Chapter 570 - 491: Unfilial Daughter
Chapter 570: Chapter 491: Unfilial Daughter
Wu Yu Xuan froze for a moment, then said with a sheepish look, "That medicine... Manman had Hao Hao give us ten packs each. We know she’s a good, filial child. We did give some away back then, and that was wrong of us, but we only gave away four packs. It was for a supervisor at... ah, at Ai Zhen’s college. She was able to get rehired at her old workplace, and they even gave her a very nice position. As for the remaining six packs each, Ai Zhen and I brewed the medicinal soup ourselves. Whoever had free time did it. We brewed each pack more than just three times—sometimes even five! It was barely enough to last us a little over a month. How could it possibly have lasted until June?"
Lin Aizhen quickly nodded in agreement. "Of course Manman is a good, considerate child. We treasured those herbs. If it wasn’t to... I couldn’t have borne to part with any of it. It was as painful as tearing out a piece of my own heart! It was a one-time thing. We’ll never give any away again!"
"Oh, don’t worry, there won’t be a ’next time’—Manman has already used up all the rare, deep-mountain herbs she had gathered. She can’t fulfill your requests anymore! You gave away four packs of your own health supplements and got a good job out of it. But what Manman actually gave you was thirty packs each. It was your ’generous’ and ’magnanimous’ daughter here who only left you ten packs each. The rest? She gave all of it to the Bai family, to honor Mr. Bai! You should ask Wu Xiaowen what she got in return for giving away so much medicine. It’s like she threw away years of her own parents’ health and longevity. I wonder how many favors that bought her."
Tang Qingyun glared at Wu Xiaowen, who stood silently behind Lin Aizhen with her head bowed. His face was a mask of disgust and contempt. "If I hadn’t done your father a kindness and passed on a message for him last night, I would have never known about this! Manman was perfectly clear: she gave your parents thirty packs of herbs each! Hao Hao delivered them to you personally. Why didn’t you tell the truth? Why did you lie about the amount? You can deceive your own parents, but how dare you try to erase the good deed done by my Tang family children? Hao Hao went out of his way for you, and yet you have the audacity to slander them as if it’s your right! How many faces do you have? I am so incredibly thankful that I cut ties with you when I did. Otherwise, just as my mother said, I would have been ruined by a twisted tree like you. What a terrible waste of a life that would have been!"
Wu Xiaowen jerked her head up, her eyes brimming with tears and her breath coming in ragged gasps. Her face flushed red, then went deathly pale as she cried out hoarsely, "Tang Qingyun! You... you bastard!"
Tang Qingyun paid her no mind. Just as he pulled the door open, Tang Yaxuan—no, she was Wu Qin now—rushed over and grabbed him tightly with both hands. Sobbing uncontrollably, she looked utterly pitiful. "Dad..."
Disgust filled Tang Qingyun’s eyes. "Wu Qin, you really are a credit to Wu Xiaowen’s upbringing, having adopted her tastes so perfectly. Wu Xiaowen gives herbs to the Bai family, and you run errands for them, going all the way out to Gongdao Village... What’s this? Not afraid of the countryside anymore? Have you told Wu Xiaowen how nicely you and your birth mother are cooperating? If you want, I can help you transfer back to a school in Wancheng, so you can be with your birth mother. Wouldn’t that make it even more convenient for you to serve the Bai family?"
Wu Qin’s face went pale. She yanked her hands away and retreated to a corner.
Tang Qingyun walked out, pulling the door closed behind him.
The room was utterly silent. After a long moment, Lin Aizhen suddenly spun around. Her face livid, she swung her hand and slapped Wu Xiaowen hard across the face. "SMACK!" "You unfilial daughter!"
Wu Xiaowen clutched her cheek, utterly stunned. Her eyes were wide with disbelief as she stammered, "Mom! It’s me, Xiao Xiao! I’m your favorite daughter, your own flesh and blood! H-How could you hit me?"
"And you have the nerve to call me your mother? How did I give birth to such a thoughtless, brainless daughter? You knew how important those herbs were to your father and me! Manman finally agreed to prepare them for us, and you dared to give them to the Bai Family! You... to curry favor with Bai Lihua for some silly romance, you’d cast your own parents aside? Is this how you repay us for raising you? And now look where you are! Tang Qingyun has every reason to wash his hands of you. You just had to destroy the very last lifeline Hao Hao worked so hard to give you, didn’t you! Are you happy now? Huh? You are an absolute disappointment!"
Wu Yu Xuan began to cough violently, pounding the mattress. "Go! Get her... get her out of here, now! COUGH COUGH COUGH... I don’t want to... see her... COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH... You’ll be the death of me!"
Wu Xiaowen burst into tears. "Dad! Mom! I was wrong! I was wrong! Please forgive me, don’t send me away... I’m your own daughter!"
Wu Qin also pushed her way to the bedside, crying out through her tears, "Grandpa! Grandpa, please don’t be like this! You’ve always doted on Mom and Xuanxuan the most!"
"COUGH COUGH COUGH... You, go too! We’re not related by blood! I’m not your grandpa... COUGH COUGH COUGH... I’m not!" Wu Yu Xuan waved his arm forcefully as if shooing a fly, signaling for Wu Xiaofeng to pull Wu Qin away.
Seeing Wu Yu Xuan so agitated that it looked like his chronic condition was flaring up, Lin Aizhen’s expression grew even darker. She helped Wu Xiaofeng drag and push the mother-daughter pair of Wu Xiaowen and Wu Qin out of the room.
This time, she was truly furious with Wu Xiaowen, and hurt to the core. Precious herbs that concerned her parents’ health and longevity had been given away without a word—and the lion’s share at that! Out of thirty packs, she had left a mere ten for her own mother and father!
’Was this really the daughter she had given birth to? She was nothing but an ungrateful wolf, biting the hand that fed her!’
Shut out of the room by her parents, Wu Xiaowen and her adopted daughter Wu Qin stood in the hallway. They wept and knocked for what felt like an eternity, but the door remained shut. Passing doctors and nurses, thinking the patient inside must be dying, even went in to check on them twice. Finally, at Wu Xiaofeng’s urging, Wu Xiaowen, her eyes red and swollen, had no choice but to take Wu Qin home and try to beg for her parents’ forgiveness the next day.
In the taxi on the way home, the mother and daughter sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
Wu Xiaowen felt a flicker of regret, but she also resented Tang Qingyun for dredging up the past. ’I can’t even remember the details clearly anymore,’ she thought. ’Who took more packs back then, Bai Lihua or my parents? Ugh! If I’d known they cared so much about a few herbs, I would have just given a few fewer packs to Old Master Bai. Then my parents wouldn’t have flown into a rage and been so heartless to me today.’
’I’ve always been spoiled by them, always used to running to them whenever there was trouble. I was their pride and joy growing up, and they’ve always been my rock, cherishing and encouraging me. As long as my parents were around, I never felt scared or lost, no matter how bad things got. When the Tang family divorced me, my father was furious and scolded me, but my mother protected me, comforted me, gave me advice, and saw me through that bleak time. But now... now they’re both abandoning me.’ Wu Xiaowen couldn’t bear it. She felt truly, deeply heartbroken.
At that moment, her thoughts couldn’t help but drift to one person. She hadn’t heard from Bai Lihua in days. ’I really want to call him,’ she thought, ’and ask what he’s been so busy with. Has he forgotten all about me?’
In the seat next to her, Wu Qin was pressed up against the door. Her head was turned away as if she were watching the city streets pass by, but her eyes were unfocused, and the look of bitter resentment on her face betrayed her inner turmoil.