Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

  The landlady then shut the door. “I have never seen such an unreasonable person. There are really all kinds of fish in the sea!”

  Ding Jiayi was splashed with dirty water. She was soaked to the bones and she felt sorry for herself. She sobbed her guts out and seemed more aggrieved than Xiang Lin Sao, the typical tragic character in Chinese fiction.

  Ding Jiayi sniffed and wiped the water off her face with her sleeves.

  Old Qiao was really ruthless. Recently, she had been minding her own business. No matter how much she disliked that wretched girl, she still prepared her meals for her. She did not even raise her voice at her.

  She had changed for the better, yet Old Qiao never changed his attitude toward her. Now that Old Qiao had moved, he did not even bother to tell her. Was his heart made of stone?

  Could he not see the efforts she had put in the past few months?

  Even if his heart was made of stone, he should have been moved by her actions.

  Ding Jiayi did not understand why Qiao Dongliang moved again without any apparent reason. Unlike last time, he did not tell her where they moved to.

  Would she lose her husband forever because of this incident?

  Unknowingly, Ding Jiayi ended up at the house that Qiao Dongliang rented previously. Looking at the familiar but distant door, Ding Jiayi burst into tears again. She slumped against the door and sat on the ground crying. “Old Qiao, you are so ruthless. Haven’t I done well enough?”

  Did Old Qiao want her to be the servant of that wretched girl?

  In the past few months, she treated that wretched girl with respect as if she were her elders. Both the father and daughter were heartless and ruthless!

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  It was autumn now. The weather was dry during the day but windy and unbearably cold at night. Ding Jiayi was wet to the bones. She felt chilly in the windy autumn night.

  Ding Jiayi shivered from the cold. She wrapped her arms around herself and curled up like a shrimp. She leaned against the door, refusing to leave.

  She was worried that if she left, she would never find Qiao Dongliang again and she would lose her husband forever. It seemed to her that as long as she stayed there, Qiao Dongliang would return to her.

  A gust of wind blew over her and she shivered in the cold. Ding Jiayi leaned against the door and fell asleep shortly.

  Ding Jiayi slept through the night. When she woke up the next day, dawn was just breaking.

  Ding Jiayi felt dizzy. She held onto the door and stood up. She smiled bitterly to herself. “I should have known that Old Qiao turned heartless all because of that wretched girl. I am too foolish to camp here over the night.”

  Ding Jiayi put her hand to her burning forehead. Ding Jiayi knew that she had a cold and fever from sleeping in the open on a windy night. Moreover, she was wet to the bones from the basin of cold water that was splashed on her.

  She was saddened that nobody noticed that she slept out in the open and sent her to the hospital. Her family was ruthless to her, and the people in this world were no different either.

  Ding Jiayi leaned against the wall, feeling dizzy. She finally made her way back to the Qiao’s house.

  As soon as she reached home, Ding Jiayi was so sick that she took off her clothes hurriedly and plopped down onto the bed. She fell asleep right away, barely covering herself with the blanket.

  Ding Jiayi slept for the whole day. She had completely forgotten that she had to work.

  When she woke up again, the sky was already dark. She had not eaten anything for the past twenty-four hours and she was so hungry that she had gastric pains. Even though she had slept for the whole day, she was still burning with fever.

  Her body felt hot, and there was no strength in her arms and legs. There was also nobody around to take care of her.

  Ding Jiayi could not help but break down in tears. Her tears kept flowing down her face.

  Ding Jiayi moved her lips and realized that her lips were so dry that they cracked at the slightest movement.

  Ding Jiayi, who had not had a good rest for one whole day, felt like drinking some water. But she could only taste the blood that was on her lips.

  “Why did things turn out this way?” Ding Jiayi cried into the blanket. She did not understand why she would end up like this. Her husband was not around, and both of her daughters were studying. No one cared whether she was well or not.

  In the past……

  Ding Jiayi suddenly remembered that when she was sick, Qiao Nan would always stay by her side and take great care of her.

  Ding Jiayi gritted her teeth and dried her tears. “I don’t believe I can’t survive without all of you.”

  Ding Jiayi put on her clothes and slowly made her way outside. She started to search for the fever medicine. She was stunned when she saw the fever medicine. It was the same fever medicine that she threw into the trash bin when Qiao Nan fell sick last year.

  This time, Ding Jiayi could not help but sink into despair. Tears flowed down her cheeks uncontrollably.

  Nobody knew how Ding Jiayi went through that night.

  Perhaps when one was sick, they would be particularly vulnerable. Hence, Ding Jiayi cried harder when she looked at the fever medicine.

  But when her fever subsided and she was finally slightly better, her heart hardened just like the hard-shelled animals that had gone through molting during specific seasons and formed a new and harder layer of shell.

  “As I have said, I am the mother of Qiao Nan. She is a student at your school. She is from class one. Let me in.” Three days had passed since then. On Thursday, Ding Jiayi came to the school with a fierce look on her face. Blocked by the guards at the entrance of Ping Cheng High School, she insisted that she was the mother of Qiao Nan and wanted to enter the school.

  “Don’t let her in!” Upon receiving the call from the guards, the principal was so furious that he hung the phone after giving the instructions to the guard.

  It was not difficult to arrange for Qiao Nan and her father to stay at the house that was left by Teacher Feng. But most importantly, the principal and some of the teachers had spent a lot of efforts to keep the false rumors that Ding Jiayi spread under control.

  The rumors had yet to die down completely, but the culprit was here again.

  As soon as the principal knew that Ding Jiayi was at the front gate, he wished to send her away and ban her from stepping into the school again.

  The school was not a public place. Ding Jiayi could not come and go as she pleased. It was ridiculous of her to have thought that she could enter freely whenever she felt like it as if the school was her home.

  “Sorry, we cannot verify that you are the mother of the student from class one.”