Chapter 231

Chapter 231: Are You Completely Blameless?

Realizing the talisman paper was a problem, Madam Zheng tried to rush Yu Chun Yue when her daughter was blocked. She knew she could not sit and wait, so she lunged to tear it off.

But a Daoist shadow figure slid in front of her and stopped her, too.

Seeing the father and son pin the two women back, Yu Zhi Yi’s eyes grew thoughtful.

Catching Yu Chun Yue’s hand lifting toward his forehead, she said mildly: “Don’t waste your strength. Without my permission, you can’t pull it off.”

It was only a scrap of paper, but once it took effect, it might as well have been iron and stone, untouchable by blade, water, or fire.

Yu Chun Yue refused to believe it.

It didn’t matter. No matter how he clawed and scraped, the talisman paper felt fused to his skin. He could not tear it free.

After a long, useless struggle, shock and anger twisted his face. He glared at Yu Zhi Yi and barked: “Unfilial girl, is this how you treat your parents?”

“Yes, I admit I lied to you. That was wrong. But tell me, are you blameless?”

“If you hadn’t been so stubborn and refused to come home to help, why would I have chosen such a plan?”

“I’m not sick, but there is an elder at home who is. Even if she never liked you, even if she sneered at you and helped Jiao Jiao suppress you every time, so what? She is still your kin!”

The crowd: “…”

Yu Chun Yue realized what nonsense had just spilled out of him and wanted to die of rage.

Afraid he might expose Consort Yu’s secret, he ducked that topic and barreled on: “I know you still resent me for cutting ties with you in the palace, but think of us too.”

“At that time, a noble in the palace was ill. We didn’t know your skills. You insisted on treating that noble and wouldn’t listen. As head of the family, I couldn’t just watch us all die in the palace with you, could I? I had to sever the relationship.”

“If someone must be blamed, it is you. If you hadn’t kept things from us, we wouldn’t have doubted you.”

These words were truly how he felt, so they came out smooth.

“Even if I did wrong there, I still raised you. You can’t deny that, can you? More than ten years of raising you cannot be cut off. For that grace alone, never mind cutting ties. Even if I told you to die at once, you should not disobey me.”

It sounded absurd, but in an age where filial piety outweighed all, it could stand.

“Rubbish!” The middle-aged man’s cold face went iron blue: “What grace of raising? How dare you call it grace?”

Yu Chun Yue frowned at him. The talisman tied his tongue, but not his thoughts. The more he looked, the more the man’s features felt familiar.

Suddenly he widened his eyes: “What is your relation to that little tramp?”

He meant to say Yi’er, but under the talisman’s grip, his mouth spat an insult instead.

The crowd: “…”

“Are you her lover?”

Then he snarled: “Yu Zhi Yi, you are a lady of the Yu clan. How can you sink so low? After Du Zi Heng cast you off, you found yourself an old man?”

Yu Zhi Yi’s face sank. She was about to move, but the middle-aged man was faster.

Smack!

The sharp slap rang through the courtyard.

His eyes were icy: “Now I’m even more certain. You’re scum. When you agreed to let her stay in your manor back then, it was never out of kindness.”

The round-faced youth rushed up and kicked Yu Chun Yue: “Scum! Scum! How can you insult your adopted daughter like that? Are you even human?”

“You and your wife went to so much trouble to switch the babies. You should have treated her better. Why did you abuse her? Why did you make her suffer?”

The crowd erupted.

“What? Minister Yu and his wife switched the two young misses on purpose back then? Why?”

“Wasn’t Official Yu’s birth mother just a farm woman? What were Minister Yu and his wife after?”

Madam Yu shrieked: “Don’t talk nonsense! How could we do such a thing?”

Yu Chun Yue could not lie with the Truth-Telling Talisman on him, but she had no such restraint.

Yu Jiao Jiao sneered: “Sister, the two men you found can’t even lie well. Who would believe something so laughable?”

The youth snapped: “I’m not lying.”

Yu Zhi Yi fell into thought.

Thinking back on her years in Yu Manor, all the parts that hadn’t made sense finally clicked into place.

Before she turned ten, life at Yu Manor had looked fine on the surface. They fed her, clothed her, took her out, and told the world they doted on her. But Yu Chun Yue and his wife were rarely close to her.

When the five brothers didn’t know she was a fake young miss, they treated her well. The moment they learned the truth, their attitude changed at once.

She used to think that was just the pull of blood. It hurt, but she didn’t dig deeper.

Now she realized: without the permission or hints of Yu Chun Yue and his wife, how could the five brothers have turned so fast?

Before Yu Jiao Jiao came back, every time Yu Zhi Yi clashed with outsiders, Yu Chun Yue and his wife made her apologize, right or wrong. After Yu Jiao Jiao returned, whenever there was conflict, the couple stood on Yu Jiao Jiao’s side.

She had not questioned it before. But with the round-faced youth’s words in mind, all the things she had refused to examine became clear at once.

Madam Zheng kept denying it: “Yu Zhi Yi, I know you hate us, but don’t join with outsiders to spread lies! Your birth mother admitted that she did it so you could live a better life. The prefect of Jing Prefecture knows this!”

When the truth and falsehood of the young misses came to light back then, the Yu clan had gone to Jing Prefecture to accuse the farmer woman named Qiao of stealing their daughter.

It caused a huge scene. Common folk packed the prefecture gates, shoulder to shoulder.

So many had watched that, even after so long, people still talked about it with interest.

Yu Jiao Jiao added: “Sister, stop making trouble. You’ll only make your own status more awkward and shameful.”

Ignoring the mother and daughter, Yu Zhi Yi looked at Yu Chun Yue and asked: “That woman surnamed Qiao, is she really my birth mother?”