When the Villain Falls Madly in Love with Me - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Cemetery

“Jiang Le!” A loud shout burst into her ear.

Jiang Le’s thoughts were sharply pulled back. “…”

“Come watch the meteor shower with us over the National Day holiday! It’s a once-in-a-century kind!” Li Yan pressed her hands together, her eyes surprisingly bright. “With you, we’ll be exactly six people, enough to charter a comfortable seven-seater van!”

Jiang Le was a late bloomer, only showing signs of her graceful stature in high school. Her neat eyebrows gave her a natural sense of distance, but the lingering baby fat on her cheeks created a contradictory, cold yet somewhat blank aura.

She was folding the last few test papers, slowly tucking them into her schoolbag. The word of refusal was already on the tip of her tongue, but then she was reminded of Jiang Congyue’s frequent talk about making more friends. She pursed her lips and finally nodded gently: “Who is going?”

Li Yan named a few people Jiang Le was familiar with.

She preferred to be a loner and wasn’t keen on making friends, so her classmates were mostly just nodding acquaintances; some faces and names she couldn’t even match up.

“Call me before you leave tomorrow.” Jiang Le put on her schoolbag and stood quietly, waiting for the dawdling Li Yan.

Ever since the two girls became close, Jiang Congyue had the driver pick up and drop off Li Yan along the way, calling it “good company on the road.”

Li Yan happily thumped the table, but her eyes nervously flickered around.

Jiang Le could guess her thoughts without even opening her eyes, not to mention the clear inner voice that reached her mind.

【Can this Xiao Kexin really pull it off? If it were Jiang Le…】

The name made Jiang Le pause. A corner of her memory was flipped open. It seemed to be a boy from a previous class. Among the stack of vaguely remembered love letters she had received, he seemed to have contributed one.

She wouldn’t normally have remembered, but that particular letter was hidden in a very tricky spot, and before she could deal with it, Jiang Congyue discovered it.

Even now, recalling Jiang Congyue’s teasing smile, Jiang Le felt her ears burn. The person not only laughed but also went on a serious lecture about the 108 dangers of puppy love, rambling on until Jiang Le couldn’t sleep soundly for days.

Therefore, she remembered the name of the love letter’s sender very clearly.

“I’m not going tomorrow.” Jiang Le’s face suddenly clouded over.

The love letter alone caused such a fuss; she couldn’t imagine the consequences if Jiang Congyue found out they went out to play together.

“Ah?!” Li Yan wailed, her face falling. “Why the sudden change of mind? Everything was fine just now!”

Jiang Le’s brow furrowed tighter, her voice carrying a cold urgency: “Hurry up and pack.”

Watching Li Yan pout and whisper with a look of injustice, Jiang Le finally caught the key information from her chaotic inner monologue. It turned out this silly girl wanted to find someone to bolster her courage for a confession but was too embarrassed to tell Jiang Le directly.

She hadn’t sensed this at all.

“…Never mind,” Jiang Le pretended to check her phone, haphazardly swiping her finger across the screen, and changed her mind with slightly exaggerated acting, “Tomorrow… I’m free again.”

As slow-witted as Li Yan was, she instantly took it as truth. Her eyes lit up, and she excitedly grabbed Jiang Le’s hand, shaking it up and down: “Really?! That’s great! Thank you thank you thank you thank you…”

On the way home, Li Yan was like an overexcited top, spinning around Jiang Le, constantly on the verge of speaking.

It wasn’t until she was inside the car and caught sight of the parents in the front seat that she took out her phone and quickly typed: [Got something to tell you in detail when we get home!]

When she pushed open the door, a faint smile still lingered at the corner of Jiang Le’s mouth, a result of being amused by Li Yan. But when her eyes fell on the familiar figure on the living room sofa, the smile instantly vanished.

Jiang Congyue, wearing a blue and white long dress, leaned lazily on the armrest of the sofa, her fingertips casually turning the pages of a book on her lap.

Hearing the movement at the door, she slightly tilted her head to look over. The setting sun outside the window perfectly streamed through the glass, casting a soft golden edge on her exquisite profile.

Over the years, time seemed to have miraculously flowed backward for her. The fine lines around her eyes had subtly faded, and even the new hair roots at her temples showed a dark, shiny luster, interwoven with the silver, radiating an unbelievable vitality.

Is this the benefit of not having to work?

Since Jiang Congyue intentionally involved her in the company’s affairs, she had grown to love the joy of being a hands-off boss, reluctant to worry about anything. If Jiang Le weren’t still in high school, she would have completely retired.

“Lele’s back?” Jiang Congyue put down the book, her smile as warm as usual. “Go wash your hands quickly; dinner is almost ready.”

Jiang Le nodded, picking up her slightly cooled bowl of rice.

At the dining table, Jiang Le’s demeanor was calm and elegant, impeccable in every way. The etiquette Jiang Congyue had carefully cultivated over the years had become ingrained in her, making her look every bit the well-bred child of a wealthy family.

“After dinner, I’m taking you somewhere.” Jiang Congyue naturally placed a piece of sweet and sour spareribs into her bowl.

Jiang Le lowered her eyes, quietly chewing her food without asking where they were going. But her heart felt like a small stone had been tossed into it, causing faint ripples. She won’t sell me, after all.

Unhurriedly finishing her bowl of rice, Jiang Le put down her utensils and looked at Jiang Congyue.

“Let’s go. I’m taking you to see your parents.” After dinner, Jiang Congyue put her arm around Jiang Le’s shoulder, her tone as light as discussing the weather, even carrying a hint of jest, “Hmm? Our Lele seems to have grown a little taller again.”

Parents?

She suddenly stiffened all over, her blood seeming to freeze instantly, and her mind went blank. Why so sudden? Is she tired of me, this trouble? Or has she found a more suitable heir? A huge panic and cold suspicion instantly gripped her.

After getting into the car, she unconsciously clenched her hands, resting her chin on her palm, looking out the window in confusion.

Jiang Congyue tilted her head, taking in her nervous and worried appearance. She neither interrupted nor explained, but the smile in her eyes deepened.

The car drove steadily, the scenery outside the window rushing backward in the twilight. When the solemn, white stone archway finally came into view, the tightly strung cord of Jiang Le’s heart snapped.

It was a cemetery.

She followed Jiang Congyue, silently walking through rows of quiet headstones, finally stopping in front of two side-by-side graves.

The man and woman in the photos were still very young, their features astonishingly familiar, especially the woman, whose facial contours were almost seven parts similar to Jiang Le’s. The cold inscriptions carved into the tombstone described their short lives: Jiang Yunling, Ji Qing, died in the prime of life.

The heat of the day was sealed outside by the cool cemetery. Jiang Le’s heart had already calmed down on the way. After seeing photos that so resembled her, her first reaction was not grief, but a silent sigh of relief.

Her parents were already dead.

“They were a very loving pair of high school teachers.” Jiang Congyue gently placed two bouquets of white chrysanthemums in front of the tombstone and lit some joss paper.

The orange flames flickered, reflecting on her calm, unruffled profile. Her voice was as light as a sigh, “It was a car accident. You were less than two months old then, and they were rushing back to their hometown for the New Year…”

Jiang Le mechanically took a stack of joss paper, knelt on the cold stone slab, and fed them one by one into the fire. The flames devoured the paper, making subtle crackling sounds.

“I don’t have any other relatives?” Her voice was dry.

“They were both only children. Your grandmother…” Jiang Congyue paused, her voice even softer, “The old woman couldn’t bear the shock and followed them shortly after. Her body was only discovered by neighbors a few days later. As for you, perhaps a kind person took you to the orphanage.”

Under the firelight, Jiang Le’s lowered lashes cast deep shadows under her eyes. Her fingertips trembled almost imperceptibly. A huge, cold question silently slammed into her heart: She is lying.

If her grandmother’s death was only discovered days later, how was she, as a baby in swaddling clothes, taken to the orphanage gate in time?

But she wasn’t going to pursue it. If a person was determined to hide something, further questioning was a waste of breath. She just fed the joss paper in her hand into the fire faster.

A moment later, she suddenly looked up, her gaze piercing, directly fixed on Jiang Congyue: “My original surname was Jiang, and you… are also surnamed Jiang.” Her voice held a strange calmness. “Was this part of the ‘fate’ you talked about before?”

Jiang Congyue slowly crouched down in front of her, meeting her eye level. Her deep eyes reflected the firelight, and also Jiang Le’s pale little face. She gently shook her head, her tone utterly certain: “No.”

Hearing this, Jiang Le forced a strained smile, lowering her head and saying in a muffled voice, “Why didn’t you tell me before and only brought me here today? Don’t tell me you just found out; I won’t believe it.”

“You were too young when you were little, and I didn’t have the heart to tell you. When you grew older, I felt… perhaps it wasn’t necessary.” Jiang Congyue reached out, her warm, dry palm gently resting on the top of Jiang Le’s head, the action full of tenderness.

Her voice was as gentle as a feather, yet carried a heartbreaking weight, “But, Lele, you never treated me as family, did you?”

Under Jiang Le’s shocked gaze, Jiang Congyue slowly stood up, massaging her leg, and slowly said in a voice so gentle it could melt, “You only treated me as a benefactor. But Lele, you are an orphan, and I am all alone with no relatives. Neither you nor I needs a benefactor or someone who has been benefited; we need family, don’t we?”

“I don’t want you to feel lonely and crave family affection after I die, only to be faced with three cold tombstones when you try to find your parents.”

“I thought, you could still act spoiled with me while I’m alive. But what would my darling do then?”

She opened her arms and gently embraced the stiff girl. Resting her chin on the top of Jiang Le’s head, she whispered like a sigh, “But at least for now, you can still cry your heart out in my arms.”

Searing tears unexpectedly gushed out, instantly soaking the fabric on Jiang Congyue’s chest.

Family. How could Jiang Le not crave family?

No one was more eager for a mother’s embrace, for a complete home.

Jiang Le clutched her clothes tightly, her knuckles white, her body shaking uncontrollably. Like a frightened child who had finally found shelter from a storm, muffled sobs escaped her throat.

Jiang Congyue sighed again, gently patting her back.

“I wasn’t a deliberately abandoned child, right? My parents loved me very much, right?” Jiang Le asked repeatedly in a choked voice, still clinging to Jiang Congyue.

However, Jiang Congyue only responded with a light laugh, saying nothing, but the answer was self-evident.

On the way back, Jiang Le sat like a piece of wood, staring blankly, her eyes red, and she looked at Jiang Congyue a few times, unsure what to do.

“In the past, I always felt like you didn’t truly see this place as home,” Jiang Congyue seemed to sense her gaze, opened her eyes, smiled, and pulled her over to rest against her shoulder, her tone carrying a playful complaint, “Were you always thinking about finding your birth parents one day? And abandoning this old lady?”

“No!” Jiang Le straightened up suddenly, her voice carrying an unspent sob, urgently and loudly refuting. Then, realizing her loss of composure, her voice dropped, thick with a nasal tone, like a faint whisper, “I treat you as family…”

“Hahaha, good. Then I believe you. Now you only have me as family in this world. Who else would you cherish if not me?” Jiang Congyue laughed, the wrinkles on her face deepening a bit. She was clearly amused by her words.

The driver in the front seat couldn’t help but chuckle: “Lele is the most dutiful and sensible. Boss Jiang, please don’t tease her anymore.”

Jiang Le lowered her head in embarrassment, a blush creeping up her cheeks and ears. She didn’t know what to say.

Naturally, she missed the fleeting, triumphant cunning in Jiang Congyue’s eyes.

…

Jiang Congyue: 34