Yan Qingqing forced a smile, then dropped her backpack with a look of exhaustion. "Mom, no one bullied me, and I'm not having trouble adjusting. It's just... I saw my sister at school, and she didn't seem to like me very much. I-I was just a little sad."
Hearing this, Mrs. Yan instantly flew into a rage. "She dares to dislike you? Has she lost her damn mind?! You wait right here. I'm calling her right now to ask if she has even an ounce of conscience!"
Yan Qingqing hurriedly tried to stop her. "Mom, Sister Ning Yue has already left our family. Why would she still listen to you? Besides, it's only right that she dislikes me. After all, I'm the one who stole her parents!"
Mrs. Yan only grew more infuriated by her daughter's persuasion and immediately made the call.
However, it didn't go through. Since Ning Yue needed to study and was at home, she had simply turned off her phone.
Unwilling to give up, Mrs. Yan was so angry she nearly smashed her handset. She then demanded Mr. Ning's number from Yan Qingqing, storming to track down Ning Yue.
When a knock came at her bedroom door, Ning Yue was quite surprised. Upon hearing from Mr. Ning that Mrs. Yan was on the line, she put his phone on speaker, booted up her own phone, and started recording.
"Ning Yue! You sure have some nerve. You stole seventeen years of my daughter's life, and now you actually dare to give her attitude?
"We told you the other day that you were allowed to continue living with the Yan family, but you insisted on leaving. What?
"Have you realized now how poor the conditions of your new home are, so you're taking it out on Qingqing?
"Let me tell you, I only have one daughter in this lifetime! Even if you regret it and want to come back now, we won't take you in!
"You better watch your step from now on. If you dare provoke my daughter again, don't blame me for disregarding our seventeen years of mother-daughter ties!"
Ning Yue was speechless. She thought, "Is this bitch brain-dead? I can't even choose to ignore her daughter? Who does she think she is, the Queen of the Universe?"
"Mrs. Yan, I did live with the Yan family for seventeen years, but Yan Qingqing also lived with the Ning family for seventeen years. My biological parents never wronged her in the slightest and gave her the very best they had.
"If you insist your daughter has been wronged, you should reflect on yourself. Why did a mix-up with the babies happen in the first place when the Yan family's conditions are so stellar?
"Also, your daughter might be a treasure to the Yan family, but there's no rule dictating I have to suck up to her. From the day I left the Yan family, I ceased to have any ties with you. What gives you the right to call and scream at me in the middle of the night?"
Ning Yue figured the woman had too much free time and seriously needed her head examined. Her brain was so waterlogged it had turned to mush.
Having said her piece, she hung up the phone, too lazy to listen to a lunatic barking any longer.
Mr. Ning, who had been standing to the side listening the whole time, looked heartbroken. He and his wife had raised Yan Qingqing for all those years without ever raising their voices at her. Yet, this Mrs. Yan had called to hurl abuse just because Ning Yue hadn't fawned over Qingqing. He couldn't help but wonder how many grievances his biological daughter had suffered in the Yan family in the past.
"Dad, it's fine. Don't overthink it," Ning Yue comforted. "The Yan family members weren't like this before. You have work tomorrow, so you and Mom should go to bed early."
That was the truth. The original owner of her body had been an exceptionally introverted and obedient child. She hadn't been good at communicating, but she was docile. The Yan family hadn't treated her exceedingly well, but they hadn't treated her poorly either, and they genuinely had never yelled at her.
Leaving aside how Mr. Ning and Ning's mother tossed and turned in distress over their daughter that night, once Ning Yue closed her bedroom door, she immediately uploaded the phone recording to the cloud and backed it up on a USB drive.
Thinking of Yan Qingqing's despicable nature—how simply ignoring her resulted in her complaining to Mrs. Yan and triggering an abusive phone call—Ning Yue decided she needed to make some preparations.
She opened a website and typed in some keywords. Soon, a massive amount of information popped up. After finding the purchase link and clicking it, the transaction was successful; she now only had to wait for the seller to ship the item the next day.
While Ning Yue rested after her purchase, Mrs. Yan was seething on the other end, so furious she nearly fainted. She had never been hung up on before! And to make matters worse, the person who dared to talk back and hang up on her was the fake daughter she had raised for seventeen years. How could she not be enraged?
She smashed her phone on the spot. "I'm so angry! That wretched girl thinks she's grown wings, actually daring to go against me. Just watch me teach her a harsh lesson!"
Yan Qingqing had thought her biological mother would be able to properly put the adopted daughter in her place. She never expected that Ning Yue would turn completely ruthless the moment she left the Yan family. Qingqing wasn't sure if she had overestimated the Yan family's influence or underestimated Ning Yue's courage.
Was Ning Yue truly unafraid of the Yan family retaliating against her family of three?
"Mom, don't be angry," Yan Qingqing coaxed. "Sister Ning Yue really crossed the line. How could she treat you like this? Regardless of everything, you were mother and daughter for over a decade. She's far too disrespectful to her elders."
To the enraged Mrs. Yan, these words were undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire. However, she didn't intend to call Ning Yue back for another scolding. Instead, she gently coaxed Yan Qingqing, "My sweet daughter, it's getting late. Go back to your room and rest. Don't worry, Mom will definitely get justice for you."
Ning Yue had no idea what the Yan family members were plotting. Over the next few days, she obediently focused on school. She never let Mr. Ning drop her off in the mornings. Instead, she would jog toward school with her backpack, and when she couldn't run anymore, she would scan a shared electric bike and ride the rest of the way. After school, it was the same routine: she would run until exhausted and then bike back home. After a few days of this, it was hard to say if her stamina had improved, but at the very least, she no longer got lost on her way to school.
In the blink of an eye, it was Friday, November 21st. She remembered that her classmates had only run over to watch the commotion after hearing someone had fallen from a building following their evening self-study session.
This meant the person had jumped before nine-thirty at night.
If Ning Yue wanted to achieve her goal, she had to get there early to prevent any accidents.
During the last period of the afternoon, Ning Yue slung on her backpack and once again went to her homeroom teacher to ask for a leave of absence.
Her homeroom teacher was aware of some of the things that had happened to Ning Yue. After all, she had even changed her name, and rumors had been deliberately spread around the school. It would have been difficult not to know.
As a result, getting her leave approved was relatively easy. Before Ning Yue left, her homeroom teacher still offered some earnest advice. "Deal with your family matters as quickly as possible and don't let it delay your studies any longer.
"In the past, you had a good family background, so whether your grades were good or bad wouldn't have a massive impact on you. But your family circumstances are different now, and the college entrance examination is your only way out. I don't mean anything else by this; I just want your future life to be a bit easier."
Ning Yue nodded. "Don't worry, I understand."
Upon leaving the school gates, Ning Yue found a small restaurant outside, ordered a rice bowl to fill her stomach, and then rushed without a moment's delay to the Li Building, which wasn't far from the school.
Since it was past off-work hours, the front desk was unstaffed. Ning Yue took the elevator straight up to the 25th floor.
The top two floors were the CEO's office and lounge areas, which the staff elevators couldn't reach. Ning Yue had no choice but to take the stairs. However, the stairwell door was tightly padlocked shut.
Ning Yue thought, "As expected, securing the holy scriptures is no easy feat. There really is a gauntlet of eighty-one tribulations waiting for me."
"009, hurry up and help. Don't tell me you can't even open a simple lock?" she prompted inwardly.