"I'll say it one more time. Don't call me brother-in-law. I was never married to Jiang Yue. If you don't know how to speak properly, I don't mind finding someone to teach you." Lu Bochuan took a half step back, dodging the letter Jiang Xinran was trying to hand him.
When he first found Lu Yu, he had told the Jiang family that he and Jiang Yue were never married. Later, Jiang Xinran kept calling him that whenever Lu Yu was around, and he only tolerated it because he didn't want to upset the boy.
Jiang Xinran bit her lip in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, brother-in-law—no, I'm sorry, Brother Bochuan. I just miss my sister so much that I often slip up."
Shu Qingqing clicked her tongue in amazement as she listened to her manipulative, innocent-acting words.
It reminded her of a classic palace drama she had watched before. Whenever a supporting female character was in trouble, she just had to sort through her late sister's belongings and mention her sister's name a few times to miraculously find a way out.
But Lu Bochuan wasn't buying it. "As far as I know, the relationship between you two sisters was very average."
Jiang Xinran froze, hastily explaining, "No, sis—no, we had a great relationship. Maybe my sister just didn't like to talk about it..."
Lu Bochuan didn't have the patience to listen and signaled Zhou Zheng to take the letter.
Taking the letter from Zhou Zheng, Lu Bochuan walked over and sat down next to Shu Qingqing. "Want to read it together?"
Jiang Xinran immediately tried to stop him. "How can you let her read it, brother-in-law!"
Lu Bochuan shot her a cold glare, and Jiang Xinran instantly didn't dare say another word.
Shu Qingqing originally hadn't planned on reading it, but Lu Bochuan had already opened the letter and held it in front of her.
She was indeed quite curious, so she didn't act coy about it.
"Dear Bochuan:
By the time you read this letter, I will have already left this world.
It is a great regret that I couldn't see you one last time, nor could I personally tell you that we have a child together named Lu Yu.
Lu Yu looks very much like you. If you ever see him, you'll definitely recognize him as your son at first glance.
And the person I am most worried about is my younger sister, Xinran.
Xinran is a wonderful girl. We had a great relationship since we were little. When our family was poor during our childhood, Xinran would give all her snacks to me, and she even..."
Shu Qingqing was still reading when the letter was suddenly crumpled into a ball and thrown at Jiang Xinran.
"Get out." Lu Bochuan's face darkened rapidly, his voice filled with suppressed anger.
Jiang Xinran was badly frightened, but she still subconsciously asked, "What's wrong, brother-in-law... Is there something in my sister's letter that made you angry?"
Lu Bochuan's jawline was tightly clenched. "Jiang Xinran, if you dare forge Jiang Yue's handwriting to write something like this, I will make you regret it."
"I didn't, brother-in-law, I didn't!" Jiang Xinran shook her head desperately, trying to explain.
But Zhou Zheng had already called the bodyguards over, and they quickly dragged her out.
Shu Qingqing walked over to pour a glass of water. After Lu Bochuan's expression calmed down, she asked curiously, "How did you guess that this letter wasn't written by Jiang Yue?"
"Jiang Yue died unexpectedly in a car crash. How could she have written a letter like this in advance?" Lu Bochuan took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Furthermore, Lu Yu used to have the surname Jiang. He only changed his surname after I brought him back."
Shu Qingqing suddenly understood, then raised her eyebrows. "But I also felt something was off early on."
Seeing that she didn't say anything else after that, but instead stared straight at him, Lu Bochuan instantly understood what she meant.
He took Shu Qingqing's hand, feigning curiosity. "Oh? And how did you figure it out?"
Shu Qingqing smiled proudly. "Didn't you say that Jiang Yue and Jiang Xinran had an average relationship? But half of the letter is just praising how great Jiang Xinran is. That definitely wasn't right."
Lu Bochuan's eyes curved in a smile. "Is that so? How clever."
Jiang Xinran returned home with lingering fear, unable to figure out why Lu Bochuan had realized the letter was fake so quickly.
She stayed at home for a day, and when no one came to cause trouble for her, she finally felt relieved.
What her brother-in-law said that day about making her pay the price must have just been said in anger. No matter what, she was Jiang Yue's biological sister. How could he actually hurt her?
Putting her mind at ease, she happily invited her friends to go shopping.
Brand L had just released a new bag. She loved it, but the bag cost 230,000, and she only had 100,000 on her card.
Seeing that she ultimately didn't buy it, her friend suddenly felt a sense of superiority. "Xinran, I thought you really liked it? Why didn't you get it?"
Jiang Xinran pretended not to care. "Not really. It's not much different from the style I bought before, and I don't like the color."
Her friend smiled and didn't say anything more.
But when Jiang Xinran came back from the restroom, she overheard several of them gossiping about her.
"What do you mean she didn't like it? I think she just doesn't have the money to buy it."
"Hasn't Jiang Xinran always claimed her brother-in-law is the CEO of the Lu Group? I haven't seen her being that rich."
"She's definitely lying. The CEO of the Lu Group is worth hundreds of billions. If he really was her brother-in-law, she would be driving a Rolls-Royce by now. But look at her, she's been driving that two-million Maserati for five or six years without changing it."
"Exactly."
Jiang Xinran hid in the corner, her nose twisting in anger.
These snobby bitches.
Returning home that night, she got angrier the more she thought about it. She was just temporarily out of money, and those people dared to slander her behind her back like that.
But her brother-in-law was so angry last time, and Lu Yu was ignoring her too. Where was she going to get the money to slap those people in the face?
Just as she was worrying, a few messages popped up on her phone. It was from the friend who had previously asked her to invest together, asking if she had thought it over.
This friend had a good mind for business and had made quite a bit of money.
Jiang Xinran bit her lip and carefully replied, "I do want to invest, but my money is tied up in other projects, so I can't take out much cash right now."
The other party replied quickly: "That's fine, you can get a loan! Doesn't your family live in the Yimei Villa area? The location is so good. If you mortgage it at the bank, you can definitely get a big loan."
Jiang Xinran had a flash of inspiration. That's right, she could get a loan! This flat was bought with the money her brother-in-law gave her back then. It was worth over ten million. Even if housing prices were dropping, it would still be worth several million. If worse came to worst, she still had her car.
Jiang Xinran acted immediately. The next day, she took the property deed to the bank and took out a loan of six million.
With this money in hand, she happily invested in the project her friend had mentioned.
But the very next day, she discovered she had been blocked by the other party.
Only then did Jiang Xinran realize something was wrong.
She had someone look into it. What project? It was nothing but a shell company.
Jiang Xinran immediately panicked. If her mother found out she had been scammed out of so much money, she would beat her to death.
No, she had to quickly find a way to pay back the money and get the property deed back.
But other than her brother-in-law, who else could help her come up with so much money?
Jiang Xinran was getting a headache trying to think of a solution when her father suddenly came out of his room.
"Xinran, have you seen my medicine? Why can't I find my medicine?" Jiang Tao bent over, rummaging around the coffee table.
"What medicine? Can't you look for it yourself?" Jiang Xinran said impatiently.
"It is just my blood pressure medicine. My eyes are too blurry to see clearly, so please help me find it."
Jiang Xinran was about to snap at him again when an idea suddenly popped into her head.
She walked over and led Jiang Tao to sit down on the sofa. "I just remembered, Dad, you have already run out of your medicine. Wait here, I will go out and buy you some more in a little while."
