Is time to get Madam Ming's dowry back? Chapter 239, MC tricked the shopkeepers of the properties swallowed from Madam Ming for a while and used one of a fruit shop to specially made him confess the properties were stolen from Madam Ming and Madam Ling also faked the account books of all those shops so she could swallow more money for her own private accounts. The problem is, the show is happening in the Manor, in front of the Taitai, I don't see any outsider there that can vouche for MC so she can take everything back, and we all know the Taitai and the father are all in cahoots with this crime. Oh, OK, the Uncle Ming was standing outside the courtain LOL I guess they will bleed a lot of money after the show's done, I expect the previous list to reappear this time, so they cannot lie about it and hold any properties for themselves. LOL! Because the previous day an incident happened in front a clothes shop stolen to Madam Ming & ML happened to be there and say out loud this shop should be from Madam Ming, now they're going to drag ML into the mess and Taitai and Ning Zu'an are scared! Of course, ML offered his help beforehand. Taitai is so shameless she tried first to tear the list Ning Xueyuan was bringing and then try to twist the incident into saying she was presumably trying to steal family property. I really wished Uncle Ming went with the evidence to the yamen, but I guess it won't happen like this and ML will be the judge. Well, for now, it seems nothing will happen and Uncle Ming will let it go because Taita & Ning Zu'an have been forced to let MC take back all the shops listed and search on Madam Ling's courtyard for the rest of belongings... It's a pity this wasn't used to discredit the father and Old Madam, but I know the main objective is to hurt them more before they're finally knocked out. :\ Chapter 478, although the Ledgers hidden by Ling are still to be found out (she placed those into her maiden's home, MC is surveilling her), here we have MC take advantage of NQS smashing porcelains on her courtyard and saying it's a cat who run into the house and did it, to point out most of her belongings are Ming's property and that she isn't entitled to hold these things now she's under Ling's name and Ling has been demoted to a common room. Sorry I didn't record which chapter is but, later when the corpses of Ziying and her maid are found out and the case is being investigated, Ling's sister-in-law and her brother panick and have all the ledgers of Ming's related properties and other stolen things moved into a hamlet. MC knows it, but so far, I still have to read of those things being publicly substracted and used as evidence. At that point, Ling had already died drowned inside the well. But there's still not official connection between Madam Ming's case & Ziying's case.
Wait, is that second son of Ning Zu'an another hidden outer room? In chapter 255 a mysterious woman appeared and had a secret encounter with Ning Zu'An, then Ning Xueyan (MC) intercepted her and when she asked who she was, she said she was a staff from the hamlet outside the city... however, after following her, the maid ML lent her discovered the woman met with a young master residing in an Academy, and MC already suspects he must be a son from the shitty father of the century. OK, so Ning Zu'an did have an outer room BEFORE MARRIAGE, he totally scammed poor Madam Ming. Chapter 338 we see the inner monologue of this big villain. He had both woman at the same time he was scheming to marry Ming. And he admits to let Ling do as she please and even countributing to fan the flames.
A side-character story Chapter 258, I guess MC is about to help the only friend she made, whose mother seems to be suffering from a poison scheme conducten by a concubine of the husband, so she can replace her main wife position... I hope the author doesn't disappoint me this time, and MC fully exposes the whole matter. Right now, she only took advantage of this friend's shu sister provocation to make her friend pitifully fall into the pond and use it to expose the shu sister's vicioussness. Until Chapter 546 the matter is not brought again (well, girl also went into the Palace draft, but she failed it, so it wasn't mentioned the backyard mess). Heng Yuqin (the friend) was contacted by MC, because she's worried about her & her situation at the house, and these chapters that follow, I am expecting for them being able to finally prove and expose the concubine that's poisoning her mother while coaxing her father to throw the di daughter into the fire pit (now she's trying to get her married into ML's Manor). Is not that the girl hasn't suspected before that her mother's illness wasn't related to this arrogant concubine, but she hasn't been able to find anything on the medicine. This Concubine Yun is helped by ML's current wangfei (the junzhu mentioned on the villain spoilers @Belli wrote) and the Empress, because the Empress doesn't have children of her own and wants to use ML to become the next Empress Dowager. The deal with this bunch of harmful but delusional woman is that as long as they help her become the main wife, she'll give her husbands' family fool support to the Empress. Now it seems her stupid shu daughter has been tricked into trying to pull a Ling's daughter style (rape first, then marry) on ML, but ML wasn't even in the room... Even though they manage to trample the shu sister, this Aunt Yun lost some power, the scumbag of the husband still protected her even after Heng Yuqin changed the doctor and it was found out the medicine they were giving to the main wife was the cause of her illness ¬¬ All these shitty lords, honestly... Well, at least in this Manor the Old Taitai still vouched for the Madam when the di duaghter went to ask for justice and she got that concubine sent to a nunnery. Chapter 627 mentions this outcome.
Spoiler Spoiler After reading further, Spoiler I think he's doomed as a heir the moment his father suspects he's been fkng his latest concubine, the Little Aunt Xu that used to be Ling's maid and sister of his other concubine Xu (also former maid). When the outer room manages to enter after causing another succesful ruckus outside the Manor (and passerbyes all remember this happened like 10 years ago too), he has an heir there, however, Ning Zu'an still has thoughts of being able to make new sons XD Why are this people so messed up?
Chapter 390 is when the dead bodies of Ning Ziying and her maid are discovered after careful scheming. I thought the bodies were retrieved and buried, as everybody knew she had jumped into the pond to kill herself... now I understand why the matter will become a case to investigate, since the former MC's body was brutalli beaten and even had broken fingers, and it's still evident in the corpse they found, also, the corpses had stones attatched so it's obvliously a murder and not a suicide case. Chapter 606 is when the matter is brought to the yamen by CHX, after she caused NZYan's miscarriage and fled from the Xia Manor. I assume that, aside from the obvious culprits, this story will also drag down Ling's brother and sister-in-law, as the SIL helped her with many things and they still seem to have the original ledgers of all the properties and dowries Ling swallowed from both Ming and Ning Ziying. Chapter 624 is when the final veredict comes out from the Criminal Ministery investigation and trial. They had evidence of the engagement, some love letters between XYH and Ning Ziying, and Chen Hexian's & Ning Ziyan's testimonies (MC made sure NZYan would know she must drag XYH with her). So, a lot of people gets implicated. XYH is banned from becoming an official, but his father is also stripped from his rank & title and sent to his hometown. Ning Zu'an is forced to pass his title to his second son (he had already been named the official heir) and also retired from his official duties. Ning Ziyan is sentenced to be beheaded. Chen Hexian is exempted (despite everybody knows she's also guilty of affair with a man that had an engagement) for contributing to the case with evidence, rewarded with money & sent to her hometown. Because XYH is obsessed with MC as Ning Xueyan and believes she's Ning Ziying reincarnated, he plots with NQS to get her raped and then thrown into the 4th Prince, still drugged with aphrodisiac so this prince will also rape her. But after MC gets kidnapped, she manages to stall for time until ML rescues her and turns the scheme against NQS. This is what gets her killed, because the Emperor is mad that she put a green hat on his favourite son. Because NQS is dead, the case of killing Xia Yudong (XYH's shu brother) is not sentenced, because the main culprit is already dead (NQS). I'm still waiting for the hidden ledgers to be found though. Despite accusing Xia Fu and Ning Fu of conspiring to kill NZYing and steal her marriage, the investigation still has failed to find out they also stole her dowry. Ok, so in chapter 674, XYH is put to death, but that's because he conspired to harm MC and he seems to participate in ML's assassination attempt, along with 3rd Prince. Now ML is Emperor so he puts him to death and demotes 3rd Prince and his mother that also "tried to poison" the Emperor to commoners. Still no one has located those hidden things LOL.
First real strike to Madam Ling Chapter 422 is when the scheme to expose Ling's scheme to frame Madam Ming and steal her position as the main wife starrts to unfold. MC, her uncle and her cousin have been preparing for a while. The matter is also related to the other outer room, Aunt Yu, who is now entered the Manor as a concubine. Her brother was used as the man Madam Ming was having an affair with (all fake). Chapter 426, the now degraded to nameless concubine Ling shi tried to frame MC of causing a miscarriage but failed, because Ning Zu'an was there at the time, and her brother Ling Huanian is so stupid, MC is confronting him now about whether they both killed her mother with posion. Ning Zu'an is trully shameless, he dared to ask MC not to be angry with Ling shi and don't blame be because "is not like she tried to kill your mother" and MC answered she couldn't care less about a low nameless concubine. Hahaha Ling shi is also shameless playing the victim and claiming she never mistreated Ming shi. 430/431 Old Taitai is trully shameless, like mother, like son! She's still dreaming of inscribing Ning Huaiyuan under Madam Ming's name so he can become the heir. She keeps trying to suppress all the crimes Ling shi committed against Ming shi XD but now MC is not having it. Needless to say, Madam Ming was her own niece. The woman watched how her son scammed, cheated, neglected & let his outside misstress plot to steal & kill to a woman that was her own niece! I think that dying of a stroke is not enough, author should had left her paralized and unable to speak after the stroke, so she can be tortured for the rest of her life.
She did... I never said she is dead because of stroke... She got stroke and become paralize in bed, unable to do anything but watch everybody 'care' for her (under MC's command). Well... At that time MC already an empress... So she not really torturing this old hag. She still hv to keep her reputation after all.
I'm seriously thinking all this rotten source is actually lao taitai. If she is not that crook, selfish and disgustingly shameless, how could her son will grow up like her?
It's a chain, yes. Lao Taitai condones everything and she is also vicious, but her son is the main villain who designs everything, so he can steal the things Ming shi's brother used to have. Conveniently there's a rebellion and he happens to be in the right place to facilitate the change of dynasties, and suddenly Ming Family's situation is jeopardized, so he finds the right chance to bring the Mings down and his favourite outer room in. The son is no better. He is the true son of both snakes. Then there's the narcissistic psycopaht of NQS, unrelated by blood, but that adds in the mess. Gotta say that I love the way MC confronts Ning Zu'an in chapter 537 when he quickly jumps to accuse her of killing Ling shi. She spats everything he's done, except the scamming of Ming shi into marriage.
The craziest thing is, even at that point (all scandals broke out and corpses out) they still believe as long as MC is dead, they could say all was MC's delusion.... Like what the???? (insert jackie chan confusedly holding head meme here)
Yes XD like Ning Zu'an keeps thinking that as long as it doesn't reach the Emperor... when it's obvious there's an investigation on-going and too much stuff has been already outed (outer rooms, him destroying the wife and pampering the concubine...) it will eventually be all exposed. He's already been admonished twice for Ling's scandals (first for celebrating a wedding while covering a dead of a flat wife, then the exposure of her conspiring to steal the wife's seat), that the only thing Xueyuan and her uncle still haven't thrown to his face is the fact he actually scammed Madam Ming into marriage. The reason why I find he is the ultimate villain and the Taitai is just someone who condones is, because compared to Pampered Poisonous Royal Wife aka Ressourceful Princess, this Taitai is not a schemer, she's just a greedy woman that expects to exploit her grandaughters for fame and fortune while having her son & grandson bring her glory. The Taitai on that other novel (the one of the Su Family) was almost the ultimate villain, as she was the one to design almost everything that affected the MC, her mother and her grandmother.
Ling's Death is in chapter 536 onwards (the whole show trying to blame it on MC) and ML forcing her to be written out of the genealogy is in chapter 542, leaving Ning Huaiyan with no way out. He was forced to enter the Imperial Examination after he became the son of a concubine, because the exemption as a future heir was gone, and now, he is not even the son registered in the family. I must say that, in the list of villains, 3rd Prince Ao Mingyu could be fairly included. He becomes obsessed with MC and that doesn't stop him from trying to ruin her reputation so he can have her as a concubine. Is quite the same mental-set Xia Yuhuan has, that he initially agreed to switch marriage with Ning Ziyan, but still enter Ning Ziying as a concubine. Ning Huaiyan wants MC dead not just because he thinks her position threatrens everything his mother stole, but also because he's lusting over her and he thinks if he kills her, his incestuous feelings will be gone XD
I like that Chapter 545 takes the time to explain why they can erase Ling but it would never happen with Aunt Yu the other outer room: When Ling entered the Mansion, Ning Zu'an had the genealogy altered, so he change the dates of her entering the family as a concubine, so the birth of Ning Huaiyuan and Ning Ziyan would be considered as shu children and not full bastards. Whereas, Aunt Yu was a former tongfang of Ning Zu'an that he deliberately hid in his hamlet for years, so she was registered way before even Ling appeared, and her children (she only has one son) can enter the genealogy as shu, because she's not real outer room, just a concubine hidden from the former main wife.
Chapter 467, the daughters of Lin were trully desperate to strip MC from her position, they even found a woman claiming she's her daughter that was stolen and placed in the Marquees Mansion XD it's either them or that rat NQS.
I am amazed at how delusional all these villains are XD Chapter 601, now is the turn of ML's stolen fiancée, who is now a mysterious Concubine Xia in the Imperial Palace to think she can scheme to become ML's main wife in the future and pull down MC.
Well, I haven't mentioned other stuff, and now I think I'll explain a little about this crazy plot filled with villains that know nothing but trying to have people raped every now and then, create fake affairs and poison others. Spoiler Most of the things that happen, even Madam Ming's death and Ning Ziying's death, are actually because of the throne. The story is quite long and filled with too many scandals that explode at once (as I said before, is like a fireworks show), and as readers, we get pretty attatched to the revenge theme for both Ning Ziying & Madam Ning, because the MC isn't just her past self, she explains many times that she's fully assumed her role as Ning Xueyan, because she keeps her memories and she feels those as hers too. When she discovers that they're actually direct sisters, it even makes more sense to her to represent this person, even more than her past self, despite she's still too affected by her fiancée's betrayal and has a huge PSTD from the drowning to death. In fact, Madam Ming's being schemed against has Consort Ya's hand. She's the mother of the 3rd Prince, Ao Mingyu, and most of the bad things that happen inside the Marquees Protector of the Country Manor have her handwritting or backing. Ling is her minion, Ning Qing Shan is a selfish psychopath but she's also her chesspiece (as mentioned by @Belli ). While we have this Consort in one side, we also have the Queen, who is behind the junzhu that harrasses ML, Princess Xianyun (and she eventually gets knocked out of her Wangfei position), the sister of this junzhu, Yun Luoluo, and the Aunt Yun from the Ningguoguo (Duke Ning?) Manor, that's trying to kill the main wife and send the di daughter to die to ML's Manor. The Queen plans to get Princess Xianyun give birth to a baby, get ML & the 3rd Prince kill each other, get rid of the Emperor (they're already poisoning him, it seems), so she can become the Queen Dowager by holding ML's baby as her puppet Emperor. Of course, there's Consort Shu, mother of the 4th Prince, and there's the 2nd Prince (?) too... but the other front would be the Emperor himself. Although he's the most stupid & careless, due to his chauvinism and greed. He succeeded on stealing the throne, but his long-term plans to get rid of the ML are filled with loop-holes. The first big mistake is him keeping Hua Yueying alive, the mysterious Concubine Xia he stole from the ML, as she was his fiancée. Also, he underestimated his wives, especially Consort Ya and the Queen, who've been scheming non-stop for years, and are also behind the things of the past Dynasty. Then, there's this Hua Family, who think they're the oriole behind, but they're more like the mantis of the old saying. They thought they could play their cards for a safe game, by agreeing to send Hua Yueying to the then Prince Qing (the Emperor), but now they're clueless and the delusional Hua Yueying is dragging them all downhill, because she and her Third Sister believe the ML will be the ultimate winner, but that he still has feelings for her, and the 3rd sister also thinks she can seduce the ML XD, so she attempts to throw herself to the ML, but she's caught in a double-scheme that ends putting the Emperor in a pretty bad spot and Consort Ya too. It also drags down the Queen, who's still trying to kill the Emperor. Consort Ya & the 3rd Prince, The Emperor, the Queen, this 3 entities try to kill the ML so many times. When the novel starts, who knows how many assassination attempts he's suffered from them, and as it keeps going, those won't stop. The Emperor hopes to use Concubine Xia (Hua Yueying) to finally bring him down, as he'd be having an affair with his beloved Concubine, but Ning Xueyan turns everything against them, and it only exposes the fact the Emperor stole ML's fiancée, which is a great taboo and offense, and it also exposes Consort Ya, her knowledge of poisons and her intent of framing MC & ML of poisoning the Emperor. It forces the man to finally name ML as the Crown Prince. Which was already decreed by the former Emperor, but that he had been dragging for a long time, because he still expected to pass the throne to one of his sons. Because the matter happened when they were still both princes, it also exposes the fact he conspired to steal the throne from ML, as he used the assassination of 3 Princes from Annan (foreign state) to put him in prison and coarce ML's fiancée to join him. I shall also say that, despite there's a past dynasty, the MC belongs to & Madam Ming too, the Ao Family (current and former Emperor) are said not to be responsible of the demise of the past dynasty, as they were schemed against and betrayed by the then Prime Minister, and the Ao Family just happened to be of military lineage and ended up holding the throne. So there's no conflict between MC & ML nor past hatred. All this power games, are also part of the reason why Ning Zu'an is such a scumbag, so is Ningguoguo (Heng Yuqing's father), and he calculates the Ming Family and later he can't care less to see how Ling tramples her and how his daughters from Ling and other concubines abuse Ning Xueyan (whom he also suspects to be a bastard). The only reason why MC doesn't expose everything about this shitty father, is because she thinks it's more profitable to use her second shu brother, Ning Huijing, to inherit Ning Zu'an's position and take control of the Ning family. Also, Ning Huijing & his mother Aunt Yu, are as innocent as Madam Ming. Aunt Yu was also cheated on, as she was a tongfang of Ning Zu'an that suddenly was hidden in one of his hamlets and lied for years, about Madam Ming not tolerating her. That's also why she never dared to cause a scene like Ling did, so she could re-enter the Mansion with her son (she did it later, but to Ling and it was propelled by MC). Aunt Yu was also oblivious about her brother being used to frame Madam Ming, she only knew about it later, when the brother disappeared, and until MC didn't find her, she didn't know she'd been cheated and that she'd contributed unkowingly to bring Madam Ming down. She feels a little guilty but, overall, she and her son are resentful to Ning Zu'an, and they only agree to enter the game because MC seems to be good to them, and they trust in her.
U know, this novel actually opening my eyes, as it's make other novels I've read before, that i though have evil schemes, looks tame now. I think this novel ranked very high in the term of poisoning the reader mind's with anger, curses, and evil intention toward villain. ML and MC practicality met schemes after schemes in hourly basis.
Yes! I still think it's a bloody mess of tropes, but surprisingly the author used them all in a clever way, and the real scheme is actually more meaningful and deeper than it seems on the surface, because there's all these petty villains fooling around. The refreshing bits are, definitely, the fact she takes the usual backyard start plot from other revenge novels and makes it the main case to last for almost the whole novel. It's never fully solved until everything gets connected, and it's hiding the power-play of several people to grab the throne. Even when the case of Ziying's murder is apparently solved by the Criminal Ministry, those hidden ledgers and dowries haven't still been found and identified as things to be connected to both Ziying's and Ming's cases. The only bad thing about this novel is the amount of rape plots happening around, and the fact the ML is lusting for a 14 year old LOL, even though the author has tried to make him less creepy and ephebo by showing his mind knows she's too young and he shall wait to bed her. I know it was normal back then, but it's still pedo/ephebophilia XD and the MC married way earlier than the standard normalized age (around 16 years old). But that's something normal in these novels, like the rape-tropes, so one will never take those seriously unless these are embellished and completely taken out of the context of an Ancient Era.
Who is Wu Yao aka Aunt Wu? The mysterious white-dressed woman from the first chapters that appears way later in the story, as Ya Moqin's Aunt and is obsessed with destroying the MC? Is she the woman that got the previous dynasty's Empress burnt to death? She is saying MC caused her daughter's death and she's been planning for many years but... seriously, Ning Xueyan was sort of trapped inside the Marquees Manor back then. Is this woman crazy or what? I am seriously confused because I skeemed a lot through the chapters, although I got through 1 by 1. This woman tried to set up MC in a poem banquet, with several schemes, but MC turned everything against her, even managed to have her maid killed. However, it wasn't useful to kill this Mrs. Wu, only to do something about ruining Ya Mo Qin's marriage to the 4th Prince. Later, in chapter 674, it is mentioned that is discovered the master of Ya Fu (Ya Mo Qin's father) has an ambiguous relationship with this woman, so he looses his reputation and has to return to his hometown. MTL says that is found out Mastar Ya and his son are related to this Mrs. Wu Yao, who happens to be a widow.