Chapter 429 Revealing the Origins

Chapter 429: Her True Identity Exposed

Ji Qingqing didn't say that out loud. She raised the sword in her hand and lunged at Chen Huaxiu's chest.

The next second, a hand suddenly shot out and caught Ji Qingqing by the wrist.

Wu Shijie ripped the sword out of Ji Qingqing's hand, his face burning with outrage. "Second Sister, how could you be so cold-blooded? They're your own flesh and blood! You'd kill our parents over something this woman said?"

Ji Qingqing: "..."

Ji Qingqing: "!!!"

She stumbled back two steps like she'd seen a ghost, gaping at him in sheer panic. "How... how are you even here?"

She distinctly remembered dosing Wu Shijie with mute medicine. He shouldn't have been able to utter a single word.

So what the hell was going on now?

Wu Shijie's fists clenched as he spat out, "If I hadn't shown up, would you have murdered our parents with your own hands?"

"Fine, you don't want to claim us. We put up with being treated like servants in that house. But now this woman has the nerve to seduce Father. You won't even stand up for our mother, but how can you live with yourself for wanting to kill them?"

Ji Qingqing was losing her mind. Watching everything spiral completely out of her control, her face contorting hideously as she screamed.

"Shut your mouth! She's not my mother! My mother is the Marchioness of Yongning! How could some backwater country bumpkin be my mother?"

"She's Ji Yuntang's mother! Why shouldn't I be able to kill her!?"

At that, the whole crowd was stunned.

A lot of people started connecting the dots. A few days back, they'd heard a family had shown up at the Marquis of Yongning's estate, claiming to be kin who'd come to the capital to visit.

Could it be... these people?

Wu Shijie hadn't expected Ji Qingqing to go there. His face was etched with disappointment. "Even now, you're still lying to yourself."

"Back then, the Marquis of Yongning and his wife took one look at their ugly daughter and couldn't stand her. They came to our village, handed us a wad of silver, and swapped their daughter for the Wu family's daughter!"

"Ji Yuntang is the real, legitimate daughter of the marquis's household. Your real name is Wu Yue—our parents' second daughter, my own flesh-and-blood sister."

"A while back, you sent your people to our place again, saying you'd lined up a good marriage for Ji Yuntang and wanted to come get her. Mom and Dad said yes!"

"Turns out, they wanted her to marry in your place. Now you're the Crown Princess, but you won't even acknowledge your own blood. We came all this way to see you, and you want us dead."

"Everyone, you be the judge! The marquis's family stole my sister, then their wife went and seduced my dad, and now she's putting it in my sister's head to kill our parents. Is there anything more disgraceful on this earth?"

"Sure, we were born in a village, but we've lived straight and narrow all our lives—never done a damn thing wrong. They're not leaving us any way to live—they want to wipe out our whole family!"

Everyone: "..."

Everyone: "!!!"

There was so much information dumped on them at once. For a second, their brains just short-circuited.

Ji Yuntang was the true legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Yongning's residence, swapped out by her cold-hearted parents for being ugly?

And Ji Qingqing was just some wild country girl, with zero blood ties to the Marquis of Yongning's household?

So all these years, Ji Qingqing had been living the life that was supposed to be Ji Yuntang's?

And Ji Yuntang had been stuck suffering in the countryside in her place?

Not only that—they dragged her back and forced her to marry into Prince Ye's household in Ji Qingqing's place?

What they called "marrying in her place" was really just a death sentence, because everyone in the capital knew exactly what shape Prince Ye was in back then.

Just then, a lady who couldn't keep her mouth shut anymore spoke up for Ji Yuntang.

"So when it's something good, they never think of their real daughter, but when it's something bad, they dump it all on her!"

"So only Second Miss Ji's life counts? Princess Ye's life means nothing?"

"No wonder Princess Ye cut ties with the Marquis of Yongning's household even when she was in such a bad spot. I'd have done the same. Never seen parents that cold-hearted."

Ji Qingqing's eyes were red and puffy, tears pouring down her face. She stammered in a shaky voice, "No... no, that's not true. Don't listen to his lies. I'm the real legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Yongning's household."

Luo Jingshen's face had gone absolutely livid. The realization that he'd been played for a fool hit him like a ton of bricks.

If he'd just been angry last night, now he was so furious he wanted to murder someone.

Just then, a kid came tearing out of the back courtyard, clutching a bloody knife.

He ran up to Chen Huaxiu, his little feet pounding the ground, saying the most vicious things in a tearful, babyish voice.

"Dad! Mom! That worthless girl hurt my hand! I'm going to Prince Ye's place to kill her!"

Chen Huaxiu yanked up Wu Chaoyang's sleeve to get a look. On his pale arm, the flesh had eaten away into several holes, with a patch of rotting flesh spreading all the way up to his elbow, still weeping pus and blood.

She asked in a panic, "Yang Geer, what happened? What did you do to your hand?"

Wu Chaoyang spat out viciously, "It was that worthless girl! She made me try her medicine. I was gonna make Second Sister happy by splashing that stuff on her face to mess it up."

"But that worthless girl whipped out an umbrella and blocked all the liquid, and instead that nasty stuff dripped onto my hand, and now my hand looks like this!"

"Mom, my hand hurts so bad! I'm gonna kill her!"

Wu Chaoyang's wound hadn't shown yesterday, but today it was out in full force. The rot was spreading fast—in just one morning, half his arm had decayed!

Everyone found the kid pretty disturbing. A kid that young talking about killing like it was nothing made them eye Wu Chaoyang with real suspicion.

Soon, a maid came sprinting over in a panic, shrieking, "Marquis! Madam! Something awful's happened! Tutor Meng's been killed!"

Meng's face went white as a sheet. Forgetting everything else, she lunged over and grabbed the maid by the front of her clothes.

"What did you just say? My brother's dead?"

The tutor at the Marquis of Yongning's residence was none other than Meng's own little brother, Meng Chao. Because he'd failed the spring imperial exams more than once, and the Meng family didn't have the connections to buy him a government post, Meng had suggested he come to the marquis's estate as a sort of live-in tutor.

First, since there were plenty of kids from the Ji clan's side branches, he could get closer to the Ji family.

Second, she could watch over him and give him a steady paycheck.

It had seemed like the perfect setup. Who'd have thought Meng Chao would end up murdered in the marquis's own home?

Meng remembered how Wu Chaoyang had just run out holding a bloody knife. She let go of the maid's collar and charged over to Wu Chaoyang.

"Was it you? Did you murder my brother?"

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