“Why did you come to the Ji home? Who allowed you to step through the Ji family’s door?” Ji Hongwen’s voice was cold: “Scram!”
Ji Nuan never expected to see such a scene. Her gaze was fixed on Mr. Xiao when she heard her father speak. She abruptly turned to Ji Hongwen: “Dad…”
“Since you’ve already guessed your relationship with the Xiao family, why do you keep avoiding us? You met with trouble, yet you won’t ask for my help. Right now, the Ji family is in a state of chaos; his daughter has made repeated attempts to scheme against you. Why are you still standing here?” When Mr. Xiao heard Ji Nuan call Ji Hongwen ‘Dad,’ his expression turned heavy. “Nuan Nuan, I already understand your circumstance. Return to the Xiao family with me. In the future, this Ji Mengran won’t be able to do anything against you!”
Hearing these words, Ji Mengran stared at Ji Nuan in disbelief: “What Xiao family…”
Ji Nuan did not speak. Her gaze remained fixed on Ji Hongwen, whose complexion was pale. She did not spare Mr. Xiao an extra glance.
Mr. Xiao glanced at Ji Mengran, who was on the ground, with cold eyes. “It’s simple. Earlier, the so-called ‘rubbish dump’ you spoke of was the Xiao family. I am Ji Nuan’s birth father. Even without your Ji family, there is no way she would suffer from the lack of food or clothes like you claimed. If Qing Lin’s temper had been softer, and if she had been willing to tell me about her pregnancy, things would have never escalated to such a state. In fact, you would never have existed in this world, because she would never have married Ji Hongwen!”
Ji Hongwen abruptly reached up and gripped his chest, swaying a little. Ji Nuan was frightened. She rushed forward to support him: “Dad!”
Ji Mengran completely did not notice Ji Hongwen’s state. When she learnt that Ji Nuan was actually the Ling Xiao Group’s Chairman’s daughter, she stiffened on the spot as though she had been struck by lightning.
“No, there’s no way… there’s no way… how could she be your daughter? She’s an illegitimate daughter with no background to speak of… I’m sure of this. My mom was raped back then! Ji Nuan is the daughter of a rapist! She can’t be your daughter!”
Mr. Xiao’s expression instantly turned ugly. He glanced at Ji Mengran coldly before turning toward Ji Nuan, who remained standing by Ji Hongwen’s side.
“Raped? Was this how you described me?” Mr. Xiao knitted his brows coldly. “Ji Hongwen, I haven’t even settled the issue of you stealing my wife away behind my back. You actually dared to fill the children’s minds with these lies?”
“Isn’t it true?” Ji Hongwen pushed aside Ji Nuan’s supporting arm and took a heavy breath with some difficulty: “You went back on your words, leaving her alone in America and marrying the fiance you had in the country. By the time you remembered her, your son was already born. She waited for you for an entire year in America, and what did she receive in the end?”
Ji Hongwen smiled coldly. “You can say that you were forced into a dead end, you can also say that it was the pressure from your family. But at the end of the day, you were still a married man. You had your own wife and your own children, yet you tried to lock her up when she decided to cut off all ties with you. You owned her, tortured her, and were brutal enough to lock her up in the basement of your villa for three whole months. When she finally escaped, she was already pregnant with your child. If I hadn’t taken her away, I’m afraid she would have been tortured to death before she could even give birth. Not only did you force her, you assaulted her too!”
Ji Nuan immediately stared at Mr. Xiao in disbelief.
Upon receiving Ji Nuan’s startled gaze, Mr. Xiao’s expression immediately stiffened. He furrowed his brows to say. “At that time, Qing Lin had a home she could not return to. There was nowhere for her to go. I was afraid that she would take her own life if she left. I made her stay in the villa, but I never locked her in the basement. I admit that during that time, I forcefully made her stay, but if I had known that she was pregnant, I would definitely have taken good care of the mother and daughter. I would have gotten a divorce and married her, bringing her into the Xiao family openly!”
“Even if it wasn’t a basement, didn’t you still hide her away so that your entire family was clueless? She had no intention of disrupting your marriage, yet you insisted on giving her an identity that she was ashamed of. Your relationship with her was ruined by your own hands. No matter how passionately you once loved her, those feelings cannot be compared to the hurt you left her. In the end, she couldn’t even understand if she loved or hated you. If she didn’t love you, she would never have given birth to Ji Nuan. But if she didn’t hate you, she would never have brought the child to marry me. If she didn’t love you, she wouldn’t have been gripping the necklace you gave her even on her deathbed. But if there hadn’t been any hatred, she wouldn’t have stopped me from informing you that she was on her last breath!” Ji Hongwen stared at him coldly. “The one with the name Xiao, back when we were studying in America, we competed fairly. At the time, I lost to you with no regrets and stepped away willingly because I trusted that you would give Qing Lin a good future. But what were the consequences of that? In the end, you ruined her whole life!”
When Mr. Xiao heard that Ji Nuan’s mother was unwilling to inform him even when she was on her last breath, his expression darkened. Ji Nuan watched the man who was known as the Ling Xiao Group’s God and saw that his eyes were reddening.
She did not understand his love for her mother, nor did she know of the romantic story they shared when they were in America.
But in the end, he married another woman and had a son. He changed his love for her into possession and ruined her mother’s life with his selfishness and refusal to let go.
It was no wonder Mo Jingshen said that if she met Mr. Xiao, perhaps she would be unhappy.
Now that she finally understood the circumstances behind her birth, she was really upset.
Knowing that she had a powerful father did not bring her any joy. It is precisely because her father is powerful, that he had the ability to lock her mother away and the guts to do as he pleased with her.
It hadn’t been easy for her mother to rely on her own ability to escape from that remote and desolate place. In the end, her wings had been clipped alive by Xiao Zhenjun.
“Before Qing Lin ran away with her child, I had already prepared the divorce contract. From the beginning, the reason I married Ah Ye’s mother was due to the pressure from our families. I never had any feelings for her. She also never loved me. We were only abiding by the rules of the wealthy families and accepting a marriage alliance. We had promised to divorce after three years. Had Qing Lin waited a little longer, she would be my wife now; my legal wife…” Mr. Xiao looked toward Ji Nuan. “Nuan Nuan, don’t look at me with such a gaze. If I had known of your existence, I would have immediately come to bring you home with me. Your mother’s character is too strong. She wanted to cut off all ties with me just because of my marriage. If I hadn’t kept her with me using such a method, she would have completely disappeared from my life. That is why I had no choice but to bring her home with me… My only mistake was not knowing she would escape with a child… I never knew that in the past twenty years, I had a daughter who was outside on her own…”