Capítulo 26: The Half-Sisters

A night before Zhang Mei Xing went to collect information from Song Heng and the others.

Xiang Linxin gatecrashed her heartless father's wedding and acted boisterously there. She only had one goal in mind, to not let the ones she loathed be happy.

But who would be able to tell that in reality, she was so scared about her life and that she was trying to get a few laughs from the sabotage operation to distract herself a bit?

No one that she was aware of. Yet that was the truth.

Even the night of passion with the mysterious mercenary guard she had randomly acquainted herself with was an attempt to forget about the imminent crisis that had claimed her life in the previous lifetime.

But what many elderly people always said, we cannot run away from the truth forever.

'At that time, I was drunk, and then made to drive a tampered car.'

'This time, if I just obediently stay at home, would Shen Li give up?'

When morning came, Xiang Linxin stared blankly at the ceiling of her room and began to reflect.

Shen Li's case…

Sometimes doing something for the first time was the greatest hurdle. But once one had overcome that, the next tries would no longer be awkward. In a bad person's case, the guilt would no longer be as strong.

Once somebody stooped low, attempting to kill another for her benefits, then questioning that person's determination would be just utter stupidity. Xiang Linxin was at least not so naïve to doubt that a single failure would stomp the ambition and unreasonable loathing in Shen Li's heart.

The threat of death, the trauma, and the insecurity forced Xiang Linxin to think more than she had ever done in her entire life. Yan Yongzheng was not in her calculations as somebody she could depend on, as she had mistaken him for a liability she had to take responsibility for.

Xiang Linxin was arrogant and willful, and she was aware that she was also not smart.

But honesty was her greatest merit, even if it was only absolute to those she trusted or felt indebted to. With this said, the girl told the guard her issues with the Shen mother and daughter pair. Her intention was purely to explain why the man should stay away from her from now on.

…

Like what Xiang Linxin expected, Shen Li was already so resolute to finish her off. The latter's determination seemed to have been inexplicably shared with Zhang Mei Xing who began to use Shen Li's identity.

After the trainee guide went to the places frequented by Song Heng, CEO Xiang, and Madam Shen, and looked through some items that belonged to these people, she then checked Shen Li's contacts and the places this half-sister of the examinee usually frequented.

Due to luck, or perhaps because the heavens finally wanted to reward her for her effort, Zhang Mei Xing found something crucial. There was a diary hidden under the bed that detailed Shen Li's hate on Xiang Linxin and her mother. According to the notes, Xiang Linxin's mother 'forced the father to separate from her family even though Madam Shen and he were the true pairing'.

Time passed and Zhang Mei Xing closed the notebook.

But despite reading everything written then, Zhang Mei Xing was just feeling odd about the unusual relationship between the two half-sisters.

'Sighs. How stupid.'

'Before, I thought the ridiculous sibling rivalry in Chinese fiction works is just in some authors' imagination so they can sell some stories, because these works had quite become popular locally and abroad. And, I bet this made the Western readers thought that Chinese families are toxic, attributing it to the one-child policy.'

'However, in reality, siblings are not like that. Sisters and brothers might fight, but it won't be to the point of biting at each other's throat.'

Zhang Mei Xing grimaced. She couldn't help but remember her little sister who she also bullied sometimes.

At a young age, she liked pinching that girl's cheeks and fighting over, if not stealing the latter's' snacks and toys. Of course, when Zhang Bi, that lazy pig, grew up, she learned to fight back so it no longer became fun. But that was it. There was no deep-seated grudge formed. In fact, every time some outsiders tried to bully Zhang Mei Xing or her little sister, they would join forces to give those people hell and show them that no others were allowed to bully any of them, sisters.

The two of them were not that narrow-minded and had different ways to express familial love, so she assumed the others would be like that too. That even if they were half-siblings or step-siblings, the worst that could happen would be a cold war or some low-level school bullying.

'Wow, I never knew a super poisonous deadly rivalry can really exist,' she thought.

So all along, she was wrong? Freakin' hell, there were really all sorts of people in this world. Even though the issue was amongst the senior generation, it got extended to Shen Li and Xiang Linxin.

Zhang Mei Xing's brows furrowed.

...

Two days quickly passed and like it was some work of fate, to which one would only feel helpless against, Xiang Linxin still ended up going outside even though the woman did not want to. The reason was not her fair-weather friend who called her out to drink, but the lawyer who used to work for her mother who had suddenly asked for a meet-up.

Xiang Linxin thought it was important, so she grabbed her car keys and went out. While driving she was consoling herself that she was not going to her fake friend's place so there would be no opportunity for anyone to harm her. She had also brought the guard with her.

"Later, please don't go out of my sight," she said, turning to her left. There was a stoic-looking guy seated there.

"Got it. But why did your mother's lawyer call you at night?" A masculine voice hinting a bit of dissatisfaction and suspicion rang from the driver's seat.

Xiang Linxin who was on the passenger seat next to him met his gaze and shook her head.

"I have no idea. But I am not afraid of anything bad happening since Mr. Feng has always been loyal to the Liu family. My mother is from the Liu family."

A piece of memory seemed to have been triggered from within her brain. Xiang Linxin subconsciously spoke about her parents. "You see. That ungrateful father of mine is not that wealthy at first. He did come from a good middle-class family with roughly a million RMB net worth, but that was it. He only came this far because my mother married him. As a result, he got the Liu family's support. But look what he did."

"A phoenix man, huh. Somebody from a modest origin compared to your mom," he said.

"Not really. Xiang Bo is not from some countryside or village, but if we were to consider his opportunistic and greedy side, then yes, we can say he's similar to that."

Xiang Linxin had lost all respect for her father since she got disowned so she had no qualms calling him by his full name and was also not defending him against an outsider's insult.

The guard shrugged and commented, "Most of the time, men are like that. They are drawn to humble women who can make them feel like they are their skies since they feel inferior around their capable and rich legitimate wives."

"Hmmp. I don't care about his stupid ego." Xiang Linxin harrumphed.

She then crossed her arms and continued speaking, steering the conversation back to the real topic. "Anyway, those two rarely met, I mean my dad and my mom's lawyer. That is why I'm willing to come out to see him. Moreover, even without factoring Lawyer Feng's loyalty to my mom's family and his own large net worth, he's an upright man. So, there was no way he would like a person who did not hesitate to cheat on his wife, throw his legitimate daughter out upon his wife's death, and marry his cheating partner not even half a year later."

The guard was silent for a few seconds before he looked at her through the rearview mirror. In his eyes, the one she was trying to convince was herself, not him. After all, she looked distracted and not her usual haughty self.

"Let's hope your impression of this Mr. Feng is spot on," he could only say.

Xiang Linxin was a bit unnerved by the meaningful tone of the man. "Okay."

She did not grasp that the other man was concerned why the other party had to call at this hour, doubting why the other party set up the meeting in a public place than either houses or the lawyer's office. Her mind was whether her enemies could track and her location and then send someone to mess with her vehicle.

Ten minutes later, the two got off the car, walking towards a privately booked room in a hotel.

It turned out that Yan Yongzheng's suspicions were not unfounded.

Still, even the astute heir of the Yan family did not expect that it would be a beautiful, innocent-looking woman turning up at the agreed place.

Beside him, the girl also stopped at the doorway of the private room and when she finally snapped out of her stupor and strode forward with hurried steps. The guard narrowed his eyes at the other woman as he followed.

Then, suddenly, behind them, the door closed by itself.

The next thing that happened, Xiang Linxin was roaring in anger. "Shen Li!!!"

...

A/N:

Phoenix man = someone who came from humble beginnings, made his way through school, and landed a good job in the city. Some made it through by exhausting the resources of their families in the process, so they were expected to change the fate of the family when they eventually succeeded. Some were not that poor, simply from the countryside, and succeeded in the city before getting fancied by rich city women.

In most Chinese novels, the majority of phoenix men were depicted as calculative people lusting for their wives' wealth. Every time, they were with childhood sweethearts/mistresses from the countryside who they had illegitimate children with. XD

No idea why many QT series and romance novels depicted them that way. But if I were to guess, it's probably because Chinese authors wanted to appeal to city women who were afraid of marrying men from the countryside, scared by the thought of their partners prioritizing the extended family over them. (First type of phoenix men, the ones who made it through university by exhausting their whole family's resources).

For them, marrying phoenix men, regardless of success, usually means endless relatives coming over to borrow money for all sorts of reasons, asking help to get them a job in the city, etc. In short, endless troubles and heartache. They must be made into villains in novels and dramas to discourage young city women from falling for phoenix men.

...

Anyway, thanks for reading.

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