“Mother, what are you saying?” As soon as Du Ruhui finished speaking, Mother Du said coldly, “No one knows a child better than their mother. What you’re thinking in your heart, this mother of yours knows perfectly well. You’re still thinking about Wu Meixue, aren’t you?”
Facing her questioning, Du Ruhui lowered his eyes and remained silent. A flash of anger passed across Mother Du’s face, “So it really is like this. You… are you mad? This is about becoming the current dynasty’s Prince Consort! How many people long for such good fortune but can’t obtain it, yet you deliberately gave it up for a dead person. Are you… trying to anger me to death?”
Seeing Mother Du trembling with anger, Du Ruhui said with some guilt, “What’s done is done. Mother, please don’t be angry anymore.”
“You’ve done such a foolish thing, how can I not be angry? That Wu Meixue was already troublesome enough when she was alive, clinging to you relentlessly, and even in death she still harms you. She’s simply a curse!”
Seeing Mother Du cursing Meixue, Du Ruhui said displeasedly, “Mother!”
Mother Du glared and said, “What? Did I say something wrong? If it weren’t for her, you would already be Prince Consort by now.”
Facing the unreasonable Mother Du, Du Ruhui said helplessly, “It’s because your son doesn’t have the fate to be Prince Consort. How can you blame it on Meixue!”
Mother Du huffed angrily, “If not her, then who? This curse won’t rest in peace even in death. Hmph, I’ll go find a mage right now to make her soul scatter and never be reborn, let’s see how she can still harm you!”
“Mother!” Du Ruhui grabbed her and blurted out, “Haven’t you harmed Meixue enough? Now she’s dead, yet you still won’t let her go!”
Mother Du didn’t expect Du Ruhui to question her, and was momentarily stunned, then said coldly, “Nonsense! When have I ever harmed her?!”
Du Ruhui said painfully, “If you hadn’t insisted on opposing my marriage to Meixue back then, she wouldn’t have needed to work at the Governor’s residence and wouldn’t have encountered the assassin.” He had previously accused Yunyi of indirectly causing Meixue’s death, but wasn’t he himself equally guilty?
Mother Du’s eyes narrowed slightly, and she said coldly, “So you’re still blaming me for that matter. I am your mother, and everything I do is for your own good. How could a wild girl like Wu Meixue, who doesn’t even know who her own parents are, be worthy of entering our Du family’s door!”
Seeing that Mother Du not only showed no remorse but continued to slander Meixue, Du Ruhui’s anger flared, and he blurted out, “Meixue doesn’t know her birth parents, but Mother, how are you any better than her?”
Mother Du’s face suddenly turned cold, “What did you say?”
“Ever since marrying Father, Mother has never returned to the Lu family, and the Lu family has never sent anyone to visit Mother. Why? It’s not because Mother’s relationship with the Lu family is distant, but because you’re not Lu family blood at all!” Before he finished speaking, Mother Du had already slapped him hard across the face.
Mother Du stood there with an ashen face, her chest heaving violently like ocean waves. This matter was the deepest secret in her heart and the greatest shame of her life.
She too was born into a merchant family. Though not extremely wealthy, at least she had no worries about food and clothing, and had loving parents. For the first ten years, she was like other wealthy young ladies, happy and content, and silver bell-like laughter could be heard throughout that two-courtyard residence.
But all of this came to an abrupt halt when she turned ten. She and her wailing mother were driven out of the Lu family on a rainy night. The father and grandmother who had once loved her showed no mercy toward her frightened cries, their gazes colder than the rain beating on her body, looking at her as if she were a stranger.
No matter how frightened and sad she was, being driven out of the Lu family was an undeniable fact. Mother brought her back to her maiden family, but no matter how much mother pleaded outside, they refused to open the door. Finally, they threw out a string of coins from inside, as if dismissing beggars.
With that money, mother rented a small room where they settled down. From then on, she supported them by mending and washing clothes for others, earning meager wages to barely raise her to adulthood.
But such hardship soon overwhelmed mother’s frail body. After just four years, mother passed away. On her deathbed, she held her hand and kept crying, saying she was sorry. It was then that she finally learned the truth about why they had been driven out. The girl who had lived as a Lu family young lady for ten years was not Lu family blood at all. Fourteen years ago, when father was away on business, mother had an affair with a laborer in the house and became pregnant. Mother managed to bribe the physician who came to take her pulse, deliberately understating the pregnancy by a month, making father Lu think she had conceived after his return from business.
This lie lasted for ten years, until the physician let it slip while drunk, and the truth was revealed. For the Lu family, leaving their mother and daughter alive and merely driving them out was already the most merciful treatment, but for the future Mother Du, it was a complete disaster. Especially after her mother’s death, she became a complete orphan, having to support herself with no one caring whether she lived or died. Instead, she had to endure others’ cold looks and mockery, as many villagers knew about her mother’s unfaithfulness.
But she was lucky. At seventeen, she met the honest Father Du, who didn’t mind her background and married her as his proper wife despite family opposition.
This made her very grateful. After marrying Father Du, she managed the household diligently and bore Du Ruhui, a male heir for the Du family that had been passed down through single sons for generations. The Du family was a branch of the Chang’an Du clan. Though the Du clan couldn’t compare to prestigious families like the Qinghe Cui clan, they still had some reputation, with many clan members serving as officials in court. However, Father Du’s branch was very distant from the main family, with almost no contact. Father Du’s greatest wish was to gain recognition from the main family, but unfortunately, his abilities were limited. At most, he could only earn some money by trading silk and other goods, which couldn’t catch the main family’s attention.
Mother Du knew that to fulfill Father Du’s wish, she placed all her hopes on her son after Du Ruhui was born. Du Ruhui indeed lived up to expectations, learning to read at three, composing poetry at five, with every teacher praising his intelligence.
Such praise made Mother Du even more determined. She spared no effort to hire the best teachers to teach him the Four Books and Five Classics, poetry and literature, cultivating him intensively, hoping he could pass the imperial examinations, become an official, then marry a young lady from a prestigious family, so their family could gain recognition from the main family. She had mentioned this matter to Du Ruhui after he came of age, originally hoping Du Ruhui would study even harder, but unexpectedly…
It was precisely for this reason that she had strongly opposed Du Ruhui’s relationship with Meixue, even threatening to die to stop it. She had finally waited for Meixue to die, thinking this matter could be put to rest, but unexpectedly, Du Ruhui not only gave up the qualification to be Prince Consort for a dead person but also tore open old wounds, making the scarred wound bleed again. How could she not hate, how could she not resent!