“Dad!” Song Qingchun called out as she dashed unconsciously toward the iPad. Su Zhinian reached out to grab her shoulders to stop her from getting too close to Fang Rou. Glancing at Song Menghwa, who was at the verge of fainting, his lips stretched as he turned around to glare at Fang Rou with murderous intent burning in his eyes.
Fang Rou shrugged indifferently. She then turned around to look at the peaceful surface of the sea. She said in an airy and slow tone, “I admit, you guys are clever and brave to come up with this plan to bait me out into the open.
“But no matter how clever you are, you failed to calculate one crucial point, and that is…” The setting sun washed Fang Rou in its glow, giving the woman a mirage of vulnerability.
“Everything that I’ve planned all these years is to ruin the Song family. After the Song family is ruined, I have nothing left to do in this world.”
To be precise, ruining the Song family was her goal in life.
“…Therefore, I’ve put my own life on the line to commit to this plan…” Fang Rou’s eyes glistened with subdued mirth at this point. Her chin raised upward to the sun slightly, and there was a peaceful smile on her face like she had come to terms with the end of her life. “…So no matter how clever and how brave you are, how could you possibly beat someone who has nothing to lose?”
“But why? Why do you want to do this? What has the Song family done to you that you need to ruin us?!” Song Qingchun, who was snuggled in Su Zhinian’s arms, demanded angrily.
“Why?” Fang Rou repeated that word thrice before turning around slowly to look at the iPad. Song Menghwa on the screen was as confused as Song Qingchun. The elderly man’s lips were quivering uncontrollably. He also wanted to ask her why, but the shock of the situation was such that he couldn’t even utter a single word.
“Indeed, I haven’t even explained why yet…” Fang Rou straightened up to walk to the coffee table to pick up the picture that Song Qingchun had been looking at earlier. Her expression suddenly became incredibly soft and gentle, and a small smile lit up her face. She picked up the photograph and caressed it lightly. As if talking to herself, her tone had traces of sadness and yearning in it.
“…I’m not the Fang family’s daughter. They adopted me because they couldn’t have a child of their own.
“Therefore, my name is not actually Fang Rou, it’s Zhao Xiaoyan…” Fang Rou lowered her gaze and laughed slightly. “…The name is not as beautiful as Fang Rou, is it? But for me, no other name could be more beautiful than Zhao Xiaoyan… because it is the name given to me by my real mother. If possible, I wish to live my life with the name Zhao Xiaoyan, but…”
Fang Rou’s face suddenly changed to become colored by hatred and resentment. Her gaze that glared at the iPad was heavy with enmity.
“…but Song Menghwa has ruined such a small wish of mine!
“None of you know how happy my family was! Even though we weren’t as wealthy as your Song family, at least my mother stayed at home to take care of me and my sister, my father went to work every day, and we would go on a family trip every weekend…”