Chapter Fifty-Eight: A Slap in the Face
"stop!"
At the critical moment, a rather authoritative voice suddenly rang out. Gu Xuanyi's hand froze in mid-air, and she stared blankly at the source of the voice.
Meng Jinyao walked towards them with a stern face and several maids. Although she was only a year older than them, her aura was intimidating, carrying an invisible pressure that made them hesitate to slap Gu Xuanling.
Perhaps, because Meng Jinyao was an elder and the wife of her third uncle, out of respect for her third uncle, she instinctively felt fear towards Meng Jinyao as well.
Gu Xuanyi's momentum instantly weakened. She awkwardly lowered her raised hand and stammered, "Third...Third Aunt."
Gu Xuanling was stunned for a moment. She thought about her behavior just now, and realized that her elders had probably seen it. She was also very scared, but she did not regret it. She respectfully bowed to Meng Jinyao and said, "Xuanling greets Third Aunt. I hope Third Aunt is well."
Meng Jinyao nodded slightly, her gaze falling on Gu Xuanyi, and said in a low voice, "Xuanyi, you really have a lot of arrogance. You just hit your sister without thinking. Didn't your sister-in-law teach you that sisters should get along harmoniously?"
Upon hearing this, Gu Xuanyi's heart trembled, and she hurriedly explained, "Third Aunt, it was Second Sister who pushed me first. She went too far." As she spoke, she opened her palm and accused the villain first, "Third Aunt, look, she just pushed me and I fell to the ground. My hand is all scraped."
Meng Jinyao glanced at it and saw that she had scraped her skin and was bleeding, but it was just a superficial injury and not serious. She turned to look at Gu Xuanling beside her and asked, "Xuanling, aren't you going to explain?"
Upon hearing this, a smug look flashed across Gu Xuanyi's face as she looked at Gu Xuanling with glee.
Gu Xuanling's face tightened, feeling like she was in a situation where she couldn't clear her name. If she wasn't the one who got hurt, who would believe that she was the one who was bullied? She lowered her head in frustration and stammered, "Third Aunt, it was indeed me who pushed my eldest sister, but it was my eldest sister who was rude first."
"Third Aunt, she's lying!" Gu Xuanyi immediately retorted angrily, directly accusing me, "She was walking too fast and accidentally dropped the pastries, but she blamed me, saying that I was the one who dropped them, and even pushed me down."
As soon as she finished speaking, Gu Xuanling's face turned red with anger. It was clearly her older sister who snatched the food box and threw her pastries on the ground, but now it was her who accidentally dropped them. The only witness was her older sister's maid. She hadn't brought her maid and had suffered in silence, unable to defend herself.
Meng Jinyao stared at Gu Xuanyi expressionlessly. In Gu Xuanyi, she saw the shadow of her half-sister Meng Jinyu. They were both arrogant, rude, and disdainful of everyone. They didn't even blush when they bit back, and they were very self-righteous.
Thinking of Meng Jinyu reminded her of Madam Sun, and her face darkened. She asked again, "Xuanyi, is that really the case?"
Gu Xuanyi nodded without hesitation and pointed to the two maids, saying, "It's absolutely true. If Third Aunt doesn't believe me, she can ask these two maids. They saw it all clearly."
Those two maids were Gu Xuanyi's head maids; how could they dare to betray their mistress?
So they chimed in, “Madam, what the eldest young lady said is the truth. It was the second young lady who wronged the eldest young lady and even pushed her. The second young lady had bullied the eldest young lady before, but the eldest young lady was kind-hearted and didn’t hold it against her. I didn’t expect her to come and cause trouble again today.”
Gu Xuanling shook her head repeatedly: "Third Aunt, no, that's not how it is, I didn't."
"You still dare to argue when there are witnesses?" Gu Xuanyi glared at her with a warning look in her eyes, then put on a magnanimous look. "Alright, second sister, I won't blame you. It's understandable that you're upset because you broke the pastries you made with so much effort. I forgive you for this."
Meng Jinyao rubbed her temples, turned to look at Chunliu, and instructed, "Chunliu, repeat everything you just heard. Just repeat what the eldest young lady said."
Gu Xuanyi: "???"
Gu Xuanling: "???"
The two sisters were stunned; the former was shocked, panicked, and incredulous, while the latter hadn't yet reacted.
Chunliu had a good memory and repeated Gu Xuanyi's words verbatim, even mimicking Gu Xuanyi's tone of voice perfectly. After finishing the last word, she subconsciously looked at her mistress and saw that her mistress gave her an approving look. She was overjoyed and felt that she was about to be able to get on her mistress's good side.
Gu Xuanyi's face turned deathly pale. Thinking of what she had just said, she felt even more ashamed and frightened. She was still just a fifteen-year-old girl, and she was completely panicked. She stared blankly at Chunliu, never expecting that her third aunt and her maid had witnessed her bullying her illegitimate cousin from the second branch of the family.
Gu Xuanyi's two maids also turned pale. The eldest young lady would be punished if she was caught lying, but since they helped her lie, the madam would definitely blame them, saying that they had corrupted the eldest young lady and severely punish them.
Gu Xuanling stared blankly at Meng Jinyao, feeling that this third aunt was a living bodhisattva who had saved her from dire straits. Otherwise, if things had blown up, her aunt would have definitely said that her mother had not educated her well, and in the end, her mother would have had no choice but to punish her.
Meng Jinyao asked with a stern face, "Xuanyi, did your sister-in-law not only fail to teach you to get along with your sisters, but also fail to teach you not to lie to your elders?"
"Third Aunt, I..."
Gu Xuanyi couldn't explain herself, tears streaming down her face. She felt as if an invisible slap had landed hard on her cheek, leaving it burning.
Meng Jinyao glanced at Gu Xuanling, who was standing there in a daze, and thought to herself, "She looks so silly, no wonder she gets bullied."
Thinking this, she asked again, "Although Xuanling's aunt is not the legal wife, she is still half an elder to you. Is this how you treat someone who has passed away? Besides, although your second aunt is not her biological mother, she is her legal mother. It is perfectly normal for a daughter to make pastries to show filial piety to her mother. What do you mean by slandering her like this? Do you think that you don't have to be filial to a mother who is not your biological mother?"
Of course, the premise of filial piety is not that the child is biologically related, but Gu Xuanling took the initiative to be filial to the mother who was loving towards the child, which proves that Chen did not do anything too outrageous.
Unlike her stepmother, Sun, who for some unknown reason wished she were dead from the very beginning, she once regarded Sun as her own mother. She was raised by Sun and had great affection for her. Every time she called her "Mother," it came from the bottom of her heart. But after she learned of that heinous crime, she began to distance herself from and be wary of Sun. She even occasionally went against Sun.
Gu Xuanyi's heart skipped a beat. These words were quite serious. Her father was also born out of wedlock, not her grandmother's biological son. According to what she had just said, that meant...
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