After the Fake Heiress Died, She Was Filled with Regret - Chapter 52

Chapter 52: A Sharp Knife Stabs the Heart, the Pain…

“What do you mean?” Tang Yin stared at Qi Ning, stunned.

“You’re part of the Xia family? Didn’t you say… the Xia family had a grudge against you and asked me to help you take revenge? I get what I want, and you get yours.”

Xie Wan suddenly understood everything and burst out laughing. She looked at the dazed Tang Yin.

“She is Xia Shinan’s aunt. She is also a Xia family member. Tang Yin, you are too foolish! She’s been deceiving you for so long, and you don’t even know her true identity!”

“I should have guessed. Why have you been coming to A City so frequently this year? It turns out you’ve been planning all this? Finding Tang Yin, getting her to approach Xia Shinan… to ruin a girl’s reputation and the engagement with the Lin family! The photos of Xia Shentu and that woman—you gave them to me, didn’t you? Did you do all this just to break up this family?”

Xia Tong walked to the center of the room. The light from the crystal chandelier reflected off her glasses, looking incredibly cold.

“What’s the point of just breaking up? I want to destroy the Xia family.”

Xie Wan’s expression was serious: “But you are also a Xia family member!”

Xia Tong curled her lips, looking at Tang Yin: “I didn’t lie to you… I don’t like the name Xia Tong at all! My mother died in childbirth when I was born, and I was taken to the countryside to live. That was my happiest time. My mother’s surname was Qi. I was called Qi Ning!”

“I was brought back to the Xia family at the age of fifteen. I was very happy at first, thinking Dad finally remembered he had a daughter like me.”

“But then I saw Xia Shentu, the brother only half a year older than me! He was just an illegitimate child my dad had from his infidelity! Why should I call him brother?”

“But so what if he was illegitimate? The family’s attention was always on him! I studied hard, excelled at everything, but never got recognition from the elders.”

“Later I realized it was because I was a woman. And he was a man. So, even if he did nothing, he could easily take everything that should be mine.”

“And I… lost everything just because of my gender! Do you know how hard it is for a girl to establish herself in the patriarchal Xia family without getting married? How much effort did I put in to climb from assistant to vice president in the company!”

“Xia Shentu, that good-for-nothing who only knows how to enjoy himself, doesn’t deserve it at all! It’s too unfair!”

“Tang Yin, if it were you, would you be content?”

“Now that I am in this position, within three years, I will fully control the Xia family’s assets. By then, I will change the company name to Qi.”

Xie Wan still held her head high, with an arrogant posture, raising an eyebrow:

“So you swapped the two children? Is that your revenge?”

Tang Yin froze, unable to believe that Qi Ning had been behind everything from the start.

Her heart was severely clenched, and her breathing became heavy.

“That’s right.” Qi Ning smiled, her eyes filled with fanaticism. “Didn’t you often call me a country girl? You despised me for being uncultured and ignorant, so I wanted your biological daughter to be like me! To be scorned and looked down upon! I abandoned her in the countryside, watching as she was picked up by a grandmother.”

“I even specially kept track of her, always knowing about her life. Did you know? She had to do farm work at the age of five in the countryside. The house they lived in was broken and old, and leaky in the winter.”

“Later, her grandmother supported her schooling in the county by collecting trash. The two lived in a dark basement.”

“It’s a shame, though. She was so determined that she still managed to get into A University… So I thought, why not give her a push?”

“Wouldn’t it be even more delightful to be stabbed by your own biological daughter!”

Saying this, Qi Ning even laughed until tears came out, pointing at Xie Wan: “My dear sister-in-law, why aren’t you happy to see your daughter? Or is it… you prefer the fake one?”

“Well, she was much more obedient than Tang Yin. She wouldn’t dare go west if you told her to go east.”

“But precisely because she was too obedient, she was attracted to Tang Yin. The trap I set didn’t originally include this, but because of the complex human emotions, it became so… unexpectedly brilliant, didn’t it?”

Tang Yin’s eyes were red. She had never imagined that the benefactor she thought was helping her was actually the main culprit!

At this point, Xie Wan showed a trace of a sneer. “Xia Tong, you are a fool too.”

“You all said I didn’t love my daughter. How could I not love her? Unless… she wasn’t my biological daughter.”

Qi Ning was stunned, slowly looking over. “What do you mean?”

Xie Wan lit a second cigarette and spoke slowly.

“It seems the Xia family bloodline is all the same—the superior is crooked, and the subordinate follows suit. Xia Shentu also cheated when I was pregnant, with a new intern at the company.”

“Could I swallow that? But I also understood that a marriage of convenience in a wealthy family shouldn’t expect too much emotion. I met with the intern, gave her a sum of money, and she agreed to leave after giving birth.”

“She gave birth to a daughter, and I also gave birth to a daughter.”

“How could I let my own biological daughter suffer the hardships I did? I swapped the two children after birth. My daughter went to the Xie family. Less than a year later, my mother took the child to the US.”

“She grew up in the US and is very happy.”

“Tell me, isn’t this what you call, ‘The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind’?”

She sighed deeply as she spoke.

She hadn’t put much effort into raising Xia Shinan. First, because she wasn’t her biological child, there was no need to care too much. Second, the child was docile enough not to require her worry.

But the child who was obedient for twenty years turned out to have the most rebellious nature.

Tang Yin listened to all this in a daze, her brain on the verge of exploding.

She remembered Xia Shinan saying that Xie Wan went back to the US every year but didn’t take her.

Everyone thought it was a vacation. It turned out… she was visiting her daughter.

If that was the case, then her mother was that intern?

“What about my biological mother!”

Xie Wan exhaled a smoke ring. “You are just the daughter the intern gave birth to that year. As for her name and where she went, I don’t know.”

She looked at the equally stunned Qi Ning. “Look at the mess you’ve made. You didn’t manage to take revenge on me at all. Looking back over these years, you are just a scheming clown who ended up with nothing! Instead, you harmed Xia Shinan. Maybe she originally had a happy family.”

Qi Ning murmured: “That child… was abandoned at the hospital to begin with.”

“In that case, Xia Shinan should thank me. I raised her for twenty years. At least I raised her to be a rich young lady. If it weren’t for that post, I would have let her marry Lin Yu. No matter what, she would have lived a life of luxury forever.” Xie Wan said, looking at Tang Yin.

“No!” Tang Yin said agitatedly, “I didn’t post that! I don’t know who did it…”

Xie Wan smiled sarcastically. “You’re just stupid. You didn’t even investigate that Qi Ning is Xia Tong, and you didn’t even try to find the person who started the post.”

“I… I looked, but I couldn’t find them,” Tang Yin said, feeling pitifully weak.

“That proves you are useless!” Xie Wan said mercilessly. “I knew long ago that the person who posted was paid by Lin Yu. I used this matter to make a deal with the Lin family, which is why the Lin family still protected me at the shareholder meeting.”

Xie Wan looked at Tang Yin. “You two, in a sense, harmed Xia Shinan.”

A trace of regret flashed in her eyes. “It’s a pity, she died on that plane. Since she’s an orphan… we can’t find anyone to match her DNA.”

Tang Yin roared, “Xia Shinan is not dead!”

Xie Wan looked at her: “If she really made it to the US, she would definitely report to the school. With so much happening these past few days, she would definitely have notified the Qian family’s child that she was safe, right?”

“Have you received any news?”

Qi Ning listened on the side, her expression shifting slightly, but she remained silent.

Tang Yin looked up, staring coldly at the two women.

For their self-interest and their sense of injustice, they had harmed her and Xia Shinan.

“What did you tell Grandmother when you went to see her the day she fell?” Tang Yin questioned, biting her lip. If not for that, maybe she wouldn’t have been so cruel to Xia Shinan!

She was clearly contemplating whether to reveal everything to Xia Shinan and give the innocent girl the choice for her future.

Yes, it was all because Xie Wan went to see Grandmother!

A trace of surprise appeared on Xie Wan’s face. “I don’t understand.”

“The night my grandmother fell, your car was parked downstairs. It was a Maybach…”

Xie Wan extinguished her cigarette, her gaze turning to Qi Ning.

“You’ll have to ask CEO Xia about that.”

“It’s not difficult for CEO Xia to collude with my assistant and borrow my car.”

Tang Yin looked sharply at Qi Ning, only to see the woman suddenly trembling all over, then bursting into manic laughter.

“Xie Wan, I truly underestimated you! All the plans I thought I had perfectly laid out were completely within your grasp!”

Xie Wan smiled faintly: “That’s why I said, you reek of the countryside.”

“Shut up!” Qi Ning said resentfully. “In the beginning, I wanted to be friends with you, but you looked down on me…”

Qi Ning glanced at Tang Yin and said, “I admit, the person who saw your grandmother that day was me.”

“But I only told her that you were working hard to treat her illness and provide for her. If she could persuade you to complete the plan with me early, then both of you could live a good life. But she told me to get lost, completely forgetting who paid for her surgery initially!”

“Later, when she had the accident, I hadn’t even figured out how to guide you yet, but you automatically assumed Xie Wan was the one who visited your grandmother. It’s like fate was helping me.”

So, this was why Grandmother insisted on not having the surgery and returning to her hometown?

It turned out she had been blaming the wrong person all along!

Tang Yin could no longer hear their words. Her belief system was crumbling. The images swirling in her mind were of her grandmother’s death, of Xia Shinan saying sorry to her, and so much more…

What did all her twenty years of grievances and resentment amount to?

Where did her hatred for Xia Shinan even come from?

Why did she… hurt someone so good who loved her so much?

All this resentment and hatred turned out to be for nothing.

Her heart was fiercely stabbed by a sharp knife; the pain surged through her entire body.

“Thud!” Tang Yin finally lost her footing and collapsed in a faint.

Ming Jing and Qian Yu took Tang Yin away together.

When Tang Yin woke up, she was back home—her and Xia Shinan’s home.

She immediately sat up, hearing faint sounds from the bathroom, and rushed over.

Had Xia Shinan returned?

The bathroom door opened precisely then. The expression on Tang Yin’s face shifted from anticipation to disappointment, her eyes devoid of light.

“You… you’re awake? Ming Jing went downstairs to buy food and will be back soon.” Qian Yu felt awkward seeing Tang Yin staring at her. “I just washed my hands. I’ll let you…”

Tang Yin shook her head, her voice hoarse, saying, “No need. Thank you for bringing me back.”

“You’re welcome.” Qian Yu replied, then added, “I haven’t forgiven you, though. You’re my enemy now too.”

“Okay,” Tang Yin agreed.

She was her own enemy too.

Qian Yu was stunned, looking at Tang Yin in surprise. “You went to the Xia family. Her mother… your mother, what did she say?”

Yes, she said it on purpose.

Tang Yin, didn’t you treat Xia Shinan this way to go back to the Xia family?

Then Xie Wan is the mother you desperately sought!

But she hadn’t expected to receive a massive torrent of Tang Yin’s tears instead of a single word of defense.

“Qian Yu, I’m terribly wrong. It’s all my fault!”

She was the fool who caused Xia Shinan’s death.

The one who truly deserved to die was her.

Tang Yin cried all night, nearly passing out again. Ming Jing returned, and they helped her back to the bedroom.

Qian Yu never knew what exactly happened at the Xia family, but she genuinely felt Tang Yin’s pain.

Wasn’t there a saying that good people who pass away turn into stars?

She looked up at the night sky, but didn’t know which star was Xia Shinan.

“Shinan, Tang Yin is grieving for you.”

“She seems so regretful… can you see her?”

Tears streamed down her face. She wiped them away and continued: “You probably wouldn’t want to see her cry either, since you… loved her so much.”

“If you’re in heaven, I hope you can be happy there too. If you’re happy, I can be happy.”

“If you are reincarnated… will you visit me in a dream? I want to be your godmother! I’ll be good to you forever and ever!”

The next day, Qian Yu came again, placed the purchased lean meat congee on the dining table, and knocked on the bedroom door.

“Tang Yin, get up and eat something.”

No one answered.

After a few seconds of hesitation, she opened the door, finding the bedroom pitch black. She couldn’t see Tang Yin at all.

Qian Yu fumbled for the light switch by the door. The warm light suddenly came on, stinging her eyes.

Then she saw Tang Yin curled up in bed, her face pale, lips colorless, looking sickly.

She was tightly hugging a small vase, treating it like a treasure.

“Tang Yin, are you sick?” Qian Yu quickly went over to check her forehead. “You have a fever!”

“I’m fine.” Tang Yin slowly opened her eyes. She wished so much that the person who opened the door was Xia Shinan, but it wouldn’t be.

“I’ll find you some medicine… but today is Shinan’s funeral. Aren’t you planning to go?”

Funeral…

Tang Yin’s body trembled slightly upon hearing those two words. After a long moment, she spoke: “No.”

Qian Yu was stunned:

“You won’t… send her off?”

Tang Yin pursed her lips, shaking her head, her tone absolute:

“As long as I don’t go, as long as I haven’t attended Xia Shinan’s funeral, then… she is still alive.”

Qian Yu didn’t force her. She found some fever medicine and the congee, placed them together, and left for the funeral with Ming Jing.

Not many people attended the funeral, but she saw Wei Ba, Duan Xiaofei, and Fang Yue.

“Qian Yu, why was Shinan so sudden? Such a good person just…” Wei Ba couldn’t stop crying. The last time they met was during May Day, and everyone was happily spending time together.

Duan Xiaofei had clearly been crying too, passing tissues to Wei Ba.

Qian Yu’s eyes were red as she shook her head: “Life is unpredictable. Many accidents can’t be foreseen.”

Fang Yue’s expression was also heavy. All the past events seemed to have vanished. Facing a deceased classmate, a thread of pity still arose in her heart.

“Rest in peace, Xia Shinan.”

The entire funeral was solemn. Xie Wan wore a black dress, and the veil on her hat covered half her face, hiding her emotions.

Qi Ning was expressionless, occasionally looking at her phone.

As the pastor finished the eulogy, a light drizzle began to fall, as if lamenting the loss of such a young girl.

Qian Yu looked up at the overcast sky.

The sun would eventually come out after the rain, but she thought she would never forget this gloomy day.

The congee on the dining table was long cold, and the fever medicine was untouched.

Tang Yin maintained her original fetal position, which made her feel safer.

When she was sad as a child, she would do this, and her grandmother would hold her, softly soothing her to sleep. As she grew older, she was rarely sad, believing herself strong enough, even indestructible.

But now, she was back to her childhood state, with no one left to hold or comfort her.

Grandmother was gone, and they all said Xia Shinan was gone too.

Would they meet in heaven?

Her eyes were blurry; she couldn’t even see anything clearly in front of her.

She lifted the vase to her lips, gently kissed it, and closed her eyes. All the images of her and Xia Shinan played in a loop.

Xia Shinan smiling through tears.

“What I just said was a sincere apology, as the girl who took your place for twenty years.”

No, I am the one who should apologize, not you.

“Your pretense deceived my sincerity. I cannot forgive you.”

I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.

At the amusement park, the fireworks were spectacular. Xia Shinan’s eyes shone like stars, and her smile was bright: “I really like you!”

I like you too, Xia Shinan. I really, truly like you.

Every time you said you liked me, I was both moved and scared.

Aside from Grandmother, you were the second person to genuinely like me. But I was so afraid that when you discovered the ugliness in my heart, you would leave me.

That’s why I didn’t dare say I liked you. I’m sorry.

At home, they kissed passionately. Xia Shinan would hug her tightly in confusion and ecstasy. “Tang Tang…”

At night, she rode the motorcycle, taking Xia Shinan away. Xia Shinan held her waist tightly. The wind roared, and a gentle voice reached her ear:

“Tang Yin, I feel free.”

At school, she found the taken-away Xia Shinan. The girl ran to her, rushing into her embrace.

The girl’s gaze was brave and moving: “I want to date you, okay?”

On the playground, she ran with Xia Shinan. The girl’s cheeks were red, but she was excited: “Tang Yin, will you take me to see the world outside?”

“If you are willing, of course I will.”

I’m sorry, I failed to do that. I left you forever on that flight.

Outside the school gate, she took the good girl to climb the wall. The girl stumbled and fell into her arms. At that moment, she smelled the fresh scent of the girl. Her face was only inches away from hers, and her mind was a mess.

She ran with the girl, completely forgetting everything at that moment.

“My name is Xia Shinan. Remember me every summer! Isn’t it easy to remember?”

But their first summer together ended before it even arrived.

“What’s your name?”

“Tang Yin.”

Tang as in absurd.

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