Chapter 636: Ren Si’s Biological Father
Chapter 636: Chapter 636: Ren Si’s Biological Father
After dealing with Tian Xuezhen, Shen Ningning and the others did not rush back to the Capital City.
Ling Mountain City had been hit hard by the disaster, and there was still some clean-up work that required the Crown Prince and Xie Suzhi to oversee.
Governor Ren’s crimes were tantamount to treason. Compounded with the attempted assassination of the Princess and the Crown Prince, he was immediately sentenced to the confiscation of his property and the extermination of his clan.
Fortunately, the men Mo Lingwei had dispatched also discovered that Ren Si was not Governor Ren’s daughter at all.
Instead, she was a child Tian Xuezhen had him adopt and raise as his own flesh and blood.
This was because Tian Xuezhen had vaguely seen in a dream that a man of exceptionally high status would come to Ling Mountain City. Therefore, Governor Ren’s original plan was to offer Ren Si to this noble person as a wife or concubine.
However, before the plan could be put into action, it brought about the calamity of his clan’s extermination.
Since Ren Si was not his daughter, and with Shen Ningning protecting her, she was unharmed.
As Ren San was being escorted to the dungeons with her family by government officers, she saw Shen Ningning arriving to get Ren Si.
She threw caution to the wind, rushed before Shen Ningning, and dropped to her knees.
"Elder Sister, I was wrong to bully you before. It was all that bitch Ren Er who forced me! Actually, just like Fourth Sister, I wanted to be close to you."
Ren San wailed pitifully, "Please, spare my life."
Nearby, the face of Ren Er, who was also in the custody of the government officers, was twisted in extreme fury.
"You shameless creature! The moment you see she’s in power, you rush to suck up to her. Have you forgotten how you cursed her in front of me? Because I remember every word!"
Ren San hysterically denied it. "I didn’t want to curse her! You forced me!"
Ren Si stepped forward, planting herself in front of Shen Ningning to put some distance between her and Ren San.
"Don’t you dare try to cozy up to her. She’s not your ’Elder Sister,’ and she’s not part of the Ren Family," Ren Si scoffed. "You two were partners in crime, bullying everyone you came across, and you didn’t even spare me. Now that you’ve met this fate, you want to abandon each other in your time of need? Dream on!"
With a sneer, she added, "Ren San, didn’t you say you wanted to be best sisters with ’Second Sister’ for life? Well, going to the execution block together is ’for life,’ too!"
The two of them had often ganged up to bully Ren Si.
During the lantern festival, they had deliberately torn her clothes to humiliate her in public.
On a painted boat excursion, they had deliberately pushed Ren Si into the water and then had a male servant rescue her in an attempt to ruin her reputation.
On Ren Si’s birthday, they had tricked her into going to the pitch-black ancestral hall and locked her inside. When her maids came searching, they refused to reveal her location.
Shen Ningning had heard all about these cruel acts from Ren Si, so she wasn’t surprised by Ren Si’s current attitude toward them.
Seeing Shen Ningning’s indifference and hearing Ren Si’s sharp-tongued retort, Ren Er flew into a humiliated rage.
She began to curse venomously. "So what if we die? At least we’ll die together as a family! You, Ren Si, are just an unwanted little orphan! A bastard!"
Those words struck a raw nerve in Ren Si’s heart.
No matter how strong she was, her expression darkened, and her fists clenched. "Don’t you get too smug! I’ll find my parents!"
"Hah," Ren Er sneered. "My father said that when he found you, you had been thrown into a mass grave. For all you know, your mother was some wandering ghost who died there, and you crawled out of a corpse’s belly!"
Shen Ningning had heard enough.
"Enough! Add one hundred lashes to her sentence before her execution. It is said that a person’s final words are kind, yet yours are full of venom even as you face death. You are utterly unrepentant."
Ren Er’s eyes bulged. "On what grounds?"
Shen Ningning stated matter-of-factly, "On the grounds that I am the Princess."
The moment she finished speaking, the surrounding government officers shoved Ren Er away. Hearing her muffled curses, they stuffed a rag in her mouth.
Ren San was also dragged away. Governor Ren remained unconscious, and Mrs. Ren had gone mad after the incident.
She was muttering incessantly, "Ren Liuyue, it must be your mother’s dying curse coming true... Now I’m doomed to a terrible death... It’s all your mother’s curse..."
Shen Ningning pressed her lips together, her beautiful eyes cold and unforgiving.
’Mrs. Ren got what she deserved. When she stole another woman’s husband and schemed to drive the first wife to her death, she should have known that what goes around, comes around.’
’Perhaps the spirit of the original Mrs. Ren can finally rest in peace.’
Shen Ningning was relieved that the real Ren Liuyue and Fang Huan had likely escaped to a safe and prosperous place.
Otherwise, they, who had never enjoyed any of the Ren Mansion’s good fortune, would have been implicated in Governor Ren’s crimes.
「Another month later.」
The new governor, appointed by the Emperor to take office in Ling Mountain City, arrived.
Coincidentally, this governor’s surname was Zhong. He had served as the governor of Ling Mountain City in his early years but was later impeached by his colleagues for an alleged error in his official duties.
The Emperor demoted him, transferring him to a small county far away to serve as a mere Magistrate.
Many years later, the case was finally re-examined and found to have been a miscarriage of justice.
Governor Zhong had an excellent reputation during his time in office, and the local people remembered him fondly.
So, taking this opportunity, officials who knew him well recommended his return to Ling Mountain City, a proposal the Emperor approved.
Unexpectedly, this very opportunity allowed Shen Siyi, using Shen Ningning’s Thunder Hall to test their blood, to confirm that Governor Zhong was Ren Si’s biological father.
However, Governor Zhong was over forty and had always publicly claimed that he had never married.
With Shen Ningning’s help, the mystery was finally unraveled.
It turned out that during his tenure in Ling Mountain City, Governor Zhong had fallen in love with a fisherman’s daughter.
But their social statuses were worlds apart. Before Governor Zhong could officially marry her, he was forced to leave Ling Mountain City due to the unjust accusation, with no chance to even say goodbye.
When the fisherman’s daughter’s family discovered her pregnancy, her father considered it a grave dishonor for her to be with child before marriage.
He beat her half to death and threw her into the mass graves, leaving her to die.
Ren Si was born at that very moment.
Shen Siyi speculated that the fisherman’s daughter was too gravely injured and died during a difficult childbirth.
Later investigations also revealed that Ren Si wasn’t found by Governor Ren. Instead, a woodcutter passing by in the morning heard a baby’s cries and followed the sound.
Upon finding a baby girl, he sold her to a human trafficker for a mere ten taels.
Over a year later, Governor Ren bought the pretty, delicate-featured girl, Ren Si, from a human trafficker for fifty taels.
When the truth was revealed, Lord Zhong and Ren Si embraced, the father and daughter sobbing uncontrollably.
Lord Zhong had remained unmarried his entire life because he had lost contact with the fisherman’s daughter. He had assumed she had long since married someone else, never imagining that his actions had led to her death.
Filled with immense regret, he clutched Ren Si’s hand. "If only I had acted faster back then, you and your mother would not have had to suffer so much because of me."
Ren Si was crying too hard to speak, but she felt an overwhelming sense of relief. From now on, she had a real family.
Shen Ningning deeply understood her feelings.
’The feeling of finding your birth parents, of no longer being all alone in the world—that is something worth shedding tears of joy for.’
「Another half-month later.」
With matters in Ling Mountain City mostly settled, the group decided to set off.
Return to the Capital City!
Mo Lingwei was the happiest of all. This meant that his wedding to Shen Ningning was finally about to become a reality.