71 Self-exile from the Clan

Qiao Mu silently followed behind her mother to return to the courtyard. Elderly Lady Qiao had temporarily stopped crying and was sitting on a chair, superficially wiping her tears while secretly glancing at Qiao Mu and her mother from the corner of her eyes.

"Qiao Mu," Qiao Zhongbang angrily shouted. When he looked up and saw his wife protectively pushing their daughter behind her, looking like she was afraid he would eat their daughter, he could not help but ache in anger.

What did his wife mean by this? Did she think he would shred and devour their daughter?

"Elderly Lady." Wei Ziqin stood upright, neither obsequiously nor superciliously, and inwardly sharpened her claws as she calmly said, "May I ask why you brought so many people here in such a large display? My child is still young and is easily scared. If she is freaked out, who will give me another good daughter?"

Elderly Lady Qiao's eyes were round from shock, as though she could not recognize her daughter-in-law, and she looked at Wei Ziqin in reevaluation. Wei Ziqin had been married into the family for many years, but she had never acted like today and coolly called her "Elderly Lady" in mockery.

"Eldest Sister-in-Law, what's with this attitude of yours?" Xu Jiao immediately interrupted. "From the looks of it, I reckon you still don't know how that child of yours nearly angered Mother to death earlier! Do you know how your child called Mother? Ey, I can't bear to repeat it for you."

"Old b*tch." Qiao Mu frostily finished it for her.

Everyone stared at her, flabbergasted, like they did not recognize the child.

Qiao Zhongbang erupted on the spot as he raised his arm high and swung his hand toward Qiao Mu's face, his eyes enraged. "Shut up."

Qiao Mu did not dodge or hide and merely looked at her father with a bone-chilling cold in her eyes. Her fathomless and cool gaze sent Qiao Zhongbang's heart trembling, and his hand involuntarily froze mid-air, unable to swing down.

"It's good that you are all present today." Qiao Mu swept her eyes over everyone's faces. "Wait a moment. We will continue talking business after everyone arrives."

There was absolute silence in the courtyard, and even the crickets stopped chirping. It was a while before Elderly Lady Qiao regained her voice. She pointed her finger toward Qiao Mu and shakily said, "Revolt! A revolt! You have revolted!"

Qiao Zhongbang looked at his mother who was trembling from rage and then looked back at his aloof daughter, whose face was frosty like a flurry of ice and snow, and he could not help but release a long sigh.

"Third Great-Grandfather and Old Village Chief are here," ten-year-old Qiao Hu called before darting through the courtyard entrance.

"Thank you for your trouble, Brother Xiao Hu." Qiao Mu nodded at Qiao Hu before bowing toward the entering Qiao Clan elder and Old Village Chief. "Third Great-Grandfather, Grandfather Village Chief, I invited you two here today to have you act as a witness for a matter."

"Grandmother is spiteful and targets my younger sister and me time and again. First, she ignores my mother's wishes and insists on selling my sister to a wealthy family to raise. She vainly attempts to break up my family and rip a family apart, giving us pain that is worse than death. Second, she ignores my safety and forces me to put myself in danger repeatedly. Today, she actually barges into my home with people in tow to capture me! I am young, but I'm truly terrified. I don't know how I became a nuisance to Grandmother and blocked her path and caused her to mercilessly make a move on me over and over again. If the clan doesn't have a place for my sister and me, then why don't you exile us from the clan. We don't seek glory or wealth, we merely wish for peace and safety, where we don't need to live fearfully under Grandmother's tyranny and spend our days drowning in terror and trepidation."

When Elderly Lady caught Third Great-Grandfather's severe gaze, her lips trembled, and she wished for nothing more than to faint from anger. Was this child possessed? How could her every word be a jab to its listeners' hearts? Catching the contemptuous gazes of Third Great-Grandfather and Village Chief, Elderly Lady Qiao felt her face flush so red that she wished for nothing more than to close her eyes.

Just how large of a grievance did a young child like her have to suffer to force her to say that she wanted a self-exile from the clan?