Chapter 6: I Have Not Forgotten

After regaining her composure, Xu Yanran angrily confronted her, “Did you deliberately show all these wounds to make us feel guilty, or to let others say that the Xu family sent you instead of Xingyue to the countryside just to mistreat you?”

She had clearly asked Aunt Wu to bring plenty of clothes; did she not know to choose something that could cover these bruises?

Why insist on wearing something that exposed her legs and arms?

What else could this be but a calculated move?

“Enough, Yanran, stop talking,” Xu’s mother interrupted, feigning concern.

“Yaoyao, I’m sorry. It’s all my fault,” she sobbed, stepping forward to embrace Lu Yao. “I should have sent someone to pick you up sooner. I’m sorry you’ve been hurt so much.”

Lu Yao had been with them for fifteen years. Seeing her in this state, it was impossible for Xu’s mother not to feel some pang of sympathy.

If it had been Xu Xingyue sent to the countryside instead, Xu’s mother dared not imagine the consequences.

At the core, Xu’s mother cared most about her biological daughter, Xu Xingyue.

To her, Lu Yao was merely an adopted daughter she had raised for fifteen years—a bond a little stronger than most, but still not the same.

“Mom, why are you crying? She’s doing this on purpose,” Xu Yanran snapped, unable to stomach Lu Yao’s calm demeanor, as if everything about the Xu family no longer concerned her.

Without the Xu family, could Lu Yao have grown up in such a life of comfort and ease?

“She went to the countryside because the higher-ups ordered her to, not to be abused. If she had injuries, why didn’t she tell me when I came to pick her up? And why is she now wearing a dress that exposes her wounds in front of us? She clearly wants us to feel guilty, to think we wronged her first, so she can make other demands!”

Every time Lu Yao wanted something, she had played the victim before them.

Showing those scars in front of Xu’s mother now was just her way of feeling threatened by Xu Xingyue’s presence.

She wanted to draw their attention back to herself, so they would compensate her properly for spending three years in the countryside in Xingyue’s place.

Though Lu Yao’s heart had long since grown cold and numb, listening to Yanran’s words still sent a sharp pang of pain and disappointment through her.

After two lifetimes, was she really seen by Xu Yanran as such a scheming, calculating person?

“Miss Yanran, your imagination certainly runs wild,” Lu Yao said, her voice laced with sarcasm. “Why don’t you check the clothes you gave Aunt Wu? Tell me, which one doesn’t expose your arms or legs?”

Having lived in Baiyan Village for two lifetimes, Lu Yao had long shed her initial pride. Her clothing naturally conformed to the style of the village girls – long-sleeved tops and long pants.

Even so, many men in the village still set their sights on these young women sent to the countryside.

In the previous life, Lu Yao had resisted fiercely to avoid harassment, which was how the scars on her body first appeared in the second year after she arrived—one scar, then two, then three, and even more.

Each time she fought back, she was met with cruelty and starvation.

Over time, her nerves were constantly on edge, never allowed to relax.

Eventually, her body grew weak, and various illnesses broke out one after another.

Her appearance showed the toll—emaciated, hair dry and brittle.

She was nothing more than a walking skeleton, stripped of the beauty she once had.

In this life, Lu Yao chose the same path to evade trouble.

Only by doing so could she avoid drawing the attention of the men.

But her fellow girls who came to the countryside with her were not so lucky.

Some, after being abused, had committed suicide; others compromised and married their tormentors.

Even marriage did not spare them from daily beatings.

The ugly scars on Lu Yao’s body kept her on guard.

In the village, she still wore gray, long-sleeved tops and pants, wrapping herself up tightly.

Now, suddenly dressed in the clothes Xu Yanran had sent via Aunt Wu, her skin, long hidden beneath layers, was exposed.

As before, Lu Yao felt uncomfortable.

Perhaps she had been covered up for so long that she was nearly forgetting what it felt like for her skin to be bare in the open air.

But this did not mean she liked deliberately ripping open those long-buried wounds in front of everyone.

These years had been painful for her in both lives.

“Also, Miss Yanran, my surname is Lu, and my name is Lu Yao. Please don’t call me Xu Yao anymore.”

The name Xu Yao belonged to the past.

It had disappeared the moment she left the Xu family in her previous life.

She would not shamelessly cling to it now.

Her pride forbade it.

She no longer had the right to bear the Xu surname.

Xu’s mother suddenly went pale, nearly losing her footing.

Thankfully, Xu Xingyue was quick to steady her.

“Mom, are you alright?” Xingyue asked, concern in her eyes.

“Lu Yao, now that you have returned to the Xu family, you are one of us. Suddenly changing your surname hurts Mom. Do you resent us that much?” Xu Xingyue’s expression was complicated.

That wretched woman liked to toy with people's feelings, didn’t she?

Knowing Xu’s mother and others still cared, she deliberately brought up the surname issue—how ungrateful.

She should have stayed in Baiyan Village and worked herself to death.

“Lu… Lu Yao, have you grown wings?” Xu Yanran stepped forward, glaring. “Do you know how worried Mom has been every day these last three years? You ungrateful wretch, if you don’t want to share our surname, fine. From today onward, don’t live under the same roof as us. Go back to your home inland.”

She didn’t want to see that sallow face of hers anymore.

“Enough, all of you, stop it!” Xu’s mother stepped forward, her eyes full of pain, reaching for Lu Yao’s hand—but Lu Yao dodged.

“Sorry, Mrs. Xu, I just applied medicine to my hand. It’s inconvenient.”

Even if it weren’t inconvenient, she didn’t want anyone touching her.

After two lifetimes, she and Xu’s mother were strangers, no longer mother and daughter.

There was no need to pretend otherwise.

Xu’s mother’s hand froze in midair. Though displeased, she understood the unfairness of those three years in the countryside. It was only natural that Lu Yao harbored resentment.

So she withdrew her hand.

“Lu Yao, Mom knows you’re angry, but didn’t I say before, even if Xingyue returns, you will always be my daughter? Have you forgotten that?”

Why must this be dragged up again and again?

“I haven’t forgotten!” Lu Yao looked at the tearful Mrs. Xu, and as before, she could not deny feeling some emotion—if only for a moment.

“I still remember that Mrs. Xu said someone would come to pick me up after I’d spent a year in the countryside. But now it’s already the fourth year.”

If not for the crisis in the Xu family’s company, they might never have thought of her again.