The younger sister mistakenly identified her brother when visiting relatives and was kissed by the c

On the morning of the third day.

As the morning light shone into the courtyard, before Qiao Xinxin and Qiao Mingzhu could even wake up, a loud "bang" suddenly came from downstairs!

Immediately following was a hysterical scream.

"How could it be gone?! I clearly put it in the drawer and locked it tightly!" It was Qin Fangfang's sharp, distorted voice.

"Bang!"

The door to the second-floor room was kicked open violently.

Qiao Xinxin opened the door and saw Qiao Shouguo standing at the top of the stairs, his face ashen and so gloomy it seemed like water could drip from it, like an enraged lion, roaring at the second floor:

"Get down here, all of you! Something terrible has happened at home!"

Qiao Mingzhu, who was in the next room, came out looking completely bewildered.

Seeing her usually stern father in such a furious state, she shrank back in fear, not daring to provoke him, and obediently followed him downstairs.

Qiao Xinxin naturally guessed the reason for Qiao Shouguo's anger.

She remained calm and followed behind Qiao Mingzhu with her head down.

The two sat down on the sofa in the living room, one after the other.

Qiao Shouguo's eyes were bloodshot, his hands were gripping the coffee table tightly, and his chest was heaving violently.

Qin Fangfang slumped to the side, her eyes red and swollen, looking as if the sky had fallen.

"I'm asking you," Qiao Shouguo gritted his teeth, his icy gaze scraping across his two daughters' faces like knives, "which of you went into my and your mother's room yesterday?"

Both of them shook their heads at the same time.

"You won't tell, huh? Fine! Very well!"

Qiao Shouguo, enraged, laughed coldly and slammed his hand on the table, making the teacup clang loudly: "Two thousand yuan is missing from the house! Two thousand yuan!! Nothing else of value is missing, and the lock wasn't broken! I'd like to know, besides someone in the house with a key, who has such extraordinary abilities to break in and steal so easily?!"

"What?!"

Qiao Mingzhu was genuinely surprised this time. She covered her mouth, her seemingly innocent eyes widening. "Dad, the money was stolen? How could this happen!"

At this point, Qiao Mingzhu paused slightly, then turned her head and gave Qiao Xinxin, who was sitting silently in the corner, a meaningful look.

"Your mother and I have turned the house upside down!" Qiao Shouguo's voice was as cold as ice. "I reasonably suspect that there's a thief in the house!"

"I've already called the police! The officers will be here soon! I hope that the person who took the money will come forward and confess before the police arrive! For the sake of our family, I might be lenient with them!"

When Qiao Shouguo said this, his sharp and cold gaze was almost fixed on Qiao Xinxin!

The meaning in his eyes was self-evident—he was practically pointing his finger at Qiao Xinxin and calling her a thief!

Feeling Qiao Shouguo's gaze, Qiao Mingzhu was secretly overjoyed, but on the surface she pretended to be thinking of something terrible, muttering in panic, "This...it can't be her, can it?"

Qin Fangfang immediately grabbed Qiao Mingzhu's hand and hurriedly asked, "Mingzhu, do you know something?"

"Dad, Mom, could you have put it in the wrong place?" Qiao Mingzhu bit her lower lip, her voice soft and gentle like a frightened rabbit, yet every word was piercing. "After all... in the past ten years or so, our family has never had anything like this go missing. It can't be... it can't be that our sister just came back from the countryside and the house was burgled, can it?"

She turned her head and looked at Qiao Xinxin with an innocent expression: "Sister, did you leave work early yesterday? Did you... go to Mom and Dad's room?"

Upon hearing this, the air in the living room instantly plummeted to freezing point.

The look in Qiao Shouguo and Qin Fangfang's eyes as they looked at Qiao Xinxin instantly filled with disbelief and extreme disgust.

"Mingzhu, what do you mean?"

Qiao Xinxin looked up in disbelief, her clear almond-shaped eyes instantly welling up with tears, and her eyes reddened in a flash.

She bit her pale lips hard, her voice trembling as if she had suffered a great injustice: "Qiao Mingzhu, what do you mean by that? Do you think I stole Mom and Dad's money?!"

"I...I didn't mean that..." Qiao Mingzhu shrank into Qin Fangfang's arms in fright, explaining incoherently with red eyes, "Sister, don't be angry, I just...I was just stating the facts. After all, you had a hard life in the countryside before, and you'd never seen so much money before, so it's understandable that you were temporarily blinded by greed...Besides, it's true that this kind of thing only happened after you came back..."

"That's enough!"

Qiao Shouguo roared in frustration, rudely interrupting Qiao Mingzhu.

He turned his head, pointed at Qiao Xinxin's nose, his eyes filled with undisguised disappointment and disdain: "Stop crying! With such a big thing happening at home, can't you just calm down?! Mingzhu's statement was just a reasonable guess, what are you so guilty about?!"

These words were clearly directed at Qiao Xinxin!

In Qiao Shouguo's heart, Qiao Mingzhu was a well-educated and sensible young lady whom he and his wife had carefully nurtured for twenty years. She would never do anything like stealing.

But Qiao Xinxin, who was raised in the countryside, is different!

People from the countryside are short-sighted and have been poor for so long that it's perfectly normal for them to be tempted by two thousand yuan!

Upon seeing the parents' blatant favoritism and suspicion, Qiao Xinxin sneered inwardly.

You want to compete in acting skills? Fine!

"Wow--!"

Qiao Xinxin suddenly covered her face with her hands, her shoulders heaving violently, and burst into tears in front of the family of three!

The cries were filled with despair and grievance; the soft, sweet voice was now shattered by the pain of being wronged: "Why are you slandering me out of thin air! Why doesn't anyone believe me?!"

She suddenly raised her head, her eyes red and swollen, tears streaming down her face as she stared intently at Qiao Shouguo: "Yes! I grew up in the countryside, I've never had a good life! But I have hands and feet, I have my own job! I earn thirty yuan a month cleanly, what would I do with the family's money?!"

"You're saying I stole money? That's ridiculous! I'm just an outsider who came back halfway through life. I don't even know all the rooms in this building. How would I know you had money hidden in your bedroom? I didn't even know you had two thousand yuan in cash before this! I didn't even glance at which cabinet or drawer you kept your money in. How could I steal it?"

As Qiao Xinxin cried, she tearfully accused her, "Just because I didn't grow up around you, just because Qiao Mingzhu said 'this never happened before,' you didn't even ask a single question before you pinned the blame on your own daughter! In your eyes, am I just a thief?!"

This barrage of accusations, barbed and veiled, struck at Qiao Shouguo's very core.