“I beg you to let your older sister… Shiwei off! She didn’t do it on purpose. She’s a kind child. It wasn’t deliberate.”
Beside the carpark, indeed just as Gu Qingjiu had expected, Tan Yalan begged Gu Qingjiu to let Yu Shiwei off in a subservient tone.
Because the police had told them earlier that Yu Shiwei had, after all, attempted murder. At the time, she threatened to kill Gu Qingjiu, and several ears had heard that at the supermarket.
If they were to claim Yu Shiwei was mentally ill, how was it possible for Yu Shiwei to be mentally ill?
With their current finances, there was no way for them to verify Yu Shiwei as mentally ill.
Hence, Tan Yalan was in great despair.
And because Gu Qingjiu was perfectly fine, if she didn’t pursue the matter with Yu Shiwei, Yu Shiwei would probably be detained ten days to half a month.
This was why Tan Yalan had no choice but to plead with Gu Qingjiu.
“You’re begging me?”
Upon hearing this, Gu Qingjiu laughed. Her lips arched in a sneer. “Ought I to be glad? That one day you, the high-and-mighty Madam Yu, would beg me for something.”
Tan Yalan, who was not like the Madam Yu of back then, felt like a needle pricked her heart when she heard this.
She let out a bitter chuckle. “I know it was all my fault. I was overboard. But Shiwei is innocent!”
After all, this was the only daughter she raised since young, so Tan Yalan couldn’t possibly feel any heartache.
“Oh, she didn’t do it deliberately. If it was not deliberate, does that mean she can do anything to me as she pleases? Do you know she tried to kill me? Thankfully, she’s no match for me. Or else you would be looking at a corpse right now. Honestly speaking, how could your ‘kind’ daughter do something like this? It’s so disappointing.”
Though she gently spat these words of sarcasm, her tone didn’t imply the same meaning. It was a cold tone of voice that sounded normal on the surface, but there hid a hint of imperceptible sorrowfulness in the depths.
It was so imperceptible that one might think they mistakenly heard that.
“I know she was wrong. I’m just begging you to let her off…”
Tan Yalan continued pleading pitifully. Gu Qingjiu suddenly riveted her clear eyes upon her and asked her this, “I just want to ask you this one thing.”
Tan Yalan paused in surprise. “What?”
“Have you ever regarded me as your biological daughter?”
It was undeniable that she was Tan Yalan’s biological child, for she bore too remarkable a resemblance to the young Tan Yalan.
However, there was nothing that could explain Tan Yalan’s treatment of her.
She shouldn’t hate Gu Qingjiu so intensely because Gu Qingjiu simply hadn’t done anything wrong.
“I…”
Gazing at the current Gu Qingjiu, Tan Yalan retreated backward under pressure when faced with this question.
She was shorter than Gu Qingjiu now. Gu Qingjiu had grown taller, slightly taller than Tan Yalan.
She was not that old, yet her back had started to hunch. In fact, she even had to raise her head slightly to look at Gu Qingjiu with great effort.
That aloof demeanor resembled her in her younger days.
Tan Yalan felt like she was staring at a younger version of herself in her dazed state—that same arrogance and high-and-mighty aura.
The disparity with the present Tan Yalan was huge.
She was somewhat ashamed. However, some past matters gently stabbed at the depths of her heart like fine needles, bringing the intense heartache that made her unable to change her attitude towards Gu Qingjiu.