Just by looking at the fat woman's attire, the floral decorations on the carriage, and the gorgeous clothes and jade hairpins on the maids behind her, one could tell that her owner must be from an extraordinary family.
However, there are still villagers who are curious and ask: "May I ask, who is your wife?"
The fat woman was not annoyed. She raised her chin slightly and said calmly, "She is the mistress of Dingyuan Marquis's Mansion in the capital, the wife of Dingyuan Marquis."
When the fat woman said this, it was like a stone that caused a thousand waves.
Who is Chen Mingyue? She is the most pitiful young daughter-in-law in Zhoujia Village. Even when she was pregnant, she was asked by her mother-in-law Zhou Huang to fetch water and chop firewood. After she gave birth to a daughter, she was bullied by the whole family all day long.
But now the fat woman said that Chen Mingyue was the niece of the wife of Marquis Dingyuan.
The wife of Marquis Dingyuan is an official higher than the county magistrate. How did Chen Mingyue get involved with such an unknown figure
This, this, this is too incredible, right
But there is no reason for the marquis's wife to come to this remote place and deliberately deceive a divorced woman, so this story must be true.
My God, they actually stayed in the same village with such a big shot.
For a moment, the villagers were all a little excited, but also felt deep regret.
If they had known that Chen Mingyue had such good fortune, they should have established a good relationship with her before. In the future, if she could just say a word for them in front of the Marquis's wife, wouldn't they also be able to become high officials
It was all because the Zhou family was so evil. They drove Chen Mingyue out for an ordinary lady from the county town. Now Chen Mingyue had already left Zhoujia Village, and no one knew where she had gone. They also missed the opportunity to become high-ranking officials.
Thinking of this, a villager coughed twice and said, "Ahem, although Mingyue is no longer from our Zhoujia Village, I, Zhou Laoqi, still have to say something fair. Mingyue is a very good woman. It is Zhou Chengwen's family who has wronged her."
Someone started this, and the others, fearing that they would be blamed by the nobleman if they spoke too slowly, quickly followed suit and said, "Yes, Zhou Chengwen is really a piece of shit. Mingyue even gave birth to a daughter for him, but when it rained so hard, he drove the mother and daughter out."
"That's right. Brother Pan is so young and weak. I don't know what his current situation is."
"This is such a sin! If the people in the Zhou family knew Mingyue's true identity, they would regret it so much that their intestines would turn green."
"Haha, that's true. Zhou Chengwen gave up Mingyue for the lady in the city, but he was actually throwing away the watermelon for the sesame seeds. Mingyue is the one with the truly noble status."
"… "
The fat woman listened to the villagers talking to each other without changing her expression. She waited until everyone got tired of talking before she asked with a smile, "Excuse me, where is the Zhou family?"
Immediately, a villager volunteered to walk in front and lead the way.
Seeing this, other villagers also followed behind to watch the fun.
Although there was no change on the fat woman's face, she felt mixed emotions in her heart. She just felt that this young lady had a really bad fate.
The fat woman's surname was Du. She was the maidservant who came with the dowry of Marquis Dingyuan's wife and was also the marquis's most trusted confidant. In the marquis's mansion, the servants called her Manager Du, so she knew the ins and outs of this matter very well.
It was all due to fate and timing. The marquis' wife fainted after giving birth to the child. She didn't even know whether it was a boy or a girl, and she had no idea about the baby swap.
While these trusted maids were waiting there, they were so busy that they didn't even realize that the young master had been replaced.
Two months ago, when the Marquis' wife went to the Marquis's study to deliver ginseng soup, she overheard the Marquis talking to his staff, saying that his son Pengfei was getting more and more useless as he grew older, and that he looked too ordinary. It turned out that he was not his own son and did not look like him at all. If she had known, she would have picked a better son. The ginseng soup in the Marquis' wife's hand fell to the ground, and the soup basin was smashed to pieces with a clang. The fragments fell all over the floor, waking up the Marquis and his staff in the study.
The maids who followed the marquis's wife were also in turmoil.
At the same time, those puzzles that I couldn't figure out finally got answers.
No wonder the Crown Prince and the Marquis's wife have no similarities at all. The Marquis and his wife are both beautiful, but the Crown Prince looks more and more ordinary as he grows older. You can't even find him when he stands in a crowd.
Moreover, the prince was an unknown person in Jingchun Academy, totally unlike the Marquis who was the most prominent in the past. This also made many people laugh at the Marquis's son being of inferior origin. Now thinking about it, it is true that like dragons give birth to dragons and like phoenixes give birth to phoenixes!
But the Marquis's wife didn't care about that at that time. She ran over and tugged at the Marquis's clothes, asking hurriedly, "Pengfei is not my son? Then where is my child? Where is my child? Tell me, where is my child?"
When the Marquis saw his wife, he was also flustered. He never expected that she would hear this.
Then he saw a maid outside the door looking around, so he quickly asked someone to drive everyone out.
But because Manager Du was a close confidant of the Marquis's wife and would be needed to appease her later, she had the opportunity to stay, and so she also heard those secrets.
It turns out that the prince is not the son of the marquis and his wife at all. He should be the son of a failed scholar.
It was just that at that time the Marquis needed a son, and the aides around him happened to make friends with a scholar, and knew that the scholar's wife had recently given birth to a son, so this drama of "the cat replacing the prince" happened, and the eldest daughter of the Marquis's mansion became the scholar's daughter.
Mrs. Hou never expected that the son she had loved for more than 20 years was not her biological child.
She never expected that her husband, whom she trusted wholeheartedly, would allow his own daughter to wander around outside.
Although the Marquis explained that the scholar left the capital with his wife and children after failing the exam, and then lost his whereabouts along the way, the Emperor was keeping a close eye on him at that time, so he could not make a big fuss to investigate.
But how could the Marquis's wife not know that all of them were just excuses. It was difficult to investigate at that time, but decades had passed. As long as someone wanted to investigate, there would be time. He just didn't care about his daughter.
But he didn't care, but she did.
So the Marquis' wife went back to her parents' home overnight, told her father, the Minister of Revenue, all the truth, and asked her father to help her find her daughter.
It took more than a month to find it.
Then we found this remote Zhoujia Village.
If the Marquis's wife came here, it would cause a lot of trouble, so the people who came were Steward Du and a group of maids.
This group of maids were actually bought by Steward Du from outside. After all, now is not the time to announce the young lady's true identity, and it is really not easy to use the people in the Marquis' Mansion to serve the young lady.
Now, the excuse that Manager Du used to the outside world was that the young lady was the mistress's niece who had been living away from home, and she used the identity of the mistress's brother's illegitimate daughter.
But I never expected that this young lady would live such a hard life.
What was even more unexpected was that she had lost all trace.
(End of this chapter)