amaotonovel Chapter 1136 "Huai Jin"
Chapter 1136 "Huai Jin"
As soon as the courtyard gate was pushed open, a damp, grassy smell wafted out.
Compared to the exquisite Tingyingxuan, this small courtyard reveals a clear lack of maintenance.
At this moment, a person was sitting in the courtyard with his back to Shen Zheng. Clearly, this person was Huai Jin.
Shen Zheng walked towards him, stepping on the weeds in the cracks between the bricks. He stood up and slowly turned around.
Upon seeing his face clearly, Shen Zheng paused in her tracks.
No wonder, no wonder...
No wonder Huai Gongwang intentionally hid this legitimate son.
Looking at the patches of black and red birthmarks on Huaijin's face, Shen Zheng understood everything.
There is a significant lack of awareness about birthmarks in society today.
The people believed that birthmarks on a baby's face were an ominous sign, a sign of "evil spirits possessing the child." They believed that if a family had a child with a birthmark on their face, all the natural disasters that would occur in the area that year would be blamed on that child.
Scholars and literati believed that people with birthmarks on their faces "have obstructed vision, indicating weak ties with their relatives," or to put it simply, "harm their relatives."
The nobles' thinking was even simpler—people with birthmarks on their faces are considered unattractive and bring shame to the family.
In conclusion, today's society tends to forcibly link personal appearance with "family honor and social value," which ultimately leads to children with birthmarks on their faces having to endure far more public opinion pressure than their peers from a young age, and even their entire lives will be affected by public opinion.
Even though she knew Huaijin was Huai Gongwang's child, Shen Zheng couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
"Lord Shen." Huai Jin bowed respectfully to her, but subconsciously lowered his face.
Shen Zheng nodded, no longer looking at his face, and asked, "Huaijin? Why do you want to see me?"
Huai Jin was silent for a moment, then brought Shen Zheng a small stool, his voice a little tense: "Lord Shen, would you... like to hear a story from me?"
Listen to a story?
Shen Zheng looked at the wooden stool but didn't sit down. Instead, she asked, "Is your story valuable?"
“The story… is valuable.” Huai Jin gripped his white cuffs tightly, forcing himself to remain calm, and said, “What Lord Shen is looking for may lie in the story.”
Shen Zheng paused for a moment, then straightened her robe and sat down. "You sit down too."
"This young man wouldn't dare overstep his bounds; just stand there..."
Huai Jin was very polite, and Shen Zheng stopped talking, signaling him to begin.
His shoulders trembled slightly, and his voice also trembled: "I wonder if Lord Shen knows... that my mother and father are both from Dezhou."
Shen Zheng nodded to indicate that she understood.
He then said, "The year after my father and mother got married, my father passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi. It was also in that year that my mother became pregnant."
Shen Zheng frowned slightly upon hearing this.
Liu Manying became pregnant in the second year after her marriage. Now, the Huai family only has Huai Jin as their legitimate son, which means... that the child was not saved back then.
"Lord Shen must also think that the child didn't survive, right?" Huai Jin slowly looked towards the main courtyard, her voice tinged with sorrow. "Actually, the child was born safely. And before he was even born, his father had already given him a name, which was... Huai Jin."
Shen Zheng looked up in surprise.
Huaijin added, "But from the moment Huaijin was born, he was regarded as an omen of bad luck by his father because his whole body was covered with black birthmarks."
As she listened, Shen Zheng subconsciously looked at Huai Jin in front of her.
The birthmarks on his face were half black and half red, which was different from what he said about his "body being covered in black birthmarks".
Under Shen Zheng's gaze, Huai Jin slowly raised his hand to touch the side of his face. "He was the boy's older brother and also the first child of his father and mother. But at that time, his father had just passed the high school entrance exam and could not withstand any turmoil, let alone an 'ominous' infant."
"So...?" Shen Zheng's voice also tightened slightly.
She didn't want the reality to be as she imagined.
Unfortunately, that was indeed the case: "So, the day after Huaijin was born, she disappeared without a trace. The mother was heartbroken, knowing that the father had done something to her, but she had just escaped death and couldn't even stand up, let alone search for her child. Later, the father tried his best to comfort the mother, talking about his career and the reputation of the Huai and Liu families, but he never mentioned that Huaijin was a living, breathing person. From then on, the mother became depressed and didn't live with the father for more than a year."
Perhaps it was because Huaijin's voice was so sorrowful that Shen Zheng actually felt a trace of the pain that Liu Manying had felt back then.
"...And then what?" Shen Zheng's voice was slightly hoarse.
"Later, Father was finally appointed by the Ministry of Personnel and given an official position. My half-brother Huai Zhizhen also came into this world." Huai Jin's body became more and more stiff. "But Lord Shen, as an official, you should also understand that if an official has a son born to a concubine after marriage and does not have a legitimate son for a long time, his colleagues will think that there is discord in the family and that the family's fortune is declining. Therefore... after Father's repeated persuasion, Mother became pregnant again."
Shen Zheng secretly calculated the time.
Huai Zhizhen had just been born then, and Huai Jin was still a few years away from being born, so that child... wouldn't be the Huai Jin we see now.
"You guessed it too, didn't you?" Huai Jin laughed, making Shen Zheng feel bitter. "That's the boy's second brother, also named 'Huai Jin'."
Upon hearing this, Shen Zheng closed her eyes.
That's utterly ridiculous "Huaijin"! It's like Huai Gongwang went crazy raising birds!
“My second brother was a little better off than my eldest brother. He only had a birthmark on his upper body, but unfortunately… his face was also on his upper body.” Huaijin touched his face again. “Just like that, my second brother also passed away. When my mother found out, she completely broke down and lost her mind. In everyone’s words, she went crazy.”
Hearing Huai Jin utter the last two words so casually, Shen Zheng felt a dull ache in her heart.
Huai Jin continued, "Actually, she wasn't that crazy. It's just that my mother couldn't stand seeing half-grown children and infants. As soon as she saw them, she would call them 'Jin'er,' which might be her eldest brother or her second brother. The funniest thing is that my mother even mistook Huai Zhizhen for 'Huai Jin' and fought with that aunt for Huai Zhizhen."
Huaijin said "ridiculous" but tears welled up in her eyes.
Shen Zheng also found Liu Manying not funny at all.
For a mother who has lost her child twice, the word "pain" is not enough to describe her suffering.
Huaijin let her tears fall and smiled, "Later, my mother missed 'Huaijin' so much that... she became pregnant again."
Shen Zheng's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this.
Liu Manying is pregnant again...
Shen Zheng couldn't even call her "stupid" from an outsider's perspective, because what she wanted was never a child with Huai Gongwang, but her damned... "Huai Jin".
"That child... is that you?" The bitterness in Shen Zheng's throat was spreading endlessly.