Chapter 39: Only Self-Rescue

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The sky was only just beginning to brighten.

The eldest daughter of the Qian family, Daniu, had spent the entire night finishing embroidery and had not slept a wink. She rubbed her aching eyes.

With nothing but her embroidery, she supported the whole Qian household. Working day and night had left her utterly exhausted.

Suddenly, her mother, Madam Xu, threw open the door.

“Stop embroidering. Come with me at once.”

As she spoke, Madam Xu snatched the embroidery from her daughter’s hands, seized her, and dragged her outside as though her life depended on it.

With a heavy thud, Daniu collapsed to her knees. Her body had remained motionless through the night while she worked, and was now stiff and numb, refusing to obey her. One hard tug from Madam Xu was enough to send her sprawling across the floor.

“What are you dawdling for? We’re almost too late!” Qian Kun shouted impatiently from outside.

“Mother, where are you taking me in such a hurry? I have to finish this work by the day after tomorrow. If I delay, we can’t afford the compensation.”

At a time like this, Madam Xu had no concern for any of that. She dragged her daughter onward, taking no notice of the injuries Daniu had suffered in her fall.

Qian Kun, who had been waiting outside, could wait no longer. He hurried in, lifted Daniu by the arms, and threw her onto the cart he had prepared.

“Father, Mother, I’m in pain…” she wailed, tears spilling from her eyes.

Yet the couple seemed unable to hear her. They paid her no heed at all, intent only on taking her away as quickly as possible.

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The husband and wife pushed their eldest daughter—the girl who had supported the entire family—and hurried to the Marquis’s residence.

“My lord, I have brought the eldest young lady,” Qian Kun said, both his hands trembling for fear that Marquis Chu might change his mind.

The eldest young lady?

Daniu turned toward her father in bewilderment.

“Father, who is the eldest young lady?”

Qian Kun hastily waved his hands at her. “Eldest Young Lady, you must not call a lowly commoner your father any longer. The Marquis and his wife are your true parents.”

“Yes,” Madam Xu explained. “Back then, the Marchioness and I happened to give birth at the same time under unusual circumstances, and the babies were accidentally switched. We brought the eldest young lady home and raised her. Now the time has come for each child to return to her rightful family.”

Daniu stood frozen in shock. Before she could react, a piercing cry suddenly rang out.

“Father! Mother! You’ve finally come to take me home!”

A girl named Chu Mengyun came rushing forward with two bundles in her arms and threw herself into Madam Xu’s embrace, sobbing so hard she could scarcely speak.

The Marquis lifted his eyes toward the daughter he had personally raised for sixteen years. Now she was calling someone else her father and mother, and his heart ached terribly.

But when he saw that she looked exactly like Madam Xu, as though carved from the same mold, he turned his face away and waved his hand, signaling that they could leave.

The Marchioness, Madam Liu, wiped her tears with a handkerchief and pointed toward Daniu.

“My lord, quickly give her a name.”

The Marquis looked at Daniu, who was still kneeling dazedly on the ground, and said casually, “Let her be called Chu Xi.”

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Madam Liu nodded. “Someone come and change the eldest young lady’s clothes. We must not miss the auspicious hour.”

Her father and mother left with the other girl without even turning their heads. Only then did Daniu truly understand that this was not a dream.

But before she could open her mouth to say a word, five or six maidservants and older women had already seized her and carried her away.

Without giving her any chance to ask what was happening, they dressed her in a brilliant red wedding gown.

By then, the sky was fully bright.

Chu Xi sat alone beside the Duke of Pacifying the Realm, who was breathing his last, dressed in wedding robes so vivid they hurt the eyes.

For a girl who, only the night before, had been working without sleep in the Qian household to keep food on the table, everything before her felt as unreal as a dream.

“Madam, we should make the preparations now,” said the only servant remaining in the Duke’s residence, his voice thick with tears.

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