Marquis Zhongyong waited for her to continue, but she stopped, picked up her chopsticks, and slowly ate her food.
"Who is that important person?"
He had a gut feeling that this person was related to what he wanted to know.
Old Lady Cai dozed off while eating, and Marquis Zhongyong patiently waited until the rain inside the house had stopped before she opened her mouth again.
The question, however, was, "Guess how old I am this year?"
Marquis Zhongyong also showed great patience this time, carefully examining Old Woman Cai.
Her hair was sparse and white, and her facial skin was even looser than that of the Grand Princess. She was hunched over and looked as if she might die at any moment.
She looks to be at least eighty years old, like the Grand Princess, yet she is Butcher Fu's lover.
If Butcher Fu hadn't died, he would be around sixty years old now, and Old Woman Cai shouldn't be that much older than him.
Therefore, he conservatively estimated, "Seventy?"
But no matter how you look at it, it seems to go beyond that. In his heart, he thinks that Butcher Fu has no bottom line, not even sparing widows who are twenty years older than him.
Unexpectedly, Old Lady Cai burst out laughing. She held up both hands and gestured, "I just turned sixty. I got married early."
She was the same age as the old lady of the Marquis's mansion, but the old lady of the Marquis's mansion was well-maintained and looked no more than fifty years old.
Thinking of the old lady of the Marquis's mansion, the Marquis of Zhongyong's eyes darkened.
Judging from what the old lady and Fu Jiang said in the palace, if she is indeed Fu Jiang's biological mother, then the daughter of the disgraced official that Granny Cai mentioned must be her.
How did the daughter of a disgraced official become the old lady of a marquis's mansion and his own mother?
What role did the father play in all of this, and why did he lie to him?
Marquis Zhongyong couldn't understand the reasoning behind it for a while.
Looking at her deformed fingers, Old Lady Cai asked him, "Guess again, how did I become like this?"
Marquis Zhongyong was in no mood to guess at the moment. "If you can't guess, just tell me."
Old Lady Cai had not received much kindness in the past few decades. She had met many people, and she could tell at a glance that the Marquis of Zhongyong was of noble status, yet he was willing to show her kindness.
Seeing his low spirits, he stopped being coy and sighed, "Then let's just say it was Butcher Fu's wife who did it."
She was a jealous woman. She looked down on Butcher Fu, but since he actually had someone else by his side, she held a grudge.
Earlier, I mentioned that she had climbed up to a powerful person, but I didn't actually know who that powerful person was; I had only seen him once.
How can I describe it? A young girl, with an air of grandeur, standing there, makes you feel like a celestial being descended to earth; to look at her more than once would be blasphemous.
Her features were so exquisite they seemed unreal. In all her life, this old woman had never seen such a fair-skinned girl, just like the white jade Guanyin statue in a brothel madam's room.
The old woman thought to herself, "Such a person must not be from an ordinary family. She might be a princess or a noblewoman."
Fu the butcher's wife was from an official family, yet she was treated like a maidservant.
She was truly willing to be that man's maid, running to his house every day despite being heavily pregnant.
Fu the butcher was unwilling, but he couldn't persuade her otherwise. It is said that she later became very close to that woman. When the noblewoman's husband returned, he gave her a large bag of grain to thank her for keeping his wife company.
With war raging, many families were running out of food. Although Butcher Fu had some savings, he had spent most of it on his escape.
This large bag of grain silenced Butcher Fu completely, and also gave his wife even more reason to visit the wealthy man's house.
Upon hearing this, Marquis Zhongyong remained outwardly calm, but inwardly his mind was in turmoil. "What does that noblewoman's husband do?"
Old Lady Cai gave him a deep look, her expression meaningful. "He's a soldier, and I heard he's a minor officer in the army."
Do you know his last name?
"Was it Zhou or Zou?"
Marquis Zhongyong closed his eyes.
Before his father was enfeoffed as a marquis, his surname was Zhou. It was only after he made great contributions in the war and was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Loyalty and Valor that he was granted the imperial surname and his family name was changed to Xie.
He suppressed his emotions and asked, "And then?"
"Later, Fu the butcher's wife indeed gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. She didn't even care about the children and kept running to that person's house."
The two children cried loudly for their mother, which angered Butcher Fu so much that he went to her house to find her, but he couldn't get in because there were guards at the house.
But he couldn't soothe the children, so he carried both children to the door of the nobleman's house. The nobleman was kind-hearted and, upon hearing the children crying, let him in.
Only then did Butcher Fu learn that the noblewoman was also pregnant, but her condition was not good. That's why the soldier asked Butcher Fu's wife to help take care of her.
But he didn't even take care of his family and children. Seeing that his wife cared more about other people than his own children, the butcher took his anger out on the nobleman and said a few harsh words to him.
Unexpectedly, the noblewoman looked like a porcelain doll and was as fragile as a porcelain doll; she bled that very night.
Junhan was away on a mission and not at home. The two guards he left behind were not easy to deal with, and they looked like they were going to fight Fu the Butcher to the death.
His wife pleaded with a powerful figure, who intervened, and only then did the two guards give up.
But to everyone's surprise, the bleeding didn't stop, and two days later, she went into premature labor.
His wife hurriedly told Butcher Fu to escape. Butcher Fu often heard his wife say that the soldier treated noble people like his own life and was extremely fierce. Seeing that even the guards were like this, he was worried that the soldier would take his life when he returned.
Taking advantage of the moment when the guards were anxiously waiting for the noble lady to give birth, they were both informing the soldiers and asking for a midwife.
He listened to his wife and packed his things to escape that very night, but his wife refused to leave.
Butcher Fu said that his wife was worried that if something really happened to the important people, the soldiers would not let them go no matter where they were.
She stayed with the nobleman for several months, which gave her some face in front of the soldiers, so she stayed to deal with things until things calmed down before going back to find Butcher Fu.
To convince Butcher Fu, she even left behind her daughter…
Old Lady Cai said she was tired and rested for a while before continuing, "But I know that women have other plans."
Sure enough, Butcher Fu never saw the woman return. After the war subsided, he took Fu Jiang to Qingzhou to look for her, only to find that she had already left and the courtyard was empty.
After much inquiry, it was learned that the noblewoman had died in childbirth, but the soldier had distinguished himself in battle and was said to have been promoted to an official position in the capital.
He assumed that his wife and daughter must have been killed by the soldiers in their anger, and returned to Fu Family Village in fear, never daring to mention the matter in Qingzhou again.
A few years later, he discovered that his son had money in his pocket. He interrogated his son but got no answers. Instead, he fell into the water and drowned.
Then his parents, brothers, and relatives also suffered misfortunes one after another. People said that the Fu family must have done something terrible to be punished and that they were almost all dead.
But then I thought of that woman and worried that something might happen to me too. I packed my things and was about to run away when someone hit me on the head with a stick.
I woke up in a brothel and endured all the tortures brothels used on me, including whipping, kneeling on porcelain shards, the tiger bench, and cat torture.
Finally, she was thrown into a dark room of a brothel and made a lowly prostitute.
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