My sister, whom I raised, has turned evil after faking her death for three years.

He said they should have arrived a week earlier.

After leaving the morgue that day, the first thing Jiang Mingyuan did was to have all the case files from that year retrieved and carefully sort out the evidence against Cui Jiayi and Wu Yue, handing it over to the police.

Then came Yin Wan's funeral, which was organized by the Jiang family, with Cui Ying personally selecting the flowers.

She stood in front of the mourning hall, looking at the portrait of the thin, gentle woman, unable to utter a single word.

Wu Yue knelt before the coffin from beginning to end without getting up, and no one even glanced at him. In the end, he was taken away by the police.

Then there's Cui Ying's health... On the night she learned that her daughter was still alive, she almost had another attack due to excessive excitement. Jiang Mingyuan had to suppress all his anxiety and give her a few days to process and accept it.

So when they were finally able to stand in front of this door, seven days had passed since that early morning when they heard the truth in the morgue.

When Su Qing heard the news of Yin Wan's suicide, the fingers holding the water glass paused for a moment.

The woman who needed all her strength to even get out of bed ended her life in this way.

She remained silent for a moment, saying nothing, but gently placed the water glass on the coffee table.

Jiang Yi sat at the far end of the sofa and whispered that she was completely stunned when she first found out about it... She and Xiao Ran had been good friends for so many years, and suddenly she was told that Xiao Ran was actually her cousin. It felt like the cake you love to eat at the dessert shop you go to every day, and suddenly someone tells you that it is actually your family's secret recipe.

She was shocked, but even happier, because it meant that she and Xiao Ran could get closer.

The system softly reported in Su Qing's mind: [Jiang Ran's heart rate, skin conductance, and micro-expression data indicate that she has an extremely high level of aversion to this topic, and is actively widening the psychological distance between them.]

[Analysis shows that Jiang Ran's aversion to Jiang Mingyuan and Cui Ying continues to rise, and her favorability towards Jiang Yi is also declining.]

Cui Ying sat on the sofa closest to Jiang Ran, her hands clasped on her knees, her knuckles turning slightly white from the pressure.

She looked at her daughter, the one who had been in her belly for ten months, weighed only six pounds at birth, and was stolen before she even had a chance to drink a drop of breast milk... who was now sitting less than two meters away from her.

She wanted to hug her, touch her hair, apologize to her, and tell her the name she had murmured over and over on every sleepless night of the past fifteen years.

But Jiang Ran's gaze was too calm, as calm as if she were looking at a stranger.

That calmness hurt her heart more than any anger.

Jiang Mingchuan was the first to speak.

He stood up and thanked Su Qing in an extremely solemn tone, and then apologized to Jiang Ran.

He said that what happened back then was due to the negligence of the Jiang family, which caused Jiang Ran to suffer so much harm at such a young age that she shouldn't have to endure.

  

When he said these words, his posture was not as straight as usual, and his voice was not as steady as usual.

Jiang Mingyuan stood up and apologized, Shen Ruoyun stood up and apologized, and finally even Cui Ying slowly got up, supporting herself on the sofa armrest. The angle of her bow was deeper than others, and the time she stayed was longer than others, as if she wanted to use this bow to make up for all the words that she couldn't say.

The gifts they brought have already filled one corner of the living room.

Jiang Mingyuan took out another bank card from his pocket and gently placed it in front of Su Qing.

He said he knew that Su Qing had taken care of Xiao Ran for so many years not because she knew Xiao Ran was a child of the Jiang family, but because she genuinely treated her as family.

He said the money was just a small token of his appreciation, his sincerest gratitude as a father to the young girl who had taken on the responsibility of raising them for so many years.

The bank card had barely touched the coffee table when it was picked up by a hand and tossed back into Jiang Mingyuan's arms.

When Jiang Ran withdrew her hand, she didn't even glance at the card. Her voice was cold and flat, devoid of any emotion, yet each word was clear: "I am my sister's younger sister, not a child of your Jiang family. Don't use this money to insult my sister's feelings for me."

The air in the living room seemed to freeze for a moment.

Jiang Mingyuan held the bank card that had been thrown back at him, his fingers trembling slightly, but he did not refute it. He simply slowly put the card back into his pocket.

Jiang Ran watched him accept the card, her tone still calm, but every word carried an undeniable certainty: "My sister appeared when I needed her most back then, and all these years she has never thought of getting anything from me. Now you think you've found me, and you presumptuously want to take me back. On what grounds?"

Jiang Mingyuan fell silent.

Cui Ying also fell silent.

Everyone fell silent.

Because they cannot refute it.

Before they came, they discussed for a long time what gifts to bring, what words to use, and how to express their gratitude and apologies. But in the end, they found that apart from gifts and money, they really had nothing to repay Su Qing for her efforts over the years.

She never called the Jiang family for help, nor did she ever ask anyone for compensation. She did all this simply because she wanted to.

Seeing the atmosphere fall into an awkward silence once again, Su Qing subconsciously tried to smooth things over.

She didn't want Xiao Ran to accept it immediately; she just wanted her to at least listen to the matter calmly and then consider it slowly.

But before she could finish speaking, Jiang Ran turned to look at her.

This time, her gaze was completely different from when she looked at the Jiang family. It wasn't indifference or rejection, but rather a kind of helpless doting, as if she were saying, "Sister, you're here again."

"Sister, you don't need to say anything more. Even if you say you don't want me as your sister anymore, I won't leave, because I know you won't be able to bear it."

"Even if my sister says that you only want me to return to the Jiang family for money, I won't believe it, because I know you want to disappoint me so that I can integrate into the Jiang family as soon as possible."

She paused, a faint smile curving her lips—a smile so subtle it held a knowing understanding that it revealed everything. "So, sister, no matter what you try to persuade me with, I won't listen. Just sit here quietly beside me, okay?"

Su Qing opened her mouth, then closed it again.

What was she trying to say?

Looking at the "sister, you don't need to make this up anymore" expression on her daughter Xiaoran's face, only one thought remained in her mind... So, can I really be like this?

The system whispered in her mind: [Host, your brainwaves show obvious signs of information overload. You are pondering why you have a sister who understands you so well, and whether you underestimated her level of understanding of you in your previous plans.]

Su Qing silently replied in her mind, "Can you shut up?" Then she obediently picked up the water glass on the coffee table and truly stopped talking.

Jiang Ran watched as her sister obediently picked up the water glass and stopped talking, and the corners of her mouth curled up a little higher.

Then she turned to look at the Jiang family, the smile still lingering on her lips, but her gaze had returned to that unfathomable depths.