425 Ident.i.ty
Originally, Qin Huai had already concealed Ah Yu’s ident.i.ty. He started from the local household register and cooperated with Zhang Zhan to change it layer by layer.
Even if someone suspected her ident.i.ty, they would never find any problems with the household register.
Then, Madam Qin took action to cover up and replace Ah Yu’s existence in the Xie Residence with another child who had died young.
Old Master Xie was a playboy. He had many concubines in the residence and a few other women. Even the maidservants in the residence had been harmed by him.
However, the Master of the Xie family prided himself on being a rich man. Other than the children of his wife, he did not acknowledge any other children.
Therefore, Old Master Xie originally had seven daughters, but he only acknowledged’ three in the residence. Little Ah Yu’s t.i.tle as the Third Miss was only verbal. In fact, no one in the entire residence really treated her as a young lady.
When Little Ah Yu was sent away, the daughter of another maidservant happened to die in the residence and was thrown into the ma.s.s grave.
That daughter was secretly raised by a maidservant. Even Old Master Xie did not know about her, so she naturally had a hard time growing up.
No matter who investigated, they would only find out about the child.
However, they happened to encounter Ouyang Changjing. They recognized at a glance that Little Ah Yu’s appearance was the same as Ruan Ruan’s when she was young. Naturally, they would not follow the established clues and investigate. Instead, they deduced.
In addition, Old Madam w.a.n.g was soft-hearted in the end and could not bear to let Ah Yu miss out on her potential family. She did not insist on Ah Yu’s ident.i.ty and gave Ouyang Changjing a chance to investigate.
After investigating, they actually found the items that Ah Yu’s “mother” had p.a.w.ned. Among them was a token that belonged to Ruan Ruan.
After that, they naturally found out the ident.i.ty of the old master and concubine of the Xie family—Ruan Ruan’s personal maidservant, Han Zhi.
They originally thought that Ruan Ruan had become the Xie family’s master’s concubine or that the child had unfortunately been bought by the Xie family. They did not expect that the concubine was actually Ruan Ruan’s maidservant.
When Ouyang Changjing saw Little Ah Yu, he only patted her head lovingly and let her play by herself.
Then, he returned to the temporarily rented farmer’s house and discussed it with Ouyang Pei and the others.
Ouyang Pei had also received the information. Nahan said, “Han Zhi is the only one around Ruan Ruan who doesn’t know martial arts. Could it be that back then, Ruan Ruan was trapped and couldn’t even protect herself, let alone protect the child, so she let Han Zhi stay in the Xie Manor with the child?”
“That’s not impossible. From the information, Han Zhi’s life in the Xie family was not so difficult at first. I’m afraid Ruan Ruan gave most of her a.s.sets to the Xie family in order to have them take care of the child,” Ouyang Changjing said. “Five years ago, the Xie family was only an ordinary family in Dongling County. It was the kind of family that fell from grace. The official position they bought did not have any real power. After Han Zhi became the concubine, the Xie family rose up all of a sudden. They even rebuilt the Xie family’s manor. There were also scenes of people spending money on beauties on the streets.”
It was obvious that the once poor Xie Manor had become rich because of the family a.s.sets that Han Zhi had brought.
However, the Xie family’s master did not take Han Zhi seriously and did not even feel much grat.i.tude. Otherwise, Han Zhi and Ah Yu would not have led such a miserable life.
Then the problem was that a maidservant who had been by the princess’s side for more than 20 years must have extraordinary horizons.
How could she still live so miserably?
No matter how weak they were, they should not let the child be abused like that.
Moreover, money was confidence. On account of money, the Old Master of the Xie family should not do this.
At the side, Ye Yuncang said, “The matter is relatively clear now. At the very least, it can be proven that Ah Yu is Ruan Ruan’s child. As there’s no evidence on Han Zhi’s side, we still have to investigate.”
“Ruan Ruan is not an irresponsible child. Even if she handed the child over to Han Zhi in a moment of desperation, it’s impossible for her to ignore her for five years.” Ouyang Changjing frowned. “We must have missed something.”
Ye Yuncang: “You can’t stay here anymore. Leave some people behind to continue investigating the matter of Han Zhi. Then, send someone to continue searching for news of Ruan Ruan.”