Buying Time

"That's good." A smile appeared on Xu Xi's face.

She knew that Xu Yongyi and his wife were good-hearted people who had truly loved the original owner. Otherwise, according to ancient customs and law, a woman had no right of inheritance. With Xu Yongzeng and his wife dead and no son to their names, their property would have been inherited by his younger brother, Xu Yongyi. Even as their daughter, Xu Xi would not have received a share. If Xu Yongyi and his wife had fed and clothed her without mistreating her, then found her a good husband when she grew up, they would have done all that kindness and duty required.

But Xu Yongyi and his wife had not done that. At his brother and sister-in-law's funeral, they had declared in front of everyone that the house belonged to Xu Xi and would go with her as part of her dowry when she married. Until then, half the rent from the house would go toward her living expenses, and she could save the other half for her dowry.

They accepted that half for her living expenses only so that Xu Xi would not feel she was living under someone else's roof.

Because of this, though the original owner was still in mourning, quite a few people had come privately over the years to propose marriage for Xu Xi, hoping to get a head start.

Country folk did not pay too much attention to such things. If a good match came along, they could reach a verbal agreement and wait until the mourning period ended to make the formal betrothal.

But the original owner had not taken a liking to any of them, and Xu Yongyi and his wife were unwilling to force her, so no match had been settled.

"Auntie." Because of their kindness, Xu Xi was more patient with Madam Xie than with the system. "If someone had switched Xu Xue, would you have noticed at the time? Even if you hadn't noticed right away, would you have grown suspicious as the child grew up and investigated what happened back then?"

Madam Xie nodded without hesitation. "Of course."

She was a mother who loved her children, and she could not imagine a birth mother failing to recognize her own child. A mother and child's hearts were linked; even if illness had prevented her from raising the child at the time, she would surely have noticed signs afterward and would never have been fooled.

So she could not understand the Second Madam at all.

"That shows the Second Madam at the marquis's residence didn't care much about her child. If she didn't care then, now that she and I are no different from strangers, she'll care even less. I've heard that those wealthy nobles are experts at currying favor with the high and trampling on the low, and they have strict rules. If even my own mother doesn't care about or love me, will anyone else treat me well? If I'm bullied, who will I turn to in tears? What if they use me to form a marriage alliance and casually marry me off to a wastrel with a crowd of wives and concubines and a vicious mother? My whole life would be ruined."

Madam Xie had only one son and one daughter. The brothers of the two families lived in harmony, and the sisters-in-law got along well; Madam Xie truly loved Xu Xi. Even if Xu Xi was not a child of the Xu family, how could more than ten years of affection be wiped away by a single sentence?

When she thought about the situation Xu Xi had described, she wavered, feeling that the marquis's residence really might not be a good place for her.

She sighed. "If you don't want to go back, your uncle and I naturally won't force you. But will the marquis's residence agree? You're their flesh and blood, after all. They can't simply let you remain out here."

The system grew excited as soon as it heard this. It had never given up on getting Xu Xi to return to the marquis's residence.

It clamored, "Yes, yes! The marquis's residence won't let you remain out here. Since someone's come to fetch you, hurry up and go back with them."

Xu Xi ignored the system and said to Madam Xie, "Let's take it one step at a time."

She had enjoyed snapping back at the system and had a way with persuading Madam Xie, but she understood that it would have been fine if the matter had not come to light. Now, however, the prefect of the capital had uncovered it, and the news would surely spread through the capital's noble circles. The marquis's residence was already at the bottom of those circles. If word got out that its granddaughter was living outside and they had not brought her home, the Marquis of Suiping's Residence would become a laughingstock.

The Old Madam, who was doing all she could to bring the Marquis of Suiping's Residence back into noble society, would never allow that to happen. The wishes of a granddaughter for whom she felt no affection were not worth mentioning.

And as far as the Marquis of Suiping's Residence was concerned, bringing Xu Xi back would be simple enough. They only had to use various means to threaten and coerce Xu Yongyi's family, such as setting a trap for Xu Chongwen and having him thrown in jail, or having the academy expel him outright.

A hundred-legged insect would not fall even in death. Even if the marquis's residence was at the bottom of the capital's noble circles, dealing with ordinary commoners like the Xu family would take nothing more than a word from them.

No matter how well Xu Yongyi and Madam Xie treated her, they could not treat her better than their own children. When the time came, the Xu family naturally would not dare take her in anymore. Xu Xi would have no choice but to return to the marquis's residence. With the marquis's residence involved, there was no possibility of the authorities registering her as the female head of her own household.

Everything she was doing now was meant to delay matters. She wanted to use that little bit of time to get some things done and gain more of a say at the marquis's residence, rather than let others push her around once she entered it.

"System, why couldn't you have sent me back earlier? Even half a month earlier would have been good," she complained to the system.

Had she been reborn half a month earlier, she could have laid her plans at leisure. Instead, as things stood, she was completely in the dark, yet had to face a complicated situation and deal with all sorts of people immediately. She was at far too much of a disadvantage.

System: "..."

Was that something it could choose? If it had a choice, what it most wanted to change now was not the time of Xu Xi's rebirth, but being bound to that bastard of a host.

Madam Xie looked at Xu Xi's youthful but determined face and nodded hesitantly.

"Then what do we do now?" she asked.

Those people were still waiting in the main room.

"Just say you couldn't persuade me. If you press me too hard, I'll shout that you don't want me anymore and that I'm going to kill myself."

"All right."

Xu Xi asked, "Is Xu Xue outside? After you go out, quietly tell her to come see me."

Madam Xie was usually forthright and spirited. It was only because the Xu family was in the wrong over the switched children, and Xu Xi was not a child of the Xu family, that she had seemed so lacking in confidence earlier.

Now that she knew what Xu Xi intended, she felt reassured and returned to her usual forthright, spirited self.

She left the room, walked up to her son and quietly gave him an instruction, then returned to the main room and relayed Xu Xi's words with a troubled look on her face.

"Why would Miss Xi pass up being a young lady of the marquis's residence and insist on being a village girl?" Matron Ruan looked at Madam Xie, her face full of suspicion.

Before anyone could make out what she meant, Steward Liu, who had said little until then, spoke up. "I imagine Miss Xi is unwilling to go because the marquis's residence is unfamiliar to her, and she doesn't know us well either. She's afraid she might run into danger if she simply leaves with us like this. The young lady may be young, but she's quite cautious and sensible."

As he said this, an approving look appeared on his face.

"How about this, Second Madam Xu? Take your son and come with us to the marquis's residence. First, you can see where it is, and second, you can meet Fifth Miss. Third, although Madam Xu caused all of this, the dead are gone. The Old Madam and Madam are both kindhearted and won't pursue the matter. They'll also thank you for treating Miss Xi well, and a gift of thanks will naturally be given to you then."

He smiled. "I imagine that with you accompanying her, Miss Xi won't be afraid anymore. Once she goes to the marquis's residence, meets her family and sees its wealth and prestige, she'll stay without any need for you to persuade her. Who doesn't want a good life? Besides, that is her home. She should have lived and grown up there, loved by her birth parents."

"Yes, yes, that's good, that's good," the village head said with a smile. "Steward Liu is truly worthy of being the steward of a great household. He's more thoughtful than we are. I say we do just that."

With that, he glanced at the clan head.