Xiang Wai sat there frozen, her mind reeling as Song Daiyu’s words settled like venom in her veins. It felt as though the floor had shifted beneath her, and for a brief moment, she couldn’t breathe, her lungs refusing to cooperate. Her grandmother did what? Aren’t grandmother usually very protective of their grandchildren? She was not unfamiliar with her grandma’s eccentric and mean personality. It could be said that she had no good expectation of her too.

But even then, right now, her brain struggled to process the weight of what she had just heard. The air around them felt charged with a suffocating tension, her breathing growing shallow as rage started to simmer beneath her skin.

The old lady who was always partial betrayed them. Xiang Wai didn’t expect love from her or that she’d protect them, but betrayal like this? How could this old witch actually betray an innocent baby, by helping the very people who had stolen her away? This was a betrayal far beyond what she could have ever imagined.

A cold fury began to rise within her, surging like a tidal wave threatening to consume everything in its path. Her vision blurred at the edges as the intensity of her anger grew, red-hot and unrelenting.

Song Daiyu took in all of her reactions and tried to minimize her own presence. She wanted to actually turn into a small person so she could slip away from here. But the hardest part was already done, she couldn’t be a coward now and run away.

“They…” Her voice came out low, barely more than a whisper, yet it was filled with so much venom that Song Daiyu involuntarily leaned back in her chair almost toppling it back. “They helped the people who kidnapped Raelle?”

Song Daiyu nodded, her face pale, eyes wide with the gravity of what she’d just revealed. “I overheard them talking. Our grandma… she said it with no regret. I don’t why she did it. For money, maybe. I—I’m not sure. But I swear it’s true.”

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Xiang Wai’s heart pounded in her chest, each beat reverberating through her like a war drum. Her body trembled with the sheer force of her rage, a storm brewing inside her that she couldn’t contain. The fact that Song Daiyu’s voice was shaking didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore except for the overwhelming need for justice… For vengeance. Her anger was no longer just a flicker but a roaring inferno that consumed her entire being.

“Those hypocrites,” she spat out, her voice ice-cold, venom lacing every word. “They dared to decide for Raelle’s life? They dared to think they knew what was best when they were the ones destroying everything?!” Her voice cracked slightly, not with weakness but with the sheer force of her fury.

Xiang Wai’s eyes were blazing now, colder than the harshest winter night, yet burning with the fire of a thousand storms. She could barely contain the urge to destroy something, to unleash this fury on the people who had dared to hurt her family. She had always disliked her grandparents for their favoritism, and their cold, calculated treatment toward her, and now this revelation was the final straw that shattered any semblance of restraint. seaʀᴄh thё nôᴠel Fire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

A part of her wanted to storm into their house, confront them, tear down the lies they had lived under all these years. Another part of her wanted something darker, something that involved more than just words… something far more violent.

“They took her away,” she said, her voice trembling, but not with fear—this was the tremor of restrained violence. “They took my sister, my Raelle, and they think they can get away with it? Like we’re still the same weak children who’d bow to their every word? I had regretted it so many times that I couldn’t grow up with my sister. I even despised myself for thinking that the source of the destruction of my family was Raelle’s birth. But now… Now, I’m told that the real culprit was someone else. I could have grown up with my sister. I wouldn’t have missed so many years of her life and felt so alienated and distant.”

Song Daiyu flinched at the lethal edge in Xiang Wai’s tone. It was like a promise of vengeance, a storm brewing behind her eyes that would not be satisfied until it had washed everything in its path clean of its sins. Song Daiyu was really scared of seeing this version of Xiang Wai. She already knew how bad her anger but this was far beyond the anger she had seen ever before. This was fury that was ready to raze everything to the ground.

“Wai… I know you’re angry, but you can’t…”

“Can’t what?” Xiang Wai snapped, her voice cutting like a blade through the air. “Can’t make them suffer the way Raelle suffered? Can’t make them pay for every second of pain they caused? After telling me this, you are expecting me to be merciful?”

Song Daiyu shook her head like a rattle, “No way. I have no such thoughts. What I want to say is that you can’t take this anger out on me. If I wanted you to be merciful, I’d choose to not even tell you anything. Anyway, it has been over two decades and your sister is also doing well in life. There was no point in digging the old graves but I couldn’t live with myself. And I couldn’t live with the fact that my Aunt Xin’ai did so much for grandma and yet, she was the one who had to lose everything because of grandma’s plotting. You know how much I love Aunt Xin’ai, you think I don’t feel for her? I don’t care what you do to grandma, I have no interest in knowing because whatever you do won’t change things. Aunt Xin’ai would still be the biggest victim in this whole thing. She is the one who lost the most.”

Xiang Wai froze for a second and her emotions slowly fell down a degree. She had been thinking about herself and Raelle but she really didn’t think about her mother just now. Indeed, the biggest victim was her own mother who knew nothing about what that old wench did and she even kept getting manipulated by her, all for the sake of a single word of praise or compliment which she never got.

She didn’t know if she should say that her mother was honest or simply a fool. The latter seemed rather appropriate. In fact, it was better to say that her mother was a knowing fool. She purposely became a fool because by doing so, she could be at peace with her family.

Song Xin’ai couldn’t earn the respect of the Song family or get the love of the family that she craved or needed. And just when she was finally close to making her own perfect family, her Song family messed that up for her and took away all her happiness.

“I’ll make them regret ever thinking they could play gods with our lives,” Xiang Wai vowed, her eyes narrowing, her rage no longer hidden but an open, violent force. “If they thought Raelle was a threat, they have no idea what I’m capable of now.”

Song Daiyu watched her, unsure whether to fear for the grandparents or feel the thrill of Xiang Wai’s righteous anger. Xiang Wai was like a tempest, uncontainable, and right now, that storm had found a purpose.

She hesitated before asking, “Are you gonna tell Auntie about this?”

Xiang Wai pursed her lips and didn’t answer as she hadn’t decided yet. She didn’t know if she should tell her mother about this and break all her wishful fantasies or… Well, it seemed it was impossible to keep those fantasies because after she made a move, the Song family would be trembling and begging for mercy. The noise could be loud enough for her mother to hear, right?

She looked at Song Daiyu and said, “What are you gonna do now?”

“Huh?”

“You are not expecting that I’ll let the whole Song family go after this, are you?”

Song Daiyu shook her head, “No, I am pretty sure you have so such intention.”

“Exactly. I don’t. So, if you don’t want to be affected, leave. Either move to another city or move abroad. Wherever you can go, just leave and stay away from the mess of the Song family. I can give you my word that the Xiang family won’t implicate you in anything.”

Song Daiyu pursed her lips and looked hesitant.

“What?” inquired Xiang Wai. “Do you want me to let your parents go too?”

Song Daiyu shook her head, “I know you won’t do anything illegal. Since you are gonna use law, then that means if my parents have lived a clean life, they will obviously be able to recover from the storm and if their hands aren’t clean then… Sigh. I can’t do anything about it. They chose their own paths but I can’t let them choose my path for me. So, I’ll take my chances.”