Zheng Xiao Mistake: The Mistake of Rebirth Provoked the Cold Master

In theory, a hero and a beauty are a rare and beautiful story.

But the Zhu family has been sparsely populated in recent years. After the death of Master Zhu, the Zhu family was left to run by Old Lady Zhu. She married Zhu Zhaoming to a wife, Zhou, and they had two sons, Zhu Xuan and Zhu Long. Although the two were not deeply in love, they could be said to respect each other.

On the day Qin Ji entered the mansion, Zhou refused to comply and caused great unrest in the whole household.

Finally, Madam Zhu gave the order to keep Qin Ji, only because she was three months pregnant.

This romantic affair soon spread throughout the streets and alleys, but Zhu Zhaoming didn't take it seriously. He was in high spirits and wanted to be more ostentatious.

Half a year later, the Zhu family welcomed a daughter, and Zhu Zhaoming held a grand banquet to congratulate the girl on her victory over the bandit Qing, so he named her Zhu Qing.

After that, Zhu Zhaoming and Zhou were completely separated, and Qin Ji was the only one left in his heart and eyes.

Zhu Zhaoming lived a happy life, and Qin Ji was always by his side. Zhou gradually became disheartened, became ill due to worry, and devoted all her energy and body to her two sons.

The eldest son, Zhu Xuan, had good physique, was steady, and was handsome and heroic, much like his father. On his sixteenth birthday, Zhou gave him a horse and taught him to make achievements on horseback like his father.

The eldest son is very diligent and spends day and night in the martial arts training ground.

It rained heavily during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and just after a few days of clear weather, Zhu Xuan went to the horse farm to practice as usual. Unexpectedly, when he was riding a horse, the horse suddenly went crazy, and he fell off the horse's back, breaking his neck and dying on the spot.

When the news reached back home, Zhou was in a daze for a long time, crying and laughing. Suddenly, she became so angry that she vomited a mouthful of blood and passed away, accompanying her son on the road to the underworld.

The Zhu family hosted two funerals at once.

Before it was completed, the imperial court sent back an imperial decree, urgently summoning Zhu Zhaoming to go on an expedition to the northern border.

On the eve of his departure, Zhu Zhaoming learned that Qin Ji was pregnant again. He left Beijing with only one sentence, "I will name the child when I come back."

I never expected that we would part in such a hurry and be separated forever.

It was a rainy night when Qin Ji was about to give birth, and the news of her death was just reaching Shengjing.

Zhu Zhaoming was defeated and fled to Julun Mountain. When he was fleeing, he encountered a mudslide and his entire army was wiped out. Even his body was not found.

The defeat and the loss of the general were kept secret, and the only relics sent back to the Zhu family were a few family letters and a few pieces of clothing.

As for what was written in the letter home, it is unknown.

All we know is that after reading the letter from home, Madam Zhu dragged Qin Ji, who had just given birth, off the bed, strangled her neck, and cursed her as a witch who sucked human blood and ate human flesh.

Before dawn, Qin Ji jumped into the well clutching a letter from home.

The child who lost his parents at birth was Zhu Zheng.

Zhu Zheng didn't have her own name until she was six years old. It was secretly given to her by Zhu Qing after she learned to read.

Before she was six years old, her grandmother's name was just three words.

"Sangmen Star."

When she was a child, Zhu Zheng did not understand the meaning of these three words. She only knew that her grandmother disliked her and that whatever she did was wrong, and she was often beaten, scolded and punished.

She tried to be nice and obedient, but her grandmother didn't even bother to look at her.

Ever since her eldest grandson died unexpectedly, the grandmother has focused all her energy on Zhu Long, her only child.

However, due to its poor root structure, too much fertility, and lack of supervision and education, this single seedling soon grew into a useless plant with fat branches and leaves and slanting branches.

Everyone in Shengjing knows that Zhu Long, the second son of the Zhu family, is dissolute, has corrupt personal ethics, and is addicted to eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling. He is fat and bloated, like a big pig that will drop golden grains if scratched.

When Zhu Zheng was ten years old, her complexion had become conspicuous. Zhu Long began to "accidentally" break into her and her sister's boudoirs.

At night, the third sister would call Zhu Zheng over to sleep with her, change the locks on the doors and windows, and then seal the tables and cabinets tightly.

Even so, I couldn't sleep well.

They lived under the same roof and would see each other every day. When he was alone, he would always bump into Zhu Long unexpectedly, and he would not hide his obscene gaze at him.

"Look, my two sisters are getting more and more beautiful... When these two peaches are ripe, remember to let your brother taste them first, so that they won't be picked by outsiders."

It seemed as if there was oil in Zhu Long's mouth, and his tone was sticky and disgusting.

Zhu Zheng spat at him, "You're worse than pigs and dogs!"

"My dear sister, I am your biological brother." Zhu Long was not angry, but smiled foolishly, "I am worse than pigs and dogs, so who are you?"

Zhu Zheng glared at him, "Anyway, it's different from you."

Zhu Long laughed loudly and pinched her face with his fat hands, "Remember to lock the little padlock on the door tightly, otherwise if you forget one day, your sister will be turned into the same person as your brother from the inside out..."

Zhu Zheng felt nauseous from the foul smell of wine and meat coming out of Zhu Long's mouth and was pushed to the ground.

She was small and powerless, and the only thing she could do was to curse him to die early in the middle of the night.

When he was twelve years old, Zhu Long really died.

He died in the bed of the most popular prostitute in the Jinxiang Tower in the brothel.

The courtesan immediately reported the matter to the authorities. When the government summoned Madam Zhu to go to Jinxiang Tower to identify the body, there were already three circles of people surrounding the building. Madam Zhu pushed through the crowd with light steps, and Nanny Guixiang followed behind her. She asked someone to give out some money and asked the spectators to leave quickly.

But the more money you give out, the more people come.

Zhu Zheng squeezed into the crowd and looked at the narrow bamboo bed in the golden and jade-paved hall. On the bed was a person who looked like a white pig, stiff in an unsightly posture, without even a piece of cloth covering his body.

At that time, Zhu Zheng did not fully understand death. She could only see her grandmother’s swaying back, as if the sky was falling.

Zhu Zheng stood on tiptoe and couldn't stand steadily in the crowd. She screamed when she was pushed down. She saw her grandmother suddenly looked over, and the hatred in her eyes made her feel cold all over.

Zhu Zheng subconsciously thought that she had done something wrong. Before she could figure it out, she saw her grandmother walking through the crowd and reaching out with her long hands to grab her hair.

Zhu Zheng staggered and before he could stand firmly, a slap came down hard in the face.

A bloody cut was scratched on her face by the long nails, which was burning with pain. Her mouth was instantly filled with the smell of blood and her head was filled with ringing in her ears. For a long time, she only saw her grandmother's mouth opening and closing, and she was swearing at something in a shrill voice.

She tried hard to listen, but only caught three words.

"Sangmen Star!"

"Grandma..." Zhu Zheng called out blankly.

Madam Zhu’s face became strange and ferocious, her gray hair was all loose, her gold hairpins and silver pendants fell to the ground, “Don’t call me grandma! You are as unlucky as your short-lived mother! What did our Zhu family owe you to deserve this? Do you have to kill everyone in the mansion? Then why don’t you kill me? I am an old man, and if you want to collect a debt, take my life now…”

The faces of the people surrounding him varied, and the noise soon drowned out Zhu Zheng.

She suddenly remembered the time when her grandmother hit her on the head with a drumstick when she was a child. Her head felt dizzy and swollen for several days, and she could hear people talking in the same way, sometimes close and sometimes far away.

Her ears were suddenly covered. She looked up and saw her third sister's sad eyes.

It seemed that her grandmother was still not satisfied and was about to slap her again. Zhu Qing pounced over with her small body and hugged her grandmother's waist tightly.

"Run, Zheng'er!" Zhu Qing shouted hoarsely, "Run outside! Don't look back!"

Zhu Zheng pushed through the crowd and ran out of Jinxiang Tower.

I kept running like this until it got dark.

She didn't dare go back home and had nowhere to go, so she just found a lighted alley and went in, then climbed up a tree at the end of the alley and hid there for the night.

Its daybreak.

She didn't dare close her eyes all night.

When she was sitting on the tree and crying silently, her sister found her.

……

Every time, her sister could always find her.

Tears soaked Zhu Qing's skirt, and Zhu Zheng slowly closed her heavy eyelids.

Surrounded by the familiar scent of orchids, she suddenly couldn't remember how old she was. It was as if she had returned to a very young age. Whenever she was wronged, she would lie in her elder sister's arms like this.

Sister would pat her back gently and whisper comforting words in her ears.

"Go to sleep quickly. When the sun rises, all bad things will be better."

*

Zhu Zheng slept very deeply and when she woke up, it was already dawn.

She was sent back to her boudoir. The sunlight shone through the window lattice onto the sandalwood bed inlaid with jade, and the brocade tent ceiling was brilliant.

Obviously, Zhu Zheng would never get a share of luxury just out of favoritism, but in the Zhu family, this is already considered simple.

After all, what my grandmother always cared about most was her reputation, so even someone like Zhu Long who died in such a way was given a grand funeral.

Together with her general father, whom she had never met, her father's first wife, and her brother Zhu Xuan, whom she had never met, they were buried in the Zhu family's ancestral tomb.

Buried beneath the loess is the Zhu family’s hundreds of years of blessings and glory.

The tall building will collapse and the feast will end.

From then on, the Zhu family was left with only an old ancestor in his twilight years and two orphaned girls who had not yet reached the age of marriage.

Although the century-old family fortune passed down from generation to generation by the Zhu family will not be squandered overnight, it is like a tall tower being stripped of its beams and bricks while being watched by onlookers: everyone knows it will fall, but no one knows when.

Maybe a hundred years later, maybe in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Zheng thought of her past life. The seemingly peaceful Dayong Dynasty had already become turbulent. The current situation of the Zhu family would be shattered by the slightest touch of the chess player.

Her feelings towards the Zhu family were so complicated that she didn't want to think about it, but if she wanted to protect her sister, she had to protect the Zhu family.

Thinking of this, Zhu Zheng felt empty inside.

She was on an invisible chessboard, and every step she took, every square she made, was related to whether she and her third sister could survive. Her reputation and fame were just empty words. Even if Zhu Zheng gambled everything she could, how much chips would she have in her hand...

She was too anxious at the poetry gathering in the waterside pavilion and took too much risk.

It was a wrong start, and he happened to mess with Rong Yan.

I don't know how many complications will arise from this...

Zhu Zheng lowered her head and sighed softly, then scratched her hair in annoyance.

Not long after, Mingcui pushed the door open and spoke cautiously.

"Fourth Miss, the old lady wants you to come over."