When Qin Huaiyuan heard the note of distress in the old dowager’s voice, he raised his hands slightly and injected a comforting tone into his own.
“Don’t be anxious, mother. I have no intention of sending daughter Hui away. It’s just that the Qin bloodline should remain clear, and the family books should not be confused. Qin Yining will be entered into the family books and Qin Huining taken off. We will report to the ancestors that daughter Hui was mistakenly brought into our family and is now our foster daughter. She will not be listed on the family tree in the future. Qin Yining will be the official firstborn of the main family branch, the fourth miss of the Qin family.”
Everyone scanned Qin Yining and Qin Huining with varying looks. The old dowager was silent. The family books indeed shouldn’t have errors in them, but she couldn’t bear to give up Qin Huining!
Qin Huining felt like a thunderbolt had struck her. She’d be a foster daughter with unknown origins from now on, no longer the official firstborn daughter of Prime Minister Qin! She would be of age next year, and Prime Minister Qin had been scouting for good marital matches over these past few years. She wasn’t married yet, what would she do when her status plunges into the abyss?
Why did this bad luck have to fall on my head at this time?! Why did Qin Yining have to come back!
She couldn’t accept these blows to her future, and once again started to bawl. But unlike previous, these tears were real.
In the end, she was the daughter that née Sun had raised, so the senior madame couldn’t bear to see Qin Huining so grief-stricken. She pulled on the girl’s hand and turned to Qin Huaiyuan anxiously. “My lord, can’t you…"
“Even if daughter Hui becomes a foster daughter, she stays by your side and uses the same things as your own flesh and blood.” Qin Huaiyuan looked at née Sun; his eyes brooked not the slightest sign of dissension as they narrowed. “Must I send daughter Hui to the Hall of Fosters, or search out and return her to her birth parents before the madame is satisfied?”
This was a naked threat! He was denying her face for the sake of a wild brat he’d just brought back!
Née Sun flushed beet red in her anger and blurted out, “Is a wild brat worth you acting like this? You didn’t even watch her grow up! Qin Meng, which mistress did you have this girl with!? Why didn’t you bring back her fox of a mother too, instead of just her!? You’ve disliked me and dear Hui for a long while anyways, so just go and enjoy life with your mistress in the future!”
Née Sun was a daughter from the official wife of the Duke of Ding, a vaunted duke of the state. Her birth was lofty and so her personality naturally a bit more haughty. Her sisters-in-law usually gave way to her in the past since she was Qin Huaiyuan’s official wife. The old dowager loved her first born grandson and fourth granddaughter the most, so she was more tolerant of née Sun as well.
The combination had nurtured the senior madame’s personality as a domineering spitfire. Anyone else wouldn’t have dared argue with their husband in public like this. But née Sun’s family was a strong bulwark for her to rely on, so she wasn’t afraid at all.
When Qin Huining saw that her mother was still willing to defend a foster daughter like this, she was so touched that she wrapped her arms around née Sun and called out in a little mewling voice, “Mother, don’t be angry. Don’t be angry at father because of me…”
Née Sun didn’t pay her any attention and just kept glaring at Qin Huaiyuan. He couldn’t take any more of his wife, “What ridiculous slander!”
“You’re ridiculous!” Née Sun jabbed Qin Yining’s forehead with a red lacquered fingernail. “Well? Where’s your mother? Is your father putting her up in some house?”
Qin Yining looked at née Sun with incredulous disbelief, taking two steps backwards after being poked. Her heart felt like a desolate wasteland. When she saw Qin Huining hanging onto her mother’s arm yet still allowing née Sun to push forward as she would, Qin Yining seemed to understand something.
It looks like good acting skills are needed even to survive in a great manor.
Qin Yining’s eyes filled with tears, and she knelt before née Sun, her voice quavering, “Please don’t be angry, madame. I know you find it hard to accept at face value, but I really do come from the city of Liang. I lost the last soul who would support me when I was eight, do you know how I’ve lived until today?”
She gently caught née Sun’s well maintained hands with her callused, scarred ones. “Look at the calluses and scars on my hand. They’re proof enough that I’m not someone who’s enjoyed a good life. With father’s character, he accepted Huining even though he knew that she wasn’t his. If I really was his bastard, would he have let me live such a hard life?