560 The Secret About the Past 178 (2/2)
They used her to threaten her mother.
In order to keep her alive, her mother had been willing to be subdued and allowed them to tie her to firewood, after which they drenched her in kerosene and set her on flames.
Back then, her mother had secretly handed her the booklet before her father divorced her and before she was chased out of the house.
Tears welled up in Shi Qingzhou's eyes.
She was told only that the booklet was precious and that she had to safeguard it at all costs. Shi Qingzhou only came to know about what it was when she was much older.
It was a book about witchcraft.
It allowed one to obtain formidable power within a short period of time, which would enable them to live just like an immortal without having to eat and drink or answer nature's call.
After her mother's death, the Shi family relocated and moved away from their hometown.
They had never once returned ever since.
Shi Qingzhou had sneaked out of the house to visit her mother's grave in the middle of the night a few times before, though she rarely got the chance to.
Her mother had been wrongly accused of being a demon and was branded as an evil witch by her father and family members.
They called her an evil witch capable of casting sinister spells and curses.
Being an adolescent of tender age at the time, she spilled the beans about the booklet in order to prove that her mother was not an evil witch.
Her father then interrogated her about where the booklet was. However, she never once gave him the answer, although he'd tried to force it out of her.
Shi Xiaoyu only had the audacity to lock her up in the basement simply because she knew that Shi Qingzhou's mother was not capable of witchcraft.
She had forgotten how many times she tried to torture her.
In order to agitate her, Shi Xiaoyu once said to her that their father felt a huge sense of relief upon hearing about her death. She constantly told her that she was better off dead since that would mean that she could no longer bring disaster upon their family.
Although she knew that her father was heartless, she was still devastated and upset to hear those words since he was still her biological father, after all.
She entered the Autumn Palace with the sole purpose of seeking revenge for her mother against the people who ordered her mother killed back then. Those people were none other than Tuoba Rui's parents. Little did she expect to have fallen in love with Tuoba Shuo and allowed herself to end up in such a pathetic plight.
Life was as such, things would more likely than not turn out to be a far cry from what you had intended.
She initially thought that she no longer had any kin left in this world, but now…
She found out that she still had a daughter.
Shi Qingzhou closed her eyes and allowed her tears to flow freely, clenching her bloodied fists tightly with anger and resentment brewing within her.
—
An Xiaoning did not sleep well at all that night, which was a night full of dreams. Yet, she could not remember what she had dreamed of when she woke up in the morning.
She took a look at the time to find that it was already half past six in the morning. Reminded of the hiking appointment with Tuoba Gucheng, she hurriedly got out of bed to wash up and put on her human skin mask. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please clickfor visiting.
She arrived downstairs, only to be greeted with the sight of Tuoba Gucheng leaning against the couch with folded arms.
”Your Highness, am I late?”
”You're half an hour late. Hurry and go have your breakfast. We're setting off very soon.”
”Yes, yes,” she said as she scurried toward the dining table. She finished the glass of milk in one go and grabbed a sandwich before leaving.
He walked in front while she followed behind, taking huge bites of the sandwich.
Noticing how unsightly she looked when she was eating, Tuoba Gucheng stared at her with a look of disdain and hissed, ”You look so hideous when you're eating.”