“It got so bad that it reached my daughter’s ears.” Madam Yu told Wei Ying, her voice heavy in emotions. “My sweet and innocent Yanli had to listen to the rumours about his father being unfaithful to her mother. She had to listen and watch her father leave the house everyday to have fun with his friends while we stayed home. It got to a point where Yanli even asked me if all of it was true and I lost it.”
“I got into an argument with Fengmian that night.” She sighed. “It wasn’t pretty. We both screamed things we didn’t mean and Fengmian ended up sleeping in a separate bedroom that night. We eventually made up and he promised me that there was nothing going on between them. I believed him. Then Cangse came to know about the reason for the argument we had and she came to me. She explained that they were only friends and that she would never go for a mated man. I believed her. She was so kind. I couldn’t bring myself to hate her.”
“I started ignoring the rumours again and I was fine for a while.” She said. “Until I heard that Cangse was pregnant. I was happy for her at first but I wasn’t aware that she had mated Changze by then. I wondered who the father was until rumours reached my ears again from the servants, saying that the father’s child was Fengmian. My heart broke that day, ah Ying.” She admitted as a tear rolled down her cheek and Wei Ying felt pity for her as he listened quietly. 
“I’ve always loved Fengmian. He’s the love of my life. And although we had an arranged mating, it didn’t matter to me because I loved him either way. But when I heard those rumours, I thought that Fengmian didn’t love me and I had been delusional this entire time. I thought I had been making a fool out of myself in front of everyone for years and I felt immensely humiliated.” She confessed for the first time in her life. 
“Everywhere I would step foot in, people would gossip behind my back.” She said. “They would say that I was tough for keeping a straight face after I was cheated on so publicly. They would say that I was a bad mate, a bad wife, not even capable of keeping and satisfying her own husband. They would say that I must have done something wrong for him to seek another woman. They would say that they understood why he had chosen Cangse as she was so much more beautiful than me and much kinder as well. They would say that she was perfect and I wasn’t. And they would say all of that even when I had Yanli with me.”
“And Yanli was a sweet child, even though she heard everything and was hurt by it as well, she never said a word. She kept it to herself and ignored everything and everyone around her while trying to cheer me up in her own way.” She smiled at the memory. “It made me hate Fengmian and Cangse even more for it. I started hating the two of them and how happily they still hung out with each other even though they knew about the rumours. They didn’t care because it wasn’t the truth but I didn’t know that and Fengmian wasn’t giving me much reassurance either.”
“When Cangse gave birth to you, a healthy and beautiful baby boy, I was even more jealous.” She confessed. “Because she was giving life to such a precious child whose father I believed was still my husband. I wasn’t able to give him a baby boy but she could? I was mad with jealousy. Cangse and Changze then left together and I only learnt then that they were mated. I felt stupid for believing that Fengmian could ever do this to me. But it was already too late, by that time, I had already accused him of many things and nearly ruined our relationship.”
“I tried to make things work out between us again and it was difficult.” She said. “Because not only was Fengmian mad at me, the rumours never died down and I would hear it over and over again no matter where I went. I felt humiliated every time I stepped foot outside of my home and even in my own home I was not safe from those rumours. A year later I was blessed with ah Cheng and things seemed to come back to normal. The rumours had finally died down and we were happy again. Fengmian had forgiven me and I wasn’t embarrassed to go out in the streets.”