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

Jiang Ran looked at Jiang Yi first. Jiang Yi felt a chill run down her spine from that look and subconsciously shrank back half an inch.

"Jiang Yi, I don't deny that we're good friends, but if you say anything more," Jiang Ran's voice was as calm as if she were stating tomorrow's weather, "then things might change."

Jiang Yi immediately covered her mouth with both hands, shook her head frantically, and shrank into the corner of the sofa. She didn't even speak, and her breathing became lighter.

Then Jiang Ran's gaze shifted to Jiang Ren.

Looking at his face, which bore a striking resemblance to Jiang Tianming's, and remembering that it was he who had stopped her and her sister at the door, the last vestiges of her patience vanished instantly.

"And you, if you ever show up at our door again, I won't mind keeping a dog there just to bite you."

Jiang Ren's lips twitched, and she subconsciously wanted to say something in her defense, but when she met Jiang Ran's cold eyes, she swallowed all her words.

Well, he's already being disliked by his own sister before they've even officially acknowledged each other. He's probably the most humiliated brother in the history of the Jiang family.

He lowered his head silently and said nothing more.

Jiang Ran shifted her gaze from Jiang Ren to Jiang Mingchuan and Shen Ruoyun.

She looked at the couple, her tone still calm, but her words were slightly more restrained than before, not because she felt they deserved more respect, but because they were, after all, Jiang Yi's parents.

"My sister saved Jiang Yi back then. Isn't that enough to make you stop bothering us?"

Jiang Mingchuan and Shen Ruoyun were both speechless. The couple looked at each other, speechless.

Jiang Mingchuan opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything and looked away.

Then Jiang Ran turned to Cui Ying.

She looked at the woman sitting on the sofa, her eyes red but desperately trying to hold back her tears. Looking at those eyes that were so similar to her own, she softened her tone a little, but that softening was just like replacing ice scalpels with ice water; it still had no warmth: "Ms. Cui, I don't know if you've made a mistake, but even if you haven't, I still want to say it again: I am no longer the child you lost back then."

  

Her voice was calm and clear, as if she were recounting a history unrelated to herself: "Your illness stems from the feeling that your child is gone, but now that you know she's still here, alive and well, shouldn't that be enough?"

After hearing this, Cui Ying stared blankly at Jiang Ran.

Her lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she just nodded slightly.

She knew what her daughter meant... Her heartache stemmed from her daughter's disappearance, and now that she knew her daughter was alive, she could finally let go.

It wasn't that their grudges were wiped clean, but rather that she was never included in Jiang Ran's "needs for reconciliation" list from the very beginning.

She was just a mother who had lost her child, and that child was now telling her, "You don't have to grieve for me anymore."

This was the greatest kindness Jiang Ran could offer her.

But for a mother, what could be a more cruel comfort than "your child doesn't need you"?

Finally, Jiang Ran turned her gaze to Jiang Mingyuan.

If she could barely maintain a thin layer of politeness towards others, her patience with the current head of the Jiang family had completely run out.

This man casually dismissed the taxi driver, as if her and her sister's time could be arranged at will, as if their plans could be interrupted at will, as if he believed that everything should proceed according to his schedule as long as he was there.

"Uncle Jiang," her voice suddenly brightened, but beneath that lightness lay something sharper than any of her previous words, "I know that as the head of the Jiang family, you may be used to acting decisively, but have you ever considered whether I want to see you? Whether I want to know about this matter?"

She tilted her head, a faint hint of mockery playing on her lips.

Jiang Mingyuan felt a pang of sympathy at being addressed that way.

His own daughter sat opposite him and addressed him as "Uncle Jiang" in the most polite tone.

He paused for a moment, his voice deep, but with a hint of stubbornness in his tone: "But this is something we have to face, isn't it?"

"We have to face it eventually?"

Jiang Ran repeated those four words, then smiled, a very light and faint smile, but without any warmth. "Then I can give you an answer now."

"I won't go to the Jiang family, and I don't want to have anything to do with them. Please stop bothering my sister and me, okay?"

Jiang Ran paused for a moment, her gaze slowly sweeping across Jiang Mingyuan's face as if she were examining a less-than-satisfactory product. "And please put aside your patriarchal attitude. It's not right to expect everything to go your way."

A crack finally appeared on Jiang Mingyuan's composed face.

He wasn't angry, but the feeling of being treated as a negotiating partner, an outsider, and a potential threat who needed to be warned by his own daughter was slowly eroding all his composure.

He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again, his voice filled with genuine earnestness: "We never intended to separate you and Miss Su. We wanted Miss Su to return to the Jiang family with you. You will still be her sister, and she will still be your older sister, but..."

"Just moving to a bigger place, and having a bunch of people around you?" Jiang Ran's smile turned completely cold, and her voice, when she interrupted him, was devoid of any warmth. "Are you only saying this because I won't agree?"

Jiang Mingyuan immediately denied it, saying that he was not just making excuses, but that his whole family had discussed it and that they knew how important Miss Su was to Xiao Ran, and that they would never do anything to separate them.

He even turned to Su Qing with a pleading look, hoping she could say something for him.

When Jiang Ran saw him turn his gaze to her sister, the coldness in her eyes finally became uncontrollable.

Her voice didn't rise an inch, but every word seemed to be carved from an ice cellar and placed before him, one by one: "Don't think of any wicked ideas, and don't resort to any petty tricks. If you dare to hurt my sister... no matter what form it takes, whether intentional or unintentional..."

Jiang Ran paused for a moment, her gaze fixed intently on Jiang Mingyuan's eyes, "I don't care about those trivial family ties."

Jiang Mingyuan was stunned.

He wasn't angry because he was threatened, but because his own daughter thought he would hurt the man who raised her, and that he needed to be threatened to keep his hands and feet in check.

She spoke of blood ties... the weight of that word was immense, but he could only discern the latter half; the first half, the "nonsense," was what she truly meant.

Jiang Mingyuan immediately said that such a thing would never happen, that they were not that kind of people, and that she should not overthink it.

Jiang Ran just gave a cold laugh.

The laughter was very soft, so soft it was as if it were directed at oneself, yet it carried the chilling weight of a dull knife, cutting into the nerves of everyone present: "Absolutely not? Then tell me, why has someone as despicable as Cui Jiayi been able to stay by your side for so many years? Why was Wu Yue able to gain your trust so easily and do such a thing right under your noses?"

Her gaze slowly moved from Jiang Mingyuan's face to Cui Ying's, then to Jiang Mingchuan and Shen Ruoyun, as if calling them out, "Does your Jiang family have some special ability to keep such dangerous people in the closest positions around them?"

This blow struck precisely where it hurt the most for all members of the Jiang family.

Jiang Mingyuan's lips moved several times, as if he wanted to say something in rebuttal, but he found that he couldn't say anything.

Because what Jiang Ran said was true. Cui Jiayi was Cui Ying's stepsister, and Wu Yue was the housekeeper he had trusted for twenty years. One of these two people had harmed her for fifteen years, and the other almost harmed her for even longer.

He had considered these questions before, but when his own daughter listed them out one by one and questioned him, he realized that the judgment he had been so proud of over the years was like a net full of holes, letting in the fish that shouldn't have been missed.

Su Qing's hand, holding the water glass, froze in mid-air. She leaned back on the sofa cushion, staring intently at her Xiao Ran.

She truly had no idea that her Xiao Ran had such a remarkable side.

Each word was sharper than the last, each layer deeper than the last, leaving the Jiang family, from the head of the household to all the elders, speechless.

She was initially worried that the Jiang family's attitude was too forceful and that Xiao Ran wouldn't be able to handle it.

It seems the Jiang family should worry about themselves first.

The system softly reported in her mind: [Jiang Ran maintained the initiative throughout the negotiations. Her arguments were logically clear and progressive, her rebuttals were timely, and her emotional control was excellent—she maintained sufficient rationality even under the most pointed questions and did not fall into an emotional argument.]

[This negotiation ability is extremely rare among your peers. For reference, your negotiation talent rating is D.]

Su Qing "..."

No, is this some kind of belittling of me?

Su Qing silently replied in her mind, "Can you please shut up when I'm admiring my own sister?" The system wisely fell silent.

Su Qing continued holding her water glass, looking at Jiang Ran with an expression that said she was impressed by her younger sister's coolness.