The Prime Minister's Darling novel Chapter 123

Chapter 123: 99 Truths (Second Update)_3

“No.” Mrs. Yao wrinkled her brows and shook her head, “I had a look at my daughter just after she was born, and she looked no different from any other newborn. If there were a birthmark, I would not have forgotten.”

Lord Marquis Gu’s eyes widened, “Did we make another mistake?”

Could the child not be his and Mrs. Yao’s?

“Jiaojiao is my daughter, of that I am sure. I just don’t understand why her face is like this.”

The midwife had passed away, and the servants had retired. They really didn’t know where to find anyone else from that night.

Mrs. Yao pondered for a moment, a lightbulb suddenly flashing in her mind, “Wait, there is one other person who saw Jiaojiao.”

“Who?”

“The abbot.”

—

The couple promptly went to the temple.

Upon hearing their purpose, the abbot looked aghast, “What are you saying? We got the babies mixed up? The girl with the birthmark is the daughter of the Marquis Residence?”

Mrs. Yao replied gently but urgently, “Yes, the abbot should have seen her. She came to the temple looking for you twice.”

If the abbot still couldn’t guess who it was after this, it’s really beyond words.

Could the vague memory not be a dream he had when drunk, but that his shaking hands had accidentally applied a large amount of mercurial pigment to the baby girl’s face?

“Amitabha Buddha… Sinful, so sinful!”

Reluctantly, the abbot confessed the story.

When the noble heiresses of Zhan Country are born, the midwife would mark them with mercurial pigment. The servants mine had instructed the midwife accordingly.

However, in the countryside, this was not a common practice. The midwife didn’t have that kind of skill and didn’t dare admit that she couldn’t do it, fearful of not getting her silver. So she requested help from the abbot.

The sober abbot would not have agreed, unfortunately, he was induced to drink some Pear Blossom Wine by his cunning disciple.

Just a sip was enough to get him drunk.

He said that he had never marked a child with mercurial pigment.

The midwife said, but you marked a monk in the temple before. Isn’t that the same?

In his drunken stupor, the abbot found the midwife’s logic persuasive.

So he went over.

And thus, he trembled while applying the pigment.

After that, it seemed that he wanted to find his fellow disciple but fell asleep halfway on his way.

He slept for three days and three nights. After he woke up, the first thing he did was to go to Mrs. Yao and apologize, but he saw Mrs. Yao holding a fair-skinned baby whose face was bright and clean. Where was the mark of mercurial pigment?

The midwife had gone down the mountain and he had never seen her again since.

“… I had always thought that I had a dream.”

Lord Marquis Gu asked, “What about Lady Xun? Didn’t she notice anything new on her child’s face?”

The abbot replied, “Lady Xun fainted after giving birth and didn’t wake up until the next day. I recklessly guess that when she saw the child, the child had probably already been switched.”

Because Lady Xun was unconscious and unable to take care of the children, the midwife put the two babies in the same room. Gu Jiao was born first, and Gu Jinyu was born one or two hours later.

The babies were wrapped in the swaddling clothes from Mrs. Yao’s side, so at a glance, it was indeed easy to get confused.

The midwife was originally present, but she had stomachache and had to go to the toilet. When she came back, the mercurial pigment had been applied.

He went to his disciple’s courtyard with a cold face, and found a monk who was disheveled and basking in the sun under a tree. He indignantly told him about the mix-up, “… Don’t you know you’ve caused me to make a big mistake?” _{ƒгeewёbnovel.com}