Jiang Xu slowly opened her eyes.
The noise outside was still coming through.
“I don’t care—if your Jiang Nan won’t take responsibility for this, we’ll go straight to the committee and report him for indecency.”
“Don’t blame us for showing no mercy when that happens.”
It was the voice of a rather fierce woman.
After the woman finished speaking, there came low sobbing, along with the jeering and echoing voices of several people.
Old Lady Xu’s anxious attempts to explain were drowned out by their volume.
Jiang Xu frowned slightly.
She got up and opened the door.
After the rain, the courtyard should have carried the fresh scent of grass and trees.
But because seven or eight fierce-looking people were blocking the gate, along with a woman clutching her belly and crying nonstop to one side, the air had turned foul.
No one else could smell it.
But Jiang Xu caught the scent of greed.
Human greed, overpowering the fragrance of the plants.
When they saw her open the door—and come out of Jiang Nan’s room, no less—the people outside the courtyard were stunned.
They all turned to look at her.
Jiang Nan saw Jiang Xu too.
He hurried over to her side, gesturing with his hands and feet.
Hurry up and let me speak.
He wanted to curse someone out.
Jiang Xu gave him a faint glance and did not do as he wished.
“Go inside and keep your grandfather company.”
Jiang Nan opened his mouth—ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
No sound came out, but his constantly moving mouth made his unwillingness clear.
“I remember I told you—take your problems to the ancestor?”
There was a touch of displeasure in Jiang Xu’s voice.
In an instant, Jiang Nan was like a duck with its neck wrung—nothing left but his mouth hanging open, gasping.
Unwilling to give up, he pointed at his own throat—ah, ah—then at the people at the gate—ah, ah—and then at Liu Cuiqiao, whose belly was faintly visible—ah, ah.
He wanted to speak.
He wanted to defend himself.
He had nothing whatsoever to do with Liu Cuiqiao.
Jiang Xu’s tone was utterly flat. “I know.”
Jiang Nan??
Wait—he’d struggled for ages without saying a single word, and she already knew?
Jiang Xu had already stepped forward.
The moment Jiang Xu came out, Wang Chunhua had fixed her eyes on her.
She speculated inwardly: was Jiang Nan refusing to admit his involvement with her daughter because of this seductress who had come out of the house?
As Jiang Xu drew closer, Wang Chunhua got a clearer look at her face.
She became even more certain: the reason Jiang Nan stubbornly denied having an affair with her daughter was this seductress.
So, before Jiang Xu could even speak, Wang Chunhua spoke first.
“Well, well! No wonder you, Jiang Nan, knocked up my daughter and then refused to admit it—turns out you were secretly hiding one at home—”
Before Wang Chunhua could finish, she suddenly felt a burning, stinging pain on her face.
She cried out in agony.
At the same time, she reached up to touch her face.
She felt several hornets.
Just now, while she had been talking, hornets had flown onto her face and stung her!
What was going on?
Wang Chunhua’s face was full of bewilderment.
Old Lady Xu knew perfectly well—this was probably the handiwork of the young miss.
With a faint look of guilt on her face, she glanced at Jiang Xu.
Even though the young miss was still very young, Old Lady Xu no longer felt the panic she had before.
It was as if she had something to hold onto.
Was this the effect of having an elder present?
Old Lady Xu didn’t know.
She just felt reassured.
Jiang Xu stepped forward and came to stand in front of Liu Cuiqiao.
She looked at Liu Cuiqiao’s belly, then turned to ask Wang Chunhua,
“You’re saying the child in her belly is Jiang Nan’s?”
Wang Chunhua nodded heavily, lifting her chin smugly. “That’s right.”
“Since you know the child in her belly is Jiang Nan’s, you should know better and get out of the Jiang family instead of clinging to Jiang Nan.”
“Let me tell you, even if you’re rather pretty, Jiang Nan will never marry you.”
“Since he slept with my Cuiqiao, he has to marry her. Otherwise, I’ll report him to the committee and have him beheaded.”
Wang Chunhua held her head high like a rooster victorious in battle.
Old Lady Xu’s face had gone somewhat pale—clearly frightened by Wang Chunhua’s words.
She looked toward Jiang Xu.
On Jiang Xu’s beautiful face, her red lips curved into a faint arc. “Is that so?”
“Are you certain?”
Wang Chunhua raised her chin proudly. “Absolutely certain.”
“Our Cuiqiao is a good girl. She’s always kept herself pure.”
“If Jiang Nan hadn’t kept pestering her, coaxing her and deceiving her, she would never have given herself to him.”
“In short, it comes down to one thing: the Jiang family must take responsibility. We won’t press charges against them for fooling around together before marriage.”
Wang Chunhua spoke so righteously, as if Jiang Nan really were the one at fault.
Jiang Xu nodded, understanding.
She then asked Liu Cuiqiao whether she endorsed Wang Chunhua’s words?
Whether she insisted the child in her belly was Jiang Nan’s?
Liu Cuiqiao’s eyes were red from crying.
She slowly lifted her head, gave Jiang Xu a pitiful glance, then bit her lip and lowered her head again.
The very picture of someone who had suffered a terrible wrong.
Jiang Xu understood.
“Then let’s go.”
Wang Chunhua: “Go where?”
The others also looked at Jiang Xu.
Jiang Xu blinked, all innocence. “Didn’t you say Jiang Nan got her pregnant?”
“Our Jiang family doesn’t acknowledge it.”
“Then you’ll have to send us to jail!”
She was now volunteering to go to jail.
Wang Chunhua!!
Who wanted to send the Jiang family to jail?
Wait—no. They were after Jiang Nan, a member of the Jiang family. What did it have to do with this woman who had appeared out of nowhere?
Wang Chunhua was full of complaints.
Jiang Nan stepped forward, tugging at Jiang Xu’s sleeve, his eyes full of anxiety.
Are you crazy?
His gaze was fierce, his face full of disapproval.
Jiang Xu curved her lips, her tone still calm. “Don’t question your ancestor.”
Her words were perfectly reasonable, and they were simply the truth.
But to the ears listening, it sounded like an insult?
However Jiang Nan heard it, it left a bad taste in his mouth.
Only, right now, he had no way to argue back, nor the ability to.
Jiang Xu looked toward Wang Chunhua and the others at the door. “Aren’t you leaving?”
“If you don’t want to go, I can go call the police and have them arrest us right in front of you.”
Wang Chunhua opened her mouth, then said furiously, “You’d really report this to the police? You’d rather go to jail than admit Jiang Nan defiled my daughter?”
Jiang Nan moved to deny it, but Jiang Xu raised a hand over his mouth.
“Adults are talking. Children shouldn’t interrupt.”
Jiang Nan!!
Even if he wanted to interrupt now, he couldn’t make a sound, okay?
This con woman—had she forgotten what she did to him?
She was so ruthless, yet when dealing with outsiders she had no tactics, and instead wanted to drag things to the police station?
The more Jiang Nan thought about it, the more he felt Jiang Xu was just bullying the Jiang family.
If she really were one of the Old Jiang family, then she was absolutely a classic case of a tiger at home but a mouse outside!
Jiang Nan grumbled inwardly.
Jiang Xu paid Jiang Nan no attention. She insisted on going to the public security bureau.
“You said it yourself—the fault lies entirely with the Jiang family. So what are you afraid of?”
Jiang Xu looked at Wang Chunhua and asked, enunciating every word, “If you’re in the right, there’s no need to feel guilty at all.”