Pharaoh’s Concubine

Editor: Anonymous Stickman

Ivy didn’t know what her life was like before she was fifteen.

From what Ivy could still remember, she had lived with her mother in a huge house. For a long time, only the two of them had lived in that empty house, both of them serving as each other’s dependable companion. Ivy’s mother was an exquisite beauty of Eastern descent. She had straight long hair, fair skin, and a petite figure. Ivy inherited her mother’s beauty, but her aqua-blue eyes and her light gold hair color implied that her life held other secrets.

Ivy asked her mother why they were different, but the beautiful lady smiled softly every time, avoiding her question.

When she was in elementary school, the children in her class often grabbed her braids and called her names with a childish and naive hostility: “Yellow-haired girl, yellow-haired girl!” But just this wasn’t enough to make Ivy angry. In junior high school, her appearance grew beautiful and her intelligence made her the top in every grade exam. The girls jealous of her would gossip behind her back, saying that Ivy’s mother seduced a married man to give birth to her illegitimately, all because they’ve never been able to catch a glimpse of Ivy’s father.

That time, they’d really angered her and Ivy felt provoked. When she found the initiator of the rumors, she rushed irrationally towards the girls with vicious mouths like an enraged little tiger.

When Ivy’s mother hurried to the school after receiving a call from her teacher, she saw that her beautiful daughter’s hair was messy, and that her face held a fierce expression as she stood beside several crying girls. A puzzled expression appeared on her mother’s gorgeous, calm face. “What’s the matter? Ivy, are you okay?”     

“They spoke of Mother with bad words, so I started a fight with them.” With her anger not fully released yet, Ivy fumed furiously to her mother.

After listening to the details, Mrs. Ai revealed an elegant smile. The girls crying on the side couldn’t help but be attracted by her kind smile. She turned to the children who spoke ill of her. Those children looked at her in fear, afraid that she would scold them. However, contrary to what they had expected, she bowed slightly and softly said, “I’m so sorry.” The girls’ faces suddenly flushed red and their crying was forgotten. Mrs. Ai nodded to the teacher who stared at her in a daze, and pulled Ivy away.

“Mom, why did you apologize to those kind of people? They said bad things about you!” As soon as Mrs. Ai pulled Ivy out of the school gates, the 14-year-old girl shouted, extremely puzzled about her mother’s actions. Mrs. Ai smiled slightly in return and gently helped Ivy straighten her hair.

“Because there’s no need to care about them, okay? No matter what it is, you must retain your style and elegance. Do you understand, Ivy?”

Since then, the bad rumors about Mrs. Ai in the school seemed to have disappeared overnight. Instead, it was replaced by words of compliment centering around her gentleness, demureness, elegance, generosity and so on. The young Ivy deeply remembered from then on that when dealing with certain things, forgiveness and a noble temperament accompanying wisdom would bring better results than brute force, especially for a woman.

She tried to learn more about her mother’s wisdom as a woman, but her mother didn’t give her many opportunities. In the cold winter of Ivy’s fifteenth year, Mrs. Ai, who always had a loving smile, finally fell on a hospital bed — she had a congenital heart disease.     

“Mom! Mom! You can’t sleep like this, you have to stay with me! What am I supposed to do if you leave?” Ivy’s big blue eyes filled with tears, flustered with helplessness.

With a pale smile, Mrs Ai replied, “In the future, one must be strong, Ivy.”     

“I don’t want to be strong. I just want Mother to stay with me!” Ivy shouted impulsively, although it wasn’t just a willfulness, but also a desperate despair and sadness.     

Mrs. Ai didn’t have time to comfort her young daughter. She raised her pale, thin arm in an attempt to gently touch Ivy’s hair. However, before she could do so, her heart stopped beating forever.     

“Don’t! Mom!” Ivy cried tearfully, but her mother’s beautiful eyes had closed forever. In the end, Ivy hadn’t managed to ask her mother who her father was.    

Ivy lived alone for a half a year while keeping watch over their huge house.

Then, a man from the UK who claimed to be the Marquis of the Modiet called. Ivy found out that her father was a British gentleman and a wealthy aristocrat. There was a raging anger in her heart. She couldn’t forgive her so-called father for being ignorant while her mother died. However, the old Marquis never gave up and continued to contact her, sincere every time. Finally, after several repeated requests from the Marquis, Ivy gave him a chance to talk, which proved afterwards that what he told her before was correct. Only then did she learn the truth about her life. She was indeed an illegitimate child, but she also felt that the white-haired Marquis had actually been in love with her mother. At that time, it was Mrs. Ai who’d chosen to live independently after giving birth to two children for the Marquis.

In Ivy’s heart, her mother’s image was raised again. She possessed an unyielding spirit,  enabling herself to suppress her emotions to the bottom of her heart for the sake of her self-esteem and freedom. Slowly, Ivy’s motive in life became clear: relying on her own strength to develop her own life independently. At just seventeen years old, she had fully implemented her beliefs and achieved considerable results. Her talents in economics along with her meticulously logical thinking abilities were enough to comfort Mrs. Ai’s spirit in heaven.     

The Marquis of the Modiet was even more fond of Ivy. Not only because of her outstanding beauty and intelligence, but also because he hoped to make up for the regret that arose from not being able to take care of his daughter and her mother for the past fifteen years. If Ivy wanted the jewel in the Queen of England’s crown, the most precious collection in the British Museum, or the most luxurious private cruise ship in Britain, as long as she asked for it, the Marquis of the Modiet would surely get it by any means.     

But Ivy wasn’t a spoiled girl. She silently rejected her father’s kindness and concentrated on the study of macroeconomics along with the economic history. Because of this, the Marquis of Modiet grew to like her even more, but this attracted the veiled criticisms of his other descendants.

Behind the huge family property, there were always various disputes between the children and their relatives. There were also several dark incidents like assassinations and framings in the Modiet family. Although Ivy’s thoughts were never focused on these matters, she and her brother Ai Xian, as the most favored children of the Marquis, had already become a thorn in the eyes of everyone. The both of them shared a bitter hatred against their common enemy. In the years within the Modiet family, not only did they become victims of various power struggles, but they also suffered under the wrath of relatives who bore bad intentions towards them.

“Although I don’t intend to fight with them, I can’t be bullied like this.” After exposing her uncle’s illegal transactions and sending him to prison, Ivy spoke to Ai Xian helplessly. Ai Xian simply smiled bitterly and stroked her blond hair.

The feelings shared between Ivy and Ai Xian were very special. In the eyes of others, the two of them were siblings with a very good relationship. But for Ivy, Ai Xian was even more special. He was the closest person in the world to her. This was not only because the two of them were children of the same father, but also because in Ivy’s little heart, she’d always held a girlish fascination with Ai Xian.

Ai Xian was a kind of person who’d be particularly attractive to women. If he was born a few centuries ago, he would’ve been the most dazzling star in the court balls, chased by countless ladies. Like how flowers attract butterflies, Ai Xian would’ve attracted all kinds of elegant women. Nowadays, although there were no luxurious palaces, the ladies who pursued him were still numerous and diverse. From a school girl under the age of twenty to middle-aged and influential ladies, they all, without exceptions, casted favored looks towards him. At a young age, he had long learned how to walk among hundreds of flowers without letting anything touch his sleeves.

Although his nationality was British, he had dark hair and bangs that hung down low, blocking his forehead. If he gently parted his bangs using his hands while he talked, one would be able to see his ice blue pupils, reflecting a gentle light. The beauty that his mysterious Eastern bloodline gave him made the women around him jealous, yet they loved him even more. And the male friends around him would also jokingly tell him: “Xian, if you were a woman, I would pursue you like crazy!”

At the age of twenty six, Ai Xian was able to enter London’s most major aristocratic balls and social dinners not only because of his beauty, but also because he had the influential support of the Ai Group behind him. Using part of his father’s property and resources, along with his brilliant investment visions and courage, it took only a few years for Ai Xian to build his own business empire using his own hands. This also won his father’s trust. Because of this, the family industry was merged with his to form the current Ai Group, named in honor of Ai Xian’s and Ivy’s mothers.

With business talent worthy of jealousy, along with his dazzling appearance, Ai Xian sailed smoothly within his career. But he always had a detached attitude towards women — a sort of polite resistance. Ai Xian was well-known for being a gentleman, but if any woman wanted to exceed his courtesy and become a “special somebody” to him, this was excruciatingly difficult.

When Ivy, who was only fifteen years old, appeared before him, he felt crazy for her immediately. Her wisdom, beauty, and eccentricity moved him. He immediately decided to socialize with this young girl, learn more about her, and wait for her to grow up!

However, when they stepped through the door to the same house and the Marquis kindly introduced Ivy to everyone, Ai Xian had to admit in despair that she was actually his blood relative. They had the same father and she was his younger sister!

If you’re unable to be with the person you like, the people accompanying you will all be the same. After careful consideration, Ai Xian chose Mina as his fiance. However, for him, Mina was just an ordinary woman with a special identity. All he cared about was her strong background — one that could bring unlimited support to his business empire.

As for Ivy . . .