From that day on, she had fallen to become a maid in the estate. From then on, any hope of her ever regaining the status of a young lady was gone, and she had lost the right to visit during festivals and holidays.
Even when meeting her mother, she had to refer to herself as a servant, or face punishment.
"Speaking of which," Feng Qishi glanced at the maid standing next to Father Mu, then at Mu Anxiao, "you aren't even as good as a servant."
Mu Anxiao had always refused to admit to being inferior to a servant. Since childhood, anyone who said so would be met with her fiery temper, which had led to many arguments with the deceased girl.
All along, regardless of how others viewed her, she insisted on seeing herself as a young lady of the Mu estate.
On the streets, whenever she encountered a servant from the Mu estate, she would deliberately put on airs of a young lady, even if they completely ignored her.
During those years of pretending to be a Mu estate young lady, she had yearned every day for the moment her parents would finally accept her. Sometimes, in her dreams, she would see herself playing with her siblings and wake up with a smile.
But reality? She was still the same child in tattered clothes, worse off than a servant, a piece of garbage hidden away by her parents.
Finally, she saw reality clearly. Faced with Feng Qishi's question, she no longer resisted. "You could say that. I am indeed worse than a servant."
"No wonder you're illiterate."
"..." Mu Anxiao gave a bitter smile. "I remember you saying that I have no parents, no one to rely on, and was therefore perfect for following you."
Feng Qishi recalled that in their previous life, when he first met Mu Anxiao, he had indeed said those words. However, he was perplexed as to why she would bring it up now.
"Why bring that up all of a sudden?"
"To be honest, I was still fantasizing about meeting my parents. I was also fantasizing," Mu Anxiao found her own thoughts utterly ridiculous and couldn't help but chuckle bitterly, "about returning to the Mu estate as a young lady."
"...." Feng Qishi looked at Mu Anxiao's profile, unsure of what to say.
Suddenly, the wolf demon's eyes lit up, "Then, that explains it."
"What?" Lin Yan looked at the wolf demon.
The wolf demon cast a glance at Lin Yan and shifted his gaze to Mu Anxiao's face. "That servant, they used your desire to be a young lady to trick you."
Mu Anxiao replied, "I could see that."
"Huh?" The wolf demon showed a disappointed expression. "You knew, so why didn't you say anything?"
"Brother, there's nothing to say about it. Just like you, when you want to trick someone, don't you first understand that person before acting? He was just like that," Mu Anxiao looked at the second servant standing beside the woman, "He understood this about me."
"Silly Mu, you're really easy to fool."
"Yes, if I weren't easy to fool, I wouldn't be following you. I definitely would," Mu Anxiao said with a serious expression, "stay far away from you."
"...." Feng Qishi was speechless.
Lin Yan cautiously glanced at Mu Anxiao and sighed.
Over there.
After repeated discussions with Mu Anxiao and the others, Father Mu stood up and said, "I apologize, I deceived you all. However, that fortune teller did indeed say that the child in my wife's womb would bring good fortune. Because that fortune teller mistook the child for a boy, I thought it was a boy. Who knew it would be a girl? I apologize for hiding this from you for so long."
This simple explanation deeply revealed the patriarchal beliefs of Father and Mother Mu.
Hearing this explanation, the relatives exchanged glances.
"....." Mu Anxiao's tears began to well up in her eyes again.
Feng Qishi's eyes darkened. He turned to look at Mu Anxiao without a word.
Conversely, the wolf demon said, "Your parents are just prejudiced against daughters."
"Are girls not worthy of being people?" Mu Anxiao retorted, tears sliding down her cheeks. "Girls can't bring good fortune? Because of that, they treated me like that." As she spoke, she clenched her fists.
"And also, face," Lin Yan said profoundly.
Hearing this, Mu Anxiao wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve and turned to look at Lin Yan. "What do you mean by that?"
Lin Yan explained, "Your father is an official. With so many people in your Mu family, there must be many who view him with jealousy. If he didn't treat you like that, his prestige would be..."
"Prestige? I think he lives like a dog, a dog bound by family ties, always trying to please them, giving them the best of things. He's never shown me any care. I say, no matter how high his official position, what's the use?" Mu Anxiao spoke out of anger.
"How can you say that about your father?" Feng Qishi asked in surprise.
Mu Anxiao sneered, looking at Mother Mu who was looking at those people with a wronged expression. "None of them are good people," she said, then looked at Mu Xi, "He's the good son they raised, wicked and unforgivable, who has killed countless people. What kind of people are they?"
"....."
A true statement, met with hatred.
Feng Qishi looked at the unusually emotional Mu Anxiao, unsure what to say.
The wolf demon remarked, "They are just their past selves. What's the use of you getting angry like this? They no longer exist in your present." He looked at Mu Anxiao.
Mu Anxiao asked, "If they are so wicked, why didn't you just eliminate them?"
"Mu Anxiao," Feng Qishi said sternly.
Upon hearing this, Mu Anxiao looked at Feng Qishi with vacant eyes, "Why are you shouting? What are you so angry about?"
"Can you be a little more clear-headed? Your father hasn't finished speaking yet," Feng Qishi softened his tone.
Mu Anxiao scoffed, "There's nothing else to hear. They're just going to say bad things about me again. Isn't this their usual routine? They think I'm the one who ruined his reputation. How much is reputation worth? If one is an official, one should think of benefiting the common people. But he, upon returning, started engaging in internal strife with these people. It's really enough. Look at the kind of people he's raised as stewards. Look at his wife, that look of looking down on people with dog-like eyes, it's truly disgusting."
"Are you done talking?" Feng Qishi suddenly asked.
Mu Anxiao looked up at Feng Qishi disdainfully, "No matter how your mother treated you, you could forgive her because you needed her. You saw her kindness towards you. But they, they never needed me. I was just a burden that affected their reputation. Now," she said, "I suddenly feel that I'm not pathetic at all. I'm ridiculous. After decades, I've only now seen through them. If I had seen through this earlier, I wouldn't have felt sorry for that Mu Xi."
"If you had known earlier, how would you have treated Mu Xi?" Lin Yan asked curiously.
Mu Anxiao replied, "I would have grabbed him without mercy and sent him to the eighteenth level of hell."
"So ruthless."
"Two hundred taels is too little. For such a wicked person, the price should start at five hundred, or even a thousand taels," Mu Anxiao muttered to herself.
Feng Qishi knew that Mu Anxiao was holding back her anger. He could only watch her vent her frustrations and have her say.
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