His words angered her so much that she cursed him out right there and then. Her grueling escape from Xiangyang to the north had tempered her mind into one of iron and steel and her tongue into one that spat venom in the form of words. After receiving an earful of merciless insults, the owner of the pawn shop was so angry that he flung himself at her.
Naturally, Mu Mingtang was not a pushover. She retaliated by biting and hitting him until they were both rolling on the ground. They continued to fight until a group of well-dressed guards arrived and pulled them apart. When this happened, Mu Mingtang had yet to register what was going on, but she could tell with one glance at the guards’ clothing that they were people she couldn’t afford to offend.
Immediately, she restrained herself and lowered her head, not daring to protest or even breathe too loudly. Soon after, a maidservant came down from a very grand and luxurious carriage. The maidservant’s silky hair was wound tight in two buns, and even the soles of her feet were cleaner than Mu Mingtang’s face.
When she saw Mu Mingtang’s appearance, a touch of disdain colored her eyes. She pinched her nose and said, “Be grateful for your great fortune. Come with me, my madam wishes to speak with you.”
Madam?
This title indicated that the person who wanted to speak with her was of high status; not to mention, she owned such a luxurious carriage and was protected by so many guards. Maybe it was someone related to a small official?
Mu Mingtang followed cautiously.
Later, when she learned of the other party’s identity, she realized that she couldn’t have been more wrong. The “madam” was someone related to a mere feudal official but the main wife of one of the Three Grand Ministers.
The Three Ministries were headed by the Minister of Resources, the Minister of Revenue, and the Minister of Civil Affairs. They were second-in-command after the Grand Chancellor and, in words that Mu Mingtang could understand, almost no different from the Grand Chancellor himself.
Mu Mingtang never would have dreamed that a fight on the streets would lead her to become acquainted with the wife of a grand minister. Madam Jiang observed her for a few seconds before ordering someone to take her back with them. And just like that, scared and bewildered, Mu Mingtang was brought to the capital. The maidservants spent a long time washing her body, then, on the next day, they dressed her and took her to see Lord and Madam Jiang.
After staring at her for a while, Lord Jiang nodded lightly to his wife. “We will do as you said.”
Do as she said? What did Madam Jiang say?
Mu Mingtang was thoroughly confused, but not for long.
From this moment on, her life was turned upside down. She became the adopted daughter of Jiang Honghao, one of the three grand ministers. Now, this was the true epitome of possessing a high status. Never in her wildest dreams would Mu Mingtang, who had been struggling among the refugees just one day prior, have imagined this kind of fate to find her.
The officials, the merchants, and the common people existed on vastly different parts of the same spectrum. There was a time when the Mu family had to bow and move out of the way if they came across someone as trivial as the daughter of a mere scholar in Xiangyang, let alone the daughter of a grand minister.
Mu Mingtang’s status soared so high and so quickly that it terrified her. As the saying went, those who were born into eminence were indifferent in the face of wealth, while those who were born humble were prone to intoxication. She understood this much too well and was afraid she would make a mistake and lose everything, so she obeyed everything Madam Jiang and the servants said.
Later on, she learned that the reason Madam Jiang was in Chenliu that day was to search for her lost first daughter, Miss Jiang Mingwei. The maidservants told her that their first young miss had gotten lost during the Lantern Festival, but even the ignorant Mu Mingtang could tell that something was off about this.
When she was just a merchant’s daughter, her parents would always arrange for a single maidservant and a nanny to accompany her to the Lantern Festival, let alone the esteemed Madam Jiang for her precious eldest and only daughter.
However, Mu Mingtang didn’t question it. It didn’t matter how Miss Jiang got lost, because Madam Jiang’s words were not to be refuted. Her search extended all the way from the capital to Chenliu, where she found not Miss Jiang, but Mu Mingtang.
At the time, the girl was cursing and fighting a man much larger than her, but even so, after observing her for a while, Madam Jiang was able to notice that both her age and appearance were similar to her daughter’s.
Mu Mingtang understood her position from the very beginning. Madam and Lord Jiang missed their daughter very much and spent an entire year searching for her, but to no avail. Thus, they adopted a look-alike to console themselves.