Chapter 39: I Take the Initiative to Kneel
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Jiang Jinghe frowned. “Yao Yao, are you really going to be like this?”
Why had the little girl who once loved following him around and calling him Jiang Jinghe become so cold and indifferent?
“Sister Yao Yao, are you still blaming me?” Xu Xingyue said, her eyes rimmed with red. “I know my appearance was what caused you to lose Brother Jinghe.”
“But none of that was Brother Jinghe’s fault.”
“Don’t worry. Brother Jinghe will always be yours. I won’t fight you for him.”
In her previous life, once the Jiang family learned that Lu Yao was not the Xu family’s biological daughter, their attitude toward her changed at once.
They went from fawning over her and treating her with affection to despising and rejecting her.
Even Jiang Jinghe, her childhood sweetheart and fiancé who had grown up alongside her, gradually began avoiding her.
He came up with all kinds of excuses not to see her.
That period had been the darkest time of Lu Yao’s life.
She had believed Jiang Jinghe was someone worth entrusting her future to, someone who would not judge her because of this matter.
But in the end, she simply did not understand men.
During the time Jiang Jinghe had avoided her in her previous life, it was not because he had been too busy to see her. Rather, he had been secretly spending time with Xu Xingyue.
The two of them had even gone so far as to meet each other’s parents.
She, meanwhile, had been nothing more than a clown making a fool of herself between them.
Looking back now, she had been like a pathetic stray during that period of her previous life.
Wherever she went, people treated her with disdain.
She had no intention of continuing to remain entangled with them after leaving the Xu family.
“First, I don’t like secondhand goods,” Lu Yao said solemnly.
“Second, I’m already Young Master Xiang’s woman. Don’t smear me with your filth.”
“And besides, are you saying… that Young Master Xiang is inferior to Jiang Jinghe?”
The guests attending the auction banquet were drawn over by the sound of the three arguing.
Before long, they had formed a circle around them.
All of them began pointing and whispering about Xu Xingyue.
“Is the Third Miss Xu still dreaming? How many people in the entire Harbor City can compare with the Xiang family?”
“Wealth, status, power—even ten Jiang families together would not match the Xiang family’s standing.”
“Jiang Jinghe is merely a wealthy heir from a prominent family. How could he compare with Young Master Xiang?”
“Exactly. The Third Miss Xu even said she wanted to give Jiang Jinghe to her sister. Anyone who didn’t know better might think there was something going on between her sister and him.”
“Isn’t she afraid those words will reach Young Master Xiang’s ears?”
“Indeed. No matter how tolerant a man is, how many can bear having their woman put a green hat on them?”
“Could it be that the Third Miss Xu is jealous that her sister has attached herself to Young Master Xiang, and wants to make him misunderstand her on purpose?”
Who present did not know that Lu Yao belonged to Xiang Zhihua?
Even Xiang Zhihua himself had admitted it.
Yet her own sister had chosen to say something so misleading in a setting like this.
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Only Xu Xingyue herself knew what she was really trying to accomplish.
Was she trying to make life difficult for her older sister in the future?
“No, that’s not what I meant, Sister Yao Yao!”
Faced with everyone’s accusations, Xu Xingyue flushed crimson, looking completely flustered.
She had never imagined that Lu Yao would become so sharp-tongued.
With just a few words, she had turned the crowd’s blades all against her.
Xu Xingyue was both frantic and furious.
“Brother Jinghe, that’s not what I meant. Really, you have to believe me.”
With no other choice, Xu Xingyue cast a pleading look at Jiang Jinghe beside her.
“I know,” Jiang Jinghe said, gently patting her hand in reassurance.
“Yao Yao, how did you become so spiteful and cutting?”
He looked at Lu Yao with a complicated expression, as though she were a complete stranger.
“You know perfectly well that Xingyue didn’t mean it that way.”
“No matter what she meant, I’ve already made my position clear. Jiang Jinghe, you have no right to pressure me.”
In her previous life, she had tolerated him because they had been engaged.
But now she was Xiang Zhihua’s woman. She could not make him lose face.
What made him think she would continue indulging him and listening to such shameless nonsense?
“Young Master Jiang, if there’s nothing else, please take your people somewhere else.”
“Stop disturbing me here.”
She had no desire to watch Xu Xingyue sob and whine in front of her.
It sounded like someone mourning at a funeral.
Just listening to it gave her a headache.
“You!”
“Sister Yao Yao, please don’t be angry.”
Xu Xingyue interrupted Jiang Jinghe before he could say anything, crying so pitifully that tears seemed to fall like pear blossoms in the rain.
Anyone who did not know the truth might have thought Lu Yao was using her power to bully her.
“Would you like me to kneel and kowtow to apologize?”
“I’m begging you to forgive me for what I said just now!”
As she spoke, Xu Xingyue made a show of kneeling before Lu Yao.
Lu Yao sneered inwardly.
Had Xu Xingyue become addicted to performing?
Was humiliating her in front of everyone not enough?
Did she now want Lu Yao to tear away her false mask as well?
“Lu Yao, don’t go too far!”
Jiang Jinghe hurriedly grabbed Xu Xingyue by the arm, then turned on Lu Yao in anger.
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“Xingyue already knows she was wrong. What more do you want?”
“When did you become so cold-hearted?”
With her arms folded across her chest, Lu Yao watched the spectacle with a faintly amused expression.
“She was the one who wanted to kneel. What does that have to do with me?”
“That’s right, Young Master Jiang. We all saw it. The Third Miss Xu was the one who offered to kneel. Miss Lu never said a thing.”
Several wealthy businessmen and their wives who had been watching from the side stepped forward to testify on Lu Yao’s behalf.
They said that those involved were often blind to the truth, while bystanders saw everything clearly.
Wasn’t Xu Xingyue’s little performance simply meant to put Lu Yao in an embarrassing position?
She wanted to win everyone’s sympathy.
Unfortunately, she had failed to consider how many of the people present would fall for such a transparent act.
Most of them had their fair share of mistresses and lovers at home.
They had seen scenes like this countless times.
Even the most foolish man could guess what was really going on.
Only men like Jiang Jinghe, who had no women around them, would still fall for her tricks.
Xu Xingyue’s face burned red.
She had never dreamed that her plan would not only fail to put Lu Yao in an awkward position, but would instead push herself into the mud.
Now, as she saw so many people surrounding her and Jiang Jinghe, pointing and whispering, Xu Xingyue felt an overwhelming urge to claw her way into the floor.
She wished she could burrow into it and hide.
“Brother Jinghe, this really has nothing to do with Sister Yao Yao.”
With matters having reached this point, Xu Xingyue could only force herself to admit the truth in front of everyone.
She did not want to damage the perfect image she had built in Jiang Jinghe’s heart.
“I was the one who offered to kneel before Sister Yao Yao. Don’t be angry.”
“I’m not angry, Xingyue.”
Jiang Jinghe patted Xu Xingyue’s shoulder sympathetically. “You’re simply too kind.”
Lu Yao had changed.
She was no longer the person he had known three years ago.
Lu Yao had no interest in watching the two of them cling to each other any longer.
She rose to leave.
She was afraid she would be sick.
“Sister Yao Yao!”
At the sight of this, a glint flashed through Xu Xingyue’s eyes. She quickly reached out toward Lu Yao.
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