Chapter 33: Chapter 33 So that’s how it is_1
“This is for you.” Li Cuihua delicately pulls out a necklace from her pocket. Under the sunlight, the tiny diamonds on it twinkle brilliantly.
Qiao Anchu’s gaze is immediately drawn to the shiny object. She can’t help but stop in her tracks and frown at the object Li Cuihua was holding.
It was a necklace with a small gem embedded in it, polished and bright, featuring an elaborate yet fluid retro pattern.
It seems to grow more splendid and significant with time. It’s evidently valuable at first glance.
Before Qiao Anchu could reach out for it, Li Cuihua carefully shields the brilliance of the gem necklace with her body and solemnly hands it to Qiao Anchu. “Child, you keep this,” she says.
“What on earth is this?” With the gem necklace now in her possession, Qiao Anchu grips it tightly, barely suppressing her excitement. She couldn’t resist asking Li Cuihua about the necklace’s origin.
Her intuition tells her that the necklace is not ordinary. How could a woman like Li Cuihua, who labors on the farmland in Shanshui Town for generations, possess such a remarkable object?
“We found it on Xiaren when we discovered her at the foot of the mountain. There was also a letter with it. I can’t read, so your father…” Speaking to this point, Li Cuihua suddenly covers her mouth, knowing she misspoke.
The color drains from Qiao Anchu’s face, and she glares ominously at Li Cuihua. Li Cuihua continues, “It was your dad who asked an educated gentleman to read the letter. It seems the one who wrote the letter was Xiaren’s biological mother. She claimed she was trapped in Shanshui Town when she delivered the girl, unable to take her away. So, she pleaded with a kind soul to take care of her daughter. She proposed that the daughter should look for her someday with this necklace.”
Back then, Li Cuihua heard a story from the village head. He mentioned that a well-known, prestigious family from the Capital had internal strife. The eldest daughter-in-law from that family hid in Shanshui Town and gave birth to a daughter. She then left the ailing young girl in the town to protect her.
She initially listened to it akin to a tale, but the next day, she found a chubby infant at the foot of the mountain. The infant was distinct from the others in the village, with fair skin, delicate and crystal clear small physique. She was exceptionally adorable.
The letter found in the infant’s swaddling clothes led Li Cuihua and her husband to instantly infer that the infant was the daughter that the esteemed daughter-in-law gave birth to. Initially, her husband was not inclined to raise the girl because they already had Anchu and were too poverty-stricken to feed.
However, Li’s cousin, who was known for his whimsical ideas, Huang Youde, put forth a rotten scheme,
to swap the identities of Anchu and Xiaren.
After several days of deliberation, Li Cuihua finally made up her mind, deciding to let Anchu replace Xiaren and enjoy the prosperity of the rich family.
As Li Cuihua was recounting everything in detail, she took a cautious look at Qiao Anchu, “Anchu, now I give you this necklace…”
Before Li Cuihua could finish, Qiao Anchu abruptly lifted her head to interrupt, “So you’re implying that I should find my relatives under the identity of Xiaren?”
Of course, she could see the immense value of the necklace. It was easy to infer that the family from which Qiao Xiaren hailed was affluent. If she were to leave the mountain with the necklace, she would immediately become a young miss from a prestigious family in the Capital!
An intense glow blazed in Qiao Anchu’s eyes at this thought, and she gripped the gem necklace in her hand even tighter.
“So you’ve had this plot all along, that’s why you abandoned me at the master’s doorstep. It was all to set it up for me to successfully assume the identity of Qiao Xiaren today!”
Qiao Anchu sneers, she had previously grumbled about how Li Cuihua would rather accept a foundling as her daughter instead of acknowledging her, and instead chose to abandon her at the doorstep of the master.