Adoption

"Yun Wan, what do you think of these five children?"

The scene before her eyes and the voices in her ears were utterly real.

Lin Yunwan was dazed. She really had been reborn.

She had returned to the year she was twenty-three, her seventh year since marrying into the Lu family of the Wuding Marquis Residence.

"Yun Wan, I'm speaking to you."

Old Madam Lu spoke again.

Lin Yunwan came back to herself and looked at the five children in the corridor outside the main hall of the Hall of Longevity. They were all only seven or eight, dressed in brand-new clothes and standing in a row, waiting for her to choose one to adopt as her legitimate son.

When Old Madam Lu saw that her granddaughter-in-law said nothing, she coaxed her, "You've had no children in seven years. Take one to raise for now. Perhaps once the good fortune comes, a child of your own will follow, and everyone will be happy."

Lin Yunwan said, "Old Madam, when the old master died, the heir said he had to observe mourning and moved to the Lu family's ancestral residence without a word of explanation. He stayed there for three years."

"Once his mourning period finally ended, he was ordered to march to war and has remained at the border ever since. Even the cleverest wife can't cook a meal without rice. Never mind seven years—even in ten, how could I have borne a child?"

Others would probably never believe it, but from the day she married into the Wuding Marquis Residence until now, she had never consummated her marriage with her husband, Lu Zhengliu.

Old Madam Lu looked embarrassed. Turning to the child in the very middle, she smiled and said, "I think Qing is very good. What do you think, Yun Wan?"

Lin Yunwan smiled strangely. "This child is indeed very good!"

In her previous life, she had chosen Qing and raised him as her own legitimate child, cherishing him like a pearl, like a treasure.

The child had lived up to expectations, passing the imperial examination to become a xiucai at a young age and bringing great honor to the family.

But she could never forget how she had died!

She had exhausted her heart and mind for Qing, only to be confined to her sickbed in her thirties, unable even to sit up.

On the day the residence held a banquet to celebrate his passing the provincial examination, she had merely wanted to see him one last time, yet he had been unwilling. He came only after the servants went to summon him again and again.

She had known full well it was the last time she would see him.

Even so, all she had wanted was to bring him to his senses. "Qing, listen to Mother. That maid Xiao Xuan, she simply—"

Qing had cut her off coldly. "Do you know? She's already carrying my child!"

Only when Lin Yunwan looked up did she see the venom in her adopted son's eyes, such as she had rarely seen in all her life.

Her adopted son had actually said to her, "You're truly vicious!"

"I never liked studying at all! And I don't like you either!"

"To tell you the truth, from childhood until now, there hasn't been a single day I haven't hated you! I've wanted you dead for a long time!"

Lin Yunwan had been stunned.

She could not understand how the child she had raised could hate her to the bone over a maid.

Lin Yunwan had been so furious that she could hardly reason with him. Trembling, she could only say, "Qing, whether you resent me or hate me, I am still your mother. You shouldn't treat me like this."

"My mother?"

Qing had laughed triumphantly. "Luckily, she's my mother."

"Only she would bring Xiao Xuan back for me."

Her? Who was she—

A familiar figure had appeared before her: her "younger sister," Old Madam Lu's distant grandniece.

It was said that she was of humble origins, pitiable and alone, and that she was so filial she had been willing to attend to the old madam. So she had been raised in the Marquis's Residence like a young lady of a wealthy family.

But her origins were beneath notice after all, and they had drawn gossip.

"Though she's a distant cousin, she's always shown Grandmother filial devotion in my place. Yun Wan, why don't you acknowledge her as your younger sister? I'll owe you a favor for it, all right?"

Once her husband had spoken, how could Lin Yunwan have refused?

That was the first time Lu Zhengliu had held her in his arms and whispered sweet words: "Yun Wan, having you is the greatest blessing of my life." He had also used a woman's proper virtues to pressure her, applying both soft and hard tactics, until she could only ask her natal family to enter the woman into the Lin clan's genealogy and acknowledge her as her own younger sister.

But what had happened in the end?

When she was dying, the woman had stood beside her husband, their fingers entwined, the two of them as close as glue and lacquer.

Her husband had even said, as though it were only natural, "You've occupied the position of mistress of the house for twenty years. It's time to give it back to Bao'er."

What a joke!

With that woman's status, was she fit to be the mistress of the Marquis's Residence?

The bed had been covered in the blood she had coughed up, bright and glaring.

She had lain there stiffly, straining with all her might to look at the family of three, and heard Lu Zhengliu say gently, "Bao'er, let's go. The banquet is about to begin."

She had watched Qing affectionately take the woman's arm and say, "Mother, this place is ill-omened. Don't let it cast a pall over your son's celebration."

The bed had been covered in the blood she had coughed up, bright and glaring.

I was thinking of my adopted son even as I lay dying.

And I even made the Lin clan, a respected scholarly house, vouch for a lowly woman like her!

I was blind...

She feared that the moment she died, the woman would be carried in grand style from the Lin family into the Marquis's Household and installed as the legitimate wife.

The family of three would be reunited openly and honorably.

Her life had been such a joke—

Her husband belonged to someone else, the position of legitimate wife belonged to someone else, and the son she had raised until he achieved success and renown belonged to someone else too!

Twenty years of painstaking effort, handed over to another overnight.

In the end, she had spent her whole life sewing a wedding dress for someone else.

She could not accept it!

"Yun Wan, Yun Wan? What's wrong?"

Wei Shi, the Marquis of Wuding’s wife, asked worriedly.

Lin Yunwan's face was pale. She pressed a hand lightly to her chest, easing the piercing pain a little, and said, "Mother-in-law, I'm all right."

Old Madam Lu said, "Yun Wan, since you've already chosen Qing, let it be him. As soon as the heir returns, I'll have the ancestral hall opened—"

Lin Yunwan interrupted her and pointed to another child. "I think this child is good too."

Lu Chang'gong, the boy standing at the far right, had hair black as ink and was plainly a delicate and handsome child. His head was lowered, and he stood properly the whole time without once looking up at anyone.

Old Madam Lu looked over and was startled. On closer inspection, he truly was an outstanding child—he even outshone her own great-grandson!

She could hardly object, but could only insist stiffly, "I still think Qing is better. He looks rather like Zhengliu did as a child, and I took a liking to him at once."

He was Lu Zhengliu's own son, so how could he not resemble him?

Lin Yunwan said calmly, "When choosing an heir for the legitimate branch, nothing else matters as much as the child's character."

Old Madam Lu and Wei Shi both nodded in complete agreement. For a family like theirs, raising an unremarkable child was no cause for fear; what they feared was raising a wastrel who would bring ruin upon his ancestors.

Lin Yunwan continued, "Both children are around seven. If their thinking has already been led astray, I'm afraid they'll be hard to raise. It would be best if they were blank sheets of paper." She then turned to the boys and asked, "Have either of you been to school? What books have you read?"

Although Lu Chang'gong was a child of the Lu clan, he came from a distant branch that had long since fallen into decline. His father struggled even to feed him and had no spare money to pay for his schooling.

He shook his head bashfully. "Madam, I've never studied."

When it was Qing's turn, Old Madam Lu's heart tightened. How could her little great-grandson not have learned to read and write?

But then she heard Qing say in a clear voice, "Madam, I haven't studied either."

Old Madam Lu quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Her own great-grandson was indeed clever.

Lin Yunwan, however, suddenly raised an eyebrow and instructed the senior maid beside her, "Ping Ye, go and look at the middle fingers of their right hands."

"Yes, Madam."

Ping Ye first took hold of Lu Chang'gong's hands. Neither had calluses; there were only a few irregular lines on his palms.

Then she took Qing's right hand and held his middle finger out for everyone to see. The child had already been studying for three years and could even write, and there was a thin callus on his middle finger. It was a mark only a scholar would have.

Ping Ye said in surprise, "Madam, he's studied! He can even write!"

Old Madam Lu's expression changed, and she nearly blurted something out.

Lin Yunwan looked over at her and said firmly, "Old Madam, this child is dishonest. He isn't fit to be a child of the Lu family."

"Well..."

Old Madam Lu forced a smile. "He looks like a clever child to me. He only needs a little guidance."

But Lin Yunwan would have none of it, and her expression grew rather cold.

Wei Shi frowned and added, "Old Madam, this child is only seven, yet he's far too calculating..."

Old Madam Lu shot her a vicious glare.

What do you know, you fool!

It was precisely because she feared Wei Shi could not keep a secret that she had not dared tell her the truth before the matter was settled, and now Wei Shi was even helping an outsider.

Although Wei Shi did not know the reason, she obediently shut her mouth and kept out of the dispute.

She had never been one to have a mind of her own. Whatever the old madam and her daughter-in-law said would do!

A blood descendant of the Wuding Marquis Residence could not be left outside the family.

Old Madam Lu said in a tone that brooked no argument, "I like both children. Since you prefer Chang Gong, Yun Wan, put in a little extra effort and adopt both children in due course!"

"All right."

To everyone's surprise, Lin Yunwan agreed readily.

Qing raised his eyes and looked curiously at Lin Yunwan with his dark, bright eyes.

She would be his legitimate mother from now on. His father had told him, "Only if you acknowledge her as your legitimate mother can the three of us be together openly and honorably."

He had committed every word to memory.

Lin Yunwan's cold gaze shifted to that young face, and there was even a trace of satisfaction in the smile at the corner of her mouth.

Of course she would raise this child.

But this time, she would never teach him to read, nor would she send away the frivolous maid he loved.

From now on, all he needed to do was grow up as he pleased under his birth mother's care!