When Chen Linghe was eight years old, her parents separated and no one wanted her.
When the stepmother came in, she thought she was an eyesore, so she worked with her for two years.
When she was ten years old, my great-aunt went back to her parents' home to visit relatives. She saw her as thin as a firewood stick, squatting by the well washing clothes. Her eyes became red on the spot and she took her home.
Her aunt treated her like her own granddaughter, taught her the rules and saved her dowry. Ling He thought that God was finally willing to be kind to her.
But when he was sixteen years old, his great-uncle was framed and imprisoned for embezzling money to provide disaster relief. On the day when the county government officials came to ransack the house, my great-aunt turned gray overnight.
Her aunt knelt in front of her, crying and begging her: "Linghe, Mr. Xie is the censor of the patrol, specializing in investigating this case... Go and beg him. As long as you can save your father-in-law, my aunt will kowtow to you."
Chen Linghe had no other way to go.
She climbed into the bed of Xie Heng, the imperial censor.
After one night, Xie Heng tasted the marrow and learned its taste.
He overturned the case for her great-uncle and trapped her with him. Ling He became his shady outer chamber, living in his private residence in the capital without a name or status.
She thought this was her fate.
But suddenly news came out in the capital: Xie Heng, the direct son of the Grand Tutor, was going to marry a noble girl.
Ling He didn't cry.
She found the noble girl, worked together to stage a fake death to escape, and disappeared neatly into his world.
Three years later, Xie Heng went to Jiangnan to investigate the case.
The local magistrate hosted a banquet in honor of him. During the banquet, a young boy with pink and jade sculptures ran in. Xie Heng glanced at him unintentionally, and the wine glass in his hand broke.
The child's facial features were exactly the same as when he was a child, and the woman who was supposed to have been "dead" for three years also walked out from behind the screen.
