Chapter 49
Chapter 49: The Little Miss’s Secret
Gu Shi Yi had expected the person stealing her identity to resemble her at least a little, so the similarity didn’t surprise her.
What shook her was something else entirely.
She knew this woman.
Gu Shi Yi recognized the Sun family’s Eldest Young Madam.
As mentioned before, perhaps because of her half-demon body, Gu Shi Yi had been precocious. She’d understood far too much far too young, and her memory was sharp enough to be a curse when she wanted it to be. She had seen this woman once as a child, and even after twenty-five years, the face was still lodged in her mind.
Back then, her birth mother had just run away. The Gu family head had been furious, and he ordered his son to take his granddaughter to the Qian family to demand an explanation. Gu Shi Yi had followed her birth father to her maternal home in Gilded Gold City and met her maternal grandfather.
The adults had spoken with tight mouths and colder eyes. The mood had been heavy enough to press a child’s lungs flat. It had nothing to do with the children, of course—officials spoke to officials, grudges spoke to grudges—but Gu Shi Yi had been stuck there all the same, trailing after her birth father, bored and restless.
That was when she noticed a little girl standing behind her maternal grandfather.
The girl didn’t move.
Didn’t fidget.
Didn’t even blink much.
She looked like a wooden post someone had dressed in a child’s clothes.
Gu Shi Yi had been genuinely curious.
“She’s been standing there without moving, like a wooden post. Isn’t she tired?”
She tugged at the matron beside her and whispered, “Who is that?”
The matron glanced over, then bent down and whispered back, “Eldest Miss, that is one of your cousins. Her mother and your mother were sisters. But your mother was the legitimate daughter, and her mother was born of a concubine. Her mother died early, her father’s side has no one left, so she was taken back to your maternal home…”
“Oh…”
Gu Shi Yi’s birth mother had run away, and now she heard this cousin’s birth mother had died and her father was gone too. A child’s sympathy flared easily. Gu Shi Yi smiled at the other girl.
The cousin didn’t return it.
She didn’t even spare Gu Shi Yi a glance.
The matron frowned and immediately leaned closer. “Her status is low. She’s not worthy of Eldest Miss’s attention. You don’t need to treat her so well.”
“Oh…”
Gu Shi Yi nodded and didn’t try again. It wasn’t that she thought rank mattered. She just knew a cold wall when she met one, and she had no desire to press her warm face against it.
At the time, it had been a tiny episode. In a child’s heart, it wasn’t even as important as a sweet candy. One look, one moment, then gone.
Except Gu Shi Yi remembered.
She remembered the cousin’s face. She remembered that icy posture. That high, distant air.
And now she was seeing her again—under this roof, in this identity, in this absurd twist of fate. Even Gu Shi Yi, hardened by years on the road, couldn’t keep recognition from flickering across her expression.
The woman seated above—this Eldest Young Madam—stared at Gu Shi Yi as well. She didn’t recognize Gu Shi Yi, of course. She didn’t have Gu Shi Yi’s kind of memory, and she certainly hadn’t spared a second thought for a child from twenty-five years ago.
But she did notice the resemblance.
Her gaze sharpened with suspicion.
[Why does this woman look a bit like me? Could she be a distant relative?]
The Qian family of Gilded Gold City and the Gu family had both been cultivation families. The Gu family still had cultivators, but the Qian family no longer did. Even so, the Qian family had once flourished. Their clansmen had once been as numerous as the Gu family’s. A distant blood tie wasn’t impossible.
So the Eldest Young Madam asked, voice cool and measured, “What’s your surname and name, and where are you from?”
Gu Shi Yi had already smoothed her expression back into obedient blankness. She answered respectfully, “This maidservant is Li Yan, from Four-Horse City.”
“Four-Horse City,” the Eldest Young Madam repeated. “That’s quite far. How did you end up here?”
Gu Shi Yi recited her prepared story again, word for word. The Eldest Young Madam listened, then nodded.
“Mm. Your birth is low, but at least you seem clean enough.”
Four-Horse City was far. That made the “distant relative” idea less likely. The Eldest Young Madam’s gaze drifted over Gu Shi Yi’s wheat-colored skin, and disdain flickered behind her eyes.
[So dark from sun and wind. She looks like a rough country woman. Related to me? Don’t make me laugh.]
She turned to Wet Nurse Huang. “Teach her the rules properly.”
“Yes.”
The Eldest Young Madam wasn’t the sort to waste time on a mere servant. After a couple of sentences, she dismissed Gu Shi Yi and had Wet Nurse Huang take her out.
From then on, Gu Shi Yi stayed in the Eldest Young Madam’s courtyard.
With sharp eyes and a quick tongue, she settled in fast. Within three days, she was familiar with almost everyone there.
Then, on the fourth day, something changed.
The Sun family’s little miss had been sick from birth. Though she was four, she was built like a two-year-old and couldn’t even walk steadily. Her parents doted on her, so whenever she came outside, servants carried her.
That morning, it was Wet Nurse Huang’s turn to attend the little miss. After washing up, Wet Nurse Huang led Gu Shi Yi into the inner courtyard. The moment the little miss saw Gu Shi Yi, she stared—big black eyes fixed on her like she’d found something precious.
Then she reached out, demanding to be held.
And just like that, Gu Shi Yi had a small, stubborn shadow stuck to her like glue. Once it latched on, it didn’t let go.
With the little miss’s favor, Gu Shi Yi’s status in the Sun Residence rose so quickly it made other servants dizzy. Her monthly silver increased. She was given a private courtyard. Two young maidservants were assigned to wait on her. And her daily work became… carrying the little miss everywhere.
To pay respects to Old Madam.
To look at flowers in the yard.
To stand beside the Eldest Young Madam while she handled household affairs, the little miss in Gu Shi Yi’s arms like a living ornament.
People who had ignored Gu Shi Yi yesterday were suddenly smiling at her today. Flattery came in waves.
Only Wet Nurse Huang, her expression troubled, pulled Gu Shi Yi aside and spoke quietly.
“I’ll only say this in private. I think the little miss likes you because you look a bit like Young Madam.”
Gu Shi Yi’s heart dipped.
Wet Nurse Huang leaned in farther, voice even lower. “Haven’t you noticed? The Eldest Young Madam never holds the little miss.”
Outside, everyone claimed the little miss was dearly loved by her parents. But after ten days in the household, Gu Shi Yi could already tell that was either rumor or deliberate misdirection. In all that time, she had never once seen the Sun family’s eldest young master. And the Eldest Young Madam refused to hold her own daughter, no matter who was watching.
This husband and wife… were probably not as harmonious as the outside world believed.
Wet Nurse Huang saw Gu Shi Yi listening and added one more warning.
“In three days, the eldest young master will come to visit the little miss. When he does, don’t crowd to the front.”
Gu Shi Yi frowned slightly, confused.
Wet Nurse Huang gave her a pointed look. “The Eldest Young Madam doesn’t think much of her daughter. But toward the eldest young master she…”
Gu Shi Yi understood instantly.
She looked a bit like that young madam. If the husband came, and she happened to be standing too close, holding the child… she could become a problem without meaning to.
Gu Shi Yi nodded once. “I understand.”
As days passed, Gu Shi Yi watched and listened with cold patience. She was already certain her position as the Gu family’s eldest miss had been taken by this cousin.
And that, by itself, was shocking enough.
But the truly terrifying part was this: the Gu family’s descendants all carried a clan mark. A fake couldn’t just stroll into that identity and fool everyone.
Someone had tampered with it.
Which meant the Qian family had moved.
But why?
Was it for the Gu family?
Or… for the Sun family?
The more Gu Shi Yi thought, the more she felt a huge secret crouching in the shadows, waiting for someone foolish enough to drag it into the light.
At midnight, she whispered about it with Li Yan Er. Li Yan Er’s mind was sharp, and what she noticed made Gu Shi Yi’s skin crawl.
“Shi Yi,” Li Yan Er said quietly, “haven’t you noticed? Your cousin doesn’t just dislike her daughter. There’s… disgust. In my eyes, she doesn’t even want the child in her line of sight, but she has to put on a show in front of everyone.”
She paused, then continued.
“And there’s something else. The little miss clings to you, but they never let you change her clothes. They won’t even let you into her bedroom. They always tidy the child up first, then carry her out to you. Don’t you find that strange?”
Gu Shi Yi blinked, thrown off. “I hadn’t thought of it. I assumed big households have lots of rules.”
Li Yan Er shook her head. “No. Even when the little miss needs to relieve herself, they never let you handle it. They carry her to the three wet nurses, and they never let a fourth person take over. That’s too strange.”
Gu Shi Yi’s brow tightened. “Then what do you think it is?”
Li Yan Er hesitated. “I don’t know yet. But… tomorrow, find a chance to slip me into the little miss’s bedroom. I’ll take a look.”
Gu Shi Yi’s worry rose immediately. “This residence has all kinds of restrictions. Can you manage it?”
The Sun family was a cultivation household. Even in the city residence where mortal relatives lived, there were talismans and formations meant to suppress ghosts and ward off evil. Some places were even protected by arrays that could kill. Aside from the household masters, only servants bound by a blood pact could enter certain areas.
The three wet nurses were all blood-pact servants. Their status was nothing like ordinary servants.
“I’ve sensed it,” Li Yan Er said. “The bedroom formation suppresses yin souls, but it isn’t the deadly kind. And I’m not an ordinary wandering soul anymore. I’m only going in to look. I’ll stay no more than a quarter hour and come out. It shouldn’t harm me.”
Then she added, almost as an afterthought, “And don’t forget—I have the jade token.”
That token was absurdly powerful. With it, Li Yan Er could move through the Sun Residence despite all the talismans, even slip outside at night, and nothing noticed her. Its ability to hide her aura was frightening.
Gu Shi Yi finally nodded. “Be careful. If anything feels wrong, run out immediately.”
“Okay.”
The next morning, before dawn, Gu Shi Yi waited as usual in the outer room for the little miss to rise. She sat straight at the table, hands neatly folded on her knees.
Under the cover of the tablecloth, Clay Doll slid out of her sleeve, slipped down her skirt to the floor, and crept along the wall toward the inner room door.
Gu Shi Yi kept her face calm, but her back pulled tight with tension. Watching Li Yan Er move like that made her more nervous than risking her own life. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the two young maidservants standing at the door. At the same time, she listened hard for any sound from inside.
Nothing.
The inner room was silent, as it always was.
Gu Shi Yi’s heart pounded so loudly she felt it in her throat. She waited. And waited. And waited, until the stretch of time started to feel unreal.
At last, someone spoke.
“The little miss is coming out!”
Gu Shi Yi sprang up at once. A wet nurse carried the little miss out. The child’s face lit up the moment she saw Gu Shi Yi. Big eyes, small mouth—she really did resemble her mother, and she was undeniably cute. Her lips were red and soft like a flower bud.
“Hold!”
Gu Shi Yi reached out and took her quickly.
“Come on.”
The little miss was four and still couldn’t speak in full sentences. She tossed single words like pebbles.
Gu Shi Yi carried her out without daring to glance at the inner room. She didn’t want to give anyone a reason to look twice.
[Yan Er’s been in there so long and nothing has happened. That means she wasn’t discovered.]
That thought was the only thing keeping Gu Shi Yi’s legs from going weak as she carried the little miss to the front hall to see her birth mother.
They paid respects to the Eldest Young Madam, then went to see Madam and Dowager Madam. By the time the little miss finally fell asleep at noon, the morning had already been wrung dry.
Gu Shi Yi carried the little miss back. While the wet nurse went into the inner room to attend the child, and the other maidservants scattered to their tasks, Li Yan Er darted out from a corner.
Gu Shi Yi immediately crouched as if adjusting her shoe and slipped Clay Doll back into her sleeve.
“Since the little miss is asleep,” Gu Shi Yi said evenly, “I’ll go rest for a while and come back later.”
No one paid her any attention. They were used to her coming and going with the child.
Gu Shi Yi returned to her own courtyard next door, dismissed the two young maidservants assigned to her, shut herself into the inner room, and climbed onto the bed.
Only then did she set Clay Doll on the pillow and lean in.
“Well? How was it?”
Li Yan Er was silent for a long time.
Then, suddenly, she asked in a strange voice, “Shi Yi… your memory has always been good, right? When you were little… did your half-demon body ever have anything unusual about it?”
Gu Shi Yi blinked, caught off guard. “Unusual? No. I wasn’t any different from an ordinary mortal child.”
“Are you sure?”
Gu Shi Yi frowned, searching her memory. “I’m sure. I don’t remember anything odd, and that old bastard never warned me either. If there’d been something wrong, he would’ve told me long ago. He wouldn’t have waited until he was dying to spring that secret on me.”
Li Yan Er nodded slowly, as if weighing that answer.
Then she asked, “Do you want to know what I saw?”
Gu Shi Yi nearly choked on her own impatience. “Yan Er, don’t torture me. Say it. Hurry.”
Li Yan Er’s voice dropped. “This morning, I slipped into the inner room. The little miss was still in bed, wearing only a dudou. When the wet nurse went to dress her and lifted the blanket… I saw her lower half.”
Gu Shi Yi’s breath caught.
Li Yan Er continued, each word landing heavier than the last.
“It was covered in scales—like fish scales.”
“Scales?” Gu Shi Yi stared, mind going blank.
She had guessed a deformity. She had guessed some hidden sickness. She had even guessed an embarrassing secret meant to protect future marriage prospects.
But scales…
That wasn’t a deformity.
That was—
“She’s half-demon too!”