As soon as the Dowager Marchioness left, the sharp-tongued Prince Consort Lin began criticizing his daughter again. “I thought you were going to make another fuss about life and death over a man. You actually behaved somewhat reasonably this time.”
Lin Yanran, being a quick-tongued and rebellious soul, retorted, “I didn’t cry myself to death, Father. Are you actually quite disappointed?”
Seeing her daughter—who used to be so meek and well-behaved in front of her father—now bickering with the Prince Consort, the Eldest Princess felt an ache in her heart.
How much grievance must her daughter have suffered to undergo such a drastic change in personality?
Taking her daughter’s hand, the Eldest Princess asked with deep concern, “Tell your father and mother, what on earth is going on with that fellow Chu Mochen? Does he really dare to keep a mistress outside?”
“I used to think he had a bit of cleverness, but he turned out to be a fool as well.” Prince Consort Lin’s impression of Chu Mochen plummeted to the bottom in an instant.
The drop was roughly from “worthy son-in-law” straight down to “fool.”
The Eldest Princess reached out and slapped Prince Consort Lin’s arm. “Are we listening to you or to our daughter?”
Facing his princess wife, the Prince Consort immediately softened his attitude. “We are listening to our daughter, listening to our daughter.”
Only then did the Eldest Princess look at her daughter with satisfaction, gesturing for her to speak.
“It is exactly as the rumors outside say. In fact, those rumors were spread by people your daughter sent! But they are all entirely true.
The son fathered by the mistress Chu Mochen kept is only a little over a month younger than my Heng’er.
Father said I didn’t cry, but I was practically crying myself to death.”
After inspecting her closely, Prince Consort Lin concluded, “Your expression is a far cry from how you used to look when you were ready to cry yourself to death at the slightest thing.”
The Eldest Princess could only glare at the Prince Consort, pretending to be angry, signaling him not to pick on their daughter.
Lin Yanran pretended to ponder Prince Consort Lin’s words seriously before replying, “Perhaps it is because Chu Mochen is getting older and does not look as handsome as he did when he was young. This time, I truly have no intention of making a fuss over life and death.
It seems I have finally crossed this tribulation of love.”
As Lin Yanran spoke, she feigned a look of reminiscing about the past, her face filled with regret.
Seeing his daughter like this, Prince Consort Lin gently tapped her head from the bottom of his heart. “If you were foolish, then you were foolish. Your mother and I never looked down on you, so why are you making excuses?”
Lin Yanran looked at Prince Consort Lin with a face full of disbelief. “Father, did you really never look down on your daughter in the past? If you swear by your hair, I will believe you.”
Hearing this unreasonable request from his daughter, Prince Consort Lin instantly covered his hair. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Hmph, I knew Father used to think I was foolish. And you still had the nerve to complain that I wasn’t as close to you as I was to Mother.”
This could be considered Lin Yanran’s forced explanation for her change in personality.
In truth, the reason the original owner had not been close to her father was that she felt he only favored her two older brothers.
Whenever her father spoke to her two brothers, he never used such harsh words as he did with her.
When facing his daughter, Prince Consort Lin refused to lose even an inch of ground. “Didn’t you always think I favored your two brothers in the past? With that petty mind of yours, who couldn’t see through it?”
Lin Yanran did not actually think Prince Consort Lin was biased. Of the three children in the family, the eldest brother held the title of a Commandery Prince, she held the title of a Commandery Princess, and only the second brother had nothing to his name.
But since the conversation had reached this point, Lin Yanran simply went along with it. She did possess a bit of a rebellious streak after all. “Did you not favor my two brothers?”
“I do quite like your eldest brother. He is clever, stable, ambitious, and filial…”
When Prince Consort Lin mentioned his favorite eldest son, he had endless praise. His favoritism was so blatant it could not be hidden at all.
Lin Yanran pursed her lips in dissatisfaction. “So my second brother and I were just picked up from the streets, then?”
“If only you were picked up. In that case, when your second brother wanders around all day neglecting the family, your mother and I could have thrown him away.
And we wouldn’t have to worry about you, a daughter who already has two children of her own yet still believes a man’s sweet lies.”
Prince Consort Lin often wished he didn’t have these two debt-collectors. He and the Eldest Princess were at an age to enjoy their retirement, yet they still had to worry over these two unfilial children.
Unable to win the argument against Prince Consort Lin, Lin Yanran imitated the original owner’s behavior and leaned against the Eldest Princess to act spoiled. “Mother, please control Father. He wants to throw away the children you worked so hard to give birth to and raise.”
Prince Consort Lin glared at his daughter. “I am standing right here, and you are already tattling on me. If we don’t throw you away, who else would we throw away?”
Watching her husband and daughter bicker like this, the Eldest Princess found herself in an exceptionally good mood.
This way of interaction between father and daughter was far better than before, when one would lecture while the other silently wept.
The Eldest Princess reprimanded both of them equally, saying, “Alright, how old are the two of you combined, yet you are still bickering?”
After saying this, fearing that the Prince Consort and her daughter would still try to determine a winner, the Eldest Princess quickly turned the topic back to the main business of the day:
“Ran’er, what do you plan to do next?”
Lin Yanran spread her hands, acting as if she did not care. “What else can I do? Just carry on. My eldest son is already ten years old; how could I still spend my days making a fuss over life and death because of love?
The Marquis’s Manor has a title to inherit, and I cannot simply hand that title over to others.
Besides, would the imperial family tolerate me divorcing Chu Mochen over him keeping a mistress?
Right now, I am still considered the disadvantaged party in the eyes of the public. If I truly make a scene and demand a divorce, the public’s opinion of me would surely change, wouldn’t it?”
The Eldest Princess reached out to caress her daughter’s head, her eyes filled with heartache. “Mother wishes you could remain as innocent as before forever.”
Prince Consort Lin, however, could not agree with her Highness’s words. “Your Highness, please do not speak nonsense with your eyes closed. Our daughter is much better off as she is now. Her previous soft-tempered look made my eyes ache just watching her.”
The Eldest Princess… reached out and slapped Prince Consort Lin’s hand hard. “Shut up!”
The Eldest Princess then tried to smooth things over for her daughter: “Ran’er, your father is just sharp-tongued but soft-hearted. Last night, when your father heard about this, he could not sleep peacefully the entire night, fearing you would cry yourself unconscious.”
Lin Yanran could feel that the Eldest Princess and Prince Consort Lin truly cared for her. But she was not the original owner; she would not want to die over a man.
She also did not want the Eldest Princess and Prince Consort Lin to spend their twilight years constantly worrying about their daughter’s affairs:
“Father, Mother, please rest assured. It is merely a man wanting to take a concubine; your daughter can handle it.”
Originally, when the Eldest Princess came, her heart had been filled with words to comfort her daughter. But seeing her daughter finally standing up for herself, her endless exhortations turned into absolute support: “Mother believes in you.”
The sharp-tongued Prince Consort Lin did not say anything either. In any case, if he and her Highness could not handle it, they still had their eldest son!
All the cleverness in their family had gone to their eldest son. When the time came, they would let Chu Mochen experience the might of his brother-in-law.
Although the Eldest Princess and Prince Consort Lin claimed they would not interfere, they remained at the Marquis’s Manor and did not leave.
Perhaps because she possessed the original owner’s memories, after spending just one afternoon with the Eldest Princess and Prince Consort Lin, Lin Yanran already regarded them as her biological parents.
She was truly happy to have parents who cared so deeply for their daughter.