SGEIRS -Chapter 43 A Top-Tier Scumbag Father

Madam Sun listened, her delicate brows knitting slightly as she cursed inwardly: What tricks is this little slut trying to pull now?

She raised her eyes to look at Meng Jinyao and saw her gazing back with a faint, ambiguous smile. A sense of foreboding rose in her heart. She reached out and took the list Meng Jinyao handed her.

When she unfolded it, she found it was a long sheet of paper, folded like a memorial. Written on it was neat, graceful “hairpin-script” small regular calligraphy, pleasing to the eye. However, there were simply too many words, filling the entire page.

There was so much text that, with her limited patience, she had no desire to read it carefully.

Thus, Madam Sun merely glanced at it before looking away, curling her lips into a gentle smile.

“A-Yao, what is this?”

Today, Meng Jinyao was unusually patient. Smiling sweetly, she replied, “Mother, you’ll know once you look. See if the things recorded on it seem familiar.”

Madam Sun nodded with a tolerant smile. “All right. Mother will take a look first.”

Meng Dongyuan, however, frowned and shot his eldest daughter a disapproving glance.

He had never liked this legitimate eldest daughter since her birth. She was a jinx—born to bring misfortune, killing her biological mother the moment she was born. He didn’t know whom she took after, but she was rebellious by nature, always speaking with hidden barbs even to her mother. If not for Madam Sun’s magnanimity in not holding it against her, how could she have lived such a comfortable life?

As Madam Sun read the contents of the list, her expression changed abruptly. The smile on her face could no longer be maintained. Her gaze locked onto the words, and her heart began pounding in alarm.

Back then, after she married into the family, the list of Madam Zhou’s dowry had been in her hands. She had also dismissed all the servants Madam Zhou left behind. Only Ningdong and Qingqiu, who had been sent by Meng Jinyao’s maternal family as companions, remained. Their indenture papers were in Meng Jinyao’s hands, so she could not touch them.

But now—how did Meng Jinyao have a dowry list that recorded everything in such detail?

All the people around her were trustworthy. No one could have secretly taken the original list to copy it for Meng Jinyao. Then where had she gotten this?

If word got out that she had embezzled her stepdaughter’s biological mother’s dowry, how could she ever face others again?

Seeing her expression change, Meng Jinyao’s smile did not fade.

“Mother, does it look familiar?”

Madam Sun steadied herself and forced a calm smile. “There are many good things listed here, but I don’t recall them. A-Yao, where did you get this list?”

“No impression?”

Meng Jinyao stared at her for two breaths. Then the smile vanished from her face. Her voice turned cold, carrying unmistakable anger.

“This is my biological mother’s dowry list. After my mother passed away and you married into the Meng family, it fell into your hands. You said I was still young and that you would keep these things for me. When I got married, you would return them intact and add them to my dowry. But when I checked the dowry you prepared for me, almost none of my mother’s belongings were there. Instead, you used cheap and useless items to make up the numbers. Is this what you meant by ‘not pocketing my mother’s dowry’?”

As soon as these words fell, Meng Jinyu, Meng Chengzhang, and Meng Chengxing—who knew nothing about this—were all stunned and turned to look at Madam Sun.

Meng Dongyuan also showed a trace of shock. He hadn’t expected his eldest daughter to know what her mother had left behind. He didn’t know who had secretly told her.

Ten years ago, his second brother had become addicted to gambling. Their mother doted on her youngest son and indulged him, resulting in heavy financial losses. Later, the second brother drowned after falling into a lake while drunk. Fortunately, he had left no heirs, so no property had to be divided. His widow later remarried.

Because of those losses and the family’s gradual decline, the Yongchang Marquis’s residence was no longer what it had been over a decade ago. They could only barely maintain appearances.

Luckily, Madam Zhou had left behind a substantial dowry. It had eased their finances. He had allocated two-thirds of it for Chengxing’s future marriage and Jinyu’s dowry, so both children could marry respectably. As for Chengzhang—he was a concubine-born son. Such sons were not as valuable as legitimate children. Making do was enough.

He saw nothing wrong with this.

After all, A-Yao’s birth had caused Madam Zhou’s death. Surely Madam Zhou wouldn’t have wanted her dowry to fall into this jinx’s hands. Besides, A-Yao had married into the Changxing Marquis’s household and enjoyed wealth and honor. Madam Zhou’s dowry could be considered help for her siblings. They were all blood relatives—there was no need to fuss over it.

Just as Madam Sun was rendered speechless by the questioning, Meng Dongyuan spoke up to ease her embarrassment.

“A-Yao, how could your mother embezzle your biological mother’s dowry? Your mother died in childbirth. After Madam Sun married in, she raised you by her side. Over the years, whenever you were disobedient, it was she who pleaded for you before your grandmother. Don’t believe rumors and misunderstand her. You’ll only hurt her feelings.”

Madam Sun’s tense heart finally relaxed. She quickly echoed him.

“That’s right, A-Yao. I added all your biological mother’s dowry to your own. Did someone say something to you and fool you with some random list, making you misunderstand me?”

“Misunderstand?”

Meng Jinyao seemed to hear an enormous joke. She chuckled softly, her eyes full of mockery as she looked at them.

“Father, Mother—how can you say such things with a straight face and no shame at all?”

That sarcastic smile and mocking gaze, as if she had seen through everything, made Meng Dongyuan furious.

“Impudent!”

He stiffened his face and scolded her harshly.

“A-Yao, is this how you speak to your parents? Do you think that now that you’ve married into a marquis’s family and climbed high, you can come back and show off in front of us?”

Meng Jinyao’s smile deepened. Unhurried and biting, she replied, “My biological mother’s dowry was no secret. Father surely knows about it. Yet you didn’t even look at the list before saying I misunderstood her. Isn’t that unfair? Or is it that Father knows the truth and was one of those involved, so you’re using your authority as a father to suppress me and cover it up?”

This was like stepping on his tail.

Meng Dongyuan’s anger flared. “What nonsense are you spouting? I’d like to know who’s been stirring up trouble in front of you. As for this so-called dowry list, I’ll take a look myself and put an end to this.”

With that, he snatched the long list from Madam Sun’s hands and lowered his gaze.

At first glance, he was shocked.

Everything recorded on it matched Madam Zhou’s original dowry exactly.

But the original list had been in Madam Sun’s hands. His daughter had never seen it. How could she have this?

Wait.

The handwriting was new. The paper was also fresh. It wasn’t an old document from seventeen years ago.

So this wasn’t the original.

As long as it wasn’t the original, and no original could be produced, there was no solid proof. Who could say whether what was written was true?

Thinking this, Meng Dongyuan finally felt relieved.

He looked up at his eldest daughter and shook his head helplessly.

“A-Yao, this was clearly written recently. Even the paper is brand new. How could it be your biological mother’s dowry list? Who gave this to you and made you misunderstand your mother?”