Yao Ling smiled. "Thanking me once is enough! By the way, I"m impressed with how you establis.h.i.+ng this place."

Ning Qing Xue slightly blushed. It was true that she did it out of her own free will, however… hearing someone praise her, she would still feel happy nonetheless. "Thank you."

"Can you tell me the whole story behind this place?" Yao Ling was interested in knowing the details. Such a beautiful woman, if she didn"t spend her time and dedicate her life for these kids, she would probably have led a good life.

"Before that, I want to ask you Yao Ling Xiao Jie..." Before she finished talking, Yao Ling interrupted her. "I already told you that you should call me Yao Ling. Well... it"s up to you then. Call me with what you are comfortable with. But when I meet you, I think I will stick with this disguise. You can just call me Yao gong zi."

Ning QIng Xue nodded because she preferred calling her Xiao Jie. "So you are the stepchildren of "w.a.n.g Fu"," Ning jie said confidently.

Yao Ling furrowed her eyebrows. "How do you know about it?"

"Who doesn"t know about it in An Yang city? The people know how "w.a.n.g Fu" has no descendants and suddenly Master w.a.n.g just took you two in. It made quite a commotion at that time," Ning jie explained.

Yao Ling didn"t realize that the matter was a popular topic for the people. "It seems like "w.a.n.g Fu" is quite powerful in this city."

Ning jie"s eyes widened. "You don"t know how powerful "w.a.n.g Fu" is?"

Yao Ling felt embarra.s.sed by her own ignorance. "I only know that "w.a.n.g Fu" has a n.o.ble background. Other than that, I think it"s just a usual wealthy family."

Ning jie couldn"t believe at the girl"s ignorance. She didn"t know whether to laugh or cry. It seemed like they really had no ulterior motive by agreeing to become part of "w.a.n.g Fu". She didn"t even know the value of that household.

"Although it seems like "w.a.n.g Fu" is a wealthy merchant, their connection is very vast. Their connection with the royals makes no one dares to touch this family. I"m not really sure how vast, but from what I"ve heard, even the royals don"t dare to touch them. However, if you don"t know about it… is it only a baseless rumor?" Ning jie started to doubt the floating rumors.

Yao Ling started to ponder about this matter. What the rumor said was quite make sense. It was rare for a merchant to have the benefit of becoming a n.o.ble. A merchant was perceived as even lower than a peasant because they didn"t produce something – only selling something that had been produced by others. If one didn"t have great backing, she didn"t think one could have this kind of advantage. It seemed like "w.a.n.g Fu" was deeper than both she and Yao Ying had ever thought.

The more she thought about it, the more things that she needed to unravel the secret of "w.a.n.g Fu". Yao Ling just smiled at Ning jie and only said one word, "Probably."

Ning jie knew that Yao Ling didn"t want to talk about it, so she didn"t dwell anymore on the matter. Besides, it wasn"t her place to gossip about the situation inside "w.a.n.g Fu".

They maintained their small voice while talking because of the babies beside them. If the babies cried, it would ruin their chance to talk because Ning jie would practically busy once again.

"For some reasons, I was disowned by my own family." Ning jie began her explanation.

"May I ask who is your real family?" Yao Ling felt curious.

"It"s okay. This isn"t really a secret because it created a ruckus back then. I used to be a part of "Qin Fu"." Ning jie answered honestly.

"Qin Fu"? Isn"t that the homewrecker"s household? Who was it again? Qin Xiu Ai? She decided to ask Ning jie, "Do you know Qin Xiu Ai?"

Ning jie furrowed her eyebrows. Qin Xiu Ai? What was her connection with Yao Ling Xiao Jie? "How do you know her?" Ning jie asked Yao Ling curiously.

"I will tell you after knowing whether you have a good or bad relations.h.i.+p with her," Yao Ling smiled mischievously.

"Naturally… we are not in a good relations.h.i.+p. What did she do to you? Did she make another stupid mistake?"

Yao Ling could see the disdain from Ning jie"s words. "Ah… then we are on the same boat. I don"t like that girl. She tried to trap my husband and become his concubine." Yao Ling didn"t sugarcoat anything at all.

Ning jie chuckled after listening to what Yao Ling had said. "Does she now? She always makes trouble everywhere. She"s my stepsister. I was the Di daughter[1] of Qin Fu, while she"s only the daughter of a concubine.

Yao Ling frowned at what Ning jie said. "You are the Di daughter. How come they throw you out? Even though you are from the second branch, but Di daughter position usually pretty solid." Yao Ling asked in confusion.

"I probably wasn"t as good as you in handling her. If you don"t like her, maybe you did see her acting skill, right?"

Yao Ling nodded. "The all-time-popular white lotus act, right?" Yao Ling asked in disdain while scrunching her face in annoyance.

Ning jie laughed at Yao Ling"s expression. "Yes." She also hated that hideous act which trying to trap people into making a mistake and being disdained by other people, while the white lotus appeared to be weak, teary, and became the victim. When in fact, the victim was the target of that annoying with lotus.

"Did you lose because of her act?"

"I couldn"t control my emotions and it was my mistake." Ning jie admitted it regretfully.

"You have me now. I can teach you how to become a black lotus." Yao Ling knew as long as someone was impulsive or couldn"t control his or her own emotions, losing to a white lotus act was not a weird thing.

"Black Lotus? What is that?" Ning Jie asked in confusion.

"What"s the opposite of white?"

"Er... black?" Ning jie still didn"t understand what Yao Ling meant.

"Black Lotus is the term that I created. If you want to handle her, just become a black lotus. I can teach you how." Yao Ling proudly introduced her self-learning technique for handling crazy white lotus.

"It seems like "w.a.n.g Fu" isn"t as peaceful as it looks like." Ning jie felt like every person that was born in the n.o.ble household didn"t have it easy at all. The compet.i.tion and the backstabbing were common occurrences. It was a pretty tiring way to live.

"Every household has its own problem. I"m a newbie in this compet.i.tive world, but I need to learn quickly before I"m being devoured by the power struggle." Yao Ling explained.

"Indeed." Ning jie felt that she was too naive before and Yao Ling, who was even younger than her, had been forced to grow up early. She admired how Yao Ling even had a broader view than her about this matter. If she hadn"t been so stupid, she probably wouldn"t end up in this pathetic condition.

"Was that the only reason for you to be kicked out?"

Ning jie wanted to answer but she was still hesitant. It had been a long time since she had someone that she could talk to. Even though she had a lot of kids with her, but she couldn"t let the children know about her trouble and difficulty. The children always looked up to her and they were too young to share her burden. However, if there were no those children, she probably would have given up living. How could she not? She had no one after she left "Qin Fu" two years ago.

Finally, she decided to go with the flow and come clean with the person in front of her. "Qin Xiu Ai gave my secret away and that secret was bad enough to make my father hated me. I already knew that once my father heard about this secret, he would abandon me without a second thought."

Ning Qing Xue explained to Yao Ling in a disheartened voice.

***

[1]. Di daughter: The daughter of the main wife.