Xu Tingyu was taken back to the old mansion.
When passing by the place where she had been exorcised last time, she could even feel the pain on her back.
She paused for a moment but still walked in.
In the living room, the old master, whom she hadn't seen for a long time, was sitting and sipping tea.
Liu Ning was on the other side. Seeing her come in, she let out a soft snort.
Good - mannered as she was, Xu Tingyu greeted them.
The old master looked up, smiling at her. His eyes lingered on her belly for a few seconds.
"Have a seat, Tingyu. After all this time, you're still so well - behaved and beautiful."
The teachers who gave her classes used to joke that since she was still so beautiful during pregnancy, she was likely to have a daughter.
It was said that a daughter was good for her mother's looks.
But there was a huge difference when this was said by others and when it was said by the old master.
On the surface, she remained calm, but inside, she had already raised her guard.
"Have you found out the baby's gender?"
The old master asked her again, still wearing that smiling expression, but somehow it looked rather creepy.
Xu Tingyu lied. "Yes, it's a girl."
She knew that the old master favored sons over daughters, and Qi Ruixi had criticized him for this more than once.
Sure enough, after hearing this, a look of disdain flashed across the old master's face.
She remained calm and didn't speak first. Instead, she quietly waited for the old master to continue.
It was Liu Ning who couldn't sit still and took the lead to attack.
"You're really useless. After all these years, you finally got pregnant, but it's a girl. You're good for nothing."
"Qi Shifeng still cares about you so much and hides you away for your pregnancy. Did you deceive him?"
These words made Xu Tingyu extremely uncomfortable.
Since they were going to fall out anyway, she retorted without any scruples.
"You're a woman too, and you have a daughter. Does that mean you're useless?"
Compared to men's preference for sons, a woman's preference for sons was the most annoying.
Liu Ning was like this, and so was Zhang Qiu.
They were women themselves, but they only regarded themselves as appendages of men.
They helped men to belittle women.
Liu Ning seemed not to expect that at this moment, Xu Tingyu would still dare to talk back.
She was immediately enraged and stood up, seemingly wanting to slap her.
But then she remembered that the old master was still there, so she sat back down forcefully.
"Humph, still being stubborn when you're on the verge of death. Now, besides debts, what does the Xu family have left? No money, no people. Tsk tsk."
She knew exactly where others were most vulnerable and deliberately picked on their sore spots.
If she hadn't mentioned the death of the Xu family members, it would have been okay. But once she did, it only fueled Xu Tingyu's hatred.
"So, you were the ones behind my father and my brother's accidents, weren't you?"
She stared intently at Liu Ning, almost spitting out blood in anger.
Liu Ning clearly showed a moment of unease, but she quickly replied, "What are you talking nonsense about? Your family members died. What does it have to do with us?"
After saying that, as if it wasn't enough, she added more.
"If you want to blame someone, blame your family members for having bad luck. I heard they died by jumping off a building. They won't even have a chance to be reborn after death."
"The other one was even more miserable. Tsk tsk. So young, making the white - haired send off the black - haired. It's truly unforgivable."
"I'd say..." "Ah, you're crazy! How dare you hit me."
Before Liu Ning could finish speaking, Xu Tingyu suddenly stood up and slapped her.
Although she was seven months pregnant, at this moment, she unleashed her potential and was quite agile, slapping the other woman several times in a row.
After being pulled apart, Xu Tingyu's eyes were red, and she laughed heartily.
"One of these slaps is for the whip you lashed me with back then."
"The rest are for my father and my brother. Liu Ning, since you're so superstitious, do you know that karma will always come back?"
She had her arms held tightly and was pressed onto the sofa.
Liu Ning's cheeks were red and swollen, and she was going crazy, eager for revenge.
But before she could touch Xu Tingyu, she was scolded by the old master. "That's enough! Aren't you ashamed enough? Go upstairs now!"
In the past two years, Liu Ning had been acting more and more arrogantly and rudely, which had long dissatisfied the old master.
If it weren't for the fact that she was the biological mother of his three grandchildren, she would have been kicked out of the Qi family long ago.
Liu Ning also knew the old master's methods and didn't dare to say a word. After glaring at Xu Tingyu fiercely, she left the place dejectedly.
Xu Tingyu's arms ached, but she stubbornly refused to make a sound. She just frowned and looked at the old master.
"Old master, I just want to ask you. It was your family that first expressed the intention of a marriage alliance and even brought Qi Shifeng to our house again and again."
"Was it from the very beginning that you were after the Xu family's fortune? And is all of this now the doing of your Qi family?"
She had a vague feeling that since she came here today, she probably wouldn't be able to escape.
Old Master Qi wouldn't allow her to give birth to this child, and probably wouldn't allow her to live either.
An accident? Both mother and child dead?
It was so easy to fabricate some reasons for a pregnant woman who was not very mobile.
But even if she had to die, she had to figure out what exactly was going on.
Old Master Qi suddenly burst into laughter. "Xu Tingyu, you're being too confident about the Xu family. The Xu family's fortune doesn't catch my eye."
"However, today I might as well be frank. Arranging for Shifeng to marry you back then was indeed because you were the best candidate."
"I asked a master to calculate. Your fate is one - in - a - million. You can bring good luck to your husband and the family. Shifeng had a rough life before he turned 25, and you were the best amulet."
"So, the Qi family married you just for this reason. As for later letting Cai Lan gradually erode and annex your family, it has nothing to do with me."
"However, I told you long ago that Shifeng is a wild and untamable leopard. He hates me, so he ignored me for many years. He hates you, so it's reasonable that he destroyed your natal family."
"However, girl, remember. The Xu family eventually ended up on that path because of your father's wrong decisions. It has little to do with others, so you have no reason to complain."
"As for your younger brother, how can you say we killed him? He had bad luck and got sick. He even saved someone before he died. That was his good fortune."
Xu Tingyu only felt a loud rumbling in her ears.
All the suspicions she had before were now confirmed by the old master's words.
It turned out that they married her just because of her so - called good luck for her husband and good fate.
Even though they knew Qi Shifeng didn't want to, they still forced him to marry.
So when he wanted to take revenge on the Xu family, they turned a blind eye and regarded it as compensation for him.
And her poor younger brother.
Just because he was her younger brother, was he heartlessly killed, his organs stolen, and finally died an unnatural death?
She spat out a mouthful of blood with a "wow" sound, and her whole body trembled like a sieve.