As soon as Wei Linlang finished speaking, the smile on Yu Jianguo’s face instantly vanished. He glanced at Wei Linlang without a trace of emotion, while Shen Qionghua also frowned slightly.
Seeing this, Yu Qingqiu knew her daughter’s words had upset her parents. She quickly snapped at Wei Linlang, “Linlang, shut up! If you hadn’t broken Li Li’s hair tie, why would Auntie and Li Li have gone out? How could they have encountered such a thing?”
Wei Linlang had been pampered by Yu Qingqiu and Wei Wenfeng since childhood and had never been scolded so loudly by Yu Qingqiu before. Instantly overwhelmed with grievance, she burst into tears. “It wasn’t me who made them go out! You’re all blaming me! I don’t want Bai Li back! Waaah”
Seeing her daughter’s eyes redden from crying, Yu Qingqiu felt heartbroken. She shot an unhappy glance at Bai Li before turning to Yu Lixia with an apologetic look. “Sister, I’ve spoiled Linlang rotten. When her temper flares up, she talks nonsense. Please don’t take it to heart.”
“I’m truly sorry. I never imagined you’d encounter human traffickers. If I had known earlier, I would never have let you go out, sister.”
Bai Li raised an eyebrow. This woman was apologizing on the surface, but underneath, she was subtly implying that Bai Li was willful—if she and her mother hadn’t gone out today, they wouldn’t have encountered human traffickers.
Turning the tables was a skill these two had mastered to perfection. Bai Li hadn’t even settled the score with her for blocking her attempt to save her mother earlier!
“Auntie, there are so many human traffickers outside, and they’re so fierce. But Li Li doesn’t know which day Auntie might run into them.”
“For your safety, from today on, Auntie must not go out. That way, you won’t encounter human traffickers.”
“Cousin, don’t worry. I won’t break your things for no reason, make you sad, or force Auntie to take you out.”
Yu Qingqiu: …
“Pfft.” Before Yu Qingqiu could figure out how to respond, Qin Xiuqiao, who was holding Bai Li, couldn’t help but laugh.
Ever since she married into the Yu family, this cheap sister-in-law had set countless traps for her, both openly and secretly. She had long said this cheap sister-in-law had ill intentions, but her husband always accused her of being overly suspicious, never finding anything wrong with his sister.
Even years later, when the Yu family learned that Yu Qingqiu was not their father-in-law’s biological daughter and that Yu Lixia was, they still couldn’t bear to part with Yu Qingqiu and kept both women in the Yu household.
Yu Qingqiu’s biological parents were from the countryside. When they heard that the military district commander wanted to keep their biological daughter, they were naturally delighted. Not only could they receive a large sum of money from the Yu family, but they could also visit during holidays to freeload.
In short, Qin Xiuqiao felt that neither Yu Qingqiu nor her biological parents were good people and disliked them all.
But over the years, her father-in-law and husband had treated Yu Qingqiu like a treasure. Moreover, because Yu Lixia had married Bai Dingting, they felt deeply indebted to Yu Qingqiu and were extremely tolerant of her.
In the Yu household, Yu Qingqiu and her daughter enjoyed the treatment of local tyrants.
Now that Bai Li had made Yu Qingqiu eat humble pie, Qin Xiuqiao couldn’t contain her joy and burst out laughing.
Bai Li didn’t let Yu Qingqiu off the hook either and continued, “Auntie, earlier when Li Li wanted to save Mommy, why did you stop Li Li?”
A shadowy glint flashed in Yu Qingqiu’s eyes as she put on a pitiful expression. “Li Li, when Auntie saw you covered in blood earlier, I was so worried I couldn’t think of anything else.”
“Auntie apologizes to you. I truly never imagined you knew where your mother was.”
Yu Qingqiu lowered her head, speaking with apparent sincerity as she apologized to Bai Li.
But Bai Li didn’t feel any genuine apology from Yu Qingqiu at all—instead, she sensed even stronger malice. This made Bai Li frown. Her aunt was too good at pretending.
Bai Li wanted to say more, but Yu Lixia gently patted the back of her hand, signaling her to stop.
“Hmph!” Bai Li turned her head angrily, presenting the back of her head to Yu Lixia.
Fine, if she couldn’t speak, then she wouldn’t!
Yu Jianguo, who had been sitting silently in the living room, suddenly cleared his throat. He swept his gaze over everyone, carrying the authority and presence of someone in power. “Alright, now that Lixia and Li Li have returned safely, let’s not bring this up again.”
“Lixia, go give your statement.”
“Qingqiu, this happened because Linlang pulled out Li Li’s hair tie, which led to everything that followed. Running into human traffickers was an accident—we can’t blame Linlang for that—but Linlang needs to apologize to Li Li for pulling her hair tie.”
Hearing that Yu Jianguo wanted her to apologize to Bai Li, Wei Linlang naturally refused. The tears she had just stopped began to pour down again. “Grandpa is biased! I won’t apologize!”
Bai Li was also very dissatisfied. Because of Wei Linlang’s willfulness, a chain of events had been set off. Although in the Yu family’s eyes, Yu Lixia and Bai Li were unharmed—just frightened—only Little Pi Xiu knew that the little cub was no longer here. No matter what Wei Linlang did, it couldn’t make up for that.
“Grandpa, I don’t want her apology either. If we hadn’t run into Dad who was on a mission, I would have died in that alley, and Mom would have been sold.”
“Mom thought I was dead and almost went crazy.”
“I don’t want Wei Linlang’s apology—it’s worthless and doesn’t change the facts!”
Little Pi Xiu wanted to tell the little cub’s grandpa and grandma what the little cub and her mother had been through.
Upon hearing Bai Li’s words, Yu Jianguo instinctively cast a suspicious glance at Yu Qingqiu. When Qingqiu had returned earlier, she had only casually mentioned that Lixia and Bai Li had encountered human traffickers but happened to run into her brother-in-law, and that they were just frightened. She had never mentioned these details.
As soon as Bai Li spoke, Yu Qingqiu knew that her earlier downplaying of the situation had displeased Yu Jianguo. She quickly looked at him with self-reproach. “Dad, I’m sorry. Earlier, I ran into Brother-in-law and Li Li with Big Brother, and then Big Brother told me to come back and report that they were safe. I didn’t know that Sister and Li Li had been through such dangerous things.”
“If I had known Li Li nearly died, I wouldn’t have let her stubbornly stay at the scene—I would have taken her to the hospital right then.”
Yu Qingqiu lowered her head slightly, hiding the fleeting glint of venom in her eyes. If she had known earlier, she would have forcibly taken Bai Li away. Then Yu Lixia wouldn’t have been found, leaving only that little girl Bai Li behind. Let’s see what trouble she could stir up then.
Seeing Yu Qingqiu bowing her head, seemingly full of remorse over Lixia and Bai Li’s encounter with human traffickers, Yu Jianguo felt somewhat conflicted.
He knew that today’s incident was caused by Wei Linlang’s willful and unreasonable behavior, but he had always doted on Yu Qingqiu, and by extension, he also cherished her daughter Wei Linlang. Moreover, Wei Linlang was only a little over three years old, so he couldn’t bear to punish her too harshly.
Thinking of this, Yu Jianguo frowned slightly, his expression tinged with a hint of hesitation. “Li Li, tell Grandpa, how would you like to punish Linlang?”
Both were his granddaughters. Showing too much favoritism toward one would inevitably upset the other.