Chapter 256

Chapter 256: Indeed Not

Sheng Zhi Wan said, “Liu Shang, please see the Princess Consort of Prince Huai out.” After Sheng Zhi Wan finished speaking, Liu Shang reached out her hand.

Liu Shang felt awful. She had always thought someone as noble as Sheng Zhi Wan should have grown up cherished and spoiled, yet she had not expected this.

What disgusted Liu Shang the most was the Princess Consort of Prince Huai standing right in front of them. She clearly knew how pitiful the Princess was, yet she still wanted to use the Princess and hurt the Princess’s heart.

The Princess Consort of Prince Huai was escorted out of the Princess Residence. Before she could even get into the carriage, a Nanny hurried over and whispered a few words into her ear.

The Princess Consort of Prince Huai’s face changed at once. She no longer looked dazed. She rushed off without delay.

Liu Shang said quietly, “This servant’s ears are sharp. I heard that Nanny clearly. Something happened in the residence. Ming Jia fought with Meng Yang, and both of them got hurt. Ming Jia even tried to strangle Meng Yang to death.”

Sheng Zhi Wan raised an eyebrow.

Since the Spring Flower Banquet, Meng Yang had been kept at the Prince Huai Residence. Sheng Zhi Wan did not know what the Princess Consort of Prince Huai had been thinking, but she had not even ordered anyone to keep an eye on Ming Jia.

With Ming Jia’s temper, did the Princess Consort of Prince Huai really expect the two of them to get along peacefully?

The Prince Huai Residence was probably very lively now.

Sheng Zhi Wan guessed right.

When the Princess Consort of Prince Huai returned, she saw chaos everywhere. Chairs and decorations had all been knocked over onto the floor. A deep scratch marked Ming Jia’s forehead, and Meng Yang was no better off. Both of their faces were swollen from slaps, and a dark, deep ring of strangulation marks circled Meng Yang’s neck.

The Princess Consort of Prince Huai nearly fainted when she saw it. [What sin had she committed?]

The daughter she had carefully raised for more than ten years was not hers. The daughter she had finally found again had been sentenced by the Empress Dowager’s decree to be nothing more than a bedchamber maid forever.

The Princess Consort of Prince Huai trembled with rage.

Ming Jia snapped, “Consort Mother actually believed Sheng Zhi Wan’s words? That shameless wretch who slept with a man without any proper marriage, and you believed she was your daughter? Then what about me? What was I?”

Ming Jia had thought it through. As long as Ming Jia refused to admit it, what did a birthmark matter?

So many years had already passed. Besides, that woman had said everyone who knew about it back then had been dealt with.

Ming Jia was still the legitimate, only child of the Prince Huai Residence. Ming Jia’s status was noble, and Ming Jia had always been pampered.

As for Meng Yang, a farm girl, a bedchamber maid, a lowly servant – what right did Meng Yang have to compare with Ming Jia?

That was why Ming Jia tried to take the chance to deal with Meng Yang for good. Ming Jia had not expected the people the Princess Consort of Prince Huai left behind to stop Ming Jia.

Ming Jia looked at the two maids guarding Meng Yang with venom in her eyes.

The next moment, a sharp slap landed across Ming Jia’s face.

Ming Jia froze in disbelief, and Ming Jia’s eyes turned red in an instant.

The Princess Consort of Prince Huai forced herself not to look at the daughter she had loved for more than ten years. The Princess Consort of Prince Huai ordered, “Nanny Guan, keep watch over the Commandery Princess. Until the Commandery Princess reflects properly, the Commandery Princess is not allowed to step out of the Commandery Princess’s courtyard even once!”

Ming Jia screamed, “Consort Mother!” Ming Jia was dragged away.

Only then did the Princess Consort of Prince Huai bend down and personally help Meng Yang up. Meng Yang still covered her face and cried.

Meng Yang hesitated as if she wanted to speak but could not. Meng Yang looked ready to cry at any moment. With reddened eyes, Meng Yang stared at the Princess Consort of Prince Huai as tears trembled on the verge of falling.

The weaker Meng Yang looked, the more she stirred the Princess Consort of Prince Huai’s guilt and pity.

[When Meng Yang first learned that this body was actually the Princess Consort of Prince Huai’s biological daughter, Meng Yang was thrilled.]

[So it was true. Meng Yang was a Transmigrator, the protagonist of this world. How could Heaven possibly give Meng Yang nothing but the identity of a farm girl? So this was where it had been waiting for Meng Yang all along.]

[As long as Meng Yang became the Princess Consort of Prince Huai’s daughter and had Prince Huai as her backing, what right did Sheng Zhi Wan have to stand above Meng Yang ever again?]

Thinking of that, Meng Yang lowered her lashes and hid the excitement in her eyes. Meng Yang said with a wronged tone, “Princess Consort, please do not do this. Ming Jia Commandery Princess just could not accept it for the moment, and besides… Meng Yang was born poor. How could Meng Yang possibly be your daughter?”

The Princess Consort of Prince Huai said, “Good child, do not worry about that yet. Healing your body matters more.”

The more Meng Yang behaved like this, the more the Princess Consort of Prince Huai’s heart ached.

Her daughter should have been like Ming Jia – bright, spoiled, bold, and carefree. Yet Meng Yang yielded in everything.

How much suffering had Meng Yang endured to be shaped into this?

The Princess Consort of Prince Huai wiped her tears and immediately ordered someone to invite a Physician.

Two Physicians entered the residence and treated Ming Jia and Meng Yang separately.

At the same time, the people the Princess Consort of Prince Huai sent out finally brought back the news she had expected.

Ming Jia was indeed not the Princess Consort of Prince Huai’s daughter.

Back then, after the former Princess Consort of Prince Huai died, the Princess Consort of Prince Huai married into the Prince Huai Residence as a replacement wife. Besides the Princess Consort of Prince Huai, there were also three low concubines in the back courtyard, women without proper status.

Not long after the Princess Consort of Prince Huai entered the residence, the Princess Consort of Prince Huai found an excuse and sent all three to a country estate.

One of those low concubines was found to be pregnant as soon as she arrived. She had wanted to return to the prince’s residence to report the good news.

By coincidence, on that very day, the Princess Consort of Prince Huai was also diagnosed as pregnant.

So, to take revenge and to make sure her own child could become the legitimate child, those three low concubines actually dared to bribe the midwife. Right in the delivery room, they swapped the babies.

That was why Ming Jia was actually the low concubine’s child.

As for the Princess Consort of Prince Huai’s child, that baby had been sent far away. There had been no trace ever since.

After hearing the report, the Princess Consort of Prince Huai took several deep breaths. Then the Princess Consort of Prince Huai opened her eyes and asked, “And that low concubine?”

The messenger said, “Dead. Seven or eight years ago, those three women all died of illness one after another. The midwife from back then also died. If not for one midwife’s stepson who overheard a few words by accident as a child, then today, I fear no one would know the truth at all.”

All dead?

The Princess Consort of Prince Huai’s hatred would not settle. The steps she had meant to take toward Ming Jia’s courtyard turned, forcibly, toward the courtyard where Meng Yang was staying for the time being.

That night, the Princess Consort of Prince Huai received another urgent letter sent back from Cang Nan.

Meng Yang had indeed not been born to that farming family with the surname Meng. In the first year of Sheng Chen, they had picked Meng Yang up.