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Lin Yi paused- hadn’t Xinyan gone to Yanjing for a funeral? Why was she calling him, did that mean she was back already?
But it’d only been a couple of days! It hadn’t even been a week- it wasn’t possible.
(Not sure about other people but the Chinese have very long funerals with a lot of steps.)
Lin Yi found it odd, but picked up the phone anyway. “Hi, what’s up…”
The phone got hung up all of a sudden right after Lin Yi answered it.
What did that mean? Was it a wrong number, or was it something else? Lin Yi decided to call back after thinking about it- it was the first time Xinyan had called him, after all, and he couldn’t just leave the whole thing be.
“Sorry, the number you have dialed is unavailable, please try again…”
The mechanic voice sounded, telling Lin Yi that the phone had been turned off.
Lin Yi frowned- could it be that Xinyan’s phone died right as she started calling him?
He shook his head and put his phone away- there wasn’t much he could do if the call wouldn’t connect. He was a little worried for this girl he’d met by sheer fate, but Xinyan was far away in Yanjing- his help wouldn’t be able to reach out that far, and Lin Yi didn’t know where she was in the first place.
In a luxurious house in Yanjing, a fierce looking was snatching Wang Xinyan’s phone out of her hand- he slammed it at the ground and even gave it a couple of stomps. “You bitch, you were trying to call someone over, weren’t you! I can’t believe it, you were even hiding a phone! It’s a good thing I was here to keep an eye on you, else I’d be in trouble!”
Xinyan looked at the shattered shell of her phone silently before raising her cold eyes at the man. “Is this how you should treat your cousin?”
“Cousin? Hmph, why don’t you spit out our Xiao family’s inheritance first!” The man hmphed. “According to grandpa’s will, he’s married you to someone else! Before he comes with the betrothal gift don’t you even think about leaving this room!”
With that, the man slammed the door shut with a crash, followed by the locking of the door…
Xinyan sighed helplessly- she wouldn’t have returned if she’d known about this horrible state the Xiao family was in! Not only was she under house arrest by her parents, she still had some random guy she had to marry because of her grandfather’s will!
(This grandfather is on Xinyan’s mother’s side.)
It wasn’t until she’d returned to the Xiao house did she realize how different it was compared to the appearance it put up- her two uncles may have been fighting for the inheritance, but the Xiao family no longer had any substance to it, it had dried out!
Her grandfather had Alzheimer’s, and he’d signed off a couple of contracts confusedly in his last years… It cost the company a lot of money, and on top of that, a ton of debt! They were in a situation where even selling the company would only be able to barely cover for the debts!
The two uncles who had been fighting for the inheritance miraculously came into an alliance after checking the numbers of the inheritance- there wasn’t any inheritance to be fighting over anymore! All they had was a buttload of debt!!
All that was left were some housing properties that the old man had bought when he was still alive- properties that could be counted with fingers and weren’t big enough to be debating over; it was as simple as just roughly splitting them in half.
To the average person’s eyes, those villas and houses were worth an incredibly high value- just the rent money alone could allow for a healthy, happy life with no worries!
These brothers who’d lived the high-end grand life, however, saw it very differently- they couldn’t cope with living a life like that.
And so, they decided to focus their attention on their sister, who’d left home for many years… Xinyan’s mother, Xiao Qinlin.
Their reasoning was as simple as it was shameless, and that was the fact that Elder Xiao had extended fifty thousand kuai for Xiao Qinlin and Xinyan’s father Wang Xuben when his daughter left home!
And that fifty thousand was said to have been an investment for the shares in the company Wang Xuben’s had founded- he was now asked to return it along with interest!
Naturally, aside from Elder Xiao’s will which they didn’t know the authenticity to, the Xiao brothers still had an IOU, written and signed by Qinlin herself that day!
Even with her breaking with the family and running away with Xuben, Qinlin was still Elder Xiao’s daughter- for that, he gave her fifty thousand for the journey so she’d have financial security.
But in the heat of the moment, Qinlin’s recklessness prompted her to make a stand- she’d split with the Xiao family, and that meant that she wouldn’t be taking the Xiaos’ money for nothing! She then wrote an IOU to Elder Xiao, stating that she’d pay the money back with interest if they got rich!
Elder Xiao didn’t intend for his daughter to return it- he wrote the IOU off with a smile and told his eldest son Xiao Ji to throw the note away.
(Their Xiao is a different character from the xiao that means ‘little’, like in Xiaobo’s name.)
But Xiao Ji decided to keep the note, hiding it away for his own reasons.
And that very IOU became a piece of evidence against Qinlin, something for the Xiao brothers to capitalize on after Elder Xiao’s passing.
With the IOU and Elder Xiao’s will there wasn’t much Qinlin could do about it, as pissed off as she was- it was her own fault for writing that note out of frustration.
Yet what angered her the most was Elder Xiao’s will, stating that a husband had been found for Xinyan- wasn’t it too early for a twelfth grader to be getting married?!
The Xiao brothers were full of confidence, saying that they’d me meeting in the courtroom if Qinlin didn’t hand them twenty percent of their company’s shares, that they’d show everyone how Elder Xiao’s daughter didn’t care if her father had died, how she planned on stealing the inheritance away from her brothers!
God knew who the real thieves are- Qinlin was the victim here!
Qinlin may have gone against her family for the sake of love, but she was still a good daughter at the end of the day- she wouldn’t have dropped everything for the sake of handling her father’s funeral if that weren’t the case.
Naturally, Lin Yi had no idea the sort of mess the Xiaos were in, and even if he did, he wouldn’t be sure of the approach he should take. Family affairs like that were the hardest to deal with.
Lin Yi returned to the villa to see Mengyao and Yushu doing some digging in the villa’s yard- both had small shovels, and seemed exhilarated as they dug. Yushu had dirt all over her face, while Mengyao was a little better off, with just some on her clothes and less on her face.
Lin Yi parked the car in the yard and got out, his curious eyes on Yushu and Mengyao. “Yao Yao, Shu, what’re you guys doing?”
“Oh? Shield Bro, you’re back! We’re digging for treasure, hurry! Come help us! We’re so tired.” Yushu waved to Lin Yi happily after seeing him return.
“Why’re you calling him over for, Shu!” Mengyao eyed Yushu, her voice suppressed. “What if he sees it, don’t you think it’s embarrassing?”
“But Yao Yao, we have the key! Even if he digs it out there’ll still be a lock on the chest!” Yushu twirled the key in her hand as she spoke.
