“Reporting to the old lady, Eldest Master’s family, and the son-in-law will be here soon.” 

After waiting for more than an hour, everyone finally received the good news, and they were all refreshed.

Old Lady Ling looked happy, and said in a loud voice: “Quickly order someone to open the main door.”

Ling’s residence only opened the side door on normal days. Today, Uncle Ling’s family came back, and Uncle Lu came from afar, so naturally, the front door was opened to welcome guests.

Surrounded by everyone, Old Lady Ling walked to the main entrance. Ling Jingshu slowed down intentionally or unintentionally and was at the end together with Ling Xiao.

“Ah Shu, you don’t like such lively occasions, why don’t we just sneak away first!” Ling Xiao whispered in Ling Jingshu’s ear: “Anyway, there are so many people here, without the two of us, it wouldn’t be too eye-catching. No one will notice.”

Ling Jingshu felt warm in her heart. Ling Xiao must have sensed that she was depressed, so he proposed to slip away halfway.

Although no one will pay attention at this time, after that, a scolding was indispensable. More importantly, she didn’t want to hide anymore.

“It’s just a short while, bear with it and it will pass.” Ling Jingshu also lowered her voice: “There are many people here, don’t run around, just stay by my side.” Ling Xiao never refused Ling Jingshu’s decision, and so obediently nodded.

The two siblings were holding hands intimately, and they were very close, forming a small world of their own.

Everyone was looking forward to the return of Uncle Ling’s family and Uncle Lu, so no one paid any attention to the siblings at all – even if they did, no one would find it strange.

Since Yao’s death and Li’s marrying into the family, the brother and sister have a close relationship and depend on each other for life. Ling Jingshu cared for Ling Xiao in every possible way, and Ling Xiao also relied on Ling Jingshu wholeheartedly. On the contrary, he was not close to Fifth Master Ling, their father.

Some sharp-eyed person shouted, “Here they come!”

Everyone became excited.

…

Several carriages stopped at the gate of Ling Mansion.

The first ones to come down were Uncle Ling’s family.

Forty-five-year-old Uncle Ling had a square face and a dignified appearance. He had a few wisps of beard and looked like a civil servant.

The 40-year-old woman beside him was dressed in luxurious clothes, with exquisite makeup and outstanding temperament. She was the eldest bómǔ^[1]wife of father’s elder brother, Madam Sun. In addition, there was the eldest son Ling Ji with his wife. The bright and charming girl standing behind Madam Sun was Ling Jingyan, the daughter of the Eldest Uncle’s family.

“My son is not filial. He hasn’t come back to visit his mother for several years.” Uncle Ling strode up to Old Lady Ling and bowed down.

The old lady’s eyes were red immediately, and she stretched out her hand tremblingly to support Uncle Ling: “You are an official in the capital, and you are busy with business all day long, so it’s inconvenient to come back. How can I blame you…” 

Before saying a word it was over, Uncle Ling was already crying bitterly.

He was an old man, but he still cried like a child in front of his old mother. The old lady was happy and sad at the same time and cried with her eldest son in her arms.

Crying was contagious. Fourth Master Ling and Fifth Master Ling’s eyes were also red, and soon, everyone wiped away their tears.

Ling Jingshu and Ling Xiao fell behind the crowd, lowered their heads, and covered their faces with their sleeves casually, just pretending.

After the excitement of Old Lady Ling and Uncle Ling calmed down a bit, another man’s voice rang out: “Yuèmǔ^[2]mother of your wife and jiùxiōng^[3]wife’s elder brother have been separated for several years. You must be very happy to meet again at this time. Why don’t you enter the mansion and talk about it slowly?”

This voice, with the thick and low voice typical of middle-aged men, penetrated Ling Jingshu’s ears.

Even though Ling Jingshu had been mentally prepared for a long time, when she heard this voice, her whole body trembled uncontrollably.

She looked up.

A familiar face came into view.

A thirty-two-year-old man, with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, with a short beard, handsome and elegant, with an extraordinary bearing. He can be called a handsome man. Most of Lu Hong’s good looks were inherited from him.

This man was the head of the Lu family, Madam Ling’s husband, and her father-in-law in her previous life.

Lu An!

^[4]Trigger Warning! S**ual Assault

…

She and Lu Hong were very close back then, and they were very affectionate after they got married. Within a year of their marriage, she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Lu Hong won the first prize in the provincial examination again, and then went to the Capital to take the national examination, and won the first prize in one fell swoop.

At that time, she felt that this life was happy and smooth, and she had no regrets.

Unexpectedly, the nightmare of life really started from this moment.

Lu Qian’s strange feelings for her troubled her a lot. The sad news of Lu Hong turning away from their marriage made her even more shocked and sad. Because of Lu Qian, Madam Ling, who was originally kind, looked at her more and more gloomy, making things difficult everywhere. The servants in the mansion talked a lot, and the eyes they looked at her were gradually full of disdain, and they rumored in private that she was a woman who seduced her xiǎoshūzi.^[5]younger brother of husband

Being splashed by this pot of dirty water made her speechless, and she cried in secret many times.

She knew in her heart that these were all caused by Ling’s secret tricks. It was obvious that Lu Qian was obsessed with her, so Ling deliberately distorted the facts for fear that these words would damage Lu Qian’s reputation. Madam Ling had been in charge of the Lu family for many years and had many confidantes in the mansion. It was easy to manipulate rumors.

She was struggling in the mansion, and her life became more and more difficult.

Madam Ling arranged a good marriage for Lu Qian, and when Lu Qian found out, there was a big fuss. In front of everyone, he was clamoring to withdraw from the marriage and kept saying that he wanted to marry her.

Ling’s face was completely lost, and the truth that was painstakingly concealed was completely exposed. In anger, she ordered someone to lock her up. Then she put medicine in the food that was delivered.

When she woke up from the drowsiness, she was horrified to find that she was naked and assaulted, and the man lying next to her was actually her father-in-law Lu An.

Lu An was greedy for flowers and lustful all day long and had more than a dozen beautiful concubines, and there were many enchanting singers and dancers in the mansion. However, he managed to maintain his father-in-law’s face in front of her, with a dignified appearance. But who would have thought that he would rape her while she was under the influence of an aphrodisiac…

She had no face to live on and wanted to die.

Ling smiled grimly and appeared in front of her with the child in her arms: “Ling Jingshu if you keep yourself safe, the child will live with you. If you commit suicide and die, I will let your son accompany you to the underworld.” 

Looking at the immature son, her face was full of tears, and she suppressed the thought of dying in humiliation.

Ling looked at her, whose eyes were full of grief and resentment, and smiled coldly: “Ling Jingshu, I didn’t want to treat you like this. Anyway, you are my niece. I wanted you to marry into the Lu family to be my daughter-in-law. I was expecting you to be my helper. It’s a pity that you are useless and could not tie Lu Hong’s heart. He won the first prize in the examination and won the favor of the Princess, so he has a better future.”

“Lu Hong refuses to want you, your sadness is inevitable. But you should never come to seduce my Ah Qian, his reputation and future cannot be ruined in your hands.” 

These words that confuse black and white were really ridiculous.

She retorted subconsciously: “I didn’t seduce Ah Qian, I never had any other thoughts about him from the beginning to the end, he was the one who pestered me…” 

“Shut up! “

Ling scolded angrily, and her face became distorted because of anger: “He is still a child who doesn’t understand things, and he knows what envy is. If you didn’t deliberately seduce him, he would never go astray. Withdrawing from the marriage, when such a scandal gets out, how can he talk about getting married in the future, and how to behave in an upright manner.” 

“Now that you have an affair with your father-in-law, no matter how unwilling Ah Qian is, he will not dare to snatch a woman from his father. I will wait for his heart to settle down, and then I will talk to him about another marriage.”

After speaking, Ling smiled triumphantly. In that laughter, there was an almost crazy pleasure.

Hearing such words, she felt chills all over her body, and murmured to herself in disbelief: “Just for this, you let people drug me and my father-in-law? You are really crazy!” 

Ling’s laughter became more and more crazy and hysterical: “You think it’s just my idea? Do you think I drugged Lu An? Haha… You are so naive and ridiculous.” 

“You don’t even know that since you married and came here, Lu An has been eyeing you with evil intentions. If it wasn’t for Lu Hong, he would have attacked you long ago. This time, I suggested the idea, and I was the one who drugged you. As for him, it is a dream come true, so there’s no need to prescribe medicine…”

At that moment, the world spun, and her world collapsed in an instant.

She was numb and cold all over.

“You will stay in this yard from now on. As long as you are safe and obedient, the child will be safe and sound. If you dare to make any changes, I will let the child accompany you to Huangquan!” After finishing speaking, Ling sneered and walked away.

.

The following days were tantamount to hell on earth for her.

Lu An originally felt a little bit guilty, but he was fascinated by her beauty, and coupled with that unexplainable new excitement, he was extremely obsessed with her. Soon all the beautiful and enchanting concubines were left out in the cold. Facing Ling, he became more tolerant.

In the inner house, no one was an opponent of Madam Ling.

She washed her face with tears all day long and thought of death countless times. But when she thought of her young son, her thoughts of suicide were severely cut off. She gritted her teeth and endured it.

There was no impenetrable wall in the world. The story of Lu An taking his daughter-in-law by force first spread slowly inside the mansion, and gradually spread outside the mansion. However, in the mouths of everyone, this matter was not due to Lu An’s flirtatiousness, but more importantly, because Lu Hong abandoned his wife and son, she stayed alone in her empty boudoir, unwilling to be lonely, and secretly seduced her father-in-law…

Ling’s hate for her went to the bone, not only ruining her chastity but also ruining her reputation.

But she had nowhere to ask for help, there was no news of Lu Hong, and her natal family ignored her plight indifferently. The maids around her were all bribed by Ling, and it was impossible to send a message.

She endured humiliation and survived in the world, until the moment she was about to die, she woke up and regretted it.

God took pity on her and gave her a new life. In this life, she wanted to avenge her previous life and seek justice.

^[6]T/N This was a hard chapter to translate. I felt so bad for our FL. What she endured was heartbreaking. And this is where she differs from Lu Mingyu from Phoenix Hairpin, from the same author. She … Continue reading