Wu Ma Qiong's face turned cold and stern, his sharp and icy gaze fixed on Wuma Liya, causing a suffocating feeling. It was as if Liya would face terrible punishment if she dared to lie or deceive him.
Liya had seen this kind of gaze from her father since she was a child.
Whenever her father looked at her with such eyes, Liya would tremble in fear, shrinking and trembling all over her body. In severe cases, she would even pray in her heart, praying that her father wouldn't kill her...
Liya met her father's gaze and told him clearly, "It was Uncle Si's people who killed Brother. Liya saw it with her own eyes."
Wu Ma Qiong nodded, no longer doubting her.
Suddenly, he said, "Liya is already a grown girl, at the age to get married. Father will find a suitable match for you."
Liya replied, "But I'm still young and don't want to get married."
Wu Ma Qiong ignored her words and thought of a suitable candidate, a local wealthy merchant, and immediately recommended him to Liya.
Liya, however, said, "But that man already has a wife and several concubines, and he's twenty years older than me."
Wu Ma Qiong said, "What's the problem with that? Father also has many women, and they are all much younger than Father."
Liya felt a physical disgust and nausea in her heart.
She said, "But someone told me that a proper marriage should be monogamous, based on loyalty and love, not like Father."
Wu Ma Qiong scoffed, "Monogamy? That's an excuse made by the weak to cover up their own incompetence. Have you ever seen a powerful man with only one woman? And as for loyalty and love that you mentioned, what are those?"
Then he asked, "Liya, you don't have any feelings for Cheng Jinyan, do you?"
Liya replied, "How could I possibly like him!"
Wu Ma Qiong said, "That's good. Although he comes from a good family and has a presentable appearance, he has caused a lot of trouble for our Wuma family. Father doesn't want you to have any relationship with him."
Liya said, "I understand."
Wu Ma Qiong said, "Good girl, go rest."
Liya's mind was filled with her father's reaction when he mentioned her mother and his words "prostitute" and "died in difficult childbirth."
She couldn't rest at all, not even for a moment.
She got up and went to her father's residence, only to see her father and Wan Shuiqing coming out of the room one after another.
Didn't Father have Wan Shuiqing and Uncle Si locked up together? Why weren't they locked up? Looking at them, there was no sign of hostility between a betrayer and the betrayed.
Liya approached them directly and said, "Father."
Both of them looked at Liya as she suddenly appeared.
Wan Shuiqing hesitated and called her, "Miss Liya."
Liya looked at the harmonious atmosphere between the two of them and asked, "Father, have you forgiven Uncle Qing?"
Wu Ma Qiong replied, "After all, Uncle Qing has served me for so many years, for the Wuma family..."
Liya interrupted her father for the first time, "Was all of this Father's plan? Uncle Si was the one who was being schemed against."
Wu Ma Qiong looked at her.
Liya: "Uncle Qing was pretending to be bribed by Uncle Si, injuring me deliberately, planning everything, waiting for me to come back and accuse Uncle Si in front of the clan."
Wuma You originally thought he could use Liya's death to frame Cheng Jinyan, fueling the hatred between Wu Ma Qiong and the Cheng family. Little did he know that he had fallen into Wu Ma Qiong's trap.
Liya gradually unraveled their scheme.
"In order to catch Uncle Si and deal with him legitimately, you didn't hesitate to include me in your calculations."
"Aren't you afraid that Uncle Qing might accidentally kill me for real?"
Liya pressed on, questioning, "Who was responsible for making Uncle Qing pull the trigger, Uncle Si or you, Father?"
Wan Shuiqing said, "Miss Liya, I did indeed pretend to join forces with Wuma You. It was Wuma You who wanted me to kill you."
"If your father hadn't been prepared in advance, you would have been killed by Wuma You and used to frame the Cheng family."
Liya said, "Assuming Uncle Si had no intention of targeting me, Father would still sacrifice half of my life to plot against Uncle Si, right?"
Liya felt heartbroken and furious.
Wu Ma Qiong admitted directly, "Yes."
He couldn't be bothered to weave a lie to deceive her, especially since she was feeling so sad. He was even a little impatient.
"Liya is very clever, but I don't like you in your current state. It's just a minor injury. It's an honor for you to sacrifice yourself for the Wu Ma family. Besides, I am your father, and you have no right to question me like this. If I want you dead, all you need to do is obediently present your neck to my blade. Do you understand?"
"Let's go." Wu Ma Qiong called his subordinates and left.
Liya stood in place, watching the two of them go.
That night, Liya, who had taken medicine, fell asleep early. Her dreams were filled with various twisted events she had witnessed from childhood.
In a daze, she felt the servants shaking her, trying to wake her up and speaking anxiously.
She faintly heard the name Cheng Jinyan.
Just as Liya, who was dreaming, struggled to open her heavy eyelids, her mother appeared in the dream and she exerted all her strength to break free from the oppressive nightmare.
Startled, she sat up, but before she could ask what the servants were saying, she heard the commotion outside.
Liya immediately became alert and asked, "What's happening?"
The two servants were afraid of their unpredictable mistress.
"Fourth Elder and Second Elder gathered their men and are pressuring the family head to step down. Miss Liya, please hide quickly."
Liya said, "Did you just mention Cheng Jinyan?"
Servant: "He was captured by the family head."
Liya sat on the bed, her body covered in cold sweat from the nightmare.
She immediately got up, left the room, and walked towards the East Courtyard where the prisoners were held.
She didn't encounter any guards along the way; they were all in the front hall...
In the darkness, she arrived in front of an old room.
Liya took out the key, opened the door, and looked inside by the moonlight. The room was filled with torture devices, but there was no sign of anyone.
The chair in the middle, used for binding people, was empty.
"Miss Wuma, did you come to save me?"
Cheng Jinyan's voice suddenly rang out, and a figure flashed out from behind the door. The tall, dark silhouette startled Wuma Liya, who quickly took a step back.
She looked at Cheng Jinyan and saw that he was holding a bundle of rope, the same rope that had just bound him.
And from the way he was gesturing with the rope, it was obvious that he intended to strangle someone.
In the next moment, right in front of her, he threw the rope to the ground.
"You care so much about your father's opinion of you. Are you not afraid that he will be angry if you let me go? That he will stop loving you?" Cheng Jinyan's tone was irritating.
Liya: "How do you know that this lady didn't come here to kill you? If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have gotten hurt."
Cheng Jinyan sighed and looked at Liya sympathetically. "There's a cruel truth, I don't know if I should let you know."
