Resisting the Wind and Splendor

After Huo Qing asked Chu Yueli what was going on, she immediately felt sympathy for Chu Lingshan.

I hate parents who disregard their daughters' happiness and only know how to use them to gain benefits.

"Those Li family members and Chu Yaozong are truly despicable; how could they treat you like this?"

Huo Qing bent down and personally helped Chu Lingshan up, angrily saying, "It's one thing for Chu Yaozong to act this way—there aren't many good men in the world! But Li Shi is your own mother! How could she use you like this? Doesn't she care about you at all?"

Why would someone treat their daughter, whom they carried for ten months and raised with such hardship, so cruelly?

Moreover, Li Fu himself was unwilling to marry Chu Lingshan as his principal wife; she was just a concubine. How much benefit could she bring to the couple?

For such a paltry sum of money, she disregarded her daughter's lifelong happiness. What a cruel mother!

Chu Yueli also looked at Chu Lingshan without saying a word.

Chu Lingshan bit her lip and finally cried out in a hoarse voice, "Because... because she is not my biological mother at all."

"What?" Huo Qing was shocked, her jaw almost dropping.

Even Chu Yueli was somewhat surprised this time. Chu Lingshan was not actually Li's daughter?

Why is this?

"If you're not Li's daughter, then who are you?"

“I…I wasn’t originally. My mother was a maid in the mansion. It is said that she died of illness not long after giving birth to me. At that time, her daughter, who had just been born, also died. My father did not want to alarm my grandfather, so he asked Li to adopt me.”

Chu Lingshan lowered her head, tears rolling down her cheeks onto the ground: "But I am indeed my father's daughter, because... because the man who gave birth to my mother was my father..."

Huo Qing and Chu Yueli exchanged glances but said nothing.

Such things are actually quite common in wealthy families, but it is indeed somewhat surprising that Madam Li was willing to let her stay by her side.

"It was probably Chu Yaozong who coerced and lured her; otherwise, given Li's personality, why would she agree?" Huo Qing sighed.

Chu Lingshan nodded, then shook her head: "I don't know the truth. I always thought I was my mother's daughter, but I wasn't obedient enough, so she didn't like me. But that day, I heard my mother scold me with my own ears, saying I was... a bastard child of a lowly... lowly... servant, and... as lowly as my mother..."

She sobbed, feeling wronged and heartbroken: "Before, my mother just disliked me and would occasionally beat and scold me. But ever since she revealed my true parentage and made me aware of it, she has stopped hiding it and has been beating and scolding me every day."

Chu Lingshan carefully lifted her sleeve.

When Huo Qing saw the wound on her head, her face turned bright red with anger.

"Such a vicious woman! It's a rare sight indeed! Even if she's not her biological daughter, she's still an adopted daughter she's raised for over a decade. How could she be so heartless!"

Huo Qing looked at Chu Yueli, and this time, she was also somewhat dissatisfied with Chu Yueli.

“You just said that if she can serve the country, then you can make the decision! Ali, why don’t you help her? Besides, she has been close to Sister Anran since childhood, and Sister Anran personally taught her martial arts. When she goes to Sister Anran’s side in the future, Sister Anran will definitely be very happy.”

“Aunt Anran might not really be happy. If it were up to Aunt Anran to make the decision, she probably wouldn’t let Lingshan follow her into military life,” Chu Yueli said calmly. “She has never actually been to the army and doesn’t know how tough marching is. If she regrets it later, it will be too late.”