Translator: Tuiwen Editor: Tuiwen
“What? Am I hearing correctly? She’s the one who saved you?” Lin Qing could hardly believe her ears.
Zhu Xiangxiang went on to explain, “At that time, no one came to my rescue. Only Ming Jing took action and jumped off the yacht to save me. After she got me safely back to the yacht, her body was washed away by the waves. I still have no idea if she’s okay. If anything were to happen to her, I will never be able to forgive myself for the rest of my life.”
Ling Qing didn’t expect the truth to turn out this way. It seemed that she had wrongfully accused Ming Jing.
Ling Qing was feeling a little embarrassed after taking out her anger on Ming Jing. “She just got back. Don’t worry, she’s doing fine.”
Zhu Xiangxiang breathed out a huge sigh of relief. “That’s really great, Mom. Ming Jing saved my life. I’ll have to treat her even better from now on.”
Lin Qing lovingly rubbed her head and said in a gentle voice, “You’re such a kind person.”
“Though Ming Jing might seem cold on the outside, on the inside, she is very warm. She’s a nun. She has shown me that true compassion lies from within.”
Lin Qing took that for granted. For some reason or another, that daughter of hers and her were never very close.
“Mom, how are things with Shaodan?”
“Only the best lawyers for your brother. Hopefully, this will help him get through this.”
“No matter how skilled the lawyer is, the thing is, can he beat Li Qingzhuo? He’s the best lawyer out there. He never lost a case.”
“There’s nothing else we can do. We have already done everything possible to ensure your brother comes through this unscathed. It’s his fault for daring to provoke someone he should have left well enough alone.”
“We should try and see if Madam Jiang can pull some strings. She has some standing in Jiang City. Shaodan didn’t go overboard this time. If Madam Jiang spoke on his behalf, Shaodan would be saved.”
“But Madam Jiang won’t even see us. Even if she does, she has no family ties. What can she do to help us?”
“I heard from somewhere that Madam has an affinity for flowers, especially the orchid. So it is without a doubt that she will make it to the flower show at Swan Lake this weekend. We have to pander to her interests. Even if the fox impersonates the tiger, these people will still be having their guard up. So we need to act accordingly.”
Lin Qing nodded her head and said in a doting manner, “You have such good ideas, girl.”
After talking with Zhu Xiangxiang, Lin Qing made her way out of the room. After thinking things over, she walked over and started knocking on Ming Jing’s door.
After some time had passed, Ming Jing finally opened the door. Lin Qing, who was growing impatient, could not help but ask, “What in the world are you doing? What took you so long to answer the door?”
Ming Jing looked at her with a quiet look on her face. “I was sleeping.”
Lin Qing saw that she looked very pale, so she lowered her voice to say, “Xiangxiang told me that you saved her life. I misunderstood you all this time. I’d like to apologize for the way I was acting. You go ahead and rest.” With that, she turned on her heels and left.
Every time she found herself face-to-face with her daughter, she always felt like there was not enough air in the room and that she was suffocating.
Ming Jing closed the door and headed back to bed to go back to sleep. She had used a lot of her energy last night. Today was the start of the weekend, so she could sleep for two whole days consecutively.
Ever since Ming Jing trained as a Buddhist, it was rare that she would get nightmares at night. But today, for some reason, her dreams were very strange and fraught. Mingled into her dreamworld were recollections of the past that gave her an overwhelming sense that she was drowning under these overwhelming memories.
When she woke up, it was already growing dark outside. The light of the setting sun shone on the white gauze curtain, creating a splashy shadow on the floor.
Ming Jing stayed in bed, staring at the ceiling still in a daze.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock. More time passed by as the sky outside slowly darkened.
“Miss, have you woken up yet?” The sound of Nanny Zhou’s voice came through the door from the outside.
“I just made dinner. You should get out of bed and eat something.”
“You can come in.” A cold voice came through the closed door.
An inexplicable chill ran up and down Nanny Zhou’s spine. Pushing the door open, she walked in with the tray of food in her hands.
The lights were turned off and the room was pitch black. A black shadow rested in a sitting position on the bed. The wind blew aside the gauze curtain, giving off an inexplicably strange atmosphere.
Turning on the lights, Nanny Zhou carried the tray over to the coffee table. On the tray, there was a bowl of porridge, two plates of veterinarian dishes, and a steamed bun.
The food was light and simple. This was the kind of meal Ming Jing would usually eat.
“Miss, you’ve slept through the entire day. Do you feel any better?”
Ming Jing rubbed her temples tiredly. “I’m feeling better. Sorry for the trouble, Nanny Zhou.”
“It’s no trouble, no trouble at all. I’m supposed to do all these things.” Nanny Zhou headed to the bathroom to bring out the dirty clothes and prepare to wash them.
Ming Jing got out of bed and right away started downing the porridge. At that very moment, the ringtone on her phone chimed.
Ming Jing was startled and turned to look at the bedside table where her phone rested.
On the day she arrived back at the Zhu family, Zhu Xiangxiang had given her a new phone, the latest model for mobile devices.
Her only contacts just so happened to be Zhu Xiangxiang and Tao Xingxing.
Ming Jing usually left her phone at home and didn’t bring it to school. She had no clue when it ran out of battery. When Nanny Zhou was tidying up her room, she saw that the phone had run out of battery and charged it for her.
Previously, Gao Chang had pestered her to connect on WeChat. That was not something Ming Jing could be bothered about, so she gave out her phone number instead.
Ming Jing made her way over to her phone and picked it up. When she checked the screen, there was a friend request from WeChat.
The profile picture showed a selfie of Gao Chang. In it, he appeared like his usual self: arrogant and narcissistic.
After Ming Jing accepted his friend request, the other party immediately called her on video chat.
“I’ve waited all day for you to accept my friend request and you just accepted it just now.” Having said this, his tone sounded a little dejected.
Ming Jing said in a light voice, “I just woke up.”
From how he appeared on the video call, Gao Chang was most likely in a bar. There was a lot of noise in the background and a lot of people were talking over each other. Lights flashed behind Gao Chang without stopping. He looked like a ghoul from Hell, his face glowing a horrendous green.
“Have you eaten yet?”
“Damn… I’ve never seen Brother Chang use such a gentle tone to speak to someone. Who is she?”
Sitting across from Gao Chang, were a few youths who were whispering in excited voices with each other. One of the youths was about to move his head closer to check his phone, but Gao Chang stared him down and immediately backed off into a corner where he could have more privacy.
“I’m eating right now.”
The two chatted indifferently like this for a while. After some time has passed, Ming Jing wanted to shower, so she told Gao Chang she was hanging up.
At this time, the thing he had sent someone to investigate was ready for his eyes.
It turned out that Ming Jing was the real daughter of the Zhu family. Grand Master Heartless of the Lonemoon Nunnery on the Snowy Peaks had raised her since she was an infant. She had converted to Buddhism and devoted her entire life to her religion. If the Zhu family hadn’t sent a private detective to look for her, she would still be training in the mountains till this day.
Gao Chang thought about this for a whole day, but he still could not wrap his mind around this. He was extremely shocked.
The report did not have much detailed information. Just a few broad strokes that painted a picture of the simple life of a young girl of sixteen years. After her return, she did not act out nor was she arrogant. Instead, she kept a low profile and did not boast about her new identity. She did not create a splash in school, choosing to downplay her status. She even went out of her way to save Zhu Xiangxiang, her enemy.
After Gao Chang finished looking through the document, he had complicated feelings about what he had just read. One of the youths next to him asked, “Brother Chang, are you reading about sister-in-law?”
Gao Chang looked over at him. “Stop with your nonsense.”
The few of them gave each other looks. It appeared that Brother Chang gave this girl special treatment.
There was a scuffle not far from where they were sitting. It seemed that some people had gotten into a fight. Many incidents like this occurred in bars. Gao Chang was drinking while thinking things over, so he was not paying any attention to the disturbance over there.
A youth donning tattoos all over his body rushed over. “Huanhuan is in trouble.”
A few astonished youths asked in shock, “Tell us, what happened?”
Only Gao Chang remained in his seat. He did not even flinch.
“Some rich second generation is tormenting her right now. The other party is very full of himself. He threw money at Huanhuan, but Huanhuan wouldn’t do what he requested. After yelling at her, that rich second generation actually got someone to humiliate her in front of so many other people.”
“Damn, he went too far this time.”
“There’s such a person acting this way in Jiang City?”
“Acting out on our very own territory? We can’t let him get away with this. Brothers, let’s get going.”
The youths rolled up their sleeves getting ready to fight. But Gao Chang stopped them. “Hold on,” he said..