Since Director Jiang had come all the way to Minjiang, Old Master Feng had Jiang Li convince her to take a comprehensive health check-up.
Director Li never liked a check-up, but Jiang Li’s cute persuasion won her over, and she was unable to say no to her request.
The report of the check-up came up in no time. According to the result, Director Jiang was healthy overall, but there were many minor problems that needed to be addressed.
So, Old Master Feng introduced her to a traditional Chinese medicine doctor who devised a corresponding dietary therapy plan for her.
Although the director didn’t like the hospital, she didn’t reject the traditional Chinese medicine doctor. During the conversation with the doctor, she put on her reading glasses and took notes of the doctor’s suggestions in her notebook.
When Director Jiang was undergoing the health check-up, the children she brought naturally couldn’t sit still, especially the lively Jiang Xiaodong. After becoming familiar with Tong Yi, he kept pestering him to take them to the movie studio to see martial arts experts perform stunts.
Jiang Li noticed that Tong Yi showed remarkable patience when dealing with the children. As long as their requests were not entirely unreasonable, he wouldn’t refuse them.
There was a movie studio on the northern outskirts of Minjiang City that had gained popularity in recent years. When Tong Yi heard that they wanted to go there, he readily agreed.
Naturally, Jiang Li also wanted to go. She had initially considered inviting Jiang Tang to join, but Jiang Tang flatly refused, saying that she planned to visit various universities in Minjiang City to have a reference for her future college choices.
Jiang Li thought that Jiang Tang probably didn’t want to face Tong Yi, so she didn’t insist.
Due to the large number of children and the fact that both Tong Yi and Jiang Li were still teenagers themselves, Old Master Feng arranged for a chauffeur to drive a van to take everyone there, considering it would be more convenient that way.
Surprisingly, when the group arrived at the movie studio, some people mistook Tong Yi and Jiang Li for celebrities and rushed over to ask for autographs. Jiang Li helplessly declined, saying, “You’re wrong. I’m not an actress.”
But the other person didn’t believe her at all and retorted, “It’s easy to distinguish between stars and ordinary people. Even if you’re not famous now, you’ll definitely be in the future. Just sign one for me, please!”
Tong Yi suppressed a smile, took the notebook handed to him, and signed in bold handwriting.
Jiang Li tilted her head and saw the words “Tong Nian” he signed, which left her feeling speechless.
Seeing that the person wanted to continue pestering them, Jiang Li decided to play along. She took the pen and wrote “Feng Xiaoqi” in the notebook.
The person looked at Jiang Li with a puzzled expression, “Feng Xiaoqi?”
Jiang Li nodded earnestly, “Yes, this name is a bit difficult to pronounce. My agent is considering giving me a new one.”
The little ones crowding next to Jiang Li all covered their mouths and suppressed their laughter. Although they were young, they could tell that Sister Jiang Li was definitely teasing the person who asked for her autograph.
To their surprise, the person actually believed Jiang Li’s nonsense, “No need to change it! I think this name is great; it easily leaves a deep impression on people.”
After sending away the autograph seeker, Tong Yi couldn’t help but reach out and gently tap Jiang Li’s head, “If Third Master Feng finds out that you’re using his name to deceive people outside, he’ll definitely scold you.”
Jiang Li looked at Tong Yi with a puzzled expression, “How could Uncle be so cruel as to scold me?”
Tong Yi: …
Oh, he forgot. Although Third Master Feng might be strict, he seems to dote on Jiang Xiao Li quite a bit.
That’s actually pretty good. When he goes abroad, with Third Master Feng’s protection, Jiang Xiao Li won’t be bullied by others.
The group walked around, stopping here and there, and happened to encounter a few film productions. When the children saw the scenes of wire stunts from a distance, they realized that those skilled martial artists flying across rooftops were all fake. Their spirits dampened, feeling deceived.
After walking around, everyone was a bit thirsty. While Tong Yi went to buy water, Jiang Li stayed behind to take care of the group of children. She was checking a message from her grandfather on her phone when a girl in a sailor uniform suddenly rushed towards her and bumped into her.
When the girl looked up, Jiang Li immediately recognized her as Jiang Ruo. Even with a mask and makeup, she was still easily identifiable.
Jiang Ruo obviously didn’t expect to encounter Jiang Li here, let alone colliding with her. “I’m sorry,” she said in a very soft voice.
Jiang Li only nodded slightly in response, showing little reaction.
Jiang Ruo hesitated for a few seconds, mustered her courage, and looked at Jiang Li as she quietly said, “I’m sorry for what happened before.”
Jiang Li frowned, “Which thing are you referring to?”
Jiang Li’s response made Jiang Ruo feel extremely embarrassed. After hesitating for a while, she spoke again, “Before… I took over your identity… I…”
Jiang Li shook her head, “If you’re talking about being mistakenly switched at birth, that’s not something we can decide, no need to apologize. If it’s about intentionally instigating classmates against me after I transferred schools, there’s no need to apologize either, because I can’t forgive you.”
“I didn’t,” Jiang Ruo immediately retorted, “I didn’t instigate classmates against you. I didn’t know about what my brother did to you before, but… it’s true that my brother did it because of me, so I still want to apologize to you.”
Jiang Li looked at her with a cold smile, “Since you believe you did nothing wrong, then there’s no need to apologize. As for Jiang Zhou, every wrong has its origin, and there’s no need for you to apologize on his behalf.”
Jiang Ruo: …
From their first meeting, Jiang Li was always like this — carrying herself with a sense of rationality and superiority.
At that time, the thing Jiang Ruo was most worried about was her true identity being exposed, but Jiang Li didn’t care about her being a daughter of the Jiang family.
Jiang Ruo felt extremely embarrassed, lowering her head as she sniffled and then suddenly looked up at Jiang Li, saying, “I’m not just here to apologize; I also want to say that if… if you like Qin Zheng, you can be together, and you don’t have to worry about me.”
Jiang Li: …
Wait, let’s put aside the matter that she had no such feelings for Qin Zheng, nor any intention to date anyone while at school. Why did Jiang Ruo develop such a misconception when they had spoken to each other for no more than ten sentences?
Could it be that recent setbacks had affected her so much that she started having delusions?
Tong Yi returned with the water just in time to hear Jiang Ruo’s words. Without waiting for Jiang Li’s response, he immediately switched to mocking mode, “Qin Zheng, that pretty boy, isn’t even worthy of tying Jiang Xiao Li’s shoelaces. I’m starting to wonder if Jiang Huai raised you with pig feed, seeing that you grow such a pig’s brain.”
Hearing Tong Yi’s words, Jiang Ruo’s face turned pale in an instant, and her eyes welled up with tears. She tried several times to hold back the tears, but ultimately failed.
One of the little boys couldn’t help whispering to his friend next to him, “Brother Tong Yi is so mean, saying such things to a girl.”
Jiang Xiaodong overheard this and clicked his tongue loudly, “So what if she’s a girl? Brother Tong Yi is just scolding her; he didn’t hit her. Crying like this when you’re already grown-up, how shameful!”
An older boy chimed in, “Xiaodong’s right! She is still a student, but talks about love and liking all day. She doesn’t seem like a good student.”
“Yeah, yeah! Brother Tong Yi is just purging evil for the common people!”
Jiang Ruo never expected to be attacked by a group of kids. They were all talking over each other, not considering her feelings at all.
Stomping her foot in frustration, she covered her mouth and ran away.
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Feng. Single for twenty-nine years. Qi: Just a pair of elementary school kids!
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Thanks for the chapter!!!!
Ngl, I can actually believe that she didn’t even realise what she did… exactly because she’s raised by her current mother.
I feel sorry for JR in a way. She’s not intentionally a bad person, but she’s foolish and self centered, and easily led by her emotions. She doesn’t see what she did as wrong, because she is incapable of seeing things from a different POV, and she only sees that JL is doing well, without considering that that it doesn’t mean it couldn’t have easily turned out differently.
I agree. Her ignorance came from her upbringing, and now has difficulty understanding things that aren’t about her.
Cause what about Jiang Li and Qin Zheng says they like each other. Jiang Ruo’s head is so deep in the clouds, she can’t see in front of her. Tsk, tsk
I don’t feel bad for Jiang Ruo at all because she was aware that her lack of action to clear up rumors was affecting Jiang Li negatively, but didn’t seem to feel at all bad for her; she was only concerned with whether people would find out the truth of her identity while trying to keep all her lies intact.
She could have easily described Jiang Li’s situation as a distant family relative who was staying temporarily with the Jiang family due to personal circumstances that weren’t appropriate to talk about, but instead she painted Jiang Li as someone who acted arrogantly as she took advantage of the Jiang family because they owed her family a life-saving favor; this was especially the case when she used this negative image of Jiang Li to prevent Shen Mian from wanting to teach her a lesson when she complained about Jiang Li being too arrogant.
I also don’t think Jiang Ruo truly believes Jiang Zhou did anything wrong because all of his actions were a result of his care and love for her; they were done with good intentions, but just gone about the wrong way.
Jiang Ruo, at the core, is just a very selfish person who believes people should cater to her because she was raised that way, but that doesn’t excuse her actions of purposely manipulating Jiang Li’s image at school, her inaction to correct rumors that resulted from misunderstandings about her, and most importantly, her willingly agreeing that Jiang Li should not be acknowledged by her biological parents and instead should live as an “orphan” in school just because she didn’t want to suffer the possible consequences of not being from the Jiang family.