Chapter 55: Is She Their Biological Daughter?

Bihua: “If you didn’t come to see them, then why are you here?”

Lin Bingwei said indifferently, “Of course, I came to see you. You’ve been busy dealing with your belongings these past few days, getting ready to leave, but you didn’t even bother telling me.”

“We’ve just been too busy to find the time.”

“Too busy? I didn’t marry far away—I’m just in the neighboring village. My mother-in-law even visits your village every day, and yet you didn’t have the time to tell me?”

Lin Wangsheng and Bihua’s faces turned ashen.

Lin Bingwei continued, “I just wanted to see you one last time before you left. I didn’t expect to run into Uncle Ye’s family. Looks like that matter is true after all.”

Lin Wangsheng and Bihua’s expressions darkened immediately.

Lin Wangsheng said, “What do you mean, true or not? Lin Bingwei, don’t talk nonsense. Yes, we’re leaving, and we didn’t tell you because you’ve already severed ties with us. Since you don’t acknowledge us anymore, we naturally won’t acknowledge you either.”

“That’s right. You took the betrothal gift money, and that was already bad enough, but then you even threatened your younger brother with a knife, cutting his neck and making him bleed. What kind of sister does that?”

Li Yurong was furious. “And you still have the nerve to talk about Weiwei? Then let me ask you—what kind of parents are you? From the time Weiwei was five years old, she had to stand on a stool to cook for your whole family, do the laundry, and handle all the housework alone. Even then, she was beaten at the slightest mistake, starved, and forbidden from going to school. What kind of parents would treat their child like that?”

Hearing this, Mr. Ye and Mrs. Ye’s faces changed.

“She started doing housework at five?”

“And she was beaten often, forbidden from studying?”

Lin Wangsheng and Bihua panicked.

Bihua quickly said, “No, don’t listen to her! Sister-in-law Ye, she’s Weiwei’s mother-in-law, and she’s a fierce one. When we arranged the marriage, we agreed on a bride price of 888 yuan. On the wedding day, their family did give us the money, but the very next day, they egged Weiwei on to come back and snatch it away!”

As she spoke, Bihua suddenly started crying, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief. “I have such a bitter fate. My Weiwei was always obedient, but after just one day of marriage, they manipulated her into grabbing a machete, holding it to her brother’s neck, and forcing us to hand over the money. I barely even had time to warm the money in my hands before it was gone! Isn’t this a scam marriage?”

“Li Yurong, tell me, what kind of spell did you cast on my Weiwei? She turned against us the moment she got married!”

Li Yurong wasn’t good at arguing, and hearing this, her face flushed red with anger.

“What do you mean I brainwashed her? Are you seriously pretending that you don’t remember how you treated her? Bihua, do you really think that just by refusing to admit it, no one will know that you swapped Weiwei with Xiaoyu?”

Lin Wangsheng and Bihua’s expressions changed dramatically, and Ye Bingyu’s face also turned pale.

Li Yurong looked straight at Mr. Ye and Mrs. Ye and said, “Open your eyes and take a good look—that girl is not your biological daughter. She’s just a cuckoo chick that was placed in your nest.”

She nudged Lin Bingwei forward and said, “This is your real daughter! She was almost bullied to death by these two heartless people.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Lin Wangsheng and Bihua jumped up.

“Stop talking nonsense! Li Yurong, I know you look down on us because we’re poor, and now you’re sucking up to Brother Ye and his wife because they have money!”

“You can’t just make things up like this. Yes, we’re poor, but we still raised Weiwei. You took away the betrothal money, and now you’ve taken the person too. But you can’t slander us like this!”

“That’s right! If you go too far, you’ll suffer retribution. No wonder your eldest son died, and your youngest son almost did too. It’s because you, Li Yurong, are an unkind person!”

People say you shouldn’t hit someone in the face when you fight, and you shouldn’t expose their wounds when you argue. But these two had no filter, and their words were vicious. Li Yurong was so enraged her face turned green.

“Who doesn’t have family members that pass away? If you’re so capable, why don’t you make sure no one in your family ever dies? Live to be thousand-year demons or ten-thousand-year-old turtles! Hah, if you’re that powerful, Lin Wangsheng, why did you invite a Taoist priest when your parents died? Since you’re so great, why didn’t you just dig a hole and bury them yourself?”

Li Yurong’s fighting spirit had fully ignited.

After all, those two had gone too far with their insults.

Lin Bingwei saw how furious she was, her chest heaving, and gently reassured her, “Mom, these two won’t believe the truth until they see it for themselves. There’s no point in reasoning with them.”

Then she turned to Mr. Ye and Mrs. Ye and said, “You’ve never been to Linjia Village, have you? If you’re not in a hurry to leave, why don’t you go take a look?”

Seeing what the villagers said would make everything clear.

Mrs. Ye looked at Lin Bingwei, her eyes slightly red. She opened her mouth several times, wanting to say something but hesitating.

They were intellectuals. Without solid evidence, they wouldn’t engage in verbal disputes.

Judging by their expressions, they probably already had a hunch.

“Alright,” Mr. Ye agreed. Then he turned to his wife. “Xiaoyun, let’s go to Linjia Village tomorrow.”

Gu Siyun nodded. “Yes, I was already planning to go. They were the ones who stopped us…”

They had said that the countryside was filthy, full of chicken and duck droppings, and that the people there were rough and unrefined. They claimed the house was in such poor condition that it might collapse at any moment and that when it rained, it would leak. They insisted there was no proper place to stay.

Using that as an excuse, they had discouraged them from visiting Linjia Village.

Since they were used to city life, the way Lin Wangsheng and Bihua described the village had made them hesitate, so they let it go.

But now, it seemed they had been stopped for a very different reason.

Hearing that they were going to Linjia Village, Lin Wangsheng and Bihua panicked.

Bihua said, “Brother Ye, Sister-in-law Ye, didn’t you already buy your tickets for tomorrow? Those tickets are expensive—why don’t you visit Linjia Village next time?”

Lin Wangsheng chimed in, “Yeah, a single ticket costs dozens of yuan. With seven of us, that’s a few hundred. If you don’t leave tomorrow, won’t that be a huge waste?”

The more they tried to stop them, the more suspicious they became.

Gu Siyun said, “It’s fine. I’ll just go refund the tickets.”

“Huh? You… can refund them?”

Mr. Ye smiled faintly. “Of course. It’s a few hundred yuan. The government wouldn’t just take people’s money like that.”

As he spoke, Gu Siyun stood up and walked over to the telephone, dialing the operator to arrange for a refund.

Lin Wangsheng and Bihua were dumbfounded, growing more anxious by the second.

Li Yurong was overjoyed and kept nudging Lin Bingwei, barely concealing her grin.

She didn’t say anything, but Lin Bingwei understood her meaning.

She looked across at Ye Bingyu. The other girl’s face was expressionless, but she was looking right back at her.

After a moment, Lin Bingwei suddenly smiled. “Sister, if I remember correctly, you didn’t even finish third grade before you dropped out. Did you continue studying after I left?”

Ye Bingyu immediately understood her implication.

In just a short time, she had already prepared for the worst-case scenario.

Even if Lin Wangsheng and Bihua really had swapped them, she believed that an uneducated village girl who never even finished third grade could never compare to her.

Their family had chosen to return at this time because they had been waiting for her to finish her studies.

Last year, she had already received a degree from a foreign university.