“Alright, if that’s what you’ve decided.”
Jasmine pouted a little, but she didn’t try to force or persuade Johnny.
She had known for a long time that Johnny didn’t truly love her — he only dated her because she was cute. As a former playboy, he was quite a jerk before, but after his accident, he actually reflected on himself. He didn’t want to burden or use her, so he insisted on breaking up. From that perspective, his character was actually not bad — he was essentially a good person.
“Then I’m leaving, Johnny.”
“Mm…”
Johnny lowered his head, as if he had gone through a difficult inner struggle, and finally said goodbye to her with difficulty, “Goodbye, Jasmine.”
When Jasmine left the hospital, Johnny still looked at her back.
He seemed reluctant, but in the end he said nothing, covering his face with his hands, feeling an unspeakable sadness in his heart.
“Damn it… I’m so unwilling…”
…
“Damn it, I’m so unwilling.”
On the way back, Jasmine was in a bad mood. Although Johnny had good intentions, she didn’t even dislike him for his condition, and didn’t dump him like the ex-girlfriend in the original story. In the end, she was the one who got broken up with.
Was this the fate of a minor background character? After completing the task of causing the male lead’s accident, she could leave the stage, and the main plot had nothing to do with her. Even if she wanted to add more scenes for herself, she had no chance. Although Johnny didn’t seem to hate her at all and she didn’t need to worry about revenge, she really thought Johnny was cute and liked him a little, so she planned to continue dating him.
Should she tell Johnny her true feelings? Jasmine couldn’t help but fall into conflict, but she felt Johnny might be scared by her and think she was strange and want her to stay further away.
When she got home, Jasmine went to take out her keys to open the door, only to find that she had left her bag in Johnny’s hospital room.
Ah, because she was too concerned about being broken up with, she forgot her bag instead. How careless.
But she didn’t really want to go back…
She muttered in her heart, but fortunately the old housekeeper at home helped her open the door.
“Okay, Mama Wu.”
Jasmine nodded, then lifted her long skirt and stepped over the threshold to see her new father.
She remembered the original owner’s father was not a good person in Chinatown, known as Boss Qiao. He ran a few shops and helped new immigrants find jobs, and had some connections with local people.
The jobs he introduced were railroad construction, mining, and so on. In this era, it was very hard for immigrants to find work. Those with a little savings opened restaurants, but most people could only do the hardest labor.
Although it was tiring work with little safety, for the people at the bottom, it was still better than staying in the late Qing dynasty, so a continuous stream of people came to get a job introduction. And the original owner’s father made a good profit from it and lived an almost upper-class life in this difficult 19th century America.
Jasmine knew she couldn’t change anything, so she didn’t want to think too much. Although she couldn’t do it now, she was sure she would leave these people sooner or later and live alone.
When she arrived at the main hall, she saw Boss Qiao talking with an immigrant about job introductions. After he accepted some money, the man thanked him profusely and left. Her stepmother was sitting on a nearby rosewood chair, peeling grapes for her younger brother. After Jasmine walked in front of them, Boss Qiao looked at her with a dark face, and then said coldly, “You went to see that boy again today?”
“Mm, yes, after all I feel responsible for what happened to him.”
Jasmine remembered that the original owner’s father did not oppose his only daughter dating Johnny. Although in Boss Qiao’s eyes, people should stick to their own community.
But because Johnny was famous, a star jockey with a lot of money and social status, he had always turned a blind eye. But now that Johnny had an accident and could no longer race, he had become worthless in his eyes, and he couldn’t let his daughter continue to be with him. He had urged Jasmine to break up with Johnny several times, but Jasmine didn’t want to listen.
“His own father has already abandoned him, are you still worried he will take revenge on you?”
Boss Qiao snorted, assuming Jasmine hadn’t broken up with Johnny because she was afraid, and complained unhappily at the same time, “You should also stop wasting time on those boys. None of them will truly care about you. Your mother is planning to find you a proper marriage, so you can settle down early.”
He looked at Jasmine’s stepmother, and the woman immediately continued, “Yes, A-Liang is a very nice child, he has always admired Jiaojiao. If Jiaojiao marries him, he can help more with the family business, how nice.”
…This kind of family drama conversation made Jasmine almost want to throw up.
As immigrants in this era, they couldn’t get rid of those deeply rooted old ideas.
Her stepmother was Boss Qiao’s concubine and seemed to be deeply favored. The original owner’s mother had passed away very early. Because of American law, he could only have one wife, so he brought his most favored concubine and eldest daughter here to develop. And that A-Liang guy was his adopted son, a typical street thug who did debt collection work. This person looked very sinister and cruel, and Jasmine was sure her stepmother had bad intentions.
Oh right, Jiaojiao was the original owner’s nickname. Her full name was, by coincidence, the same as hers, Qiao Jasmine.
“Let my younger brother learn more, he is the future pillar of our family. How can we let an outsider manage the business, right, Dad.”
Jasmine smiled at her stepmother’s son and said sarcastically, “My brother is already sixteen, he should inherit the family business. Unlike me, he shouldn’t be playing outside all day, even needing Mom to feed him grapes.”
Sure enough, her stepmother’s face became worse, she smiled reluctantly, “My brother is already working very hard, he is still young, he will be able to take charge of things in the future.”
…Still young? At sixteen, I was already running around, but still a child?
This family’s relationship was very complicated. The original owner’s younger brother and the original owner did not have a good relationship, saying she was fooling around with men all day, but he himself was dull, couldn’t learn anything, couldn’t even memorize the 26 English letters. After Boss Qiao let him try to take over the family business and found he only messed it up, he was desperate and planned to let his eldest daughter marry his capable adopted son to inherit the family work.
No, just listening to this content makes her feel suffocated… What she hated most was this kind of family power struggle!
Jasmine secretly gave this family the middle finger in her heart. Doing these unscrupulous businesses would have consequences sooner or later. But she didn’t know what to do now. Although her identity in this era was already luckier than most people, she still had to find a way out for herself. She didn’t want to be controlled and would have to leave this family sooner or later.
“Ah, I remember I left my bag in the hospital, I’ll go get it, you continue with your work.”
“Wait! We haven’t finished talking!”
If she continued to talk with them she would not be able to stand it. Jasmine pretended she had forgotten something important, and before they could say anything she rushed out of the house, leaving Boss Qiao and her stepmother staring blankly.
Anyway, the original owner was also rebellious and didn’t listen to them, so she wasn’t really breaking character…
If only Johnny hadn’t broken up with her, the healing and helpless beautiful boy was too healing…
Jasmine sighed regretfully, but felt that objectifying others was not good and made her look a bit strange. But anyway, Johnny rejected her, so she had no chance.
She took some change and went out again. But when she returned to the hospital by carriage, she heard a sound of desperate struggling and muffled groans from inside.
“Mmm— wu…!!”
…Was that Johnny’s voice?
Jasmine immediately became alert. Even if she wasn’t that sensitive, she could realize that something bad might be happening inside.
To be honest, medical care in this era was quite poor, and patient abuse also happened from time to time. Before, when she often came to visit Johnny, everything seemed normal, but when Johnny told her to leave and left all the care work to the nurses, this kind of situation happened, which was obviously not a coincidence…
She thought about it and felt she had to do something. So she searched in the trash pile behind the small clinic, picked up a handy wooden stick, and then carefully entered the clinic.
She remembered a movie plot, those patients who couldn’t move were likely to be mistreated, especially a cute little boy like Johnny, she was worried whether he would encounter something.
Jasmine pushed the door open silently, and she saw an unbelievable scene!
The male nurse who had always been kind to her was cursing and trying to take Johnny’s blood with a blood bag, while Johnny, who couldn’t move, had a roll of newspaper stuffed in his mouth. He couldn’t scream, his face was full of tears, and he looked collapsed and desperate.
Those patients who were left unattended, even if they paid for caregivers to take care of themselves, would be abused and their blood stolen, becoming blood bags for the shady clinic.
What was this doing!
Jasmine was furious, she rushed over without thinking, and hit the male nurse who was pressing Johnny from behind with a stick!
“Let go of Johnny!! You scoundrel!”
“…?!”
Johnny, who was crying with snot and tears mixed together, saw Jasmine who suddenly appeared and knocked out the nurse, he couldn’t help but widen his eyes and show an expression of disbelief. When Jasmine kicked the male nurse away and pulled the roll of newspaper from his mouth, Johnny could no longer control his emotions and cried uncontrollably.
“Wuu… Jasmine…! I, I really… wuaaa…”