Although Chu Xiyue was already twenty-three, in the eyes of these people she was just a child.
Mrs. Ji was choked with anger, but since they were at someone else's house, she could not bring herself to argue over petty details with a junior, so she glared at the young woman standing beside her.
"Really, I don't know what use my son saw in marrying you! You're like a gourd with its mouth sawed shut, not a peep out of you even after three strikes with a club, and you don't even know how to help chime in when I'm talking to others! Aside from not being able to give Peng'er the slightest bit of help in his career, you haven't made a single stir with your belly in all these years married into the family! I truly don't know what Peng'er saw in you!"
Chu Xiyue's gaze fell upon the woman beside Mrs. Ji. She was Mrs. Ji's daughter-in-law, surnamed Mo, around thirty-odd years old, delicate in appearance, wearing a light lotus-colored long dress that exuded a quiet, poised temperament, and her presence was extremely low-key.
Sensing everyone's gazes fall upon her, Mo Xiang fluttered her eyelashes before finally raising her head, pursing her lips toward Chu Xiyue, and revealing a gentle smile. "Hello, Sister Xiyue."
"Hello." Toward Mo Xiang, Chu Xiyue's attitude was much more amiable. She nodded slightly at Mo Xiang, mentally complaining to the system: Since Mrs. Ji is so dissatisfied with Mo Xiang, why did she agree to let her son marry her in the first place?
The system said: This story is a long one. The past between Mo Xiang and Mrs. Ji's son, Ji Peng, is somewhat similar to the story of Prince Charming and Cinderella.
Chu Xiyue caught the scent of gossip. She quickly glanced at Mrs. Ji, remaining calm on the surface while feeling excited inside. "How so?"
Mo Xiang is a child from an orphanage, and she caught Ji Peng's eye in college. Ji Peng pestered her relentlessly until he finally won Mo Xiang over. When they graduated from college and reached the age to talk about marriage, Mrs. Ji looked down on Mo Xiang's family background and resolutely opposed Mo Xiang marrying into the Ji Family. Later, it was only because Ji Peng threatened her with his life that Mrs. Ji reluctantly compromised. But after Mo Xiang married in, Mrs. Ji didn't give her a single shred of a good expression, and verbal ridicule like this is completely normal.
However, Mrs. Ji doesn't know that she keeps saying Mo Xiang can't have children, but in reality, the one who can't have children is her precious son, Ji Peng!
Chu Xiyue: !
The system chuckled twice: I'm telling you, Ji Peng looks tall and sturdy, but down there he's actually short and small. Not only is he impotent and suffering from premature ejaculation, but he usually has to rely on pills to get it up, and even with pills he can't last two minutes. His sperm motility is basically zero, and since he lacks both hardware and software conditions, how could he possibly get a woman pregnant?
The system's voice was mixed with some censored words, but Chu Xiyue understood in a second. She grabbed an apple from the coffee table, glanced at Mo Xiang again, and asked, "Did Mo Xiang know about this before the wedding?"
She didn't know. Before the wedding, Ji Peng used the excuse of respecting Mo Xiang to never have relations with her. By the time Mo Xiang discovered the truth after marriage, it was already too late.
Ji Peng's pursuit of Mo Xiang from the start was a scheme to trick her into marriage. He took a fancy to Mo Xiang's gentle and introverted personality, and moreover, Mo Xiang was an orphan with no maternal family to back her up. Such a person was easier for a man to control; even if she found out the truth after marrying him, she wouldn't dare to divorce him, let alone speak out to let others know.
It could be said that Mo Xiang's marriage was a scheme from beginning to end. Because her husband married an orphan girl into the family and didn't philander like his father after marriage, he even earned a good reputation for being deeply affectionate. Meanwhile, Mo Xiang was married yet might as well not have been; after marriage, not only did she live as a widow in all but name, but she was also scolded by her mother-in-law as a hen that couldn't lay eggs.
Chu Xiyue took a fierce bite of her apple and cursed, "Foul! Another dog of a man!"
If she were Mo Xiang, she would either kick Ji Peng to the curb or hook up with three or four boys to make Ji Peng infertile yet surrounded by children and grandchildren.
However, she was not Mo Xiang, and with Mo Xiang's temperament, besides swallowing her grievances, she would never even think of fighting back.
Chu Xiyue sighed.
The system continued: However, Ji Peng's infertility isn't any fresh piece of gossip. The real blockbuster gossip is the issue of Ji Peng's birth background!
As soon as Chu Xiyue heard the words "blockbuster gossip," her attention was instantly diverted. "What kind of birth background gossip? Could it be that Ji Peng was born to Mrs. Ji and a male homewrecker?"
No no no! Let me tell you, Ji Peng wasn't born to Mrs. Ji at all! He's the son of Mrs. Ji's husband's mistress! Thirty-three years ago, when Mrs. Ji was giving birth in the hospital, the mistress her husband kept on the side bribed the doctor and nurses to swap their babies!
Chu Xiyue's eyes widened all at once. "Hiss! The wealthy family's fake vs. real young master plot has stepped into reality?!"
The system cracked sunflower seeds: Reality is far more magical than novels. Back then, the child Mrs. Ji actually gave birth to was a daughter. After swapping the babies, the mistress threw that girl away. Actually, Mrs. Ji's husband was completely aware of this matter because Mrs. Ji had given birth to a daughter, while he favored boys over girls and wanted a son to inherit the family business, so he tacitly approved of the mistress's plot and simply pretended not to know.
Only, they never imagined that the girl who was abandoned back then would return to the Ji Family in another way. That girl is Mo Xiang!
Chu Xiyue: !!!
Chu Xiyue could not control her expression, and she looked in shock at Mrs. Ji and Mo Xiang. Looking closely, Mrs. Ji's and Mo Xiang's facial features indeed possessed a few points of similarity, but the two of them had vastly different temperaments, leaving only two points of that fifty-percent similarity remaining, so usually no one associated them in that direction.
"Wait!" She suddenly reacted. "Mo Xiang is Mrs. Ji's daughter, and Ji Peng is the mistress's son, so aren't Mo Xiang and Ji Peng half-brother and sister born of the same father? Weren't they committing incest by getting married?!"
Chu Xiyue: Lovers ultimately become siblings?
Such a huge piece of gossip!
Not quite, the system said with some schadenfreude: Actually, Ji Peng isn't of the Ji Family bloodline either. He's the son of the mistress and her first love. Ji Peng and Mo Xiang have different fathers and different mothers. Mrs. Ji's husband cheated on his wife, but the mistress he kept on the side also gifted him a solid green hat, making him raise another man's child, and he raised him for over thirty years at that!