uninvited guest
Feng Jinxuan stared at the two messages on his phone screen, feeling as if his heart was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand.
He desperately wanted to delete those two messages immediately and pretend he hadn't seen anything.
But he knew he couldn't.
Some things are simply unavoidable.
He gently placed Yu Jinli's phone back on the bedside table, restoring it to its original state.
Then, he stood up, walked to the window, and drew back the heavy curtains.
It was almost dawn.
The eastern horizon was already tinged with the pale light of dawn.
An even more turbulent new storm is on its way.
...
The next day, Yu Jinli woke up to the aroma of food.
Her head was still a little dizzy from the hangover.
She rubbed her eyes, sat up, and saw Feng Jinxuan carrying a sumptuous breakfast as he walked in.
"Awake?" the man asked calmly. "Get up and eat."
Looking at him, Yu Jinli felt that he seemed a little... different today.
The faint, icy aura emanating from him seemed to have intensified.
Those deep black eyes also held something...something she couldn't understand, something heavy and unfathomable.
"Boss, are you alright?" she couldn't help but ask. "Has something happened at the company again?"
"No," Feng Jinxuan replied, as always, simply, "I'm eating."
He placed breakfast on the small table beside her bed, including her favorite soup dumplings and a cup of warm soy milk.
Yu Jinli looked at him, and the slight doubt in her heart was quickly dispelled by the temptation of the food.
She picked up her chopsticks, ready to dig in.
Feng Jinxuan suddenly spoke again.
“Yu Jinli,” he said, looking at her in a low voice, “we have guests coming today.”
"Guest? Who is it?"
"...Your family."
Yu Jinli paused, holding the soup dumpling with her chopsticks, and the soup spilled out, scalding her, but she didn't feel it at all.
She looked up at the man's cold, hard face, her mind going blank.
“My…family?” she repeated the words with some difficulty.
“Yes.” Feng Jinxuan nodded, a hint of nervousness in his eyes that he himself was unaware of. “Gu Yanzhi said that they… want to see you.”
Yu Jinli fell silent.
She put down her chopsticks and instantly lost her appetite.
What was bound to happen has finally happened.
Her biological parents, whom she had never met and who supposedly came from some "Tianyan Pavilion"—which sounded incredibly impressive…
"Can I... not see you?" she asked softly, her voice carrying a hint of pleading that she herself was unaware of.
She was an orphan from a young age and barely managed to grow up on the meager pensions of her adoptive parents and scraped-together financial assistance.
For her, the word "home" is both distant and a luxury.
Now, suddenly a pair of "biological parents" and a completely unheard-of "sect" appear, asking her to go back?
On what grounds?
Where were her parents when she needed them most?
Where were they when she was overwhelmed by debt?
Feng Jinxuan looked at her, his dark eyes filled with a deep, unyielding heartache.
He reached out and, as usual, ruffled her hair.
But his hand froze halfway through its reach.
In the end, he simply placed his hand gently on her shoulder.
“Sure,” he said, his voice hoarse. “No one can force you to do this unless you want to.”
Looking at the serious and protective expression on the man's face, Yu Jinli's slight panic and unease about meeting unfamiliar parents gradually subsided.
She took a deep breath, as if she had made up her mind.
“No,” she shook her head, “I will see.”
"I want to see what kind of people they really are."
“I also want to ask them face to face,” she paused, a hint of stubbornness flashing in her eyes, “Why did you abandon me back then?”
...
Three o'clock in the afternoon, at the entrance of the mansion.
Two black Hongqi sedans with mysterious license plates came to a stop silently.
The car door opened.
A middle-aged man and woman stepped off the bus. They were dressed in traditional Chinese clothing, their demeanor completely out of place with the surrounding modern architecture.
The man had a refined and scholarly appearance, exuding an air of authority without anger, and possessed the dignified bearing of someone who had long held a high position.
The woman was very well-preserved, still possessing a charming appearance, and her features bore a striking resemblance to Yu Jinli.
They are the current Pavilion Master and his wife of Tianyan Pavilion.
Yu Jinli's biological parents.
Yu Jinli stood on the steps of the villa, watching from afar the two familiar yet unfamiliar figures walking towards her.
Her hands unconsciously clenched the hem of her clothes.
My heart was filled with mixed feelings.
There was curiosity, nervousness, anticipation, and a hint of... indescribable resentment.
Feng Jinxuan stood beside her, like a silent guardian deity, shielding her from all invisible pressure.
The middle-aged couple walked up to them.
The woman's eyes bore a striking resemblance to Yu Jinli's—gentle and beautiful, yet carrying a hint of weariness from years of hardship. Those eyes filled with tears the moment she saw Yu Jinli.
“Child…” She reached out, as if wanting to touch Yu Jinli’s face, her voice trembling slightly with excitement.
Yu Jinli subconsciously took a half step back.
I avoided her touch.
The woman's hand froze in mid-air.
The tears in her eyes finally fell uncontrollably.
The middle-aged man next to him sighed softly.
He stepped forward, pulled his wife into his arms, and then looked up, his gaze falling on the man in front of Yu Jinli who had remained silent throughout.
His gaze was calm, yet it possessed a penetrating power that seemed to see through everything, a power that sent chills down one's spine.
"So you are Feng Jinxuan?" he asked slowly, his voice not loud, but carrying an undeniable authority.
"Yes." Feng Jinxuan met his gaze, neither humble nor arrogant.
The middle-aged man looked at him, then at his daughter behind him, whom he was protecting tightly.
He remained silent for a moment.
Then, his gaze slowly moved down and landed on the black misfortune emanating from Feng Jinxuan that... even he felt a little frightened by it, so thick that it was almost tangible.
The woman beside him also noticed.
The sadness on her face was instantly replaced by a complex emotion mixed with anger and disgust.
She looked at the powerful and aloof man before her, who was awkwardly and clumsily protecting his daughter in his own way, and her eyes became somewhat complicated.
She looked at him as if he were a... filthy, contagious, deadly source of a virus.
She looked at him and, in a hostile, judgmental tone, asked the most important line, word by word.
"You are the one who dragged my daughter into this endless hell..."
"A jinx?"
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