Still shaken, Xiao Qingwan trembled violently in her arms. She was afraid of this place and didn't want to stay here.

At this moment, Song Shurou cupped her pale face and said something else:

"Wan'er, do you know? Song Shuhua and Song Qingzhi originally had a biological daughter."

Xiao Qingwan's pupils contracted.

Song Shurou was very satisfied with her reaction and continued, "It was your mother who secretly switched you and that child so that you could have a better life."

"But Mom didn't take good care of that child; she died of illness long ago..."

She looked at Xiao Qingwan's face, which had turned deathly pale, and said in a threatening tone, "If you tell the truth now, do you think Song Shuhua will forgive you?"

How will she treat the daughter of the murderer who killed her own daughter?

Do you think you can still live in that big house and play your piano?

"You'll be kicked out and live a worse life than your mother is now!"

"You will lose your piano forever, and you might even be sent to a place worse than this!"

Died of illness... The murderer... Kicked out... Lost the piano...

One terrifying word after another crashed into Xiao Qingwan's young mind.

Looking at the dilapidated surroundings, she recalled the disgusting man's gaze and compared it to the warm music room in the Song family home and the gentle embrace of her mother.

She was completely terrified.

She couldn't say; she dared not reveal the truth.

From that day on, this secret became an invisible shackle in her heart.

She still lived in the Song family home, but she could no longer be as close to Song Shuhua and Song Qingzhi as she used to be.

Looking at their unconditional affection for her, she was filled with guilt and fear, afraid that one day it would all disappear.

She became cautious, trying her best to play the role of a flawless heiress, attempting to compensate for her sinful origins with her excellence.

Later, on her way home from school, an out-of-control truck nearly hit her.

Song Shurou suddenly rushed out and pushed her away, but she scraped her own arm in the process.

At that moment, seeing her birth mother's bleeding arm and her still-shaken face, Song Qingwan's complex feelings for her birth mother reached their peak.

She trusted Song Shurou completely, so much so that even after she grew up and learned about paternity tests, she never did one.

Over the next decade or so, under Song Shurou's malicious guidance and amidst her own constant inner turmoil, the once innocent and kind little girl was gradually molded into the morally ambiguous and selfish Song Qingwan she is today. (This chapter has been read. Please click to continue reading the next chapter!)