Jiang Youli happened to be unable to sleep anyway. Regardless of who was ringing the doorbell, she decided to go downstairs and take a look.
Walking downstairs, Jiang Youli glanced at the video doorbell. On the screen, Jiang Xing stood outside the door. The bright moonlight spilled over him, illuminating his originally handsome face, which now looked incredibly pale, as if drained of all color.
Jiang Youli pulled her clothes tighter around herself, walked out of the villa, and opened the courtyard gate. "Jiang Xing, what are you looking for me for so late at night?"
Jiang Xing stared straight at her, his lips trembling as he spat out a single sentence: "My dad was stabbed by our uncle."
Hearing this, Jiang Youli's face didn't show the slightest ripple of emotion. She even asked back indifferently, "Is he dead? As long as he's not dead, it's fine. Otherwise, it would be hard to find someone to fight an innocence plea for my dad."
Disappointment spread in Jiang Xing's eyes. He found Jiang Youli's reaction unbelievable. "Why, even now, can't you show a single shred of emotion toward us? Have we truly been given the death penalty in your heart?"
Jiang Youli nodded, her face expressionless. "Yes, your entire family has been completely sentenced to death in my heart."
"Look at the Jiang family now; because of you, it's reached a life-or-death struggle. Do you really not feel the slightest bit of guilt?" Jiang Xing simply couldn't understand.
Jiang Youli sneered. "Jiang Xing, are you here to hold me accountable?"
Quickly, her expression turned serious. "If I have any guilt, it's only toward my parents. What do I have to feel guilty about when it comes to you? I only think you haven't fallen hard enough!"
Jiang Xing only felt his vision darken. His body involuntarily staggered backward two steps, as if the whole world was spinning.
Just then, Jiang Youli spoke up out of the blue, "Jiang Xing, do you know how I survived when I was little?"
Jiang Xing struggled to steady himself, then raised his head. His gaze locked straight onto Jiang Youli's face. In his eyes, there was uncontainable curiosity mixed with a trace of imperceptible guilt.
Jiang Youli spoke in a tone so calm it was almost frightening: "I never told you guys, did I? I was picked up from a trash can. Look at this: on the very first day Jiang Yonghe and I had our lives swapped, I restarted my life in a garbage bin, while Jiang Yonghe began her soaring, prosperous life."
"How could I not hate?"
"But every grievance has its perpetrator, and every debt has its debtor. Before I knew whether I was personally abandoned by my own parents, I didn't blame them. I just wanted to find them."
"I thought, if my parents didn't abandon me on purpose, they would surely be overjoyed to find their lost daughter."
"But what did you all show me?"
"You lived happily together with the daughter of the criminal who harmed your own daughter and sister. Even after knowing the truth about Jiang Yonghe and me being swapped, you turned a blind eye. You only brought me back to take her place in marrying the crippled Qi Huan."
"Did I do something wrong?"
"No, I did nothing wrong. The ones in the wrong are you."
"If I were powerless, you would have just trampled all over me and kept making mistakes. Unfortunately for you, I have more than enough power to make you pay for your mistakes."
After Jiang Youli was picked up by Uncle Jiang, she did indeed live a carefree life for a while.
Sadly, the good times didn't last.
Uncle Jiang had originally planned to go to a small town to recover from a severe illness when he found her along the way.
After enduring for six years, Uncle Jiang passed away from his incurable illness.
Before he died, Uncle Jiang had no choice but to entrust her care to a relative who had looked after him attentively while he was alive, leaving his entire inheritance to that relative.
However, the relative Uncle Jiang entrusted her to was a hypocritical bastard. The initial attentive care was only to obtain Uncle Jiang's inheritance. After getting the money, he bullied her for being just a young child, turned his back on his promises, and even tried to sell her to a remote area as a child bride.
She ran away.
At six years old, she began living a life of fighting stray dogs for food in trash cans. She lived in hiding like this for two years, until she went to Jianshan Village to steal sweet potatoes and was caught by the local uncles and aunties. Once they learned she was a wandering orphan with no parents, they settled her in the village, taught her to identify medicinal herbs, and let her support herself by exchanging labor for food.
Days passed by like this, one after another.
The uncles and aunties discovered she showed an astonishing talent for medicine, so they taught her all the knowledge they could. She gained her own skills, and no one dared to bully her ever again.
That is, until she returned to the Jiang family—
These family members, who should have been the closest to her, became a knife thrust into her.
Memories of the past madly assaulted Jiang Youli, and she only found it ridiculous: the ones who caused her all this suffering were these very family members. What right did they have to enjoy such privileged lives with peace of mind?
"All of you should taste the flavor of suffering, and this suffering will be personally delivered by me," Jiang Youli said, pulling back her tangled thoughts and speaking to Jiang Xing in a tone as cold as thousand-year ice, enunciating every single word.
Hearing these words, Jiang Xing's body began to tremble. Immediately following that, an unbearable, agonizing pain surged from within him, instantly spreading throughout his entire body.
The poison inside his body had flared up.
The water-like moonlight spilled over Jiang Xing, illuminating his originally elegant and handsome face with exceptional clarity.
However, at this moment, that face was almost twisted in agony.
Jiang Xing reached out to grip the doorframe beside him, trying to steady his tottering body, his tall frame involuntarily curling up into the shape of a shrimp.
"Xiao Li..."
Jiang Xing squeezed these words through his teeth, his eyes full of pleading as he looked at Jiang Youli.
Jiang Youli looked down at him coldly from above. "You came all the way to find me this late. Don't tell me you planned to let me see you suffering from the poison flare-up with my own eyes, hoping I wouldn't have the heart to ignore it and would lend you a helping hand?"
"Just like how you ultimately chose to have me cure Jiang Yonghe's poison, do you think that because I am your biological sister, I could never let you die no matter what?"
"Unfortunately, your calculation failed. I have absolutely no feelings for you."
After saying this, Jiang Youli turned around, leaving Jiang Xing outside the door to slowly collapse onto the ground in excruciating pain, continuously letting out groans of agony.
Jiang Xing's fingers dug tightly into the crevices of the floor tiles, wanting to vent all his pain through this action.
"Xiao Li..."
He struggled to lift his head and stare at Jiang Youli. One hand reached out tremblingly toward her retreating back, desperately hoping to make her pause for him, even for just a split second.
However, Jiang Youli turned a deaf ear. She walked resolutely into the villa and, without the slightest pause, slammed the door shut, completely severing Jiang Xing's last shred of hope and entirely blocking his view into the house.
Jiang Xing held on for ten minutes before finally being unable to endure the agony. He smashed his head against the wall by the door, his vision went black, and he lost consciousness, fainting on the freezing ground.
