"Before, I kept reflecting on whether I hadn't done something good enough that caused him not to like me at all..." Wei Juan murmured, her face pale. "I kept thinking that if I behaved well enough, he would look at me more, and he would treat me better. I tried my best to please him, and I tried my best to do everything well. I did all the housework inside and outside the house..."

"But I found that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a gentle and loving look from him, or a word of praise... Many times I wondered if I was terrible, utterly awful, and therefore unworthy of being loved..."

"Now, I finally understand." Wei Juan smiled through her tears. "It wasn't my fault after all...it wasn't that I wasn't good enough..."

“You are a good girl, a very kind and gentle girl. You don’t need to let this kind of awful person’s attitude towards you cause you mental distress.” Su Wantang held her shoulders, looked at her gently, and comforted her. “From now on, your life will get better and better. You will meet people who are very kind and gentle to you. You deserve all the best things in this world.”

Wei Juan's tears fell silently.

"Sister..." Wei Juan choked up, "Can you hug me?"

"Of course." Su Wantang bent down and hugged Wei Juan tightly.

Wei Juan felt the gentle kindness emanating from Su Wantang, and she hugged Su Wantang tightly in return.

She was very grateful to God for letting her meet her sister.

If it weren't for her older sister, she would still be recognizing a thief as her father.

But the world is so big, where can she find her biological father?

...

Su Wantang brought Wei Juan back to the courtyard and settled her in.

"What are your plans next?" Su Wantang asked, looking at her.

"I want to get better quickly. Once I'm fully recovered, I'll try to find out about my biological father," Wei Juan said. "Whether he's alive or dead, I want to know who he is."

"What if he were still alive?" Su Wantang asked.

"If he's still alive... then I wish him a peaceful life," Wei Juan said, her eyes lowered.

She didn't know what had happened between her mother and him back then, nor did she know why her mother remarried Wei Zhentian.

She had no idea whether her biological father knew of her existence.

If he knew of her existence but hadn't acknowledged her after all these years, it's likely that he already had a new family and didn't want to reconnect with her.

She understands, and she wishes him happiness.

But if she didn't know of her existence, and so many years had passed, and her biological father had a new family, then she would be even less likely to be so tactless as to bother him.

"Mm." Su Wantang nodded.

...

At this moment, deep in the mountains.

Song Qiang was bitten by a stray dog. The dog tore off many pieces of flesh from his body, leaving no part of his face or body unscathed.

Because it was the height of summer and the weather was hot, and because his wounds were large, they became ulcerated, inflamed, and infected.

He developed a high fever and remained in a coma for four days.

Four days later, Song Qiang, who had collapsed on the ground, twitched his fingers. He weakly opened his eyes, and the bright light in front of him made his eyes sting and hurt.

Song Qiang struggled to move, every piece of flesh on his body felt torn and aching, but he forced himself to get up from the ground.

His face and body were covered in bloody wounds.

Some wounds were so deep that you could see the white bone underneath.

“Su Wantang… you bitch… you little bitch…” Song Qiang’s head was spinning, feeling like it weighed a ton. He dragged his battered legs and limped towards the cave exit. “You wait… when I get out… I’ll definitely kill you…”