Chapter 45 That was her own thought just now…

After listening to Xiang Bei's words, Jiang Zhaodi asked Teacher Yan for half a day off.

Teacher Yan already knew what happened in the classroom that afternoon. She didn't expect that Jiang Zhaodi, who was always timid and submissive, would suddenly rebel against Jiang Yuzhu, who was bossing her around.

It really feels incredible.

However, Teacher Yan still granted leave to the student on whom she had high hopes.

Seeing that Jiang Zhaodi looked unwell, he reminded her, "If you're not feeling well, you should go to the hospital to get checked out."

As she spoke, Teacher Yan gave the money to Jiang Zhaodi, knowing that Jiang Zhaodi definitely didn't have any money on her.

"No need, teacher. I'm not sick. I just want to change my name," Jiang Zhaodi quickly waved her hand.

"Change your name?" Teacher Yan looked at Jiang Zhaodi with even greater surprise.

But soon, Teacher Yan smiled and said, "This is a good thing."

She patted Jiang Zhaodi's hand, "Go quickly."

Jiang Zhaodi walked home, still looking somewhat uneasy.

No one is home right now; my parents, older brother, and older sister are at work, and my younger brother is at school.

Jiang Yuzhu won't go home if no one is home.

On the way back, Xiang Bei seriously discussed with Jiang Zhaodi what name to change to.

[Brother killed, brother exterminated, brother executed? Eight generations wiped out, the entire family wiped out?]

Jiang Zhaodi didn't dare to speak; none of these names seemed like good ones.

Sure enough, when she entered the house, there was no one there.

The neighbors, however, saw her and were surprised that she had returned.

"I came back to get something." Jiang Zhaodi smiled shyly.

No one paid any attention, assuming she was helping Jiang Yuzhu carry things, as was the usual practice.

Jiang Zhaodi closed the door, opened her parents' room, and felt very uneasy.

They only came in when I was cleaning, but this is the first time they've come in to steal.

[How can you call it stealing from your own family? It's just using their household registration book; it won't cost them anything. If you like, you can take some money; it's all family property anyway, so it doesn't matter who spends it on. Your own father can earn money for other people's daughters, so you, his own daughter, spending some of his money is doing him a good deed.]

The cabinet was locked, and the lock was opened right in front of Jiang Zhaodi.

Jiang Zhaodi was already used to this scene; she had seen even stranger things, and opening the lock was a minor matter.

She opened the drawer; there was still money inside, but she only took the household registration booklet.

Then I went to the neighborhood office and found the staff.

At that time, there were no ID cards; everything was handwritten, so changing names was very convenient.

"Hello, I want to change my name."

The staff member looked up and glanced at Jiang Zhaodi. She was a very young girl, but in this day and age, a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl was not considered young.

I changed my name all by myself and didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

I glanced at her name. "Jiang Zhaodi, is that right?"

"right."

What name would you like to change it to?

On the way here, Xiang Bei had selected many characters with auspicious meanings for her, and those characters kept scrolling in front of her eyes.

Each word is followed by the meanings of the other words.

She hesitated for a moment between the characters 曦 and 熹, then wrote the character 熹 on a piece of paper and handed it to the staff.

"Hello, I would like to change my name to Jiang Xi."

At this time, all the files were handwritten, and the staff changed her name according to her handwriting.

"Jiang Xi, it's done, here you go." The staff member handed the household registration book to Jiang Xi.

Xi symbolizes beginnings and hope.

From today onwards, she will no longer be called Jiang Zhaodi; her name will be Jiang Xi.

She took the household registration booklet home and put it away.

If you don't spend some money, someone else will.

Xiang Bei felt like a demon tempting others to commit crimes.

Jiang Xi didn't take it; he simply put the household registration book away.

"Fine, since that's how it is, look at that drawer. There's a book there with a photo tucked inside. Take it out first. If necessary, we can just tear this house apart."

Xiang Bei was determined to make something of herself.

Jiang Xi was also curious about what kind of photo it was. This time, she did not refuse Xiang Bei's suggestion and obediently took out the photo. She also tore out the page with the comment in the book and locked it back.

Jiang Xi's breath hitched when she saw the woman in the photo who looked remarkably like Jiang Yuzhu.

She had come to believe what her daughter from the future had said.

Jiang Yuzhu is not her twin sister.

On the back of the photo is a handwritten note from her father: "Forever yours, Jiang Chaoying."

Jiang Xi couldn't quite describe her feelings. She hadn't gone to school yet, and her mind was in turmoil.

The house was a staff and family housing unit allocated by the factory. It wasn't very big to begin with, just two bedrooms and a living room.

Jiang Chaoying and Yang Xinghua shared a room, while the other room was separated with bunk beds. On one side lived the brothers Jiang Guangzong and Jiang Yaozu, and on the other side lived Jiang Sisi and Jiang Yuzhu.

As for Jiang Xi, she was the last to go to sleep at night and the first to get up in the morning. She would sleep next to the table with two stools and a plank on top, so she didn't even need a room.

Hearing the door open, Jiang Xi turned his head and saw Jiang Chaoying and Jiang Yuzhu enter.

The two men were stunned to see her sitting on the stool; they hadn't expected her to be at home.

Jiang Yuzhu had applied medicine to her cheeks. When she returned, she ran into her neighbors, who inevitably asked her how her face got so badly injured.

Even Jiang Chaoying's cheeks looked a bit swollen.

"Wasn't it Jiang Zhaodi who did it?" Jiang Yuzhu ruthlessly exposed Jiang Zhaodi's wickedness to the public.

But no one believed that Zhao Di would actually do such a thing; it would take forever.

Besides, Jiang Chaoying's cheeks are swollen too; Zhaodi can't possibly dare to lay a hand on her own father.

"Engineer Jiang, what happened to your face?"

"I accidentally fell while I was at work." Jiang Chaoying wanted to laugh, but when he tried to smile, his cheeks twitched from the pain.

But the slap mark on his face is so clear, he couldn't have fallen and gotten slapped in the face.

To this day, he still can't understand how the slap meant for Jiang Zhaodi ended up landing on his face instead.

As the father and daughter walked home, many people whispered behind their backs.

Everyone knows that Jiang Chaoying dotes on this little girl the most, so it's really strange that both father and daughter have swollen cheeks today.

Jiang Chaoying could still put on a show in front of outsiders, but when he saw Jiang Xi at home, he completely lost his composure.

What happened this morning was already baffling to Jiang Chaoying, and then, not long after she started work, Jiang Yuzhu came looking for her.

Seeing Jiang Yuzhu's swollen cheeks, Jiang Chaoying was startled, thinking that she had been bullied by her classmates.

When Jiang Chaoying learned that it was Jiang Zhaodi who made the call, she momentarily suspected that Jiang Yuzhu was lying. But thinking about how Jiang Zhaodi had been acting strangely since early that morning, she realized that Jiang Yuzhu was right.

Especially when she heard Jiang Yuzhu say that Jiang Zhaodi already knew about her background, Jiang Chaoying felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave.

"Dad, what should we do? Jiang Zhaodi threatened to expose my identity."

Jiang Chaoying forced herself to calm down, took Jiang Yuzhu to the hospital to apply medicine, and then also applied medicine to her swollen cheeks.

After that ordeal, Jiang Chaoying calmed down.

No one would believe what Jiang Zhaodi said.

As a father, how could he not control her?

When he returned, he kept thinking about how to shut Jiang Zhaodi up and prevent her from revealing what he had kept hidden for so many years.

But when she got home and opened the door, Jiang Chaoying was still startled to see Jiang Zhaodi sitting there.

What are you doing here?

Jiang Xi twitched the corners of his mouth, and the words reappeared in front of him.

This time, she obediently repeated, "Dad, I'm just going home. Why are you making such a fuss? Anyone who didn't know better would think I caught you cheating!"

Jiang Chaoying immediately flew into a rage, "You unfilial daughter, I am your father, how dare you speak to me like that?"

"I'll speak the same way you speak."

Jiang Chaoying didn't dare to lay a hand on him again. He still couldn't understand why the slap that had hit Jiang Zhaodi in the morning had landed on his own face.

He was afraid that if he hit Jiang Zhaodi again, it would backfire on him.

However, Jiang Zhaodi's disobedience and lack of filial piety still challenged his authority as a father.

"Dad, I think she just needs to be taught a lesson." Jiang Yuzhu, unaware of Jiang Chaoying's inner thoughts, continued to add fuel to the fire.

She was hoping her father would give Jiang Zhaodi a good talking-to, since she didn't know what had gotten into her.

Finally provoked by Jiang Yuzhu, Jiang Chaoying grabbed a broom and walked towards Jiang Xi.

Xiang Bei felt that Jiang Xi's words had no intimidating power at all, so she spoke for her. She manipulated Jiang Xi's body to slowly raise the photo in her hand, "Dad, you only have one photo, right? If I destroy it, will you be able to find other photos?"

As he spoke, Jiang Xi tore off a corner of the photograph and threw it into the coal stove beside him.

"Dad, if you dare to lay a hand on me, I won't hesitate to completely destroy this photo. Do you really want to watch something left behind by the woman you love disappear right before your eyes?"

Jiang Chaoying's hands trembled, but she finally threw the broom away.

"Give me back the photos."

Jiang Xi smiled and looked at Jiang Chaoying, slowly raising both hands. "Dad, which one do you want? Or should I post it out so the factory workers and people in the residential compound can see it?"

"No!" Jiang Chaoying exclaimed anxiously.

Jiang Yuzhu circled around behind Jiang Xi, trying to snatch the photos and book pages back, but as soon as she got close to Jiang Xi, she was kicked away by a spinning kick.

It hit the wall and then crashed to the ground.

Jiang Chaoying rushed over to support Jiang Yuzhu, "Yuzhu, are you alright?"

"Dad, it hurts." Jiang Yuzhu curled up on the ground like a shrimp.

Jiang Xi simply watched coldly.

She wasn't being manipulated, but she remembered when she was little, she always followed behind Jiang Yuzhu. When a little boy was playing, he accidentally knocked Jiang Yuzhu to the ground, and she only got a minor scrape. Her father was so distressed that he turned around and kicked her in the stomach.

They said she didn't take good care of Jiang Yuzhu, completely disregarding the fact that she was so young and couldn't even take care of herself, let alone Jiang Yuzhu.

She lay on the cold ground for a long time without being able to get up, and no one cared whether she lived or died.

Now that her father feels so sorry for Jiang Yuzhu, she finds it all very ironic.

Shouldn't we have realized this a long time ago?

She was grateful to her father for allowing her to study, so she worked hard and dutifully at home.

But she forgot that every child in the family could go to school, so why couldn't she? This was supposed to be her opportunity.

Jiang Chaoying picked up Jiang Yuzhu and helped her out.

Jiang Xi watched them leave, then sat back down in his chair.

She didn't know how long she had been sitting there; her mind was still a mess.

It's like two voices are fighting.

A voice told her that her parents had raised her, and it was only right that she repay them.

Another voice told her that there was no right or wrong, since they couldn't treat everyone equally, so why should she listen to them?

The two voices were constantly fighting, causing Jiang Xi great distress.

She kept thinking about this problem until Jiang Yaozu came home from school.

The door was pushed open with a bang, and Jiang Yaozu saw Jiang Xi sitting there, looking impatient.

Why are you home?

Jiang Xi didn't speak, but Jiang Yaozu's eyes darted around. "Hey, you jinx, I'm hungry. Go fry me some eggs."

Seeing that Jiang Xi was still sitting there motionless, Jiang Yaozu impatiently kicked her leg.

Almost instinctively, Jiang Xi slapped Jiang Yaozu across the face.

She ignored Jiang Yaozu, who had been slapped to the ground, and just stared blankly at her own slap.

She was certain that it was her own idea just now, that she herself wanted to slap Jiang Yaozu.