“Eldest Miss, the Madam has sent me to fetch you~”
A female voice drifted into her ears. Xue Ning opened her eyes and found herself kneeling on the ground.
She quietly raised her head to survey her surroundings, and her heart skipped a beat.
She had clearly self-destructed during a zombie siege; how could she have returned to her previous life the moment she opened her eyes?
The maid beside her was quite unfamiliar, but she could not mistake this ancestral hall.
She was originally the legitimate daughter of the Marquis’s household, but at the age of twelve, she was told she was actually the “civet cat” in a “civet cat swapped for a prince” scheme.
The mastermind behind the swap between her and the true legitimate daughter was the Marquis’s favored concubine.
After the matter came to light, the Marquis was furious. He sent the favored concubine to a rural farm and ordered that she never return—but that was another story.
As for her, the “civet cat,” her true identity was that of a farmer’s daughter.
Once the true legitimate daughter returned, she should have gone back to her biological family. However, the Marquis and the Marquis’s wife said that having raised her for twelve years, they already viewed her as their own.
They said they couldn’t bear to let her go to the countryside to suffer and that they were willing to continue loving her as if she were their biological daughter.
Her biological parents also sent word, saying they didn’t mind her staying at the Marquis’s household.
In her eyes, the grace of being raised surpassed the grace of birth.
And so, she remained in the Marquis’s household.
Although she was no longer the legitimate daughter, her treatment in the household remained the same as before.
The true legitimate daughter, having grown up in the countryside since childhood, was out of place in the Marquis’s household with its many rules.
Under her adoptive mother’s orders, Xue Ning was responsible for supervising the true daughter’s studies and bringing her into the circle of noble ladies in the capital.
In the beginning, Xue Ning did her best for the true daughter.
But when the true daughter began to stand out, and when her adoptive parents’ gaze focused more and more on the true daughter, she began to feel jealous.
When the fiancé she had been betrothed to under the title of the Marquis’s legitimate daughter demanded that the true daughter fulfill the marriage contract—and when her adoptive parents agreed to the fiancé’s request without even asking her for her thoughts—she began to turn malicious…
Love denied turned to hate.
Once her actions were exposed, what awaited her was a ruined reputation and infamy.
In her previous life, after becoming a pariah that everyone despised, she chose to jump into the moat.
When she opened her eyes again, she found she had become a newborn baby.
That was a world several thousand years in the future.
Until she was five years old, she was the only child in the family, the most important treasure of the entire household.
After she turned five, her family added a younger sister, and from then on, everything changed…
Having experienced two lives, Xue Ning understood one truth:
As parents, if they cannot even hold the scales level between two biological children, how can one expect them to be impartial between a biological child and a non-biological one?
There was a saying that put it well: “If circles differ, there is no need to force integration.”
She and the Marquis’s household belonged to two different circles from the start.
The hatred in her heart dissipated because of this.
On the way to her adoptive mother’s courtyard, supported by the maid, Xue Ning managed to figure out her current situation through careful questioning.
A month ago, the true legitimate daughter had been brought back home.
The reason she was currently being punished by kneeling in the ancestral hall was that she had allowed the true daughter to climb a tree, which resulted in the girl falling and getting injured.
It was said that after the true daughter was injured, Xue Ning felt extremely guilty and took the initiative to request punishment.
But she remembered how, in her childhood, she had been playing with her older brother on a bridge and accidentally caused him to fall into the river.
It was just the beginning of spring then, and the river water was still very cold. Her brother fell ill for a long time afterward.
At that time, even though the Marquis and his wife were very angry, they did not punish her.
Ultimately, it was because her status was now different.
In the past, they regarded her as their biological daughter; no matter how angry they were when she made a mistake, they would forgive her.
Now, things were different.
If she continued to stay in the Marquis’s household, the number of times she would be punished in the future would only increase.
Distant memories slowly revived in her mind. Before reaching her adoptive mother’s courtyard, Xue Ning had already made a decision.
Upon entering the courtyard, Xue Ning first paid her respects to her adoptive mother and then greeted the true daughter sitting to the side.
After confirming that the true daughter was fine and that her adoptive mother was no longer angry, Xue Ning brought up her departure.
Madam Gao was surprised. “You want to return to your biological parents’ home? Do you resent me for punishing you?”
Xue Ning knew that Madam Gao was proud and arrogant. If she dared to say yes, it would certainly incur her displeasure.
After so many years, the resentment in her heart had vanished. Furthermore, having experienced the post-apocalyptic world in the modern era, she now only wanted to live a stable life.
“As the proverb says, ‘It takes a hundred years of shared cultivation to cross a river in the same boat, and a thousand years to share a pillow.’
“Though Mother and I share no blood relation, I have been fortunate enough to be your daughter for twelve years. Is this not also a destiny cultivated over a thousand years?
“Ling’er stayed at the Xue family residence because I truly could not bear to leave Father and Mother. However, while reflecting in the ancestral hall, Ling’er had a dream. I dreamt that someone was accusing Ling’er of coveting wealth and glory, refusing to return to my biological parents’ side…”
In fact, if she stayed in the Marquis’s household, it wouldn’t be long before rumors spread outside that she was greedy for prosperity and unwilling to return to her birth parents.
Regardless of her original intention for staying, most people only saw what they wanted to see.
If she were the true legitimate daughter and insisted on staying with her adoptive parents after learning her identity, others might praise her for being loyal and affectionate.
But she was not the true daughter. For her to stay in the Marquis’s household as a farmer’s girl was to be thick-skinned and greedy for wealth.
After all, besides admiring the strong, humans also harbor resentment toward the rich.
Xue Ning hoped for an amicable parting with the Marquis’s household, so she chose to play the emotional card.
Currently, her adoptive parents still felt some parental affection for her; they could be tolerant of her acting somewhat willful.
As expected, after she firmly expressed her intention to leave, although her adoptive mother was somewhat displeased, she eventually nodded in agreement.
Not only that, her adoptive mother also agreed to let her take her personal treasury.
As the former legitimate daughter of the Marquis’s household, her personal treasury was enough to let her live a comfortable life in the countryside.
Xue Ning thanked her adoptive mother for her kindness, but then she left the Marquis’s household empty-handed.
It wasn’t that she was pretending to be lofty; she simply didn’t want to have any further connection with the Marquis’s household.
Furthermore, no one could say for sure what would happen in the future.
If she really took her treasury today, she would be seen as inferior if she ever had to face the Marquis’s household again.
To be safe, Xue Ning deliberately stood outside the Marquis’s manor and talked to herself, the gist being to thank the household for raising her and to part ways peacefully from now on…
The matter of the true and fake daughters of the Marquis’s household was a hot topic in the capital.
Since only a month had passed, the gossip was still fresh in everyone’s minds.
Some commoners passing by the gates heard Xue Ning’s soliloquy and couldn’t help but approach to strike up a conversation.
Upon learning that Xue Ning was the “fake” daughter, their faces immediately took on a gossiping look.
Some commoners noticed that Xue Ning was empty-handed. Upon learning that she had deliberately left the Marquis’s household without taking anything, they felt she had integrity while also thinking she was a fool.
Xue Ning gave a reserved smile and then, “waving her sleeves, she left without taking even a single cloud.”
Seeing Xue Ning walk away so gracefully, the gossiping commoners couldn’t help but feel a sense of goodwill toward her.
Without Xue Ning needing to say anything specific, the people themselves spread what they had seen and heard.
In less than two days, the entire capital knew that Xue Ning had left the Marquis’s household empty-handed. But that is a story for later.