"I wish I could have you go down there and accompany my mother!"
Luo Minghuan clenched the fists hanging by her sides tightly, her body trembling as if she would explode at any moment.
"Do you even see me as your father still?!"
Lord Luo had seemingly gotten angry as well, the angry smile on his face looking somewhat grim.
"You were no longer my father the moment you married someone else!" Luo Minghuan responded sternly. However, she started a violent coughing fit because of her overwhelming emotions.
Luo Minghuan had never been an emotionally outgoing person. She wasn't such an easily excitable person, either. However, she simply couldn't hold back her bubbling emotions in the current situation.
"Why did you have to treat Mother that way?! Were you related to Mother's death?!"
Why?
Luo Minghuan wanted an answer. All she wanted to know was why the man known as her father could be so cruel!
Lord Luo seemingly heard something he found ridiculous as shock colored his face. After some time, though, he suddenly started laughing.
"You think I am related to your mother's death? I've gone through so much effort to raise you, and this is how you think of me?"
Lord Luo's laughter contained sorrowful and self-deprecating feelings. By the time he was done laughing, his spirit had looked like it had declined significantly.
"The doctor said that my mother had died from depression! Who else could've caused it other than you? Wasn't it because of your mess with those women that my mother became depressed? If you couldn't keep your promise with my mother, you should've never pretended to be a good man to begin with!"
At this moment, Luo Minghuan no longer cared about anything. She had kept these complaints in her heart for a long time now. She had originally planned to dispose of all the nuisances and only questioned her father after victory was in her hands. However, since she had already brought up this matter, she decided that she might as well go through with asking her questions in her heart.
Why did her father betray his promise to her mother?!
Why did her father take in a concubine shortly after her elder brother's death?!
Why did her father let a concubine take the position of his main wife after her mother died?!
Luo Ziqi had envied Luo Minghuan, thinking that she was the most favored child in this household.
However, in Luo Minghuan's opinion, Luo Ziqi and her little brother were the ones who were Lord Luo's precious treasures instead.
"So this is how you thought of me? I guess I can't blame you for thinking that way, but do you really want to know an answer?" Lord Luo tugged at the corners of his mouth, looking a little strange.
"I already know the answer. I only want to hear you say it once with your mouth."
Wasn't it because he was heartless? Wasn't it because he stopped loving her? Wasn't it because he had a fickle heart?
"I hated your mother," Lord Luo calmly said as he looked at Luo Minghuan's face, which somewhat resembled his deceased wife's face. "But I also loved her."
"What right do you have to say that you loved her?! What right do you have to hate her?!"
"Let me finish."
Lord Luo held up a hand to stop Luo Minghuan, his usual impatience vanishing from his face. Instead, replacing it was a dark and indistinguishable expression.
The aura surrounding Lord Luo had also changed. If Luo Minghuan hadn't been standing in front of Lord Luo all this time, she would've found it difficult to believe that the person in front of her right now was her father.
It was as if he had shed the sullenness of a middle-aged man he usually wore and revealed the temperament befitting that of the Luo Manor's lord.
Luo Minghuan remembered that this was how her father usually appeared in the past. However, at some point, he had changed into his previous sullen and indifferent appearance, behaving as if he didn't care about anything at all.
"It is precisely because I loved her that I couldn't accept some of her behaviors and that I would hate her even more," Lord Luo said. Then, he asked, "Do you still remember your elder brother's death?"
"I remember some of it."
Luo Minghuan's memories of that time had already become blurry. However, upon hearing her father's question, she subconsciously realized that the following topic might not be something she wanted to hear, so after answering her father, she pursed her lips and fell silent.
"I already had the offending servant caned to death. At the time, I was both angry and heartbroken, and I wanted to give your mother everything so that she wouldn't have to suffer as I did. But do you know what I found out afterward? Your elder brother wasn't pushed down by some servant with a grudge at all!" Lord Luo said in a heightened voice. "The offending servant was someone sent by your mother! How could there be such a vicious person in this world?!"
When Lord Luo spoke up to this point, pain overflowed from his heart. He was still young at the time, so he was devastated when he lost the first child he had with his beloved wife. Then, he was utterly traumatized when he found out the truth of the matter.
"Impossible!"
Luo Minghuan's eyes widened in shock, her mind instinctively refusing to believe what she just heard.
"That was also my first thought at the time. If I hadn't personally witnessed and heard everything, how could I possibly believe that the kind and gentle woman I loved for so many years was actually such a vicious person?
"In reality, you weren't the only one born with an unhealthy body. Your elder brother was also the same. It's just that his case wasn't as obvious. His brain is a little slower than others, so he keeps stumbling in everything he does. I used to think that it was only because he was young, but I later found out that it wasn't the case at all.
"Your elder brother had congenital dementia, and he is fated to become a fool when he grows up. Your mother was afraid that he would irritate me, and there was no way a fool could inherit the family business. Your mother's body didn't allow her to give birth to another child. So, she decided to have Lin'er die because she knows I will feel guilty to her and cherish her for the rest of my life!"
Lin'er was the name of Luo Minghuan's elder brother.
When Luo Minghuan heard a completely different version of the truth she recognized from the father she hated and distrusted, she naturally refused to believe her father's words. Immediately, she shouted, "Impossible! You are slandering my mother!"
Lord Luo did not care whether Luo Minghuan believed him or not. As if he was trying to vent the agony and frustrations he had endured throughout all these years, he continued:
"However, she never thought that I would learn of this matter. Although I didn't question her over it, I didn't know how I should face her at the time, either. So, I kept returning to the manor late and busied myself with work. I was scared that I would fail to hold myself back and strangle her to death if I saw her. I was scared that I would ask her how she could be so cruel, how she could question our relationship, and how she could harm Lin'er. However, she was such a smart and sensitive person, so how could she not notice that I was avoiding her?
"Xin'er was a woman I happened to save in the past. When I had nowhere left to go and nobody to vent my sorrows to, I decided to have a drink at her place.
"I didn't want to have to face your mother day in, day out, but I was even less able to chastise her. Not to mention, we still have you between us. So, I brought Xin'er back to the manor.
"Your mother knew my intentions. I originally thought she would come crying and argue with me. If that had happened, I could've used the chance to ask her the questions that I dared not ask. However, she did not do that. On the contrary, she generously brought three more concubines for me. When I learned of this matter, I wanted nothing more than to end both our lives and settle things once and for all.
"How could she be so ruthless? When I questioned her, she smiled at me and said, Wasn't this what you wanted? Haven't you grown tired of me already?
"When have I ever… Hahaha! Ridiculous! It was utterly ridiculous! I felt like a joke at the time! Since she said that it was something I wanted, so what if I do as she wanted?"
Nobody could have understood the struggles and pain he had gone through at that time. While his love for his wife was sincere, his hatred for her was also sincere.
Luo Minghuan's complexion turned white when she heard her father's side of the story. In reality, her mother hadn't revealed much about the cause of her depression to her. Her mother only told her to take care of her health. Other than that, her mother would typically stare off into space absent-mindedly.
Luo Minghuan had once asked her mother whether she hated her father.
In response, her mother only looked at her quietly before revealing a cold smile.
It was a vague response that could have meant anything.
In Luo Minghuan's memories, her mother had never shown herself to have any particularly intense mood swings. The only time her mother had behaved emotionally was when her elder brother had died when she was five and when the taoist had prophesied that she wouldn't live past 25 years old.
Luo Minghuan still remembered that when her father had brought home his first concubine, her mother didn't show herself to be surprised on the surface. Back then, she merely thought that her mother was so saddened by the matter that she had grown sullen and depressed.
Luo Minghuan was also present when her mother chose more concubines for her father. When she asked her mother why she was doing such a thing, her mother did not answer. Instead, her mother merely looked at her with faint melancholy in her eyes. At the time, Luo Minghuan thought that her mother was forced to do so.
Luo Minghuan's mind went blank when she started realizing her mother's suspicious behavior. If the truth of the matter was as her father described, for what had she been holding onto her hatred for all these years?
How did things turn out like this?
"She has taught you very well. You are as vicious as she was. I used to think that you were simply young and ignorant and that you were being blinded by hatred. I had originally intended to keep this secret from you. After all, your mother has already left, and she holds such an important place in your heart. However, what I cannot tolerate is for you to think that I caused her death.
"If you disagree with my actions, what do you think I should've done? Should I have indulged in her actions? Should I continue pretending to love her after finding out the truth? I'm afraid you think too highly of your father. He cannot do that."
Lord Luo let out a low chuckle, his fists clenched tightly.
After making these traumatizing discoveries, he had already grown disinterested in doing business. So, he was honestly happy when he found out that Luo Minghuan was talented in doing business.
He did not wish for his talented daughter to be trapped at home, so he took the initiative to take her out with him on his business trips. He didn't wish for his daughter to be dragged down by her illness, either, so he indulged her in whatever she did.
Luo Minghuan loosened her clenched fists, her hands feeling empty.
Should she believe her father's words?
She didn't want to believe them, but she couldn't not believe them.
If her mother's death wasn't related to other people, wouldn't her past obsessions become a joke?
However, Luo Minghuan's eyes quickly regained their clarity. Even if the truth was as her father described, she had done nothing wrong.
Did Luo Ziyao deserve to die?
Of course.
He had tried to lay his dirty hands on her little dummy. He had tried to touch what he shouldn't.
The Second Madam trying to harm the little dummy deserved to die even more.
Not to mention, the Second Madam and her daughter, Luo Ziying, both played a role in the deaths of the Fourth Madam and the Fifth Madam. They were also responsible for the Sixth Madam's insanity and the Seventh Madam's forced abortion and suicide.
None of them were good people.
"If you hadn't thought of me this way, I might have never told you about these things," Lord Luo said when he noticed the changes in his daughter's expressions. "Why bother getting to the bottom of this matter when I am unwilling to bring it up, and you aren't willing to know about it?"
"I will go and verify your words. If things turn out like what you said, I will acknowledge my mistake, Father."
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