Chapter 100: The Place Where Her Daughter Was Buried

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

After dinner, Duke Anyuan said to the Duchess, “Zheng Bo is really stupid. Does he think he can mess with anyone?

“He should thank God that Fulu kicked him. Otherwise, he would have ended up much more miserably.”

The Duchess sorted out the official robe Duke Anyuan took off and said, “Bo’er has learned his lesson. Fortunately, he has already had children. Today, my mother came to propose to Ruoyi on Bo’er’s behalf, and I agreed.”

The Duke was shocked and angry to hear that. “You agreed? Don’t you know what kind of a person your nephew is? Ruoyi called you ‘Mother’ for fifteen years. She has always treated you as her biological mother and her mom is seriously ill. But you agreed to marry her to Zheng Bo? Do you want to kill her and

her mother?”

The Duchess said solemnly, “Don’t let her mom know it for now.”

“Twill never allow this.”

‘The Duchess hung up the Duke’s official robe and said coldly, “If you dont allowt, just divorce me.”

Duke Anyuan said coldly, “You are really unreasonable. Do you think I dare not divorce you? What did Ruoyi do to offend you?

“She has been very well-behaved and sensible since she was a child, and her mom has never done anything wrong. Why do you have to bully them like this?”

“Twill never allow this marriage.” Saying that, Duke Anyuan put on a random robe and said, “Today I will sleep in the front yard.”

Seeing Duke Anyuan walking away, Mammy An looked at the Duchess with worry and said, “Madam.”

‘The Duchess said to Mammy An, “Mammy, I’m tired. You can leave now.”

Jinniang pondered for a long time in her room and decided to have a talk with her mother. She could make up for the Zheng family with something else but not Qiao Ruoyi’s future.

She went to her mother’s courtyard only to bump into Mammy An who brought her back to the Duke Mansion from Lin’an back then.

Mammy An saluted Jinniang and said, “Miss, why did you come here so late?”

“Mammy, I still want to persuade my mother not to marry Ruoyi to Zhengbo. Ruoyi is innocent.”

Mammy An sighed. “Alas, Miss, Madam’s life is not easy either. Miss Zheng’s death is a knot in Madam’s heart. Although Miss Ruoyi is innocent, we can’t just let Old Madam Zheng force your mother to death.”

Jinniang said, “No, I just think that Mother shouldn’t indulge the Zheng family. This is not the only way to make up for them!

“This will only allow them to push Mother harder and harder. Their desire is like a bottomless pit that is impossible to fill.

“Didn’t you hear that Old Madam Zheng has planned to ask Qiao Ruoshui to have Prince Mediocre restore the nobility title to them?

“What if they force Mother to have me ask His Royal Highness to restore their nobility title after I marry into the East Palace? Should my mother say yes or no?*

Hearing the voice outside, the Duchess asked Jinniang in.

Jinniang entered the room and said, “Mother, although my words may sound selfish, Tuan‘er is already the heir to the Crown Prince. It’s very likely that the Zheng family will run amok in Tuan’er’s name.”

The Duchess clenched her fist and said, “I will never allow the Zheng family to hurt you and Tuan’er.”

“But why did you allow them to hurt Ruoyi?*

“And Mother, I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but I really can’t figure it out.

“Since Mrs. Zheng would rather neglect her own daughter to take care of you back then, why is she not considerate to you now?”

The Duchess sighed. “Your aunt took care of me, not out of affection for me.

“She just didn’t want me and Lu’er to die in the Zheng family. After all, the Zheng family had already begun to decline and needed your father’s help. Without your brother and I, the Zheng family would not have been able to get any support from the Qiao family.”

Qiao Jinniang still felt suspicious. “Even if they didn’t want to offend the Duke Mansion, they didn’t have to neglect their own daughter, right? After all, there are so many servants in the Zheng Mansion.”

“Jinniang, don’t say that.” The Duchess said with guilt, “I didn’t even see my little niece, but she died because of me.”

“Tknow you and Ruoyi are on good terms, but Jinniang, if I don’t agree to this matter, people will gossip that I forced my own mother to die in the Duke Mansion!”

Qiao Jinniang held the Duchess’s hand and said, “Mother, think about it. Will you push me so hard for my brother in the future?”

The Duchess shook her head and said, “Of course not. You are my daughter.”

Qiao Jinniang said, “So Old Madam Zheng who pushed you so hard doesn’t treat you as her daughter at all.

“Does she really dare to kill herself in the Duke Mansion? She just said that to frighten you.

“T saw too much of this kind of drama. In Lin‘an, my adoptive father’s clansmen would put on such a show every three to five days.”

The Duchess sighed. “But they are just your clansmen but this is my mother.”

Helpless, Qiao Jinniang stopped persuading the Duchess. She would think of other ways, and at worst, she could help Qiao Ruoyi escape to Lin’an.

Back to her room.

‘When Qiao Jinniang saw Lu Chen, she was stunned and asked, “When did you come?”

Lu Chen: “Just now. The source of the Minanghua Fruits in the Guest Welcoming Building has been identified. They were mixed with black cardamom and sent to Chang’an by Southwestern merchants. But the shopkeeper insisted that they just mistook the Minanghua Fruits as black cardamom.”

Qiao Jinniang said, “I don’t believe him. The black cardamom has no strange taste while the sour taste of Minanghua Fruit needs to be covered up with a lot of pepper. It must be intentional.”

Lu Chen nodded. “The Ministry of Public Security has already taken over this case. You should go out less frequently.

“After those diners were cut off from the supply of Minanghua Fruits, most of them became irritable and even crazy, and there have been several incidents caused by them.”

Qiao Jinniang sighed. ‘Was Fulu so irritable that day because she couldn’t get the taste of Minanghua Fruit? Alas!”

“What’s the matter?” Lu Chen noticed that she was in a bad mood today.

Qiao Jinniang told Lu Chen about Old Madam Zheng’s coercion against the Duchess.

“T feel closer to Ruoyi than to Qiao Ruoshui, although the former was not born by my mother. I can’t just sit and watch her jump into a fire pit.”

“By the way, can you help me find out where Mrs. Zheng’s deceased daughter was buried and where her spirit tablet is enshrined?”

For children who die prematurely under one year old, their spirit tablets couldn’t be placed at home, and they couldn’t be buried in the ancestral graveyard. Most of them would instead be buried in temples.

She could ask the Duchess about this, but Qiao Jinniang didn’t want to arouse her guilt.

Lu Chen called over a secret guard and ordered them to investigate. “Why do you want to know this?”

” feel it is strange. How is it possible for a mother to ignore her own daughter in order to take care of others?

“And how could that baby suddenly die? Maybe it’s not because of neglect, but a congenital disease or something, if that is the case, this can’t be blamed on my mother.”

“Do you want to take a bone for an autopsy?” Lu Chen asked.

Qiao Jinniang nodded and said, ‘Yes, even if there are only dry bones left, it can be detected.”

Lu Chen chuckled and said, “Are you inspired by some novels again? What can be detected from the bones of a child less than one year old?”

“Why not have a try?”

Qiao Jinniang just wanted to try her luck.

One of the regular customers of Myriad Taste was a coroner. He once said that a criminal case was solved because they found some evidence from the victim’s bones although the victim died twenty years ago.

This baby died only sixteen or seventeen years ago, so it might not be difficult to find some evidence from her bones.

The secret guard was extremely fast, and came to report to Qiao Jinniang early the next morning.

“Ma’am, the Zheng family just threw the baby’s corpse to an old groom who once served your great-grandfather before becoming blind.

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“The Zheng family told him to throw the corpse in a mass grave without even erecting a tombstone for her.

“The blind old groom who was grateful to your great-grandfather chose a bamboo forest on the mountain to bury that baby. *

Hearing it, Qiao Jinniang had a bold guess in her heart. “How is it possible?”

Ifher conjecture was true, the Zheng family was simply shameless.

“Please find a coroner to go to the baby’s grave with me..”