Chapter 1124 - 1166: Utterly Shameless

Chapter 1124: Chapter 1166: Utterly Shameless

Ling’s father stubbornly insisted, "What did I lie to you about?"

"Brother, let me ask you, where exactly is Yueyue now? I already said it just now, I came back this time specifically to look for her. If I can’t see her, I won’t give up!" Ling Shenglan still held on to one last shred of hope! She hoped her older brother would come clean on his own and tell her the truth, stop lying to her.

Unfortunately, Ling’s father couldn’t feel Ling Shenglan’s painstaking sincerity at all. His eyes flickered twice, and he forced himself to say, "We’ve been siblings for decades, you know very well how I’ve treated you all these years. How could I lie to you! I know, after more than five years apart, you miss Yueyue terribly. But things have already come to this point, there’s no room to turn back. No matter how you keep asking me, the answer and the outcome will be the same! I don’t want you to leave with regrets this time either, but... I really can’t help it! Ever since Yueyue left us, I’ve been living in guilt and self‑reproach! I just hope you won’t blame me, that you can forgive me!"

Seeing that things had been dragged to this point and Ling’s father was still quibbling, disappointment filled Ling Shenglan’s eyes. "Brother, why are you still lying to me even now? I’ve given you so many chances—why won’t you just be honest with me?"

"Honest about what?" Even when Ling Shenglan’s words had pushed him to this point, Ling’s father still refused to admit a thing!

He was afraid that once he admitted it, he would lose this younger sister completely.

After all, what they’d done to Yueyue was far too much. Anyone in her place would never forgive them!

Sadly, the tiny bit of hope Ling’s father was still clinging to was completely shattered when he heard Ling Shenglan’s next words. "I’ve seen Yueyue! Yueyue has already told me everything!"

To Ling’s father, what Ling Shenglan said was like a bolt from the blue. He stared at her in shock, unable to react for a long time.

Looking at his dumbstruck expression, Ling Shenglan laughed and said, "That’s right, when I first got to Jin City, I really couldn’t find Yueyue no matter what I did. I put ads in the newspaper for half a year and didn’t get a single bit of news! I thought it was heaven’s punishment—that because I abandoned her five years ago, now I wouldn’t be allowed to see her! So I lost all hope and bought a ticket to leave. But heaven does have eyes—on the day before I left, I actually ran into Yueyue on the street! Even though after five years she’d grown so much and become so much prettier, she’s my daughter. That kind of spiritual bond between mother and child can never be erased!"

"You... you... I... I...!" After hearing her, Ling’s father stammered for ages without getting a word out. Only after a long time did he manage to say, "Since you’ve already seen Yueyue, then why did you call me and ask me to come?"

Ling Shenglan’s face flushed bright red with anger. "If you hadn’t come, how would I ever have learned clearly what kind of life my daughter has been living these past five years! Brother, do you still remember what you promised me when I left back then? You said you would definitely help me take good care of Yueyue until she graduated from university! I know, you’re only her uncle; taking care of her is a favor, not taking care of her is your right, I have no standing to blame you for anything! But you not only swallowed the living expenses and tuition fees I gave her, you even let my daughter start working outside at sixteen, doing part‑time work while studying. On top of that, she scrimped and saved every month—after covering rent, utilities, and living costs, she still had to send whatever extra money she had back to you! When you were taking her money, did your conscience not twinge at all? You were really that at ease with it?"

Under her barrage of accusations, Ling’s father’s old face turned beet‑red. "We didn’t ask her for living expenses, she wanted to give it herself!"

"She volunteered to give it? If you hadn’t given her your bank card number, how was she supposed to send you money? Was she going to go back to the countryside every month and force it into your hands? Even if she did volunteer, then what about the money I left with you? That money was what Xiao Feng gave me when we got married. I didn’t keep a single cent—I handed it all over to you, because I wanted you to use that money to take good care of Yueyue until she graduated and could support herself! Don’t tell me swallowing that money was ’voluntary’ on Yueyue’s part too?" By now, Ling Shenglan was practically grinding her teeth.

From the day Yueyue was born, she’d told the child she was only her aunt! In fact, from beginning to end, her brother and sister‑in‑law had only ever been parents in name! She’d told Yueyue that her "parents" sent her living expenses every month—she’d lied to her! From childhood on, every cent that raised Yueyue had been money she herself earned from work!

Even later, when she left, because she was afraid Yueyue would suspect something and afraid the girl would blow through the money all at once and end up with nothing, she’d put the money in her brother and sister‑in‑law’s hands, hoping they would give Yueyue a few hundred yuan each month for living expenses, and hand over the tuition and dorm fees at the start of each term!

At the time, she hated Yueyue’s biological father and refused to acknowledge that Yueyue was her own daughter. She’d always rejected any bond between them!

She never imagined that that one wrong thought back then would end up causing her own daughter not only to suffer so much, but to be cheated for years on end by people who weren’t even her real parents, handing over so much of her hard‑earned money for their household!

She had never once imagined that her own brother and sister‑in‑law could be this shameless!

She’d always thought her sister‑in‑law was sharp‑tongued and stingy, obsessed with money, but she’d only placed the money in their care; she hadn’t expected them to actually look after Yueyue, she only needed them to give the girl her money on schedule. That didn’t put them out in any way!

But she never in her wildest dreams imagined that her brother and sister‑in‑law would not only embezzle the money meant for Yueyue, forcing the girl to go out and work at such a young age to earn a living, they even swallowed every cent of Yueyue’s hard‑earned wages each month!

How could they? What color was their heart, exactly? Even if Yueyue wasn’t their biological daughter, she was at least their niece! How could they treat their own niece like this?

"I... I...!" Faced with Ling Shenglan’s utterly stricken expression, Ling’s father stammered, not knowing how to justify himself.

Ling Shenglan said, heartbroken, "Before seeing you today, I was still holding on to a shred of hope, hoping you’d repent and admit your wrongs and tell me the truth about Yueyue! But I never imagined that you would still try to hide it from me! Are you still that big brother who doted on me and loved me back then? Yueyue is your own niece—how could you do something like this to her! Do you have any idea what it’s like for a sixteen‑year‑old girl working out there?"