PFC Chapter 105 Begging for Food at Someone's Door
Chapter 105 Begging for Food at Someone's Door
"Whether it's nonsense or not, let Father see for himself and he'll know." Lu Zhiyuan said meaningfully, "Compared to Aunt Ji, isn't my mother a little bit inferior? She can't act, she can't pretend to cry, and she can't play the victim. She can't pull off any tricks in this inner court. No wonder Father is so infatuated with you! He really believed Aunt Ji's tricks."
"Lu Zhiyuan!" Lu Huai's face flushed red: "You speak without thinking, is that how your mother taught you?"
“Thanks to my father, my mother never taught Yuan’er. The wet nurse that my grandmother chose for me was a maid that Aunt Ji painstakingly arranged for me to be by Yuan’er’s side.” Lu Zhiyuan grasped Ji Wanwan’s arm: “I wonder how well Yuan’er is learning? Have I disappointed you, Aunt Ji?”
“Nonsense! The wet nurse and maid were clearly arranged by your mother. You have no respect for your elders and no manners. You even dare to try to shift the blame onto others for your mother.” Lu Huai pulled her up: “Lu Zhiyuan, you really are just like your mother.”
“Yuan’er was born of Mother, so she looks exactly like Mother! Father should be glad that Yuan’er is not as blind and heartless as you.” Lu Zhiyuan opened the box on the bedside table: “This is the wet nurse’s place of origin information, and these are the contracts of the maids in the other courtyard. Please take a good look at them, Father.”
Ji Wanwan reached out to snatch it, but Lu Zhiyuan stopped her.
If her second uncle hadn't sent these things, she wouldn't have known that the wet nurse who murdered her in the other courtyard was actually from the Ji family.
Ji Wanwan's father was once a minor official in the capital. Her wet nurse was a maid they bought and brought home. After entering the household, she served by the side of Madam Ji, who was Ji Wanwan's mother. After the Ji family's misfortune, she followed Madam Ji back to her parents' home as a personal maid. It wasn't until Madam Ji's parents' home was also implicated that she returned to the capital as a government slave, living in a small brothel and making a living by selling her smiles.
Six months later, she was redeemed by one of her patrons, changed her name, and married him. Later, she entered the Marquis's mansion as Lu Zhiyuan's wet nurse.
What seems like a coincidence is actually not.
As she solicited customers in front of the brothel, Ji Wanwan, sitting in her carriage, recognized her at a glance. This patron was someone Ji Wanwan had led her there. He had worked for the Ji family and had taken a liking to her since her wet nurse was a maid. Ji Wanwan knew she was having a hard time at her husband's house, and that her mother-in-law and husband had even encouraged her to beat and humiliate her. She wanted to put her in a desperate situation so she could then help her.
What the wet nurse didn't know was that it was Ji Wanwan who saved her, and it was also Ji Wanwan who pushed her into the fire. The maids in the other courtyard were relatively simple; they had been bribed by Ji Wanwan.
"Ji Wanwan!" Lu Huai, holding up those things, asked, "Is it really you?"
Ji Wanwan shook her head, looking completely innocent: "Brother Huai, Wanwan doesn't know what Yuan'er is talking about. Even if my wet nurse was once a member of the Ji family, she has nothing to do with me. Brother Huai, have you forgotten that Wanwan grew up with you in the Marquis's mansion? And those maids, the names on their indentures can be forged. Brother Huai, you recognize Wanwan's handwriting, that wasn't written by Wanwan."
“Aunt Ji is truly eloquent.” Lu Zhiyuan clicked her tongue twice. “How come I remember Aunt Ji’s specialty is imitating handwriting?”
Lu Huai's mind went blank for a moment, and he grabbed Ji Wanwan's hand. Perhaps the bloodstain on her chest was too conspicuous, for he couldn't help but look at it. The blood was two different colors, one dark and one light, and the smell was slightly different, a fishy odor mixed with a foul stench. Suspicious, he tried to pull the clothes aside, but Ji Wanwan grabbed him: "Brother Huai, there are outsiders here! Wanwan is just your cousin."
"Aunt Ji is such a good actress!" Taking advantage of her momentary lapse in attention, she pulled open her collar and pulled something out: "My Lu Yun doesn't look at just anything dirty. By the way, let me introduce this to Father. This thing is made of cleaned sheep intestines and filled with chicken blood. See the hole on it? Aunt Ji poked it with a hairpin."
"Why?" Lu Huai stared at the object, his mind blank.
“Naturally, I want Father to believe that she is seriously injured and that she is truly seeking death for Father’s sake.” Lu Zhiyuan threw the thing aside: “A clumsy self-inflicted injury scheme, but it works very well for Father.”
In the original text, Ji Wanwan used this scheme to frame her mother time and time again.
Enraged, Lu Huai slapped Ji Wanwan across the face. Ji Wanwan ignored her swollen cheek and clung to him tightly.
"Brother Huai, just kill Wanwan! Wanwan had no choice. Wanwan was afraid of being kicked out of the Marquis's mansion by the Old Madam, afraid that she would never see Brother Huai again." Ji Wanwan tore open her clothes: "Wanwan didn't use a self-inflicted injury trick. Wanwan really wanted to atone for her sins with her death, to beg the Old Madam's forgiveness with her death, and to beg her sister to return to the Marquis's mansion. But Brother Huai, Wanwan can't die. Wanwan can't let Jingyuan be without a mother."
Lu Jingyuan rushed in, hugged Ji Wanwan, and cried, "Father, do you want to beat Mother to death? Then beat Jingyuan to death too!"
After saying that, she burst into loud sobs, making Lu Zhiyuan's ears ring.
Lu Yun frowned and covered Lu Zhiyuan's ears, "It's noisy, Miss, don't listen."
Hearing the commotion, Old Madam Lu came over and joined in, yelling, "Who wants to kill my beloved grandson? Huai'er, Huai'er, aren't you ashamed that this Marquis's mansion isn't chaotic enough? Aren't you ashamed that people outside are laughing at us enough? If you kill Jingyuan, who will inherit our century-old Marquis's mansion?"
Lu Zhiyuan pursed her lips, thinking to herself that if the Marquis's mansion was gone, there was no need to inherit it.
Lu Huai pointed at Ji Wanwan and asked his mother, "Do you know what she did? She deliberately stabbed herself with a hairpin, and the injury was fake."
"Did she only develop this idea today?" Old Madam Lu rolled her eyes at him. "Is this the first day you've met her?"
Lu Jingyuan couldn't tell right from wrong, so he huddled in his grandmother's arms and said at the top of his lungs, "Grandmother is right. No matter how bad Mother is, she was still chosen by Father."
The arrow pierced Lu Huai's heart, leaving him speechless.
It's not that Ji Wanwan has become like this, but that he was blind and deceitful, completely fooled by her, and only today did he see her for who she truly is.
A rumbling sound came from her stomach. Old Madam Lu rubbed her belly and began to smooth things over: "Alright, stop making a fuss. Let the Marquis's mansion have some peace and quiet for a few days. Go see what the kitchen has left and have them make it and bring it up quickly. This mansion is such a mess, I'm not in the mood to go back to my courtyard. I'll just stay here in Fangfei Courtyard."
“This is my young lady’s courtyard.” Liu Ying stepped forward and was pushed by the old lady’s nanny.
“Yuan’er is a filial child and will certainly not kick me, her grandmother, out.” Old Madam Lu said with an air of authority, “I see that there are many rooms in this courtyard. Huai’er should stay and live with Jingyuan. Jingyuan is still young and needs his mother’s care. Wanwan should also stay. In my opinion, she can live in the wing room over there.”
"Miss—" Liu Ying walked to Lu Zhiyuan's side and whispered, "The old lady and the marquis are clearly bullying you. Should I go find Commander Ma?"
"No need." Lu Zhiyuan smiled. "They'll move out on their own after tonight!"
Years have passed, and Grandmother has probably forgotten that Fangfei Courtyard was formerly called Ningxin Garden, the place where she had those maids beaten to death. No, not just maids, but also a concubine that Grandfather took in, who is said to have died a very tragic death and was buried under the side room where Ji Wanwan and Lu Jingyuan lived.