"Miss Jiali's stomach problems started from being starved at the Xu family's home. After Miss Jiali's mother passed away, her father married a stepmother. The stepmother mistreated Miss Jiali, refusing to feed or clothe her and forcing her to do chores. If the Old Madam hadn't brought Miss Jiali back to the Qiao family, she would have been abused to death by her stepmother long ago," the servant said, a little indignantly.
When there's a stepmother, the father often becomes just as cruel. It's all too common. And with the deep-seated preference for boys over girls, a son might still have been valued by his father or grandparents. But for a girl whose own mother is dead, whose father doesn't love her, and whose grandparents ignore her, surviving under a stepmother's thumb depends on just how tenacious you are.
If you're tenacious, you can endure all the stepmother's torment and remain rock-solid. If you're fragile, you won't withstand the abuse and will simply pass away.
