The lady-in-waiting subconsciously looked at the wife of Duke Mu, but saw that she looked calm, as if what Shen did was no big deal at all.

The lady's heart sank again, and she was certain that the wife of Duke Mu had accompanied Shen to the Marquis's Mansion to cause trouble!

Over the years, the eldest son Chu Lingxiao has always favored Aunt Jiang. When Shen returned to her parents' home this time, she must have cried and complained, so the wife of Duke Mu came specially to support her daughter.

The lady now also dislikes Aunt Jiang and thinks that she and her daughter Chu Qianchen are both more capable than the other.

But no matter how unhappy she was, she always felt that Shen was not sensible enough.

She was almost thirty years old, already at an old age, and her daughter was about to get married. If she wanted to teach a concubine a lesson, she could just use her dignity as the mistress of the house. But she actually went to her natal family to cause trouble in the Marquis' Mansion just for her husband's favorite concubine.

She really doesn't have the demeanor of a mistress of a marquis's mansion at all!

Aunt Jiang's face turned three shades paler, and her bright eyes flickered with an uncertain light.

Her slender white hands were tightly clenching a handkerchief, and her fingers were slightly white from the force.

She looked back and forth between Shen and Chu Qianchen, vaguely realizing something. She bit her lower lip slightly, not daring to call Chu Qianchen's name again, let alone ask Shen why she was angry.

At some point, the sunny sky outside turned gloomy, with thick clouds piling up in the sky, as if the dark night had arrived early.

Immediately afterwards, the wind began to blow violently. The summer weather changed suddenly, and the heavy air was filled with the tension of impending storm.

No one spoke in the main hall.

The lady at the top frowned slightly, waiting for Shen to speak.

After Shen smashed the teacup, she didn't say anything, so Nanny Chen immediately asked the maid to serve tea again.

The atmosphere was so weird and solemn that the maids in the main hall didn't even dare to clean up the mess at Aunt Jiang's feet.

The room was dead silent. Shen didn't speak, and neither did anyone else. The stiff atmosphere continued.

Aunt Jiang just stood there with her head down, and cold sweat gradually broke out on the back of her neck.

At first, the lady was waiting for Shen to speak, but she waited and waited, but Shen still didn't say anything.

The silence lasted too long, so long that the lady didn't know whether it was an incense stick of time or half an hour. She drank a few cups of tea without liking the food, and finally couldn't help but said, "Azhi, what on earth do you want to do?!"

Just to smash a cup, just to sit there like this?! The lady couldn't help but glance at the wife of Duke Mu. She thought that the wife of Duke Mu was also old and confused, accompanying Shen to make trouble like this!

Shen took another sip of tea and said calmly, "No hurry, it won't be too late to wait until Chu Qianhuang comes back."

Hearing Shen calling Chu Qianhuang like that, Aunt Jiang's slender body stiffened slightly. She glanced at Shen again, then lowered her eyes silently.

After a while, until the first thunder exploded in the sky, Chu Qianhuang came back, walking hurriedly and looking anxious.

She was wearing a crabapple red jacket embroidered with butterflies and hibiscus flowers and a pink pleated skirt, which was very bright and beautiful.

"Big girl, this way."

A maid walked in front to lead the way for Chu Qianhuang.

When she stepped into the main hall, Chu Qianhuang naturally saw the wife of Duke Mu, Shen, Chu Qianchen, and Aunt Jiang standing in the middle of the main hall, and her eyes widened slightly in surprise.

She had hurried back to the mansion from the palace because she had heard that the old lady was seriously ill, but now seeing that the old lady sitting at the top was safe and sound, she felt that something was wrong.

Chu Qianhuang slowed down her pace, her eyes flickered, and she continued to walk in front of the old lady, knelt down and bowed, "Grandma."

She has an elegant posture and graceful manners. That elegance seems to be engraved in her bones, and she is very charming.

Then, she also bowed to Lady Mu and Shen: "Grandmother, mother."

Shen's expression turned cold, and she said calmly: "I am not your mother."

The lady frowned, thinking that Shen was simply inexplicable and actually got angry with her own daughter.

This Shen is a bit too overbearing. Didn’t Huang Jieer just come to the palace to be a companion?

The lady thought that Shen was angry because Chu Qianhuang insisted on being the princess's companion.

Chu Qianhuang's pupils shrank slightly, and a hint of panic flashed across her eyes. Then she forced a smile and said, "Mother, I am wrong..."

"I'm not your mother." Shen interrupted Chu Qianhuang directly.

She did not miss Chu Qianhuang's sudden realization, and thought to herself that as expected, Chu Qianhuang really knew her own life experience.

Shen raised her hand and pointed at Aunt Jiang behind Chu Qianhuang, "This is your mother."

Madam: “…”

Chu Qianhuang: "..."

Aunt Jiang: “…”

Time seemed to stand still for a moment, and in an instant, the sound in the room seemed to be sucked away.

All three of them were shocked, but each in his own way.

Even Nanny Wang and the other maids and servants heard it and were stunned. They looked at each other in confusion, not understanding what the play was about.

Chu Qianhuang stood still. She did not look at Aunt Jiang, but instead looked at Chu Qianchen.

However, Chu Qianchen did not look at Chu Qianhuang. She lowered her eyes and drank tea, calmly and composedly, as if everything that happened here had nothing to do with her.

“Bang!”

The lady was startled and annoyed at first, and slammed her hand heavily on the coffee table.

The lady put on the dignity of a mother-in-law, raised her finger and pointed at Shen and scolded, "That's enough! Look at you, you are talking nonsense, how can you be a marquis's wife!"

"Our Yongding Marquis Mansion is a founding family of ministers, with generations of meritorious service. We have never had a daughter-in-law like you who would go back to her parents' home out of anger. As the mistress of the house and the eldest sister-in-law, you don't know how to be cautious in your words and deeds. Let the people below..."

"Generations of meritorious service?" Shen interrupted the Madam with a sneer, her lips curled up in disdain, "In my opinion, this Yongding Marquis's Mansion is simply a den of filth!"

Shen Shi didn't give Madam Tai face at all. Anyway, the family was rotten to the core, so what was the point of saving face? !

Shen looked at Chu Qianhuang again, her eyes as sharp as arrows, and still called her by her name: "Chu Qianhuang, have you already known who your biological mother is?!"

Without waiting for Chu Qianhuang to answer, Shen looked at Aunt Jiang again, "Jiang Minshan, why don't you acknowledge your biological daughter!!"

Outside the main hall, there was another deafening roar of thunder.

The rumbling thunder came one after another, louder than the last, like thousands of horses galloping.

“Boom!”

Every clap of thunder was like a heavy hammer hitting everyone's heart.

The lady was furious at first, but gradually she calmed down a little. Looking at Shen's appearance, it didn't seem like she was speaking in anger.

Moreover, the wife of Duke Mu did not stop Shen and let her talk nonsense. It was all too weird.

The anger in the lady's heart subsided, but doubts filled her heart, and she went to see Chu Qianhuang and Aunt Jiang again.

Aunt Jiang still kept her eyes downcast and stared at the tip of her shoes, as if she didn't hear anything.

Chu Qianhuang was shocked and her pretty face turned pale.

She bit her lip slightly and admitted her mistake sincerely: "I know I made my mother angry, I will change!"

"Mother, I know I shouldn't have left the Duke's Mansion without permission. It's my fault!"

"If you are angry, punish me, scold me, make me kneel in the ancestral hall, or copy scriptures, I will do it all willingly..."

Chu Qianhuang's voice trembled slightly. She looked at Shen with hurt, and her eyes were instantly filled with crystal tears.

The more the lady looked at it, the more she felt that something was not right, but she had just lost her temper with Shen and could not save face, so she could only wink at Nanny Wang.

Nanny Wang cleared her throat and tried to smooth things over: "Yes, Madam, the young lady knows she is wrong..."

Shen came this time just to make things clear. She didn't want to play along with them, didn't want to cover up for Chu Lingxiao and Jiang Minshan, and didn't want to let her own daughter suffer the label of a concubine.

"Mother," Shen looked at the lady with a sarcastic look, "Why don't you ask your niece, or your son, what he did in Daping Temple fourteen years ago!"

Shen's phoenix eyes were dark and deep, burning with raging anger and murderous hatred.

Shen said almost word by word: "To pass off a concubine as the legitimate wife, to steal a dragon and replace it with a phoenix."

"He is unkind to his biological daughter, and he is unjust to his legal wife."

"He repays kindness with hatred, disregards blood ties, is unkind and unjust, and is not worthy of being a human being at all!"

As Shen kept scolding, the temperature in the main hall continued to drop, as if it had suddenly entered a cold winter.

Chu Qianhuang felt that the cold chill seemed to penetrate into her bones, and every word of Shen's was like a needle piercing her heart.

Finally, this day has come! Chu Qianhuang felt a little sad and powerless, as if she was standing on a thin steel wire, teetering on the verge of falling.

She tried so hard and put so much thought into it, but she still couldn't escape...

She came to the capital city of Da Qi in the spring of last year, and that day was filled with thunder and lightning just like it is now.

At night, she slept uneasily and had a dream.

In her dream, she knew that this was a novel, and the protagonist of the novel was not called Chu Qianhuang. Chu Qianhuang was just a little girl who was teased by fate, an insignificant victim in this novel.

Her life experience is her original sin!

As early as when she was just born, her father secretly exchanged her with the legitimate daughter born to her stepmother.

But the truth will eventually come out.

In the novel, it is March of this spring.

That day, Chu Yunmu fell from the rockery and lost his life.

Shen was convinced that someone was trying to murder Chu Yunmu, and finally traced it back to Aunt Jiang and Nanny Cui, and then discovered that Chu Qianchen and Chu Qianhuang were secretly swapped.

For this reason, Shen made a big fuss in the Marquis' Mansion and even called on Duke Mu and his wife to support her.

No matter how the lady tried to persuade Chu Lingxiao to admit his mistake and accept the punishment, and even severely punished Aunt Jiang and sent her to the family temple, Shen was still unyielding and pressed the issue so hard that Chu Qianhuang in the novel was reduced from a legitimate daughter to a concubine's daughter overnight, becoming a laughing stock in the capital and could no longer hold her head up in the capital.

Obviously Chu Qianhuang did nothing wrong, why did she have to bear such an unfair fate! In the dream, the key to everything was the day when Chu Yunmu fell off the rockery. She didn't know which day it was, so during that time, she went to Bixiao Tower every day to read books and paint.

It was not until the ninth day of March that she finally saw Nanny Cui.

That morning, she deliberately made a sound to scare away Aunt Cui in advance, and then picked up the handkerchief lost by Aunt Cui near the rockery. She originally wanted to save Chu Yunmu and stop him from going up the rockery, but Mei'er came running over, so she could only leave in a hurry.

Fortunately, Chu Yunmu survived.

She thought this was the best ending and that everything could return to normal, but she didn't expect Chu Qianchen to suddenly change and become closer and closer to Shen.

Shen treated Chu Qianchen like her own daughter, but became even stricter with herself...

In just a short blink of an eye, Chu Qianhuang's thoughts were already overwhelmed.

“Boom!”

Another loud thunder exploded in the sky.

Chu Qianhuang's body trembled violently, and her cherry lips also trembled slightly.

Shen did not miss the changes in Chu Qianhuang.

Although she had guessed in her heart yesterday that Chu Qianhuang should know the truth, she told herself countless times that Chu Qianhuang was, after all, the child she raised with her own hands, and the child she taught would not be too bad.

However, now, Chu Qianhuang's performance once again broke her expectations.

At this moment, Shen was 100% sure that Chu Qianhuang did know.

She knew long ago that she was not her own child.

Therefore, she was the one who deliberately encouraged Chu Qianling to dance with Chu Qianchen with swords. She wanted to ruin Chu Qianchen's face...

(End of this chapter)