Jiang Zhen had never seen her before. When Li Xiuning rushed forward with an agitated expression, Jiang Zhen instinctively took a step back, trying to dodge the hand reaching toward her.
But someone had already stepped in to block Li Xiuning first. Jiang Yin stood in front of Jiang Zhen, frowning as she asked, “Why did you come here? Did we not agree to meet in a while?”
“Mama simply missed you so much,” Li Xiuning gave a cramped smile. “So, I bought a ticket and came here myself. It took quite an effort to find your school.” As she spoke, she turned her head to look around. “This gate is truly magnificent.”
Mama? Was this the nanny who took Jiang Yin away back then? Jiang Zhen’s heart jolted. She looked at the short woman in disbelief.
Could this person right in front of her be her biological mother?
Before she could react, Li Xiuning poked her head out and asked Jiang Yin, “Is this, is this my Niannian?” Without waiting for an answer, she reached out and pushed aside the person blocking her. “Niannian, I am, I am Mama…”
Caught off guard by the push, Jiang Yin lost her footing and staggered a couple of steps. Li Xiuning took the opportunity to stride forward and grab Jiang Zhen’s hand in a tight grip.
“This must be my Niannian,” she turned Jiang Zhen’s hand over. “The mole on the wrist is still there; it can’t be wrong.”
“I, I…” Jiang Zhen seemed frightened. She tried to pull her hand away with force, but she was held fast by the surprisingly strong Li Xiuning.
Seeing this, Jiang Yin immediately stepped forward and pressed down on Li Xiuning’s shoulder, speaking with great difficulty. “Ma, we will talk about things later. Come with me first.”
Because Liu Yin’s car was still stopped at the curb taking up a parking space, several impatient drivers nearby honked their horns repeatedly, urging them to leave. Furthermore, a few curious passersby began to gather around. If Jiang Zhen had not been wearing a mask today, she might have been recognized right then and there.
Looking at the chaos outside the car, Liu Yin unbuckled her seatbelt and got out despite not fully understanding the situation. She walked up to Li Xiuning.
“Madam, please do not touch others in public.” She gripped Li Xiuning’s wrist and, with a bit of strength, pulled Jiang Zhen’s hand out of that rough, calloused palm. Then she stepped forward, shielding Jiang Zhen behind her.
“Let’s go, Ma!” Jiang Yin called out again in a low voice.
“No, I am not leaving! I want to talk to my Niannian!” Li Xiuning threw the heavy bundle in her other hand onto the ground and made a move to rush past Liu Yin to grab Jiang Zhen.
Jiang Zhen’s mind was a mess. Seeing Li Xiuning trying to charge at her, she grabbed the hem of Liu Yin’s clothes in fear and shouted at Li Xiuning, “I, I have never met you, and I am not Niannian!”
This extremely strange woman gave Jiang Zhen no sense of a motherly connection. Logically, Li Xiuning’s momentary lapse in judgment had allowed her to become a daughter of the Jiang family, and she should be moved to tears of gratitude, but Jiang Zhen simply could not bring herself to say the word “Mama.”
“You are my Nian—”
“Ma, Li Xiuning!” Jiang Yin suppressed her temper and called Li Xiuning by her full name, grabbing her wrist to pull her back. “She was left in the Jiang family by you; she stopped being your daughter a long time ago!”
“How is she not!” Li Xiuning turned back and shouted furiously. “Do you think everyone is an ungrateful wolf like you? Once you got a taste of a rich life, you won’t even acknowledge the mother who raised you for over ten years!”
These words struck Jiang Yin’s heart heavily. Her face went pale with shock, and she repeated in disbelief, “You said I am an ungrateful wolf?”
Perhaps realizing her words were too harsh, Li Xiuning gave a stiff smile. “Xiao Yin, Mama did not mean it that way. Mama was just too anxious and said the wrong thing. Please, do not take it to heart.”
She took a fawning step forward, reaching for Jiang Yin’s hand hanging at her side.
Jiang Yin took a deep breath and turned her head away. “It is fine. I do not care.”
“You guys should leave quickly,” she said to the stunned Liu Yin and Jiang Zhen, ignoring Li Xiuning’s reaching hand. “I will handle the situation here.”
“No, don’t! Niannian, talk to Mama for two more minutes. Just a little longer, okay? Once we talk for a bit, you will be willing to acknowledge Mama.” Hearing that they were leaving, Li Xiuning spun around, preparing to rush forward again.
This time, Jiang Yin was quick and held her back firmly, saying to Liu Yin, “Go quickly, Sister Yin.”
Liu Yin hurriedly pulled the nervous and helpless Jiang Zhen into the car, started the engine, and merged into the continuous flow of traffic.
Seeing that she could not catch the car, the exasperated Li Xiuning lost her earlier facade of tenderness. She turned around and questioned Jiang Yin angrily, “What exactly are you trying to do?”
Jiang Yin did not answer. Instead, she pulled Li Xiuning toward a taxi parked at the curb, pushing and crowding her into the car.
“Driver, find any hotel,” Jiang Yin said quickly as she sat in the passenger seat and buckled her belt.
Seeing that both passengers were fuming, the driver did not dare to ask questions. He hit the gas and, after a ten-minute drive, stopped next to a nearby chain budget hotel.
Jiang Yin scanned the QR code to pay, opened the back door, and said to Li Xiuning, “I will find a place for you to stay first.”
However, Li Xiuning clutched her worn-out bundle and stayed in the seat like she was throwing a tantrum. “No! Take me to see Niannian.”
“She has a name, and it is not Niannian,” Jiang Yin did not waste words and directly tried to grab the luggage from Li Xiuning’s hands. “Get out first. Do not delay the driver’s work.”
“No! I am not getting out!” Li Xiuning gripped the bundle in her arms tightly, locked in a stalemate with Jiang Yin.
Ultimately, Jiang Yin’s strength won out. She dragged Li Xiuning out and checked her into the hotel.
After driving out of the busy city center, Liu Yin slowly parked the car in a relatively secluded mall parking lot. Having witnessed the drama, she still did not understand everything, but she could see that Jiang Zhen was in a terrible mood.
“Zhenzhen, are you… are you okay? Why are you crying?” Liu Yin was startled and quickly unbuckled her belt to pull Jiang Zhen into her arms.
“Sister Yin…” In that warm embrace, Jiang Zhen’s tears fell like a broken dam, collapsing into a sob.
“Do you know that woman? Why did she call you Niannian?” Liu Yin asked tentatively while patting Jiang Zhen’s back to comfort her. She did not want to pry into Jiang Zhen’s private affairs, but she was afraid that a rival might be plotting behind the scenes to affect Jiang Zhen’s career.
After sobbing for a while, Jiang Zhen calmed down slightly and whispered, “Sister Yin, I, I…” She hesitated, looking up at Liu Yin.
Those beautiful eyes were now filled with tears, making Liu Yin’s heart ache for her.
“If it is not convenient, you do not have to say anything,” Liu Yin gently rubbed her hair. “As long as she won’t hurt you, that is all that matters.”
Jiang Zhen nodded and did not speak further.
“Let’s eat a meal here,” Liu Yin pointed to the mall and said with a smile. “Since there is no work for the next few days, I will allow you to indulge yourself today.”
Jiang Zhen wiped her tears with a tissue, thought for a few seconds, and said, “Then I want to eat a burger.”
“No problem, it is my treat.” Liu Yin waved her hand and got out of the car first, then led Jiang Zhen toward the fast-food restaurant next to the mall.
In the hotel, Li Xiuning placed her bundle of luggage by the bed, glaring with her arms crossed as she faced Jiang Yin coldly.
“You resent me, I know. If I hadn’t taken you away from the Jiang family back then, you would be the high-and-mighty eldest miss right now,” she glanced at Jiang Yin, who was leaning against the table, her tone becoming unpleasant. “But I raised you for over ten years regardless. Do you really not care about the debt of upbringing?”
“Raised me for over ten years?” Jiang Yin was choked with anger, her voice even trembling slightly as she spoke. “The ‘upbringing’ you speak of… is that the upbringing where I was doing housework for you when I could barely walk? Where I never knew where my next meal was coming from, and didn’t see a single piece of meat in a month’s worth of food?”
“I had no money! If I had money, would I have let you live such a hard life?”
“You had no money?” Jiang Yin let out a cold laugh. “Right. All your money went to supporting Li Weilong. Of course you had no money to raise a daughter you shared no blood with!”
Li Xiuning clearly had not expected Jiang Yin to know about this. She was startled, and even her speech became stuttered. “You, you do not talk nonsense. I did not send money to Li Weilong.”
“Fine, I do not care about these things anymore,” Jiang Yin took a deep breath. “You did indeed raise me for nineteen years. I will give you a sum of money, but do not come to Jinghe City again, and do not go looking for Jiang Zhen.”
Li Xiuning looked a bit happy when she heard she could get money, but her expression changed the moment she heard Jiang Yin would not let her find Jiang Zhen. “By what right do you stop me from seeing Niannian? She is my biological daughter!”
“From the moment you abandoned her, you stopped being mother and daughter,” Jiang Yin said in a chilling voice.
Li Xiuning was so angry she stood up from the bed and cursed furiously. “She is flesh of my flesh! If it weren’t for me, could she have become a rich young miss? She should be grateful to me!”
“She truly should be grateful to you,” Jiang Yin did not bother to argue with her. Instead, she walked slowly to the door, resting her hand on the handle. “It is lucky you left her in the Jiang family; otherwise, the one living a life of hardship with you forever would have been her.”
With that, she turned the handle, pulled the door open, and walked out quickly.
The sound of the door slamming echoed through the empty hotel hallway. Li Xiuning rushed out in a rage, shouting at Jiang Yin’s retreating back, “You have a lot of nerve! Now that you have flown up the branch to become a phoenix, you even forget the mother who raised you!”
A curious guest opened their door a crack, looking at Li Xiuning standing at her door with her hands on her hips, then at Jiang Yin, a meaningful smile appearing on their face.
“What are you looking at!” Li Xiuning barked the person back into their room, then muttered as she walked back inside.
Jiang Yin did not take the elevator down. Instead, she turned into the emergency stairwell.
With no one around, she leaned against the wall as if all her strength had left her, slowly sliding down. Collapsing against the wall like an abandoned puppy, she buried her face in her palms.