Chapter 1: The Fake Heiress Dies by Self-Immolation

"I'm cold... I'm so cold... Please, give me a blanket... just one blanket..."

In the night, illuminated by the snow, Li Qingluo's face, whiter than snow, was revealed through a wide gap in the small, dilapidated house beside the stable.

Her face was thin and gaunt, her features emaciated, and her eyes shone with a faint light as she looked pleadingly at the servants outside, reaching out for help.

"Pah! What a lowly wretch! You think you have the right to think you can use a quilt to keep warm?"

The old servant kicked Li Qingluo's hand away hard, causing Li Qingluo to scream in pain.

The few onlookers who came later were amused by the scene and burst into laughter.

"Look at her! So what if she's a true descendant of our General's Mansion? How can bloodline compare to sixteen years of living together day and night, and the deep affection between us?"

"Alas, it's such a pity about our young lady... On the very first day that vile woman returned to the manor, she actually... she actually left behind a farewell letter and... she left this world."

"She must have been terrified to do something so cruel, even resorting to self-immolation, which has caused immense heartache for our entire household."

When the past was recounted, the servants all shed tears.

Perhaps growing angrier by the thought, an old servant picked up a stick from the side and reached it through the crack into the small, dilapidated house, intending to teach Li Qingluo another lesson.

Someone pulled her back: "She is, after all, the second daughter of the General's Mansion now. Don't let her really be killed."

"Ha, so what if she's dead? Do you really think the Madam, the Master, and the Eldest Young Master will still have any pity for her? She should have died long ago. She should have been buried with the eldest young lady the day she died! Poor our eldest young lady..."

"Yes. Ever since the eldest daughter passed away, the madam has been absent-minded, and the master often sighs. The eldest son has become even more unpredictable... Isn't all of this caused by this real and fake heiress incident?"

In the end, the servants didn't poke randomly with their sticks, but they did throw in the stinking horse manure, which haphazardly splattered all over Li Qingluo.

Then, the crowd dispersed, completely ignoring Li Qing's original intention in going to great lengths to summon them.

All she wanted was a quilt to keep warm in the room...

The snow outside was still falling softly.

The horse's 'wheezing' gradually quieted down.

Li Qingluo lay quietly on the cold wooden board, only managing to tear off some straw and cover herself with it perfunctorily.

Two days ago, she was slapped to the ground by her own brother, Li Kechuan, simply because she accidentally broke a teacup left behind by Li Qingzhu.

Then, under the pretext of teaching her manners and making her remember, he had her locked in this stinking, dilapidated little house next to the stable.

Last night, the first heavy snow of this cold winter quietly arrived.

She was so cold that she couldn't stand it anymore, so she asked for a quilt.

However, these servants also hated her intensely because of Li Qingzhu, and used this as an excuse to humiliate her to this extent.

Li Qingluo felt that her life was nothing but a joke.

If she had known this would happen, she shouldn't have gone back to the Li family in the first place.

But clearly, she is the true bloodline of the Li family... Clearly, she is her parents' biological daughter and her brother's biological sister.

But in their hearts and eyes, there was only Li Qingzhu, their only daughter and sister.

Sixteen years ago, the midwife secretly switched her identity with her granddaughter, then took her back to the mountains and raised her like a pig or a dog until she was four or five years old.

From then on, Li Qing was reduced to a slave, unable to even get enough to eat or sleep, serving the family day and night.

Until the Li family suddenly came looking for them.

Her true identity was revealed; she was actually a wealthy young lady whose identity had been switched!

Amidst her confusion, Li Qing found a glimmer of joy and was welcomed back to Jinling City with great anticipation.

Even the Li family did not pursue the midwife's family's past actions, nor did they give them much thought.

However, just as she saw her parents standing at the entrance of the Li residence, before she could even get close, she heard frantic shouts coming from inside: "Something terrible has happened!! The eldest young lady has set herself on fire—the eldest young lady has set herself on fire!!"

Li Qingzhu left behind a final letter, saying that because her identity had been revealed, she knew she was deeply guilty and owed too much to the true bloodline of the Li family. She should have made way for everything to return to its original place, but she couldn't bear to part with the deep affection of her parents and brother, fearing that they would no longer love her. Therefore, she preferred to die at this moment...

Li Qingzhu committed suicide by self-immolation, and more than a dozen houses in the Li family mansion were also burned down.

Li Qingluo had just returned. She stared blankly at the charred ruins and the corpse, still not understanding why this had happened.

Before she could react further, Li Kechuan, blinded by rage, slapped her hard across the face, and Li Qingluo's mouth instantly filled with the taste of blood.

"It's all because of you!! If you hadn't come back, Pearl wouldn't have done something rash, she wouldn't have died!! Why wasn't it you who died!!!"

Although her parents pulled Li Kechuan away, their gazes toward her were filled with complex emotions, hesitation, and even unbearable pain.

Li Qingluo then realized that they regretted it...

Do you regret bringing her back?

From that day on, Li Qingluo began to atone for Li Qingzhu's death.

Everyone blamed Li Qingzhu's death on her.

Her mother settled her in a remote and cramped little house, where it was very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter.

The servants in the mansion all gave her the cold shoulder, secretly cursing her as a jinx, a disaster, and a poisonous woman.

Her father never gave her a second glance.

Even when her mother occasionally saw her, she would frown and mutter, "Zhu'er... my poor Zhu'er... I'm so sorry! I miss you so much, it hurts my heart..."

Li Qingluo did everything she could to please them all.

Regardless of wind or rain, she would go to pay her respects to her mother, personally cook meals for her mother, and massage her mother's legs and shoulders.

But her mother didn't want to see her much, and only told her not to appear in front of her unless necessary.

As for the food she cooked, her mother had the servants throw it away to feed the dogs. After discovering Li Qingluo's ingratiating behavior, her mother would even scold her with a long face: "What's the use of all this? Anyway, no matter what, you can't get my Zhu'er back..."

My mother cried every day and developed an eye disease.

The doctor said that a blood relative needed to cut flesh as a catalyst to use the blood in the medicine, and Li Qingluo picked up the knife without saying a word.

But later, she heard Li Kechuan say with her own ears, "Those medicines, throw them all away and feed them to the dogs! They stink so badly they make you want to vomit!"

The servant advised Li Kechuan, "But young master, without these medicines, what about the lady's eye ailment..."

Li Kechuan sneered: "She's a fool! I just had the doctor tell her something to fool her, and she believed it? What eye disease? She doesn't need this useless stuff!"

Li Qingluo felt a chill run through her body upon hearing these words.

Before she could leave, Li Kechuan discovered her whereabouts.

She cried and asked Li Kechuan, "Brother, why do you treat me like this?! I'm your sister too—"

Li Kechuan gripped her neck tightly, his eyes bloodshot, as if he truly wished he could strangle her to death.

He roared at her like a madman: "Shut up! I won't allow you to call me brother! My sister, Li Qingzhu, is only one, in life and in death, in this world!"

"And you, as lowly as mud, are not worthy of this life!"

"Father and Mother feel the same way. We wish you had never existed, so that Pearl wouldn't have died!"

"Why didn't we just accept the mistake? Why did I insist on bringing you back?"

"Guards! Li Qingluo has spoken inappropriately and behaved improperly. Take her to the ancestral hall and make her kneel as punishment. Without my permission, she is not allowed to get up, much less leave!"

Li Qingluo was dragged away with her mouth covered and locked in the ancestral hall for three days and three nights.

She neither drank a drop of water nor ate a grain of rice.

And whenever she tilted her body off the prayer mat, a stick would strike her hard.

She was only thrown back into her dark, damp little house after she had completely fainted and been whipped until she could no longer make a sound.

Li Qingluo thought she would die on the day she woke up with a high fever but no doctor came to see her.

But unexpectedly,

Zhuang Wei, the third son of the Marquis of Zhongyi's family, who has just passed the imperial examination and become a third-ranked scholar, has arrived.

He was originally Li Qingzhu's fiancé, chosen by the old lady of the Zhuang family when Li Qingzhu was still in her mother's womb. Naturally, he and Li Qingzhu grew up together from childhood.

They were childhood sweethearts, deeply in love, and their feelings for each other had long been deeply rooted.

However, with Li Qingluo's return, the marriage had to be put back on track...

Li Qingzhu died again.

Zhuang Wei hated her just like the Li family.

But then he intervened and saved her.

Li Qingluo didn't understand his actions, but Zhuang Wei coldly told her, "Don't worry. Even if I never marry, I will never marry you! I will slowly avenge Zhu'er's blood debt to you. Wouldn't it be too easy for you to die like this?!"

How ridiculous and absurd...

Her life, in fact, was a mistake.

She was born in exchange for Li Qingzhu coming to the Li family.

His death should bring peace to the hearts of everyone in the Li family.

But what exactly did she do wrong?

Is it because she longed for the kind of family affection she had never received?

Because of Li Qingzhu's death, she felt a sense of shame and tried her best to please her blood relatives, wanting to comfort them, but did she just let them trample and insult her?

But she was originally their daughter, their sister, and their fiancée...

She has never actually done anything to harm anyone.

They were the ones who found her.

Just because Li Qingzhu died, is she a sinner for all time?

The snow outside was still falling softly.

Li Qingluo gradually breathed her last.

She looked at her frozen corpse and realized that her soul had left her body.

She floated out of the house, floated to the backyard, and then came to the brightly lit front yard.

No one knew what happy event had happened in the Li family, but laughter, cheers, and excitement filled the air.

Since Li Qingluo returned, he has never seen such a strange sight.

She moved closer without thinking, only to see a beautiful young woman standing in the middle of the crowd, nestled in her mother's arms, calling out sweetly, "Mother, I missed you so much!"

"And Father, and Brother!"

"By the way, where is my sister? I haven't seen her yet. Where is she? Please bring her here so I can explain this misunderstanding to her!"

This...this is Li Qingzhu!?

She didn't die?