"Wretch! You merely raised me for eighteen years. Now that I have placed top in the imperial examinations, what right do you have to stop me from reuniting with my birth mother!"
"Crash!"
With the sound of something shattering on the floor, Xu Yuan snapped her eyes open, breaking into a cold sweat.
The next second, she felt someone pinning her down on the bed, her legs forced apart.
"It hurts..."
The woman on the bed trembled incessantly; the pain in her lower abdomen surged through her entire body. As she struggled to fight back, she heard the midwife’s anxious voice in her ear.
"Madam, push a little harder! The baby's head is crowning!"
A baby?
Xu Yuan instinctively looked down at her swollen belly, then stared at the people around her in disbelief.
She... she had been reborn!
She had returned to the second year after her marriage into the Marquis's Estate, the time when she gave birth.
"Ah!" A piercing scream escaped the woman’s lips, mixed with the agony of childbirth.
A sharp, clear cry echoed through the room.
"It's born! It's born!"
"It's a young master!"
"Congratulations, Madam! Our warmest congratulations!"
"Bring him here for me to see."
Xu Yuan raised her trembling hands. Ignoring the weakness following the birth, she tried to sit up.
"Madam, please do not move. I shall bring him to you."
Seeing her movement, the midwife, terrified that Xu Yuan might tumble off the bed in her agitated state, exclaimed, but quickly carried the baby over to her.
Xu Yuan braced her frail body. Seeing the small birthmark behind the child’s left ear—the most distinct feature that set him apart from the illegitimate son—she felt a sense of relief. Fortunately...
But the joy lasted only a few seconds before an old woman’s voice drifted in from outside.
"Why has it taken so long? Midwife! Has the child been born yet?"
"He is born! He is born!"
"Old Madam, the Madam has given birth to a young master!"
As the midwife responded to the outside, she attempted to take the baby away from Xu Yuan.
"Madam, please rest well. I am going to take him to show the Old Madam."
"No!"
In her past life, all her tragedies began when the child was swapped!
Xu Yuan had been married into the Marquis's Estate for two years. She never dared to forget her responsibilities as the mistress of the house. She had birthed a son and raised him through blood and sweat until he was eighteen and placed top in the exams.
Yet, Shen Yunan’s mistress appeared before her, acting imperiously and claiming that the child she had painstakingly raised for eighteen years was actually hers.
In her terror, she had merely questioned them, only to receive two slaps.
One was from her husband, Shen Yunan, and the other from the son she had raised for eighteen years!
That child accused her of being too harsh in her discipline, claiming his years of study had been a torture. It was only when he found out who his real mother was that he finally understood what it meant to be free.
Her eighteen years of devotion became a joke in an instant.
Her "filial" son had claimed he was seeking justice for his birth mother, pulling out a sharp blade and plunging it deep into her heart.
Even now, reborn, the memory of that soul-crushing pain lingered.
The midwife must be planning to swap the child now!
She could not let that tragedy repeat itself.
Xu Yuan’s eyes were filled with sorrow as she looked at the infant in her arms.
In her previous life, after the child was swapped, Lu Rou had kept him by her side, treating him like a slave. She would beat and curse him whenever she was in a foul mood, and kick him when she was happy. She made him kneel on the ground to beg, crawl through dog holes, and kept him hungry and cold.
He died in the freezing winter when he was five.
At the time, she had always found it strange—why, as mothers, was Lu Rou so cruel to her own son, yet so attentive to hers?
It turned out it was all a premeditated plot. She only hated that she hadn't discovered it in time; not only did she destroy her own son, but she had also labored in vain for someone else's benefit!
She looked around the room, but everyone she saw had a strange face.
"Where is Cuiliu?"
"Let Cuiliu in!"
The midwife and the servant girls present were shocked by her reaction, unable to understand why the Madam, who should have been exhausted after childbirth, was behaving this way.
"Since it is a young master, why is he not being brought out for me to see?"
A voice filled with dissatisfaction followed immediately. The midwife shivered, then turned to those around her.
"What are you all waiting for? Hurry and hold the Madam down! If she keeps holding him like that, the young master will be smothered to death!"
Hearing this, the people in the room swarmed forward to pry open Xu Yuan’s hands as she shielded the baby.
"You wicked servants, do you wish to commit treason against your mistress?"
Xu Yuan’s face turned bright red with rage. Even with all her fury, in her weakened state, she was no match for the servant girls. Her hands, protecting the baby, were pulled apart bit by bit.
"Don't touch my child!"
"Madam, forgive us! I am only taking the child out to show the Old Madam; I am not doing anything else."
Ignoring Xu Yuan’s heart-wrenching screams, the midwife quickly snatched the child and walked away at a brisk pace.
"My child... my child...!"
The moment the servant girls let go, Xu Yuan tried to summon all her remaining strength to rise, but she felt a heavy blow to the back of her neck, and her entire body went limp on the bed.
A servant girl nearby heard her calling out and quickly replied, "Madam, Cuiliu is waiting outside. Does Madam need me to call her in?"
Xu Yuan’s eyes were already brimming with tears.
"Madam? Madam!"
"You have been unconscious since the birth for nearly an hour," Cuiliu said.
"Birth?"
She hadn't been unconscious; someone had struck her to knock her out!
"The child! Quickly! Go and bring the child back!"
"Madam, the Old Madam said she was worried the young master's crying would disturb your recovery, so she had the midwife take him to the side room. The young master is very healthy."
She had been unconscious for an hour—which meant...!
Xu Yuan’s heart turned cold.
Reborn or not, the same thing had happened again!
"Cuiliu, why were you not by my side when I was giving birth?"
If Cuiliu had been there, she surely could have stopped the midwife from taking the child away.
"The Old Madam said I was too clumsy and would not allow me to enter."
"Madam, the doctor said you must rest well. You must not let your emotions get too volatile."
"The estate is heavily guarded. There are four or five people guarding the side room where the young master is. If you are worried, I can go and check on him later."
"Besides, the Marquis knows you have given birth and is already on his way back to the estate."
"The Marquis?"
Xu Yuan sneered. In her past life, wasn't it Shen Yunan who tacitly allowed his mistress to swap the child?
What was most ridiculous was that, whether in her past life or now, she had been married into the Marquis's Estate for two years and had never once shared a marriage bed with Shen Yunan.
As for the biological father of the child in her womb, it was someone else entirely.
Shen Yunan knew all of this. Not only did he know, but he swallowed his pride and took meticulous care of her during her pregnancy.
He didn't even reveal the truth until she was on her deathbed!
As she was deep in thought, she saw an old woman walking slowly toward her, leaning on a cane in one hand and supported by a maid in the other.
"Lady Xu, what is the meaning of this servant girl? Not only is she clumsy, but she is also flighty and erratic!"
The Old Madam cast a cold glance at Cuiliu, then fixed her gaze on Xu Yuan, who was half-leaning against the side of the bed. Disregarding her pale complexion, she scolded her with a tone full of disdain.
"Mother, was it you who ordered Cuiliu to leave the room while I was in labor?"