Chapter 72: I Find It Dirty

When Su Mixue called out “sister”, it abruptly pulled out the memories and plots that were buried deep in Su Wan’s mind, flashing scene by scene like a fast-forwarded movie.

Su Mixue’s maternal grandmother was the wet nurse of Su Jihong. When Su Jihong was five years old, the wet nurse Feng had saved enough money to return to her hometown and start a small business with her husband, hoping to live a good life with her family.

The husband brought their eldest son to pick up wet nurse Feng. Because Su Jihong couldn’t bear to part with wet nurse Feng, the old lady of Marquis of Dingyuan kept the family for a few more days. On the way back, an accident happened, and only wet nurse Feng survived.

Her mother-in-law hated her to the bone, cursed wet nurse Feng as a jinx, and drove her out of the house.

The old lady of Marquis of Dingyuan pitied her and let her continue to take care of Su Jihong. However, wet nurse Feng was pregnant with a posthumous child. After ten months of pregnancy, she gave birth to Qinglan, who is Su Mixue’s mother.

Su Jihong respected wet nurse Feng very much and felt guilty in his heart. If he hadn’t been ignorant and kept wet nurse Feng’s family for a few more days, perhaps her husband and son wouldn’t have died. He treated Qinglan as his own sister.

The old lady of Marquis of Dingyuan was also kind-hearted. Perhaps she and Su Jihong had the same mentality, and she took extra care of this mother and daughter. She allowed Qinglan to go to the clan school and study with the young ladies and young masters.

Qinglan was very scheming and knew how to seize this mentality. She was sweet-talking and cunning, which made the old lady of Marquis of Dingyuan like her very much. The young ladies in the mansion also loved to play with her. Apart from her low status, her life was even better than that of the ordinary young ladies.

This also fuelled Qinglan’s ambition. She wanted to marry Su Jihong and had him completely smitten, tightly held in her palm.

After Qinglan came of age, Su Jihong mentioned to the old lady of Marquis of Dingyuan that he wanted to marry Qinglan.

The old lady of Marquis of Dingyuan strongly opposed it. How could the heir of the prestigious Marquis Mansion marry a girl of low status, the daughter of a servant?

Although Qinglan was educated and studied with the young ladies in the mansion, there was an insurmountable gap between their social statuses.

Just then, the Empress Dowager sent an opportunity and arranged a marriage for Su Jihong with the only daughter of the Qi family.

She originally planned to let Qinglan be Su Jihong’s concubine, but seeing Su Jihong’s infatuation with Qinglan, the old lady of Marquis of Dingyuan changed her mind. She elevated Qinglan, wanted to recognize her as an adopted daughter, and chose a gentleman with a clean family background to be Qinglan’s husband.

Once he made achievements, Marquis of Dingyuan Mansion would give him a push, fulfilling a favor, and also cutting off Su Jihong’s thoughts.

But when Qinglan heard the conversation between mother and son, she set a trap, got Su Jihong drunk, lured him into bed, deliberately let people break in, and forced the old lady of Marquis of Dingyuan to give in.

The old lady of Marquis of Dingyuan grew up in a large mansion, what tricks has she not seen?

She immediately saw through Qinglan’s scheme. She was both angry and disappointed, and drove Qinglan out of Marquis of Dingyuan Mansion.

Wet nurse Feng had no face to stay in Marquis of Dingyuan Mansion. After confessing to the old lady, she took Qinglan and returned to her hometown. The lady of Marquis of Dingyuan gave them several dozen taels of silver, fulfilling the last master-servant relationship.

Wet nurse Feng took this money as Qinglan’s dowry and hastily married her to a poor scholar in the village. Not long after the marriage, Qinglan discovered that she was pregnant.

Qinglan was not willing to accept her fate, she felt that her chance to turn things around had come. After wet nurse Feng passed away, she secretly contacted Su Jihong.

At that time, Su Mixue was already five years old. Su Jihong found them and brought the mother and daughter to the town, bought a house to settle them in, and hired a teacher to teach Su Mixue.

Under the coercion and temptation of Su Jihong, the poor scholar had to endure humiliation for the safety of his family, and finally died in depression.

“Sister, are you angry with me for stealing your marriage?” Su Mixue walked up to Su Wan, her face showing guilt, and said self-blamingly, “This was all father’s decision, I, I am just his stepdaughter, I dare not disobey his orders.”

Su Wan looked at Su Mixue’s tearful and pitiful appearance, and found it quite interesting in her heart.

This mother and daughter acted like innocent victims, making the original owner run in circles.

After achieving their goal, they still pretended in front of her and shifted the blame onto Su Jihong.

In the book, Su Mixue never came to Xinghua Village. After the original owner married Gu Huaizhi, she only hated Su Jihong and vented her anger on Su Mixue, wanting to get her marriage back.

If the original owner’s soul still resided in this body, she might have been won over by Su Mixue again, and then silently died in Su Mixue’s hands.

“You’ve gained an advantage and still pretend to be aggrieved, I can’t believe I treated you as a good sister. Are you coming to Xinghua Village now to show off that you’ve become the princess consort?”

Su Wan mimicked the original owner’s tone and demeanor, and sneered disdainfully, “A wild chicken is still a wild chicken, even if it’s dressed in bright and beautiful feathers, it can’t become a phoenix.”

Su Mixue didn’t get angry, but instead, tears kept falling down her face. She said with tears in her eyes, “Sister, I didn’t. If you want to be the princess consort, I can help you.”

She was sincere and wanted to hold Su Wan’s hand, “Give me some more time, I can find a way to get you back.”

“No need.” Su Wan avoided Su Mixue’s hand and said disdainfully, “The crown prince has already been used by you, I find it dirty, you keep him.”

Su Mixue was taken aback, and looked at Su Wan in astonishment. She couldn’t believe that the person who was just mocking her had suddenly changed her face and looked down on the crown prince.

After some thought, Su Mixue understood that Su Wan was still holding a grudge.

This was a case of saying one thing and meaning another.

“Sister, don’t say that, I don’t want to either.” Su Mixue bit her lip and said grievously, “I came here this time to see you, and then to tell you that father is sick. Have you seen the list posted by the crown prince?”

“No.” Su Wan didn’t want to waste her breath with Su Mixue, and stretched out her hand to her, “You’ve seen it too, my life is not easy. You have deep sisterly affection for me, so give me a thousand taels of silver.”

Su Mixue’s expression froze, she couldn’t help but look at Su Wan, feeling that she had changed. There was no jealousy, unwillingness, or pointing at her nose and cursing angrily.

She just made a sarcastic comment in a nonchalant tone. Those clear eyes of hers seemed as if they could see through one’s soul.

She was wearing a cloth skirt and a wooden hairpin on her head. Based on what she knew about Su Wan, she would never wear such clothes, yet she seemed to adapt well.

Su Mixue’s hands were nervously folded together, and she had a vague feeling that things were getting out of her control.

She frowned, and annoyed that Madam Jiang was not doing a good job. After all this time, she still hadn’t dealt with Su Wan.

Especially since Su Wan had just gotten off the carriage. Wasn’t the Gu family very poor?

The dowry that the Marquis Mansion prepared for Su Wan, her mother had used some means to put it all into her own dowry, not even giving Su Wan half a copper coin.

Where did Su Wan get the money to ride in a carriage?

Su Mixue composed herself, her eyes filled with tears as she said , “You don’t care about father…”

“Stop talking nonsense. Are you unwilling to give the money?” Su Wan impatiently interrupted Su Mixue’s words, and sneered, “You can marry the crown prince, I bet you’re secretly happy. Stop pretending here and saying some high-sounding words.”

“Sister, you misunderstood, how could I be unwilling to give?”

Su Mixue gritted her teeth, thought for a moment, and painfully let Qinghuan go and get a thousand taels of silver notes.

When Su Wan got the silver notes, she laughed, “Consider the crown prince sold to you.”