Xiao Lan's face froze, her gaze falling in disbelief onto the woman's face, her hands unconsciously clenching under her sleeves.
It turns out she had such a background.
She was the legitimate daughter of the principal wife of a prominent family.
The woman's expression was one of deep remorse, as if this was the most unbearable mistake of her life.
Xiao Lan immediately lowered her eyelids. From the woman's perspective, this was the second time she had been told this matter.
She's been processing this for months; she should be used to it by now.
"As the personal maid of the concubine, I had no choice but to do as I was told. I brought you all the way here because I couldn't bear to go to a remote village. Although Xiamei Village is surrounded by mountains, it is close to Yunzhou, so it can give you more hope in your life."
“I left you at the crossroads where the villagers would go to Yunzhou, hoping that they would find you and adopt you. It was winter. I was about to leave when I heard you crying and saw you wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying all alone on the ground, your little face red from the cold. I couldn’t bear it and decided to stay with you for a few more days.”
"This companionship lasted for more than ten years."
The woman held Xiao Lan's hand, her palm as light as a feather: "I treat you as my own daughter, and at the same time, I am doing this to atone for my sins."
Thinking of the past, a kind of sadness, as if she had suffered greatly, appeared in her eyes.
“As an outsider in this village, the villagers all thought I was a philanderer who had run away from home after getting pregnant with an illegitimate child. The first few days were really tough. I hid with you under a banana grove in the village, but they still wanted to drive us away. Fortunately, your father didn’t care about these things. He married me and gave us a place to settle down.”
"It's a pity your father didn't live long. When your younger brother was ten years old, he fell off a cliff while gathering herbs and died."
Two lines of tears fell silently from the woman's sunken eyes.
The man protected her for ten years. After he left, the mother and her two children endured the villagers' ridicule and sarcasm year after year.
Xiao Lan calmed herself down for a while, and when she looked at the woman, her eyes were full of gratitude.
“Mother, you sent me to this place back then. You could have gone back to the capital to live a good life, but you chose to stay by my side and protect me, which allowed me to grow up smoothly. I will always be grateful to you, Mother. You must get well soon. Now that I'm grown up, it's time to repay you.”
Mother only followed an evil master; Mother has always been a kind person.
The woman's face was full of relief, but she shook her head.
“In my current state, I’m nothing more than a handful of ashes with a smoldering ember. A gust of wind will scatter me.” She hesitated for a moment. “Qiao’er, if you have a better future, you should help your brother. He’s all alone here, and his life won’t be easy. Over the years, he’s fought tooth and nail with the villagers to protect my daughter and me.”
Because of their unknown origins, the villagers held great prejudice against them. Over the years, the grievances they had suffered were like the endless flow of the river in the village.
"Yes, Mother. Once I've settled down in the capital, I'll take my younger brother with me," Xiao Lan promised.
Since she is the daughter of a wealthy and powerful family, as long as she reclaims her rightful identity, even if it's just a glimpse through her fingers, it would be enough to ensure her younger brother's lifelong comfort.
As Qiao Lian'er listened, she couldn't help but think that before coming to this world, she had read many novels about real and fake heiresses. Now, a similar plot was being replayed in front of her. It seemed that novels really did originate from reality.
However, Xiao Lan went to the capital to recognize her ancestors, was poisoned, and lost her memory. There must have been many unspeakable things that happened during this time.
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