Zhang Shufen hurried forward and grabbed Lin Xiaxia’s hand, gripping it more tightly than usual.
“Yes, this is my daughter, Xiaxia.”
Her voice rose with a hint of joy. “After all these years, she’s finally come back to me. She’s such a filial child, too. When she heard that Old Xue and I were going to be sent away, she insisted on coming with us.”
Before she had even finished speaking, the polite smile on Lin Xiaxia’s face faded.
She gently pulled her hand free, then quietly took a small step back, putting some distance between them.
“I never said I was going with you.”
Lin Xiaxia didn’t speak loudly, but her voice carried clearly to everyone in the room, laced with mockery.
“So that’s why you went through all that trouble to bring me back? You were planning to make me go with you so I could suffer alongside you and take care of you while I was at it?”
Her words were like a chunk of ice dropped into boiling oil. The room instantly fell so silent that even a pin dropping could have been heard.
Everyone’s expressions froze, their gazes shifting back and forth between Lin Xiaxia and Zhang Shufen.
The smile on Zhang Shufen’s face completely collapsed. The corners of her mouth twitched awkwardly, as though she had just been slapped in public. Even the color drained from her face.
“What nonsense are you talking about?” she said, forcing a wounded expression onto her face, though panic had already crept into her voice.
“You’re your father’s and my biological daughter. You were lost to us for so many years, and now that we’ve finally found you, we couldn’t cherish you enough. How could we possibly be scheming against you? Of course we want to keep you by our side so we can make up for all the love and affection you’ve missed over the years.”
Hearing this, Lin Xiaxia suddenly curled her lips into a faint, cold laugh.
There wasn’t the slightest trace of warmth in it. Instead, it was like a bitter winter wind that sent a chill through everyone who heard it.
Her gaze moved past Zhang Shufen and settled on Xue Baozhu.
“Oh, so you want to make up for all those years of lost affection.”
She deliberately drew out her words, making no attempt to hide the sarcasm in her voice.
“Then I’d like to ask—what about Xue Baozhu?”
Zhang Shufen was instantly rendered speechless.
She had never expected the daughter they had only just brought back to be so sharp-tongued. Worse, Lin Xiaxia showed no concern for preserving their dignity and directly brought the most awkward issue into the open.
She had seemed so obedient and well-behaved yesterday. How had she suddenly become like this?
Zhang Shufen’s eyes flickered uncertainly as she looked from Xue Baozhu to Lin Xiaxia.
Just then, Xue Jianguo slammed his palm against the table and shot to his feet.
The teacups on the table rattled from the impact.
Pointing at Lin Xiaxia, he shouted furiously, “Baozhu isn’t our biological daughter, so of course she won’t be coming with us! You just came back and you’re already causing trouble? What exactly are you trying to do?”
“What am I trying to do?”
Lin Xiaxia met his gaze without the slightest fear, her eyes sharp.
“All I know is that Xue Baozhu, who has enjoyed sixteen years of comfort, doesn’t have to go with you and suffer. For sixteen years, she lived comfortably in this family, wearing good clothes and eating good food while you cherished her like the apple of your eye. But now that you’re being sent away to endure hardship, you suddenly remember that you have a biological daughter?”
Her voice grew colder.
“You want her to stay behind and continue enjoying a comfortable life while pushing me forward to suffer in her place? And you call that making up for lost family affection?”
She paused, then spoke each word clearly and firmly.
“I’m not going.”
Those three words struck the room like a stone hitting the ground—clean, decisive, and leaving absolutely no room for negotiation.
The room once again fell into dead silence.
Xue Jianguo felt his chest tighten with anger. Seeing that Lin Xiaxia refused to yield and that every word she spoke struck directly at what they wanted to hide, he grabbed an enamel teacup from the table and hurled it at her without thinking.
“You insolent girl! Who gave you the right to behave so outrageously here?”
The teacup crashed against the floor with a loud clang. The enamel chipped and cracked as scalding tea splashed everywhere.
Lin Xiaxia had already been on guard. She stepped aside and easily avoided it.
There wasn’t the slightest trace of panic in her eyes. Instead, she possessed the calm determination of someone who had already decided there was no turning back.
“And why don’t I have the right to decide for myself? My household registration is in my own hands. I have absolutely nothing to do with the Xue family. Besides, I’ve already signed up to go to the countryside. If you’re being sent away, then go by yourselves. There’s no need to take me with you.”
“What?!”
Xue Jianguo and Zhang Shufen cried out at the same time, disbelief written all over their faces.
Neither of them had expected the daughter they had only just brought back to be so difficult to control.
Zhang Shufen panicked completely.
Ignoring the mess on the floor, she rushed toward Lin Xiaxia and reached out to grab her again, her voice almost pleading.
“Xiaxia, you… what nonsense are you talking about? How could you sign yourself up to go to the countryside? If you leave, then your father and I… what are we supposed to do?”
“What are you supposed to do?”
Lin Xiaxia calmly brushed her hand away, her tone almost indifferent.
“Go ask your precious daughter, Xue Baozhu, whom you’ve raised for sixteen years. Haven’t you always been as close as a real family?”
“How could we possibly do that?!”
Zhang Shufen’s voice suddenly rose, embarrassment flashing across her face now that her true intentions had been exposed.
“Baozhu… Baozhu isn’t our biological daughter, after all. You’re the child I gave birth to!”
Looking at the woman in front of her desperately trying to put on an expression of deep maternal affection, Lin Xiaxia felt her stomach churn.
She couldn’t help letting out a low laugh.
“Did you only just discover that Xue Baozhu isn’t your daughter? She grew up right under your noses for sixteen years. Are you telling me you never suspected anything?”
At those words, Zhang Shufen’s eyes visibly flickered, and a trace of guilt flashed through them.
She hurriedly looked away and stammered, “O-Of course we only discovered it recently. As soon as we found out, we immediately went looking for you. We’ve always been thinking about you.”
“Heh… hahaha…”
Lin Xiaxia’s laughter echoed through the room.
She took another two steps back, widening the distance between them as her sharp gaze swept over the couple.
“Do you think I’m blind, or do you think everyone else is as foolish as the two of you?”
Xue Jianguo frowned deeply.
“What exactly do you mean by that?” he asked in a low voice.
“What do I mean?”
Lin Xiaxia raised her voice and swept her gaze across the neighbors gathered in the room, as though determined to make sure every single person heard her clearly.
“Just look at yourselves. Both of you are tall, with narrow, pointed faces and single eyelids. But what about Xue Baozhu? She’s barely over one and a half meters tall. She has an oval face, double eyelids, and large almond-shaped eyes. What part of her looks like either of you?”
Her voice rang clearly through the room.
“The difference in your appearances is obvious to anyone with eyes. Are you seriously claiming that in sixteen years, neither of you ever suspected anything?”
As soon as she finished speaking, one of the older women in the crowd couldn’t help muttering under her breath.
“Now that you mention it, it’s true. Baozhu never looked much like her parents, even when she was little. A few years ago, I even mentioned it to Shufen. I told her that as Baozhu grew older, her features looked less and less like Old Xue and his wife. But Shufen accused me of talking nonsense and defended the girl fiercely.”
“Shut up!”
Xue Jianguo’s face turned livid.
He abruptly turned toward the older woman and roared at her, his expression so vicious that he looked ready to devour someone alive.