“Qiao Mu, Qiao Mu!!” A dark and skinny woman screeched as she charged to the entrance, yet she was promptly whipped back inside with two cracks of the jailer’s whip.
With bloodshot eyes, she fixated unwaveringly on Qiao Mu from across the wooden bars. “Qiao Mu! Do you still have a conscience! Do you still have any notions of blood relations and familial ties? Do you feel that you haven’t harmed us enough? You actually want to send us away to the Northwestern Desert? You, you!!”
Qiao Mu gazed icily at that dark and skinny woman through the wooden bars. This person was precisely her long unseen Youngest Aunt-in-Law Xu Jiao. Right now, she was even more tanned and thin than when they last met, and her jaw had even sunken in.
While looking at Qiao Mu like this, Xu Jiao suddenly prostrated on the ground and kowtowed from both mental and physical exhaustion. With a look of bitter remorse and grief, she shed tears while pleading, “Qiao Mu, Eldest Niece! Forgive your uncle, aunt, and cousin! Let us out! Don’t drive us away to the Great Northwest! Wuwuwu, that truly isn’t a place that people can reside in! Qiaoqiao, just take it as what happened in the past was Second Aunt’s fault, it was Second Aunt who wronged you. Whether you want to blame me or resent me, it’s all up to you. In consideration of the fact that we are a family, and in consideration of your dad and your mom, please leave us a way out!”
“Right! Qiaoqiao, leave us a way out.” By this point, Qiao Zhongheng truly was terrified.
Originally, they thought that they would be able to enjoy the good life after Qiao Dongbo brought them back to the Qiao Clan’s main family. Yet who knew that Qiao Dongbo was a two-faced person. After being arranged in a courtyard, their family still lacked food and clothes, just like before.
It was only that their shelter now was better than the rundown temple, and the furnishings in the rooms were all exquisite. However, what was the use when they couldn’t eat nor drink them. They merely seemed impressive on the surface, but in truth, they were in a daily state of being driven to near insanity from hunger.
Moreover, they had done nothing at all this time around. They were just wholly suckered in by Qiao Dongbo, entering this prison just because they got implicated.
They were unwilling to be driven away to the Great Northwest like this. That’s why no matter how disturbed she felt on the inside, she had no choice but to give in and lower her head at this point in time!
However, it was as if her heart had been set ablaze, combusting spontaneously. She felt that her burning rage was nearly about to swallow her whole.
Since when was the eldest branch so high up and removed that they couldn’t even claim connections with them?
Now, just to survive, she actually didn’t hesitate to use Wei Ziqin, claiming connections to this person whom she had always looked down on, as an excuse to beg for mercy?
After mulling this over with consternation, Xu Jiao raised her head, looking anxiously at her niece with a look that pleaded for her forgiveness.
Yet Qiao Mu simply stared at Xu Jiao with a long, drawn-out gaze that seemed to have coursed through the long river of history, perhaps even spanning the length of a century. That pitch-black gaze without a single ripple made Xu Jiao feel greatly unsettled in her heart.
Xu Jiao felt that her niece’s chilly eyes seemed so lifeless that it was a bit frightening.
It seemed like it was starting from when this niece was seven, ever since she regained consciousness after accidentally rolling down the hill in front of the school, that Xu Jiao’s life started to steadily decline and deteriorate by the day.
Although quite unwilling to do so, Xu Jiao had no choice but to admit that in this day and age, she probably couldn’t rival her niece’s current status even if she spent the rest of her life trying.
Perhaps, she would only obtain an opportunity to live by begging for mercy.
After giving Xu Jiao an apathetic glance, Qiao Mu pulled out a bag of silver from her sleeve and threw it at Xu Jiao’s feet.
Xu Jiao, however, only felt her heart sinking with a thump.
