Chapter 22 Chapter 22

After Jiang Jinghui came back, Jiang Jingchun also asked Li who her parents were. After all, she couldn't have popped out of a stone, so she must have biological parents.

They had mistaken her for someone else before, but how did they bring her back?

Is it that her parents don't want her anymore? So what?

Jiang Jingchun finally couldn't help but ask Li.

However, when asked once, Li only said that when they brought her back, she was alone in the temple with no one to take care of her, so she was mistaken for someone else later. The implication was that she didn't know her past life. Jiang Jingchun wanted to continue asking, but Li looked like she didn't want to talk about the past. Jiang Jingchun was afraid that she would be sad again when she thought about the past, so she didn't ask again.

Perhaps it was because blood is thicker than water, these days Li no longer looked at Jiang Jinghui coldly as he did on the first day he saw her. He became much warmer and, because he felt sorry for what she had gone through over the years, he thought of ways to buy her things, such as clothes, and made many sets for her for spring, summer, autumn and winter.

From the window of Jiang Jingchun's yard, one can just see things being moved into Jiang Jinghui's house one by one.

Hua Yun saw Jiang Jingchun sitting by the window and looking outside. She had a dull expression on her face and didn't know what she was thinking. She went forward and wanted to close the window to stop her from looking outside, but Jiang Jingchun stopped her and said, "Why are you closing it?"

Hua Yun said: "Miss, why are you looking at these? It doesn't hurt to look at them."

Jiang Jingchun laughed and said, "Why are you upset? It all belongs to her."

Besides, the better Jiang Jinghui is, the better she will feel.

Her eyes fell on the maids running back and forth outside the window. She suddenly turned around and asked Hua Yun, "Do you know how she has been living in that family these years?"

Hua Yun has always loved gossip, and when she has nothing to do, she likes to go out and chat with others.

She must have heard some things about Jiang Jinghui's past from other people.

Hua Yun didn't expect Jiang Jingchun to ask this, but she told Jiang Jingchun the truth.

She said, "I heard that she was kidnapped outside the capital, and then bought by a family to be a child bride. The family was quite wealthy in the local area, but I heard that she suffered a lot. After all, they raised her as a daughter-in-law... so they didn't treat her very well. I heard from them that when the master found her, she was still washing clothes for the son of that family..."

She was clearly still in her prime years, but she became a mother at such an early age.

But after experiencing so much injustice, Jiang Jinghui doesn't seem to have any resentment towards anyone, and she is still so kind...

If it were her, she thought she wouldn't be able to do that.

Jiang Jingchun sniffed and walked to the table. She opened her dressing table and took out a pair of jade butterfly and eight-treasure hairpins from the bottom layer. These hairpins were a gift from her grandmother on her birthday this year. She liked them very much, to the point that she was reluctant to wear them even once. Since she received them, she has kept them at the bottom of her dressing table.

She carefully wrapped the hairpin in a handkerchief and handed it to Hua Yun. She said, "Go to your sister's yard and tell her... this is a meeting gift from my sister."

Jiang Jingchun has never said anything to her. Jiang Jinghui is a very nice person, but she was the one who was always shy and didn't dare to face her.

But this is not a solution.

She couldn't just say nothing.

Hua Yun had never thought that Jiang Jingchun would be willing to give away this hairpin. She was so happy for such a long time when she first received this gift. She kept saying that she liked it and that she felt good just by looking at it in the box. Hua Yun had never seen her wear it.

Hua Yun sighed and said, "I remember that the young lady liked this hairpin very much."

I like it very much. No one dislikes good things.

But no matter how much you like it, it is not yours.

She said, "Send it."

After hearing this, Hua Yun didn't say anything more. She took the hairpin and ran to Jiang Jinghui's yard.

Not long after, she replied, "She accepted it and seemed to like it very much."

Jiang Jingchun couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing this, "As long as you like it."

*

After lunch that day, Li took Jiang Jinghui to the old lady's Rongde Hall.

After the old lady learned that Jiang Jinghui was found, she didn't seem to have much reaction. Although she didn't seem very happy, she still sent her a lot of things so that people would not think that she disliked her granddaughter who was found.

However, Jiang Nan felt that his mother liked Jiang Jingchun more than his granddaughter Jiang Jinghui. He wanted Jiang Jinghui to show her face in front of the old lady more often, maybe the old lady would like her more. So, he found some excuses and asked Li to take Jiang Jinghui to show her face in front of the old lady.

The old lady had the habit of taking a nap after lunch, but they obviously didn't know that, and their arrival startled her while she was taking a nap.

The old lady was awakened but didn't say anything. When she heard that it was Li and Jiang Jinghui who came, she got up and went outside.

She walked over to the chair and sat down. She still looked a little tired because she had just woken up from a nap.

She closed her eyes and let the old lady beside her massage her temples, then she asked, "What are you doing here today?"

Li explained her purpose, "I came here today to trouble you, mother, if you can lend me Madam Liu."

After saying this, she glanced at Jiang Jinghui again, sighed and said, "Jinghui just came back, and she doesn't understand some of the rules in the mansion. I thought of asking Aunt Liu to teach her. Otherwise, if there is any situation in the future, she will not be able to deal with it, and I am afraid that people will say that she has no rules."

The old lady laughed when she heard this and said, "Why didn't you think of this when you were teaching Jingchun before?"

Li's expression froze, and for a moment he didn't know how to answer.

It was Jiang Jinghui who spoke up to help. She said, "It's not mother's idea. It's my own idea. I want to learn these rules, but I don't dare to bother grandmother. I heard that my sister also took lessons from Aunt Liu before and the effect was quite good. That's why I begged mother to come."

She lowered her brows and looked extremely obedient, which made Li feel uncomfortable.

I think she must have suffered a lot in that family over the years, living on the backs of others and having to rely on their opinions.

Li said, "Mother found a nanny for Jingchun, but now she won't teach her anyway, so why can't she teach Jinghui?"

She said this as if the old lady was being unfair.

The old lady was speechless for a moment, then she closed her eyes and said, "It's not that I don't want to, but you said last time that you wanted to take Jingchun back home, and I saw that Madam Liu would have nothing to do here, so I had someone send her back."

After she finished speaking, she continued, "Jinghui is a polite child. I can see that she is much more sensible than her sister and is not someone who does not know the rules. Has the family in her past taught her the rules?"

The old lady was also old enough and knew a lot. After watching Jiang Jinghui a few times, she could tell that she had learned a lot in the past.

It wasn't that she was suspicious, but a family that would buy a child bride must be rude and unruly. Why would a normal family buy a daughter-in-law? In short, the big families in the capital looked down on this kind of business.

But since he is so arrogant, will he still teach his child bride some manners?

Jiang Jinghui is really too perfect, sensible and obedient, and she follows the rules and knows etiquette...

How not to make people suspicious.

But the old lady would not jump to conclusions easily. After all, she had been away for so many years and had suffered a lot. Now she was just testing the waters and expressing her doubts.

Jiang Jinghui had already prepared a response. She said, "The family in the past taught me these things. They thought that their son would become a scholar and a Jinshi in the future, so they wanted me to be disciplined. So they taught me these things when I was young. However, I was afraid that the rules in small places would be different from those in the capital, so I wanted to learn them again. Since my grandmother said that Madam Liu had passed away, it doesn't matter."

It was still strange, but the old lady didn't ask any more questions. If she did, it would be like she was deliberately making things difficult for her. She looked at Jiang Jinghui for a while, but couldn't tell from her face what other emotions she had. She said, "It doesn't matter. Since you want to learn and are willing to make progress, I'll just ask her to come back."

Jiang Jinghui was surprised when she heard this and quickly stood up and said, "Thank you, grandma."

Mrs. Li said, "We are all at home, no need to be so polite."

"Your mother is right. We are all at home. There is no need to do this." The old lady said, "I have something to say to your mother. You should go back first."

Li didn't understand what the old lady wanted to say, but after hearing her say that, she let Jiang Jinghui go back first.

After she left, Li asked, "Mother, do you have anything else to say to me?"

"Can you remember what happened back then?"

Li rarely said anything, but the old lady had already gotten her answer from the silence.

"It looks like he has remembered it."

Li said, "I remember a little bit."

She remembered the time when Jiang Jinghui got lost, and the time when she mistook Jiang Jingchun for Jiang Jinghui in the temple.

Did she see Jiang Jinghui's birthmark on Jiang Jingchun's hand that year?

She didn't see it.

Deep down, she always knew that she was not actually her child.

But those things were just buried deep in her heart, and she pretended not to know. She was very nice to Jiang Jingchun, as if she were really her own child.

When Jiang Jingchun was first brought back by them, she was very noisy, refused to eat, refused to talk to others, cried every day, and cried every day, her throat and eyes were almost broken. In fact, when she was three years old, she already had some memories, and she also remembered that her mother was not like Li at all.

She kept crying for her mother, and she knew that they were not her biological parents.

But later, as time went by, she gradually stopped making noise and began to call Li's mother.

Jiang Jingchun's memories before the age of three were also wiped out.

In her memory, there was only one mother who was extremely kind to her.

Some past events cannot be brought up. Those past events that are unbearable to recall should be completely buried deep in memory.

Li never wanted to recall how they brought Jiang Jingchun home from the temple.

She said, "I only remember a few things, but it's been so long that I can't remember many things."

The old lady looked at her and said, "You can't remember, or you don't want to remember?"

Her words sounded a bit aggressive, and Li made her dare not raise her head.

The old lady didn't really want to force her. She said, "We in the Jiang family are sorry for her. She is a good child. Please don't go too far."

She could only blame herself for letting them make the wrong decision.

The old lady knew that people are selfish, and Li only saw her as Jiang Jinghui's support from the bottom of her heart. Now that Jiang Jinghui is back, her heart naturally turns back.

The old lady said: "If you don't want to raise her anymore, let her live with me..."

Before she could finish her words, Li interrupted her and said, "I don't mean to abandon her. It's good that Jinghui is back, but she is also my child. I have raised her for more than ten years, and I have long regarded her as my own child."

The old lady asked, "She has lived in this house for so many years, so you told her to move?"

The conversation had come to this point, and the old lady didn't want to continue talking to her.

This mess is hard to untangle.

She slowly stood up and walked to the inner room, leaving only one sentence to Li, "Since you said you have treated her as your own child, then you must not be partial to one over the other."

*

Li left Rongde Hall and was absent-minded on the way back to Chongming Hall. After listening to the old lady's words, she thought about a lot of things. Now she has two daughters, one biological and one not. No matter what she does, it is easy to create a situation of "favoring one and neglecting the other", just like the room incident. Although Jiang Jingchun moved out without saying anything in the end, how could she not feel uncomfortable in her heart?

She thought so much that she had a headache. After returning home, she fell on the imperial concubine couch to rest. She fell asleep in a daze. When she opened her eyes, she found that it was already evening.

The setting sun melted gold and fell into the yard. The summer was scorching hot. When she woke up from a long sleep, a thin layer of sweat appeared on her forehead.

She seemed to hear the sound of quarreling outside, and frowned and asked, "What's going on outside? Why is it so noisy?"

The maid replied, "The eldest master and the second young lady had a quarrel..."

The second young lady is Jiang Jingchun.

Li had a headache, and she didn't know what the two people were quarreling about. It's not like they haven't quarreled before, but never as fiercely as today.

She asked, "Why are you arguing?"

The maid replied, "It seems that the eldest master got angry because the second young lady gave the eldest young lady a hairpin."

Li's brows furrowed even more. She stood up and went out. Before she had walked far, she heard Jiang Runchu's voice.

She heard him say, "Who wants your stuff? If she likes it, we will buy it ourselves, okay? Don't bring so many things to annoy others."

After Jiang Jingchun gave Jiang Jinghui the hairpin today, Jiang Jinghui thought about it and still felt that the thing was too valuable, so after Jiang Runchu got off work, she took the thing to him and asked him to help return it to Jiang Jingchun.

She said to Jiang Runchu: "It is very good that my sister gave me this gift, but I dare not accept it. I see that she is so noble... This hairpin suits her, not me. I am not worthy of such a good thing. Please help me return it to her."

These words had a different meaning when they fell into Jiang Runchu's ears. The more he listened, the more pitiful he felt she was. Then he thought again, why did Jiang Jingchun give this hairpin to Jiang Jinghui? Could it be that she wanted to show off that she had this excellent item given by her grandmother, to demonstrate her extraordinary status in this family?

In short, in his eyes, Jiang Jingchun is not a generous and kind person, and he must be hostile to the real daughter who suddenly returned.

Therefore, any of her actions seemed to have ulterior motives in his eyes.

Jiang Runchu took the hairpin and went straight to Jiang Jingchun to give her a lecture, which made Jiang Jingchun extremely angry.

Is it okay for her to just give him a hairpin? She gave him her most treasured and favorite thing, so why did she have to be questioned by him in the end?

She felt that Jiang Runchu was unreasonable. She said, "I don't owe you anything. Why do you keep complaining to me? What's wrong with me giving her a hairpin? What's the problem? You are so dirty in your heart. Don't think that everyone is the same as you."

Jiang Runchu said coldly, "I told her I don't want it. Don't you understand? If she wants it in the future, I will buy her the best. If you want to give it to her, go ahead and give away all the jewelry in your room. Who are you trying to annoy by giving away this one?"

Jiang Jingchun was so angry that her face turned pale. Li, who was standing by, had probably understood what was going on and hurried over to try to stop the two from arguing any further.

She said, "Okay, okay, no matter how small the matter is, you still have to quarrel. Jiang Runchu, that's enough. Your sister is kind-hearted. Why do you always use the intrigues in the officialdom on her? Can you calm down a little?"

She turned to Jiang Jingchun and said, "He is like this, you know that..."

Jiang Jingchun's eyes were red, and she interrupted her, "I know I'm sorry for her, but I don't want to do this. I just want to give her my favorite thing. I really don't know what to do."

Her almond-shaped eyes were filled with misty water, and tears were about to roll out of her eye sockets. Jiang Jingchun was trying so hard to hold them back that her whole body was shaking. Finally, she couldn't hold back the tears and let them fall. This time she lost her momentum and could not argue anymore. She wiped her eyes hastily and turned away.

Li looked at her stubborn and pitiful back and finally couldn't bear it anymore and slapped Jiang Runchu in the face.

Her strength was quite strong. Jiang Runchu didn't expect Li to attack him suddenly. He was hit on the head and just stood there in a daze.