Sui Yuan didn’t know what to say, her mind still processing this news.
In her mory surfaced a sowhat blurry face – so gentle, so beautiful.
She really missed her mother.
There were so many things she wanted to tell her mother...
But for soone who had lived at Chixia Sect for a while, she knew how difficult it was to enter the Underground Palace, let alone bring soone out.
"If what you’re saying is true..." Sui Yuan pressed her dry lips together, "There’s soone who might give it a try."
Jing Che imdiately thought of soone – that girl who was always protecting her younger sister...
"Her?" Jing Che eventually shook his head, "Not likely."
No matter how capable Lu Mian was, could she handle all those traps, hidden and visible?
The brother and sister fell silent.
However, in a place overlooked by both of them, soone sneaked away in haste.
——
Sui Yuan’s participation in military training at Chixia Sect quickly reached the ears of Sect Master Jing Heng and his wife Xi i.
The sect was littered with people loyal to the couple, especially Xi i, who had specifically assigned soone to keep an eye on Jing Che. She already knew he was in the little garden looking for Sui Yuan.
She just didn’t know what they had talked about.
As soon as Sui Yuan left the little garden, she was forcibly taken to the main building.
A tense atmosphere filled the grand hall.
Seated in the main chair was a woman with a protruding belly, her ambiguous gaze scrutinizing Sui Yuan.
She was none other than Xi i, Chixia Sect’s mistress and Sui Yuan’s stepmother.
The pile of grievances Sui Yuan suffered at Chixia Sect was inseparable from her.
Xi i dismissed the servants and disciples, inspecting Sui Yuan from head to toe. A faint sneer escaped her lips.
Changed. She didn’t look entirely the sa as before.
Yet, still just as hateful.
"I thought Jing Che was in love. Who would’ve thought you’d co back again."
Seeing Sui Yuan again genuinely surprised Xi i. After Sui Yuan fled Chixia Sect, they had investigated her, and the records showed she was dead. She hadn’t given the matter much thought since then and had certainly never anticipated her return.
The kidnapping hadn’t killed her, the records marked her as deceased, yet here she was, back as if tornting them. Such a relentlessly haunting stepdaughter made Xi i exasperated, her attitude turning bitterly cold.
"What, coming back to reconcile? After running wild outside, you still think Chixia Sect is the best, don’t you?"
Xi i embodied every toxic trait of the archetypal malicious stepmother in romance novels.
She hated her husband’s child from his previous wife, treating her like an unbearable thorn. If not for her mother-in-law’s constant criticisms about her inability to bear a son, she’d never have accepted Jing Che into the sect.
Jing Chun? That was even less likely!
She was willing to send her own daughter abroad for school, so there was no chance she’d tolerate her husband’s forr wife’s daughter.
Sui Yuan had long understood her stepmother’s mindset. She was sowhat afraid, standing silently in the middle of the hall like a criminal on trial, head bowed.
She didn’t look up, simply replied in a calm tone, "No, I didn’t co back to reconcile."
"Ha, then that’s strange. If you don’t want to co back, then why show up in front of us at all..."
Sui Yuan shook her head. "I’m here for military training. If you don’t have anything to say, I’ll leave now."
She turned to leave, but Xi i caught sight of a figure near the door and her eyes flickered with calculation. She suddenly let out a loud "Oh my!"
Her whole body swayed, supporting herself against the table.
Sui Yuan found it baffling and had no ti to react before a cold burst of wind swept past her side. A hard figure collided with her shoulder, causing pain, followed by the sound of an anxious middle-aged man’s voice in the hall.
"Madam, what’s wrong?"
Sui Yuan looked up to see the father from her mories carefully helping her stepmother into a seat, flustered with concern.
"Honey..." Xi i instantly transitioned into a gentle and virtuous deanor, cradling her pregnant belly and shaking her head. "I’m fine, don’t bla Chunchun."
Sui Yuan: ???
Isn’t this the kind of trashy lodramatic framing seen in overused novels?
She stood in the hall, hadn’t even touched Xi i, and sohow she was to bla?
Even in her own novel writing, she wouldn’t stoop to such clichéd setups.
Reality, however, trumped fiction. So people were blind and deaf to reason.
Jing Heng abruptly raised his head to glare at Sui Yuan. It took him a long ti to recognize that the girl before him was the daughter he’d long considered dead.
Not a single greeting, not even a shred of kindness.
Pointing directly at Sui Yuan, Jing Heng began to berate her.
"Are you trying to kill your stepmother? Do you realize she’s carrying your little brother? If anything happens to them, I’ll make sure you pay for it!"
Jing Heng exploded with fury, while Xi i pleaded softly beside him.
"Honey, let it go. Chunchun is just a kid! Besides, I’m fine..."
"It’s fine this ti. What about next ti?" Jing Heng gently protected the baby bump, seething with hatred. "Why didn’t you just die out there!"
These were the words of a father.
Sui Yuan truly couldn’t fathom how her mother had married him, bore his children.
"I didn’t touch her. Tell your wife to stop provoking !" Sui Yuan said coldly before storming away.
She used to yearn for familial bonds, treating them like family, bending herself and enduring everything.
She no longer needed that now. What were they worth?
Just as she turned to leave, her cheek suddenly felt a stinging burst of energy. She was struck hard on the left side of her face!
Her cheek went numb, the pain dissipated, leaving only a hot, searing sensation.
Sui Yuan held her face and looked up.
It was her grandmother, Hong Junhua.
The slap had been delivered by her.
"You little brat! You still have the nerve to co back. Kneel down and apologize to your stepmother!" Hong Junhua stood, hands on hips, glaring fiercely at Sui Yuan.
Ready at any mont to pounce and tear her apart.
Jing Heng completely ignored what had happened, crouching down instead to gently comfort his wife’s belly. Speaking warmly, he said, "Don’t be afraid, son. Grandma’s hitting the bad guys."
Xi i’s lips curled slightly, clearly pleased.
Sui Yuan, of course, had no intention of apologizing to Xi i.
Faced with the scene, she had long grown numb.
In a family with such warped values, she no longer expected them to beco good, to beco better. The deeply ingrained rottenness in their bones would never change.
Covering her cheek, Sui Yuan said, "I didn’t touch her, it has nothing to do with ! There’s security footage, isn’t there? Check it and you’ll see."
Were Jing Heng and Hong Junhua interested in the truth?
Never.
All they wanted was a scapegoat, a punching bag.
Especially Hong Junhua – she couldn’t stand Sui Yuan, and just seeing her reminded her of Sui Yuan’s mother. Back when her mother entered the sect, she had caused Hong Junhua no end of trouble.
As a result, even the children weren’t spared from her disdain.
"What are you looking at! Since you’ve co back to Chixia Sect, you’ll stay here obediently!" Hong Junhua grumbled with calculations in mind. "You’re attending Shangqing University, aren’t you? Withdraw from it imdiately!"
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