Ni Sitian stared at Xu Tingchuan in astonishment, suddenly remembering that he had twice before seemed to want to bring up Xu Jiayue's matter, but each time he started but then swallowed his words.

Xu Jiayue wasn't born to Xu Haicheng and Jin Rulan, so she's not Xu Tingchuan's biological sister? How could this be?

“Jiayue’s parents saw those two tombstones this morning. They passed away when Jiayue was three years old,” Xu Tingchuan said slowly, his eyes dark. “Later, her parents adopted Jiayue from her elderly maternal grandmother.”

"Jiayue didn't know about this?" Ni Sitian asked doubtfully. Jiayue was three years old at the time. Although she was not old enough to understand, she would not have mistaken her parents for each other, right?

“When she was first adopted, Jiayue was not used to the Xu family’s environment and kept asking for her parents. She had a high fever that lasted for three days and three nights. After the fever subsided, she couldn’t remember some things from before. Plus, she was already at an age where she was forgetful, so she thought that the person who had been taking care of her by her bedside was her mother.”

Xu Tingchuan spoke slowly, lost in his memories, and continued, "Actually, I met Jiayue when she was six years old. Our two families had a good relationship. Uncle Gu once joked with me that Jiayue would take my surname, Xu."

"Huh?" Ni Sitian was slightly taken aback, then realized the meaning behind the joke, and bit her lip: "He wants to marry Jiayue to you?"

Xu Tingchuan took her hand, led her to sit on his lap, and wrapped his arms around her waist, smiling faintly, "It was just Uncle Gu joking, why are you jealous?"

"Who's jealous?" Ni Sitian pouted, denying it.

"I never expected this joke to actually come true. When I was nine years old, my parents brought Jiayue home and she became my little sister. She really changed her surname from Gu to Xu." Xu Tingchuan was already a teenager at that time, and his memory was very clear.

"No one told Jia Yue about this?" Ni Sitian turned her head to look at Xu Tingchuan and asked.

Xu Tingchuan shook his head and said, "It was Jia Yue's maternal grandmother's request. Jia Yue's paternal grandparents passed away a long time ago, and her maternal grandmother is old and in poor health, so she has no relatives. If we don't adopt her, she will have to go to an orphanage after her maternal grandmother passes away."

“Jia Yue’s maternal grandmother must want Jia Yue to live a happy life, which is why she doesn’t want her to know that she is an orphan who was adopted without parents.” Ni Sitian felt that she could understand why all of them were hiding this from Jia Yue.

However, considering that Jia Yue's parents passed away on Jin Rulan's birthday, it's too much of a coincidence that they both died together. Something must have happened.

“You’re right.” Xu Tingchuan wrapped his arms tightly around Ni Sitian’s waist, rested his head on her arm, and said in a low voice, “Jiayue’s parents died in an accident.”

Ni Sitian was a little surprised, not by their unexpected deaths, but by how Xu Tingchuan knew what she was thinking. She muttered, "You're practically a mind reader."

Xu Tingchuan smiled faintly, but the smile in his eyes quickly faded. He continued, "The day they passed away was twenty-three years ago today."

"What a coincidence!" Ni Sitian pursed her lips, feeling that there must be some connection between them, but since the matter involved Jin Rulan, she didn't know how to ask.