Chapter 165: Li Qingluo Takes Action Against the Replacement Female Midwife

Zhao Shi tried to rise, lift her hand to seize Li Qingluo before her, but she could only twitch weakly and could not muster any strength or movement.

So she could only open her mouth and curse with effort: "You, you little slut… it's all your fault… you made me this way today!"

Li Qingluo: "Me? No, this is karmic retribution. Zhao Shi, if it weren't for you back then scheming to trade me away, wouldn't you now at least be a steady midwife, living off rewards and pay; hasn't your Liu family already enjoyed prosperity?"

"But you deliberately harbored such a poisonous heart, swapping your own great‑granddaughter to Jiangjun Fu to gamble on the future soaring success of your whole clan. And me? I was a slave horse for your Liu family—are you still a human?"

Li Qingluo grabbed Zhao Shi's head in one hand, forcing her to tilt her head high.

Staring at her face, Li Qingluo's hatred, which had been restrained, instantly overflowed beyond control.

"I was four years old, and you made me fetch excrement and urine, wash feet, serve. In the dead of winter I had to fetch water from the river. In the scorching summer I had to cut grass under the blazing sun. At dawn before sunrise I worked in the fields; at night after the whole family slept I still had to wash all your family's clothes!"

"My hands would develop sores and pus every year, and even now, on rainy days they itch and ache unbearably!"

"I slept in pigsties and chicken coops, forever smelling foul."

"I never wore a new garment, never used a complete set of bowls and chopsticks!"

"I had to serve you, and also serve your men, son and daughter‑in‑law, grandchildren! You are all human, yet I alone am a slave and maid, a beast of burden!"

"I cooked the whole family's meals, yet I have never had a full, satisfying meal myself!"

"When I was thirteen you tried to sell me; if I hadn't cleverly twisted my ankle and hidden in the mountains, I would have long since become that old man's wife!"

"You found me, pretended to care, then turned and starved me for three days and three nights, and after I emerged you beat me mercilessly again."

"I thought you were family, my parents and grandparents, but what you did was inhuman."

"When I was fourteen your third son coveted me, leered—clearly he is a beast, can't you see? Yet you tormented me! You grabbed me and rapped me, calling me a slut, saying I lured him, stripped my clothes and threw me into the river in the bitter winter month; that time I nearly died!"

"Zhao Shi, you may not be a person, but you chose to be a beast's mother, because you yourself are a beast!"

Li Qingluo shoved her hard onto the ground, rose and stomped hard on Zhao Shi's face with her foot.

Zhao Shi let out a terrible scream: "Ah—!!"

"Liu Caoer! You were born to such a wretched fate! Who made you think you were so cheap!"

"Back then in our house, you clearly had a chance to run away, but every time we coaxed you, Wang Shi pretended to be sick and pitied you, and you softened and stayed."

"You longed for family love, hoped we might one day show you a bit of kindness, but you didn't know we could never see you as a person, because you are the little beast I brought home, a calf, a foal, a puppy, a chick!"

"A beast cannot be a family member, share a table, or lie on the same bed as a human!"

"You treat me like this today—could it be because you returned to Jinling, returned to your own home, and still have no one to love you?"

"I heard they love our Zhu'er the most! Look, even if our Zhu'er does these things, they still can't bring themselves to kill her; your father, your mother, your brother— even if you're blood‑related, even if Zhu'er is of our Liu line, they always love her most—"

"You were born, and no one will ever love you!"

"You were born to be a discarded, despised spawn—"

"Ha, hahaha, hahaha—ah!!"

Li Qingluo's foot then stepped onto her neck.

Zhao Shi instantly could not breathe, could only stare wide‑eyed, her face turning red and purple; her clavicle, previously pierced by an iron hook, now spurted blood again from Li Qingluo's pressure.

Zhao Shi, in pain almost fainting, her old bones could not endure Li Qingluo's torment; her eyes rolled white as she seemed about to die, but Li Qingluo suddenly released her foot, letting her gasp and miraculously live on.

"You… why didn't you kill me…"

Zhao Shi had little strength left.

She was barely clinging to life, like a skinned, cramping dog.

Li Qingluo had been enraged by her, so she had just dealt a ruthless blow.

Yet she suddenly cleared her mind; killing her so mercilessly would only set her free, wouldn't it?

Moreover, she still had many things left unsaid.

"No rush; this long night is endless, let's reminisce slowly."

Deng Mama gritted her teeth and took the whip from the execution frame.

"Miss, they say the barbs on this whip, each time it is swung and flicked, will tear flesh from skin in one piece. So after each flogging the whip is covered in meat, the skin is drenched in blood—would you like to try it on this poisonous woman?"

"Miss, if you cannot bring yourself to act, this old slave will!"

She was about to die of anger!

The young lady's affairs had never been mentioned to anyone.

When Zhang Mama first went to the mountains to find the young lady, she only said the girl was then doing farm work in the fields.

In the midsummer, her face was black and red from the sun, her trouser legs rolled up, her legs covered in mud and insects, rougher than a peasant man.

She also said that when the girl learned of her own origins, besides a fleeting surprise, she quickly accepted the truth.

She seemed to have long suspected that she was not the biological child of that family.

She left decisively, without even greeting the Liu family, taking not a single piece of luggage.

It turned out the girl had lived like this all these years!

Yesterday, Que'er scolded the Liu family harshly, but they only got a vague idea, knowing the girl would have no good days in their Liu family; if she hadn't spoken herself today, they could not have imagined that the girl had endured a life worse than a beast since childhood!

These Liu family members all deserve death!

Deng Mama was furious, while Li Qingluo became calm.

She took the leather whip, "What can't you do? When I was a child I was beaten with her stick, and she probably can't even count how many times."

Saying that, Li Qingluo swung the whip down, cracking it hard across Zhao Shi's face.

A yank and a pull truly ripped almost half of Zhao Shi's face away!

In an instant, Zhao Shi's face was drenched in blood.

"Ah!!!"

She howled in agony, her immobilized body rolling twice on the ground.

The whole prison echoed with Zhao Shi's wails; prisoners in every dark corner trembled with fear, each fearing for themselves.

Li Qingluo looked at the flesh and skin clinging to the whip, and gave a cold smile.

Your old face is surprisingly easy to flay. I just don't know if this old skin of yours can be flayed.

Having finished speaking, she prepared to strike again; Zhao Shi let out a roar: "I, I was wrong! I, I was wrong…… I admit my fault, I, I owe you…… Back then it was all my fault, I was greedy, I shouldn't have swapped your life, I shouldn't have kidnapped you and yet treated you like that……"

I am a sinner…… you, you kill me…… kill me, give me a quick death, I bear you no grudge……

Li Qingluo: "Whether you resent me or not, what does it have to do with me?"

Whether I give you a quick death, what does it have to do with you!

Zhao Shi, you want to die? No way!

Having said that, she whipped down again; Zhao Shi let out another painful wail, yet could not faint, and for some reason her mind stubbornly stayed conscious.

This is simply a torment ten thousand times more painful than death!

Zhao Shi kept biting her tongue, but her mouth had been torn open, half her face skin gone; at this moment her teeth could not exert any strength at all……

Even death had become a luxury.

Zhao Shi's old tears streamed down; seeing the whip about to fall again, she hurriedly pleaded: "What exactly do you want? Miss…… as long as you spare me…… I, I am willing to do anything……"

Li Qingluo gave a strange laugh: "What do I want? Naturally I only want to see how you suffer."

By the way, you probably don't know yet. I've heard that your whole Liu family has now pushed the guilt of abducting me back then onto you alone.

They have all been taken out by Prince Yun now, living a life of rich luxury, while you? Here, no one asks after you, no one cares, you endure endless suffering and hardship!

They could clearly have sent medicine in to treat your wounds and keep you alive, but…… why is no one looking after you?

Zhao Shi trembled all over, enduring the pain as she defended: "This matter was solely my doing! They, none of them knew…… It was I who back then said you were a jinx, claiming that fortune-telling words had destined you to implicate our whole Liu family, so they followed me in treating you cruelly and ruthlessly……"

Caoer, please…… for the sake of my having been your wet nurse for sixteen years…… stop pursuing this……

Zhao Shi also guessed in her heart that her days might be numbered.

She also saw clearly Li Qingluo's current ruthlessness and methods, wanting to suffer less, so she finally stopped being stubborn and her attitude softened.

Li Qingluo, however, kicked away the hand she had extended.

Her face bore a layer of grim, weird smile: "Impossible. Everyone of the Liu family who has bullied me, I will not let a single one go!"

Zhao Shi heard this and her face changed dramatically.

She no longer pretended, and angrily shouted again: "Liu Caoer! What exactly do you want!? Zhi Zhi and the others are only two or three years old—you can't possibly implicate them, can you?"

They don't understand anything at all, and they even call you elder sister!!

Li Qingluo: "When I was just born, I also didn't understand anything, and later didn't I also call you wet nurse, and them father, mother, uncle and aunt?"

Zhao Shi looked panicked, stammering: "But, but the matter is already past; you now haven't, haven't you already returned to the home you ought to have returned to, become a noble lady, why won't you still let us go?"