"Lu Jiaojiao is their child."

“They raised Lu Jiaojiao under my care. I have devoted myself to Lu Jiaojiao all these years.”

Lu Jin collapsed to the ground, unable to utter a single word; only the sound of his teeth chattering could be heard.

Lin Peirou was so frightened that tears almost welled up in her eyes. She clutched the hem of her clothes tightly, afraid that Shen Qingtang would reveal more.

Grandpa Shen was so angry that he slammed his cane into the ground and pointed at Lu Jin, cursing, "You beast! You can even harm your own flesh and blood! I'll beat you to death today!" He was about to rush forward when Shen Minglan quickly pulled him back.

Shen Qingtang stopped her grandfather, her eyes cold: "Grandpa, don't dirty your hands. What he and Lin Peirou owe me, I will get back little by little."

She looked at Lu Jin, who was lying on the ground, and Lin Peirou, whose face was pale.

A cold smile curved at the corner of his lips.

This score needs to be settled properly.

Upon hearing Shen Qingtang's words, Lu Jin's pupils contracted sharply, his eyes widened as he stared at her, his voice trembling: "You... how could you know? This is impossible!"

What happened back then... they did it flawlessly!

He couldn't understand how he and Lin Peirou could have conspired to secretly throw away Shen Qingtang's newborn child and then switch Lin Peirou's baby, Lu Jiaojiao, with Shen Qingtang's. This could only have happened between them and the bribed midwife.

Nobody knows!

Lin Peirou stood to the side, her teeth chattering, her hands gripping the hem of her clothes tightly until her knuckles turned white. She didn't even dare to lift her head, afraid that Shen Qingtang would reveal more details.

She feared that her years of pretense would be completely shattered.

Over the years, she watched from the shadows as Shen Qingtang doted on Lu Jiaojiao as if she were his own daughter.

He felt both smug and terrified; now the truth was finally about to be revealed.

Lu's mother immediately jumped out and stood in front of Lu Jin, forcing a smile, but her face was frighteningly pale: "Qing Tang, don't talk nonsense! How could Jin'er do such a thing? You must be overthinking it, you must have remembered wrong!"

She verbally retorted, but inside she was panicking terribly.

Her son did mention wanting to "change children" back then, but she didn't stop him.

“I’m not mistaken, and I’m not making this up.” Shen Qingtang’s cold gaze swept over Lu’s mother. “The midwife who delivered my baby took fifty taels of silver from your son. You took my child and threw him into a mass grave, and then brought back Lu Jiaojiao, born to Lin Peirou. Do you want me to go into more detail about this?”

These words immediately caused an uproar among the surrounding officials and commoners, with discussions rising and falling:

"My God! How could such a thing happen? Throwing away your own daughter and replacing her with someone else's child?"

"No wonder Miss Shen doesn't acknowledge Lu Jiaojiao; it turns out she's not her biological daughter at all!"

"Lu Jin is such a scoundrel! He would even abandon his own child and then slander Miss Shen!"

The officials were utterly shocked. They had initially thought it was just a simple family dispute, but they never expected it to lead to such a huge scandal. They all held their breath, waiting to see what would happen next.

Lu Jiaojiao was so frightened by the scene that she burst into tears and rushed to her mother's side.

She clung to her clothes, crying out, "Grandma! I'm Mother's daughter! I really am! Please tell Mother to stop talking!"

Madam Shen was soft-hearted to begin with, and seeing Lu Jiaojiao crying so hard she could barely breathe, she hesitated again. She took Shen Qingtang's hand and pleaded, "Qingtang, could it be... could it really be a mistake? Jiaojiao has grown up so much..."

“Mother, there’s no mistake.” Shen Qingtang looked at the reluctance in her mother’s eyes, shook her head gently, but her voice was firm. “I’ve raised her for so many years, treated her with all my heart, but what did she do? She helped Lu Jin and Lin Peirou harm me, and helped the Northern Desert people betray me. I don’t recognize such a ‘daughter’, and I don’t want her.”