Everyone Thought The Fake Heiress Had Her Reasons Ch. 14
After going downstairs, Ming Jiao didn’t linger inside the villa. She stepped outside partly to get some fresh air and partly to see if there were any remnants of a struggle.
However, the night was vast and obscure. Apart from the System mentioning residual energy fluctuations in her ear, she couldn’t spot anything.
Her aunt, who had been absent for a long time and almost seemed invisible, finally appeared. “Ming Jiao, so you’re here.”
She approached with a somewhat gloomy and apologetic expression. “I just found out your sister didn’t come. The ones attending the banquet today were Tang Xiaoyu and Ming Yue. Do you think she’s deliberately avoiding us?”
Ming Jiao applied what she’d learned and frowned. “Really? Sister is so cunning.”
The System, “…”
Although her aunt found her choice of words slightly odd, she was pleased with Ming Jiao’s dissatisfaction toward her sister and added, “I ran into an acquaintance earlier and chatted for a bit. When I turned around, you were gone. Did anyone bully you?”
Her aunt likely knew before arriving that Ming Wei wouldn’t be there. Even if she hadn’t, she should have found out soon after. Leaving Ming Jiao alone at the banquet was meant to expose her to cold stares and ridicule, fueling her resentment toward the Ming family.
Yet, in her memories, there wasn’t the slightest hint or clue of any discord between her aunt and her adoptive mother.
With this in mind, Ming Jiao’s tone turned meaningful. “Who could bully me? A couple of people came looking for trouble, but I sent them packing.”
Her aunt wasn’t surprised by her response, assuming “sent them packing” was a figure of speech rather than literal. She sighed helplessly, “You and your fiery temper. Well, it’s not a big deal anyway. But next time you see your sister, behave yourself in front of her.”
Since her sister Ming Wei wasn’t present, and both her aunt and she had achieved their respective goals for the evening—at least she had—there was no reason to stay any longer. After a brief chat, her aunt offered to drive her home.
Upon arrival, her aunt didn’t get out of the car or express any intention to come inside. Instead, she offered a mix of comfort and advice. “You must be tired. Get some rest. I’ll take you out to relax in a couple of days.”
“When your sister returns, I’ll bring you to see her. Remember not to hold grudges and call your mom and grandma more often. They dote on you. If they soften and let you move back, your sister won’t be able to stop them.”
Ming Jiao nodded repeatedly, pretending to take the words to heart.
“Go on inside,” her aunt said finally.
Ming Jiao waved, turned, and entered the courtyard.
Her aunt started the car, preparing to leave, but couldn’t resist glancing back at Ming Jiao’s retreating figure through the window.
As she withdrew her gaze, her expression gradually darkened.
In the past, this non-biological niece had been easy to read—shallow, selfish, spoiled, and willful. But since her return, she had become somewhat inscrutable.
Was it because the blow of being driven out of the house had forced her to mature?
But she… didn’t need her to grow.
As the car began to move, rows of streetlights cast shifting patterns of light and shadow. Her face appeared stark and cold in the illumination, her eyes filled with malice.
·
Ming Jiao walked through the flower beds under the moonlight, reaching the entrance to the house’s main hall. Only when she heard the sound of the car fading into the distance and silence once again enveloped her surroundings did she slowly let out a breath, feeling genuinely at ease.
At first, she hadn’t thought much of it, but only now did she realize that no matter how effortlessly she handled things, these people and these situations left her feeling exhausted.
Pushing the door open, she stepped inside, wanting nothing more than to throw herself onto the soft sofa and lie down for a while. But as she moved, her foot caught on the threshold, throwing her off balance. She stumbled and fell to the ground.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a hard fall, but her hands, pressed against the cold floor, ached slightly.
Feeling the chill seeping from her palms, a wave of frustration washed over her at her current, almost frail state.
The System, thinking she had fallen badly and was taking too long to get up, sounded concerned. 【Host, are you okay?】
Ming Jiao had just said she was fine when she sensed a familiar, cool, and fragrant presence slowly approaching. Looking up, she saw Tang Xiaoyu crouching in front of her.
The darkness, devoid of light, perfectly concealed her expression. Only the silver-rimmed glasses still gleamed, cold as moonlight.
“Can you stand?” she asked.
Seeing her in this guise, the gloom in Ming Jiao’s heart suddenly dissipated. She asked leisurely, “If I said no, would you carry me back to my room?”
Tang Xiaoyu watched her quietly for a few seconds before reaching out to support her arm. Her soft palm, touching her without the barrier of clothing, carried a warmth that felt more real, making her seem like a living person rather than a solitary moon hanging in the sky.
“If you want.”
Ming Jiao instinctively wanted to pull back. She said to the System, 【I feel like she’s evolved too.】
If it were before, Tang Xiaoyu probably wouldn’t have responded to her, unlike now, where she directly turned the tables.
The System, 【Too?】
Ming Jiao thought to herself, Yes, because you’re not the straightforward System I first met either.
“That would be too much trouble,” she said, patting her hands as she tried to get up. But Tang Xiaoyu gently pressed her palm against Ming Jiao’s chest through her clothes. A faint blue glow shimmered in the air, beautiful as an illusion.
Ming Jiao recognized this as the ability Tang Xiaoyu had used to save her on the night of the incident. Such a cold color, yet when it touched her, it felt intensely warm.
After a moment of daze, she grabbed Tang Xiaoyu’s hand and said seriously, “I’m fine. I just tripped because it was too dark.”
She added, “My injuries will heal soon.”
With the System’s heartfelt assurance, she would be completely healed in at most a week.
Tang Xiaoyu could also tell that her current condition wasn’t bad and that she would recover quickly. But it was precisely this speed of recovery that stood out.
Her jet-black eyes fixed on Ming Jiao. Even for an ability user with enhanced physical fitness or someone with professional training, her recovery was too fast.
Especially since she wasn’t either.
This wasn’t the first time Ming Jiao had been scrutinized by Tang Xiaoyu like this. Perhaps she was once again comparing her to the impression she had of her, puzzled and suspicious of her unusually swift recovery. But Ming Jiao couldn’t explain that she had the System as a cheat, so she could only ignore Tang Xiaoyu’s probing gaze.
After all, they were only traveling this path together for now. Once the matter with the hunters was resolved, they would each return to their own places.
As this thought crossed her mind, before her complex emotions could fully surface, she suddenly realized belatedly that they seemed to be standing too close.
So close that she could discern every subtle expression on Tang Xiaoyu’s delicate, porcelain-like face. So close that the warmth from the palm pressed against her clothes and the soft wrist she held seeped through.
Ming Jiao suddenly realized she was still gripping Tang Xiaoyu’s wrist and quickly released it. “Sorry.”
Tang Xiaoyu was momentarily stunned before withdrawing her hand. She didn’t speak, only her butterfly-wing-like lashes fluttered slightly, revealing little emotion.
Ming Jiao stood up from the floor and turned around, brushing off nonexistent dust from her clothes along with that inexplicable discomfort. “I’ll go upstairs to change first. Um… are you hungry? Should we order takeout?” It was obvious no one could eat properly at tonight’s banquet.
The mention of clothes reminded Tang Xiaoyu of something. She studied Ming Jiao’s retreating figure. The clothes Ming Jiao wore now didn’t fit quite right—especially the T-shirt, which was slightly too broad in the shoulders, making her appear somewhat slender from behind.
“I remember you weren’t wearing this outfit when you went out.”
Ming Jiao paused, then a mischievous glint surfaced. She turned her head and deliberately asked in a leisurely tone, “So you were secretly protecting me when I went out!” Otherwise, how would she know she’d changed clothes?
A ripple passed through Tang Xiaoyu’s dark pupils, though her expression remained unchanged. “What do you think?”
“I think you’re working too hard.” Ming Jiao hadn’t intended to expose her secret identity anyway—it was just one of those inexplicable, cat-like itching impulses to tease her occasionally. Knowing when to stop, she noticed Tang Xiaoyu still watching her with those pure black eyes and had to explain, “I ran into someone I’d offended before. We had a minor conflict, and my clothes got dirty. Luckily, a kind friend came to my aid—these are her clothes.”
Tang Xiaoyu could easily imagine what kind of conflict it was—all too predictable situations. Yet for some reason, she suddenly felt somewhat uncomfortable. She couldn’t understand where this emotion came from. Perhaps because Ming Jiao was her parents’ biological daughter—no matter how much she disliked or was disappointed in her, she didn’t want to see her trampled by others.
“You don’t seem angry at all.”
Ming Jiao knew their conversation would continue for a while. She walked a few steps away to turn on the living room lights and smiled at the remark. “Why should I be angry? You don’t understand what kind of person I am at all—I’ve always been the one bullying others, never the one being bullied.” As for slapping someone across the face—no need to elaborate on that to Tang Xiaoyu, lest she add a “violent” label to her already poor impression.
Tang Xiaoyu thought this statement was indeed accurate—she really didn’t understand her at all.
Then Ming Jiao added, “By the way, there seemed to be an incident halfway through the banquet.”
Tang Xiaoyu’s expression shifted abruptly, though she remained rooted in place.
Unaware of her reaction, Ming Jiao asked with curiosity, “For about twenty minutes, everyone stood still like puppets. I’m guessing that was the demon invasion you mentioned, where ordinary people lose consciousness for protection? Did you see the big white ship in the sky? Do you know what it was for?”
This time, Tang Xiaoyu scrutinized her openly. “You didn’t lose consciousness, and you saw the Sky Ark.”
Ming Jiao had prepared herself for suspicion when asking the question. With so many debts already, one more didn’t matter—since she couldn’t explain her rapid recovery anyway, one more anomaly made little difference.
Tang Xiaoyu gazed steadily at Ming Jiao for a few moments, knowing she wouldn’t reveal her secrets and refraining from pressing further, instead committing all her observations and doubts about her to memory.
“It’s not that ordinary people lose consciousness when magical creatures invade—it’s that the Sky Ark isolates the spatial rifts from areas where ordinary people are present during such invasions. That protective isolation barrier is called a barrier.”
“Due to the influence of the special energy within the barrier, ordinary people’s bodies and wills struggle to withstand it, causing their consciousness to fall into chaos, leaving no related memories behind.”
Ming Jiao suddenly understood, “This is an effect intentionally achieved by the Sky Ark’s designers, right? For secrecy.”
Tang Xiaoyu nodded gently.
Ming Jiao thought the design was quite thorough, “Then it shouldn’t just be ability users who are unaffected by the barrier, should it?”
Tang Xiaoyu looked at her again, “There are others who aren’t affected, such as specially trained official troops, and martial artists from the Ancient Martial Arts Alliance.”
Ming Jiao felt a stir in her heart, “Ancient Martial Arts Alliance?
Translator: Glariosa
Editor: Ruu
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