"Sir, we are not talking nonsense. If you don't believe me, you can go to the manor and ask around. The year our daughter disappeared was when the fourth young lady was seriously ill. If... if she wasn't taken away by someone, then... how could she be said to be missing? And she wouldn't have replaced the fourth young lady who died of illness at that time and become your daughter."
The middle-aged woman, Ms. Li, cried loudly and fell to the ground sobbing.
"Hello, father!" Qu Moying walked in and bowed to Qu Zhizhen.
"Father, what happened? Who are they?" Qu Qiuyan also bowed, then raised her head and looked at the couple kneeling on the ground in astonishment, her face full of surprise.
Compared to Qu Moying, Qu Qiuyan has always been Qu Zhizhen's favorite daughter, so she said this casually.
Qu Zhizhen waved his hand, signaling his two daughters to stand up, "You sit down first!"
The two of them sat down obediently on both sides.
"Daughter...daughter...daughter." Seeing Qu Moying, Li immediately sobbed with tears in her eyes. Her eyes were fixed on Qu Moying, as if she wanted to get closer to her, but she didn't dare to. She could only kneel on the ground sobbing and unable to speak, looking pitiful.
"What you mean is that Nanny Gu stole your daughter and replaced my daughter, and my daughter had actually died of illness at that time?" Qu Zhizhen asked impatiently, his eyes sharp.
Although he doesn't like Qu Moying, it doesn't mean he is willing to let such a thing happen.
This kind of thing is simply a great shame and humiliation. He is a minister who is well-known in the court, but he is so foolish that even his original daughter was replaced by someone else and he raised a fake daughter. It is really too incredible.
"Yes, sir, please give my daughter back to me. We are about to return home. If you don't take my daughter with you, we will be separated from our family for the rest of our lives. We don't mind living a harder life. We just want our family to be reunited. Please grant our wish." Li kowtowed to Qu Zhizhen again, wiping her tears as she spoke.
"When did you know... it was your daughter's?" Qu Zhizhen asked with a gloomy face.
"It was just recently that we found out. If it wasn't for Aunt Gu revealing the news, we would still not know... Then we came to look for our daughter privately... But... But she didn't recognize us and asked us to leave. She only gave us some clothes and... and the cakes that were just delivered."
As Li spoke, she opened an oil-paper package in front of her. There were a few cakes inside. Although there were pieces of cakes on them and they didn't look complete, one could still vaguely make out the shape of the cakes.
"Hey, isn't this a new pastry made in the mansion? It was made just in the past two days." Qu Qiuyan said in surprise with a low "eh".
After he finished speaking, he seemed to realize that he was speechless. He quickly turned his head away and gently wiped the corner of his lips with a handkerchief to cover up his slip of the tongue.
Her voice was not loud, but in the study, the atmosphere suddenly became quiet. Even though it was very soft, Qu Zhizhen heard it clearly. He reached out and pressed the throbbing veins on his forehead, and glanced at the servant standing beside him.
This servant used to serve him cakes and clean his study.
The servant took two steps forward, identified it carefully, then nodded silently at Qu Zhizhen, indicating that Qu Qiuyan was right, and that it was indeed a new pastry made in the mansion, and it was made in the past two days.
A middle-aged couple on the farm naturally couldn't possibly get the freshly made cakes from the mansion, because the freshly made cakes
There weren't many that came out of the mansion, and some were sent to a few masters. The servants couldn't eat them yet. The one wrapped in the oil paper bag in front of them must have been sent out by a master in the mansion.
Qu Zhizhen looked at Qu Moying with a hint of doubt in his eyes.
"Father, are you calling me here because of them?" Qu Moying raised his eyes and looked at Qu Zhizhen calmly, and asked calmly.
"They said it was your parents. Nanny Gu took you away from them when you were a child. They only know the situation now. Now they are going back to their hometown and want to take you away." Qu Zhizhen tried hard to calm down and patiently finished telling the story.
Then he stared at Qu Moying's reaction with a burning gaze.
"Daughter, you... you sent us cakes, clothes, and money to let us leave Beijing, but we are your biological parents, how can we bear to leave you behind? Daughter, don't worry, after you come back, we will never treat you badly. Although it's not as good as the Minister's Mansion, we will definitely make you happy and joyful."
Li turned to Qu Moying and cried.
The two ladies who came in were actually easy to recognize. The one wearing a veil was the fourth lady, who was their target.
"Daughter, you are our flesh and blood after all. It is not right for you to occupy the title of the fourth lady of the Qu family." The middle-aged man Liu Shan also said hurriedly, wiping his tears.
The couple both looked like honest people, with honest faces and traces of labor on their hands. One could tell at a glance that they were ordinary farmers.
"You say I am your daughter. Do you have any evidence?" Qu Moying asked indifferently.
"Daughter...daughter...you have already acknowledged us, why don't you acknowledge us now? Nanny Gu... Nanny Gu let it slip that day, so we went to Beijing to look for you. After we found you, although you acknowledged us, you were unwilling to go with us. Daughter, even if you have wealth and splendor, it is nothing compared to blood ties."
Li cried so hard that she couldn't speak. She spoke loudly while crying, with such emotion that it seemed as if it were real.
Qu Moying curled the corners of his lips in sarcasm. The couple that Yu had found were really well-founded and looked honest. Most importantly, their identities were real and not difficult to find out. Just like the man in the Great Compassion Temple at that time, the matter was easy to investigate and could be verified quickly. The more this was the case, the more people believed that the matter was true.
But seeing Qu Zhizhen sitting there with a sullen face and coldness coming out of his whole body, one could tell that he had already believed most of it.
Although she looked down on Qu Zhizhen and did not recognize him as her father in her heart, she would not allow anyone to slander her at will.
She has never thought of giving up the position of Miss Qu Si.
"You said I was your daughter. Do you have any evidence?" Qu Moying asked calmly.
"Yes, we have some. These are the clothes you asked the maid to bring us, and the travel expenses. These are the cakes that were just delivered. They said they wanted us to try something new." Li fiddled with the items in front of her, pointing them out to Qu Moying one by one. There was quite a bit of travel expenses, some loose change, quite a lot, at least ten taels.
Qu Moying's monthly allowance was only five taels, and this was after she returned home. Before that, when she was in the farm, she could get very little.
"Daughter, these are all, and this one is made by Madam Gu..." The middle-aged man Liu Shan saw that she didn't believe him and hurriedly
She pulled out a sachet from the pile of things. It turned out to be something that Nanny Gu had made for her when she came to Beijing this time. "Although Nanny Gu stole our child, she felt guilty and always went to the temple to pray to the Buddha to forgive her selfish behavior."
"This is the scented sachet she prayed for. I heard that it contains something to protect oneself. Besides these, there is also proof of your identity."
The sachet is sealed and has never been opened even with needle and thread.
Qu Zhizhen's face became increasingly uglier. He looked gloomily at the middle-aged couple kneeling below. His lips were tightly pursed but he said nothing, with an odd look of waiting for the situation to develop further.
"This... is indeed the sachet that fourth sister wore when she entered the mansion." Qu Qiuyan was not in the mood to watch the show. After recognizing it, she stammered, her face full of surprise. She raised her head and glanced at Qu Moying, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she stopped herself and said nothing further.
"Where did you get this sachet? Let's take a look at it." Qu Moying asked.
"Daughter, didn't you ask Yudong to give us this sachet? Why don't you recognize it now? Since my daughter wants to see it, then... just open it!" Liu Shan said, and stretched out his hand to pass the sachet to the servant in front of him, "Please take a look, sir."
Qu Zhizhen nodded, and the servant took the sachet, found a pair of scissors nearby, cut open the sachet, and shook out two things from it.
One looked like a small and ordinary amulet, the kind that one gets from a temple, used for protection and blessing. The other was a tiny piece of torn paper.
Qu Zhizhen took the note from the servant, opened it and saw that it clearly stated his father: Liu Shan, his mother: Li, and nothing else.
Qu Zhizhen looked at Qu Moying with a sinister look and said nothing.
"Is this the evidence you mentioned? Did you also get it from Nanny Gu?" Qu Moying did not go forward to check the evidence, but turned to the couple.
"Yes... yes, if Nanny Gu hadn't let it slip, we would never have known the truth. Daughter, let's go back together. A happy family reunion is more important than anything else. As long as everyone is well, nothing else matters." The middle-aged woman, Mrs. Li, cried out loudly again.
"Do you know what's inside?" Qu Moying asked, ignoring her crying.
"This... I heard that this is evidence to prove that you are our daughter. Nanny Gu said she put it in... I... I don't know what it is, but it must be evidence." Although Liu Shan stuttered for a moment, he still spoke smoothly, wiping his tears as he spoke, looking extremely pitiful.
"What if it's not here?" Qu Moying suddenly sneered.
She just bullies them because they can't see and can't read!
"This... This is impossible..." After the couple was stunned for a moment, Li was the first to react. She cried and shook her head, "That's what Madam Gu said. How could it not be true?"
"What if it's really not true? You are impersonating officials' relatives, and you must be handed over to the authorities for investigation." Qu Moying's expression became calmer.
Qu Qiuyan also had a calm expression, but she was only calm on the surface. The handkerchief tightly twisted into a knot in her hand showed that she was not calm at the moment, especially when she saw the panic expressions on the faces of the middle-aged couple, her heart skipped a beat.
I have a bad feeling!