Forced to be a concubine? I turned around and married the scumbag's father.

Aunt Pei looked nervous.

Mu Junyan publicly led that little bitch out by the hand, and even specially invited the Wang family. Could it be that he intends to...?

"This concerns a secret matter from seventeen years ago. This matter is related to the Wang family and the Wenchang Marquis's mansion, therefore, we have invited both parties to come and interrogate each other."

Interrogation?

Aunt Pei's expression changed drastically.

Gu Wanru looked nervously at Aunt Pei, but her face was tense and her hands were twisting a handkerchief, which made Gu Wanru even more frightened.

Wang Heng, who had navigated the officialdom for decades, immediately sensed something was amiss.

He adopted a serious expression: "Duke Yong, what matter requires interrogation?"

Mu Junyan smiled and waved his hand: "Please sit down, everyone."

Gu Hua glanced at him and saw him point to the chair next to him: "Please sit, Madam."

lady!

The expressions of everyone present immediately changed, and they all began to scrutinize Gu Hua intently.

Gu Hua didn't hesitate and sat down properly.

Mu Junyan turned his head to look at Gu Hua and said softly, "Shall you do it, or shall I?"

Gu Hua's eyes reddened, and she pursed her lips: "Please let me do it."

"Good." Mu Junyan's eyes showed appreciation.

She was never a caged bird.

Gu Hua slowly stood up and bowed to each of the elders.

The girl abandoned her usual obedient and humble demeanor and stood gracefully among the crowd.

Her clear voice revealed restrained forbearance: "Seventeen years ago, Madam Pei used her illegitimate daughter to switch the legitimate daughter of the Marquis's legal mother."

"You're talking nonsense!" Aunt Pei jumped up almost simultaneously, pointing her finger at Gu Hua's nose and rushing forward.

The whole house was stunned; no one could react in time.

Mu Junyan's eyes darkened.

Just as Donghua and Zhou Zhilan, who were standing by, were about to intervene, Wang suddenly jumped up, grabbed Aunt Pei who had just rushed to her side, and slapped her across the face.

For some reason, she felt like she was going to explode when she heard Gu Hua's words. It seemed that Gu Hua had exposed her suspicions from yesterday, and all her grievances poured out at that moment.

bang.

The cracking sound of the slap was like the sound of oil frying in a pan.

"How is that possible!" Gu Yuan jumped up, his face turning pale with anger.

The Wang family was stunned, looking at each other in bewilderment, unsure of what to say.

Wang Heng remained relatively calm, his face grim and brows furrowed: "Gu Hua, you can't just make things up."

Gu Hua nodded: "Uncle is right, everything should be based on evidence. Before presenting the evidence, let me tell you how I have spent the past seventeen years."

She spoke calmly, enunciating each word clearly, recounting how she had been abused by Aunt Pei since childhood, forced to become Gu Wanru's shadow, copying books, writing poems, and doing needlework for Gu Wanru. When Aunt Pei discovered her friendship with the son of the private tutor, fearing that she would be taken away and ruin the Pei family's plans, she poisoned her by pushing her off a cliff to her death.

After she came of age, Pei used drugs to accelerate her growth and forced her to drink contraceptive soup to make her lose her ability to conceive. If she disobeyed in the slightest, she was locked in a dark room for three days and three nights without food or water. She was forced to have excrement and urine poured into her mouth, pricked with silver needles, forced to sign fake slave documents, and even thrown into a dilapidated temple in the suburbs to scare her. She told all of these things one by one.

She was telling the truth; she didn't hide anything.

Gu Hua tried her best to control herself and keep her voice calm.

However, she didn't involve Pei Yi, because Pei Yi still had a great use to him.

Looking at the girl's trembling back, Mu Junyan's heart softened. He stood up, walked to her side, put his arm around her shoulder, and let her lean on him.

Gu Hua almost couldn't hold back her tears, so she quickly looked up and smiled at Mu Junyan.

He returned her an encouraging look.

Looking at her daughter calmly recounting her miserable and difficult life, Wang felt a pang of heartache, her whole body trembled, and she almost fainted.

Granny Zhou quickly helped her up.

Gu Hua looked at Gu Wanru, who was pale as a ghost: "Gu Wanru was almost always present during the abuse. The mother and daughter took pleasure in torturing me. Pei said that I was born with the fate of a lowly slave born out of wedlock, and that I should always respect my elder sister. Even if my elder sister wanted me to die, I would die immediately! They sent me to the Duke's mansion, and despite my strong resistance, they used every means to send me to the son-in-law's bed as a concubine."

Everyone was stunned.

That's absolutely shocking.

If it's true, it's truly tragic that the legitimate daughter of a noble family has been humiliated to this extent.

Aunt Pei, no longer caring about appearances, screamed like a madwoman: "She's talking nonsense! She herself is eager to climb into the young master's bed. It was the eldest daughter who forbade it, so she turned around and tried to seduce her father-in-law. Do you still want to listen to such a shameless slut's nonsense?"

The old women from the Mu family rushed forward and pinned her down from both sides, rendering her unable to move.

Gu Wanru also cried out, "She's jealous of me. Mother, she's jealous of me and she's framing me."

Wang was in a state of utter confusion.

"Gu Hua, do you know that saying all this will destroy the Gu family and also implicate the Wang family?"

Gu Hua looked at Wang Heng.

This was the first time she had met this uncle.

Gu Hua was surprised and looked directly at Wang Heng: "I have suffered for the Gu family for seventeen years. Don't I deserve justice? Are the Gu family and the Wang family going to turn a blind eye to this for the sake of their reputation?"

Wang Heng disliked her tone.

I was shocked when I first heard about this, but then I thought, what if people knew that even the wife of a marquis couldn't control her concubine and was completely outmaneuvered by a mere concubine from a merchant family?

Not only was their legitimate daughter replaced, but she also became someone else's concubine. The Langya Wang clan could not afford to lose face like that.

The Langya Wang family had more than sixty members in their direct lineage, including more than fifty servants of the Three Dukes, eighty Attendants, and twenty-five Ministers of Personnel.

How can the glory built up by more than a dozen generations be ruined by the daughter of a woman from a collateral branch of the clan?

He said sternly, "It's just a status, no need to take it too seriously. If you want to be the legitimate daughter, then have your stepmother register you under her name."

"Yes, yes, yes." Gu Yuan snapped out of his shock.

He believed that family scandals should not be aired in public.

"Just an identity?"

Gu Hua never expected that her closest blood relative would say such cold words.

Does she care about being the legitimate daughter?

Suddenly, she remembered what Mu Junyan had asked her earlier: what if things couldn't go as she wished...

It turned out that he had long guessed that even if Wang and Gu knew the truth, they might refuse to admit it because of their pride.

In the end, she was just a daughter.

The Gu and Wang families have many more daughters to protect.

The thought of this possibility sent a chill down Gu Hua's spine.

She turned to look at her mother.

Wang was already crying uncontrollably, but she didn't even look at her.

Did Mother already know all along?

Gu Hua snapped back to reality when the large hand gripping his shoulder tightened a bit.

Regardless of whether the two families acknowledge it or not, she must expose the true colors of the Pei family and Gu Wanru today.

At least, it's an explanation for my tragic death in my past life!

Gu Hua sneered: "It doesn't matter. If neither the Wang family nor the Gu family can stand up for me and clear my name, I will take it to the government office and ask the upright official to give me the truth!"

"You dare!" Gu Yuan jumped up, but was immediately silenced by Mu Junyan's cold gaze.

Wang Heng was used to big events and was not afraid.

However, he was also weighing the pros and cons. Seeing how protective Mu Junyan was of Gu Hua, he also had to consider Mu Junyan's reputation.

"Do you have any evidence?"

Gu Hua turned to look at Chi Yan: "Bring him up."

Chi Yan waved his hand, and an old woman helped a person up.

"Yinzhi, you're not dead yet?" Gu Wanru screamed as if she had seen a ghost.

Gu Hua said, "You all want her dead, don't you? Pei killed her parents, and her mother raised Gu Wanru."

Aunt Pei's face turned ashen.

Yinzhi knelt down, weeping, and presented her mother's blood-written letter with both hands, recounting the crimes of Aunt Pei and Gu Wanru one by one.

Everyone was dumbfounded.

Wang Shi could no longer bear it and rushed towards Gu Hua, but was held back tightly by Zhou Mama.

As she struggled, she cried out to Gu Hua, "Hua'er, I'm so sorry! I was blind to have not recognized you sooner!"

Gu Hua couldn't help but burst into tears.

very nice.

Her mother acknowledged her as her own.

"Wang Linyi, stop fooling around!" Wang Heng glared at her and gave his wife a look.

His wife, her eyes red, hurried forward, covered her mouth with her hand, and whispered a few words in her ear.

Wang's crying stopped abruptly, and she stared at her in shock.

Lady Wang Heng looked apologetic and slowly shook her head, signaling her to be quiet.

Gu Hua saw everything they were doing.

The warmth that had just begun to rise vanished instantly.

The whole body was ice-cold.