Then Old Madam Shen, sitting on the bed, saw a woman standing in the doorway. Her hair hung loose, and she held a knife in her hand. She had a face strikingly like that of Shen Wansong’s former wife, only much fairer.
It was broad daylight, yet Old Madam Shen felt a chill creep over her back.
“Y-you… what are you going to do?” Old Madam Shen’s voice shook badly.
Watching the damned girl slowly approach, she let out a scream.
“Ah… get away! Get away! Help! Somebody help me!”
Old Madam Shen’s voice cracked. Suddenly, something went into her mouth, and she instinctively swallowed it.
“What? What was that? What did you make me eat?”
Yuetao curled her lips into a smile and ran a hand through her freshly washed, jet-black hair.
“It was a magical pill. It dissolves as soon as it enters your mouth, and in less than a minute, it spreads through your bloodstream.
“What kind of pill is it? Obviously, poison. You old hag, I came back to avenge my mother, Shen Xi. Heh, heh, heh… Scared?”
As she spoke, Yuetao twirled the fruit knife in her hand with a flourish, then pressed it to the old woman’s deeply wrinkled neck.
“Ah… Murder! Help! Somebody help me!”
Old Madam Shen howled in terror.
Feeling her despair, fear, and trembling, Yuetao was in an exceptionally good mood.
“Go on, scream. The harder you breathe, the faster the poison takes effect. You could’ve lived another month, but now you’ve only got fifteen days…”
As soon as Yuetao finished speaking, Old Madam Shen’s wailing stopped abruptly.
Her cloudy old eyes stared furiously at Yuetao.
“You little wretch! Shen Xi, that short-lived bitch, died in childbirth. You don’t know a thing… Ah… Mmph…”
Pain flared in her neck as the knife cut through her skin. Old Madam Shen screamed, then remembered what Yuetao had said about the poison and quickly clamped a hand over her mouth, trying to keep it from taking effect any faster.
What was she going to do? She had only fifteen days left to live!
How did this damned girl, who had appeared out of nowhere, know about Shen Xi?
And she even claimed to be the daughter Shen Xi had had with her son. That little bitch had been thrown into the mountains to be eaten by wild beasts long ago. There couldn’t be even a scrap of bone left.
This little bitch must be one of the remnants of Old Man Shen’s family who hadn’t been wiped out!
Who knew which stupid servant’s child she was? She was brainless enough to come looking for death.
Poison? It was probably just a bluff.
Old Madam Shen had plenty of schemes in her head. Once she calmed down, she figured it out and wasn’t nearly as frightened. Still, the bitter taste in her mouth made her uneasy.
Why weren’t Wansong and Lian’er back yet?
Good grief, this was infuriating!
She’d let the little bitch enjoy herself for a while. Once her son and daughter-in-law came back, she’d see how they dealt with her!
Yuetao watched the old woman’s eyes dart around as if she were turning over some wicked scheme in her mind.
She put the knife away and wiped the tiny smear of blood on the old woman’s clothes.
With a cheerful smile, she said, “Three pills of Hundred-Day Gut-Rending Powder were crushed into one, and the poison’s onset has been reduced from a hundred days to thirty. If you want to live a couple more days, remember not to move around too much.
“I have something important to take care of!”
Yuetao was about to go look for the room where her mother’s photographs and belongings were stored when she heard a car outside.
Then the living-room door opened, and Nanny Wang called out, “Sir, Madam, you’re back.”
Yuetao put the knife away and walked out of Old Madam Shen’s room. At the entrance, she saw a middle-aged man with a cold expression.
“Well, well…”
“Shen Wansong? I didn’t expect you to look so… respectable.”
After looking him up and down, Yuetao delivered her verdict.
“How dare you! Who are you, and where did you come from? Why have you barged into my home? If you don’t explain yourself and leave at once, I’ll call the police.”
When he’d first caught sight of that face, so much like Shen Xi’s, he’d been startled.
On the way home, he and his wife had already interrogated the trusted aide from back then. Shen Xi had been burned to ashes, and her remains buried in the cemetery. The child had been abandoned in a remote valley.
In the depths of winter, the child would have frozen to death or been eaten by wild beasts. There was no way this could be that child.
Perhaps she was a con artist who’d somehow learned about the past and was relying on her resemblance to Shen Xi. Maybe she’d even had plastic surgery.
She’d come here to pull a scam.
Hmph! Did she think Shen Wansong was a fool?
“Fine!” Yuetao finished sizing up Shen Wansong, the good-looking old pretty boy, then looked at the woman behind him: Fang Xuelian, who looked young thanks to all her upkeep and was dripping with jewels.
This was the shameless pair who had killed her innocent, pitiful mother and swallowed up the business her maternal grandfather had worked so hard to build.
They’d separated her from her family for twenty years, while placing an illegitimate daughter in front of her brothers, who had doted on her for twenty-three years.
They deserved to die!
Yuetao’s “Fine!” drained most of the confidence Shen Wansong had just mustered. He stared at her in disbelief.
As the fair little face so like his former wife’s smiled at him, a powerful sense of unease rose in his heart.
“Y-you… what did you say?”
“I had a paternity test done three times. I really am your biological daughter with Shen Xi. I also had DNA tests done with Shen Yi, Shen Yang, Shen Qian, and Shen Xi.
“The reports proved that we’re related. If you want to call the police, go ahead. Invite the media too, while you’re at it, and announce it to all of Kyoto…
“The Shen family’s true heiress, Shen Yuetao, is back!
“And while we’re at it, let the police take that impostor away and put her in front of a firing squad.
“Well, Shen Wansong, you suggested calling the police. I think it’s a great idea.”
As she spoke, Yuetao even smiled and clapped her hands.
Go ahead and call the police. That’ll make things lively! They could take them all down in one sweep, and she’d have time to go whore—er, get some sleep with the children’s father. It had been four years since they’d last seen each other. She had to admit, she kind of missed him.
After hearing Yuetao’s words, Shen Wansong’s ramrod-straight back suddenly slumped.
If she really was the child from back then, then the paternity test would be the best evidence. The lies he’d maintained for all these years would be exposed, along with the image he’d cultivated for over twenty years as a man devoted to his former wife.
And Lian’er’s reputation as the best stepmother would be shattered by the paternity test too.
No. Under no circumstances could he call the police. True or not, he couldn’t let this become public knowledge—not now.
He needed time to think of a perfect way to defuse the situation.
“Y-you… wait a moment. I need time to verify whether what you’re saying is true. I personally brought my daughter home from the hospital. Everything you’ve said is too unbelievable.”
Shen Wansong held his forehead, looking as if he couldn’t believe it.
Yuetao let out a dry laugh.
“There’s nothing unbelievable about it. Call the police. They’ll help you get to the bottom of everything. Keep the real heiress, take the fake one away, and put her in front of a firing squad!”