"You want me to seduce the Crown Prince? Why are you crying now that I've entered the pala

Chapter 7 Why did you provoke her?
"You rebellious daughter, kneel down!"

A stern shout came from the main seat, but Qin Su remained standing still.

System: [Host, you're out of character! The original owner of this body was soft-hearted; she would swallow her grievances and never stand idly by while her own father pointed his finger at her and yelled at her.]

Qin Su: "So she eventually developed severe depression."

One sentence silenced the system.

Just as the two were talking, the maid standing behind Qin Su suddenly shoved her hard.

"Ouch—that hurts!"

The girl deliberately amplified her cries of pain, making them clearly audible to everyone in the room.

The maid who had intervened was caught off guard by the fact that the Third Miss would cry out in pain. Her initial smugness turned into embarrassment and panic. She didn't know where to put her hands, fearing that the master would be angry.

The others in the room felt awkward, but Qin Su wasn't. She wasn't the original owner of this body, so she had to cover for others even though she had suffered a loss.

If we're going to die, we'll die together; nobody's going to run away.

"Alright, stop pretending! I'm asking you, did you push Rou'er into the water?"

A slightly annoyed, deep male voice sounded again, and Qin Su felt an indescribable bitterness and grievance welling up in her chest.

This isn't her emotion; it's the original owner's.

Since she could remember, "she" had rarely seen her nominal father. Even when they did meet, he was indifferent to her as if she were a stranger.

Even so, the original owner of this body still deeply admired him. Every year on his birthday, she would carefully prepare a gift, hoping that her father would see her.

But until her death, she never received a shred of fatherly love. A daughter's natural admiration and expectation of her father gradually turned to despair amidst repeated disappointments and hurts.

Qin Su disliked these emotions that affected her judgment, and tried her best to remain silent, which only made the person in the main seat feel more disgusted and resentful.
"Is this how your mother raised you? You don't even look up when your elders ask you questions. You're timid, cowardly, and hesitant. You have no ambition whatsoever!"

Her heart ached with bitterness and grievance, and Qin Su subconsciously bit her lip to suppress it. Only after moving did she realize that this was the action that the female protagonist in the original work often did.

She released her lips and took a shallow breath: "No..."

The woman's voice, trembling with a slight sob, was not loud but clear.

Qin Rusong was taken aback. "What?"

“I said, I didn’t push her.”

As Qin Su spoke, she slowly raised her head, revealing her disheveled face to everyone.

"hiss--"

Someone gasped, and everyone was stunned.

I thought the fourth young lady falling into the water was already pitiful enough, but after seeing the third young lady's condition, I realized what true tragedy really meant.

A bloodstain ran down the girl's pale face to her ear, clearly from a fingernail scratch. The bruises on her neck were dark and swollen, enough to terrify anyone.

Qin Rusong, who was originally furious, suddenly saw his third daughter in such a miserable state, and even though he had no feelings for her, he couldn't bring himself to say a word of blame.

But his silence didn't mean that Aunt Qiu would let Qin Su off the hook.

She claimed that she and her cousin were true love, and that their child was the fruit of their love; all the other illegitimate children deserved to die!

What's more, Qin Sangsang actually dared to hurt her Rou'er.

"So just because Rou'er accidentally hurt you, you deliberately pushed her into the water to kill her, didn't you?" Hearing the question, Qin Su's gaze finally fell on the elegant and aloof beauty next to her scumbag father, dressed in a flowing moon-white magnolia dress.

She actually dared to call this level of injury "accidental."

Qin Su glanced at it once before looking away, her gaze towards her scumbag father complicated, hesitant to speak: "I... I can't say..."

Qin Rusong felt very uncomfortable with Qin Su's gaze, which was filled with pity and sympathy. He frowned and said in a deep voice, "Speak your mind! What kind of behavior is this, all coy and hesitant!"

More blaming. Does this scoundrel never have a kind word in his mouth?
Another wave of sadness washed over her; Qin Su was almost developing PTSD.

She pursed her pink lips, feigning reluctance, but before her scumbag father could utter another harsh word, she unleashed her trump card:
"My sister insulted our stepmother, saying that if it weren't for our stepmother forcing our father to marry her because of her birth, then she would be the legitimate daughter of the Prime Minister's mansion today. If Aunt Qiu were to become our father's legal wife, she would definitely be able to keep his heart and prevent so many corrupt illegitimate children from living in the mansion."

The servants of Qingqiu Courtyard witnessed for the first time how clear the usually timid and cowardly Third Miss's speech was; she could speak such a long string of words clearly and without taking a breath.

The people in the room were dumbfounded, and almost everyone couldn't help but look at the master and Aunt Qiu.

Knowing something is one thing, but saying it is another.

Qin Rusong's face visibly darkened, and Qin Su's tone was filled with helplessness:

“I argued with my sister, arguing that our father was a man of integrity and refinement, and certainly not the kind of person she described. As his most beloved daughter, my sister shouldn't have said such things. These words not only insulted our stepmother but also our father. But she wouldn't listen, and she got so angry that she tried to strangle me, so I had no choice but to fight back…”

Prime Minister Qin was proud and self-possessed, and he hated it most when others mentioned the events of that year. At this moment, his face was so ugly that he almost crushed the armrest of the rosewood chair in his hand.

Seeing that Aunt Qiu was about to interrupt, Qin Su calmly added a killer line: "If Father doesn't believe me, he can ask the maid who serves my sister if she said that."

Qin Rusong suddenly turned his head and looked at Cuihe, the maid who was sneaking around in the corner waiting for a chance to escape: "Speak!"

Others may not know, but Aunt Qiu knows her daughter well, and this is most likely true. She feigned anger and scolded Qin Su:
"Nonsense! How could Rou'er say such a thing? Master, cousin! Don't listen to this little vixen's attempts to sow discord!"

But my usually gentle and considerate cousin seemed like a completely different person today: "Let her talk! Has your young lady said anything?"

No matter what, Prime Minister Qin was a high-ranking official who had been through the bloodshed of the court. Under his thunderous wrath, how could a little girl like Cuihe withstand it?

She immediately knelt down in fright: "N-no, it was the Third Miss who was dirty..."

"Anyone who dares to conceal or cover it up will be executed by beating if discovered!"

As soon as Qin Rusong uttered his gloomy and fierce words, Cuihe, like a chicken caught by the neck, suddenly stammered, "I...I said that..."

Aunt Qiu's heart sank instantly: "Cousin, cousin..."

Qin Rusong didn't even look at her at this moment, and directly gave the order:

"At such a young age, she is already spreading rumors and making irresponsible remarks about her elders. These words not only fail to fulfill her duties as a child, but also show disrespect to her elders!"

Although it didn't explicitly name Aunt Qiu for failing to raise her daughter properly, it was close enough.

It should be noted that the marriage between Qin Rusong and Madam Qin was arranged by the late old lady.

"From this day forward, punish her by making her kneel in the ancestral hall and copy the 'Admonitions for Women' one hundred times, so that she may reflect on her mistakes!"

Upon hearing this, Aunt Qiu, who had been sitting in a chair, suddenly stood up: "Cousin!"

She couldn't understand why her cousin, who was supposed to be here to stand up for her daughter, ended up being punished instead of her own Rou'er.
But Aunt Qiu couldn't care less about that now: "Rou'er just fell into the water. Young women are weak. What if she develops a chronic illness from going to a cold and gloomy place like the ancestral hall?"

Qin Su's lips curled into a cold smile. So she also knew that the ancestral hall was not a place for people to stay.

In the original story, the original owner of the body suffered repeated miscarriages after marriage. One theory is that this was because she fell into the water and was locked up in the ancestral hall for seven days by Aunt Qiu, which damaged her health.

(End of this chapter)