"Zhishu, you grew up with the steward. When have you ever seen him do anything so cruel? This is a premeditated frame-up. They're coming after the Qiao family!"
Old Master Qiao was still defending Steward Qiao, who sat slumped on the ground, his eyes full of helplessness, unable to offer a defense.
Qiao Zhishu's gaze was stern, but he held back the tears in his eyes as he asked,
"You're still shielding him?"
"I understand now. Father, Mother, you're willing to lay down your lives to protect this beast, and you even tried to kill the child in Youling's womb..."
"It's all because..."
"It's all because Steward Qiao is your true flesh and blood, and Qiao Tianci is your biological grandson! That's why-why you wanted to harm Youling's unborn child, to pave the way for Qiao Tianci and keep the family fortune from falling into my son's hands!"
"Isn't that it? Isn't it?"
As Qiao Zhishu shouted those words, he was already struggling to find clarity on the brink of collapse.
What pained him was not the truth of his birth.
It was that the people who had raised him for so many years had used the official position he had worked so hard to earn to commit deeds that defied Heaven and human decency.
Every official of the Great Xia Dynasty had to swear an oath upon entering office.
Loyalty to the nation, loyalty to the people, loyalty to the sovereign!
Yet his parents' actions had betrayed the very purpose with which he had become an official charged with caring for the people.
How many times had he wanted to petition the Imperial Court to send people to tear down the Abandoned Infant Pagoda? Yet his parents had stopped him again and again, nearly driving him mad, while he