Chapter 261: Persuasion
Wen Yao and Nanny Shi waited in silence. Before long, the housekeeper and the maidservant brought in quite a few items, setting them directly before Wen Yao.
There were bolts of fabric, ready-made clothes, and jewelry.
Lady Liu opened the main jewelry box, revealing a complete headpiece set. The quality was acceptable, but the style was decidedly outdated. With just a single glance, Nanny Shi knew it was a style that had fallen out of fashion several years ago.
Although Wen Yao didn’t know much about these items, having seen the things the Empress Dowager had gifted her, she now understood the difference between high and low quality. She could tell at a glance that while these hair ornaments looked shiny and glamorous, they were actually cheap and worthless—likely not even worth a single piece from the set the Empress Dowager had given her.
“Yao Yao, look. These were all prepared for you by Mother. Do you like them?” Lady Liu held Wen Yao’s hand, presenting these items like prized treasures for her to admire.
However, contrary to Lady Liu’s expectations, Wen Yao showed no delight or affection. She merely cast an indifferent glance at them, looking completely unbothered.
Lady Liu asked, “What is it, Yao Yao? Do you not like them? Mother specifically chose these for you.”
Originally, Lady Liu had only intended to take Datou with her. She hadn’t expected so many twists and turns upon arriving here. Out of options, these items had been bought hastily in Yunwu Town, and she naturally knew they weren’t top-tier.
However, thinking that Wen Yao was merely an ignorant country girl, she assumed these things would be more than enough to coax her.
She had never anticipated such a reaction from Wen Yao.
To tell the truth, Wen Yao wanted to reject them outright. Yet no matter what, Lady Liu was the biological mother of this body, and some things couldn’t be carried too far.
“Thank you. Nanny Shi, put them away,” Wen Yao instructed Nanny Shi.
“Yes, Miss,” Nanny Shi complied. She gathered the items in her arms and headed toward the storeroom.
Seeing this, Lady Liu quickly signaled her maidservant to help, but Nanny Shi politely declined.
“Thank you for your consideration, Madam, but the Master does not allow outsiders into the household’s storeroom. It is better that this old servant does it alone.” Saying this, she picked up all the items by herself, leaving both Lady Liu and her retinue startled.
It had taken two of them to barely carry all these things, yet Nanny Shi managed to haul them away all by herself.
Nanny Shi thought: Do you think my hard labor these past few months was for nothing?
The words “outsiders” served as a blunt slap to Lady Liu’s face. Her eyes flickered with dark emotions, and her expression turned visibly strained.
Wen Yao glanced at her and asked directly, “Mother, did you come back for something specific?”
Though calling her “Mother” felt awkward, Wen Yao still used the address.
Hearing Wen Yao call her “Mother,” Lady Liu’s thoughts snapped back to her daughter. She took Wen Yao’s hand and spoke tenderly, “Yao Yao, Mother knows you’ve all suffered these past two years. Mother came back this time first to visit your maternal grandfather’s grave, and second… Mother wants to take you all to the capital.”
Wen Yao looked at Lady Liu with her large, clear eyes. Looking at this daughter she hadn’t seen in two years, Lady Liu realized the girl had truly changed tremendously. In the past, she was thin, frail, timid, and servile, never daring to look anyone straight in the eye, let alone speaking in such a tone.
Before, her daughter had always spoken to her with utmost caution.
Moreover, whether it was due to the Wen family’s excellent genetics or not, Wen Yao bore a striking resemblance to Wen Xiuyi—at least seventy to eighty percent similar. As the saying goes, daughters take after their fathers, so she had inherited the fine features of the Wen family. While not breathtakingly beautiful, she possessed a delicate, refined, submissive beauty. Sitting there quietly, she didn’t fall short compared to the noble ladies in the capital.
Meng De’s biological daughter was around the same age as Wen Yao. If Wen Yao were properly trained and refined, she certainly wouldn’t be inferior to her.
Wen Yao wasn’t entirely surprised by her words, yet she was somewhat caught off guard.
In the original plot of the novel, Lady Liu’s goal was crystal clear: she had come strictly for Datou. Yet now she was claiming she wanted to take all of them away?
“Us?” Wen Yao asked in confusion.
Lady Liu nodded. “Yes—you, your elder brother, and your younger brother. Yao Yao, Mother knows you blame me for abandoning you, but Mother had no choice. You’re still young; when you grow up, you’ll understand Mother’s bitter predicament. Sometimes, women don’t get to choose.
“Fortunately, Mother is living well now and has established a firm foothold in the capital. That’s why I want to bring you all to my side. Yao Yao, can you forgive Mother and come with me to the capital?”
Wen Yao knitted her brows slightly and pulled her hand back from hers. “Have you asked my father about this?”
Lady Liu frowned. “Why ask him?”
Wen Yao smiled. “You want to take us away without asking my father? That doesn’t seem reasonable.”
Hearing Wen Yao’s response, Lady Liu felt an unexplainable discomfort in her heart. She said with a frown, “I gave birth to you. I want to take you to the capital to enjoy a life of fortune, which is infinitely better than staying in this countryside farming forever. What reason would your father have to object? Yao Yao, I am doing this for your own good.”
Wen Yao asked again, “What if my father doesn’t agree to let you take us?”
Lady Liu had indeed considered this problem, but Meng De had assured her that no matter what, Wen Xiuyi was merely a seventh-rank official, leaving a vast gap between them. If Wen Xiuyi truly failed to recognize what was good for him, dealing with a man like him wouldn’t take much effort at all.
At the time, Lady Liu had been deeply moved, feeling that Meng De truly loved her to the extreme—extending his love to her children to the point of holding all three of them in such high regard.
Lady Liu reached out again to hold Wen Yao’s hand, but Wen Yao dodged her. Awkwardly, Lady Liu placed her hand back on her lap and said, “That is an adult matter, so don’t worry about it. You just need to tell Mother whether you are willing to come with me to the capital.”
Lady Liu launched into a long, rambling description of how wonderful and prosperous the capital was. In short, once she went to the capital, she could become a high-society young lady with crowds of servants waiting on her wherever she went.
She would no longer have to eat cold rice, wear coarse linen clothes, or do manual labor. If she liked reading and studying, she could attend an academy for young ladies; if she enjoyed playing zither, chess, calligraphy, or painting, they could hire tutors to teach her. In short, once in the capital, Wen Yao could do whatever she pleased, transforming overnight into a young lady envied by everyone.
Had Wen Yao still been the foolish girl of the past, she might have actually believed it. Unfortunately, the soul inside had changed.
She looked at Lady Liu and asked with feigned ignorance, “Will my father come with us then?”
At the mention of Wen Xiuyi, a flash of disgust passed through Lady Liu’s eyes. “Your father will naturally stay here. This is his home.”
“Oh.” Wen Yao lowered her head and said slowly, “Then I will stay here too. Where Father is, I am.”
Lady Liu almost lost her composure.
What on earth has happened over these two years? Why was every single one of them standing against her? She was the one who had birthed them and raised them!
Lady Liu stopped suppressing her temper. Her face darkened as she said in a cold, heavy voice, “It’s only been two years. What kind of trickery has he fed you all to make every single one of you side with him like this? Have you forgotten how he abandoned us mother and children without a care? How did your grandfather and grandmother throw us out of the house, forcing us all into that dilapidated shack together? Have you forgotten how he used to lay hands on us whenever he got drunk?”
