In order to lose weight, Mrs. Fan even tried fasting before she got married, and even fainted from hunger.
Unfortunately, even though her waist and limbs were so thin that her bones were visible, her chest and buttocks were still plump.
As long as she wore slightly slim-fitting clothes, she looked more ‘burly’ than other women and did not have the light and graceful figure that was popular nowadays.
Fortunately, the marriage between the Ling and Fan families was arranged when Ling Yaodong’s biological mother was still alive, otherwise, a girl like Mrs. Fan, who looked like a typical vixen, would probably be the first one to be eliminated by many madams from aristocratic families when selecting the main wife for the clan.
In order to suppress her beauty, after becoming the main wife of the heir, Mrs. Fan deliberately put on heavy makeup and wore dark-colored clothes, trying her best to dress herself like a dignified and elegant wife.
Therefore, most people outside the world commented that she was mature and steady, but Mrs. Fan herself knew what she looked like.
Her daughter, Ling Zhuo, was not like her at all, or even like anyone in the Ling family.
When Ling Zhuo was young, she was often sick and almost skinny. She was only skin and bones, which made people feel distressed and did not focus on her face.
Since her health began to improve, the flesh on her body and face had slowly been filled up. Facing that delicate face, Mrs. Fan really couldn’t associate it with herself, and there was no similarity between her and Ling Yaodong’s resolute face.
At that time, Mrs. Fan could still comfort herself that not all children look like their parents. In addition, Ling Zhuo was a premature baby with some congenital deficiencies, so it seemed normal for her to have a slender and delicate appearance.
But as Ling Zhuo grew up, she looked less and less like the Ling family. There were more people gossiping about her in the mansion.
Especially because those who were upset about Ling Yaodong’s succession to the title used Ling Zhuo’s appearance as a topic to attack Ling Yaodong and Mrs. Fan.
“Ling Zhuo was born in the seventh month, but now she can run and jump. Who knows whether she is full-term or premature? Looking at her appearance, she really doesn’t look like a member of the Ling family.”
“When the Marquis was still the heir, he was sent to Jiangzhou to be the county magistrate. Because the Eldest Young Master was ill, the Eldest Madam was delayed for more than four months. After the Eldest Young Master recovered, she set off to Jiangzhou to reunite with the Marquis. Calculating the date, the Sixth Young Lady was conceived shortly after the Eldest Madam arrived in Jiangzhou. Unexpectedly, she encountered an accident and gave birth prematurely in the seventh month.”
The premature birth was very meaningful as if implying that Mrs. Fan had had an affair with someone else and then let the Marquis take the blame. The premature birth in the seventh month was also her own design.
Otherwise, how to explain the fact that the Sixth Young Lady looked nothing like anyone from the Ling and Fan families?
In addition to the obscure ‘affair’ theory, there was another explanation.
“In fact, the Sixth Young Lady who was born prematurely has long died. The current Sixth Young Lady is the child that the Eldest Madam brought from somewhere else. She was afraid that she would be scolded by her husband and parents-in-law for not protecting the fetus in her belly.”
“The current Sixth Young Lady is not the real Sixth Young Lady at all. I heard that there were several other women who gave birth at the same time as the Eldest Madam. Maybe someone coveted the wealth of the Marquis’s mansion and replaced the child.”
…
Some of the rumors were spread by the Old Mrs. Wu and the second branch, and some were the product of the imagination of the people in the mansion.
When Mrs. Fan and Ling Yaodong heard these rumors, their faces turned blue with anger. Others didn’t know, but how could they not know how the accident happened that year?
Although the Li Dynasty ruled the country with filial piety, Ling Yaodong was naturally controlled by his stepmother, but he was the legitimate Marquis of Changping after all, so his attitude was much tougher than before.
With her husband’s tacit approval, Mrs. Fan promptly and decisively sold out a group of servants who gossiped about their master’s affairs, which frightened those servants in the mansion who had ulterior motives into silence. They no longer dared to talk about Ling Zhuo’s appearance.
On that occasion, Old Mrs. Wu and the second branch lost a lot of manpower and became much more obedient.
But the speaker may not mean it, but the listener may take it seriously.
Mrs. Fan took some of the rumors to heart.
When the baby was born, in addition to Mrs. Fan, there were four other women. Mrs. Fan didn’t know whether those women gave birth to a son or a daughter, but it was so chaotic at the time that it was possible that they had taken the wrong child.
Perhaps because she was thinking about it day and night, during that period, Mrs. Fan frequently dreamed of the scene when she gave birth to her daughter eleven years ago.
The chaotic scenes flashed in her mind. Although eleven years had passed, her memory of that day was extremely clear. Many faces that she thought she had forgotten long ago appeared clearly in her dreams.
The last day of the triple update, all…
Tomorrow will update as per usual 🙂
You can support your favorite novel by buying me a cup of Ko-fi ( ˘▽˘)っ♨
I will really appreciate it. ♥️♥️♥️
Lucien On ABRWF Chapter 34.1