"Let's not even talk about whether Mother hit Grandma or not. Even if she did, you divorced her. What more do you want? She tried to prove her innocence with her life and almost died. She still has the vicious reputation of beating her mother-in-law."
"You say we insist on going with her, then tell me, why do we insist on going with a wicked woman?"
"Is it that a scholar's daughter isn't appealing, or that a wicked woman's reputation is too good to be true?"
Upon hearing this, everyone agreed. Why would someone give up being the daughter of a scholar to follow a disgraced and abandoned woman?
It just didn't seem right. The crowd couldn't help but murmur amongst themselves:
“Even if Mother is divorced, she can still live a good life as long as she stays with her scholar father. The fact that they insist on leaving means they can’t make it with her scholar father.”
"My mother is a divorced woman, how difficult it will be for her to find a husband in the future... Sigh! She'd rather bear that reputation than not leave... Tsk tsk, it's a long story."
Zheng Nian and the others also looked at Li Zhiyuan with meaningful expressions.
"No..." Li Zhiyuan wanted to argue, but his status as a scholar was the best proof.
"Father...it's not that we wanted to leave, we were forced to leave by you!" Ye Huan'er's tears streamed down her face.
The little girl, about eleven or twelve years old, was petite and delicate. Her crying only made her more pitiful.
"Nonsense!" Li Zhiyuan's expression changed. "When did I force you to leave!"
"Aren't you forcing us to leave?" Ye Jin'er's eyes also reddened. "When Mother came back and wanted us, you were unwilling to let us go."
Ye Huan'er said, "When Mother saw this, she thought that we could live better if we stayed in the Li family, so she gave up. She also praised Father, saying that you are a scholar with noble character and that you will definitely marry your daughter well in the future."
“She also said she would keep an eye on us and report us to the authorities if we were ever sold by Grandma. When you heard that, you thought you couldn’t sell us, but you didn’t want to give us a large dowry, so you abandoned us and told us to go with our mother.”
“Many people in Lijia Village and Qinghe Village are watching this. If you don’t believe me, you can go and ask or check.”
Everyone present looked on in astonishment, staring at Li Zhiyuan with disdain.
Regardless of what kind of person his ex-wife was, her subsequent actions were not wrong; she always paid attention to her daughter and wanted her to marry well.
If this scholar Li didn't want to sell his daughters, why would he let them leave upon seeing this?
Isn't it just that they can't sell her, but they still want her to marry him off at a high price, and they're unwilling to give her a dowry?
Qian Hai: "Pah, you always act so high and mighty, but you're really like this."
Liu Gaosheng shook his head at Li Zhiyuan: "Even if she's a girl, she's still your own daughter. Brother Zhiyuan, you're a scholar, how could you even think of selling your daughter?"
"No, no... I didn't!" Li Zhiyuan felt like he wanted to die.
Although these were all his most sordid thoughts, how could they be revealed!
Li Zhiyuan could only keep explaining, "Brother Zheng, you have to believe me... this is all nonsense. The reason they followed the Ye family... is because they were bewitched by the Ye family, not because I am an incompetent father."
"Let's just say we were bewitched by Mother!" Ye Huan'er shook her head with a bitter smile, her face filled with despair. "Whatever Father says, that's what I'll do. I'll accept it..."
"Let's not dwell on the past. Now that we've signed the severance agreement, we're no longer father and daughter, and have no further relationship."
"But the recipe for spicy soup was painstakingly developed by Mother after she returned to her parents' home. It's our livelihood. Father, how can you come here and ask us for the recipe without even asking? How can you be so shameless?"
"You've already divorced Mother, she left with nothing, she didn't take anything from the Li family. And you, Father, actually want the formula she developed!"
"You walk over here as if it's your right, open your mouth, and ask your divorced wife for something. How can you be so shameless?"
Ye Huan'er stared intently at him, changing her sentences and repeating phrases like "divorce him" and "take back his ex-wife's things."
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