When Gu Heng spoke, her voice was still hoarse. She looked at the man beside her, her expression dazed. “You… who are you?”
Hearing this, Quan Minghao felt a sharp pain in his heart.
“Heng’er, I’m your father—your biological father.”
As he finished speaking, he saw the fear and confusion in the girl’s eyes slowly turn into sorrow and grievance.
In the blink of an eye, tears streamed down her face.
“Really? You’re really my father? But if that’s true, then why didn’t you come to find me all these years?”
An unbearable pain seized Quan Minghao’s heart.
All these years, he had never stopped searching for Heng’er. But the world was vast—even though he had traveled to countless places, there had never been a single clue about her.
He had been too useless. If only he had tried harder, maybe Heng’er wouldn’t have had to suffer so much.
Carefully, he pulled the child into his arms, his voice trembling, “It’s alright now. Father has found you. From now on, I won’t let you suffer again.”
In the next moment, Gu Heng, like a fledgling bird returning to its nest, could no longer suppress the deep, overwhelming grief. She threw herself into her father’s embrace and cried her heart out.
Gu Changfan knelt to the side, already drenched in sweat. Though it was winter, his clothes were soaked through.
It was unclear how much time had passed before Gu Heng, exhausted from crying, finally fell quiet. Just then, a knock came from the door.
To Gu Changfan, it was like salvation had arrived. He rushed forward and opened the door.
But when he saw the two faces standing outside, his heart filled with guilt, and he immediately slammed the door shut.
“Master! Master, please open the door! We heard the fire in the woodshed where Second Miss was locked up. We still don’t know if she’s safe. Please, open the door and let us see her!”
Gu Changfan felt them pushing on the door from the outside, but he held firm, using his back to block it. He couldn’t let them in—who knew what these two crazy women might say?
But the noise was too loud. Gu Heng heard familiar voices and grew suspicious. “Is that Ziyun and Qin Momo outside? …Father, please let them in.”
When she addressed Gu Changfan as “Father,” Quan Minghao felt both anger and sorrow.
Someone like Gu Changfan was not worthy of being called “Father.”
“That’s enough, Lord Gu. Open the door,” said Quan Minghao coldly.
Hearing this, Gu Changfan dared not disobey and stepped aside.
The next moment, Ziyun and Qin Momo rushed in and threw themselves at Gu Heng’s bedside.
“Second Miss, are you alright?”
Gu Heng gave a weak smile and wiped the tears off Ziyun’s face. “I’m fine. Don’t cry. But what about you two? You were both beaten thirty times because of me. Are you alright?”
As soon as she said it, Gu Heng regretted it.
Looking at how pale they were, it was obvious they weren’t well at all. They had clearly forced themselves to come just to see her.
Hearing Gu Heng’s concern, Qin Momo immediately began to cry. “We still have the medicine you got from the Ruikang Clinic. Ziyun and I have been treating each other’s wounds these past days—we managed to survive. But you—you were locked in that woodshed for two days without food or water and nearly died in the fire! You made us so worried!”
As she spoke, she turned to glare at Gu Changfan, her eyes full of hatred.
“Master, even if Second Miss isn’t your biological daughter, you can’t treat her like this!”
The long-held resentment finally exploded. Qin Momo began denouncing every injustice one by one, her voice hoarse, her face soaked in tears.
“You never sought the truth about Yiniang’s death. Instead, you accused Second Miss of cursing her to death and insisted on sending her to the manor! But the eldest miss is a venomous viper in human skin—on the way, she pushed Second Miss off a cliff! If she hadn’t been lucky, she would’ve died then and there!”
“When the Old Madam passed away, Second Miss rushed back to mourn and even saved many people. Everyone saw how kind and filial she was. Just because she exposed the crimes of your wife and eldest daughter in front of others, you felt embarrassed and wanted to kill her! After all these years as father and daughter, you didn’t care at all—how cruel can you be!”
Quan Minghao was livid upon hearing this.
He had already thought locking Heng’er in the woodshed was outrageous enough. But he hadn’t expected there to be far worse.
“Gu Changfan! You’d better give me a proper explanation. What is going on here?!”
The moment those two had entered, Gu Changfan felt a deep sense of unease. Now, after hearing all that, he trembled like a leaf.
“My lord! These two are nothing but worthless servants! You mustn’t believe their baseless accusations! All these years, I’ve treated Heng’er as my own—never once have I mistreated her!”
Gu Heng let out a bitter laugh. “You say they’re servants and their words don’t count. Then what about mine?”
She sat up, looked at Gu Changfan kneeling not far away, and rasped, “Lately, I keep thinking it would’ve been better if I had just died at the foot of that mountain as an infant—better than these past years of living like an outsider, scorned and looked down upon!”
Just moments ago in the woodshed, she had inhaled too much smoke. Now, after saying so much, she could hardly breathe, coughing violently.
“And after my Yiniang died, your entire family tried to destroy me! Father—just tell me—what exactly did I do wrong all these years?”
After shouting out this final question, Gu Heng suddenly felt all strength leave her body. Her vision went black, and she collapsed once again.
At that moment, Quan Minghao was overwhelmed by fear and anguish.
“Heng’er! Heng’er! What’s wrong?! Where’s the doctor?! Why isn’t he here yet?!”
Carefully placing Gu Heng on the bed, he immediately rose and strode out.
If the doctor was this slow, then he’d fetch one himself!
As he passed Gu Changfan, he gave him a vicious kick, knocking him down. His face was cold and merciless. “If anything happens to Heng’er, I’ll make the entire Gu family pay with their lives!”
***
When Gu Heng woke again, it was already deep into the night.
Opening her eyes, she saw Quan Minghao sitting at her bedside, his eyes bloodshot from exhaustion.
Not far away, a group of people were kneeling on the floor.
Gu Changfan knelt at the very front, his body covered in bloody whip marks.
Qin Rou, Gu Yue, and Gu Feng were behind him, heads bowed and trembling.
“Father… what is this?”
Quan Minghao smiled gently. “Heng’er, the doctor came by just now. He said your body is severely weakened and that you’ve suffered grave injuries. You need to rest and recover. As for punishing these people, leave that to me.”
He looked at her tenderly, his gaze lingering on every scar on her body.
While she was unconscious, Ziyun and Qin Momo had told him everything that had happened.
For his biological daughter to be treated like this—if he didn’t avenge her, how could he still call himself her father?
He raised his hand, and his personal guard Liufeng stepped forward with a whip. With a loud crack, it struck the ground in front of Qin Rou and the others.
Gu Feng, the most cowardly of the bunch, was so frightened he wet himself on the spot.
“B-Brother, please… please let me go!”
Seeing the guard unmoved, he grew more panicked and began to kowtow furiously.
“I’ll give you all the money in my room, just please let me go!”
Quan Minghao sneered. “Liufeng, these people humiliated the legitimate daughter of Yongning Marquis’s household. You know what to do.”
Liufeng was a top fighter—using him against these weaklings was overkill, but precisely because of that, they would receive a punishment they’d never forget.
Screams soon filled the room.
Quan Minghao wanted to shield Heng’er from the scene, not wanting her to witness the brutality. But she shook her head.
“I want to see it for myself—to watch the end of those who tormented me.”
Gu Heng looked coldly at the people writhing on the ground, their bodies covered in lash marks, their cries piercing.
All of this was nothing more than an eye for an eye.
Yet in that moment, the thrill of revenge quickly faded, leaving only sorrow.
Because no matter what, Fu Yiniang would never return.
The woman who gave everything to raise her—who truly loved her—was now nothing more than a handful of dust in the earth.
At that moment, Qin Rou, despite her pain, glared at Gu Heng with venomous eyes.
No one would have thought that Gu Heng, once a lowly orphan, would turn out to be a noble daughter of the capital.
Had she known earlier, she wouldn’t have hesitated. She should’ve killed her when she was still a child.
Sensing the hatred in Qin Rou and Gu Yue’s eyes, Gu Heng gave a cold laugh. Ignoring Quan Minghao’s attempt to stop her, she got out of bed and walked toward them.
Liufeng quickly withdrew the whip, afraid of accidentally harming her.
“Qin Rou, hand over the antidote to Ah Zheng’s poison. Now.”
Qin Rou sneered. “Heh. So what if you’re a noble lady now? You’re still begging me. If you want to save your little lover, get down and kowtow to me—loudly. If I’m not satisfied, he dies. Let him rot!”
Gu Heng didn’t waste her breath. She drew the long sword from Liufeng’s waist and pressed it against Qin Rou’s neck.
“I advise you to hand it over quickly, or else these blades won’t spare anyone!”
Qin Rou was startled by her sudden move, but then burst out laughing. “Kill me, then! Go on! I’m an official’s wife—dare lay a hand on me, and aren’t you afraid of landing in prison?”
Seeing this woman still defiant and unrepentant, Quan Minghao frowned and walked to stand beside Gu Heng, looking down at Qin Rou with a cold gaze. “This courtyard is full of my people. As long as they keep their mouths shut, who would know if you died by my hand or from some sudden illness?”
At those words, a flicker of fear finally crossed Qin Rou’s heart. “What do you mean by that? Even if the servants here are loyal to you, my husband and daughter would never cover for you!”
Quan Minghao took the sword from Gu Heng and pressed it in deeper. A thin red line quickly appeared across Qin Rou’s neck.
“Of course, dead men tell no tales. If I kill all of you, wouldn’t that solve the problem?”
Seeing this, Liu Feng chimed in with a wicked grin. “We’ve already asked around. To the common folk, it looks like Gu Yue was punished with family discipline and sent to kneel in the ancestral hall. It can be said she caught a chill while kneeling and died from it. As for Gu Feng—simple, he got drunk, stumbled into the pond, and drowned. As for you and Lord Gu? Naturally, it was heartbreak over losing your children, leaving you depressed and unable to eat, wasting away in grief.”
Noticing their horrified expressions, Liu Feng chuckled maliciously. “So? Doesn’t that arrangement sound just right?”
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