Chapter Fifty: Luo Yunqiao, Go to Hell

Luo Yunqiao clearly caught a flash of panic in Madam Luo's eyes.

Old Madam Luo let out a cold snort and said, "When you sent Yunqiao to the Zhaojue Temple back then, you dismissed quite a few servants. I originally thought you simply felt those servants were inept at serving, which was why you drove away the people around Yunqiao. It was only upon my return that I discovered many of the maidservants around Yunzhen had also been driven away, and even Hehua, who served by my side, was sold off on fabricated charges, as if you were terrified others might not know there was something fishy going on..."

"Fortunately, I kept my wits about me and secretly tracked the whereabouts of these people. Had I been even a step later, not a single living witness would have been left to be found!"

"Mother of Chao, why don't you take a guess as to who on earth wanted to silence them."

At this stern reprimand, Madam Luo immediately dropped to her knees.

Luo Yunqiao felt a chill rise up her spine. She stared at Madam Luo in front of her in disbelief, and asked coldly, "You knew from the very beginning that I was being framed, yet you still insisted on sending me to the Zhaojue Temple?"

"So what if we did? Who knows whether a dissolute woman like you wasn't already secretly thrilled in your heart?" Luo Zefeng let out a cold snort, his eyes filled with utter disdain. "All of this was merely because the wet nurse serving Zhen'er couldn't stomach your usual bullying ways, which was why she harbored such thoughts. We have beaten her and punished her, and it is also a fact that you offended the Third Prince. If we hadn't dealt with you, wouldn't that have caused a rift between the Third Prince and the Marquis's Estate? When all is said and done, it is simply your own lack of self-respect!"

Luo Yunqiao looked at his righteous expression, finding it utterly repulsive.

She let out a cold laugh. "For a mere servant to have the audacity to use the head mistress's personal maidservant to dismiss my attendant, to make all the servants in my courtyard her informants, and even to freely enter and exit the Third Prince's room—if word of this gets out, it will likely make people laugh their heads off."

"You have committed countless evil deeds, and even the heavens refuse to spare you!" Luo Zefeng gritted his teeth. "Even the endless humiliation you suffered at the Zhaojue Temple was something I arranged for people to do."

"What?! Feng'er, how could you treat your sister like this?" Madam Luo rushed over and pounded on him.

Luo Yunqiao shook her head.

She knew Luo Zefeng looked down upon her, but she also knew his temperament; he would only ever act with his own hands and would certainly never outsource such deeds to others.

"Zefeng, you needn't cover for Zhen'er any longer," Luo Zeting sighed. "The monks at the Zhaojue Temple have long since confessed completely. It was they who accepted silver from Zhen'er to torture Qiaoqiao to the brink of death. Zhen'er even let it be known that if they could ruin Qiaoqiao's chastity and prevent her from ever returning to the Marquis's Estate, there would be an even greater reward. Even Qinglian has already confessed that she was acting under Zhen'er's orders on that day... Are you, this wet nurse, still going to continue deceiving us?"

"This old slave wouldn't dare, this old slave wouldn't dare!"

The wet nurse was already weeping profusely as she spoke, "It was all the Second Young Miss who instructed me to do these things back then, promising that once the deed was done, I would receive a hundred mu of fertile land, two courtyards, and that she would even find a good husband for my daughter. Never did I expect that once this old slave accomplished the task, the Second Young Miss would turn her back on her word. Not only did she sell my daughter to a brothel, but she even had people murder her. As for me, I was thrown into Luojia Village to fend for myself and await death. If not for the charity of others, this old slave would never have survived to this day."

"No... I never did any of this! You are falsely accusing me!" Luo Yunqiao clutched the handkerchief in her hands in a panic, forgetting even her usual fragility as she pointed a finger at Luo Yunqiao and cried, "It was you! You are the one who bribed her to turn around and bite back at me!"

"Shut your mouth!" Old Madam Luo slammed the teacup beside her onto the floor.

"Luo Chao, you are, after all, the head of the Marquis's Estate. How shall this matter be dealt with now?"

Luo Chao, however, didn't even spare Luo Yunqiao a glance. Instead, he looked at Luo Yunqiao with pity: "Zhen'er, have you truly done these things or not?"

"Father, I haven't, I really haven't done any of this..." Luo Yunqiao immediately rushed over, grabbed his hand, and pleaded pitifully, "Father watched Zhen'er grow up; could it be that you too believe Zhen'er is such a venomous woman? It must be... it must be that Eldest Sister is unhappy with how much you usually dote on me, and therefore colluded with these people to put on this act."

"This old slave has evidence right here!" The wet nurse spoke up once more.

She pulled a bundle of deeds from her bosom, mixed among which were quite a few letters handwritten by Luo Yunqiao.

"In the past, the Second Young Miss trusted this old slave and entrusted me with many tasks: usury, beating servants to death, seizing fields and houses, and even colluding with others to make illicit fortunes! This old slave watched the Second Young Miss grow up from childhood and accepted silver from her parents back then to switch her with the Eldest Young Miss. Had she not murdered Hehua, this old slave would never have brought these things to light in this lifetime."

Madam Luo's eyes widened in shock: "It was you who switched the two of them back then? Then why did you try to pin it on someone else?"

"Yes, the Second Young Miss knew long ago that she was not of the Marquis's Estate's bloodline. To preserve her own glory and wealth, she secretly murdered all the servants who knew the truth, yet she did not expect the truth to come to light after all. I fear that even on that very day, she had already prepared herself to make a move against the Eldest Young Miss."

With the truth now brought to light, there was not a shred of doubt left in Luo Yunqiao's heart.

She walked up to Luo Yunqiao, looked down at her from above, and said coldly, "Now that matters have reached this point, what more do you have to say?"

Luo Yunqiao lowered her head, her eye rims red. Her silent appearance of refusal was no different from her usual gentleness.

After a long while, she suddenly said, "Yes, I did all these things, so what?"

"Why is it that you were born the Eldest Young Miss of the Marquis's Estate, while I was merely the daughter of a peasant? Heaven favored us and switched you and me, so it should never have been switched back! You have no idea how much effort I put into becoming a praised young lady of a marquis's estate. Why should you be able to effortlessly snatch away my identity the moment you returned?"

"For the sake of my future, you had to die!"

"Zhen'er..." Madam Luo's eyes still held sheer disbelief.

She had treated Luo Yunqiao as the apple of her eye since childhood, terrified that she would feel aggrieved by Luo Yunqiao's return, and thus doted on her even more than before. Never did she imagine that this would end up harming her own biological daughter.

Not a single ripple of emotion showed on Luo Yunqiao's face, her gaze indifferent: "Everyone in the Marquis's Estate cherished you. Even when I was brought back, they never once spoke of sending you back, and even paved a future for you. It was clearly your own insatiability that brought about this disaster, yet you remain unrepentant..."

"Luo Yunqiao, when I first returned to the estate, I treated you as my own biological sister and never once thought of contending with you for anything. It was you—you yourself who insisted on walking down this path."

Luo Yunqiao laughed hysterically: "Never contended for anything? From the very moment you stepped into this household, you kept showing your face before our parents and constantly vied with me for their affection! Had it not been for that, I would not have inflicted such a vicious hand upon you. If only you had never returned that day, if only you had simply died out there..."

"Luo Yunqiao, go to hell!"

With that cry, she lunged straight at Luo Yunqiao.