Seeing everyone unanimously taking Su Xinghui’s side, Ling Xi stumbled over to Su Xinghui, coughing as she walked, looking pitiful and fragile.
Her sorrowful eyes turned to Su Xinghui as she asked mournfully, “If Second Sister says such things, has she considered how the villagers will view our Second Branch from now on?”
Su Xinghui pressed her lips together, stubbornness in her eyes. “I was only telling the truth.”
The implication being: how the villagers view your Second Branch—what does that have to do with me?
Ling Xi’s shoulders trembled at these words, and tears came pouring down. “Second Sister, Mother and Father always told me to be close to you. Even though you made me sick every single time, I never once blamed you. Now that I know you’re not their biological daughter, I have even less right to blame you. But how could you… how could you say such things about Mother and Father?”
Wang Guiqiu, who had borne two sons, had always strutted around the Su family like she owned the place. She had always looked down on the Second Branch, and Su Ling Xi especially displeased her eye.
If it weren’t for this good-for-nothing girl being sick all the time, how could that hardworking Second Branch couple have failed to save a single coin? And if they couldn’t save money, how would Xingchen and Xingyu ever afford wives in the future?
Normally that shrew Yu Lian guarded Su Ling Xi like the apple of her eye, not letting anyone touch her—but now Wang Guiqiu had finally caught her chance.
Her big ox eyes bulging, she put on the airs of an elder. “Sanya, is that any way to speak to your sister? Your parents mistreated Huihui all because of you, you jinx! If they were afraid of people talking, they shouldn’t have done it in the first place!”
“Who are you calling a jinx?!” Yu Lian was so furious she nearly jumped, lunging forward to scratch her.
Wang Guiqiu felt a bit of fear inside, but one glance at the old matriarch gave her courage. “I’m talking about your family’s Su Ling Xi! Living to this day all sickly and weak—maybe she’s only survived by sponging off Huihui’s fortune!”
Just as the two were about to tear into each other, Ling Xi knelt before Su Changhe. “Father, Xiao Xi isn’t afraid of people pointing fingers behind our backs, and I’m not afraid of them calling me a jinx. But Xiao Xi knows you’re not the kind of person my sister says you are…”
In the original storyline, the reason the Second Branch had been criticized by the whole village for so many years was that Su Changhe still cherished his father-daughter bond, preferring to bear the infamy rather than reveal the truth and embarrass Su Xinghui.
By saying this, Ling Xi meant to completely sever his last shred of hope, making him realize sooner just how heartless and ungrateful the female lead was—she would never be grateful to the Second Branch for his kindness; she would only bite the hand that fed her.
Seeing his daughter disheveled, her voice hoarse, crying so hard she could barely breathe, Su Changhe’s heart ached terribly.
He had thought there was no need to bring up the past—if Huihui wanted to leave, then he would let her go. After all, he conducted himself with integrity and had a clear conscience; the neighbors all knew what kind of man he was, and once this blew over, it would be fine.
But he never imagined this was how the villagers saw Xiao Xi—calling her a jinx, saying she’d only survived by leeching off Huihui’s fortune.
His Xiao Xi was so obedient and sensible—she didn’t cry or fuss even when she had a fever, and even urged him and Lian’er not to worry and not to scold her sister. If those words took root, how would everyone view Xiao Xi in the future? How would Xiao Xi ever hold her head up among them!
Watching the farce unfolding before him, he let out a long sigh.
“Changhe, isn’t there some misunderstanding?” Su Shanren still held onto a sliver of hope for goodwill.
Su Changhe said nothing, just stood up and walked slowly back into the house. Looking closely, one could see that his left leg was somewhat lame.
The onlookers exchanged glances, not understanding why he had suddenly left. Was it that he couldn’t face people anymore?
But soon, everyone saw him return to the main hall, holding in his previously empty hands a leather-bound notebook that showed its age.
He walked up to Su Xinghui, his voice full of weariness: “Huihui, you really aren’t my and Lian’er’s biological daughter. Your birth father’s surname was Meng—his name was Meng Zijiao.”
Su Xinghui’s lips curled up subtly. Here it comes, it’s finally here—her good life is finally coming!
Everyone else also showed expressions of “just as expected,” looking at the Su family’s second branch with particular contempt.
Caring nothing for what others thought, Su Changhe lifted the kneeling Ling Xi onto his lap and continued: “Old Meng and I met at the county transport team. He came to Jiyuan County alone, carrying a child, and often traded industrial coupons with me for refined grain. Over time, we became friends.”
Hearing this, Su Xinghui smiled disdainfully.
Trying to play the emotional card? Did he really take her for a thirteen-year-old child? After abusing her for all those years, she would absolutely never let the Su family’s second branch off!
Seeing her eyes full of resentment, Su Changhe’s heart turned completely cold, and he hoarsely recounted what had happened back then.
Meng Zijiao spent money extravagantly, and the money and coupons he’d brought from his hometown soon ran out. Hearing that the hill behind Yuanfeng Village had once been the site of a landlord’s homestead, he wanted to try his luck searching for something valuable to trade for grain, and he insisted on dragging Su Changhe along to lead the way.
Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate. The rain that day was incredibly heavy—heavy enough that the road was barely visible. Meng Zijiao missed his step and fell into a ravine, dragging Su Changhe, who had reached out to pull him, down with him.
When they were rescued the next day, Meng Zijiao’s body was already stiff, and Su Changhe’s left leg had been left crippled from being trapped too long.
“You’re lying!” Su Xinghui’s eyes widened as she shook her head in disbelief. “What you told Mother before was clearly that my father saved you!”
However heartless she was, she had still been raised from childhood. How could Yu Lian fail to see that she was just putting on a front?
She pulled her daughter into her arms and coldly snorted at Su Changhe, “Look at this menace you hid from me all these years and insisted on keeping!”
More than ten years—even raising a dog for that long creates affection. She didn’t blame Su Changhe for deceiving her to keep this child; she just ached for him, ached that the kindness of their family of three had all been fed to an ungrateful wolf!
It was as if only now did Su Changhe truly see this eldest daughter clearly, and his heart ached dully.
Even if she wasn’t his by blood, he had held her, kissed her, doted on her. Hearts are made of flesh—how could it not hurt?
He raised the notebook. “This is what Old Meng left behind. I’d planned to give it to you when you married. Since you’ve decided to leave the second branch, I’ll return it to you early.”
After a pause, he added, “If I hadn’t pulled him up back then, he wouldn’t even have had the chance to write a final testament.”
With trembling hands, Su Xinghui took it and flipped straight to the last page, her eyes turning red.
Not from feeling wronged, but from anger, from shame!
The notebook had been soaked by rain, and some words were illegible, but even guessing between the lines, she could understand what had happened.
Meng Zijiao had even expressed his gratitude to Su Changhe. From the elegant handwriting to the refined prose, it was absolutely not something Su Changhe, who had only graduated from elementary school, could have forged.
What Su Changhe said could only be the truth.
Su Xinghui’s eyes nearly split with rage. The Second Branch of the Su family—the ones who had bled her and abused her, the ones she had schemed so desperately to escape—were actually the benefactors of her and her father? How was that possible?!
Watching her expression as she teetered on the edge of collapse, Wang Guiqiu, even without being able to read, could guess who was telling the truth and who was lying. Her face immediately burned with embarrassment.
If she could see it, the others weren’t blind either—they could naturally see it too.
—”Hah! So that Meng fellow crippled Changhe’s leg and cost him his job, and he still raised the man’s kid for him? Would anyone really be that kind?”
—”Changhe and Yu Lian were always decent folk. If you ask me, who’d willingly raise such a black-hearted child? Eating off the Second Branch, drinking off the Second Branch, and stirring up all this trouble on top of it!”
—”Chunsheng, you stay away from that Su Erya from now on, you hear me? An ungrateful wolf that can never be tamed—she’d eat you alive without spitting out the bones!”
—”Look at her, all seductive-looking. One glance and you know she’s no good! I always said how could Changhe have sired such a scheming child—turns out she’s not even his own blood!”
—”Rotten to the core, the little wretch! Pah!”
Su Shanren even walked right up to Su Xinghui. “Second girl, a person needs to know gratitude!”
In his view, things had blown up like this entirely because Su Erya had brought it on herself.
Talking about her parents abusing her—what child in Huaixing Village had never been spanked? You didn’t see anyone else’s kid making such a huge scene over a couple of smacks!
Faced with this chorus of criticism, Su Xinghui wished she could sink into the ground, and in her heart she hated Su Changhe bitterly.
Why did he have to say all that to her face and put her in such an impossible position? Wasn’t she their daughter? Not a shred of affection at all—so it really was because she wasn’t their own blood!
She had clearly forgotten that the first one to cast aside all affection was her.