Bai Qingyan turned her head to look at Wei Zhong.
Seeing Bai Qingyan’s interest, Wei Zhong continued, "This old servant heard... Minister Sima made so foolish decisions when he was younger, indulging in the pleasures of the world. Later, he fell seriously ill, and the Imperial Physician said he could no longer have children, so he adopted a child from the clan... The child’s father had passed away early, and the mother was about to remarry to return to her maiden ho."
Sima Ruodan wiped her tears with her sleeve, bowing her head in sha.
"Who knew, six years later, Madam Sima got pregnant and gave birth to the Imperial Censor, so the Imperial Censor should be the second child in the family," Wei Zhong glanced at Sima Ruodan and chuckled.
Bai Qingyan looked at Bai Qingqi and saw that Bai Qingqi was lowering his gaze, as if he had already investigated the matter thoroughly.
"Chun Zhi, help Miss Sima up..." Bai Qingyan smiled at Sima Ruodan, "Sit down so we can talk slowly."
Sima Ruodan was flattered, knelt and bowed to Bai Qingyan, but declined Chun Zhi’s offer to help her up. She said chokingly, "This citizen woman is guilty of deceiving the emperor; Your Majesty, please let continue speaking on my knees! Since my uncle was born, my father has been in a very awkward position within the Sima family. Originally, my great-grandfather wanted my grandfather and grandmother to send my father back to his original family, but my father’s biological father had already died, and his biological mother had remarried. So, my grandfather sent him to live on a manor when he was ten, and from then on, the Sima family paid no heed to my father, acting as if he did not exist."
When she was seven, her father fell ill... she sneaked away from the manor to plead for help from her grandparents but was beaten and thrown out by the Sima family’s servants, who claid there was never a young master.
When her father saw Sima Ruodan covered in bruises, he was filled with tears and only said she should never go to the Sima manor again.
At that ti, Sima Ruodan felt full of resentnt towards the Sima manor, but her father always said not to forget the favor of the Sima family. Regardless, her grandparents had raised him without worry about food and clothing and had not mistreated him at the manor...
So, over ti, Sima Ruodan felt more grateful towards her grandparents whom she had never t, thinking that it must be the servants who looked down on her, and her grandparents did not know she had tried to see them.
After her father beca ill, her mother worked even harder to pay for his dicine, but even then her father didn’t make it through the second sumr and passed away...
Bai Jinzhao opened her mouth slightly, suppressing herself from interrupting Sima Ruodan’s words, but how could people behave this way? Because they couldn’t have children, they adopted one, and now that they have their own child, they send the adopted child away as if he didn’t exist!
No wonder all these years, we never heard that Sima Ping’s father had an elder brother.
"I often heard my father ntion Uncle Xue, saying Uncle Xue, though a businessman, was very loyal and righteous! Just after my father passed away, Uncle Xue arrived, having received my father’s letter, knew he was critically ill, and brought silver to save my father, but it was too late! Uncle Xue took out a letter written in my father’s hand, saying that before my father’s passing, he wrote to him to entrust to him, wanting to betroth to his son, and if Uncle Xue could beco my father-in-law, he would be at ease..." When Sima Ruodan ntioned her father, her voice was so choked she could hardly speak.
"Uncle Xue said, though he is a businessman, his son studies well and is nad Xue Renyi. He also said... if my mother was willing, he wanted his son to marry post-exam; my mother agreed thinking this was my father’s wish!"
Sima Ruodan didn’t forget when Uncle Xue left, he gave all the silver he had on him to her and her mother to make life easier for them; she was sincerely grateful to Uncle Xue.
Xue Renyi, Bai Qingyan hadn’t expected Sima Ruodan’s fiancé to be soone familiar.
Bai Jinse naturally also rembered this person and turned to look at her eldest young lady. She recalled... after the eldest young lady ascended the throne, it was Xue Renyi who led the trouble at the Imperial College, though he was finally persuaded by the eldest young lady.
"Later, when the imperial examination scandal arose, Xue Renyi got involved, and the case was big at the ti... My mother went to the Sima manor to seek an audience with the Imperial Censor Sima Yan, begging Sima Yan to save Xue Renyi’s life and incidentally spoke of my engagent with Xue Renyi to the Sima family. Who could have known... my grandmother would have my mother thrown out, saying my father had been removed from the records and was no longer a master of the Sima family!"
It was then that Sima Ruodan learned that her mother had once been a proper young lady of an official family but the family had been ruined by the mother’s of the bewitching concubine’s family back then, and it was her father who pleaded with the Sima family to save her mother by exchanging the condition to remove his na from their records and never enter Sima manor again.
"Later, when the exams were retaken, Xue Renyi couldn’t participate due to Uncle Xue’s sudden illness and returned ho to care for him, yet... Xue Renyi had already demonstrated his talents before the exams, and everyone who read Xue Renyi’s writings said he would have placed top three had he participated. Though he couldn’t take the exams, he entered the Imperial College, and the emperor plans to hold the exams this year to select talents for Zhou! Now, the Sima family set their sights on the engagent..."
Tears stread down Sima Ruodan’s face, "The Sima family knew of my engagent with Xue Renyi, they invited back to the Sima manor, and said to my mother... Grandmother was angry at my father for leaving ho for mother back then, so she didn’t like my mother. But I am my father’s daughter... In the future, Xue Renyi will surely be on the list, and marrying out from the Sima manor would add glory to Xue Renyi-considering his ancestors were in comrce!"
"Mother also thought if I were to return to the Sima family and marry out from there... it would make up for Father’s leaving ho for her," she choked on her words, trembling, "Initially, I was unwilling, having never t Xue Renyi, I didn’t care whether I could marry him in the end, but I couldn’t bear to trouble my mother and felt grateful to Uncle Xue, so I followed the nanny to the Sima manor; who knew they would let an illegitimate daughter pose as to et Xue Renyi and I would be frad with the cri of debauchery, planned to be sent to Yongzhou to marry an old widower!"
When Sima Ruodan spoke of this, her gaze beca fierce, as if harboring imnse anger that couldn’t be quelled, desiring to kill.
"I escaped and only when returning ho did I learn... The day after I left, my mother had been forced to death by them! They said my mother was the daughter of a criminal of the past that slipped through, and how could the mother-in-law of a future Top Scholar originally about to be sent to a brothel be the daughter of a criminal..."
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