Chapter 146 – Does She Have A Mark On Her Leg?
Chapter 146 Does She Have a Mark on Her Leg?
“Dear…” Li came to her senses first. Suddenly, she wailed louder, “You are my daughter! I-If you don’t care about our feelings, we won’t mind being sent to the court. Anyway, when we can’t take our daughter back, w-what’s the point of staying alive?”
Liu Shan also wiped his tears, lowered his head, and cried, as if he would accept whatever came at him for the sake of his daughter.
Yu Dong glared at them furiously as if he wanted to burn them alive with his eyes. Although he had predicted this to happen, he was exasperated when he looked at this couple, who was soft-spoken and polite to him a few days ago.
What a shameless couple! Second Madam really put in a lot of effort to find such a pair of shameless people to harm his lady!
He would have beaten these two scoundrels up had they not been here in Qu Zhizhen’s study.
“Dear, you asked Yu Dong to give us things at the back door. The old maid at the back door can vouch for us,” Liu Shan blurted in between his cries as a thought suddenly flashed across his mind.
The old maid was in the backyard of the Qu Mansion. It was convenient to interrogate her. Even if they wanted to interrogate Granny Gu, who was the furthest away, they wouldn’t need to spend much time as they could just go to the village and ask. Compared to other proofs that were impossible to verify, the convenience in the investigation of this matter made the whole thing more believable.
Qu Zhizhen gestured at the young servant with his eyes. The young servant nodded and retreated knowingly. He then brought another person to the backyard to ask the old maid.
“Moying, are you really not… Father’s daughter? Then, you… you said that Mother harmed you before…” Qu Qiuyan felt that the time had come. She looked at Qu Moying in surprise and calmly brought up the issue about Yu.
People often thought that if a person lied, the other things that he did must be fake too. Since Qu Moying’s background was fake, she must have wronged Yu about the previous case.
Just like Yu, Qu Qiuyan was most suspicious of Qu Moying.
She suspected that Qu Moying was behind the incident that happened at Crown Prince’s Mansion. How else could she explain the coincidence? Qu Moying, who was supposed to be in trouble, was fine, but she was suspected to have an affair with Crown Prince. Mother said that she did not cause Qu Moying’s body to be red and swollen all over, and that Qu Moying did it herself.
Qu Qiuyan did not completely believe what Mother said. She knew that no one would risk their life to harm their body like that. Skin and body were the most important for women, especially the daughters of aristocratic families like them. They could not afford to be careless. Based on Qu Qiuyan’s personality, she deduced that there was something fishy about this matter.
But no matter what, this was the best time to bring up this matter.
It didn’t matter whether or not Qu Moying did it herself. As long as they could convince Father that Qu Moying was not his daughter, Qu Qiuyan could lay everything out on the table.
She had been Qu Zhizhen’s daughter for years, so she knew his personality more or less.
Seeing that the couple was a little withered just now, Qu Qiuyan panicked. Fortunately, the couple was smart enough to know that they must insist at this time that Qu Moying was their daughter.
Ignoring Qu Qiuyan completely, Qu Moying looked at Li and smiled slightly. “Does your daughter have any marks on her body?”
“N-No, she doesn’t.” Liu Shan answered.
Li’s eyes darted around, and she suddenly cried again, “She was young at that time, so we didn’t notice any marks on her body. At least she didn’t have any obvious mark.”
No obvious mark. It meant it was likely that their daughter had unobvious ones. As for the definition of “unobvious”, it was ambiguous—one that was not overly obvious could be considered “unobvious”.
“Our Miss’s right foot…” Yu Dong glared angrily and interrupted. After that, he immediately came to his senses and hurriedly shut his mouth.
“Yes, yes! There is something odd on our daughter’s right foot, but it’s not obvious. S-she suddenly disappeared… W-We were panicked and crying non-stop. Sometimes, we would be confused and forget about some of the details about her childhood,” Li hurriedly explained.
Therefore, even if they remembered wrongly, it was because of their longing for their daughter. In this case, their wrong memory shouldn’t be taken seriously.
“How old is your daughter this year?” Qu Moying asked calmly without mentioning her right foot as if she felt nervous about it. Qu Qiuyan even spotted Qiu Moying’s glare at Yu Dong secretly, and Yu Dong lowered his head in fright. At this moment, Yu Dong did not look like his fearsome-looking self in the past, which was different from ordinary maids.
Nervous? Qu Qiuyan was delightful. Did Yu Dong really make a slip of tongue just now?
Qiu Qiuyan had always been worried that Qu Moying had some kind of mark on her that could prove the latter’s innocence. However, Qu Qiuyan did not get any news of the mark on her.
Qu Moying was served by her own personal maids, and most of the people in her yard were selected directly from the hiring agents, so it was not easy to bribe them.
Now it seemed that Yu Dong’s slip of the tongue was true. No wonder Qu Moying was a little panicked and deliberately changed the topic. Judging from the topic Qu Moying switched to, Qu Qiuyan could tell that Qu Moying was trying to avert everyone’s attention, but she did it in a clumsy way.
Then, Qu Qiuyan looked at Li. Mother said that Li was smart who could make a fuss in the middle of busy streets. Couldn’t she notice such an obvious bug?
Qu Qiuyan wanted to go up and remind Li.
“Dear, you are over 13 years old, but not 14, that’s why you look a little petite. You don’t look like you’re 14,” Li answered.
She sounded more and more convincing. Indeed, compared to girls of her age, Qu Moying was petite. Qu Zhizhen’s eyes fell on Qu Moying, and the suspicion in his eyes increased.
All the statements made sense. Was this true then?
“Since you said that it was Granny Gu who did this, we’ll invite Granny Gu to testify. Coincidentally, I missed Granny Gu, so I specially sent someone to invite her here a few days ago. She should be here soon. When the time comes, you can confront Granny Gu face to face,” Qu Moying said.
“O-Of course, Granny Gu will not admit it. S-She won’t dare to admit the crime she committed in front of Mr. Vice Minister!” Liu Shan hurriedly protested.
“Why would she leave the evidence in the sachet if she didn’t want to admit her wrongdoing? Did she do so to deliberately leave the evidence to you and let you come to the mansion to claim me back?” Qu Moying asked. Her expression was calm, and she didn’t look flustered at all at this point. Qu Zhizhen’s eyes fell on her face, and he fell into deep thoughts.
It made sense. Who would be so stupid as to put such a crucial piece of evidence in a sachet and give it to Qu Moying? Most importantly, why would Granny Gu tell this couple the secret?
After Qu Moying finished speaking, she accidentally dropped the handkerchief in her hand to the ground. She reached out to pick it up, and then subconsciously pressed her right leg.
Liu Shan was dumbfounded by the question, and his face turned red for a moment. He didn’t know how to answer her. On the side, Li had a flash of inspiration. She pointed at Qu Moying’s right leg and exclaimed loudly, “I don’t care what Granny Gu thinks. Maybe she regreted her actions, and maybe she was careless at that time. It doesn’t matter. But I clearly remember that there is a mark on your right leg. Yes, you have a mark.”
As Li spoke, she burst into tears again.
“What mark? You’re talking nonsense,” Yu Dong angrily interrupted again, losing his composure.
The more Qu Qiuyan looked at Yu Dong, the more she felt that Yu Dong was acting weirdly. Qu Qiuyan immediately smiled and said, “Moying, why don’t you show it to us? Everything will be cleared up that way!”
“What mark do I have on my right leg?” Qu Moying pursed her lips and ignored Qu Qiuyan. Her eyes fell on Li, and she asked coldly, her voice a bit fiercer.
This kind of fierceness made people more convinced of their own thoughts.
“Dear, when you went missing that day, your father and I cried and looked for you all over the place. We went everywhere we could, but we couldn’t find you. After that, we fell seriously ill. When we got better, our memory was not as good as before. Sometimes, we couldn’t even remember some small things in the past. We only vaguely remembered that there was a mark on your right leg, an obvious one.”
Li explained while crying, making her words plausible again.
“Y-Yes! We were so sad back then. We fell ill, and we found we had bad memories after we recovered. Sometimes, we would get confused. All we remembered was that our daughter was gone,” Liu Shan added and wiped his tears.
Any kind of the so-called marks would help, be it a mole, a birthmark, or a small patch of pigmentation. A trace of smugness flashed across Qu Qiuyan’s eyes, and she was relieved. It seemed that Qu Moying was at her wit’s end.
Qu Zhizhen, who was sitting behind the desk, frowned coldly and did not say a word.
“Since you don’t remember, how do you know… say that there was a mark on my lady’s right leg?” Yu Dong interjected again, seeming very anxious and agitated. As soon as he said the first part of the words, he cleverly changed his question, but no matter what, he couldn’t retract the statement “how do you know” after saying it out loud.
How do you know? This was enough to prove that it was true.
“Moying, let me check, okay?” Qu Qiuyan pushed forward. She looked at Qu Moying with feigned concern. “Only by showing that there is no mark on your right leg can you prove that they have recognized the wrong person. We need to stop making a scene with these people because it will ruin our reputation.”
“Since you are confused, you must remember it wrongly,” Qu Moying said, ignoring Qu Qiuyan.
Qu Zhizhen glanced at Qu Qiuyan. Originally, if Qu Moying responded to Qu Qiuyan, he would not feel it strange. After all, it was normal for Qu Qiuyan to be concerned about Qu Moying and to offer suggestions to her. However, now that Qu Moying had been ignoring Qu Qiuyan, Qu Qiuyan’s words immediately sounded awkward and abrupt.
Qu Qiuyan was different today because she kept on persuading Qu Moying despite being ignored repeatedly.
“Dear, it’s true! I really remember it this time. It’s true. I didn’t think about it clearly just now. Now I suddenly remember that you have a mark on your right leg. I can tell that you are our daughter at a glance at the mark.” When Li saw Qu Moying’s situation, she immediately knew what to say. She wiped her tears and cried loudly.
Liu Shan quickly added, “Yes, I also remember it now. There is a mark on your right leg.”
“What if I don’t have any?” Qu Moying asked coldly.
“If you don’t, it will prove that you are definitely not our daughter,” The couple looked at each other and said in unison. At this point, they were confident that there must be a mark on Qu Moying’s right leg.
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