The Devious First Daughter

Chapter 132. Threats at every turn

A scream emerged from the dilapidated courtyard, alarming everyone. Ning Zu'an was the first to arrive as his study was the closest to this place. Looking at the well amidst the ruined stones and broken tiles, he saw Ning Yuling holding onto the side of the well and crying so hard that she was about to faint, as well as Ning Xueyan watching everything unfold quietly with her maid.

"Father! Father, please save Mother! Please save her! She pushed Mother into the well! Please save her," Ning Yuling sobbed, kowtowing to Ning Zu'an with a face full of tears and snot. She looked panicked, fearful, and sad.

Ning Xueyan pushed Madam Ling into the well? Ning Zu'an was shocked but now wasn't the time to worry about that. He turned around and ordered the servants to save Madam Ling.

A flurry of turmoil later, the servants managed to get Madam Ling out of the well. However, there was no more life left in her. She laid on the wet ground, cold and stiff. Ning Zu'an felt a rare sense of loss as he looked at her pale face. He suddenly felt that he had wronged her.

In his memory, the woman with that soft, coquettish face had spent so many wonderful days with him. He could still remember her bashfulness at having borne him a son. But right now, all that was left was her pale, lifeless, and aged face that he could barely recognize. Was this truly the woman that he couldn't let go of back then?

If it weren't for him indulging her, she likely wouldn't have dared to treat Madam Ming like that!

"Father, Father, please avenge Mother. Even... Even if she had done something wrong, she's still the mother of your son and two daughters. You... You can't just let Ning Xueyan kill her and do nothing. Father, please return justice to Mother!"

Ning Yuling seemed to have gone mad. She clung onto her mother's body as she cried, before kowtowing to Ning Zu'an with tears streaming down her face.

Whoever saw her would have thought that she was heartbroken and her wanting to avenge her mother was natural.

"You unfilial daughter, kneel!" Ning Zu'an was so angry that he was trembling all over and his face was green. He stared daggers at Ning Xueyan. His facial muscles were throbbing violently as if there was an invisible hand kneading his face.

Ning Xueyan continued to look calm and unperturbed even in the face of his glare. She met his eyes and smiled. In a rather mocking voice, she said, "You must have treated my mother the same way in the past, haven't you? You made it so that she couldn't even argue for herself."

Her words, simple as they might sound, were a direct stab at his Achilles' heel.

The past incident resurfaced in his mind like a curtain of water. When Madam Ling took her to catch Madam Ming in bed with her "lover", she looked as calm as Ning Xueyan did now. Even her words back then sounded like ridicule. It was as if she was mocking him for his self-orchestrated show.

Those eyes contained the mockery of a person who had seen through everything, and he was so pathetic that he couldn't say a word to refute. He could only watch as she asked for a divorce and everything unfolded in his desired direction. However, the process was so calm that even now, he still thought that Madam Ming had seen through him. It made him feel like someone had discovered his sordid side.

That was also why he refused to see Madam Ming after.

Just at the sight of her, he would be reminded of his despicableness, treachery, the promises that he had once given her. This was despite him telling himself over and over that she was the one who had betrayed her. Her child was of unknown origins, but he still raised her. To him, it was enough repayment for the Ming family's protection in the past.