Xie Qingsong and Wu Fengrao had not the slightest attachment to Xie Li.
She had never been raised by their side. After being found as an adult, she hadn’t even lived with them for a few days before getting married.
Besides, they had Xie Silin, whom they had raised since childhood. Comparatively speaking, they loved Xie Silin the daughter without blood ties far more.
Xie Qingsong and Wu Fengrao had no emotional bond with Xie Li.
“Dad, Mom, Pei Shuchen and Xie Silin were having an affair. We’re divorced.”
Xie Li got straight to the point, speaking calmly.
Looking at her eyes so similar to his own Xie Qingsong felt a flicker of guilt. She seemed different from before; the timidity in her gaze was gone.
His earlier anger instantly subsided by half. He gave an awkward hum and turned to sit on the small leather sofa in the living room.
“Xie Li, what you did this time was really too reckless.”
He spoke lightly, his tone unreadable.
“It would’ve been bad enough if you’d spread photos of that Pei boy all over the city, but those photos also included Silin! Even if you don’t think about Silin, you should think about the Xie family. Are you trying to destroy us?”
His expression was stern, the gold-rimmed glasses reflecting a cold light. He used the word family to morally bind Xie Li, yet didn’t mention a single word about the injustices she had suffered over the years nor did he bring up Xie Silin’s wrongdoing.
With a few light words, he pinned all the blame on Xie Li.
Wu Fengrao also stepped forward, her eyes filled with barely concealed reproach.
“Xie Li, you made this matter known to everyone. Silin is threatening suicide and now won’t even leave her room. Even if she’s not related to you by blood, she’s still been raised by us for over twenty years. What you did hurt her and it hurt your father and me!”
Xie Li lowered her eyes.
Her heart clenched in waves of pain.
It was the original owner’s body reacting instinctively.
“Dad, Mom, it wasn’t my fault that I couldn’t grow up by your side. After I came back, I married Pei Shuchen. For the past three years, we haven’t had any contact at all. I even tried to come home a few times and was turned away at the door.
“The Pei family bullied me, and I had no one to back me up. They treated me like a servant. Pei Shuchen moved out of the Pei house right after marrying me. Now that I caught him in bed with someone else, am I not even allowed to seek justice?”
Xie Li felt heartache for the original owner.
For a few seconds, Xie Qingsong and Wu Fengrao felt rare pangs of guilt. They exchanged a glance, and the words of reproach stuck in their throats.
Xie Qingsong sighed.
“Sigh… forget it, this matter”
“Waaah! Dad, Mom! Your daughter is unfilial! I can’t serve you anymore!”
Xie Silin’s crying voice came from upstairs.
They looked up to see someone rush out of a second-floor room, clinging to the stair railing as if about to jump.
She was wearing a pink princess-style silk nightgown, her hair smooth and glossy.
Xie Li lowered her head and looked at herself her faded dark-blue coarse-cloth shirt, her braided pigtails hanging over it, the ends dry and yellow.
The pair of small high heels on her feet, their heels worn crooked and the leather beginning to peel at the creases, were the original owner’s last shred of dignity.
The Pei family never took her to public events. She had stayed in the Pei household for three years, living worse than their servants.
“Silin!!”
Xie Qingsong and Wu Fengrao sprang up and rushed over, arms spread wide, as if they’d catch her if she jumped.
Wu Fengrao was heartbroken, her voice trembling.
“Silin, calm down! Mom will make Xie Li apologize to you! She’ll publish another statement apologizing and clearing your name! Then Mom will send you abroad. If you want to be with that Pei boy, you can be together. I’ll talk to the Pei family and have you two study overseas. Come back in two or three years, and this will all be over!”
One of Xie Silin’s legs was already over the railing. She shook her head and cried.
“No! Mom! I can’t go on living! When I see Xie Li, I don’t want to live anymore! I don’t want to see her! Mom! Waaah!”
Seeing Xie Silin’s swollen, peach-like eyes, Wu Fengrao felt her heart shatter. She cried so hard she couldn’t speak.
Xie Qingsong hurried forward.
“Alright, alright! If Silin doesn’t want to see Xie Li, then Dad will kick her out! Send her back to the countryside! I won’t acknowledge her anymore! Come down, good child! Come down!”
The last spark in Xie Li’s heart went out. She could feel that this body had completely died.
Xie Silin looked at her, a flash of triumph crossing her eyes. She would never let Xie Li come back!
“Dad, Mom, this height won’t kill anyone.”
Xie Li watched coldly, speaking with mocking indifference.
“You wretch! Shut up!”
Any trace of guilt or unease Xie Qingsong and Wu Fengrao had felt earlier was gone.
Right now, they wished they could beat Xie Li and throw her out.
“Dad, Mom, don’t drive her away. I’m the one who wronged her! If it weren’t for me, Xie Li wouldn’t have suffered eighteen years in the countryside… waaah…”
With one leg over the railing, Xie Silin clung tightly to it, crying her heart out.
Xie Qingsong and Wu Fengrao were utterly devastated.
Their kind, gentle Silin! If only she had even a tenth of Xie Li’s selfishness, she wouldn’t be thinking this way!
Xie Silin gripped the railing tighter and leaned forward.
“Let me die!”
“Alright then!”
No one knew when Xie Li had quietly gone upstairs.
She now stood behind Xie Silin, grabbed the leg that wasn’t over the railing, and heaved with all her strength!
“Ahhh!!”
“Silin!!!”
Two shrill screams rang out!
Xie Silin was flung outward, but she didn’t fall. Driven by an overwhelming will to live, she clutched the railing with both hands, hanging there like a sloth.
“Help! Help!”
She screamed like she’d gone mad!
Thump, thump, thump!
Xie Qingsong and Wu Fengrao rushed upstairs.
“You wanted to jump now that I let you, you’re unhappy?”
Xie Li rolled her eyes and pried Xie Silin’s fingers off the railing.
Bang!
“Ahhh!!”
She fell.
“Silin!!”
Wu Fengrao rushed to the railing, screaming hysterically. Xie Qingsong pointed at Xie Li and cursed:
“You wretch! I don’t have a daughter like you! Get out! Go back to the countryside! You disgraceful thing!”
Xie Li covered her face and pretended to cry.
“Waaah, you scold me I don’t want to live anymore either!”
Whoosh! Whoosh!
She casually shoved Xie Qingsong and Wu Fengrao down as well.
It was effortless.
Xie Qingsong, Wu Fengrao: “!!!”
If you don’t want to live, why drag us down with you?!
Thump, thump, thump!
Xie Li ran downstairs. The three members of the Xie family lay piled on the floor like stacked blocks.
“See? I told you it wouldn’t kill anyone.”
Xie Silin had been smashed by Xie Qingsong and Wu Fengrao and rolled her eyes, unconscious.
“You wretch! Inhuman thing! I never should’ve brought you back!”
Xie Qingsong scrambled to his feet. His glasses were crooked, one leather shoe had flown off.
In Shanghai, the Xie family were major capitalists. Xie Qingsong was the chairman of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, holding the lifeline of the city’s business world.
Whoever saw him didn’t respectfully call him Chairman Xie?
No one dared offend him!
Unless they didn’t want to survive in Shanghai anymore!
“Qingsong, your shoe put it on!”
Wu Fengrao, shaken, hurried to pick up his leather shoe and help him put it on.
Xie Qingsong’s face was as stiff and green as a terracotta warrior. His usual arrogance was gone, replaced entirely by humiliation.
“Xie Li, you”
Clap-clap-clap!
The shoe’s sole had come loose. Every step sounded like applause.
“Pfft…”
Aunt Wang, the housekeeper who’d come to check on the noise, couldn’t hold it in and covered her mouth as she slipped away.
Xie Qingsong snapped.
His composure, his pretense, his dignity all had been torn to shreds by Xie Li.
“You bastard! You brought this on yourself! Where’s the family discipline? Bring me the family punishment!”
Xie Qingsong had never lost control like this before.
In public, he was always unshakable, no matter what happened.
Swish!
Xie Li reached out and yanked off Xie Qingsong’s wig.
“Dad, your wig is here! Right here!”
A chill swept over his scalp as his bald head was exposed to the air.
An eerie silence followed.
“Xie Li!!!”
He jumped with rage!
When he was young, he’d suffered a serious illness and nearly died. After recovering, he’d been left with a side effect hair loss.
By his early twenties, his crown was already thinning. At twenty-five, he’d started wearing a wig.
This was his absolute taboo. No one was allowed to touch it!
Furious beyond restraint, Xie Qingsong raised his palm and charged at her.
He put all his strength into it, swinging a slap straight at Xie Li!
Xie Li suddenly squatted down to tie her shoelaces.
Smack!!!!
The slap landed squarely on Wu Fengrao’s face.
It nearly knocked the cerebrospinal fluid out of her.
Stars burst in Wu Fengrao’s vision. The force made her legs cramp, and she collapsed sideways onto the floor.
“Mom!!”
Xie Silin scrambled over.
After tying her shoelaces, Xie Li stood up and looked at Wu Fengrao sitting on the floor with a dazed expression. She covered her mouth, eyes brimming with tears, her fingers trembling as she pointed at Xie Qingsong in disbelief.
“Dad… you… how could you hit Mom?”
Xie Qingsong: “???”
Creak—
The living room door opened.
An elderly man in his seventies, hair gray-white, sat in a wheelchair and was slowly pushed in by a maid.
He looked sickly and extremely thin, his gray-blue Zhongshan suit hanging loosely on his frame.
Even so, his eyes remained sharp.
Searching the original owner’s memories, Xie Li recognized him the Xie family patriarch, Xie Boyou.
“What are you doing?”
The old man frowned.
Xie Qingsong immediately stood at attention.
He feared his father.
“Grandpa!”
Xie Li rushed over, eyes red with panic, and flopped down at the old man’s feet, spouting nonsense.
“Dad hit Mom! Dad hit Mom!”
Xie Qingsong: “???”
You damn!