“……The look on that old poisonous womans face at the time was absolutely wonderful!” Song Yi smiled and leaned into her cousin Wei Ges arms, pretending to sleep while secretly listening to the Wei family servant recounting Caos visit to the Song house, “Then she immediately called out Wu Mama to confront her——guess what happened next?”

  "Whats going on? Of course, she wont admit it!" Wei Ge exclaimed excitedly. "If the old poisonous woman can falsely accuse Xiao Xiao of being sold out by our family and shouting thief, what else cant be done?! Fortunately, the facts are clear, and if she wants to turn the tables, thats just a dream!"

  "Be more elegant! Xiao Xiao is still sleeping!" Her sister Wei Ying lowered her voice to remind her, but then she also excitedly speculated, "Is it that he went looking for half a day and said the person was gone? Is he using a delaying tactic?"

  "Thats right, if our old lady hadnt taken matters into her own hands, the Song family would have done exactly as the two young ladies said! But what kind of person is our old lady? Could she be fooled by them like this? It was only because they were forced to bring that Wu mama onto the stage..."

  "What did she say?" Wei Ge and Wei Ning asked anxiously.

  "At first, she refused to admit it and said that Zhao Mama, the wet nurse of Miss Bao, was shirking her duties and had pushed the task of taking Miss Bao out onto her. The servant indignantly said, Later, when Old Lady recognized the flaws in her words, she was beaten with a board and only then did she confess, saying that she had heard that Miss Bao had told Zhao Mama to pawn a pair of bracelets given by the princess for 500 taels, wanting to give a generous gift to Master Song on his birthday - Wu Mama immediately set her sights on that sum of silver, and on the day Miss Bao went out, she forcibly sent Zhao Mama away, insisting on taking Miss Bao out herself and not allowing anyone to follow!"

  "Then she robbed Xiao Xiaos silver and sold Xiao Xiao?"

  "Wus mother said she only wanted to cheat Miss Biao into buying a cheap item and swindling the five hundred taels of silver, refusing to admit that she had sold Miss Biao, let alone admitting to having received such an order from Liu - claiming that halfway through, she was indeed knocked unconscious, thinking that Miss Biao had been kidnapped, and since the Song family had never liked Miss Biao anyway, she decided to drag it out until evening before returning, so as not to return too early and allow the kidnapper to escape!"

  "Pah! This family is simply ruthless!" Wei Ge and Wei Ning were both Wei family misses whose marriages had been affected by their aunts remarriage, so they naturally had some opinions about their aunt, which also extended to Song Yixiao. But now, after hearing their younger cousins experience, they were shocked and full of sympathy: "If a pet cat or dog goes missing, people would still send someone to look for it! And yet, a flesh-and-blood child, the eldest daughter at that, was directly reported as having died from illness! Is this Song family even human?!"

  "So our old lady was right in scolding! That old poisonous woman Pang is a beast!"

  Listening lazily to her sisters and the servants angry denunciation of the Song family, Song Yi smiled with a mocking smile: "The imperial capital is so big, in my past life I suffered so much in the Song family, and later when I was thrown into the pig cage, how wronged I was! Dont believe that the Wei family and mother wont know about it! But back then, who would have cared about my life or death?"

  "Now its just a matter of selling myself once, and letting the Wei family gain control over the Song family. The treatment is worlds apart!"

  Everyone in the world is bustling about for gain; everyone in the world is rushing to and fro for gain - truly a golden saying!

  Zheng was lost in thought when she suddenly heard footsteps rushing over: "Wheres Miss Bao? The princess has returned and is crying in front of the old madam! Hurry up and bring Miss Bao over, lest the princess worries herself sick!"

  Wei Ge hastily shook her awake, the maidservants rushed over to help Song Yixiao wash her face and hands, then adjusted her clothes, making sure everything was tidy. Only then did the two cousins take her hands, one on each side, and lead her to the back hall.

  Not yet entering the back hall, a womans mournful and desolate crying voice was heard from inside: "...... my poor child! How can I as her mother be worthy of her? No matter how hard I thought about it, I never expected that the Song family would resort to such vicious means even against their own flesh and blood..."

  Then Caos scolding with a crying tone: "You are confused! How can you not think about the kind of life you had in the Song family before?! You were afraid that Xiao Xiao would be blamed and didnt dare to speak out! But now, look at what happened, you didnt speak out and they became even more ruthless, its a pity for Xiao Xiao! If she hadnt met good people this time, her life would have been ruined!!!"

  Song Yi Xiaos mouth twitched: "Isnt this saying, in so many words, that even I, as a daughter-in-law in the Song family, didnt escape getting beaten?"

  A big family has its own rules, and a decent daughter-in-law cant be too careful. Being confined to her room, copying books, being sealed off from the outside world, or having her door blocked... none of these things are anything out of the ordinary. But laying hands on someone is the most despicable thing to do, as its easy for her natal family to come knocking on the door asking questions, and its also clear evidence of a lack of kindness.

  Before that, Caos mother and daughter were so gloomy to Pang Shi, definitely no one would believe it. Pang Shi was also a dignified official lady from a good family background, her husband was even a university scholar in the Hanlin Academy, how could she break this tacit understanding?

  But now, the news that Pong treats his own granddaughter as a non-human has been spread by the Wei family all over the city - if he is so ruthless to his own granddaughter, whats strange about him being cruel to a daughter-in-law who doesnt share his blood?

  "My mother is too formidable, its not a good thing - when Mother was still in the Song family, Fathers backyard was so quiet! Not to mention concubines, there wasnt even one servant. Although Grandmother disliked me for being a girl and didnt like me much, but at least there was no stepmother to stir up trouble or intentionally find fault with me."

  Song Yi smiled as she stepped across the threshold, looking at her familiar yet strange mother Wei Mengying, memories of past lives flooding back, tears falling from her eyes, but with a hint of disappointment and disillusionment in her gaze. "I grew up so pampered by Father and Mother until I was eight years old, naive and silly to the point of foolishness, after Mother left, its no wonder I didnt have a good outcome."

  She had once hated this girl, but when she reached the age of marriage and hoped to escape from the Song family through marriage, she also understood Wei Mengyings difficulties.

  What made it hard for her to let go was that in her previous life, before she was slandered and thrown into the pig cage, her wet nurse Zhao Mama had managed to run to the Hengshan Wang Fu to seek help, hoping that Wei Mengying, who had already given birth to three children for the Hengshan King, would come forward and uphold justice for her own biological daughter——Zhao Mama had kowtowed in front of the palace until her face was covered in blood, but the response she got was that Queen Wei was not feeling well at the time and didnt want to bother with trivial matters.

  Song Yi still doesnt want to recall the feeling she had when she saw Zhaos mother covering her head and retreating, a feeling that arose from hoping for something: regarding the life of her own biological daughter as merely "trivial matters" that could be brushed aside with just two words.

  "Relying on anyone is futile, one must strive for oneself!" This was Song Yis greatest lesson in her past and present life.

  So she would face the various heartaches of this mother, Song Yi smiled on her face and accompanied her in crying, but in her heart she was very impatient - after enduring for a while, she simply closed her eyes and pretended to be sleepy.

  Its finally over. Wei Mengyings display of motherly love has come to an end. At Caos command, the voices in the hall also subsided: "Take the child to my room..."