Chapter 44

When Yue Yin heard Bai Xiulian’s words, she immediately understood that Jiang Suliu’s people must have already taken action.

She walked past Bai Xiulian, grabbing a yogurt from the fridge, and casually explained, “I’m not cutting ties with you, I’m just taking back my guardianship early.”

This body was still underage, and guardianship was in Bai Xiulian’s hands, which meant she still had control over Yue Yin’s assets. So, if Yue Yin wanted to regain control of her own money, she had to first reclaim her guardianship rights from Bai Xiulian.

Hearing that her daughter didn’t intend to sever ties entirely, Bai Xiulian let out a small sigh of relief, but the lawyer’s words from earlier echoed in her mind.

The lawyer had told her that if Yue Yin reclaimed guardianship, she’d gain full control over her inheritance and would quickly discover the funds the Shen family had embezzled…

If Shen Hao Ping were still around, Bai Xiulian wouldn’t worry about this. He had countless ways to handle accounts, making it impossible for Yue Yin to find anything unusual.

After all, over the years, countless large and small expenses had been made. Adding a little here, subtracting a little there—over so many years, who could track it all?

But now that Shen Hao Ping was gone, she, a once-privileged housewife, was wholly unskilled in such matters.

What’s more, Shen Company’s financial team had just urgently called, warning her that Jiang Corporation’s finance and legal teams were already conducting an audit.

Backed by influential political and business networks, Jiang Corporation’s scrutiny left no room for falsification, and any tampering would quickly be exposed.

Even Shen’s own accountants and lawyers advised her to find funds to cover the shortfall as soon as possible—otherwise, neither she nor Hao Ping would escape punishment.

With this in mind, Bai Xiulian’s face showed worry. Her priority now was to make Yue Yin give up the idea of reclaiming guardianship.

Looking at Yue Yin, she asked with forced humility, “Why? You only have two years until you’re of age. Why do you need guardianship now?”

Softening her tone, Bai Xiulian added, “I’m your mother, I’m only holding the money to protect you.”

Yue Yin, backpack slung over her shoulder, headed toward her room upstairs. Without looking back, she replied, “I’m afraid if I wait two years, everything my father left for me will be spent by then.”

The bluntness of her words left Bai Xiulian stunned. After a moment, she said, “Is someone putting ideas in your head? The Jiang family, perhaps?”

“Xiaoyue, you weren’t like this before. You used to be warmer toward me.”

Yue Yin ignored her.

Seeing her daughter head upstairs, Bai Xiulian lifted her skirt and hurried after her, asking anxiously, “Do you have some grievance against me? Why won’t you tell me? I’m already so tired every day—how can I guess what’s on your mind?”

Her eyes were slightly red, as though she’d cried earlier. She went on, “It hasn’t been easy for me in this family. Everyone says being a stepmother is hard, and neither you nor Xiaodi have been considerate;, you’ve only added to my troubles…”

“I know you’re upset about Baozhu, angry that I haven’t been there for you. But she’s Uncle Shen’s own daughter. It’s only natural he cares for her. You should just yield to her more often, get along so we can all live in peace…”

Yue Yin suddenly stopped in her tracks, turning to ask, “Why should I yield to Shen Baozhu?”

She laughed lightly, “Strange. Is she some kind of noble?”

“She’s Shen’s daughter,” Bai Xiulian replied, caught off guard, saying instinctively, “I’m just looking out for you. Xiaoyue, if you keep competing with Baozhu, people will look down on you.”

Yes, in Shen’s family, it was an unspoken rule that Yue Yin, as an outsider, should be grateful for her current lifestyle and never dare to compete. Even the servants casually remarked on it. But Yue Yin was taken aback to realize that Bai Xiulian, her own mother, held the same belief.

Looking down at Bai Xiulian in her refined attire, Yue Yin asked, “Are you that worthless?”

Raising an eyebrow, she laughed and continued, “Doesn’t the inheritance from Yue Shaoqiang belong to both of us? How much of it have you funneled into the Shen family—some of that is mine, isn’t it?”

“You’re using my money to support the Shen family and then telling me I’m beneath them?”

When Yue Yin mentioned Yue Shaoqiang’s inheritance, Bai Xiulian was caught off guard, her righteous expression frozen.

After a pause, she stammered, “That’s not what I meant.”

Yue Yin looked at her coldly, a trace of disdain in her eyes. “Bai Xiulian, if you want to degrade yourself, do it alone—don’t drag me down with you.”

Bai Xiulian, accustomed to the privileged life of a wealthy wife, even now was still called “Mrs. Shen” out of respect by others. This was the first time anyone had directly insulted her, calling her a self-degrading, pathetic woman, and from her own daughter, no less.

Her composure shattered, she stammered in disbelief, “Xiaoyue, I’m your mother. How can you say that to me?”

Yue Yin calmly replied, “Did I say anything untrue? You keep talking about how Uncle Shen dotes on his daughter, expecting me to yield to her.”

Looking at her mother with curiosity, she asked, “And you? Aren’t I your own daughter? Why don’t you show me the same care?”

As an outsider, Yue Yin couldn’t fully grasp human emotions and logic.

But from the memories embedded in this body, she felt the timid, repressed past of the girl she inhabited, who’d been taught repeatedly to yield, to hold back.

No one is born to bow their head.

Staring directly at her mother, Yue Yin spoke softly, “You know full well that it was because of Shen Baozhu that I got lost. Your daughter disappeared for years because of the Shen family’s ‘accident.’ Why don’t you care about her, even dare to acknowledge the truth?”

A six- or seven-year-old girl had been abandoned in a park, left to fend for herself. After countless hardships, she finally returned home, but no one sought justice for her. Even though she voiced her grievance, her own family looked on with strange expressions, and her mother just wanted her to stay silent.

Did they truly not believe her, or were they simply covering up an ugly truth?

Growing irritated, Bai Xiulian retorted, “I already told you—it wasn’t on purpose. It was an accident!”

Yue Yin’s disappearance was Bai Xiulian’s least favorite topic.

She had remarried with the inheritance left by Yue Shaoqiang, and not long after, Yue Yin vanished. The timing was too coincidental, sparking a flood of malicious rumors.

People speculated that the Shen family had driven Yue Yin away to claim her inheritance, with some even alleging that she’d been in cahoots with Shen Hao Ping, possibly complicit in Yue Shaoqiang’s death.

Even the lawyer handling Yue Shaoqiang’s will had come around, and the police had visited several times. Bai Xiulian, already grieving over her daughter’s disappearance, had faced endless public suspicion and scorn, and those days had been brutal.

Just remembering that dark period annoyed her. “Xiaoyue, I know it was hard on you to go missing, but how many times do you need to bring it up?”

“You and Baozhu were in the park. Who told you to be so petty? They just teased you, and you ran off…”

She wanted to keep speaking, trying to shift the blame to Yue Yin, but Yue Yin interrupted, exasperated. “Mother.”

Turning, she looked at the woman in front of her who kept complaining and deflecting blame. She could almost feel the echoes of this body’s previous pain.

Neither Yue Yin nor the original girl she embodied had been fools.

She understood her mother’s panic, her desire to maintain the life she’d fought so hard for, no matter what. Her own dignity and justice didn’t matter as long as Bai Xiulian could keep her comforts.

She frowned, saying, “Mother. Enough.”

I expect nothing from you.

Because I know you’re a weak mother, incapable of protecting your own child.

The Moon of a Thousand Faces suddenly thought of a distant future.

In the conclusion of the story, this girl named Yue Yin was driven out of the house because of her jealousy towards Shen Baozhu.

Shen Hao Ping coldly ordered her to leave. Shen Baozhu’s gaze held sympathy, while Zhou Huai’an’s eyes were filled with mockery. Everyone looked down at her from above.

Yue Yin then looked towards her mother, but her mother averted her eyes under Yue Yin’s gaze.

Bai Xiulian remained timid and did not step forward.

The Moon of a Thousand Faces stared at Bai Xiulian and said, “During every crucial moment of Yue Yin’s growth, when a mother’s presence was needed, you were always absent.”

“You are a cowardly, incompetent, selfish, and hopeless mother.”

“But because you are her mother, no matter how many flaws you have, in the eyes of your child, you are still perfect, omnipotent, the warm harbor that can shelter her, and the bearer of her last hope.”

“Therefore, even though Yue Yin had long grown accustomed to your silence, at the moment of her deepest despair, she still couldn’t help but look at you with pleading eyes.”

Yet, under Yue Yin’s gaze, Bai Xiulian eventually said, “I’ll see her off.”

She personally escorted Yue Yin out of the Shen household and said, “You’re almost an adult. You can earn your own money now.”

“There’s no need for you to come back in the future, and you don’t have to call me your mother. We’ve done our part as mother and daughter; that’s enough.”

After leaving the Shen household, Yue Yin sat in a park, lost in thought with her suitcase by her side.

No one gave her a single penny when she left, so she would have to fend for herself from now on.

Recalling her mother’s departing back as she returned to the Shen household, Yue Yin suddenly remembered a scene from her childhood.

After her father sacrificed his life to save someone, her mother had held her and said that from then on, it would be just the two of them.

Not long after, her mother took her by the hand and said they were moving to a new home where there would be many people who would love her, and that she needed to be obedient and well-behaved.

But in the end, no one loved her—not even her mother, who turned her love towards someone else’s child.

…

It was rare for the Moon of a Thousand Faces, known as the embodiment of pain, to experience emotion. Her existence symbolized an endless and eternal agony.

Within her grey, murky, ocean-like body resided countless heads that endlessly repeated the desperate cries and wails of lost souls.

Ordinary pain could not stop her, but at this moment, the Moon of a Thousand Faces felt the pain of the deceased Yue Yin.

The rainy shadow of losing her father in childhood had lingered until the end of her life.

‘Yue Yin’ gazed at Bai Xiulian with hollow eyes and softly delivered her judgment: “Shen Hao Ping will die in a month, but your suffering is only the beginning.”

The girl on the stairs had pitch-black eyes that made Bai Xiulian’s heart tremble. She instinctively held her breath, unable to utter a word.

Under the other’s terrifying presence, Bai Xiulian stood in a daze for a long time before muttering to herself, “You are not my daughter.”

She stared blankly at her cold daughter, feeling an overwhelming sense of unfamiliarity.

“You are not my daughter. My daughter wouldn’t treat me like this!”

Finally, something clicked in her mind, and tears welled up in her eyes as she suddenly cried out, “Give me back my daughter!”

Bai Xiulian tried to rush forward to grab Yue Yin, but was rooted in place by Yue Yin’s terrifying gaze.

She looked helplessly at Yue Yin, covering her mouth and taking a step back, breaking down as she cried, “Give her back to me. You wretched thing, get out of my daughter’s body!”

Yue Yin glanced at her and casually replied, “She’s already dead, but there’s no need for you to pretend to be so heartbroken.”

With a blank expression, Yue Yin looked at Bai Xiulian and said, “Because you won’t be living much longer either.”