Dai Xiangwei asked in bewilderment:
"Father and Mother sent people here with money?
Didn't my wet nurse say I was a little bastard Father and Mother had abandoned?
They never came to see me or cared about me because they thought I was a jinx who would bring about their deaths.
My wet nurse also said they only came to this poor, remote backwater to look after me out of the kindness of their hearts.
I had to be grateful!"
The wet nurse hurriedly explained:
"That's not true! That's not true!
Nanny Liu, please let me explain..."
Even now, the wet nurse still tried to muddy the waters.
Nanny Liu refused to listen to her excuses. The young lady stood right here, nothing but skin and bones, dressed worse than a beggar. What explanation did she need to hear?
The facts were right before her eyes.
Furious, Nanny Liu pointed at her and said:
"You've got the gall of a dog that dares defy Heaven.
Someone, slap her mouth!"
A maid stepped forward and delivered several vicious slaps to the wet nurse, then grabbed her hair and struck her face from left and right.
Only when the wet nurse's face had swollen into a pig's head did Nanny Liu order her to stop. Then she cursed:
"You brazen servants! Who gave you the nerve to slander the master and madam like this?
What were you trying to achieve by sowing discord between them and the young lady?"
The wet nurse and the other servants kowtowed incessantly:
"We were wrong! We won't ever dare do it again!
Please spare us just this once!"
"Where is the money the master and madam sent every year? Where did it all go?"
The people on the ground trembled with fear.
Having spent so many