Upon hearing her daughter’s name, the expression on Sun Ruying’s face instantly changed. She slammed her fists at the table, making the teacups clatter from the impact.

Lu Xinyi’s face remained impassive. She lifted her hand and sent away her bodyguards keeping Jiao Jiao and Zhang Qing with her.

“Where’s my daughter? What have you done to her?” Sun Ruying demanded.

Lu Xinyi noticed the difference in her aunt’s facial features from the last time she’d seen her. It seemed like the time had caught up with her. Her hair wasn’t neat as before, her face was starting to show the signs of aging like the fine lines around her eyes were more apparent.

There was a growl that followed Sun Ruying’s outburst. It was then Xiao Bai appeared from the thick bushes and revealed himself. Sun Ruying’s jaws dropped upon seeing the wild tiger. The mighty white tiger slowly took steps towards Lu Xinyi. His white fur almost turned silvery when the light hit it, but his owner never broke her gaze at her trembling aunt.

“Xiao Bai, don’t touch her. She’s my aunt, and I still need a piece of vital information from her. You can’t eat an elderly woman,” Lu Xinyi said amusedly. Ever since the night where she saw her husband talking to Xiao Bai, the tiger’s daily habits changed. Xiao Bai now preferred to sit or lay down near her feet whenever she was home, his eyes and demeanor alert as if anytime someone would hurt Lu Xinyi.

Jiao Jiao bit her inner cheeks as she tried to stop herself from laughing. The horror written on Sun Ruying’s face was almost comical in her opinion.

“Have you asked your eldest daughter? I’m pretty sure Qiyan knows what happened to her beloved sister.” Lu Xinyi spat out with such coldness on her voice. Whenever she remembered the lifeless body of Sun Qiushan with her dead child lying on the cold operating table, she couldn’t help the shiver that ran up her spine.

Her aunt was taken aback before slowly slumping back on her seat, feeling hopeless. Of course, she did try to ask Sun Qiyan; but the latter wouldn’t give her any clear or definite answer. She even once dared threatened her daughter to kill herself if Qiyan wouldn’t tell her where Qiushan was, but all of her efforts were futile. Qiyan’s heart was cold as steel and never regarded her pleas.

“She didn’t tell you?” Lu Xinyi asked, knowing well that Sun Ruying failed to get the information she needed from her eldest daughter.

“I don’t understand why Qiyan wouldn’t tell me.” Something was wrong; Sun Ruying was sure about it. It was as if her eldest daughter was hiding something from her, and she had a bad feeling about it.

“Aunt Ruying, my patience is running thin. Please do the part of our deal, and I’ll satisfy your desire to see Qiushan.”

“Where do you want me to start?” The older woman grumbled. She was sitting stiffly, her body shaking.

She’d stayed up all night, knowing it would have made no difference to her exhaustion. In the morning, the bedsheets were in a knot; and aside from a few half-hours of vivid dreams that made her throw a fit, she didn’t sleep a wink. Her brain was constantly searching for any sign that her youngest daughter was alright.

“From the start. What happened when my mother went to Sun Estate the day before she was found dead inside her car?”

Fear traveled in Lu Xinyi’s veins but never made it to her facial muscles or skin. Her complexion remained pale and matte, her eyes as steady as if she were relaxing. She let out an understated sigh and hardened her jaw, showing she wasn’t afraid to hear the truth.

Sun Ruying opened her mouth, but no words came out. If she’d rehearsed this conversation once… she’d rehearsed it a thousand times. It had to end. She could not run away anymore from the ghost of their past.

Now that she’d got to face her niece, her mouth had gone dry; and her heart was beating more forcefully than it usually did. She raised her gaze momentarily at Lu Xinyi’s expectant gaze and then lowered it to her side.

Could she do this? Then quickly, she started talking before her second thoughts got the better of her again.

“That night… your mother paid for a late visit to the Sun Mansion. I came out too late, but I heard Meixiu and Ming Jie arguing and yelling at each other. Your mother accused her of your father’s accident, but Ming Jie vehemently denied all of her accusations.”

She paused, trying to gauge Lu Xinyi’s reaction. When she saw that her niece remained silent, she continued her narration.

“Meixiu wasn’t a fool. Of course, it’s really our sister Mingai who plotted against Lu Sibai.” At this, she could feel the deadly coldness on Lu Xinyi’s gaze; and she swallowed the invisible lump in her throat.

“Ming Jie has always borne this animosity against your mother. Since your mother’s birth, we have to compete with her for our father’s affection and his recognition; but every time, we failed. In my father’s eyes—among all his children, Meixiu was the most likable…”

There was a momentary silence between them as Sun Ruying tried to find the right words to say what happened next.

“Her hatred intensified when the three of us met the Shen family’s Young Master, Shen Jinxiu. It was that one fateful day when we rescued him from an accident back on a ski resort that our family owns. Ming Jie was the one who helped him, but it was Meixiu who treated his injuries.”

Lu Xinyi narrowed her eyes. Until now, she still didn’t know what caused the rift between the Shen and Sun families and how did Shen Jinxiu die. She never asked Shen Yi, in fear that she might overstep her boundary. She could tell that her husband held utmost respect to his deceased uncle compared to the rest of the Shen family.

“It was expected to say that two hit it off right away, and a friendship between them was established. Ming Jie was jealous of her. She couldn’t accept the fact that someone had been taken away by Meixiu. She liked Young Master Shen, but he ignored her for Meixiu.”

Lu Xinyi found it ridiculous. If Sun Mingai was jealous, why did she have to kill her mother? Getting rid of her mother wouldn’t make the man she was pining for love her.

“However, that time, Meixiu was already in a relationship with your father. The three were inseparable. Shen Jinxiu even went as far as sponsoring your father to attend Silver Leaf. After Meixiu ended her engagement, she left our family. If Shen Jinxiu had romantic feelings for her, that I don’t know; but that didn’t change the fact that our sister Mingai felt cheated…”

“It’s not my mother’s fault if Young Master Shen didn’t like her.” Lu Xinyi scoffed and rolled her eyes. Women, so hateful, so jealous of what can’t they have.

“That didn’t change the fact that Ming Jie hated them both.”

Lu Xinyi raised a brow at that. For the first time since she arrived, Sun Ruying smiled. “Silly girl, don’t you know stronger feelings of love are associated with greater hate?”

Lu Xinyi didn’t think that there would be a day she would hate her own husband. Was it really possible to hate someone you love deeply?

“Ming Jie tried to change. She let go of her hate and jealousy because Young Master Shen said so. She was so ready to start anew, but then, Shen Jinxiu died… by her own hands.”