Chapter 16: True Daughter

"Chi Qinghe?" Jiang Clan's eyes flickered slightly. "How old are you this year?"

"To answer Madam, this humble girl is fourteen this year."

Fourteen!

Also fourteen!

Jiang Clan grabbed Chi Qinghe's hand. "Are you truly willing to stay by my side?"

Meng Qinghe nodded. "I am willing, as long as Madam does not despise me."

"I do not despise you, I do not despise you!" Jiang Clan pulled her hand over and looked at a red crescent-shaped birthmark on the inside of her wrist, tears nearly welling in her eyes.

She… she was actually her own child!

The child who had no breath at birth, the child she had swapped away!

She was alive! She was still alive!

Jiang Clan took her hand and walked toward the Minister's Residence.

Seeing this, Meng Hui frowned and said, "What is going on? If we do not leave now, we will delay the important matter."

Important matter?

What important matter could be more important than finding one's own biological daughter?

"My Lord, Pure Moon Temple—we will need to visit another day."

Looking at Jiang Clan's expression, Meng Hui was startled.

Though his wife was not particularly pleasing, she had never acted impulsively; she must have something extremely important today.

His gaze fell on Meng Qinghe, and seeing that face so strikingly similar to Jiang Clan's, Meng Hui's heart jolted.

Jiang Clan saw his expression and lowered her voice, saying, "My Lord, allow me to explain once we return."

With that, she led Meng Qinghe straight into the residence without so much as a glance at Chi Nan Yi.

Chi Nan Yi had long known it would be like this. What she was most relieved about now was that she had already stockpiled enough supplies in her space beforehand; no matter when she had to leave the Meng Family, she need not worry.

Looking at things now, the time to leave here was fast approaching.

"What is going on? Mother actually canceled the trip to Pure Moon Temple because of some wild girl from who knows where." Meng Qingyue stamped her foot in indignation. Heaven knew that because of today's outing, she had barely slept last night, excited until now—only for it to be canceled.

Meng Qingrong was also extremely furious. She had not left her courtyard for a long time, practicing the zither endlessly every day, so much so that now the moment she returned to her courtyard she wanted to vomit.

Meng Xiuqi looked somewhat puzzled at Jiang Clan's retreating figure.

How did that woman's face look so similar to Jiang Clan's?

Chi Nan Yi knew that before long, Jiang Clan would announce Meng Qinghe's identity.

"I truly never expected that she would also be reborn and return." Chi Nan Yi looked at this room she had lived in for over ten years, snapped her fingers, and stored her already-packed bundle into her space.

"But why could Jiang Clan determine that Meng Qinghe was her own flesh and blood just by looking at her face?" Chi Nan Yi frowned deeply. There must be something here that she still did not know.

Just then, Caiping stepped forward and said in a low voice, "Miss, Madam asks you to go to the front hall."

Caiping's attitude toward her compared to some days ago was completely different; the respect in her eyes had long vanished. Not only that, but her gaze now carried a few shades of mockery and ridicule.

In the previous life it had been exactly like this, only the original owner was somewhat too foolish, failing to see through people's hearts.

"Slap!" With a crisp sound, Caiping's face was slapped sideways.

Chi Nan Yi shook her wrist and looked at her coldly. "Who gave you the audacity to speak to this Miss like that." Chi Nan Yi wiped her hand with a handkerchief with some distaste. "Slapping you has dirtied this Miss's hand." She dropped the handkerchief on the ground and said faintly, "If there is a next time, my hand will not be so light."

Caiping knelt on the ground and hurriedly said, "Miss, spare my life! This servant dares not do it again."

Chi Nan Yi walked past her. Caiping turned her head and glared viciously at her back, fists clenched tight, muttering, "Hmph, just you wait! After today, you will no longer be the eldest miss of the Minister's Residence—nothing but a fake daughter. Once you are driven out of the residence, I will certainly make you pay!"

Chi Nan Yi walked to the main hall. The maids and servants waiting at the entrance all looked at her with somewhat strange eyes.

Chi Nan Yi pretended not to see and walked straight inside.

Before one foot could even step inside, she heard intermittent crying coming from the main hall: "Father, Mother, your child has finally found you!"

"My child, my child, Mother never expected that you lived in such a place for so long. You have suffered."

"As long as I can return to Father and Mother's side, He'er does not find it bitter." She wiped the tear stains from her face. "Thinking back on it now, having to get up before dawn every day to go up the mountain to chop wood, going down to the river to catch fish in winter, washing clothes and cooking every day—it must have been Heaven's test for me."

"What? That family actually made you do such exhausting work!" Jiang Clan slammed the table and said angrily, "Taking my daughter and abusing her like this! Truly courting death!"

"In the Chi Family I was the only daughter, with three older brothers above me, so these chores could only be done by me." She kept wiping her tears with a handkerchief. "Mother, do not be angry. I do not find it bitter. Perhaps it was precisely because of this that the Heavens were moved by me, and so they sent me back to Father and Mother's side. As long as I can be with Father and Mother, no matter how much hardship I endured before or how much suffering I bore, I do not mind. Father and Mother, do not be angry either." She pursed her lips and, in the interval of wiping her tears, lifted her sleeve a little.

Several bruises appeared in everyone's sight.

Jiang Clan seized her wrist. "What is this? Could it be that your family beat you?"

Meng Qinghe feigned panic and covered her sleeve.

"N-no… it is not so."

"How could it not be?" Jiang Clan could not stop trembling all over. "Making you do such exhausting chores, and they also beat you?" She took Meng Qinghe's hand. "Tell me, how else did they abuse you?"

Chi Nan Yi heard every word clearly from outside the door and could not help but scoff at Meng Qinghe's somewhat overdone performance.

Abuse?

If the Chi Family had truly abused her, could she still have grown plumper than herself?

The Chi Family was indeed not wealthy, but they had never mistreated her. The chores Meng Qinghe spoke of—chopping wood, washing clothes—the Chi Family had never let her touch, let alone beatings.

Those injuries on her body were clearly from her own falls.

In the previous life, when she was found, she was already gaunt and sallow from hunger, and her words carried some credibility. But now… Chi Nan Yi smiled and walked in.

"Father, Mother." She walked in with unhurried steps. The sunlight outside fell upon her, and the brocade on her body gleamed under its rays—a beautiful face, bright eyes and white teeth, a clear and exquisitely stunning countenance. Every part of her displayed a beauty surpassing that of ordinary people.

Jiang Clan looked at this daughter she had raised for fourteen years and subconsciously released Meng Qinghe's hand.

It seemed that only a woman like this could be worthy of the Minister's Residence's prestige.

Looking again at her biological daughter sitting beside her… it seemed that no matter from which aspect, she fell far short of Yi'er.