Chapter 455: Showing Up at Her Doorstep (1)
Editor: Atlas Studios
Li Jinghua called Mu Yangling over and gently placed the child aside. Smiling, she said, “Come and sit.”
Seeing that Mu Yangling had lost some weight, Li Jinghua said apologetically, “I caused trouble for you guys and made you and Fourth Brother run around for me.”
“Sister-in-law, what are you saying? It’s our duty to take care of you.” Mu Yangling still felt a little guilty. After all, before she came, she had patted her chest and promised Qi Xiuyuan that she would definitely protect Li Jinghua and the child.
In the end, such a huge accident happened.
Li Jinghua smiled and said seriously, “I heard that Fourth Brother caused the Zhang, Shu, and Zhou families quite a lot of headache.”
Mu Yangling pursed her lips and said, “Actually, if they hadn’t caused such a ruckus that night, we wouldn’t have pursued them so relentlessly. It’s not like we don’t understand the principle of being lenient wherever possible.”
“You call that being lenient?” Li Jinghua said nonchalantly. “Don’t push them too hard. We’ll be here for the foreseeable future. Since Zhang Cheng is the Minister of Revenue and our general is leading troops outside, there will be many entanglements between the two. It won’t be good if he plays dirty tricks behind our backs.”
Mu Yangling nodded and said, “Sister-in-law, don’t worry. Haoran knows his limits.”
Li Jinghua did not believe her. “You should call Fourth Brother back. I’ll talk to him personally.”
Li Jinghua touched the baby’s tender face and said, “If the child is fine, I’ll bring him to the Nation Protecting Temple to offer incense a hundred days later. If anything happens, I’m his mother and know what to do better than you.”
Mu Yangling pondered for a moment and nodded in agreement.
However, before she could call Qi Haoran back, the doorkeeper handed her a card with greetings1. The maidservant who came to pass the message bowed and said, “Because the visitors claim to be your aunts, we didn’t dare to stop them. They’re outside now.”
Mu Yangling’s expression darkened as she opened the card. On it were the seals of the Zhang and Shu families.
Mu Yangling laughed out of anger. Had the Zhang and Shu families only just find out about her identity, or had they always known?
No matter what, to be able to find out that she was Shu Wanniang’s daughter so quickly meant that they had not lost track of Shu Wanniang all these years. Was it them who had enlisted the Mu family into the military back then?
Mu Yangling gripped the card tightly and her expression darkened. Why?
No matter what, her mother was the daughter of the Shu family and, furthermore, a legitimate daughter. What grudge did the Shu family have against her to force the Qi family to their deaths?
Under those circumstances, wouldn’t enlisting their family into the military be sending them to their deaths?
If not for her relationship with Qi Xiuyuan and Qi Haoran, Mu Shi would have been a new recruit who was suppressed by everyone when he entered the military camp. With his strength, he would only be arranged to be the vanguard. It would be good enough if one-tenth of the military merits he obtained landed on him.
Bowen was so young and weak. If anything happened to Mu Shi, it was impossible for him to be removed from his military status. Once he turned 14, he would have to go to the battlefield. At the thought of this outcome, Mu Yangling had a wretched impression of the Shu family.
Now that they had shown up at her doorstep, the reason was obvious.
She had been here for half a year, but there had been no movement from the Shu family at all. Now that something had happened, they came looking for her.
Mu Yangling sat down in the reception pavilion and drank a cup of tea to suppress the anger in her heart. After thinking for a moment, she said to the maidservant, “I’ve never heard my mother say that she has brothers and sisters. However, since they came looking for me, I also want to hear their excuses. Go and let them in.”
The maidservant bowed and agreed. When she went out again, her aura changed. Since Fourth Madam claimed not to have any maternal uncles and aunts, and even used the words “let them in” instead of “invite”, there was no need to be so polite.
The maidservant didn’t know the second madam of the Zhang family and the fourth madam of the Shu family. If she knew them, she wouldn’t be so rude.
Shu Shuniang and Madam Shu-Fang didn’t expect that a mere servant of a Grade 4 official would dare to give them attitude. Seeing that Mu Yangling didn’t come out to welcome them personally, their hearts couldn’t help but sink when they thought of the fact that Mu Yangling had never visited the Shu family after coming to the capital.
The two of them went to the Qi Residence’s reception pavilion together. On the way, Madam Shu-Fang asked her sister-in-law1 hesitantly, “Sister-in-law, could it be that she doesn’t know about Second Aunt?”
After a moment of silence, Shu Shuniang said with uncertainty, “I don’t know either. Since Wanniang has always been able to keep secrets, it’s possible that she didn’t tell her daughter.”
“Will she believe us, then?”
This time, Shu Shuniang said firmly, “Yes, I look very similar to her mother. If not, I still have a portrait of her mother when she was young. It won’t be difficult for her to recognize me.”
Madam Shu-Fang heaved a sigh of relief.
When the two of them arrived at the reception pavilion, Mu Yangling was already sitting there drinking her second cup of tea. When she saw them, she didn’t stand up. She only looked up at the two of them and said sarcastically, “The doorkeeper said that my Aunt1 and Aunt2 are here to visit. I was still curious who it was. So it’s Fourth Madam of the Shu family and Second Madam of the Zhang family. I wonder when our three families got involved.”
The two of them did not expect Mu Yangling to be so straightforward. They were used to not showing it on their faces despite being at odds in secret. Hence, seeing that Mu Yangling did not follow the rules, it really shocked them quite a bit.
Shu Shuniang was the first to react. She wiped the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief and forced a smile. “It’s normal that Yangling doesn’t know us. Speaking of which, we haven’t seen your mother for 16 years.”
Shu Shuniang and Madam Shu-Fang sat at the side and sighed. “Your name should be from a verse in ‘Jiuge? Xiangjun1’. Your mother has high hopes for you. Back then, she blushed and told me that she would name her son this in the future. I didn’t expect her to also use this name after giving birth to a daughter. I heard that you have two younger brothers and a younger sister?”
Mu Yangling couldn’t help but sigh at what an excellent conversationalist Shu Shuniang was. If her father hadn’t repeatedly instructed her to be careful of the Shu family and told her about her mother’s past with the Shu family, she might have really fallen for Shu Shuniang’s nonsense about the deep sisterhood she shared with her mother.
Mu Yangling thought that if her younger sister had been missing for 16 years and she found out about her sister’s daughter’s whereabouts one day, she would probably come looking for her excitedly like Shu Shuniang. With this mentality, even if she didn’t feel deep affection towards Shu Shuniang, she would at least have a trace of kinship.
Mu Yangling looked at Shu Shuniang and suddenly wanted to know how she would react to her questioning.
Hence, Mu Yangling looked at Shu Shuniang suspiciously and said hesitantly, “That was indeed why my mother gave me this name. But you claim to be my Aunt, yet why haven’t I heard my mother mention it before?”
Shu Shuniang said sadly, “16 years ago, when our entire family fled south, your mother was separated from us, so there has been no news of her ever since. I didn’t expect her to have such a grown daughter after these 16 years.”
“Got separated?” Mu Yangling muttered the words on the tip of her tongue. There was mockery in her eyes as she asked, “Can the Shu family, a noble family, lose the daughter of the first wife? The concubine’s daughter seems to be living rather well, right?”