“If it were an outsider who hit him, compensation would be understandable. But when an elder sister disciplines her disobedient younger brother, there shouldn’t be any need for compensation, right?”
After saying this, amidst Ding Lan and the bystanders’ confusion, Wen Nianxin pulled her scarf down slightly, fully revealing her face.
“What’s the matter? Has it only been five years since we last met, and you can’t even recognize your own eldest daughter?”
Wen Nianxin looked coldly at Ding Lan, whose body trembled and eyes filled with astonishment.
“Oh, it really is the Zheng family’s eldest daughter!”
“Miss Zheng, when did you return? How come we haven’t heard anything about you coming back?”
“Wait, Ding Lan, you didn’t even know your stepdaughter had returned?”
“Yeah, didn’t you say you often keep in touch with her? How could you not know she’s back?”
……
The surrounding onlookers, seeing Wen Nianxin after so many years, kept throwing out curious questions one after another.
Ding Lan truly hadn’t expected the person who hit her son to be Wen Nianxin, and for a moment, she was stunned.
Why did this wretched girl suddenly return?
Noticing the many Family Compound residents watching, Ding Lan suddenly snapped back to reality. She quickly got up from the ground, smiling as she stepped forward to take Wen Nianxin’s arm, but Wen Nianxin subtly avoided her grasp.
Failing to take her hand, Ding Lan showed no embarrassment. Instead, she widened her smile until her eyes nearly disappeared into slits.
Instantly, she transformed from the shrew demanding compensation into an overjoyed, loving mother ecstatic at her daughter’s return.
“Nian Xin, why didn’t you come home when you returned? You really are something—leaving for five years to participate in rural construction without contacting home at all. I’ve missed you so much I nearly fell ill. Come, let’s go home. I’ll make you something delicious.”
She thought to herself, Once I get you home behind closed doors, you’ll get what’s coming to you!
“Go home? Which home? Is there still a home for me to return to?”
Ding Lan was extremely irritated by her lack of cooperation, but with so many eyes watching, she had no choice but to swallow all her curses about Wen Nianxin’s sudden return.
“Nian Xin, what kind of talk is that? You’re the Zheng family’s eldest daughter, of course you’re coming home to our Zheng family. Perhaps you’ve been in the countryside too long, living too carefree, and have long forgotten about us, your hardworking family back home? Otherwise, how could you not contact us for five years? Don’t worry, I won’t hold such a small matter against you. Let’s forget about the unpleasantness and come home with me.”
Wen Nianxin scoffed. This stepmother really knew how to twist right and wrong.
“I haven’t contacted you for five years, Ding Lan. Don’t you feel guilty saying such things? Do you dare go with me to the post office to check the records? Let’s see how many letters I’ve sent you over the years, and whether you ever wrote back even once?”
“What letters? I haven’t received a single one! Nian Xin, did you send them to the wrong address? I truly never received them.”
Ding Lan feigned ignorance. Even if she had received them, she wouldn’t admit it. Those letters had long been tossed into the stove and burned, without her even bothering to open them.
“That’s right, Miss Zheng, maybe you wrote the address wrong? When you were in school, your writing was always full of mistakes. You might have written the wrong address, and the post office delivered them elsewhere.”
The speaker was the mother of the original host’s elementary school deskmate.
“Exactly, Nianxin, your mother always cherished you most. If she had received your letter, how could she not have written back?
You accusing your mother like this is truly twisting a knife in my heart.
Back then, your birth mother passed away shortly after giving birth to you. When you were just a few months old, I married into the Zheng family.
Everyone says being a stepmother is difficult. I was terrified people would say I treated you poorly, so whatever good food or drinks we had, I always gave them to you first…”
Ding Lan spoke with profound emotion, even squeezing out a few forced tears.
If Wen Nianxin didn’t know what kind of person she truly was, she might have been moved by this performance.
“Zheng family’s daughter, leaving everything else aside, we neighbors have all seen how your mother has treated you over the years.
If she had mistreated you, how could she have raised you to be this… robust?”
“Exactly, your younger siblings don’t have your… physique.”
The surrounding onlookers chimed in to support Ding Lan.
If this were the original host, she would have been at a loss facing this situation, only able to vent her frustration through angry shouts.
But she wasn’t the original host. She wouldn’t surrender because of a few words and one-sided stories.
“She did treat me quite well.”
Just as Ding Lan thought she had gotten through to her, Wen Nianxin continued.
“So well that since I was little, whenever my maternal grandparents wanted to see their only granddaughter, they had to give Ding Lan money and goods first. Otherwise, she would absolutely refuse to let me visit them.
Not only did she use visits as leverage, she repeatedly encouraged my younger, ignorant self to cause scenes at my grandparents’ home. When they couldn’t get money, she had a severance agreement ready in advance, making me cut ties with the grandparents who truly loved me.”
“Wen Nianxin, don’t spout nonsense! I never did that! You wrote the severance agreement yourself!”
“Whether you did or not, you know the truth.
Didn’t this auntie just mention how I used to make numerous spelling mistakes when writing? Do you dare take out that severance agreement and show everyone?
How could someone like me, who could barely recognize characters, write a complete severance agreement?
Do you dare claim you had no hand in it? That you never whispered suggestions in my ear?”
“Tsk tsk, suddenly the Zheng family’s eldest daughter makes sense.”
“Everyone thinks I’m fat because Ding Lan spoiled me rotten, right? If that’s what you believe, you’re completely mistaken. This is precisely where Ding Lan’s cunning lies – calling her heartless wouldn’t be an exaggeration!
She didn’t give me the best food and drinks out of love – she intentionally made me fat!
With all the money and goods my grandparents provided, our family never lacked food. When I couldn’t eat anymore, she would force me to consume large amounts of food under the pretext of loving me.
If I vomited, she’d make me continue eating after. After repeating this numerous times, my stomach naturally stretched and my appetite grew.
Seeing my large physique, who would believe this stepmother was actually abusing me?”
“Whoa~~”
Her words caused an immediate uproar among the crowd.
“You know, I actually heard retching sounds from the Zheng house before! More than once!
I remember knocking to ask about it once, and Ding Lan said her daughter had eaten something bad!”
“Wen Nianxin, stop falsely accusing me!
I never did any of that!”