Nan Yuanman, who was yawning from exhaustion, instantly woke up when she heard Jiang Lixuan's words. She clutched her small handbag warily: "No, what if you tear it up?"
Jiang Lixuan paused for a moment, his expression bitter: "In your eyes, am I that kind of person?"
Nan Yuanman nodded earnestly, her sweet, childlike voice resolute: "Yes!"
Jiang Lixuan choked.
Nan Yuanman muttered to herself, clutching her bag, and shifted her little bottom further away from him: "It seems you have no idea about your own character. I need to stay away from you so you don't sneak a peek while I'm asleep."
Jiang Lixuan, who did indeed have this thought in mind: "..."
He opened his mouth, then scratched his hair in frustration: "Okay, I won't open it, I'll just look at the group photo on the cover, alright?"
Nan Yuanman glanced at him sideways and held out his hand: "One hundred yuan for one look, pay first and then look."
Jiang Lixuan: "..."
"You're really obsessed with money." Jiang Lixuan clicked his tongue, took out several hundred yuan from his pocket and put it in Nan Yuanman's hand: "Here's five hundred yuan, enough for me to look at things for five seconds, right?"
Nan Yuanman stuffed the money into his small handbag: "No problem."
She carefully took the diary out of her small handbag.
Bai Wenying's diary is quite old; the cover and the pages inside are yellowed, and the family photo pasted on the cover is full of scratches.
Jiang Lixuan's heart trembled slightly as he looked at the photo that had been glued together with double-sided tape.
He remembers this photo.
This photo was taken when the family had just found Bai Wenying.
At that time, Bai Wenying's personality was not so bad, and her actions were not so vicious. Her mother said that she wanted to celebrate her coming home and take a family photo together.
Jiang Lixuan stared blankly, as if recalling the scene when this family photo was taken.
The atmosphere wasn't good. They felt guilty towards Bai Wenying, but more than that, they felt like strangers.
Jiang Yueyao cried and whispered to him, "I envy Sister Wenying so much. She has a father, a mother, and a brother. After being abducted for so many years, she was still able to return to the happy Jiang family. Unlike me, I don't even know where my parents are..."
"Brother, your biological sister is back. Can I still be your sister from now on?"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Lixuan immediately felt sorry for the person and spoke up to stop the filming.
He thought at the time that a family photo could be taken anytime, so why take it in the two days since Bai Wenying came back?
Jiang Yueyao felt insecure because of Bai Wenying's return. Bai Wenying was a year older than Jiang Yueyao, so she should understand and be tolerant of her.
Bai Wenying reacted strongly to his words and argued with reason, eventually persuading her father to agree to take a family photo.
But in this family photo, their expressions make them look like Bai Wenying's enemies, not like family.
Later, in an attempt to please Jiang Yueyao, the second brother tore up the photo. He thought Bai Wenying would throw it away, but unexpectedly...
She actually saved it...
Jiang Lixuan was a little stunned when Nan Yuanman's voice suddenly came to his ears: "The mother in this photo looks so wronged."
Jiang Lixuan stared blankly at Nan Yuanman, but Nan Yuanman didn't look at him. She looked down at the photo on the cover of her diary, her chubby little hands gently stroking the photo of a beautiful girl who was forcing a smile at the camera with tears in her eyes.
The girl looked only sixteen or seventeen years old. Her features hadn't fully developed yet, and she was still a little immature. Her eyebrows and eyes were very delicate, and Nan Yuanman's eyes were somewhat similar to hers.
In this family photo, only the girl's lips are upturned.
The other people's expressions were either angry, indifferent, or impatient, as if... the people taking photos with her were not her relatives, but her enemies.
As Nan Yuanman touched the photo, to Jiang Lixuan's astonishment, her fair little hand grabbed a corner of the photo and pulled it down forcefully.
"Rip—!"
The family photo, which had been carefully glued together with double-sided tape, was torn off from top to bottom, leaving only the girl's solo photo on the cover.
Jiang Lixuan felt a sharp pain in his heart and instinctively grabbed Nan Yuanman's hand, raising his voice: "Yuanman! What are you doing!"
Nan Yuanman gave him a strange look, still clutching the half of the photo she had torn off: "Why are you reacting so strongly? I didn't tear up your photo."
Jiang Lixuan's cheeks flushed red, his expression fierce but his voice weak: "But this is a photo of your mother! How can you just tear it up like that!"
As he spoke, he snatched the half of the photo from Nan Yuanman's hand, carefully took the diary, and pasted the other half of the photo onto it.
But for some reason, he couldn't stick it on no matter what he did, and his hands were trembling slightly.
Nan Yuanman looked at Jiang Lixuan, blinked her round, clear eyes, and asked, puzzled, "Jiang Lixuan, didn't you guys not acknowledge that my mother and I were part of the Jiang family before? Why did you react so strongly when you saw me tear up the photos?"
Jiang Lixuan paused slightly, took a deep breath, and avoided looking up at Nan Yuanman, omitting her question: "Call me Uncle, that's disrespectful."
He didn't know why he had such a strong reaction, it was as if... what Yuanman tore up wasn't just a photo, but the last connection between Bai Wenying and him, and between him and the Jiang family.
Nan Yuanman raised her hand to support her chin, squeezing out a small patch of her chubby cheek, and snorted softly, "I won't call you that. Anyway, seeing how unwilling you are, I'll just tear it up."
Jiang Lixuan hung his head, unable to speak.
"Alright, time's up, give it back to me." Nan Yuanman carefully took the diary from Jiang Lixuan's hand, and Jiang Lixuan subconsciously used a bit of force to snatch it from her.
Nan Yuanman, afraid of damaging the diary, quickly let go of it. Jiang Lixuan also happened to let go of it at the same time, and the diary fell into the car with a thud.
With a crisp click, the old lock opened the locked diary with a whoosh.
Jiang Lixuan subconsciously looked down and saw a milky yellow sticky note that he recognized very well.
The sticky note had neat handwriting that read: "Today is the 66th day of your hand rehabilitation. Keep up the good work! I'll continue to support you."
Jiang Lixuan's pupils contracted slightly, and he reacted extremely by picking up the diary and flipping it over. The back was covered with even more sticky notes.
The sticky notes were filled with all sorts of encouraging words.
And... a diary entry from May 20th, 2037.
There were still tear stains on the diary paper, and a few lines of writing were on it:
What a thrilling thing happened today! Those awful bastards actually bullied my brother! Luckily, I arrived in time and prevented them from succeeding.
They said they wanted my brother's hands. Tsk, my brother is going to join the Xia Kingdom e-sports team in the future! Hands are so precious, how can he get injured!
Fortunately, I fought back fiercely... Well, I didn't succeed in flipping it more than a few times, but they said that I am the guy's sister, and as long as I exchange my hand for his, the guy's hand can be saved, and they will no longer target him.
Thankfully, they only severed my tendons; they didn't completely cripple my hand. I can still eat with chopsticks, though it hurts a little...
Hey bro, if you knew I protected you, would you be a little nicer to me? Would you call me "little sister"?
Jiang Lixuan's pupils trembled, and his hand holding the diary shook violently.
He clearly remembered what happened on May 20th, 2031.
What happened that day shattered his e-sports dream.
This also made him completely disgusted with Bai Wenying.
But what does all this diary entry mean?
What do you mean by... exchanging her hand for his?
Wasn't she afraid of those thugs and left him in the alley, causing his tendons to be severed?
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