. With such a major upheaval in his family, his personality had changed somewhat, which everyone understood. He also concealed it well, acting diligently and striving for progress, keeping silent and...Song's mother had cooked for Xia Qingran for a month and realized that the house only had one maid, and this maid looked like she was used to having everything handed to her. That's why Song's mother hired her to cook.

And the little girl was also quite critical of her own handiwork. She only chose to accept it temporarily because there were no adults at home. It had already been a month, and seeing that the food in the kitchen was almost running out, she could no longer contain her thoughts.

Song's mother had two sons. Her eldest son was conscripted into the Meng family army to guard the border. Unfortunately, her eldest son only became a centurion after going to the battlefield before dying in battle. When the news arrived, Song's mother fell ill and passed away.

Luckily, she still had a young son. And because her eldest son died in battle, there was only one adult male in her family left, so she was exempt from military service.

But even though he didn't have to serve in the military, he still had to pay taxes and perform labor. Since her youngest son was naturally thin and weak, unable to carry or lift anything, she even considered having him marry into another family to ensure his safety.

But now a little girl with no background appeared, and Song’s aunt had other ideas. She was just about to investigate further when the little girl's mother came back, only she was quite ill, her face covered in boils that were quite frightening to look at.

Lang Huan wasn't Xia Qing Ran. She naturally saw the schemes in Song Da Niang's eyes and immediately frowned, knowing that her daughter was probably being targeted. The day she returned, she fired the servant and immediately went to a real estate agency, listing her courtyard for sale with an agreement to hand over the house that very day.

When Song's mother-in-law came to the door under the pretext of dropping something, she found that the house had already been sold. Song's mother-in-law sighed with regret, saying if she had acted sooner, her son's daughter-in-law would have been hers. She could only return home dejectedly.

Song Big Mama's son was named Song Shanshi. Don't look at his name, which sounds strong and sturdy, but in reality, he was very thin. However, he was quite cunning and spent his days wandering around outside. He could still bring back three or five copper coins every day.

Seeing his mother sighing and lamenting, he couldn't help but ask what was wrong. That's when he learned the whole story. Song Shanshi also blamed his mother a little. If she had told him sooner, perhaps he would have already been with that girl and could have gotten a small courtyard for himself. But now, it was too late to say anything.

Some things are best left unsaid. The next day, Song Shanshi went to the carriage shop for work and saw Xia Qingran and her mother renting a carriage to go south to Jiangnan. He hesitated for a moment and returned home to get a bag of medicinal powder before renting his own carriage and trailing behind them from afar.

Lang Huan didn't know that because she felt sorry for her daughter and asked Song Da Niang to help with the cooking, she had brought disaster upon herself and her daughter. Less than a day after leaving Biancheng, the mother and daughter were back where they started.

But this time, fate took a different turn. Lang Huan was sold by Song Shi Shan, while Xia Qing Ran had her reputation ruined directly by him. The mother and daughter's savings were also plundered and became the property of the Song family.

After receiving this unexpected windfall, Song Shishan took his mother to settle in Yucheng. He used the silver to buy a two-entrance courtyard in Yucheng, and Xia Qingran's household registration with the jade pendant fell to the Song family, making her Song Shishan's wife.

Although Song Shishan had money, he also knew the saying "one cannot simply sit and wait for riches to come." So in Yucheng, he set up two shops, not operating them himself but renting them out for a steady income. Then, he shut himself away to live a carefree life.

And Xia Qingran also lived a life of hardship, she who had once been untouched by worldly affairs now spent her days washing clothes, cooking, and serving Song's mother and Song Shanshi. She hated this old woman who had once treated her with kindness, and even more so she hated Song Shanshi, the culprit who ruined her innocence and separated her from her daughter.

It's all her fault for being too naive. She didn't see through Song Da Niang's schemes sooner. Although she saw through them, they lacked sufficient self-defense capabilities and, to save money, didn't hire bodyguards. This gave Song Shan Shi an opportunity, and with a bag of medicine, he took them both hostage.

But now that she regretted it, it was too late. Xia Qingran knew that resisting now would only bring her a beating, or even starving work. So, she chose to endure and lurk until she started feeling sick and confirmed that she was pregnant. Only then did she finally find an opportunity to leave.

After Song Daniu and Song Shanshi confirmed that Xia Qingran was pregnant, they were overjoyed. That day, they prepared a sumptuous feast to celebrate. The Song family finally had an heir. Song Shanshi even drank too much and was eventually helped back to his room by Song Daniu and Xia Qingran.

At the dead of night, Xia Qingran opened her eyes and smashed Song Shanshi's head with the porcelain pillow until he was dead. Then, she stealthily crept into Song's wife's room and killed her with a kitchen knife.

After finishing these things, Xia Qingran collapsed onto the ground and cried her heart out. When she had cried enough, she started rummaging through the entire house, finding all the silver bills that the two had hidden. Then, she calmly washed herself, changed into a clean dress, prepared some dry food, and set fire to the courtyard with a single match.

Then, he left the two-story house quickly and hid in a tree in the back alley, waiting for dawn.

Because it was the middle of the night, and everything around was pitch black, it took a long time for the watchman to notice the fire. He beat his drum, which finally woke up the people nearby. Everyone grabbed pots and pans and started putting out the fire, but by then the flames were already out of control. When dawn broke, the fire had died down, leaving only ruins behind.

Xia Qingran only then jumped down from the tree and, after asking around, found the largest鏢行 in Yu City. Just as the鏢行 was about to escort a batch of goods to the border, Xia Qingran, under the pretext of going back home for her family's funeral, gave them some silver and joined their convoy back to Biancheng.

Fearing the events in Yucheng, she immediately returned to the Xia Mansion.

Xia Meng looked at his frail second daughter with disbelief and asked:

"How are you here"

"Father, please save your daughter!"

Xia Qingran knelt down and started to cry.

"Don't cry first, tell me what happened."

Xia Meng wasn't stupid, he instinctively felt something was wrong here.

After Xia Qingran had explained everything clearly, Xia Meng was dumbfounded. His own daughter and concubine were trying to kill him! They had quietly set him up without a sound.

He thought that his daughter, who had already been married off, had been defiled and now the culprit had been killed and he had escaped back. But in his eyes, the maid, Cui Zhu, whom he had already let go, was actually marrying into the royal family as the daughter of General Meng. How could this be anything but absurd

Xia Meng had killed Xia Qingran's heart, and at least this way there would be one less opportunity for the matter to be exposed.

"Father, if you do not save me, General Meng will know about the matter of you having a maidservant take my place."

Xia Qingran saw the anger and murderous intent in her father's eyes and immediately gritted her teeth and said.

After going through all this, she was no longer the innocent young woman she once was. She had blood on her hands, and she needed to survive, to live for herself.

Okay, I'll help you! But for the rest of your life, don't even think about living as my daughter!d, so I told them about my aunt's scheme. Right now, our engagement is just a temporary arrangement, of course, that was a lie I told them, you don't have to take it seriously.Do they believe it"I nat...