A few days later, a ragged young girl came to the door of the prime minister's mansion. She pounded on the huge gate forcefully and shouted at the top of her voice, "Someone! Open the door quickly! The legitimate eldest daughter of your prime minister's mansion is back!"
The surrounding commoners gathered around and pointed at the young girl.
Before the servant could drive the girl away, Xiao Bao'er rushed to the door with a veil on.
"Who is making such a racket and disturbing the peace of our prime minister's mansion?"
Seeing Xiao Bao'er's noble attire, the young girl shrank back a bit, but still shouted, "I'm the eldest young lady of your prime minister's mansion, the biological daughter of Prime Minister Xiao."
Xiao Bao'er frowned and replied, "I'm Xiao Bao'er, the eldest young lady of the prime minister's mansion. You claim to be my father's biological daughter. Do you have any evidence?"
The young girl took out a jade pendant proudly and held it up high so that the surrounding commoners could see it clearly.
On the jade pendant was clearly engraved the character "Xiao", along with the clan emblem of the Xiao family.
"This is the evidence. My mother accidentally lost me back then. I was adopted by a family in the west of the city. Just today I learned that the jade pendant I've been wearing since childhood belongs to the Xiao family, so I've come here specifically to recognize my relatives."
"And you, you're an impostor who's taken someone else's place. You're not the eldest young lady of the Xiao family at all. I am!!"
Xiao Bao'er staggered a step while holding Ling Chu's hand, showing an expression of disbelief.
But under the veil, the corners of her mouth couldn't help but curl up.
This was Sheng Yuzhen, the biological daughter of Lady Xiao. Naturally, the jade pendant on her was genuine.
When the babies were switched back then, the Xiao family deliberately made a similar jade pendant according to the one the Sheng family had made for their youngest daughter. They only replaced the character "Sheng" with "Xiao" and the Sheng family's clan emblem with the Xiao family's. Such an obvious mistake had actually deceived the Sheng family for so long.
When the daughter of the Xiao family was born, the people of the Xiao family inexplicably began to have bad luck. First, Prime Minister Xiao was successively demoted, and his official career seemed to be coming to an end.
Then Lady Xiao started to have frequent accidents. Even when lying in bed, the bed beam would suddenly break, and when walking properly, she would sprain her foot.
Eldest Young Master Xiao injured his leg and almost became lame. Other members of the Xiao family also had some unlucky things happen to them one after another.
Mr. Qi had just saved Prime Minister Xiao's life at that time, so he was living in the Xiao mansion. Seeing that the people of the Xiao family were inexplicably having bad luck, he did a divination and found out that the newly - born youngest daughter had an inauspicious fate that would successively cause the deaths of the family members.
Coincidentally, a daughter was also born in the wealthy Sheng family in the east of the city. On the day Lady Sheng gave birth, there were colorful clouds all over the sky. Mr. Qi said that the youngest daughter of the Sheng family had a lucky fate.
So Prime Minister Xiao listened to Mr. Qi's advice to switch the fates and stole her over, making the Sheng family bear the fate that was originally supposed to be the Xiao family's.
The Sheng family began to decline. A once - wealthy family went bankrupt in less than half a month.
While Xiao Bao'er and Sheng Yuzhen were confronting each other, Lady Xiao, who had been feigning illness for a long time, also rushed to the door. Seeing the young girl come to recognize her relatives with the jade pendant, she almost fainted from shock.
When the commoners saw Lady Xiao come out and compared her appearance with Sheng Yuzhen's, they immediately recognized Sheng Yuzhen as her biological daughter with just one glance.
Their facial features were so similar that they looked like they were carved from the same mold.
Lady Xiao trembled as she tried to explain, but Sheng Yuzhen knelt down with a thud, and tears instantly welled up in her eyes.
"Mother, I've finally seen you. I've had such a hard time these years... Wuwuwuwu..."
Mother supported Sheng Yuzhen, not knowing how to react. She looked at Xiao Bao'er with a pleading look in her eyes, but Xiao Bao'er was only concentrating on acting like she was deeply shocked and didn't give her even a single glance.
"You... Get up first. Let's go inside and talk."
Mother frowned, looking at the on - looking commoners in a dilemma, wanting to take Sheng Yuzhen into the Xiao mansion.
But Sheng Yuzhen didn't give Mother this chance. She wanted Lady Xiao to recognize her in front of the commoners and admit her status as the eldest young lady of the Xiao family.
Originally, she had been living in the slums in Zhuying Alley in the west of the city. Her adoptive parents told her that when she was just born, the Sheng family had also been a wealthy family. But on the day of her full - month celebration, the warehouse where the Sheng family stored their goods caught fire inexplicably, and all the goods were burned.
The Sheng family couldn't deliver the goods on time and had to compensate the clients a large sum of silver. After that, the Sheng family's business began to decline. In less than a month, the once - huge Sheng family had gone bankrupt and could only move to the slums in the west of the city.
Every time she heard her mother talk about this, Sheng Yuzhen felt extremely disdainful. She thought the Sheng family had ruined a good hand of cards and made her suffer since she was just born. So she looked down on the Sheng family and her adoptive parents from the bottom of her heart.
She often dressed herself up beautifully and went to places in the east of the city where the nobility and officials often went, hoping that someone would take a fancy to her so that she could marry into a wealthy family after reaching the age of adulthood, or even become a concubine of some royal noble.
Unfortunately, no one had recognized her worth. She had never met the person who could help her get rid of her poor fate. Just when she was worried that she was getting older, someone pointed at the jade pendant on her waist and said that it was the jade pendant of Prime Minister Xiao's mansion.
When Sheng Yuzhen heard this person's words, her eyes lit up. She kept pestering this person, and this person finally said impatiently that the current eldest young lady of Prime Minister Xiao's mansion was an adopted daughter. Back then, Lady Xiao's daughter had been switched, and the people of the Xiao family had been looking for their biological daughter.
This person also told her that there was a butterfly - shaped birthmark on Lady Xiao's neck. Sheng Yuzhen got even more excited because she also had a butterfly - shaped birthmark on her neck!
She had been wandering around the prime minister's mansion for several days but didn't have the courage to go in. She was afraid that she was wrong and that she would be beaten to death as a swindler if she went in rashly. But just today, she heard some people around her discussing something.
Those people said mysteriously that the crown prince had taken a fancy to the eldest young lady of the Xiao family and was just waiting for the young lady to reach the age of adulthood before proposing marriage, so that the eldest young lady of the Xiao family could become the crown princess.
Then they sighed and said that this eldest young lady of the Xiao family was really lucky. She had taken the place of the biological daughter of the Xiao family and would become the crown princess as an adopted daughter. It was just a pity for the original eldest young lady of the Xiao family.
Hearing this, Sheng Yuzhen couldn't sit still anymore. Clearly, she was the eldest young lady of the Xiao family. Why should an impostor occupy her identity and enjoy the life that should have been hers with peace of mind.
"Mother, the family that adopted me is a poor one. I've never had a full meal since I was born. To earn money, I have to work with my adoptive mother every day. My adoptive father beats me up at the slightest provocation. I've really had a hard time."
"Now my so - called elder brother is going to get married, and my adoptive father wants to marry me off to the fifty - year - old blind and lame man next door for the three taels of silver betrothal gift."
"I beg you, save me, Mother!"
Sheng Yuzhen sobbed and cried, which touched many of the surrounding commoners. They all started to clamor for the Xiao family to recognize her.