally proposed to me, and I thought he might be someone worth entrusting my life to, so I agreed."
"At that time, I had no concept of money. I didn't ask him for a betrothal gift, nor did I bring anything as a dowry... I knew he was rich, but I didn't know to what extent."
"It wasn't until I actually married into his family that I realized how wealthy they were... The mansion was so full of servants, each with their own duties... It was definitely the kind of place a peasant embroiderer like me should be."
"His mother...that old lady, really dislikes me. She always says I'm from a lowly family, marrying into their family, but I have no dowry, no connections, and haven't brought any benefit to the Lu family at all."
"Even though she has so many maids and servants at home, she often makes things difficult for me. She asks me to cook for the whole family, but doesn't allow me to sit at the table. She only lets me set the dishes on the side... Seeing that I'm an embroiderer, she asks me to make winter clothes for the whole family. If I'm not doing it well, I'll be scolded."
"She said that when she was a daughter-in-law, she was also so humble at home. She said that all daughters-in-law have to go through this, and it will be fine if they can become mothers-in-law."
"And my husband's foolish brother, who has studied for so many years but has not made any achievements, has joined in slandering me, saying that I can't read a single word and that being their daughter-in-law would bring shame to them and make him lose face in the literary world."
"Oh, isn't it because he couldn't even pass the imperial examination at the age of thirty-five that he can't hold his head up? If I had studied since childhood, I would be better than him!"
Xu Chuchu frowned. "Didn't your husband explain the situation clearly to his family before marrying you? And did he allow them to humiliate you like this?"
"Who knows!" Mrs. Lu looked up and blinked, forcing back tears. "After I got married, I realized that he was completely different from the one I knew at the embroidery workshop."
"I really didn't expect that after being bullied by his mother for so long, he never helped me or defended me."
"He always told me to just bear with it, saying that it was his mother and there was nothing I could do. The more I talked about it, the more he got mad at me, saying I'd gone from being a lowly embroiderer to a wealthy lady and still not be satisfied."
"I was so stupid at the time. I really listened to what they said. I felt I had gotten a bargain, but I was still picky. I became honest again..."
"Now that I think about it, marrying into this hellish place would be better than staying in the embroidery workshop and being an old embroiderer for the rest of my life." She laughed self-deprecatingly, "Although the wages are low, it's free. I can be myself, and no one can say anything bad about me after I finish work."
"What happened next?" Xu Chuchu asked softly.
Mrs. Lu put away her smile and said, "After I became pregnant, my family's attitude towards me finally changed."
"His mother no longer dared to order me to do this or that, and he treated me like a treasure, holding me in his arms and accompanying me, afraid that I would get hurt."
"How foolish I was! I thought I had finally made it. I thought that after I had a child and fulfilled their wish, they would treat me better..."
"I didn't expect that this was the beginning of my nightmare."
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