"It's not me, believe me!" Jian Tong stared stubbornly at the person inside the car. The heavy rain poured down, wetting the car windows and blurring the view. Through the obscured window, a stern face inside the car could vaguely be seen. Jian Tong, shivering, stood outside in the rain, separated by the car window and shouted loudly, "Shen Xiujin! At least listen to me!"

Suddenly, the car door opened. Before Jian Tong could rejoice, a strong force yanked her violently into the car, and she fell onto his body. His crisp, dry white shirt was instantly soaked in a large area.

"Shen Xiujin, those thugs who hurt Wei Ming... they weren't set up by me..." Jian Tong had barely spoken when a long, powerful finger mercilessly grasped her chin, and his unique deep and magnetic voice came from above her: "Do you like me that much?"

His voice cool and distant, carried a hint of the faint scent of tobacco — his scent.

"What?" Jian Tong was a bit stunned. Her affection for him was known to everyone; why would he suddenly ask such a question now?

The man held Jian Tong's chin while his other arm, long and powerful, reached over to her. His fingertips gently touched her wet and cold cheek, pelted by the rain. Jian Tong was drowned in those tender eyes like water, lost, as if she could already hear the man asking her next, "Are you cold?"

The man suddenly exuded an icy aura, his voice cold, "Jian Tong, do you like me that much? So much that you wouldn't hesitate to harm Wei Ming?"

A chill surged from the bottom of her heart, quickly spreading to every limb. Jian Tong instantly woke up from her daze, a bitter smile involuntarily appearing on her lips… She thought to herself, how could she receive gentleness from this man? It turned out what she mistook for tenderness was nothing more than a devil's smile.

"I didn't mean to kill Wei Ming..." She wanted to explain to herself.

"Yes, you didn't mean to kill Wei Ming. You just paid a few gangsters to rape Wei Ming." The man's eyes gradually showed anger, and without giving Jian Tong a chance to explain, he stabbed with his big hand, Tear Jian Tong's clothes to pieces.

"Ahh~!"

With a scream, Jian Tong was mercilessly pushed out of the car, awkwardly falling into the rain. The man's cold voice was particularly striking against the sound of the rain:

"Jian Tong, Miss Jian, however you treated Wei Ming, I will treat you the same. How does it feel to be barely clothed?"

Whoosh!

Jian Tong abruptly lifted her head, disbelieving as she looked toward the inside of the car door. The man sat inside the vehicle, looking down at her with a glance, and took out a handkerchief, leisurely wiping his fingers. "Miss Jian, I am very tired now. Please leave."

"Shen Xiujin! Listen to me! I really…"

"If Miss Jian wishes me to listen, it's not impossible." The man indifferently lifted his eyelids, giving Jian Tong a glance: "If Miss Jian is willing to kneel in front of the Shen family's estate for a whole night, perhaps, if I am in a good mood, I might be willing to give Miss Jian ten minutes of my time."

The car door abruptly shut, and a handkerchief was tossed out from inside, drifting down to land in front of Jian Tong, soon becoming soaked by the rain.

Jian Tong looked down, picking up the handkerchief from the watery ground, clutching it tightly in her palm.

The car drove into the Shen family estate, and the wrought iron gates of the Shen household mercilessly closed in front of her.

Amidst the rain, Jian Tong's face was pale. She stood there for a good while, then suddenly looked up, walked to the gates of the Shen family estate, and tightly pressed her lips together. With a "snap," her knees hit the ground.

She knelt!

Not for atonement!

Because Xia Weiming was her friend, Jian Tong's friend! A friend had passed away, and she ought to kneel in respect. Not because everyone believed she had caused Xia Weiming's death!

She knelt!

She also knelt in hope that the man would give her ten minutes, to listen to her side of the story!

Her clothes were torn and tattered, barely covering key areas. She held her body with her hands, yet her waist remained straight—her pride unwavering, her spirit unbroken even in kneeling! She was Jian Tong of the Shanghai Bund, with her dignity and self-respect intact!

She stubbornly knelt, seeking just a chance to explain. She wouldn't admit to things she hadn't done!

But, would she really get that chance?

Could she really make things clear?

And truly, would anyone believe her?

The rain kept pouring down, heavier and heavier, never ceasing from beginning to end.

A night passed.

In the downpour, Jian Tong remained kneeling outside the Shen family estate.

Her clothes were completely soaked by the rain, and she had been kneeling there all night.

Dawn finally arrived, and the lifeless estate finally showed signs of activity. An elderly butler with silver hair, holding an old-fashioned black umbrella, walked from the estate courtyard.

The rusted iron gates, undisturbed through the night, creaked open on either side, creating an opening. Jian Tong finally moved, lifting her drooping head and showing a wan smile to the old butler standing in the middle of the gate.

"Miss Jian, Mr. Shen has asked you to leave this place," said the elderly butler, his hair meticulously combed, not a strand out of place even in the rain, as precise as the manicured lawns and gardens of the Shen estate. He tossed a piece of clothing to Jian Tong.

Jian extended her hands, swollen from the night's rain, and shakily put on the garment. She parted her pale, bloodless lips, her voice hoarse but resolute: "I need to see him."

Without lifting his eyelids, the butler relayed the estate owner's exact words with unflinching precision: "Mr. Shen said that Miss Jian's presence pollutes the environment of the estate. He would like you not to trouble his sight any longer."

Since the incident, Jian Tong had not shown a hint of weakness, but the pretense of strength she had been maintaining was now too difficult to uphold. Her shoulders trembled, betraying her wounded heart.

Jian closed her eyes, her face wet with rain, making it impossible to tell whether the moisture at the corners of her eyes was rain or tears. The old butler looked at her expressionlessly. Jian opened her eyes again, lifting her head to address the butler: "Butler Xia, no matter what you think in your heart, I did not bribe those thugs to ruin Xia Weiming's reputation. Regardless, I cannot bear your hatred without complaint."

Despite her exhaustion, Jian Tong spoke clearly and distinctly, enunciating each word... She was a woman willing to bow her head for the moment, yet filled with unyielding pride.

The butler finally showed a reaction beyond indifference; his grey eyebrows knitted together in a frown, his gaze on Jian Tong full of loathing, "Weiming is my daughter, she has been well-behaved and sensible since she was a child. She never set foot in chaotic and dirty places like bars and nightclubs, yet she found herself in such disreputable places frequented by all sorts of riffraff, where she was insulted by a group of thugs to death.

Miss Jian, we've checked her communications. Before the incident, she made a call to you, and she sent you a message, which read: 'I've arrived at 'Night Colors,' where are you, Xiao Tong?'

The butler glared at Jian Tong with a venomous look. "Miss Jian, you did not kill cats or dogs, you killed a living person! The person is already dead, and here you are still making excuses! Everyone knows that Miss Jian is infatuated with Mr. Shen, but Mr. Shen only has eyes for my daughter Weiming. He is extremely disgusted by your relentless pursuit, and it is clear that you were jealous of Weiming, and since you couldn't win Mr. Shen's affection, you wanted to tarnish Weiming's reputation. The malice of Miss Jian is truly distressing!"

Jian Tong was speechless. Xia Weiming was the butler's daughter and the beloved of Shen Xiujin, and she, Jian Tong, was just a woman pining for Shen Xiujin unrequitedly. Now that Xia Weiming had died, Jian Tong was not only the secondary character but a malicious one at that.

"Miss Jian, please leave," the butler said. "Oh yes, Mr. Shen has a message for you."

Jian Tong looked up sharply at the butler.

"Mr. Shen said, 'Why wasn't it you who died?'"

Jian Tong's body, kneeling on the ground, began to shake uncontrollably as a severe pain struck her heart.

The butler turned away, his withered lips curling into a rigid arc, making his stern face appear cold and cruel.

Weiming died because of Jian Tong, and he was not pleased; he despised Jian Tong's malice.

Jian Tong braced her body, numb with cold, and staggered to her feet. Just as she stood up, her numb legs gave way, and she plopped back down onto the cold asphalt with a self-deprecating laugh... Why wasn't it you who died?

Indeed, it sounded like something that man would say. Jian Tong forced a smile uglier than crying: "Oh, Weiming, with your death, I have become an object of universal scorn."

In the second-floor bedroom of the Shen family mansion, the man had a tall, sculptural figure with broad shoulders and narrow hips. He wore a black robe casually draped over his body, standing barefoot—the tall, sensual figure still in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, indifferently watching the figure in the rain outside the estate.

"Mr. Shen, I have delivered your message verbatim to Miss Jian," the butler reported after dispatching Jian Tong, now quietly standing at the entrance to the master's bedroom.

Shen Xiuqin swirled the wine in his glass, and upon hearing the butler's report, he indifferently withdrew his gaze from Jian Tong. His thin lips issued a series of cold commands: "Inform the Jian family that if they want Jian Tong, then there will be no Jian family. If they want the Jian family, then from now on, as far as they're concerned, Jian Tong does not exist."

"yes."

"Second, notify S University. S University does not have Jian Tong's file. Inform the first high school student that Jian Tong was expelled due to promiscuity and fighting during school. Her highest education level is junior high school."

 "yes."

"The last point," Shen Xiujin said coolly: "Send her to prison."

After hearing this, the old housekeeper suddenly raised his head and was stunned: "Mr. Shen?"

"Killing for life, bribing others, deliberately murdering people. Let her go to jail and eat prison food for three years. What? Butler Xia thinks I did something wrong?" The three-year time limit was set by Shen Xiujin for Jian Tong. Now it is The evidence was insufficient, but Shen Xiujin decided angrily.

"No, Mr. Shen has done the right thing… Thank you, Mr. Shen, sob sob sob," the old butler, with tears streaming down his face, began to cry: "If it weren't for you, Mr. Shen, the wrongs that Jian Tong did to Wei Ming would never have been punished. As a member of the Jian family, I was powerless against Jian Tong. Thank you, Mr. Shen, thank you. Sob sob sob~"

Shen Xiuqin turned around to stand in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the figure disappearing around the corner on the freshly oiled road below, a shadow looming in his eyes. His slender fingers tightened around the glass, and he tilted his head back, the crimson liquid disappearing into his stomach without a drop wasted.

"Housekeeper Xia, my intervening with Jian Tong was not because Wei Ming is your daughter, but because Wei Ming is the woman I have set my sights on," Shen Xiuqin said slowly.

Fatigued, Jian Tong returned to the Jian family residence.

She was no longer able to step through its doors. The old butler, who had served the Jian family all his life, had delivered Shen Xiuqin's very words, and Jian Tong was tactfully "asked" to leave the Jian family. From start to finish, she hadn't even caught a glimpse of her biological parents.

Was she that fearful of Shen Xiuqin? Jian Tong pulled at the corner of her mouth... She withdrew her gaze; that iron gate delineated her relationship with the Jian family, severing her from everything that once belonged to her.

Jian Tong couldn't quite grasp what she was feeling at the moment. As she turned around, two men in police uniforms stopped her: "Miss Jian, considering you paid to incite others to tarnish Miss Xia Wei Ming's reputation, leading to the accidental death of Miss Xia Wei Ming, please come with us now."

Before being sent to prison, Jian Tong had a final encounter with Shen Xiuqin, the man with a commanding presence, standing by the window.

Shaking her head firmly, Jian Tong declared, "I never harmed Wei Ming."

Shen Xiuqin, with his tall and imposing frame, walked unhurriedly to where Jian Tong stood. Jian Tong told herself not to be afraid. She was innocent; she had committed no crime.

She lifted her delicate face, trying to look fearless, struggling to keep her composure, but her trembling shoulders betrayed her nervousness… All this did not escape the sharp eyes watching her.

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