I was a simple-minded adopted daughter in a farming family. When I was fourteen, my adoptive mother fell gravely ill. Before she died, she told me that the Marquis of Wu’an’s estate was my real home. But when I arrived with the token of proof, I discovered that the estate already had a pampered young lady treated like royalty. She had a face strikingly similar to the mistress of the house, and everyone in the estate doted on her. So they cut the birthmark from my shoulder and reduced me to the lowliest maid. At that moment, with death approaching, I finally grew afraid of these real family members and wanted to go home and be buried beside my adoptive mother. Yet they knelt on the ground and begged me not to leave.
