An ugly girl starts off, then becomes a beauty

In late spring, after several hot days worse than summer, Chang'an City finally welcomed a rare spring rain. Sang Ling heard thunder in the middle of the night. Her sleepiness faded away, and she gently pulled away Nie Ce's hand on her belly, and walked to the corridor to enjoy the rain. The lanterns under the eaves were swaying in the wind, casting broken light and shadows on the wooden floor. Soon, a figure at the end of the corridor came quickly over. It was Cheng Ai.

She was a little surprised, but she was afraid of disturbing the people sleeping inside, so she just mouthed, "Why aren't you asleep yet?"

Cheng knew that she had a loud voice and couldn't hold it back, so she simply pulled her to the corridor and then to the side room. "I can't sleep listening to the rain. I'm afraid the back window of the bedroom isn't closed tightly, and the rain is coming in, and you'll catch a cold."

"It's closed. You're too cautious. If you're really worried, why not ask the little ones to come over?" Sang Ling smiled helplessly and pulled down his robe. "It's a good opportunity to go check if the window in the child's room is closed tightly."

"It's locked up. I just came from there." When Cheng mentioned the young lady, her brows relaxed a little. "The two wet nurses are sleeping in there, and Sun is in the next room. The young lady is sleeping soundly."

Sang Ling nodded and asked, "You ate a lot today, so you didn't make any noise, did you?"

"She is very obedient. She eats corn paste, goat milk and meat soup, and drinks some pear juice. A few days ago you taught her to say 'Mom'. Today, as soon as you left, she called out loudly, and then she fell asleep. Grandma Sun is taking care of her this afternoon."

"That's a pity. I haven't even listened to you yet. You bad girl, she didn't scream when I was teaching her, but she started screaming as soon as I left. I must give her a good squeeze tomorrow." Sang Ling was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling. If it wasn't the middle of the night, he would have wanted to fly to the child's room right away, and drag Nie Ce with him to let that guy see who his daughter called first.

"It's a good thing that you haven't slept either." Cheng Aiqi was still smiling, but her expression didn't look good when she said this.

"How?" Sang Ling asked softly.

"I wanted to tell you tomorrow, but now I've said it all at once. You can decide what to do."

Just by saying this, she inexplicably guessed something - when the sun set, was there something wrong with Nie Ce's actions? Although she couldn't say what was wrong, the two of them had been together for so long, and if there was something a little different in their words and deeds, the other half would be able to detect it. And when they were changing clothes and unpacking their hair at night, Zong Xiang was also missing, which was very strange - she listened to her relatively calm tone, "Go ahead."

"I don't know what has driven Zong Xiang crazy." Aunt Cheng spat. "I thought she was an honest and decent girl, so I gradually relaxed my mind. I didn't expect that after the last time the Marquis... she had a thought in her mind. Yuan discovered what happened today. The girl came from the back room and was walking outside the west wing. She was taking a bath when the Marquis came back. What a coincidence that Ying Bushi didn't come back with her today. The Marquis was busy and didn't call anyone. Zong Xiang--" Aunt Cheng was so angry that her body was shaking in the middle of her speech. "Yuan saw her just go in like that. The little girl was young and frightened by the noise. She didn't care what happened next and ran away. Fortunately, she knew to tell me at night, otherwise it would have just passed and we would have become fools who were kept in the dark."

"Madam, you said..." Old Madam Cheng came forward, her eyes full of worry, "The Marquis probably won't do that."

Sang Ling's heart was already in a mess. She had just sent away Liang, and now another one came. They were all people around her. Even if they were from the outer courtyard or those she was not familiar with, she would not be so annoyed. But this person happened to be Zong Xiang.

I couldn't help but close my eyes in annoyance, letting the sound of wind and rain outside drill into my ears. The noisy sound outside suppressed those thoughts, and then I raised my eyes calmly, "I know, don't keep thinking about it. It's getting late, you should rest early."

"Can--"

Sang Ling pushed her words back, "I'll take care of it, don't worry."

Old Cheng stammered for a while, still wanting to say something, but seeing the young lady's expression, she could still understand her meaning, so she had to bow and turn around, sighing every few steps back to the servants' room. Sang Ling stared at the back figure in front of her until it disappeared at the corner of the corridor, and then slowly walked back to the bedroom. She couldn't help but glance at the rain scene in the courtyard. The thin branches on the elm trees were bent by the weight, and the rain meandered along the cracks of the tiles. Unexpectedly, another flash of lightning lit up the courtyard swallowed by darkness for a moment. She lowered her eyebrows and let her mind wander for a while before she started walking again. As soon as she looked up, she saw the figure by the door.

I couldn't help laughing, thinking that this night was really restless and everyone was woken up by the rain.

"Why did you come out?" Nie Ce walked up to her. He originally had an outer robe in his hand. When he saw that she was wearing one, he put the robe in his hand on his arm and embraced her freely.

He had always been intimate with her, and unless they had a fight, the two of them would always stick together unconsciously. But today, for some reason, he was even more affectionate than before, and she didn't know if it was because he was suspicious.

"It's a bit stuffy in the room." She frowned after answering this, but couldn't help looking up at him, "Nie Ce, you——" The words came to her lips but she felt that she hadn't organized her words yet. She asked him if he had slept with Zong Xiang today? What did he plan to do if he slept with him? What did he do when he didn't sleep? ——These questions kept spinning in her mind, like a spinning top, making her dizzy.

She really didn't want to be upset about these things. She tried hard to find her life goal, which was not to become one of the jealous people in the inner house, spending all her time trying to win the love of men and fighting to the death.

The guy's voice came from my ear, "You're starting to hide things too."