Chapter 10: You Were the One Who Pushed Me Down the Stairs!

She walked in to find the grand hall glittering with gold and jade, the space filled with antiques—many of which she herself had collected years ago. Now, these two despicable people were brazenly displaying them in their home.

Lian Meng turned and asked the housekeeper, “Where is Fan Chi?”

“He’s on the second floor. I’ll go and call—”

“No need, I’ll go myself.” She hadn’t come to see them, after all, but to take a look at her daughter’s room.

As she reached the upstairs landing and was searching for the right door, she overheard voices in the nearby study. She paused outside, recognizing Fan Chi’s and Qu Wuyan’s voices—there seemed to be another, a girl who sounded like their daughter.

How strange. This was clearly her own home, but these wretches were all gathered in the study, whispering together, instead of sitting openly in the living room.

Rather than burst through the door, Lian Meng pressed herself to the frame, intent on uncovering whatever schemes they were plotting.

“Honey, you’d better find a Taoist priest or a fortune-teller for our house. I don’t think this place is clean,” Qu Wuyan’s voice was tinged with panic. “Ever since that little brat Lian Youyou jumped off the sixth floor yesterday and survived in such a bizarre way, I’ve had nothing but nightmares. Last night, I dreamt Lian Meng came to claim my life. I woke up drenched in cold sweat and couldn’t sleep a wink.”

Fan Chi sighed, “It’s not just you. I barely slept last night, either. The way Youyou looked at us yesterday… it was just like Lian Meng herself. She’s always resembled her mother, but yesterday, I really felt, for a moment, as if Lian Meng had returned.”

Fan Xiaoyun, their daughter, hesitated before speaking. “Dad, Mom, I know what happened to Lian Youyou is shocking, but you don’t need to be so scared. Lian Meng and Lian Youyou are two different people—there’s no need to connect them.”

“Xiaoyun, you weren’t there, you don’t understand. Seeing Lian Youyou standing there, blood everywhere, staring at your father and me—it was terrifying. Her eyes were like a hawk’s, sharp and as if she wanted to tear us apart,” Qu Wuyan complained bitterly. “Doesn’t that useless school know how busy I am with filming? Couldn’t they have called her grandparents to fetch her from the hospital instead?”

Grandparents… She meant Lian Meng’s own parents, didn’t she?

That’s right. Since coming back, she still hadn’t gone to see her mother and father. She wondered how they were now.

But she didn’t have the courage to face her parents, grown old. She didn’t know what identity she could use to face them.

Just then, Fan Xiaoyun spoke with a dismissive air, “Who said I wasn’t there? I was the one who arranged for someone to push Lian Youyou off.”

So it was this little wretch who killed her daughter! Like mother, like daughter!

Rage flared in Lian Meng’s chest, surging like a tidal wave, fiercer even than the hatred she’d borne Fan Chi and Qu Wuyan for murdering her. That Fan Xiaoyun had killed her own daughter—this was the greater torment!

Tears clouded her eyes; her whole body shook with sobs, agony screaming through her veins.

It was all her fault for being so useless, dying so early—not only unable to protect herself, but failing to shield her child. If she had lived, she would never have allowed her daughter to be bullied like this. Poor Youyou—how much suffering had she endured in the Fan household all these years?

“You did it? Are you insane?” Fan Chi leapt from his chair. “You little fool! Did you even consider the consequences? Now that Youyou’s survived, aren’t you afraid she’ll go to the police?”

“Don’t be so scared, Dad. I took every precaution,” Fan Xiaoyun replied, calm as a veteran criminal.

“At the time, she didn’t see who was behind her, and there are no cameras in that spot. As for the person I hired, I paid him a hefty sum to keep his mouth shut, and I have leverage over him too. So even if he’s caught, he won’t dare implicate me.”

Qu Wuyan, both angry and fearful, smacked Fan Xiaoyun’s back several times. “Silly child! Why didn’t you talk to us first? If that little brat had died, that would be one thing, but if you end up in prison, how are your father and I supposed to live?”

“It’s fine, really. Youyou was diagnosed with depression last year—there are medical records, you know that. Even if I hadn’t killed her, she would have ended up taking her own life sooner or later.”

“Such a drama queen, even getting herself depression…”

Bang!

A thunderous crash echoed from outside the room.

The guilty parties exchanged nervous glances.

“Who’s out there?”