In order to save Jiang Anqing, Xiang Jin had no choice but to ask Li Shuhui for help.
"Let her go? Impossible! Unless you give up your Columbia University admission spot to Aqi, I might consider letting her live more comfortably."
Seeing Jiang Anqing being tortured, Xiang Jin gritted her teeth and had no choice but to agree.
Thinking of her birth mother, Xiang Jin's heart began to ache again.
She has only seen her twice since she went to the mental hospital, and now three years have passed, and she doesn't know how she is doing.
She had done everything Li Shuhui asked her to do, so she had to see her mother tomorrow!
Logically speaking, she should go back with Feng Jianian tomorrow, but Li Shuhui doesn't like him, and he seems very busy. She doesn't know what to do.
Xiang Jin looked down at Feng Jianian.
"Are you going to work tomorrow?" she wrote.
Looking into her eyes, his gaze flickered: "I'll be busy tomorrow, so you'll have to go back to your parents' house by yourself."
"Okay, good." Xiang Jin secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
With him around, it's inconvenient for her to reveal her identity; if he doesn't go, she can finally unleash her full potential.
"Put this on." Before going to bed that night, he put a bracelet on her right wrist. "This is the Feng family heirloom."
Xiang Jin was stunned and immediately tried to take it off.
"No." The tone was commanding.
However, it's too precious. This jade bracelet looks incredibly valuable, and she doesn't deserve to wear something so nice.
"This isn't the real thing, it's not worth much, so it's fine if it's broken." His words reassured her a lot. She fiddled with the bracelet, and sure enough, the crisp sound it made sounded just like the real thing. The imitation was too good to be true.
Xiang Jin withdrew her hand.
As she was pulling back, she accidentally touched his hand, and the icy touch made her shudder.
So cold, his hands are so cold, like ice.
Almost without hesitation, Xiang Jin reached out her hand and enveloped his hand.
"What are you doing?" The man instinctively tried to pull his hand back.
"Your hands are so cold, let me warm them up for you." After she finished writing, she carefully wrapped his hands in her own, breathed on them a few times, and rubbed them together.
The man's gaze deepened slightly.
He had always been averse to contact from strangers, especially hands, but it seemed he wasn't too averse to her touch; in fact, he felt somewhat comfortable with it. Why was that?
Just as I was thinking this, my hand suddenly felt cold.
She withdrew her hand and awkwardly wrote, "I'm... sorry."
She crossed the line.
His hands suddenly lost their warmth, and the slight chill and discomfort made him frown: "I don't think you did anything wrong. Your hands are still a little cold, want me to rub them a little longer?"
As she spoke, she extended her hand.
Xiang Jin was slightly taken aback, then took his hand again and carefully cherished it as if it were a precious treasure.
Looking at her focused expression, her slightly upturned eyelashes, her eyes that held a soft light, and her slightly flushed face, everything seemed to become more adorable. The woman in front of me... seemed to have also become adorable.
Murong Xiao looked at his increasingly red hands, and it seemed... they were actually getting warm.
……………………
After having breakfast, Xiang Jin set off for the Xiang family.
It's the weekend today, and it's rare to see both Li Shuhui and Xiang Deming here, but I didn't see Xiang Qi.
"Oh, where did this stray dog come from, showing up at the Xiang family's doorstep? What bad luck!" Xiang Yiling stood behind Li Shuhui and began to mock her.
Xiang Yiling is Xiang Jin's cousin. She fawns over Li Shuhui the most and knows that Li Shuhui dislikes Xiang Jin, so she constantly mocks and makes things difficult for Xiang Jin. When they were in the Xiang family, Xiang Jin suffered a lot at her hands.
Li Shuhui smiled dismissively and remained silent.
Xiang Jin calmly sat down, took out paper and pen and wrote: "A stray dog? Sister Ling, be careful with your words, or Dad will be unhappy."
"You—" Xiang Yiling choked.
"Ah Jin is, after all, the Xiang family's adopted daughter, and your sister. Yi Ling, you should watch your manners." The words "a stray dog" displeased Xiang Deming. He criticized Xiang Yi Ling and spoke gently to Xiang Jin, asking her how she was doing in the Xiang family and whether Feng Jianian had bullied her, etc.
Xiang Jin had mixed feelings about this adoptive father.
When she was in the Xiang family, he cared for her quite a bit and tried his best to educate and guide her, but he did not stop her when she was bullied by Xiang Qi.
"It's alright," she replied succinctly.
"Why didn't Feng Jianian come with you?" Xiang Deming asked.
Just as Xiang Jin was about to explain, Xiang Yiling interrupted, "Second Uncle, is there even a question? Feng Jianian is at least an intellectual; how could he possibly be interested in a convict like her?"
Although Feng Jianian was poor and died young, he was still a proper college student. Xiang Jin only completed his second year of college before going to jail, so he could barely be considered to have a high school education.
Xiang Jin wrote: "He's just busy with something."
Seeing what she wrote, Li Shuhui secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She smiled and said, "Xiangjin, now that you're married, there are some things I need to say beforehand."
“You were able to marry so well because of Aqi’s status. If your in-laws despise you or beat you, you must repay evil with kindness and serve them well, understand? If you are kicked out, it will be a disgrace to the Xiang family. At that time, not only me, but even your father will not forgive you.”
Li Shuhui's words were extremely gentle, yet they were sharp and cutting.
To put it bluntly, she wanted to trap Xiang Jin in the Feng family so that Xiang Qi could have a new world to live in.
Xiang Jin gripped the pen tightly.
A moment later, she deftly wrote down a line: "My sister didn't go to jail, my sister didn't lose face, how about we let my sister marry into the family instead?"
"Your sister is treated like royalty, that won't do—"
"You shameless bitch—"
Li Shuhui and Xiang Deming were immediately provoked and began to criticize Xiang Jin.
"So don't push me." Even a cornered dog will jump over a wall, let alone a person. Her life is already ruined; now she just wants to live a peaceful life, is that not allowed either?
"I want to see my mother," she wrote quickly again.
"What, you want to turn your back on us? Fine, all these years, the Xiang family has raised a thankless wretch!" Li Shuhui sneered.
"Exactly! Even a dog knows to bark, but look at her, she's mute, she can't even bark!"
"Smack—"
Xiang Jin slammed down the plate of pastries and fruit on the table, her face showing a desperate attempt to suppress her emotions.
"What are you doing? You're always smashing plates and breaking bowls. Can't I even say a few words to you?" Li Shuhui said sneer. "Xiang Deming, aren't you going to do anything about this?!"
Xiang Deming frowned: "Let's all keep quiet! Ah Jin, pick up what's on the ground, don't be so rude."
Xiang Jin didn't move.
Did they still think of her as a servant in the Xiang family?
From a young age, she did everything from picking up trash to doing manual labor, sometimes even more than the nannies and maids. As a child, she naively thought her hard work would earn her parents' approval, but now she realizes that the Xiang family simply treated her as a free servant.
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