Princess Promotion

Minister Zhou's first reaction was disbelief. Madam Zhou had always been in good health, so how could she suddenly give birth prematurely without any warning?

Minister Zhou looked around. With such a big incident happening, why was Madam Zhou's personal maid nowhere to be seen from beginning to end?

An ominous premonition came over me. Something was wrong! Very wrong!

Minister Zhou suddenly pushed the midwife in front of him away and rushed into the house desperately.

As soon as I stepped into the room, a strong and pungent smell of blood hit me in the face, the smell was nauseating.

Seeing this, the maids and old women in the house ran forward in panic and tried to stop it.

"Master, you can't come in! This is a delivery room, it's not clean and will bring bad luck!" They shouted at each other, but Minister Zhou couldn't listen to them at this time.

Minister Zhou ignored all of them and looked around, finding that most of the faces were unfamiliar, not the maids and servants he was familiar with.

Minister Zhou's heart instantly sank to the bottom, and he couldn't help but shout angrily: "Where's the child? I asked you where your child is?"

Minister Zhou saw a small package and immediately stepped forward to open it.

A small baby's body was revealed, and Minister Zhou carefully touched it with trembling hands.

I immediately realized that something was wrong. Even if it was a stillbirth, it couldn't have been completely cold so soon after being born.

Minister Zhou touched the baby's swaddling clothes again and found that there were water stains on them, and they were icy.

This is clearly a dead fetus that was placed in an ice cellar to preserve the body, and now it has been taken out and thawed to pretend to be his child.

Minister Zhou looked at the top of the bed curtain with bloodshot eyes, then looked at Madam Zhou who was already fast asleep beside him.

He tiptoed out of bed, put on a coat, and poured himself a cup of cold tea to calm himself.

At that time, the Zhou family was in decline, and Minister Zhou was just a minor official of the fifth rank.

But by chance, Madam Zhou saved a pregnant woman, who happened to be the sister of the current Crown Princess.

After the Crown Princess's sister gave birth to a boy, she found that Madam Zhou was also pregnant.

Feeling that the two children were destined to be together, they made an agreement: if Mrs. Zhou gave birth to a boy, they would become sworn brothers; if it was a girl, they would become in-laws.

This marriage was considered marrying above their station for their family, but it also laid hidden dangers.

Minister Zhou never dreamed that his family members would be so cruel.

Especially his third sister-in-law who seemed gentle and kind on weekdays. Who could have expected that she was such a cruel and vicious woman!

Just because he was jealous of Madam Zhou's favor, he started planning early on, deliberately trying to destroy Madam Zhou and her unborn child.

The third sister-in-law plotted to make Mrs. Zhou give birth prematurely, and then brutally suffocated the child to death as soon as it was born.

In order to avoid noticing the truth, the real baby was replaced with a malformed dead fetus.

In this way, even if the coroner examines the body afterwards, he will not be able to find anything.

His child was disposed of so that his third sister-in-law could switch the child without anyone noticing.

When the time is right, the third sister-in-law only needs to pretend to be kind and compassionate in front of everyone, lamenting the unfortunate death of the child, to conceal her tracks.

Although everyone was deeply saddened by the child's untimely death, under the circumstances at the time, this matter absolutely could not be made public.

After all, the old Prince of Yan was already terminally ill and would not live long, and the Crown Prince's succession to the throne was almost a foregone conclusion.

Once the prince successfully ascends the throne and becomes emperor, the princess's family will naturally be transformed into extremely noble royal relatives.

By then, if he could marry the Crown Princess's sister, it would not just be about having another child for the entire family, but would affect the future prosperity, wealth, rise and fall, and honor of the entire family!

At this time, the third brother's wife gave birth to a daughter a few months earlier than Mrs. Zhou, and this child came in handy.

Then the third sister-in-law could suppress her inner pain and reluctance and give her daughter to Mrs. Zhou. Only in this way could the Zhou family's prosperity and wealth be preserved.

After a while, he announced that his child had unfortunately died of a cold.

In this way, the third brother's wife's daughter can legitimately replace Mrs. Zhou's daughter's life.

Although the third sister-in-law lost her daughter on the surface, she could feel the guilt of everyone.

This is a real benefit. After her daughter has found her own way, she pretends to miss her too much.

Even if her identity was accidentally exposed, her daughter would have already established herself and no one would blame her too much.

After all, blood is thicker than water, and the innate blood bond between mother and daughter cannot be severed.

This gave him the opportunity to develop feelings with his daughter and wait for her to grow up and marry into a wealthy family.

Her third sister-in-law is her biological mother, and this is a blood relationship that cannot be severed.

Everything was originally perfect, but the third brother's wife did not expect that Minister Zhou would suddenly break in.

As a result, the plan was exposed and the third sister-in-law did not have time to deal with everyone.

They were captured by Minister Zhou and his men and tortured one by one.

But Minister Zhou was still a step too late. The child born by Mrs. Zhou was suffocated to death at birth and was taken out and thrown into the river.

The third sister-in-law knew that once she took action, there would be no turning back. She had to either not do it or do it thoroughly.

So her first thing was to get rid of the child and never let Minister Zhou find or have the possibility of saving the child.

In this way, even if the matter is exposed, there is only one suitable child of hers in the mansion.

Even if Minister Zhou disagrees, he would rather keep someone else's child than hers.

But Mr. Zhou would not agree to such a thing. For the sake of the family's interests, how could he just give away someone else's child?

The fact turned out to be just as the third sister-in-law had expected. Mr. Zhou felt that family disgrace should not be made public and such scandal must be suppressed.

The third brother's wife's daughter was given to Mrs. Zhou for adoption, and the third brother's wife was imprisoned in a Buddhist temple and was not allowed to leave the yard for the rest of her life.

Minister Zhou refused to agree to anything and unless he died, he would make this vicious woman be buried with his daughter.

Finally, it was Old Madam Zhou who knelt down before Minister Zhou and forced him to swallow his anger.

After that night, Minister Zhou took his wife and children out of the house.

Mrs. Zhou was in a coma at that time, and when she woke up, everything was settled.

Minister Zhou simply said that Madam Zhou gave birth prematurely because of his third brother's wife, and that he wanted to punish that vicious woman, but his father disagreed.

From now on they lived in separate houses and had no more contact with each other.

So Mrs. Zhou didn't know the whole story and always thought that she had given birth to a stillborn baby.

A few years later, Mrs. Zhou recovered and gave birth to another daughter. It was Zhou Xinan who loved this daughter who was lost and found again like a treasure.

Over the years, Minister Zhou has been secretly searching for the child, but the hope is slim. That vicious woman has been setting up this trap for so long, how could she let the child survive?

Minister Zhou just wanted to find the child's remains and bury her in peace.

Today I heard Zhou Yunqi say that he saw a woman who looked exactly like Mrs. Zhou, and she was a young woman.

Could it be that the child was really lucky and survived?

Minister Zhou looked at the dark sky and could not see a single star.

The next morning, Mrs. Zhou asked someone to prepare some cakes and then walked towards Liu Rushi's yard with great interest.

Mrs. Zhou was also surprised that her son said last night that the woman looked very similar to herself.

Minister Zhou asked his men to investigate and find out the woman's background.

Minister Zhou looked at the sky and thought that Madam Zhou would sit for a while and chat for a few minutes before coming back.

So he picked up the book he had read last night and prepared to finish the rest, but just as he picked it up, he saw Mrs. Zhou coming back with a red face.

Minister Zhou looked up at Madam Zhou in surprise: "Why are you back so soon?"

Mrs. Zhou walked over to Shangshu Zhou and sat down, looking as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.

After a long pause, he stammered, "That woman... is... yes, she is the madam of Baihua Tower!"

"Pah!" The book in Minister Zhou's hand fell to the ground.

Mrs. Zhou only spoke two sentences to Liu Rushi.

Mrs. Zhou looked at Liu Rushi's face, which was so similar to hers, in amazement and said, "Miss, you and I look so much alike!"

Liu Rushi smiled but said nothing. Madam Zhou asked enthusiastically, "Where are you from, young lady? This temple is full of monks. If you have any inconvenience or need anything, please feel free to come to me."

Liu Rushi: "I'm a brothel owner, running a brothel!"

Mrs. Zhou: ……………………………

Then there is no more then.

Mrs. Zhou returned dejected.

This was too big a step for Mrs. Zhou, who had been well-behaved since childhood.

Liu Rushi looked at the pastries left on the table and curled the corners of her mouth in sarcasm.

Sure enough... they look very similar.

Liu Rushi was never a good person. After being redeemed by Yao Chuguang and returning to Baihua Tower, her gambling father came looking for her again.

It is true that good people do not live long in this world, and evil will last for thousands of years.

Originally, Liu Rushi wanted to go find him, but she didn't expect that he would come to her on his own, which saved her the effort of looking for someone.

Liu Rushi didn't say anything. After all, he was your father. Even if he treated you badly, you should still be grateful to him for bringing you into this world.

What filial piety? Is this bastard worthy of it?

Since Liu Rushi could remember, she was beaten almost every two days and every three days.

She remembered all these pains, and now that she was rich, the first person she wanted to deal with was naturally her gambling father.

Liu Rushi immediately had the gambler locked up, and for no other reason than to repay him double for what he had done to her in the past.

This gambler was a bully who only had a few hits and started yelling that he was not Liu Rushi's biological father.

Now Liu Rushi became interested and ordered people to continue torturing him to see if they could dig out anything.

The gambler was not a tough guy and he confessed everything soon.

At that time, he was in debt due to gambling. When he returned home, he was in a bad mood and started beating and kicking his wife.

Unexpectedly, my daughter-in-law gave birth prematurely because of this, and there happened to be a midwife living next door.

Thinking that the woman was carrying her own son after all, he went to call a midwife to deliver the baby.

Unexpectedly, the baby was born stillborn, and it was a girl.

The gambler, who originally had some worries and concerns in his heart, now had the last bit of concern disappear in an instant.

The midwife was also surprised and said she wanted to spend money to buy the dead fetus.

The gambler will definitely agree. As long as there is money, he will give it to the victim, not to mention the dead or the living.

A few nights later, he came back and saw the midwife sneaking out with a package in her arms.

At that time, I followed behind for some unknown reason and saw the midwife turning left and right and entering a wealthy family.

The gambler remembered that the package was the one that contained the dead baby a few days ago. Why was he sneaking into this rich family's house with this thing?

The gambler secretly wondered about the midwife, was she secretly doing some shady business?

If it is true, he can use it to blackmail a sum of money.

With this thought in mind, the gambler squatted in the corner waiting for the midwife to come out.

Not long after, the midwife and a maid came out holding a wooden box.

The gambler followed closely behind, wanting to see what the midwife was up to.

The midwife and the maidservant looked panicked and walked quickly towards the river.

When they reached the river, the midwife threw the box into the river, turned around and walked back with her maid, not daring to look back.

After the midwife left, the gambler ran to the river to take a look.

It was discovered that the box was blocked by the tree roots by the river and floated on the surface of the river without drifting away.

The gambler's face lit up with joy, and he pulled a branch to fish the box out.

When they opened the box, they found a newborn baby inside.

And the baby's face turned blue. The gambler stretched out his finger and poked the baby's heart and found that there was still some warmth.

I thought of the midwife who brought the baby over and patted it when she delivered the baby girl.

The gambler followed suit and clapped his hands in reverse as well.

Unexpectedly, the baby started to cry.

The gambler didn't expect that this child was so lucky to survive like this.

The gambler suddenly understood why the midwife wanted to buy his dead fetus. Was it just like what was sung in the opera, where she wanted to replace the prince with a cat?

This child comes from a wealthy family, so he must be very valuable. I have to find an opportunity to ask that wealthy family for money.

So the gambler took the child home. It happened that his wife had just given birth and had milk to feed the child.

The gambler threw the child to his wife, thinking that he would find out more about the matter when the midwife came back.

In the end, the midwife never came back.

The gambler owed too much gambling debt and could not pay it back even if he sold his wife.

Finally, he decided to take his wife and flee the city overnight, and come back after a while to find out the news.

That child is his chance to turn the tables, so of course he has to take him with him.

Unexpectedly, when he arrived at the first town, he got lucky and won a lot of money. When he was about to continue gambling.

When he found out that the debt collectors had caught up with him, the gambler had no choice but to continue running towards the border with his wife and children.

Because of that money, and because my daughter-in-law also earned some money from working outside.

Those years were spent in quarrels, but the daughter-in-law died of illness due to overwork when Liu Rushi was seven or eight years old.

No one supported the gambler, so he bought Liu Rushi into Baihua Tower.

Later, Liu Rushi followed the clues given by the gambler and traced back along the way. Based on her age, she was able to quickly identify several wealthy families who had difficulty in childbirth.

When Liu Rushi saw that Mrs. Zhou's face was extremely similar to her own, she knew without even checking that she was most likely Mrs. Zhou's child.