“Dad, can you be my dad?”
Outside Prince Yong’s Manor, before the guards could react, Cheng Mo slid across the ground and threw her arms around Chu Xilou’s… wheelchair.
Chu Xilou, who had inexplicably just become someone’s father: “?”
He looked down at Cheng Mo, who was as filthy as a beggar. His fastidiousness flared up, and he snapped in disgust.
“Hurry up and throw her out.”
Qinglan, startled by Cheng Mo as well, hurried to comply. Where had this little beggar come from? Did she have a death wish?
He stepped forward to pull Cheng Mo away, but she clung to Chu Xilou’s wheelchair with all her might, refusing to let go.
“Dad, I’m really easy to raise, and I have lots of good qualities. I’m not violent, I can breathe on my own, I eat when I’m hungry and put down my bowl when I’m full. When it rains, I not only know to run home, I even carry an umbrella. My bladder and bowels work normally. There aren’t many normal people like me left these days!”
“If that still won’t do, just pretend you’re raising a kitten. Meow, meow, meow~”
Chu Xilou: “…” Where did this idiot come from?
Seeing Chu Xilou’s face darken, Qinglan’s heart pounded in terror. This little beggar was about to be killed on the spot. He hurriedly grabbed Cheng Mo’s legs and yanked hard.
Cheng Mo knew that if Qinglan pulled her away, she would never get another chance to cling to this powerful backer.
To save her life, Cheng Mo even summoned the strength she normally used to take a dump.
The next second, Chu Xilou’s wheelchair was forcibly dragged a full meter forward in this bizarre fashion.
Qinglan’s face went white with fright.
I’m done for. Am I about to be killed on the spot too?
The corner of Chu Xilou’s eye twitched violently. He stared at Cheng Mo, who refused to let go no matter what, his gaze appraising.
Who sent her?
He was already crippled, yet they still weren’t at ease with him, so they sent this little thing to Prince Yong’s Manor?
“Inside. First.”
Cheng Mo looked up, her eyes sparkling at Chu Xilou. “Dad, does that mean you agree to take me as your daughter?”
Chu Xilou: “…We’ll talk inside.”
Cheng Mo let go in a flash, sprang to her feet, went around behind Chu Xilou’s wheelchair, and shoved Qingye aside with her rear.
“All right, Dad! Let’s go inside right now!”
With that, Cheng Mo pushed Chu Xilou’s wheelchair and charged straight into the manor.
Qinglan and Qingye’s eyes went wide with disbelief. This little beggar looked so skinny and small—how could she possibly push His Highness?
Wait.
She had wheeled His Highness away.
Damn it!
They scrambled to catch up.
Having a stranger behind him, pushing his wheelchair, was extremely dangerous. Chu Xilou’s whole body went on alert, the dagger hidden in his sleeve flickering in and out of view.
Cheng Mo noticed nothing. Only after pushing Chu Xilou into the manor did she stop, then walked around in front of him, rubbing her little hands with a grin.
“Dad, when are you going to enter my name in the clan genealogy?”
Chu Xilou’s face was expressionless. “Do you even know who this Prince is, randomly calling strangers ‘Daddy’?”
“Of course I do,” Cheng Mo said. “You’re my dad. We may not be related by blood, but our bond as father and daughter began in a past life. If you take me as your daughter, you won’t lose out or get cheated!”
Chu Xilou’s eyes narrowed slightly as he stared at her steadily.
So young, yet so strong. He could not yet tell who was behind her. For now, he would keep her in the manor and watch her.
“Qinglan, take her down and get her washed.”
She was so filthy it hurt his eyes just to look at her.
Qinglan cupped his hands. “Yes, Your Highness.”
Cheng Mo blinked, looking at Chu Xilou with pleading eyes. “Dad, can I call myself Chu Mo from now on?”
Chu Xilou turned his wheelchair away, no longer looking at her, and dropped a single line as he left.
“Suit yourself.”
No refusal meant consent.
Chu Mo jumped up with joy.
She would never have to be tied to her past-life family again.
In her past life, Chu Mo was the legitimate daughter of Marquis Jian’an’s manor in the capital. Because a concubine of Marquis Jian’an was bitterly jealous of the Marchioness, she had someone abduct the newborn Cheng Mo.
When the scheme was exposed, the concubine was beaten to death, but Cheng Mo had vanished without a trace.
The Marchioness, overcome with grief, threw a tremendous fit throughout the manor. For the sake of the family’s reputation, Marquis Jian’an found an abandoned baby and told the Marchioness the baby was their missing daughter.
The Marchioness believed him and raised the abandoned baby as her own daughter.
Everyone in the marquis’s manor also believed this abandoned child was their true bloodline.
Perhaps out of guilt, Marquis Jian’an never gave up searching for her.
One day, a servant he had sent to search for her happened to run into her by chance. Because her features bore a striking resemblance to both Marquis Jian’an and the Marchioness, he grew suspicious and reported the news back to the Marquis.
After Marquis Jian’an verified everything, he brought her back to the manor.
Back at the marquis’s manor, reunited with her family, she had thought she would finally live a wonderful life.
But the manor already had a daughter who had taken her place—Cheng Xinyue.
The Marchioness treated her well at first, but as time passed, she began to despise this daughter who had grown up among beggars, finding her lacking in manners and etiquette, an embarrassment to her, not a fraction as graceful and dignified as Cheng Xinyue.
Her father also began to regret why he had insisted on finding her and bringing her back.
Her brothers, too, felt she was not as sweet and obedient as Cheng Xinyue, and acknowledged only her as their sister.
She was ostracized and mocked by the entire family.
In the whole household, only her grandfather truly loved her.
After her grandfather passed away, she took her own life, ending that utterly shitty existence.
She thought that if she had balls, maybe her life would not have turned out quite so shitty.
Who could have imagined that she would be reborn?
According to how things went in her past life, she would be found by Marquis Jian’an’s manor in just one year.
So she resolutely said farewell to her little underlings in the beggars’ den, ran all the way to the capital, and after finding Prince Yong’s Manor, hid herself there, waiting for the right moment to cling to Prince Yong as her backer.
Prince Yong was Great Jin’s only prince whose family surname differed from the imperial clan’s. An ancestor of his had sworn brotherhood with Great Jin’s founding emperor, and the two had conquered the realm together.
Thirteen years ago, the previous Prince Yong died in battle, taking enemy soldiers down with him. Chu Xilou, who was then the heir apparent to Prince Yong, also lost both his legs, and more than half of the 200,000-strong army were killed or wounded.
After the war subsided, before the imperial family could even speak, Chu Xilou returned to the capital with the old Prince Yong’s remains and voluntarily surrendered his military authority to the emperor.
He said the war was over, the borders were at peace, and with his legs crippled he could no longer go to the battlefield—he only wished to enjoy a life of wealth and ease in the capital.
As for whether the emperor believed him or not, that was none of his concern.
Thus, the entire Prince Yong’s household settled peacefully in the capital.
Her reason for seeking out Chu Xilou and claiming him as her father wasn’t the power of Prince Yong’s Manor, but rather that in her past life, after being ostracized by the marquis’s manor, she was even mocked as a country bumpkin whenever she attended banquets.
At one banquet, she was framed for stealing.
No matter how she explained, no one listened. Everyone looked at her with contempt, as if she were some filthy thing.
So she went mad, smashing things and cursing wildly.
The Marquis Jian’an’s Manor claimed she was ill and emotionally unstable, and tried to take her away.
Prince Yong, Chu Xilou, and his consort were also there.
She remembered, with perfect clarity, the words Chu Xilou spoke.
“It seems to me the one who’s emotionally unstable is Marquis Jian’an. His own daughter was wronged and slandered, yet instead of investigating the truth, he blindly sides with others and berates his own flesh and blood. Such conduct has truly opened my eyes.”
“Only a fool would fall for such a shoddy frame-up.”
With that one sentence, Chu Xilou cleared her of suspicion—after all, Prince Yong had no connection whatsoever to a young lady of the inner quarters like her, so he had no reason to lie on her behalf.
Princess Consort Yong said nothing, but afterward she handed her a handkerchief to wipe the blood from her palm—a wound she had accidentally given herself while wildly smashing things in her frenzy.
That was the first time she had ever seen Prince Yong and Princess Consort Yong, and at the time her heart was full of sorrow.
Her own family didn’t believe her, yet two strangers who had never met her did.
If only they were her parents.
So the moment she was reborn, she rushed straight to Prince Yong’s Manor without stopping.
In this life, she was going to choose parents for herself—parents of good character.
Someone willing to speak up for an unfamiliar young girl—how could that not count as good character?
After bathing and changing into clean clothes, Chu Mo was brought to Cedar Courtyard, where Prince Yong and Princess Consort Yong resided.
She lifted her face toward Chu Xilou with an obedient smile. “Dad.”
Then she called out to Princess Consort Yong, Liu Zhurong, “Mom.”
Liu Zhurong gave a faint nod. Someone had already told her what had happened outside the manor earlier.
If His Highness wished to take her in as an adopted daughter, then so be it. It wasn’t as if the manor couldn’t afford to raise one more daughter.
Chu Xilou, for his part, hadn’t expected that once washed and dressed in new clothes, Chu Mo would look rather pretty—just a bit too thin.
“Why do you want this prince as your father? Where is your family?”
Let’s hear how the little beggar tries to talk her way out of this one.
Chu Mo wiped her face and said, brimming with grievance, “I don’t know who my parents are. From my earliest memories, I grew up in the beggars’ den in Yacheng.”
“I wanted you to be my dad because you looked kind. You seemed like a good man who could protect me and make me feel safe.”
Chu Xilou: Hah. A lie full of holes. He could barely stand hearing it, yet she had the nerve to say it.
“My lady, what do you think?”
Liu Zhurong’s face showed no expression. “As Your Highness wishes.”
Chu Mo sneakily lifted her head to peek at Liu Zhurong. In her past life, after returning to the marquis’s manor, she rarely went out, because the manor feared she would embarrass them and seldom let her leave.
But she had still heard that Prince Yong and Princess Consort Yong were deeply devoted to each other. The couple had four sons, each one outstanding among men, and the manor had no messy array of concubines or mistresses—the family was impeccably upright.
That was exactly why she was determined, come what may, to claim Prince Yong as her father—even if there was a chance she’d be thrown out.
But still!
Take a gamble—turn a bicycle into a motorcycle!
If it worked, she’d never have to fear those people at Marquis Jian’an’s Manor again.
Wait—what’s a bicycle? What’s a motorcycle?