Seeing the disdainful looks from the surrounding villagers, who were calling them blind, Ling's parents retorted defiantly, "You're the blind ones! My daughter is cunning; she's always trying to make money by hanging out with men, just like her grandfather. If it weren't for Yao Yao being with us all these years, we don't know how we would have survived..."
The villagers all stared at the two as if they were fools.
Ling's parents simply couldn't take it anymore.
Ever since they returned to the island, they had a vague feeling that the villagers were looking at them strangely, with mockery in their eyes, which made them feel choked up and unable to breathe.
"Look at these two idiots, they have no idea what their precious adopted daughter is saying about them behind their backs."
When Aunt Liu said that, everyone in the know smiled knowingly.
"That's right, they treat their adopted daughter like their own precious daughter, but behind her back, the adopted daughter curses them as old, dead burdens, saying that after using them to poison people, she doesn't have to support them anymore. Tsk tsk, what a tragedy!"
"Not only that, their adopted daughter took their money and went to Hong Kong to enjoy a life of luxury. They were still foolishly thinking that their adopted daughter would come to pick them up, and they even tried to steal their biological daughter's money to give to their adopted daughter. They didn't know that their adopted daughter had already abandoned them as a burden, hahaha..."
The villagers didn't hold back and vented all their long-held contempt for them.
As Ling's parents listened to the pointing fingers and blatant jeers around them, their heads buzzed, their faces turned deathly pale, and their bodies swayed precariously.
"What nonsense are you spouting? You're all lying to us, a married couple, just to curry favor with her? Have some shame!"
“Our Yaoyao is the most sensible and obedient girl. How could she abandon us? She just doesn’t have enough money…”
Ling's parents continued to make excuses for Song Yaoyao, refusing to believe that their daughter, whom they had cherished for over a decade, would abandon them.
It wasn't until the village chief stepped forward and unfolded a letter of complaint in front of the two men that they shut their mouths, collapsed to the ground, and their eyes instantly lost all light.
The handwriting in the letter was by Song Yaoyao. She wrote to the village chief to report that Ling Huanwu had not supported her parents. In the letter, she also cursed Ling's father and mother for abusing her, calling them "old hags" and "blind couple" like sharp knives stabbing into their hearts.
At the end of the letter, Song Yaoyao reported a smuggler, hoping to completely sever Ling's parents' desire to go to Hong Kong to find her.
Holding this irrefutable evidence, Ling's father still believed it was a frame-up. "This must be a conspiracy between you and this rebellious daughter to frame Yao Yao, isn't it?"
The villagers watching showed even more mockery and disdain.
They knew from the beginning that even if they revealed what Song Yaoyao had said back then, the two wouldn't believe them.
Unexpectedly, even faced with such irrefutable evidence, Ling's father still seemed unconvinced.
Over the years, his favoritism towards his adopted daughter and neglect of his biological daughter, all the things he has done for Song Yaoyao have sunk too high a cost, and he simply cannot accept being abandoned by his most beloved daughter.
Only Ling's mother seemed to come to her senses and believe what the villagers around her had said.
She stared at the letter and burst into tears, her sobs deafening. Suddenly, she raised her hand and slapped her father across the face again. "It's all your fault, you bastard! If you hadn't kept telling me to be nice to Song Yaoyao, I wouldn't have hurt my own daughter's feelings because of her!"
"It's all your fault! You've made me raise a little ingrate all these years!"
The last sentence was almost a sob and a roar from Ling's mother, and tears of regret streamed down her face like a broken string of pearls.
Ling Huanwu once again took out the confession that Song Yaoyao had written and threw it in front of the two of them from the office.
The text clearly describes how Song Yaoyao deliberately pushed Qin Zhizhi downstairs in the state-run department store in order to grab a piece of clothing.
It wasn't Qin Zhizhi who started the trouble at all, but after pushing the two people, Song Yaoyao learned that Qin Zhizhi was someone important. She then tricked them into believing that they had been bullied by Qin Zhizhi and that's why they fought back. This made the two people feel sorry for her and pushed Ling Huanwu, who was also buying clothes, to take the blame.
Not only that, it also records how Song Yaoyao deliberately smeared her head with chicken blood in order to frame Ling Huanwu, and many other things that made Ling's parents' eyes bloodshot and tears of regret flow.
When Ling's mother stood up, supporting herself on the sewing machine, her whole body staggered.
Looking up at her own daughter across from her, who treated her like a stranger, she felt as if a huge hole had been torn in her chest, and a cold wind was howling through the room.
"Huanhuan, why don't you explain to your mother? You've made me misunderstand you all this time..."
Before she could finish speaking, Wang Guihua angrily interrupted her, "Explain? Just now, the whole village told you the truth, and you two blind and deaf people still didn't believe it. How do you expect her to explain?"
One sentence left Ling's mother speechless, and she covered her face in anguish, tears streaming down her face.
Ling's father also shakily got up, looking at Wang Guihua with disapproval, "In-law, you can't speak so harshly. We're not gods. What's wrong with us wanting to repay a debt of gratitude? Besides, our family affairs are none of your business!"
"Family matters?"
Ling Huanwu sneered and affectionately took Wang Guihua's hand. "I severed all ties with both of you a long time ago. She is my mother now!"
"And you two, get out of the cooperative, we're about to start work!"
With a face full of remorse, Ling's mother grabbed Ling Huanwu's wrist and explained tearfully, "Huanhuan, we were really deceived by Song Yaoyao back then. We thought her parents were honest people, so we naturally assumed she wouldn't lie, which is why we believed her. Please give us another chance, okay?"
Ling's father blushed, and words of regret rolled around in his mouth, but in the end, he said nothing.
Ling Huanwu pried open her mother's fingers one by one. Her heart, which had once been full of expectations for her parents' love, had long been wounded and was now riddled with holes, unable to bleed a single drop.
"Give you a chance? Then who will give that Ling Daniu, who was locked in a dark room and had her fingernails ripped off, a chance?"
The villagers were all indignant and pushed the two men, who looked annoyed, out of the cooperative's gate.
"Why didn't you do this earlier? Who are you trying to fool now?"
"You only start to feel sorry for someone after they've been tortured to this extent? It's too late!"
"You trampled your heart like a stone back then, and now you want to pick it up and warm it up? It won't warm up anymore!"
The crowd chattered and chased the two weeping people out of the cooperative, then bolted the door shut.
The farce has finally come to an end.
Faced with the concerned looks from the villagers, Ling Huanwu touched her face somewhat awkwardly, "What are you all looking at? Do I have something on my face?"
She pulled Aunt Liu aside, patted the heads of the triplets, looked at Zhou Jiuzhen who had been watching her the whole time, and shouted loudly with a smile, but the words were meant for everyone.
"Today I've distributed the final work clothes to each workstation. I estimate we can finish packing and delivery this afternoon. Tonight, our company will have some mutton to warm us up!"
"Great! Great!"
The villagers clapped their hands excitedly, full of anticipation for the big pot dinner that evening.
No one noticed that Xu Amei secretly picked up the pattern from the sewing machine at the back of the crowd and slipped out while the crowd wasn't looking.
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