Her father loved her with a hard and rough love; the nannies and maids loved her with a distant love; Ye Qingxue had never experienced her mother's gentle yet passionate and unreserved love.
In her past life, it was for this very family bond that she personally broke her own wings, castrated her own thoughts, and gave up the marriage contract that her father had fought for with his life, like a moth drawn to a flame...
If only my mother had said those words yesterday, before those seventeen lashes.
But after those seventeen lashes, she was not only covered in wounds, but her heart was also full of cracks.
She was abandoned by her mother when she was two years old and returned to the Marquis's mansion. Her mother was only close to Ye Yabing and never close to her.
Even after she revealed Ye Yabing's evil deeds and said that she only had ten days left to live, her mother never believed her. She even whipped her, wanting only to beat her to death to prevent her from harming the entire Marquis's mansion.
Yes, in her previous life, she never heard her mother say such a thing until her death... and yet she met a tragic end because of her pursuit of this family affection.
How come after she publicly humiliated everyone yesterday, causing a huge uproar in the Marquis's mansion, Mother said such things to her? Does she really treat her like a daughter now?
Ye Qingxue broke out in a cold sweat, feeling both pain and anger. She had been prepared, but inevitably, she almost fell into the trap when facing her mother.
The whip marks on her body were still throbbing. "You really weren't beaten hard enough, Ye Qingxue," she mocked herself.
People are always prone to stumbling over and over again in the very things they are stubbornly addicted to!
But she had already lost her life and dignity for this in her previous life. Wasn't that enough to make her realize the truth?
Ye Qingxue suddenly clenched her fists, and her gaze towards Madam Zhou was devoid of any emotion, filled only with endless indifference and mockery.
"What does Madam Zhou want me to do by suddenly saying all this?" Upon learning that she had spent the whole night having a secret rendezvous with another man, Madam Min sent Madam Zhou to take the lead.
Ye Qingxue had to admit that Madam Min's move was very accurate, hitting her sore spot. Fortunately, she reacted in time.
Madam Zhou had witnessed her transformation and was genuinely stunned. She had clearly been affected by her words, but how could the effect have vanished in an instant?
Madam Zhou waved her hand, dismissing everyone. She remained weakly seated on the couch, looking at Ye Qingxue with a sorrowful expression.
"Fifteen years ago, I had no choice but to send you to the village. If I hadn't sent you away, your younger brother and sister would have died. You can't blame me for that. You can only blame your bad luck for bringing misfortune to your sisters."
"Okay, and then what?" Ye Qingxue remained unmoved; she was already tired of hearing these words.
Seeing that she was unyielding, Madam Zhou's anger flared up: "You think you've suffered enough by being sent away, but as your mother, I gave birth to you who will bring misfortune to your sisters. Don't I suffer too? Don't I get looked down upon? Don't I get ridiculed by the noble ladies in the capital? Don't I get tormented by your grandmother? Don't I suffer too?"
Ye Qingxue: "Then why did you send me to the countryside? You could have just killed me. I wouldn't have been able to resist anyway, would I?"
"Kill me, and your suffering will be over. Why didn't you do that back then? Were you afraid people would say you killed your own child and were too cruel?"
"Look, you can't bear the terrible reputation that killing me would bring you. Yet you blame me for having bad luck in my birth chart, that I'll bring misfortune to your sisters, and that I'll cause you suffering."
"Why didn't you choose a better time to have sex with my father back then, so that I could be born on an auspicious day and at an auspicious time? Was it too exciting, and you couldn't wait even a moment longer?"
"You!" Madam Zhou's anger surged, feeling that she couldn't reason with Ye Qingxue at all. She raised her hand to slap Ye Qingxue across the face, and also scolded her:
"Why are you being so unreasonable? You even bring up the fact that I slept with your father. How can you be so shameless! Do you have any respect for me and your father?"
Ye Qingxue grabbed her wrist, preventing her from slapping her. She had already said that after seventeen lashes, she would sever ties with her mother, and her mother would no longer have the right to discipline her.
"Is this what you call disrespect? The First Madam can choose when to sleep with my father, but I cannot choose when I was born. As a result, two years after I was born, you blame me for not being born on an auspicious day and time!"
"Why don't you say that my horoscopes don't match mine? Why don't you send my horoscopes away? You abandoned me, yet you expect me to be grateful and feel guilty. Do you respect me?"
Ye Qingxue forcefully shook off Madam Zhou's hand, and Madam Zhou fell back onto the couch. She frantically tried to get up, but stopped halfway up.
She lay on the couch, hugged herself, and sobbed, her sobs genuine and heartfelt.
She was crying, but then she suddenly stopped, looked up at Ye Qingxue, and wiped away her tears.
"I didn't kill you when you were young because I treated you like my daughter. Tell me, which mother would be willing to kill her own daughter with her own hands?"
“You are indeed unlucky in your life because you have harmed your sisters, but I am also unlucky. I have been married to your father for many years, but I have not been able to give birth to a son for him to inherit his title, so that I, as his mother, could have someone to rely on.”
"But your father died young, and now your eldest brother and your second aunt are in charge of the entire Marquis's mansion. Your sister and I are just trying to make a living under their control!"
“I had no choice but to send you to the village. I didn’t mind when you blamed me because you were younger, but now that you’re older, you should learn to understand me!”
"Do you expect me to think of you in everything I do, without considering your sister or my own life at all?"
These were Madam Zhou's true feelings, her very honest thoughts. Ye Qingxue had experienced this firsthand in her previous life—Madam Zhou's constant self-sacrifice for her and Ye Yabing.
Ye Qingxue sneered: "So, what does the First Madam want me to do?"
“If you value your marriage to Prince Ding, you shouldn’t have had an affair with Xiang Zhou at the estate! I only gave you a lecture, and you went out at night to meet with another man all night long… You are not self-disciplined, yet you complain about others scolding and educating you!”
Madam Zhou stared at her intently, her sensual lips uttering words colder than ice: "I'm begging you, please calm down. To avoid implicating the entire Marquis's mansion, take the initiative to propose annulment to Prince Ding, and then request the Emperor to punish you!"
Madam Zhou spoke earnestly and with a sincere expression, genuinely pleading with Ye Qingxue to calm down, voluntarily annul the engagement, and accept her own demise so as not to implicate the Marquis's mansion.
Ye Qingxue smiled. Madam Zhou had never cared what she actually did, because Madam Zhou didn't approve of her as a daughter from the bottom of her heart and thought she couldn't do anything good.
Ye Qingxue countered, "What if I don't agree? What are your plans, Madam?"
Having said that, Madam Zhou had calmed down. A self-deprecating smile appeared on her lips: "You'll know what I'm planning once you've seen what's on that table."
Ye Qingxue turned her head and looked at the table in the center of the room. She hadn't noticed what was on the table before. She walked over and saw it—
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