sbdcsierra Chapter 4 Thief
Chapter 4 Thief
"what--"
Sheng Yunzhu was so shocked that she lost her balance and almost fell to the ground.
Lu Yangyang grabbed her sleeve just in time. The thin, light fabric made Lu Yangyang's dark, thin hands look particularly ugly. With just a gentle tug, the thick calluses on Lu Yangyang's fingers tore a thread through the fabric.
"Wow, this fabric is truly amazing, so light and delicate. I just don't know..." With a slight effort, Lu Yangyang actually ripped off Sheng Yunzhu's entire sleeve. Sheng Yunzhu, who had just been pulled by her, lost her balance and fell backward to the ground, revealing a smooth and delicate arm.
"Ah—" Sheng Yunzhu screamed again.
Lu Yangyang stroked the thin fabric in her hands and lightly tossed it onto Sheng Yunzhu. "I just wonder if this stolen fabric is really that comfortable to wear? What do you think?"
"You, you..." Since arriving in the capital and becoming a daughter of the Duke's mansion, Sheng Yunzhu had never suffered such humiliation and injustice. She wished she could scratch Lu Yangyang's other half of her face raw, but with so many people waiting to see her make a fool of herself, she could no longer hold back and covered her face, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Mother, Mother, please let me go. I... I shouldn't have been so young and ignorant back then, taking my sister's things. I'll leave..."
"Zhuzhu, this has nothing to do with you. You were young back then..." The beautiful woman, Madam Lan, the matriarch of the Shengguo Duke's Mansion, had doted on Sheng Yunzhu for many years and was naturally reluctant to let her go. She quickly bent down to try to help her up and comfort her.
Lu Yangyang gave a faint sneer: "What you said makes a lot of sense, Madam. She was young back then, so when I was three years old, I was disfigured and thrown into the mountains to fend for myself. It's all because I was too old and knew too much that my identity was stolen. I deserve to die."
"Yangyang, I... Mother didn't mean that. It was Mother's fault. Mother was negligent back then. If you want to blame someone, blame Mother..." Madam Lan immediately forgot to help Sheng Yunzhu and tried to explain to Lu Yangyang with her panicked and helpless eyes.
Lu Yangyang nodded: "What else? Does Madam think I shouldn't blame you?"
"I, I..." Lan Shi stammered, unsure how to explain.
"Enough!" Old Madam Li shouted sharply, her eyes glaring fiercely at Lu Yangyang as if she wanted to bore a hole through her. "Send her away..."
At this moment, the tall figure of the Duke of Sheng walked in from outside the door.
"Waaah, my husband, it's all my fault. I failed to protect our child. Please, keep Yangyang. She is our own flesh and blood..." When Lady Lan saw Duke Sheng, she cried and threw herself into his arms.
Duke Sheng helped her up and looked at Old Madam Li, who was pointing at Lu Yangyang and about to kick her out. He frowned slightly and said, "Mother, the bloodline of the Duke's Mansion cannot be allowed to flow outside. Now that we have brought her back, we should change her name and record her in the family genealogy as we said before."
"You want to change my name?" Lu Yangyang asked.
Duke Sheng frowned and looked at her.
Lu Yangyang was not afraid of his gaze at all. Instead, she turned her gaze to Sheng Yunzhu and asked, "What about her? Since I am of the Duke's bloodline, what should we do with this imposter? Should we change her name, remove her from the family register, and send her away?"
"Stop talking nonsense!" Old Madam Li shouted.
Madam Lan pleaded, "Yangyang, Zhuzhu has been in the Sheng family for many years, taking your place and bringing you joy. What happened back then wasn't her fault. From now on, you sisters will be together..."
"Together with what? Together we'll be good daughters to you?" Lu Yangyang laughed out loud: "Do I look like a sucker? Calling the person who stole my life my sister, acting like nothing ever happened?"
"I'm telling you, don't even think about it!"
"You wretched child!" Old Madam Li's lips trembled with anger as she said to Duke Sheng, "What's the point of keeping such a wretched child? Send her far away and never let her come back!"
"I don't care!" Lu Yangyang turned and left.
"Halt!" a voice shouted from the Duke of Sheng's residence, coldly asking, "What do you want?"
Lu Yangyang turned her head and glanced at everyone: "It's simple. I can stay, but I, Lu Yangyang, will not change my name or surname, nor will I be included in your Sheng family genealogy, unless you kick this imposter out now!"
Sheng Yunzhu covered her face and cried her heart out: "Grandmother, Father, Mother, it's Yunzhu's bad luck that I can no longer fulfill my filial duties to you. You should send Yunzhu away. I should have given way to my sister anyway..."
"Zhuzhu, don't say that. Aren't you tearing my heart out?" Lady Lan leaned weakly against the Duke of Sheng.
"Alright, then so be it. Since you don't want to be included in the family genealogy, then from now on you can only be a cousin of the Sheng family. Don't regret it!" Duke Sheng said in a deep voice.
Lu Yangyang scoffed coldly: "You would rather choose the daughter of your enemy than your own daughter. You don't regret it, so why should I?"
“Arrange a courtyard for her, and you may all leave,” said Duke Sheng.
Lan Shi, supported by the old woman's hand, looked at Lu Yangyang hesitantly: "Yangyang, come with your mother..."
Lu Yangyang didn't say anything this time and followed her out.
Seeing the Duke of Sheng's expression, the people in the room did not dare to stay any longer and quickly dispersed.
Only Madam Li and the Duke of Sheng and his mother remained in the room.
Madam Li clutched her chest: "That girl, with her wild ways and having been raised outside, why did you bother keeping her? No one in the capital knows about this, so just pretend this child never existed..."
“There are no secrets that stay hidden forever. If we keep him at home, even if something goes wrong in the future, there will be a way to explain it. But if someone with ulterior motives takes advantage of it, it’s even more unpredictable.” Duke Sheng pondered for a moment, then said, “The Crown Prince’s leg injury is probably hard to heal. When the Empress was alive, she proposed marriage to Lady Lan, and the Emperor knew about it. It was originally a good thing, but now… if the Emperor brings up the old matter again, he will have to choose one of them to marry into the family.”
Madam Li paused for a moment, then nodded: "I understand."
*
Long before Lu Yangyang returned, Madam Lan had already had people tidy up Lu Yangyang's courtyard, but she fell ill in her haste and was unable to do it herself, so the courtyard ended up being a bit out of the way.
When Madam Lan excitedly led her people over, she discovered that the courtyard she had supposedly painstakingly tidied up for Lu Yangyang had actually been moved to the western edge of the Duke's mansion. It was large enough, but it had been overgrown for who knows how many years. The weeds in the courtyard had just been pulled, and now it looked like an empty space.
Madam Lan's face flushed red as she cautiously looked at Lu Yangyang: "Yangyang, Mother... Mother was ill the other day and wasn't... wasn't prepared. How about you stay in Mother's courtyard tonight, and tomorrow... tomorrow Mother will have someone bring you..."
“No need, this place is fine.” Lu Yangyang interrupted her and said, “Madam, since the Duke has already said that I will only be a cousin of the Sheng family from now on, you should be careful not to cause any misunderstandings.”
Then he went into the courtyard without looking back.
Lan Shi's eyes reddened again. At this moment, Sheng Yunzhu, who had changed her clothes and rushed over with people, kindly helped Lan Shi up: "Mother, I've come to bring some things to my sister."
Lan looked at her with relief: "Zhuzhu is so sensible. Zhuzhu, your sister has resentment in her heart, but you must not blame her. You should take better care of her in the future. If she really doesn't want to, then don't bother her. She has suffered. I only wish her to be happy in the future."
Sheng Yunzhu clenched her fingers in anger, but still nodded understandingly, "Mother, don't worry, I know."
Only then did Madam Lan feel relieved and leave, holding the nanny's hand.
Sheng Yunzhu led her people into the courtyard, told them to wait there, and went inside.
Lu Yangyang sat in the chair, as if waiting for her.
Sheng Yunzhu gritted her teeth: "What exactly do you want?"
Lu Yangyang's lips curled up, her thin face paired with the hideous scar giving off a chillingly eerie aura: "Of course, I'm here to take back what's rightfully mine. What do you say?"
"Thief."