Lin Jiaojiao was a very contradictory person. She wanted to provoke the other party and make her suffer, yet at the same time she wanted to please her and leave herself a path to survive.
After all, Li Tianyou was already dead—so be it. She didn’t feel heartache over that. What she feared was losing her own life.
How could she soften Ye Xiaoxiao’s attitude and buy time for rescue?
She believed that with Uncle Lin’s intelligence and the vast power of the Lin family, they would surely find her soon.
Ye Xiaoxiao was alone. No matter how careful she was, she would inevitably leave traces for Uncle Lin to follow.
Lin Jiaojiao’s drifting gaze and suddenly softened attitude allowed Ye Xiaoxiao to roughly guess her survival strategy. A cold smile appeared on her lips.
But she happily pretended not to know what Lin Jiaojiao was thinking.
Fine. Since you want to act, let’s all act together. After all, pretending won’t get you struck by lightning.
Thinking about the Lin family’s “tradition” of snatching other people’s men, Ye Xiaoxiao sneered,
“When you don’t have a choice, you go and steal someone else’s man. What—did your mother die, so you have to grab yourself a stepmother?”
Seriously, do you have to insult people like that? Women who steal men don’t like stepmothers either, okay?
Someone just died—can’t we be a little serious? No, no, that’s not the point. The point is stealing someone else’s man. Li Tianyou felt like he had grasped something, yet nothing came to mind.
“Can you even blame me?” Lin Jiaojiao retorted. “Li Tianyou lost his memory. Anyone could have taken advantage of that. If I didn’t seize the opportunity, I’d be an idiot.
If you want someone to blame, blame Li Tianyou—he forgot you. As for me? I couldn’t help it. I’m naturally beautiful. I took care of him for three months, and he fell in love with me, calling me ‘wife’ all day long. What could I do? I was ‘forced’ too.
Someone like you wouldn’t understand. In the world of love, the one who isn’t loved is the real third party.
If you insist on blaming someone, blame Li Tianyou—he fell in love with me first. And blame his parents too. I never expected them to be so ruthless toward their own grandchildren.”
In short, it was all someone else’s fault. Others gave her the opportunity, others were even crueler than she was.
She had done nothing wrong.
Yes, she had no fault—she could never have one.
“Ha, ha, ha…”
What does it mean to be stubborn even when you’re doomed? This was exactly it—refusing to tell the truth even in death.
See? Shamelessness is a passport that works everywhere.
Even in such sorrow, Ye Xiaoxiao somehow made the scene both tragic and absurd.
Li Tianyou finally remembered. The woman before him—he knew her.
She was his wife. His real wife.
Lost memories slowly returned, but what use was it now?
He had already been killed. And according to what she had said, his children were all dead as well.
He wanted to cry—but he had no tears.
Pathetic, ridiculous, lamentable, pitiful. Grief filled Li Tianyou’s thoughts.
He had never wronged heaven above nor failed his parents below. Yet what had he received in return?
Deception.
Half a lifetime of deception.
No wonder he had always felt that something was missing with Lin Jiaojiao.
Wait… his parents.
Even if Lin Jiaojiao had instigated things from behind the scenes, how could they go so far? Could it be… he wasn’t even their son?
The thought shocked Li Tianyou.
But when he recalled how his parents had treated him in the past… it seemed entirely possible.
Family ties were the hardest to sever. Yes—and that was why his parents doted on his second, third, and fourth brothers, as well as the pair of twin sisters.
Only he had been discarded.
Li Tianyou had never truly been a kind man. If he were truly harmless, he would have long been sent home to farm.
Very well.
If there was a next life, he would uncover every truth. Lin Jiaojiao and the Li family—he would spare none of them.
Ye Xiaoxiao laughed enough and then said,
“I still have one more question.”
Ignoring Lin Jiaojiao’s crazed laughter, she asked,
“Did Li Tianyou ever regain his memory?”
“Of course he did!”
With her life already hanging by a thread, Lin Jiaojiao still couldn’t resist stabbing at Ye Xiaoxiao’s heart. The survival instinct she had briefly shown vanished as she once again rushed toward self-destruction.
Li Tianyou stared at Lin Jiaojiao in confusion. If he had regained his memory earlier and known that his children had been murdered, even if the culprits were his own parents, he would not have hesitated to raise his blade.
Would he have allowed them to keep living freely?
“Lying has consequences,” Ye Xiaoxiao said coldly.
As she spoke, she pressed the dagger against the throat of a teenage boy sitting beside Lin Jiaojiao.
“Mom, save me!”
The boy’s face turned deathly pale. Terror seized him, and he suddenly lost control, wetting himself.
“Bitch! Come at me if you dare!” Lin Jiaojiao glared at Ye Xiaoxiao, flames of hatred burning in her eyes.
“The truth. I only want the truth,” Ye Xiaoxiao said unmoved. “Otherwise, my knife has no eyes.”
“Li Tianyou never regained his memory after losing it! He doesn’t remember you or your children!” Lin Jiaojiao blurted out hurriedly, afraid that if she spoke any slower, the blade would already fall.
Ye Xiaoxiao moved the knife a little closer.
Blood immediately trickled down the blade’s tip.
“This is the price of lying.”
Ye Xiaoxiao didn’t know Lin Jiaojiao personally, but from the fragments of conversation she had heard from Li Tianyou’s parents, she knew this woman was ruthless and decisive.
She wouldn’t easily believe anything she said.
But then she thought about it again.
No matter what the truth was—did it even matter?
Her children were all dead.
After realizing this, she raised her hand and brought the knife down.
In one swift motion, she ended Lin Jiaojiao’s life.
Then she strode away without looking back.
Whether the boy would live or die—let fate decide.
Perhaps those self-righteous “saints” would condemn her, saying,
“The child is innocent!”
Don’t mention “innocence” to her.
If innocence truly protected people from harm, she would gladly let the boy experience a bit of that innocence himself.
But she was no longer the same.
The tragic deaths of her children had tormented her in hell.
If you want to persuade a ghost from hell to do good deeds, don’t even mention the door—there isn’t even a window.
Walking out of the cave, Ye Xiaoxiao’s emotions still surged uncontrollably. Facing the empty mountains, she shouted:
“Li Tianyou! You betrayed me, you caused my death—I don’t even care anymore! But why did your family refuse to spare my children?!”
Then she laughed bitterly.
“Of course… they were never truly my family to begin with. How could they ever treat us sincerely?”
What Ye Xiaoxiao didn’t know was that after leaving his body, Li Tianyou’s soul had been following her all along.
Her final words confirmed something for him—
There was something suspicious about his identity.
But when had he ever wronged them?
For decades they had clung to him like parasites, draining him without end.
And yet they treated him like this.
The more he thought about it, the more hatred gathered in his heart.