Chapter 172: All Trash
Yu Yuan was already stammering, “B-but… I met him when I was little…”
Jiang Chuchu explained, “My mom told me before—Wei Yan is very feudal in his thinking. He believes only sons can inherit the family business. When his ex-wife first got pregnant, he was happy. But when the pregnancy advanced, he used the excuse of a checkup and actually took her to find out the baby’s gender.”
Yu Xin blurted out, “Isn’t that illegal?”
Jiang Chuchu shrugged without answering—people like that always have their ways.
She continued, “When they found out it was a girl, he didn’t say anything on the surface, but he complained several times at drinking tables behind her back. My mom already had my brother at the time, and he even said he envied her. My mom felt uncomfortable hearing that and later distanced herself from the Wei family.”
“His ex-wife was firm about having only one child. He agreed on the surface, but secretly found another woman outside. When the child’s gender was confirmed to be a boy, he told his wife he would give that woman money to leave, and only bring the child back to raise.”
“They had a huge fight, and she divorced him while still pregnant. He even pretended to be pitiful in their social circle, saying his ex-wife didn’t understand him—then turned around and married that woman.”
Gu Qinghuan held her forehead. “So… technically, Wei Xiao was born as a legitimate child?”
Yu Xin’s expression was complicated. “Legally, yes. But morally… I can’t accept it.”
Jiang Chuchu spread her hands. “In my eyes, he’s still an illegitimate child.”
She added, “His ex-wife was already far along in pregnancy when they divorced, so she couldn’t terminate it. My mom later found out that she never remarried and raised the child herself. She had plenty of assets from before marriage and has been living quite well.”
The other three let out a sigh of relief. Even though she encountered a scumbag, at least that woman was doing well—that alone was something to be glad about.
But soon after, Yu Yuan’s face fell again. “I don’t want to marry that person. I don’t want to join that kind of family.”
Now that she knew the truth about the Wei family, Yu Yuan felt even more afraid—and even more lost.
In Yu Wenli and Cui Wanning’s eyes, was there really nothing wrong with a family like that?
Even as a high school student, Yu Yuan had seen enough online examples of families that favored sons over daughters.
With Wei Yan’s mindset, if she married Wei Xiao, she would definitely be expected to bear a son. If she gave birth to a daughter, would she end up like Wei Yan’s ex-wife?
Just thinking about it was terrifying.
She didn’t want her future to become nothing more than a tool for producing sons. Nor did she want to accept a child she had no blood relation to.
To be honest, just the thought of “having children” already scared her.
Gu Qinghuan asked directly, “Then are you going to go back and refuse your mother?”
Yu Yuan fell silent, unable to say a single word.
Gu Qinghuan quietly looked at her.
She didn’t believe Cui Wanning and Yu Wenli were unaware of the Wei family’s situation. From what Jiang Chuchu said, Wei Yan even talked about such matters openly at banquets. If Yu Wenli wanted to curry favor with him, he would definitely have investigated—meaning he must know.
So she asked another question, “Do you think this engagement is really for your own good?”
Yu Yuan couldn’t answer even more.
She wanted to run out like before, but her feet felt rooted to the ground, fixing her in place. She had no choice but to face it.
“I…” Yu Yuan lowered her head and slowly spoke, “I’m the fake daughter.”
“Since I was little, Mom and Dad told me that being obedient meant being a good child. I’m not very smart—my grades are average. When I was young, they enrolled me in many classes, and after each one, they grew a little more disappointed… until they realized I had some talent in piano.”
“People used to say I didn’t look like my parents or my brother. I felt very sad. But Mom comforted me, saying I was her daughter.”
“Actually, when I found out about your existence, Yu Xin… I was scared, but also felt like ‘so that’s how it is.’ I really wasn’t their biological daughter… not Dad and Mom’s child, not my brother’s sister.”
“But after you came back, the family still liked me more. At that time… I felt so proud.”
She bent forward, covering her face, her forehead almost touching the table. “I’m sorry… really sorry. I’m so vicious, so selfish. I knew I took your life…”
“When my brother used your card to buy things for me, I felt like he liked me more. When Mom and Dad ignored you at the table, I felt like I was more lovable…”
“My position in the family didn’t change after you came back. I was still the most cherished daughter of the Yu family… But all of those thoughts were wrong. Just like you said before—I’m only ‘valuable,’ someone who can be used.”
Jiang Chuchu felt a surge of irritation—but it wasn’t directed at Yu Yuan. It was toward the Yu family.
She suddenly realized the root of the problem.
Just like the cat that had been discarded when Yu Yuan was young, Yu Yuan was also terrified of being thrown away.
Although some parents jokingly say their child was picked up from a trash can or scold them by saying “you’re not my real child,” the Yu family had never said such things directly—yet they had still left Yu Yuan with the same kind of psychological shadow.
On one hand, they expressed “love” verbally and seemed to give her many things. On the other hand, they made decisions about her belongings without her consent and placed high expectations on her.
This easily caused a child, whose mind was not yet mature, to develop a sense of crisis and fear—afraid that if she failed to meet expectations, she would be discarded just like those abandoned things.
Under such circumstances, knowing she was the “fake daughter,” combined with the family’s unchanged attitude, only deepened her dependence and obsession, making her more desperate to prove that she was the one being “loved.”
Yu Yuan had been conditioned into a product by the Yu family. Even her targeting of Yu Xin was just a tool used by the Yu family to indirectly shape Yu Xin.
“Only by pleasing us like her can you be loved”—this was the message the Yu family intended to convey through Yu Yuan.
The more Jiang Chuchu thought about it, the more disgusted she felt toward the Yu family.
What Gu Qinghuan was thinking about, however, was something else.
[System, listening to her, I have a question. Can you answer it?]
[Please ask, host.]
[I want to know—when exactly did the Yu family realize that Yu Yuan wasn’t their biological daughter?]
Yu Yuan had mentioned earlier that Cui Wanning insisted she “was” her daughter. That kind of emphasis felt off to Gu Qinghuan.
The system hesitated for a rare few seconds. [Host, please stay calm.]
That hesitation alone confirmed Gu Qinghuan’s suspicion. Anger was already rising within her.
The system finally answered:
[When Yu Yuan was five, the Yu family took her for a full medical checkup, which included blood testing. They confirmed her blood type.]
[Yu Wenli and Cui Wanning are both type B, but Yu Yuan is type A.]
Gu Qinghuan’s face was expressionless. [And then?]
[Then they knew she wasn’t their biological daughter. Yu Wenli even suspected Cui Wanning of infidelity at first, investigated it himself, and discovered the child had been swapped.]
[At that time, the person who had harmed Yu Xin was still at large. He feared that searching for their biological daughter would provoke retaliation—possibly targeting Yu Jinxin next—so he chose to ignore it.]
Gu Qinghuan clenched her fists. [What about Cui Wanning?]
[Cui Wanning also saw Yu Yuan’s blood type. She considered finding Yu Xin, but at that time, she had met Xu Zhishu—Wei Xiao’s mother.]
[She felt that even if she found her biological daughter, she might not be as likable to Xu Zhishu and Wei Xiao as Yu Yuan was. So she also gave up searching.]
[At that time, she hadn’t yet considered marriage alliances. She simply used Yu Yuan as a way to get closer to the Wei family. Later, after raising her for years and finding her obedient and sensible, she no longer wanted to switch her back.]
—
Gu Qinghuan felt like smashing the table.
How could each new piece of information be more disgusting than the last?!
First Yan Zhengqing and Lin Xiaoxue—now Yu Wenli and Cui Wanning.
All of them were trash.
Irrecyclable trash.
Hazardous waste.
