Luo Qiu's smile froze in that instant.
The woman was charming in appearance and well - dressed. However, judging from her expression, one could tell that she had endured a great deal of hardships on this journey.
"Qiuqiu, mother has come to see you."
Luo Qiu's eyes turned cold.
Mother?
Was a woman who had pushed her own daughter into the abyss, and marked her with a red lotus tattoo on her forehead with cinnabar when she was just one - month - old, worthy of being called a mother?
At this moment, Mo Yan also arrived on the scene.
Liu Yuan's face looked a bit uneasy. Seeing Mo Yan, she quickly bowed.
"My humble self pays respects to the chief."
She gave him a seductive look, her expression coquettish.
Just looking at Liu Yuan's behavior, Luo Qiu felt disgusted.
What kind of person did she think Mo Yan was?
She, a discarded wife of Luo Hao, dared to openly seduce the chief of Loulan like this.
"Lord Mo Yan,"
"Who is this?"
As the saintess of Loulan, Luo Qiu naturally deserved Mo Yan's respect.
"Chief, I'm Qiuqiu's biological mother."
Biological mother?
Mo Yan couldn't help but take a few more glances at her. Then disappointment flashed in his eyes.
He had thought that the mother of a woman as extraordinary as Luo Qiu should be a woman of some mettle. Even if not, she shouldn't be like Liu Yuan.
Mo Yan's disdain was easily perceptible to the sensitive Luo Qiu.
"I'll go back to the tower to rest first. You can arrange accommodation for your mother on your own."
Mo Yan ignored Liu Yuan's words. He just lowered his head and said to Luo Qiu.
Luo Qiu nodded.
"Thank you, Lord Mo Yan."
"Um."
Luo Qiu accompanied Mo Yan to the door.
Mo Yan looked back at the woman in the room. A mocking smile curled up on his lips before he left.
At this moment, Luo Qiu wished she could find a hole to hide in.
She turned around. The woman in the room still smiled obsequiously at her.
This "mother" who had rarely shown her any warmth now rushed to announce her identity as soon as she arrived, as if she was afraid Luo Qiu wouldn't recognize her.
"What are you doing in Loulan?"
Liu Yuan looked a bit dejected.
She sat down.
Liu Yuan reached out her hand, trying to hold Luo Qiu's hand. But she seemed to have forgotten that Luo Qiu was no longer the gentle young lady in the mansion.
After all she had been through, she had become rebellious and unruly.
She felt extremely repulsed by Liu Yuan's touch.
She pulled her hand back without hesitation.
"If you have something to say, just say it. If not, then leave."
Liu Yuan was stunned on the spot.
She gave a bitter smile.
Then she said, "Qiuqiu, if I hadn't been driven to desperation, mother wouldn't have come to you."
A mocking smile played on Luo Qiu's lips.
Her words were as cold as ice.
"Don't call me by my name. It makes me sick. I, Luo Qiu, have nothing to do with you."
"Qiuqiu, you are the child I carried in my womb for ten months. How can we have nothing to do with each other? I'm your birth mother. No matter how much you deny it, you can't change this fact."
Luo Qiu felt disgusted.
She wondered why, as mothers, Ye Qingluan and Liu Yuan could be so different.
She hated Liu Yuan's pettiness, her artificial weakness, and the way she was willing to sacrifice everything, even her own child, for fame and fortune.
"You gave birth to me but didn't raise me. What right do you have to be my mother?"
"Qiuqiu—"
"If you have something to say, just say it. You've never said a single true word to me in all these years. Now that I know the truth, you don't need to come here and disgust me."
"Qiuqiu, you're a young lady from a noble family. How can you talk like this? You've changed. You're completely different from before."
Liu Yuan's eyes were filled with disappointment.
Luo Qiu found it funny.
What did Liu Yuan have to be disappointed about?
It was as if they had a deep bond.
"Aunt Liu, don't you know why I've become like this? When you stabbed the pear - blossom needles into my forehead and carved the red lotus stroke by stroke back then, did I cry? Did you feel any pain for me? Did you stop because of me?"
"Aunt Liu, tell me, who forced me to become like this?"
"It's you people!"
"It's you all!"
"You did so many selfish and harmful things for your own interests. Now you still want to take advantage of the fact that you gave birth to me and come here to ask for favors. Let me tell you, it's impossible."
Liu Yuan stood up.
"Qiuqiu, please listen to mother's explanation."
"Explanation? What's there to explain?"
Luo Qiu's eyes were blood - shot.
"Are you going to tell me that it wasn't you who swapped me with my sister back then? That it wasn't you who used secret arts to seal my spiritual power in order not to be exposed, making me a useless person for more than ten years, bearing other people's strange looks, great pressure, and the pointing and gossiping of the people in Ruoqiang? At that time, did you ever stand up for me?"
"Aunt Liu, you didn't. All you cared about back then was why father didn't want to visit your room, or how to come up with new ways to harm mother."
"Luo Qiu, I'm your mother. That woman Ye Qingluan has nothing to do with you!"
At the mention of Ye Qingluan,
Liu Yuan still got excited easily.
Luo Qiu laughed.
Her voice suddenly became indifferent.
She said, "Now, I don't care who my mother is at all. I'm just an orphan without a father or a mother. Luo Hao doesn't deserve to be a father, and you're even less qualified to be a mother. Liu Yuan, get out of here. Don't dirty my room."
Liu Yuan looked at the cold - faced woman in front of her.
This wasn't the Qiuqiu she was familiar with.
Now she was cold - blooded and merciless.
In the past, she had a soft heart and was so kind that she would never say such harsh words to someone who came for help.
Liu Yuan took a step back.
She was at a loss.
She didn't know how to react.
She suddenly knelt down in front of Luo Qiu.
But Luo Qiu didn't even turn her head.
"You don't need to beg me. I'm no longer the Luo Feiyan in the mansion."
"Qiuqiu, the only person mother can turn to now is you. Mother really has nowhere to go. I can't go back to Ruoqiang, and there's no hope for me in the marquis's mansion. Your father has said that if he sees me in Ruoqiang again, he will never let me off."
Luo Qiu laughed.
But Liu Yuan felt that there was a cruel edge to this smile.
Luo Qiu looked back at Liu Yuan.
"What makes you think I'll help you?"
"Qiuqiu, mother knows you're kind - hearted. I really have nowhere to go. Just for the sake of giving birth to you, even if you could give me a mansion, some gold and silver, and some maids, so that I can spend the rest of my life in peace, it would be enough."
"Aunt Liu, I still call you Aunt Liu, which means I still regard you as an old acquaintance. If you don't leave, I will—"
Liu Yuan looked up.
"Qiuqiu."
"I will kill you."