Voluntary

Mu Anning and Mu Wan'er also bowed and said in unison, "Father, Mother."

Lord Chongde nodded slightly, squinted his eyes and scanned his two daughters, then his gaze stayed on his adopted daughter: "It's good that you're back."

He took a close look at his adopted daughter and found that although she was as thin as before, she was not as sickly and haggard as he had imagined.

On the contrary, there seemed to be a hint of anger in those eyes compared to when he lived in the Marquis' Mansion.

Mu An Ning responded softly, but she felt no joy of returning "home" at all.

She had a vague guess in her heart that her brother must have taken her back to the mansion on the orders of her adoptive father.

But... for what reason?

Mrs. Xu's attitude was somewhat different from usual. She did not speak to her biological children first, but acted like a loving mother to her adopted daughter, saying softly, "An Ning, mother knows that you have suffered a lot this month." She paused, a hint of unnaturalness flashed across her eyes, "Just treat that as a misunderstanding, and forget about it from now on."

In fact, Mu Wan'er had already explained to them the whole story of falling into the water, but no one was willing to believe that it was just a misunderstanding.

Mu An Ning's eyelashes trembled, but she didn't want to argue any more.

Even if she wanted to explain, there might be some strange force that would stop her from telling the truth.

After giving seats to his three sons and daughters, Lord Chongde coughed lightly, as if to cover up the fleeting embarrassment.

He raised his hand to signal the servant outside the door to bring the person in, completely ignoring Xu's ugly expression.

Mu Guiling, who was sitting closest to Chongde Hou and his wife, narrowed his eyes slightly and keenly sensed the strange atmosphere between his parents today.

For a moment, the surroundings were silent and quiet, with only Mu Wan'er's voice echoing in Mu An Ning's ears——

[Help, I really don’t want to see the Black Lotus siblings!!]

[Every time I finish the twists and turns of the rivalry with them, I have to slow down for several days...]

Mu An Ning's eyebrows twitched slightly, and the curiosity that had just emerged was revealed the next moment.

Outside the door, three people were led into the main hall by servants.

Standing at the front was a well-maintained young woman wearing a light green silk dress. She looked to be in her early thirties. With her brows lowered and her face pleasing to the eye, she looked like a shy and delicate flower about to bloom. I could not help but feel pity for her.

Behind her followed two young boys and girls with outstanding figures. Their faces were very similar, and they were obviously a pair of dragon and phoenix twins.

The boy has an innocent look on his face, while the girl is playful and charming.

There was a rare hint of surprise in Mu Guiling's cold eyes, and he confirmed the identities of the three people almost in an instant.

It turns out that all men in the world are like this, even his father is no exception.

No wonder... no matter what Qiu Yueying said, she refused to believe his promise easily.

Chongde looked at the woman, his eyes more gentle than ever before: "Yunniang, come here, don't be timid."

Mu An Ning had a vague idea in her mind and subconsciously looked at Xu. She had a dignified smile on her face, but the handkerchief that was about to be crushed in her hand revealed her mood at the moment.

【No man is good! 】

[This old man is already this old, and he has no shame! ]

Mu An Ning lowered her eyes and tried to hold back her smile, but in her heart she secretly agreed with Mu Wan'er.

During the twenty years that Marquis Chongde and Xu had been married, although their relationship was not very deep, they treated each other with respect and never took a concubine.

How come a concubine appeared out of nowhere?

Mu An Ning glanced to the side and saw the woman called "Yun Niang" walking slowly and gently bowing to the couple in the main seat: "I pay my respects to the Marquis and the Madam."

The boy and girl behind her also bowed obediently: "Greetings to father and mother."

Lord Chongde nodded slightly, his serious face showing a rare kindness. He waved and called his two children to him: "Jingrui, Jingyue, these are your brother and two sisters."

Seeing the twins looking at them, Mu Guiling suddenly frowned and said in a cold voice, "Father, who are these people?"

Mu Wan'er also blinked, looked at the three of them curiously, and pretended to be puzzled and asked, "Father, why are these two people calling you father? Don't you only have me, my brother, and my sister?"

When Lord Chongde heard his eldest son asking the question, his usually dignified face darkened a little. When he heard Mu Wan'er's words, he became even more embarrassed.

He thought there was no need to explain too much, but he did not expect that his two children would ask directly without caring about his old face.

While Lord Chongde was looking grim, the girl standing behind Yunniang suddenly smiled and said, "This is my second sister, right?"

Only three days after she arrived at the Marquis' Mansion, she had already learned about all the situations in the mansion, big and small. She also knew that the biggest threat to her was the biological daughter of Marquis Chongde.

As for Mu An Ning, who was sitting next to Mu Wan'er, she didn't care at all.

Yunniang quickly grabbed her daughter and gently scolded her, "Jingyue, your father hasn't spoken yet!"

The girl pouted her lips, hiding the dissatisfaction in her eyes.

After Lord Chongde said it was okay, he briefly introduced a few people to the three siblings.

The twin brother and sister are named Mu Jingyue and Mu Jingrui. They will be fourteen years old this year and were raised by Yunniang alone.

Three days ago, Yunniang was forced to go to the Marquis' Mansion because she had nowhere else to go due to the plague in the south of the Yangtze River. It was then that Marquis Chongde learned that he actually had a son and a daughter.

Mu An Ning was secretly surprised that these two siblings were less than two years older than her.

At that time, Xu was still very weak because she had just given birth to a child, and her adoptive father actually...

Yunniang hesitated for a while, took out three purses from her sleeves, and said timidly, "I have prepared some small gifts for the eldest master, the eldest lady and the second lady." She smiled implicitly and handed the things to Mu Guiling first.

However, the next moment, Mu Guiling stood up straight, without looking at the young woman, and said to Lord Chongde and Xu: "My son suddenly remembered that he still needs to go to the Dali Temple."

Having said that, without waiting for Lord Chongde's permission, Mu Guiling walked out.

Lord Chongde obviously did not expect his eldest son to be so disrespectful to his elders, and he immediately looked angry.

Before her husband could get angry, Xu spoke up for her eldest son: "My Lord, Gui Ling has been in Wutong City for quite some time, so he must have a lot of things to deal with."

Seeing that Marquis Chongde did not speak for her, Yunniang lowered her eyes as if a little aggrieved, then forced herself to put on a smile, looking extremely fragile.

Seeing that she was about to act pitiful again, Mu Wan'er suddenly took the sachet from her hand and said, "Auntie, this sachet is very beautiful. I will accept it. But was it sewed by you personally?"

Yunniang was stunned for a moment, nodded slightly, and then respectfully presented another sachet in her hand to Mu An Ning.

When Mu An Ning took the sachet, Mu Wan'er asked casually, "Huh? Why does the workmanship of your sachet look much rougher than mine?"

Yunniang's heart skipped a beat, her eyes flickered, and she was just thinking about how to answer when she heard Mu Jingyue say crisply, "To be honest, second sister, this was sewed by Jingyue." She turned around and smiled shyly at Mu Anning, apologizing, "Jingyue has never learned needlework, so it's a little rough. I hope big sister will forgive me."

[What a good story! ! It's obvious that they treat my daughter differently because she's a fake daughter! ]

Mu An Ning smiled faintly, feeling somewhat curious: "Sister is thoughtful."

There were only two children in the Marquis's Mansion before, so she had never experienced the open and secret struggles in the inner court.

Mu Jingyue is so eloquent at such a young age.

Yunniang looked at her little son who was standing motionless beside her and frowned: "Jingrui, why are you standing there in a daze?"

A hint of darkness flashed across Mu Jingrui's eyes, and then he changed his expression to be harmless: "Big sister and second sister are really beautiful, and my brother was infatuated with them for a moment."

[This little black-hearted guy has really good acting skills. If I didn’t know how he would help his sister to harm others in the future, I would have really believed that he was shocked by my beauty! ]

So there isn't a good person among these three mother and her two children?

Mu An Ning raised her eyes and met Mu Jingrui's. Her dark and moist eyes seemed to be truly filled with admiration for her sister.

When Lord Chongde saw that the few people had gotten to know each other, he asked them to go back to their rooms to rest, leaving only Mu An Ning behind.

He said solemnly, "An Ning, since you have returned home, your father and your mother will hold a coming-of-age ceremony for Wan'er in three days."

Mu An Ning nodded, it was indeed time to make up for it.

It is now the beginning of April, and nearly half a year has passed since their birthdays.

Lord Chongde stroked his long beard and continued, "As her elder sister, you will go with your mother to the Anqing Palace to deliver the invitation tomorrow."

Hearing the words "Anqing Palace", Mu An Ning politely declined: "Father, An Ning is not feeling well today, I'm afraid I won't be able to go tomorrow."

Marquis Chongde thought that she was angry about moving out of the mansion, so he winked at Xu.

Xu immediately understood and said with a smile, "An Ning, the princess has mentioned you to me several times."

There was a rare hint of sincerity in her words.

Compared with that vixen's two children, she immediately found the adopted daughter much more pleasing to the eye.

Mu An Ning frowned slightly, somewhat puzzled as to why they did not mention a word about her breaking off the engagement with Gu Huaizhi, but instead asked her to visit the palace.

She thought for a moment and realized that maybe they were waiting for her to bring it up, so she threw the ground and said, "Father, Mother, An Ning knows that she is not qualified to marry Prince Gu, and she voluntarily breaks off the engagement with the palace."

Xu was stunned for a moment, then said angrily, "You and the prince are a perfect match, so why are you not qualified?"

In fact, she herself didn't even believe what she said.

Everyone in the capital knew that Prince Gu was arrogant, especially his fiancée who always revolved around him.

Seeing that the two were still unwilling to give in, Mu An Ning said gently, "An Ning knows the difficulty that father and mother are in. In this case, An Ning and mother will go to the palace to explain it to them tomorrow."

Seeing that she was still chasing him, Lord Chongde said in an unquestionable tone, "An Ning, if you don't want to deliver the invitations tomorrow, that's fine, but don't mention this matter again!"

Mu An Ning knew that his adoptive father was a man of his word, so he could only keep his mouth shut.

Although she didn't know why they suddenly changed their behavior and tried to stop her from canceling her marriage with Gu Huaizhi, she had a plan in mind.