Chapter 104 - Not Her Biological Granddaughter
Henyee Translations
Henyee Translations
Qiao Jinniang really admired Qiao Ruoshui’s confidence. She said, “Lord Prefect, Mrs. Zheng has already confessed to her crime of swapping my sister with her own daughter just now at the gate of Duke Anyuan Mansion.”
“Okay.” Chang’an Prefect ordered someone to place the bones and the rotten swaddle in front of the Zheng family.
“After conducting an investigation, this corpse is indeed the baby you ordered your old groom at your home to dispose of.
“But this baby is not Mrs. Zheng’s half-year-old daughter, but a baby girl who had just turned one month.
“Here’s the physical evidence. The sinner, Zheng Wang Shi, confess to your crime of murdering this baby girl!”
Qiao Ruoshui was confused but still confidently said, “swapped? Like I said, you are not worthy of being the daughter of the Qiao family.
“It turns out that you were swapped. You are not my sister at all!”
Qiao Jinniang smiled. “Of course I’m not your sister.”
Qiao Ruoshui was triumphant. She thought to herself, I’d like to see what Mother has to say. She treats me like this for Qiao Jinniang. She must feel so regretful now.
Jinniang asked the coroner, “Mrs. Zheng said that my sister fell off the table and died. Please check the cause of my sister’s death again…”
Jinniang didn’t believe that a one-month-old child could turn over, nor did she believe anyone would fall to their death from the height of a table.
A table was at most half the height of a person. Sometimes, people who didn’t hold their babies well would drop their baby to the ground, but none of the babies would die.
The coroner checked the corpse carefully and said, “Judging from the bone fractures, I’m afraid she fell more than once. It’s more like that she was deliberately slammed to the ground several times and died.”
Qiao Jinniang asked Mrs. Zheng resentfully, “You are still not telling the truth? Your family has committed a crime worthy of being beheaded!”
Mrs. Zheng cried in fright. “I didn’t kill her. That day, a mammy put her on the table to change diapers and accidentally knocked over the candlestick, which fell on your sister’s face.
“Seeing that half of the baby girl’s face and her eye were burned by the lamp oil on the table, Mother was afraid that the Duke Mansion would blame us, so she came up with the idea to swap the two children.
“She was afraid that the baby girl would be a scourge when she grew up, so she simply slammed her to death.”
Qiao Jinniang was so furious that she felt chill all over. “Old Madam Zheng, she is your biological granddaughter! How can you be so cruel?”
Old Madam Zheng glared at Mrs. Zheng angrily. “What are you talking about? My lord, this woman has been beaten crazy by Qiao Jinniang. What she said is nothing but nonsense.”
Earl Zheng looked at his mother and his wife darkly. “So Ruoshui is not my niece, but my daughter?
“and my niece was killed by you long ago?”
Old Madam Zheng said, “No! How could I have killed my own granddaughter?!”
Qiao Ruoshui finally figured out what they were talking about. She rushed to Qiao Jinniang, raised her hand to slap her and yelled, “You b*tch, nothing good has happened since you came back, and now you’re slandering me for not being Father and Mother’s biological daughter?”
Qiao Jinniang grabbed Qiao Ruoshui’s hand and slapped her back. “I advise you to keep quiet. Otherwise, I will treat you the same way your mother treated my sister!”
Earl Zheng angrily scolded Old Madam Zheng. “Of course you won’t kill your own granddaughter, because you are not the biological mother of my sister and I!”
Qiao Jinniang looked at Earl Zheng. “What do you mean?”
Earl Zheng said angrily, “Your grandmother, my mother also has a twin sister.
“That aunt married a lieutenant a few years ago, but he died on the battlefield at a young age.
“After she became a widow, she seduced her brother-in-law, pretended to be her own sister and became Duchess Dingyuan. Mother, no, Aunt, do you agree with what I said?”
Old Madam Zheng said in horror, “You actually know this? How is it possible?”
Earl Zheng gnashed his teeth and said, “Because I was in front of my mother before she died. She was secretly sent back to her natal home after she gave birth to my sister! And you replaced her!
“although I was only six years old, I knew what had happened!”
Listening on the side, Qiao Jinniang couldn’t believe that both of her mother’s daughters were not her real daughters. This was simply the biggest joke in the world!
And it turned out that even her mother’s mother was not her own!
There was indeed a reason for the decline of the Zheng family.
Earl Zheng continued, “Grandmother had already discovered the truth, but you and Father all insisted that she was wrong, so she had no choice but to raise my sister in person.
“Over the years, like my mother had asked me to do before she died, I took you as my own mother and have been filial to you.
“although I knew that this woman was your daughter from your first marriage, I still married her as my wife and loved her as you demanded.
“But I never expected you two to do such a terrible thing.”
Mrs. Zheng looked at Earl Zheng in horror. “What did you say? Mother-in-law, is my mother? How could it be possible? My mother is Mrs. Wang of the Wang family in the Northwest!”
Earl Zheng retorted. “No, Mrs. Wang is your aunt.
“After your father died in battle, your mother abandoned you and returned to her natal family in Chang’an!
“Your aunt pitied you and raised you as her daughter.”
Only then did Mrs. Zheng understand why her mother-in-law treated her so well… Among Old Madam Zheng’s daughters-in-law, she was the only one who hadn’t been tortured by her.
The onlookers outside were in an uproar. “It turns out that Old Madam Zheng has already been used to swapping. She is quite skilled!”
“Why didn’t Earl Zheng remind his sister since he knew the truth?”
“Poor Madam Qiao, not only both of her daughters, but also her mother are not her own.”
“This is even more unbelievable than novels! The younger sister of the twins replaced her elder sister and became a duchess. Many years later, she murdered her sister’s granddaughter and swapped her with her own granddaughter so that the latter could have a better life!”
“She is simply shameless!”
Filled with righteous indignation, the onlookers kept throwing rotten eggs and rotten vegetables at Old Madam Zheng.
Chang’an Prefect seemed to have long been accustomed to this scene and had his staff put an umbrella for him to block the thrown trash before he patted the table with the gavel again.
“Don’t throw trash anymore. It’s troublesome to clean the hall. Anyone throwing trash again will be put into jail!”
“That old b*tch is so evil. I have to throw trash at her even if I’ll be put into jail!”
“Exactly. Since she had stolen her sister’s identity, she should have treated her sister’s children well, but she actually slammed her niece’s daughter to death!”
Qiao Jinniang had never seen such a scene before. Fortunately, a policeman held an umbrella to block the trash for her. “Country Mistress Jia‘an, the people in Chang’an are imbued with a sense of justice. You will get used to it in the future.”
Qiao Jinniang: “…”
If she had known this, she would have not come in person. Although the trash didn’t hit her, it smelled really bad.
Although Qiao Ruoshui hadn’t figured out what had happened, she was very angry that she was smashed by stinky trash, so she yelled angrily,
“Stop it, all of you! I’m the first concubine of Prince Mediocre! How dare you lowlifes throw trash at me?!”
Before she finished speaking, more trash was thrown at her.
Chang’an Prefect let out a long sigh. It was no wonder that his predecessor told him to prepare more clothes and always keep hot water on the stove.
After the people were finally tired, Chang’an Prefect said, “This matter is of great importance with severe implications. These people have committed the crime of deceiving the Emperor. Come, put Old Madam Zheng, Earl Zheng and Zheng Wang Shi into prison…… I’ll decide the punishment for them after
reporting this case to His Majesty!”