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

Qiao Mingzhu felt her body burning with scorn, disgust, and mockery from the surrounding neighbors. She hated Qiao Xinxin to the core; if looks could kill, she would have rushed up and torn Qiao Xinxin's incessantly chattering mouth apart!

But with so many eyes watching her intently, she didn't dare to make a move.

She knew all too well how formidable these aunties in the compound were. If she dared to act arrogantly again, they could drown her with their spittle!

Her mind raced, Qiao Mingzhu bit her lower lip hard, enduring the piercing gazes of the crowd, and steeled herself to step forward. With a thud, she knelt down beside Qiao Xinxin and grabbed her hand.

"Sister Xin Xin, I'm so sorry... Waaah, it's all my fault!"

Qiao Mingzhu lowered herself to an extremely humble position, tears streaming down her face as she pleaded, almost abandoning all dignity. "I was just confused for a moment and made a mistake... Whether you forgive me or not is fine, but family scandals shouldn't be aired in public, sister! Please come inside with me, okay? We can talk it out privately as a family, please..."

Her tearful appearance was incredibly pitiful. But from an angle unseen by others, her eyes, fixed on Qiao Xinxin, held a venomous hatred that seemed to overflow like poison.

However, Qiao Xinxin didn't even give her a second glance.

She ignored Qiao Mingzhu's attempts to pull her away, instead plopping down on the ground and sobbing even harder, looking every bit the pitiful little girl who had suffered so much injustice. She didn't say a word, just kept shedding tears, her eyes and nose turning red, her shoulders heaving, making the soft-hearted aunties and grandmothers around her feel a pang of heartache.

"Oh dear, this dear daughter has suffered for twenty years, and now she has to come back and endure this humiliation. It's truly a tragedy!"

Hearing the increasingly harsh accusations outside, Qiao Shouguo and Qin Fangfang, who were standing on the steps, could no longer stay.

The elderly couple felt dizzy and their vision blurred. This unspeakable, shameful secret of their family had been completely exposed by this loose-tongued wild girl! They wished they could just faint and die, at least then they could close their ears and not hear these hurtful, backbiting words!

With outsiders watching the Qiao family make a fool of themselves, this wild girl showed no restraint whatsoever. Instead of trying to cover it up at home, she was making a fool of herself in public!

The two were anxious, angry, ashamed, and annoyed, feeling a burning sensation on their faces as if they had been slapped by hundreds of people in turn.

"That's enough!"

Qiao Shouguo finally couldn't take it anymore. He roared and, together with Qin Fangfang, impatiently rushed forward, grabbing Qiao Xinxin's arms on either side and dragging her into the house like a prisoner.

"Stop crying! Isn't the house already a mess?! Come inside with us!" Qin Fangfang hissed through gritted teeth, pinching Qiao Xinxin's arm so hard it left bruises.

"I won't go in! I won't take your place in this marriage! Let me go!"

How could Qiao Xinxin possibly give in obediently? She kicked wildly at the ground, desperately trying to fall backward, crying out in a shrill protest, "Dad! Mom! Please! I really don't want to marry in my sister's place! Please let me go! It's a living hell—!"

She cried so pitifully, her voice sharp and helpless, that anyone with eyes could see she was being cruelly forced by her own parents and was in a state of despair with no way out.

Finally, someone in the crowd couldn't stand it anymore.

"What era are we living in?! This is the new China, where freedom of marriage is valued! Where is this feudal dregs of forced marriage still?!"

In the backyard, retired cadre Grandpa Liu, usually the most righteous and indignant, was so angry he leaned on his cane, turned to his wife, and whispered, "Quick! Go to the neighborhood committee! Call the police! These Qiao family members have lost their minds! How dare they do such illegal things as arranged marriages and driving someone to death in our compound! They've completely disgraced our compound!"

Qiao Shouguo vaguely heard the words "call the police," and his heart suddenly panicked, his scalp tingling with fear!

But now he was caught in a dilemma, so he could only grit his teeth and, together with his wife and son, use all his strength to drag Qiao Xinxin back to their empty house, which had been moved so much that even the echoes trembled, despite the pointing fingers and cursing of the neighbors.

"Clang!"

The door was kicked shut by Qiao Shouguo, blocking the view from the outside, but what the Qiao family was about to face was an even fiercer storm...

"Bang--!"

Qiao Shouguo kicked the heavy wooden door shut with a deafening bang, completely blocking the prying eyes of those outside.

Having been watched like a monkey show for so long for free, the Qiao family members had long harbored a bellyful of resentment.

As soon as the door closed, Qin Fangfang and Qiao Shouguo could no longer pretend. Almost simultaneously, they took drastic measures, shoving Qiao Xinxin hard into the cold mud.

"Ouch!" Qiao Xinxin fell to the ground, her palm brushing against the floor, immediately turning red.

"Qiao Xinxin, have you lost your mind?!"

A far cry from her usual dignified and elegant image as a military officer's wife, Qin Fangfang's hair was disheveled, her eyes wide and bulging. Pointing at Qiao Xinxin's nose, she launched into a tirade: "You dare to broadcast such shameless and disgraceful things? Do you want to ruin the entire Qiao family before you're satisfied?! I carried you for ten months, and what did I do to give birth to such a shameless thing? If I had known you were such a troublemaker and a scourge, I would have rather let you starve to death outside than bring you back to the city!"

Qiao Shouguo was so angry that his chest heaved violently. His stern and serious face was so gloomy that it looked like it could drip water. The way he looked at Qiao Xinxin was as if he wanted to strangle his own daughter on the spot.

"You can't write two 'Qiao' characters with one stroke! Do you even understand what it means to be all in the same boat, sharing both glory and ruin?!" Qiao Shouguo pointed at her through gritted teeth. "What good do you think it will do to spread the scandal between Mingzhu and your brother, to expose everything about the family? Outsiders will only look down on you too! Qiao Xinxin, your mother was right. If she had known you were like this, you wouldn't have even been allowed to step foot in the Qiao family's door!"

Hearing her biological parents' extremely cold-blooded words, Qiao Xinxin sat on the ground, covered her face with her hands, wiped away her tears, and burst into tears.

"Can't you write two 'Qiao' characters in one stroke? Ha... Now you're talking to me about being family?"