Less than two minutes later, an urgent voice came through the phone, "Xinxin, Xinxin, is that you?"
Lu Jiaguang, although still searching for people, had already prepared for the worst. But he didn't expect his sister to suddenly come back; he was both excited and afraid, afraid that it would be a false alarm.
Lu Jiaxin's nose turned sour, and tears fell involuntarily as she sobbed, "Big brother, it's me, I've come back."
She should have been able to control her emotions, but it seemed to be an instinctual bodily reaction.
"Xinxin, where are you now?"
"I'm at home, I just called my dad too. Big brother, come quickly. My failing the college entrance exam and being kidnapped were all that woman's scheming, but my dad listens to that woman, and I can't fight her."
Lu Jiaguang felt a jolt in his heart upon hearing this. He had suspected it before, but had no evidence, "I'm on my way now, just stay at home and wait for me, don't go anywhere."
"Okay."
Then, Lu Jiaxin called her fifth uncle, Lu Jiajie, as well as Mrs. Lu's close friend Liao Xiangmei, making the call with two purposes in mind: one was to explain she hadn't run away from home but had wanted to go back to her native place to clear her mind; the second was to have everyone bear witness for her.
After making the calls, Lu Jiaxin unplugged the phone line and then said to Xue Mao, "I'm going to fetch some things from my room. If somebody outside asks you to open the door, do not open it without my permission."
"Okay."
Lu Jiaxin entered her original room, where everything was neatly arranged, but placed differently from her memory. She didn't pay attention to the rest, pulled back the mat and the quilt, and found a key from under the bed board.
This key was given to the original body by Mrs. Lu before she passed away. Grandma Lu had passed away early, and Mrs. Lu also grew up under her stepmother's antagonism. Worried that her daughter would also be troubled by her stepmother after her passing, she left a set of apartment keys for her daughter before she died. Lu Hongjun was planning to remarry and was only concerned about his new wife, neglecting his daughter's wellbeing, so this apartment was her daughter's escape route.
The key was light, but to Lu Jiaxin, it felt extremely heavy. Mrs. Lu had exhausted all her efforts for her daughter, only to have her worst fears realized; the original body died before reaching adulthood.
Having found the key, Lu Jiaxin went to look for the bankbook. In her memory, the bankbook was hidden inside a book in the lowest drawer of the desk. Unfortunately, after searching through all the books in the drawer, she found no bankbook; it didn't take much thought to realize that it had been taken. She soon discovered that not only the bankbook was gone, but also anything of value in the room had disappeared; even from a cabinet full of clothes and socks, only three pairs of worn-out socks remained.
The original body had been missing for just over a month, but the things in the room had been completely looted. If more time had passed, even the traces of her life would have been erased.
"Bang, bang, bang..."
The knocking on the door pulled Lu Jiaxin back from her thoughts, and she pocketed the key before going out.
Seeing her, Xue Mao said in the local dialect, "Sister Xin, let's open the door. If we don't, the people outside might break in."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the knocking outside stopped, and then a voice as familiar as any could be was heard, "Jiaxin, Jiaxin, please open the door, it's your Aunt Ding."
Aunt Xue was the kind of person who enjoyed watching a spectacle and didn't shy away from exaggerating it. She said with a sneer, "Ding Jing, Jiaxin just mentioned she would run away back to her hometown all by herself because of what you and Zhao Siyi did to her. Ding Jing, what on earth have you and your daughter done to make Jiaxin fail to even get into a junior college?"
Hearing this, Ding Jing felt a lift of concern but considering that her original self hadn't spoken before, she probably wouldn't speak now either. With that thought, she quickly calmed down, "Aunt Xue, please don't spread rumors. Jiaxin only did poorly on her college entrance exams because she sprained her ankle two days before the tests, which affected her performance. Everyone knows about this."
Aunt Xue unabashedly retorted, "I'm not making this up; Jiaxin said it herself. Aunt Zhao and the others were there; they heard it loud and clear."
Ding Jing naturally wouldn't admit to it, "It's all nonsense. Jiaxin's failure in the college entrance exam was due to her own carelessness in spraining her ankle and affecting her condition, which is unrelated to anyone else."
Originally, Lu Jiaxin had planned to wait for Mr. Lu and Lu Jiaguang to come back before opening the door, but now she changed her mind.
As she opened the door, she saw Ding Jing, one of the people her original self detested the most. Even though she knew how venomous this woman was, Lu Jiaxin had to admit that she indeed looked attractive, with her fair and delicate skin, seductive phoenix eyes, and a body-cinching date-red dress that outlined her slim waist. Almost forty years old, she looked no different from someone around thirty and exuded a womanly charm.
The moment Aunt Xue saw her, she immediately said, "Jiaxin, just now you claimed that your failure on the college entrance exam was the fault of Ding Jing and her daughter. Is that true, Jiaxin?"
Lu Jiaxin responded with a hum, "My failure on the college entrance exam, it was Zhao Siyi and Ding Jing who caused it."
Ding Jing couldn't maintain her composed demeanor any longer, "Jiaxin, I know you don't like me and Siyi, and you've suffered outside for over a month, but you can't slander me and Siyi just because you didn't get into college."
The original host cared about face and would not talk about the incident, but she was more than happy to spread the misdeeds of Zhao Siyi, "Zhao Siyi and Fan Yinuo were fondling each other in the alley. Out of shock and anger, I scolded her, and she pushed me, causing me to sprain my ankle..."
Fan Yinuo was the youngest son of Mrs. Lu's close friend Liao Xiangmei. The original host even took her as a godmother. The two had a child betrothal from a young age, but while Fan Yinuo only saw the original host as a sister, she genuinely considered him her future husband.
Seeing the man she loved, her betrothed, with Zhao Siyi, someone she detested, it's not hard to imagine how devastated the original host felt. Unfortunately, she was a scapegoat; even after the incident, she worried about affecting Fan Yinuo's reputation and kept it to herself, suffering in silence. She even attributed her sprained ankle to her own carelessness.
Now that Lu Jiaxin took over the body, she didn't have these concerns. Everyone must be responsible for their actions, including Fan Yinuo. If he dared to act, he had to face the consequences.
The juicy detail of Zhao Siyi being involved with Lu Jiaxin's fiancé left everyone breathless.
Ding Jing loudly interrupted her, "Jiaxin, Fan Yinuo is your godmother's son. By dragging him into your efforts to slander Siyi, how could you be so heartless?"
Lu Jiaxin laughed softly, "He and Zhao Siyi have been dating for a while now, meeting secretly often. If you investigate carefully, you'll find out whether I'm slandering them or not."
"Nowadays, we live in a new society that values freedom of love and marriage, and child betrothals truly are feudal dregs. However, since the engagement was arranged by our elders, one should break off the engagement first if unsatisfied instead of sneaking around with Zhao Siyi behind everyone's backs."
Her words won the approval of the crowd. You may disagree with a child betrothal, but you should break off the engagement first before dating someone else. People considered Fan Yinuo's actions to be sly, and Zhao Siyi's conduct was not only despicable but also morally corrupt, for she knew well she was involving herself with her future sister-in-law's fiancé.
Looking at the disgusted expressions on the people's faces, Lu Jiaxin felt a great sense of satisfaction. The original naive girl had thought she could avoid the vile mother and daughter by silently enduring a few years and getting into college. She hadn't expected the duo, cruel and calculating, had been scheming to erase her from this family all along.