They hugged Xie Li tightly and spoke earnestly:
“Little Li, your mom and I know you’re a good child. You’re obedient and sensible with your parents, and virtuous and proper with your in-laws. Don’t worry you are our biological daughter. How could we ever treat you unfairly? You probably didn’t know, but when you were at the Pei family, everyone in Shanghai praised you as sensible and virtuous whenever your name came up! You never let us worry you are our pride!”
Xie Li sneered inwardly.
The original Xie Li had spent her entire life as a maid just to earn this so-called “praise for being sensible and virtuous.”
Life is meant to be enjoyed, not lived to get others’ approval.
So, in Xie Li’s eyes, “being sensible” and other people’s praise were equivalent to a fart.
A loud fart.
No substance, just noise.
“Little Li, your mom and I discussed with Silin just now. We’ll keep the bracelet for the moment. Half of the fortune inside will be yours, and your mom and I will safeguard the other half. Our whole lives have been for you what’s ours is yours. In the end, it’s all yours!”
Xie Qingsong spoke earnestly. Seeing that Xie Li remained unmoved, he continued:
“All the stuff in the basement is yours too!”
Xie Li nodded and said:
“Then take me to the basement now.”
Wu Fengrao’s patience was at its limit. She was about to scold Xie Li but was pulled aside by Xie Silin, who whispered:
“Mom! Just hold on a bit longer!”
Wu Fengrao patted Xie Silin’s head.
Children you raise yourself are always the most precious, she thought. That country-bumpkin Xie Li annoyed her.
Xie Qingsong took Xie Li to the basement.
The basement door was a European-imported ten-layer steel security door. Without the code, not even the emperor himself could open it.
Inside were dust-covered boxes and cabinets.
Xie Li casually opened a few chests. Inside were dried yellow croakers, luxury watches, jewelry, and bolts of silk.
Very valuable.
Enough for Xie Qingsong, Wu Fengrao, and Xie Silin to live comfortably for generations.
But compared to the treasures in the space, this was nothing.
Xie Li memorized the door code.
The group returned to the small Western-style mansion. Xie Li forced a calm expression and said:
“Before Grandpa passed, he did tell me some things about the bracelet. He said the bracelet requires blood to recognize a master, can only recognize one master at a time, and the next master can only be recognized after the previous one dies. Sometimes, the bracelet may have issues.”
Xie Qingsong, Wu Fengrao, and Xie Silin perked up their ears.
Suppressing a laugh, Xie Li continued:
“Sometimes after blood is applied, it won’t activate. In that case, you need to soak it in the master’s heart-blood for forty-nine days to properly ‘nourish’ it.”
Xie Silin’s eyes lit up.
So that’s how it works!
Xie Qingsong suppressed his excitement, put on a show of concern, said a few more words, and left with Wu Fengrao and Xie Silin.
To them, Xie Li was already a lost cause.
Not a single cent of the Xie family fortune would go to her. Once the space activated, everything in the basement would be absorbed into it!
The trio spent the night overjoyed.
Xie Silin, eager to bind the space to herself quickly, began using her heart-blood.
She drove the knife straight into her chest. Blood dripped steadily.
She didn’t feel any pain she was too excited, her adrenaline masking it.
If she could successfully bind the jade bracelet today, she would drive the knife into herself forty-nine times without hesitation.
Xie Qingsong and Wu Fengrao were nice to her, but they were not her real parents.
Xie Silin had her own little scheme.
If you want a strong position, you have to hold the power in your own hands.
Once bound, she could hide the bracelet in the space, and no one would dare touch it!
Days passed. Xie Silin kept plunging the knife again and again with vigor.
By the day of her wedding to Pei Shuchen, she was anemic.
Her face was pale, even her lips had turned white. In her red wedding dress, she looked like a tiny paper doll.
Xie Li buried her face in the mat, watching Silin, the little paper doll, being supported by Pei Shuchen as she toasted the guests.
It was kind of amusing.
“Wishing you both a lifetime of happiness!”
“Congratulations!”
Guests offered their blessings.
Silin forced herself to keep toasting with Pei Shuchen.
She was dizzy to the extreme.
“Brother Shuchen, I’m a bit tired. I want to rest!”
She tugged at Pei Shuchen’s sleeve, acting coquettishly.
Pei Shuchen frowned slightly and comforted her gently:
“Silin, hold on a bit longer. Soon it’ll be over. A bride who doesn’t toast at her wedding will be laughed at!”
Silin was dissatisfied.
She was about to hold mountains of gold and silver, and Pei Shuchen didn’t seem that important anymore.
Before, she had used Pei Shuchen to restrain Xie Li.
During their three years of marriage, any intimacy with Pei Shuchen was just to keep him in check.
If it weren’t for the wedding photos Xie Li had leaked, she wouldn’t even need to marry him today.
Silin begrudgingly followed Pei Shuchen, toasting the guests.
One guest raised a cup and congratulated them:
“What a perfect match! Wishing you both eternal happiness!”
“Ah-da! Ah-da! Ah-da-da-da!!!”
As soon as the guest finished speaking, Pei Shuchen, in a sudden fit of madness, raised his fist and smashed the man’s head. While striking, he yelled:
“What ‘little’? What little? You’re the little one!! Your brain must be atrophied!”
He could not stand the word “little”!
The guest hadn’t even realized what hit him before Pei Shuchen’s sudden outburst knocked him unconscious.
Everyone watching was stunned.
Xie Li laughed so hard she almost floated away.
Pei Shuchen ruined the wedding. Silin left in tears.
She no longer wanted to marry Pei Shuchen. Previously, she had just intended to use him to control Xie Li and secure her own position. Any intimacy was just to give him a little pleasure to keep him loyal.
Did she truly love Pei Shuchen?
No. Though handsome and well-born, he was lacking in… performance.
Every time Silin and he were intimate, she had to act her part he didn’t even know what to do until she screamed and guided him along.
She felt like a stage actress.
Now, with a little bit of mental instability added, it was even worse.
“Oh sister, stop crying! I told you Pei Shuchen was crazy, but you didn’t believe me!”
Xie Li stepped forward to support Silin, who was nearly fainting, her face full of concern.
Everyone watching could only praise her: Xie Li is truly kind-hearted! Truly good!
Born to the wrong family, raised in the countryside, then brought back and married into the Pei family treated badly there and by the Xie’s, finally betrayed by a fake heiress and her husband.
Despite all this, she didn’t cause a scene at Silin and Pei Shuchen’s wedding and even comforted Silin!
Indeed, a true heiress was kind to her core it couldn’t be changed.
Xie Li stroked Silin’s back gently and teasingly said:
“Pei Shuchen went mad, didn’t he? What did he just say? ‘Little’? What little? Little this, little that! Little, little, little, little, little…”
Pei Shuchen: “!!!!!!!”
The moment Xie Li finished speaking, Pei Shuchen suddenly lunged forward, fist raised…