Chapter 255 The Uninvited Guest at the Birthday Party
Several gossipy guests were so frightened by Xie Jinghuai's gaze that they froze, forced to smile obsequiously, and scattered like birds.
Xie Jinghuai coldly withdrew his gaze, feeling a tightness in his chest. He dug his fingertips into the Windsor knot and pulled it down.
No matter what Jiang Shiyuan is like, it's none of these self-righteous scoundrels' place to judge him. She's his wife; everyone else has to shut up!
"Brother Jinghuai, my dad's over there, let's go over there." Lin Zhixin walked to the man's side and gently reminded him.
Xie Jinghuai looked over indifferently and indeed saw that not far away, Mr. and Mrs. Lin were chatting and laughing with the guests who came to celebrate the birthday. He was surrounded in the center, his face glowing, like a star surrounded by the moon.
He didn't want to go at this time and become something the Lin family could brag about.
He once helped Yuntu Dongfang, firstly out of gratitude to Lin Zhixin; secondly, because Yuntu Dongfang had a very good research team at the time, but lacked financial support, and he did not want those promising projects to die in the womb, which was also a form of investment.
He can generously offer help in times of need, but he's not interested in adding to someone's already good fortune.
"No, I don't know those people well, there's nothing to talk about."
Xie Jinghuai declined calmly, "It's your father's birthday banquet. As a young lady, you must have a lot to do. Don't worry about me, I want to go out for some fresh air."
After saying that, the man walked away without waiting for Lin Zhixin's reply.
Lin Zhixin couldn't stop her; her hand froze awkwardly in mid-air, then clenched tightly in anger and resentment.
Over the past five years, although Xie Jinghuai often drove Lin Zhixin home and occasionally stayed for meals, he only ever visited the living room and dining room and was not familiar with the overall layout of the Lin family villa.
As he walked, he got lost.
A dimly lit corridor, quiet and serene, stands in stark contrast to the glitz and bustle downstairs.
Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks—
Seeing that the door to the only room at the far end was open, he went inside as if possessed.
Xie Jinghuai walked to the center of the room, his brows furrowed slightly, and looked around.
The room was cluttered with miscellaneous items, and the walls, long neglected and unpainted, were patchy and cracked in many places. The furniture also looked rather ordinary, appearing shabby and out of place compared to the rest of the Lin family's home.
What surprised him even more was the narrow wooden bed.
He slowly walked over, sat down, and felt that the bed was so hard it hurt his butt. Was this a place for a human to sleep on? Even a dog wouldn't sleep on it!
Xie Jinghuai's gaze casually swept over the headboard, then suddenly froze—
He hurriedly picked up the photo frame from the bedside table, startling a thick layer of dust on it, which made him cough a few times.
It was really filthy.
But Xie Jinghuai, who is always very clean, couldn't care less about his germaphobia at this moment. Since he didn't have a handkerchief on hand, he directly used his sleeve to wipe the dust off the glass of the photo frame.
The next moment, he saw clearly the person in the photo: a picture of Jiang Shiyuan, whose face was still a little chubby when she was a girl, with her mother.
The mother and daughter nestled close together, the mother's face resting on the top of her daughter's head, both smiling so brightly and radiantly, overflowing with happiness.
Xie Jinghuai was stunned.
In their five years of marriage, he had never seen Jiang Shiyuan smile like that. In the Xie family, she rarely smiled, and even when she did, it was very faint and shallow, as if she had no emotions at all, like an NPC who revolved around them, father and son, all day long.
Xie Jinghuai stared intently at Jiang Shiyuan in the photo, and couldn't help but touch the round, yellowish smiling face with his fingertips.
But why?
Why would a photo of Jiang Shiyuan and her mother appear in this dilapidated room?
"Are you...you are...President Xie?"
Xie Jinghuai suddenly looked up and saw a middle-aged maid standing at the door in astonishment.
He picked up the photo frame, rose gracefully and calmly, walked straight to the maid, and politely extended his hand to her:
"Hello, I am Xie Jinghuai."
The maid, holding a washed dishcloth, couldn't easily shake his hand, but simply smiled and nodded.
"Mr. Xie is too approachable. How could someone like me be worthy of shaking hands with you?"
"Don't say that, there's no such thing as being a good match or not."
"Mr. Xie, why aren't you downstairs with the guests? Why are you here in this room all by yourself?"
"I got lost and saw that this room door was open, so I walked in without knowing why."
Xie Jinghuai lowered his long eyelashes, looking at the group photo in his hand, "Excuse me, who stayed in this room before?"
The maid's smile froze in the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, and her mood clearly turned somber.
"Yes...it is our young lady."
Xie Jinghuai had a vague premonition, but hearing it with his own ears still gave him a heavy jolt, and he gripped the photo frame tightly.
"Was the person who lived in this room before... really Jiang Shiyuan?!"
The maid's eyes welled up slightly, and she nodded. "But, since the young lady went to university, she has almost never returned here. This room that the young lady used to use is now being used by the current mistress to store miscellaneous items."
Upon hearing this, Xie Jinghuai felt a strange anxiety in his heart, and his brows furrowed even more tightly:
"Piling up junk? It's impossible that Jiang Shiyuan hasn't come home to stay even once in all these years, right? If her room has become a warehouse, where will she sleep when she comes back?"
The maid sighed, "When the young lady was in college, she would occasionally come back, just to pick up a few things and leave in a hurry to go back to her school dormitory. Even during the New Year... she would spend it alone outside and never set foot in here."
Actually, from the day the ex-wife passed away, the eldest daughter stopped considering herself a member of the Lin family. The two things she said to me most often were, "Take care of yourself," and "She has no home anymore..."
She has no home anymore...
The man's thin lips were pressed tightly together.
That's a really hurtful statement.
The maid couldn't help but smile bitterly, "It makes sense. Chairman Lin married a new woman and had a new daughter. Now they are a family of three, and our young lady has become an unwanted person in this family."
Forcing yourself to stay will only lead to mistreatment and being treated poorly. Why make yourself suffer like this? It's better to go out and make your own way in the world.
As she spoke, she looked at Xie Jinghuai with gratitude in her eyes, "Thank goodness... our young lady and you, Mr. Xie, have tied the knot and become husband and wife. Young lady's suffering has finally come to an end."
These words caused Xie Jinghuai's chest to feel tight and his heart to feel inexplicably bitter.
Even her cheeks felt a little hot.
"Jiang Shiyuan is the eldest daughter of your Lin family. Her status and position are no lower than Lin Zhixin's. How could she live in such a small and old room?"
To say it's old is being polite; it should be called worn out!
"Originally, the young lady's room was spacious and comfortable, and it was on the sunny side. She loved flowers and plants and kept many green plants on the balcony. She had lived in that room since she was born and had a deep affection for it."
The maid's eyes reddened, and she couldn't help but voice the grievances she had suppressed for many years on behalf of her young mistress:
"However, everything changed after Madam Lin and her daughter entered the Lin family. Miss Lin immediately took a liking to the eldest daughter's room and cried and made a scene, insisting on moving in. Chairman Lin spoiled them without any limits and actually ordered the eldest daughter to give up her room for Miss Lin."
The more Xie Jinghuai listened, the more his brows furrowed.
"Back then, the eldest daughter was young and lacked the ability to survive. She had no mother to support her, and her father spoiled his current wife, Mrs. Lin, and her daughter in every way possible. Miss Lin made a huge scene and even fought with the eldest daughter, scratching her face! It was clearly Miss Lin who was being unreasonable, but Chairman Lin slapped the eldest daughter without even asking what happened!"
The maid became more and more agitated as she spoke, and the anger and grievances that Jiang Shiyuan had suppressed for many years burst forth in front of Xie Jinghuai, almost without regard for anything else. "The eldest young lady... is the apple of the madam's eye! When the madam was alive, she never laid a finger on her. Now that the madam is gone, how come the eldest young lady is treated worse than grass? Even this villa was bought with the madam's money. Why do they treat the eldest young lady like this?!"
A while ago, I wasn't feeling well and took leave to go back to my hometown to recuperate. When I was here, I came here every week to clean, but I haven't been back for over a month, and the place has been sealed off, covered in dust… I know Miss will never come back, but I think, what if she does come back someday? If she saw the house she used to live in, in such a dilapidated state, worse than a servant's… how heartbroken she would be.”
Looking at the maid in front of him, who was on the verge of tears, Xie Jinghuai's breathing became heavy, his large hands clenched tightly, and his palms were already covered with cold sweat.
He knew that Jiang Shiyuan had a strained relationship with the Lin family, but he thought it was because she resented her father's remarriage after her mother's death, and that she couldn't get over it herself, so she took the initiative to distance herself from the Lin family.
Moreover, in Lin Zhixin's daily descriptions, her family is always portrayed as the one looked down upon by Jiang Shiyuan, as if marrying him gave Jiang Shiyuan the Xie family as a backer, making him even more unscrupulous towards the Lin family.
But the reality was clearly not what he saw.
Even if the maid embellished the story and deliberately favored Jiang Shiyuan, wasn't the somber and melancholic room before them enough to explain everything?
"Mr. Xie, I watched Miss grow up, and no one understands her better than me... how difficult her journey has been."
The maid wiped away her tears, her voice pleading, "I know that someone as noble as you is not qualified to ask anything of you. I only beg you, at the very least, please stop our young lady from being bullied by the Lin family, okay?"
Someone like her has never been qualified to show her face in public, let alone meet the noble President Xie.
But now that God has given her this opportunity, she must seize it and plead for the young lady!
Xie Jinghuai's mind was in turmoil, and he was having difficulty breathing.
Thinking of the hardships Jiang Shiyuan had endured, and of Lin Zhixin, who was gentle, kind, understanding, and unconditionally devoted to him...
He felt his understanding was becoming increasingly confused, and he didn't know who to believe anymore.
He knew that human nature was complex.
But can a person's personality really be so divided? Would Lin Zhixin, who would fight over even a room, really be so selfless as to risk her own life to save someone?
At this moment, Xie Jinghuai could only offer himself the explanation of—
People change.
Over the past decade or so, perhaps Lin Zhixin's character has changed?
After all, she was just a child back then...
"Don't worry, now that your young lady has married me, I will not let her go back to her old, miserable life."
Before he could finish speaking, his phone rang.
Xie Jinghuai took out his phone from his pocket and saw that it was Lin Zhixin calling. His gaze darkened slightly as he answered the call and walked out.
“Zhixin”.
"Brother Jinghuai, where are you? The birthday party is about to start, and I can't find you anywhere."
The man's eyes were dark. He paused for a moment before speaking, "I'll be there now."
...
Lin Chengchou's birthday banquet was held in the hall with eight tables. Although it was not particularly grand or lavish, the guests were all prominent figures in the business world, and as the chairman of the company, he had all the necessary status.
Xie Jinghuai was seated in the main seat, alongside the birthday celebrant Lin Chengchou, which shows his extraordinary status and how much the Lin family valued him.
The other guests didn't think there was anything wrong with it either; everyone knew that the Xie family was the Lin family's biggest benefactor.
Big spenders deserve to be treated like royalty!
Lin Chengchou sat to his right with his beloved wife Liu Nianrou, while Lin Zhixin sat next to Xie Jinghuai, looking like a little bird nestled against him. She would occasionally glance at Xie Jinghuai with affection, and the relationship between the two made people think a lot.
"Hey, look at them, Mr. Xie and Miss Lin are such a perfect match!"
"Yes, yes! A perfect match!"
"Although tonight is Chairman Lin's birthday banquet, it feels more like President Xie and Miss Lin's engagement banquet to me."
"That's right, with this atmosphere, why not just get engaged right away!"
Lin Zhixin's vanity was at its peak at this moment, and she was feeling smug when she noticed that Xie Jinghuai's expression was somewhat gloomy.
"Brother Jinghuai, are you alright?" she asked with concern.
Xie Jinghuai's mind was elsewhere, recalling the maid's words. "It's nothing," he said absentmindedly.
At this moment, Lin Chengchou's wine glass was full, and he was about to get up to give a speech when his secretary rushed to his side nervously and whispered in his ear:
"Chairman Lin, we have a guest."
"Are there more guests?"
Lin Chengchou paused for a moment, "Aren't all the guests on the list here? The place is packed. Where did this other guest come from?"
The secretary sounded nervous. "This guest isn't on the list; he came uninvited."
Upon hearing this, Lin Chengchou was very displeased. "Who is it? How rude!"
"Yes... Fu Chong, the president of the Fu Group and the eldest son of the Fu family."
Lin Chengchou was both bewildered and astonished. "Our Lin family has no dealings with the Fu family. What is he doing here?"
The secretary wiped her sweat. "Not only President Fu, but another person came with him."
"Who is it again?!"
"Yes... Miss Jiang."
Lin Chengchou's expression froze completely, and even gradually turned dark and brooding.
He glanced hastily at Xie Jinghuai, who was still unaware of the situation, then whispered in his secretary's ear, keeping his voice as low as possible:
"That brat, she hasn't come back even once in five years, why is she suddenly here tonight? What does she want?!"
"I...I don't know either, but Miss Jiang came with President Fu."
The secretary asked worriedly, "Chairman Lin, what do you think we should do?"
"What do we do? Can't you see President Xie is here? We absolutely cannot let her show up!"
Lin Chengchou's eyes darted around, his tone icy, completely unlike his attitude towards his own daughter, but more like that towards an enemy, "No matter what method you use, you can't let her in, you have to get rid of her!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a commotion broke out at the table.
Immediately, a boastful laugh shattered the harmonious atmosphere:
"It's Chairman Lin's birthday, and I've come uninvited on behalf of the Fu family. Please forgive me, Chairman Lin!"
Everyone: "?!"
Outside the main gate, Fu Chong strode into the hall, as always with a cigarette in his hand, puffing out clouds of smoke.
The woman who entered alongside him had luscious red lips, an ethereal air, and an imposing presence—none other than Jiang Shiyuan!
The moment his wife burst in, Xie Jinghuai's pupils dilated violently, his blood rushed to his head, and he almost couldn't sit up from his chair!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
