Chapter 44

Zhao Qingqing stood at the doorway, stretching her neck, waiting anxiously.

Early that morning, her parents had gone to the Ye family to seek justice for her, telling her to stay home and wait for good news.

Yet, an hour had already passed, and they still hadn’t returned.

She had no face to go out in public right now, so she could only hope that her mother would force Ye Yao to confess the truth.

No matter how scheming that fat woman was, she could never be a match for her mother.

Finally, the sound of footsteps came from outside—along with… cries of pain?!

She must have heard wrong.

Ignoring everything else, she rushed toward the courtyard gate.

At that moment, Zhao Jianshe hurried back, carrying Wang Guihua on his back.

Zhao Qingqing was shocked. No matter what she had expected, she never imagined that her mother—who had left so fiercely—would return like this, being carried home.

And with a pained expression, groaning in agony.

“It hurts so much! Oh my, I can’t go on like this…!”

“Mom, what happened to you? Don’t scare me!”

Zhao Qingqing panicked and tried to check her mother’s injuries, but Zhao Jianshe scolded her.

“Don’t touch her! Get inside first!”

Once inside, when Zhao Qingqing saw the deep, bloody wounds on Wang Guihua’s back, she let out a horrified scream.

“H-How did this happen?”

Zhao Jianshe’s face was dark with rage. Before returning, he had already taken Wang Guihua to a clinic for treatment.

He never expected that the stick Ye Yao had used had barbed thorns.

Wang Guihua had been beaten so badly that her back was torn open, leaving her in excruciating pain.

“Stop asking. Go boil a pot of water.”

Zhao Qingqing froze, still wanting to ask more, but seeing her mother in so much pain, she had no choice but to follow Zhao Jianshe’s instructions…

—-

“Mom, stop crying. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

Ye Yao’s face was tense. Ever since they left, her grandmother had been crying nonstop—for over an hour now.

She had tried to comfort her again and again, but it was useless.

If she kept crying like this, she was going to ruin her eyesight.

“Mom, what exactly do you want?”

Ye Yao couldn’t help but raise her voice, her patience wearing thin.

She knew her grandmother had suffered today, but hadn’t she already helped their family get justice?

Shouldn’t that be something to be happy about?

Zhang Qiufeng’s sobbing finally quieted down a little. She looked at Ye Yao with teary, complicated eyes.

“Yaoyao, today… you really caused trouble…”

Her voice was hoarse, filled with unease.

Ye Yao frowned deeply. She had expected her grandmother to disapprove of her extreme actions today, but she hadn’t expected her to say something like this.

“What trouble? I only told the truth.”

Her expression grew colder.

“How did you even know about that incident? I never told you about it.”

This was what Zhang Qiufeng couldn’t understand no matter how hard she thought.

“You never told me, but once, when you were drunk, you accidentally let it slip.”

Ye Yao answered honestly—there was nothing to hide now.

Zhang Qiufeng was visibly stunned. “When did I ever get drunk?”

She never drank alcohol.

Ye Yao sighed. “Yes, you did. When I was three years old, when… that man ran away with another woman. That night, you got drunk.”

That was the only time she had ever gotten drunk—spilling out everything, whether she should have or not.

Even though Ye Yao had been young, she had an astonishingly good memory. Even now, thinking back on it, she found it unbelievable herself.

Zhang Qiufeng’s breathing hitched, her expression turning even more grim.

That was such a long time ago, and she had been so young—yet she had not only understood but remembered everything?