“Jiang Haotian?” Jiang Qingli suddenly spoke. Her gaze turned icy as she scrutinized Jiang Haotian. “Tell me the truth. That day, did you deliberately throw yourself down the stairs and then frame Jiang Chen for it?”
Otherwise, why would Jiang Chen suddenly push Jiang Haotian for no reason? At the time, the family had never said anything about kicking him out. Even if Jiang Haotian had returned, it would not have affected Jiang Chen in any way.
Jiang Qingli’s gaze was razor-sharp. The moment she asked the question, Jiang Haotian’s expression froze.
“You… Sister, how could you think that of me?” Jiang Haotian looked deeply hurt. “How could I possibly be that kind of person? If… if you really care about Brother Chen that much and don’t want him to leave, then I’ll leave right now! But I absolutely refuse to accept you thinking of me like this!”
Jiang Haotian pretended to be angry, but inside, he was already trembling with guilt. ‘Damn! Seriously, Big Sister? How did you guess so accurately?’
How had he never realized before that Jiang Qingli’s intuition was this sharp?
But even if he had deliberately framed Jiang Chen, so what? The Jiang Family was supposed to be his in the first place, and the Jiang Family’s fortune should rightfully belong to him as well. He had merely used a few tricks to make Jiang Chen willingly get out of this family.
Seeing Jiang Haotian’s confident and indignant expression, Jiang Qingli narrowed her eyes slightly. She was still suspicious.
At that moment, Father Jiang and Mother Jiang, who had heard the commotion, happened to rush outside. When Mother Jiang saw Jiang Qingli questioning Jiang Haotian, she immediately charged forward like a mother hen protecting her chick.
“Jiang Qingli! You’ve really gotten bold now, haven’t you? You even dare to question your own younger brother?” Mother Jiang snapped. “Your brother is still just a child. Would he really frame that useless Jiang Chen? Besides, we all saw Jiang Chen push your brother that day with our own eyes. Would I lie to you?!”
As she spoke, Mother Jiang shielded the aggrieved-looking Jiang Haotian behind her and asked anxiously, “Hao’er, my precious son, are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Mom. Sister just cares too much about Brother Chen and trusts him too much…” Jiang Haotian replied with feigned innocence.
A trace of coldness flashed through Jiang Qingli’s eyes. “I’ll have someone investigate this matter.”
Although Jiang Haotian’s expression and behavior just now did not make it seem as though he had deliberately framed Jiang Chen, the suspicious points surrounding the incident had not disappeared. Jiang Qingli did not say whether she believed him. Instead, her expression darkened slightly as she turned toward Mother Jiang.
“Since you’re here, Mom, there’s something else I want to ask you. Were you the one who stopped paying Jiang Chen’s living expenses?”
Even now, Jiang Qingli found it difficult to believe. Deep down, she still held onto a sliver of hope. She hoped Mother Jiang had not frozen Jiang Chen’s card because she had always believed her parents treated Jiang Chen reasonably well. At the very least, they had never treated him excessively harshly in front of her.
However, Mother Jiang’s response made Jiang Qingli’s expression turn completely cold.
“Living expenses?” Mother Jiang looked guilty for a moment. “That happened ages ago. Why… why are you suddenly bringing it up?”
Her guilt quickly disappeared, replaced by righteous indignation. “Yes, I stopped them. So what? He’s just some bastard we adopted. We don’t even know whose child he really is. Our Jiang Family raised him until he was 18. We’ve already fulfilled our legal responsibility.”
“I’m not even asking him to repay us, but he still wanted to shamelessly cling to this family and refuse to leave. And now he even dared to complain about me to you? What an ungrateful bastard! I said from the very beginning that I didn’t want Jiang Chen, but your father insisted on bringing him home.”
The more Mother Jiang spoke, the darker Jiang Qingli’s expression became. Eventually, even Jiang Haotian was frightened by the look on Jiang Qingli’s face. Then something suddenly occurred to him.
“Mom! Stop talking…” Jiang Haotian hurriedly tugged at Mother Jiang’s arm to remind her. “Sister was only asking a question.”
Only then did Mother Jiang realize what she had said. “Just listen to this mouth of mine… Qingli, you’re completely different from someone like him. Your mother and I were old friends back then. We knew each other and our families very well.”
Mother Jiang gave an awkward smile and reached out to take Jiang Qingli’s hand, but Jiang Qingli coldly pulled away.
Jiang Qingli stared at Mother Jiang in disbelief. Hearing Mother Jiang insult Jiang Chen over and over again stirred an inexplicable rage deep inside her.
‘Why? They were both adopted children.’
All these years, Jiang Chen had always lived cautiously in this family, constantly afraid of doing something wrong. He had also treated their parents extremely well.
‘Why does Mom hate Jiang Chen so much?’
She had even cut off his living expenses and justified it by claiming that the family had already fulfilled its legal responsibility.
People from families like theirs attended elite schools where every student came from a wealthy or influential background. Even the most basic tuition, study materials, daily expenses, and social costs could easily exceed 1 million yuan a month. The annual tuition alone started at tens of millions of yuan.
At that moment, Jiang Qingli looked at Mother Jiang and felt nothing but overwhelming disappointment.
“Mom, have you really never thought about it?” Jiang Qingli asked, struggling to contain her emotions. “Jiang Chen is still only a student. If I hadn’t given him living expenses, how was he supposed to survive?”
Mother Jiang looked utterly confused. “Qingli? What’s wrong with you? Why are you suddenly so angry?”
“How he survives has nothing to do with us,” Mother Jiang continued. “Weren’t you the one who personally kicked Jiang Chen out of the house? Look at you. What was the point of treating him so well? In the end, he still ran away the moment he felt like it. I even heard him say just now that he was cutting all ties with you.”
“Is someone like that really worth getting angry over? You even lost your temper with your brother because of him. Look how badly you frightened your brother.”
“Enough! Stop talking!!” Jiang Qingli finally exploded, cutting Mother Jiang off with an furious shout.
“I said enough. I don’t want to hear any more. I’m leaving.” Jiang Qingli’s face was dark as she suppressed the fury raging inside her. “And from now on, Mom, stay out of Jiang Chen’s affairs…”
Without even glancing at Mother Jiang or Jiang Haotian, Jiang Qingli turned and headed toward the garage.
For some reason, when she had heard Mother Jiang say, “Weren’t you the one who personally kicked Jiang Chen out of the house?” something had seemed to gnaw at Jiang Qingli’s heart. An inexplicable bitterness spread through her chest, leaving her deeply uncomfortable. Find the original chapter at novelping dot com.
Yes, Jiang Chen had deliberately thrown a tantrum earlier and intentionally provoked her. He had even said things she could not forgive, words that had truly infuriated her. He had gone too far.
But that and Mother Jiang cutting off his living expenses were two completely different matters.
Jiang Qingli could be angry with him. She could ignore him and leave him alone for a while. She knew that, to Jiang Chen, being ignored by her was already the harshest punishment imaginable.
But she could not accept Mother Jiang freezing his card.
She knew the family had never given Jiang Chen any living expenses. Her other younger sisters disliked Jiang Chen even more.
Wasn’t what Mother Jiang had done practically an attempt to leave him with no way to survive?
‘Jiang Chen! Why didn’t you tell me? Are you an idiot?’
Jiang Qingli’s face was tense with anger. She took out her phone and lightly swiped across the screen. Almost instinctively, her finger stopped on Jiang Chen’s phone number.
Then she remembered that Jiang Chen had already blocked her, and her anger immediately flared again.
Butler Li watched from beside her before cautiously asking, “Eldest Young Miss, would you like me to call Young Master Jiang?”
“Call him for what?!” Jiang Qingli snapped. “Didn’t he just say he wanted to cut all ties with me? Then let him do whatever he wants! I don’t want to bother with him.”
Although she was furious about what Mother Jiang had done, she had not forgotten how Jiang Chen had talked back to her earlier.
‘If he’s so capable of acting tough and throwing a tantrum, then let’s see if he can keep it up without coming to me!’
She wanted to see just how long he could hold out.
After hesitating for a moment, Jiang Qingli called her best friend.
Before long, a pleasant female voice came through the phone, “Sister Qingli? How come you suddenly have time to call me? Don’t you need to keep an eye on that little simp brother of yours?”
The woman’s voice carried a faintly seductive quality as she continued, “I’m warning you, your little brother is quite popular. If you don’t keep a closer eye on him, be careful someone doesn’t snatch him away.”
Jiang Qingli clearly did not believe her. She snorted coldly and said, “Snatch him? Him? Even if I gave him away, no one would want him. If I gave him to you, would you take him?”
She had only said it casually, but to her surprise, an excited voice immediately came from the other end of the phone.
“Really? You’d really give him to me? Then I’ll take him.”
“…”