The Gloomy Bottom Everyone Despised Has Been Reborn - Chapter 1

At thirteen, I finally learned that I was not Fan Wu’s son. My true father was the master of the Lin family in Suzhou.

The Lin family of Suzhou was incredibly wealthy. Their ancestors included many high-ranking officials, with the most successful reaching the position of Prime Minister. One could say that whether in Suzhou or in the entire country, the Lin family was among the most elite of the elite.

The reason I became Fan Wu’s fake son was because thirteen years ago, my mother, Lady Lin, went to the Guanyin Temple outside the city to offer incense. She encountered bandits on the road. While fleeing, she ran into the home of a peasant woman—the home of Fan Wu.

At that time, Lady Lin was pregnant. Due to the escape, she went into early labor and gave birth to a son in Fan Wu’s house. By coincidence, the peasant woman also gave birth to a son that same day.

Seeing Lady Lin’s wealth and beauty, the peasant woman had a wicked thought. Taking advantage of Lady Lin’s weakness after childbirth, she swapped me with her own son.

This swap lasted for thirteen years.

Last month, the peasant woman—my foster mother—became seriously ill and finally told the Lin family about this “switch” (the classic tale of swapping a prince for a leopard cat) incident. During those thirteen years, I had been constantly abused by Fan Wu.

Fan Wu was a gambler. Although he didn’t know I wasn’t his son, he was always terrible to his family, whether it was toward my foster mother or me.

That night, after learning I was the son of the Lin family in Suzhou, I couldn’t sleep. I was both excited and uneasy. I was excited to finally escape that miserable pit and become a young master of a rich family, but I was uneasy because the path ahead was completely unknown.

Would my parents like me?

Thinking of this, I quickly got up and looked at my face in the cracked bronze mirror at home. It was thin and sallow, not handsome at all.

I forced a smile, thinking that since I was their long-lost biological son after all, they ought to like me.

The next day, I boarded the carriage the Lin family sent to pick me up. I was nervous the whole way, especially as the carriage drew closer to the Lin estate.

When the carriage stopped, I couldn’t help but hold my breath.

The butler who came to get me smiled slightly. “Young Master Chun, we are here.”

I swallowed hard before nodding. “Okay.”

The Lin residence was a typical Suzhou garden house. With its green tiles, red eaves, and elegant multi-storied pavilions, every inch was graceful and full of character. Although I had warned myself not to look like a shocked commoner before coming, to my thirteen-year-old self, the Lin home was no different from a celestial palace.

I followed closely behind the butler, but my eyes couldn’t stop wandering. As we passed through corridors and pavilions, three or four young girls walked toward us.

The girls were beautiful, wearing lovely dresses.

I lacked experience, so seeing them approach, I stopped and stood there awkwardly. “Hello, older cousins.”

The butler had told me that several of my female cousins lived in the Lin estate.

But as soon as I said those words, the young girls all covered their mouths and laughed. The butler’s words made my face turn red with shame: “Young Master Chun, they are not the young ladies of the house. They are maidservants.”

I had mistaken their identity.

I truly hadn’t expected that the maids of the Lin family could wear such nice clothes and be so beautiful. Blushing, I gave a soft “oh” and continued following the butler with my head down amidst the laughter.

The butler took me to a side hall. The hall was crowded with people. Having just made a mistake, I kept my mouth shut this time and didn’t speak easily until a very beautiful lady rushed over, sobbing, and hugged me.

“Is this my child?” Her scent suddenly washed over me. I had never smelled anything so pleasant. Hearing her cries, I realized this was my mother, Lady Lin.

I wanted to hug her waist and call her “Mother,” but when I reached out, I saw that my hands were as black as chicken claws. They truly did not match Lady Lin’s clothes. So, I lowered them again, simply standing there dazed as she held me.

So, this was my mother.

Although my foster mother raised me, she rarely hugged me, and her scent wasn’t very pleasant—it was the smell of sour, stale sweat.

“A-Fu,” a deep, middle-aged man’s voice rang out.

Lady Lin, who was holding me, seemed to realize she had lost her composure. She let go of me and used a silk handkerchief to wipe the tears from her eyes, but her beautiful eyes remained fixed on me.

I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or something else, but I felt like I saw disappointment in the depths of my mother’s eyes.

“Your name is Chun Di, right? Come, come here, come to my side.”

The middle-aged man’s voice spoke again.

I looked toward the sound and saw that the man speaking was sitting in the central armchair. He had a fine beard and a dignified aura, with years of steady maturity reflected in his eyes.

Was this man my father?

With this guess, I walked over slowly. When I stopped in front of him, a large hand gently ruffled the top of my head.

“It’s good that you’re home. I am your father.”

He began introducing the people in the hall to me.

When he introduced a certain person, my father’s tone clearly paused.

“That is your second brother, Lin Chongtan.”

I wasn’t an idiot; the butler had given me a brief introduction to the people of the Lin household on the way. Lin Chongtan was not my second brother, he was the “leopard cat” in the swap.

But when I truly came face-to-face with Lin Chongtan, I realized I looked more like the leopard cat.

The youth before me was like a graceful bird in white. His face was as beautiful as jade, and his eyes were distant yet full of noble character. He looked at me deeply before bowing to me. “Greetings, Brother Chun.”

My fingers instinctively clenched. I didn’t want to show weakness in front of this person, so I tried to copy his bow. However, it only drew laughter from the side.

The laughter came from a pair of twins.

Those were my two younger brothers. They were only five years old this year and were the little troublemakers of the house. Because they were young, they didn’t hold back at all. One of them even clapped and laughed, shouting an idiom he had just learned: “A monkey wearing a hat! This is the ‘monkey wearing a hat’ the teacher talked about, right!”

A scolding voice immediately rang out.

Although I didn’t understand exactly what “a monkey wearing a hat” meant, I could guess it wasn’t anything good. My face began to burn again. As I stood there helplessly, a silk handkerchief was handed to me.

It was Lin Chongtan.

I looked up at him in surprise. From his gaze, I realized I was crying.

Everyone thought I was crying because of what the twins said, but only I knew that wasn’t it. Fan Wu was ugly, and although my foster mother had regular features, her face had naturally been ruined by years of wind and sun. Before coming to the Lin family, I had hoped that I could outshine Lin Chongtan.

But after facing Lin Chongtan, I knew I couldn’t compare to him at all.