Chapter 12

An JingZhi gave An ZhiXia another sidelong glance, saying, "ZhiXia, seeing your fourth brother like this, he probably can hardly make it home by himself. Why don't you just take Dad's car?"

"Alright." An ZhiXia secretly winked at An ZhiAng.

An ZhiAng's originally calm face instantly broke into a smile.

Oh well, give Teacher An a chance to show off. After all, he was still the one closest to his little sister.

It would take another ten minutes or so to get home. Getting out of the car, An ZhiXia looked at the An family residence in front of her.

Even though she had seen this place countless times in her previous life, the feeling of having a tangible body now was still different.

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"This is our home, go on in, child," An JingZhi said, trying to keep his face calm while endlessly sighing on the inside.

The An family had once been a prominent household, with ancestors who had held high office. However, the An family preferred a low profile and had never flaunted their status.

When Grandpa was still alive, he had great foresight. He spent all the family fortune supporting the revolution and was himself a rather famous red writer. In the year before An ZhiXia and An ZhiAng were born, Grandpa had even donated an airplane to the country. There was still a plaque commemorating the airplane donation hanging in the An family living room.

For this reason, Grandpa had sold the ancestral mansion and moved the family into this smaller compound. Though called small, it was still relatively spacious compared to the cramped quarters other families lived in.

Even Grandpa's insistence that his grandson An JingZhi marry a country girl Zhou Nan was a move to make the family background seem less prominent.

One could say the An family's ability to remain stable today despite such past glory was all thanks to Grandpa's good fortune.

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"Mom, sister-in-law, we're back..."

They could hear An ZhiAng's voice before even entering the door. It made An JingZhi shake his head.

This rascal took after him the most in looks, but had the least similar personality. Always noisy and rambunctious, yet he was already so old.

The first person to run out from inside, however, was An MeiYun, followed by Liu Ling dragging along her child.

Two-year-old Wen Qing let go of his mom's hand as soon as he was out the door, laughing as he rushed towards An ZhiAng to be carried.

An ZhiAng quickly took the child and even lifted him playfully, making the little one giggle and shout, "High, high..."

An MeiYun's face, bearing three or four parts resemblance to Li Xiu, was full of tears and complex emotions - expectation, apprehension. She walked up to An ZhiXia, "You must be elder sister Cao. Hello, I'm MeiYun. I..."

Before An MeiYun could finish, An ZhiXia suddenly reached out and yanked off the red string around her neck. Hanging on it was a tear-shaped red jade pendant.

"Ah..." An MeiYun cried out, covering the back of her neck where the string had cut in. The painful feeling lingered.

She stared wide-eyed in disbelief. She could guess An ZhiXia must hate her, but didn't expect her to act so directly, even daring to lay hands on her in front of the whole family.

But this was also her own scheme. Otherwise, she wouldn't have deliberately worn this pendant today.

"ZhiXia..."

An JingZhi also didn't expect this scene. Afraid she would act again, he quickly grabbed her wrist. An ZhiXia still held the red string in her hand, the pendant clasped in her palm.

"I'm just taking back what belongs to me. Is that really so shocking?" An ZhiXia smiled, finally remembering what she had forgotten - this red jade pendant.

Once An JingZhi was sure she wouldn't hit again, he let go. "What do you mean?"

An ZhiXia opened her hand, revealing the pendant within, red as blood, smooth in texture, clearly high quality jade. But her gaze gradually saddened, "This was given to me by an old master driven out of his village. Snatched away by elder sister two months ago. What a coincidence it would appear here."

An ZhiXia's tone changed as she looked up directly at An MeiYun.

She hadn't seen An MeiYun wear a red jade pendant in her previous life either, though it was possible because she had died then, while An MeiYun only found out about her own origins two years ago in this life and made contact with her wretched birth parents. So today, she deliberately chose to wear it to intimidate.

After all, An MeiYun didn't know she had also transmigrated back. The old her would likely have endured patiently for the sake of peace.

An MeiYun's heart lurched. She was puzzled why this was completely different from her expectations.

She really had deliberately worn this jade pendant today. After all, it was still a special period in history. Thrift and simplicity were virtues of the time. If she went out wearing such a pendant, she might even be criticized for vanity.

Wasn't elder sister Cao the most tolerant?

Timid and useless, only lucky to have parents and an elder brother propping her up. Without them, she would have lived an even worse life than herself.

But now elder sister Cao's personality was completely different from what she knew in the previous life.

An MeiYun not only recalled the previous life, but An ZhiXia seemed to have also transmigrated back around the same time. Unlike this life where she took the initiative to find them, last time it happened because An ZhiAng fought with the family, ran away from home in anger and went to the Zhou house. He encountered grass-cutting elder sister Cao with that face so similar to Zhou Nan while wandering the mountains. That's what raised his suspicions.

So a few years after she returned, she contacted the Gao family and told them to keep elder sister Cao under control, otherwise neither would end up better off if things blew up. She just didn't expect it to make elder sister Cao return prematurely, moreover already knowing of her own origins and even finding the Zhou family!

"MeiYun, give me an explanation for this." An JingZhi's scolding quickly brought An MeiYun back. Raising her eyes, An JingZhi had already taken An ZhiXia towards the living room. Liu Ling took little Wen Qing from An ZhiAng's arms, found an excuse to hide away in her room.

She didn't have a great relationship with An MeiYun either. In the first few years after marrying in, the young aunt hadn't bullied her less. She and An Zhiqing were matched by her father-in-law, so had no emotional foundation to start with. With her husband often away from home, she could only swallow grievances alone.

But the last two years, An MeiYun suddenly changed, constantly trying to get close to her. Liu Ling had assumed it was because she bore the An family's first grandson.

Not until two days ago, when she found out this young aunt wasn't even a blood relation, and had known about her own origins two years prior, even contacting those heartless birth parents, did Liu Ling suddenly understand.

The newly returned cousin didn't seem easy to deal with either. Family matters should still be handled by her in-laws in the end. As a daughter-in-law, she shouldn't get involved. It was better to take her son and hide away, lest they get dragged in and embroiled in the mess.

In the living room, An JingZhi sat down while everyone else stood.

With his old arms and legs, he couldn't compare to the young people. Riding a bike that long made his legs ache.

He suddenly thought, those heartless Gao couple hadn't properly taken care of their daughter at all these years. The child looked frail and probably couldn't take much torment. He should let her sit to talk too.

An ZhiXia certainly didn't stand on ceremony. She hadn't ridden a bike but sitting in the car so long was also uncomfortable.

An MeiYun secretly clenched her fingers.

Saying they were the same, even if elder sister Cao returned, she was still the daughter of this family. It was all lies.

Elder sister Cao had just come back and was already clearly treated differently.

An MeiYun felt she did no wrong. Elder sister Cao's return was snatching away her life. If she didn't resist, she would be viciously bullied like last time, and even pathetically die in the end.

"Dad, sister did give me this pendant, but she said it was hers. I really didn't know it belonged to elder sister Cao, otherwise I wouldn't have worn it today. After all, in this period..." An MeiYun bit her lip, "Actually, I wore it today intending to give it to elder sister Cao. I just didn't expect such an unfortunate coincidence that it originally belonged to elder sister Cao to begin with."