The Ninth Lady is a rebellious person.

Chapter 526 Expressing Gratitude for Life, Unveiling the Truth
When Lang Jiuchuan returned, she first went to see Old Madam Lang. When the old lady saw her, she touched her face and said, "My dear, you have suffered." She then called her Fan'er, and then held her face in her hands and said, "My dear is not the same as before, but she is still my dear."

Granny Wang said that the old lady was becoming increasingly confused and spending more and more time in a coma.

Lang Jiuchuan pursed his lips, checked her pulse, sighed softly, and said, "Go along with her, let her eat whatever she wants, and let her go wherever she wants."

Humans cannot escape birth, aging, sickness, and death; the old lady is already old!

Although Uncle Lang and the others had already heard about it from the imperial physicians and had made some guesses and preparations, their eyes immediately reddened when they heard Lang Jiuchuan's words, which were tantamount to issuing a death warrant.

"I'm taking the medicine you gave me to nourish my body every day, is that not enough?" Uncle Lang asked softly.

Lang Jiuchuan replied, "Medicine is not a panacea. When a person's life is nearing its end, no medicine, not even a celestial being, can help."

Madam Lang was just an ordinary old lady; her lifespan was limited, and when her time came, she was due to leave.

They are the same; unless they attain the Great Dao and ascend to immortality, they are all mortal beings who will eventually die. They have to accept their fate.

So, Imperial Advisor Tantai Qing, is it because you refuse to accept your fate that you scheme and plot to avoid the rules of life and death, or do you have a more far-reaching plan?

Lang Jiuchuan fell into deep thought. Seeing this, Uncle Lang and the others also felt that they shouldn't let the child be so upset right after returning home, so they changed the subject in a lighthearted manner.

The group moved to the flower hall to talk. Lang Jiuchuan dismissed everyone except Lang Dabo and Cui Shi. Cui Shi was the one who should know the most about her background; others were not important. As for Lang Dabo, he was the head of the Lang family, and keeping him here was to keep him informed.

"Ninth Sister, is there something you want to say?" For some reason, Uncle Lang suddenly became nervous.

He often felt very flustered when his eldest niece was being serious.

"Well, tell me about what's happened to me in the last six months." Lang Jiuchuan hesitated for a moment, then added, "And also, tell me about my past life."

She said this to Madam Cui, and then poured out two pills from the porcelain bottle for them: "These are tonics, eat them."

Uncle Lang looked at the fragrant pills. They smelled wonderful, but to him they looked like poison. The so-called tonics were definitely not calming medicines prepared in advance to scare them to death.
For some unknown reason, Cui swallowed it without saying a word and stared at Lang Jiuchuan without uttering a sound.

After watching the two swallow the medicine, Lang Jiuchuan stood still in front of Cui Shi, took a step back, and then, under their astonished gazes, slowly bent his knees, placed his hands on his forehead, and knelt down, his voice clear and melodious: "This bow is to Mother."

Mother……

Cui's body trembled violently, her hands gripped the armrest tightly, tears welled up in her eyes, and her heart pounded.

Lang Jiuchuan, who had never addressed her as "mother," now said, "I respect my mother."

She stared blankly as Lang Jiuchuan lay prostrate on the ground, his forehead resting on his hands, his entire neck exposed.

Cui froze abruptly, then rushed down in disbelief, almost violently pulling open the back of her collar. A small, pale red crescent-shaped birthmark, seemingly edged with a pale gold, came into view. Cui was instantly struck as if by lightning, her pupils constricting.

"This, this is... how did you..." She looked on in disbelief, her hands trembling as she touched the crescent moon. Although it didn't make sense, Uncle Lang glanced at it sideways and saw a small crescent moon on her neck.

Isn't this what my sister-in-law has always insisted—that her real daughter has a crescent-shaped birthmark on the back of her neck?
Look, what is this if not a birthmark? How can she not be a girl from the Lang family?

"No, it's impossible. You never did this before." Cui's voice trembled, and she was in a state of confusion, unable to calm down.

To confirm that she hadn't made a mistake back then, she had people check repeatedly. Lang Jiuchuan didn't have this birthmark at all, so what is it now?
Lang Jiuchuan stood up and helped her up. He gently pinched the base of her thumb with his hand, forcing her to calm down, and said, "You didn't see wrong. The child with the birthmark that you had back then was taken away, and the child who stayed with you... do you still remember Ren Yao?"

Cui was startled, and a person appeared in her mind. She nodded blankly. Ren Yao was her distant cousin from her maternal family. The two had played together before and had even teased each other about being sisters because they looked somewhat alike.

"Her child is the one you had, but they were switched. That's why everyone thinks you're wrong. You two look alike, so naturally the child will look a bit like you too."

Uncle Lang was completely bewildered: "Ninth Sister, this, this is something I don't understand?"

Lang Jiuchuan took a piece of paper, tore two small paper figures into pieces, and lit the spirits on them. Only after the paper figures came to life did she begin to tell the whole story, starting with the switch, omitting the scene of her death, and slowly dissecting the bloody truth.

With the paper figure as a substitute, and her concise explanation, the two immediately understood, as if watching a shadow play, witnessing an extremely convoluted and bizarre Totoro-style prince swap.

The most tragic part is that in this story of Totoro replacing the prince, both Totoro and the prince die.

Uncle Lang was horrified. The teacup in his hand fell to the ground and shattered. His heart almost stopped. He looked at Madam Cui. This was too shocking. How could she accept it?

Cui's face was deathly pale. She stared blankly at the paper figure, then at Lang Jiuchuan who crumpled the two paper figures together to create a third paper figure, which was herself.

Something in her brain shattered.

"Although the result was not satisfactory, I still returned to the Lang family. As Lang Jiuchuan, I bow to you to express my gratitude for your life. I am your biological daughter, and what you have insisted on all this time has not been wrong." Lang Jiuchuan bowed to her again.

Cui was struck dumb as if by lightning. She staggered backward, her body swaying precariously, her eyes filled with immense shock and disbelief.

She stared at Lang Jiuchuan, her breathing rapid, as if she were about to faint at any moment. Her lips moved, but her throat seemed blocked, and she couldn't utter a single word.

She did nothing wrong, yes, she did nothing wrong, but so what?

Her daughter, her poor daughter, is dead, whether it was the real daughter or the fake one, she is dead.

It's true that Lang Jiuchuan has returned, but she crawled back from hell. She went through countless hardships to stand here and lay the bloody truth before her.

“You are my daughter, my Jiuchuan, and all these years… the child I’ve neglected, I…” She looked at Lang Jiuchuan, tears streaming down her face, her hands clenched into fists, pounding her chest again and again, and suddenly threw her head back, letting out a shrill and painful wail.

"ah--!!"

(End of this chapter)