Ming Xiujin’s face suddenly turned bright red.
A flush of shame and anger spread across his eyes.
He glared fiercely at Ming Zheng.
“What did you do to me?!” Why couldn’t he move? As a proud martial artist, how could he be toyed with by a cripple, time and time again?
Ming Zheng tilted her head. “Perhaps you’re just too scared to see me.”
Scared?
He would be afraid of a cripple?
Ming Xiujin’s expression contorted. “Ming Zheng, don’t think that just because you’re my sister, I really won’t dare to hit you!”
“Young Master Ming San, isn’t your only sister Ming Zhirou? Be careful that your precious sister doesn’t let herself see some blood again if you start acknowledging other sisters in front of her.”
Ming Zheng’s tilt of her head made the smile at the corner of her lips even more sarcastic. “Come on, let me see Young Master Ming San’s courage. Try to make a move.”
Ming Xiujin’s face contorted further.
He strained his limbs, trying to break free from the invisible restraint on his body.
However, even as the veins in his forehead and arms bulged, he couldn’t move an inch.
At this moment, Ming Zheng narrowed her long, almond-shaped eyes.
She was smiling.
But Ming Xiujin felt a bone-chilling cold, as if it had erupted from hell, pressing down on him fiercely.
With a thud, he fell to his knees.
The sharp pain in his knees made him cry out in agony.
He lowered his head, propping himself up with his hands on the ground, panting heavily.
He could move!
He could move!
But he couldn’t stand up.
The intense pain in his knees felt as if his bones were broken, making even the slightest movement excruciating.
He could only…
Support himself with his hands on the ground, head bowed towards Ming Zheng, in a kneeling posture.
This was the only way he could endure the pain in his knees.
“Xiujin!”
Father and Mother Ming were startled by Ming Xiujin’s actions and hurried over.
Mother Ming’s usually serene face was filled with heartbroken disappointment. “Ming Zheng, if you have any grievances, can you just target me? Why are you treating Zhirou like this, and Xiujin like this? He’s your brother!”
She clutched her chest, her face pale as if she were suffocated by anger.
Father Ming immediately reached out to embrace Mother Ming, pulling her into his arms.
His expression was somber, his authoritative eyes narrowed, a sharp glint flashing within them.
He was appraising this unfamiliar daughter.
Yesterday, through the screen, he hadn’t been able to personally feel Ming Zheng’s change.
But now.
He could clearly feel the powerful and immense aura emanating from Ming Zheng.
And when Ming Zheng met his gaze,
She didn’t, as she used to, quickly look away.
Instead… she just looked at him.
Her dark pupils were calm and placid, her demeanor aloof and cold, without a trace of emotional fluctuation.
It was as if…
She were facing an insignificant stranger.
Ming Chenmu subconsciously recalled when Ming Zheng was first brought back a year ago.
She had looked at him with a hopeful gaze, full of longing, and cautiously called him—
“Dad.”
After saying it,
She would quickly lower her head, her face flushed crimson,
But she would still couldn’t help but secretly lift her head, peeking at him from the corner of her eye, eagerly awaiting his response.
If she received his reply,
She would be happy for a long time.
If Ming Zhirou was present at the time, and he, not wanting Ming Zhirou to be sad, deliberately ignored Ming Zheng,
She would be sad for a long time.
Looking at the cold, noble girl before him, who was like a queen, and comparing her to the former Ming Zheng, who only knew how to grovel and had no means of resistance,
Ming Chenmu felt a momentary daze.
That unrestrained and powerful aura, her dignified and unruffled gaze,
Were so much like… a true member of the Ming family!
She was, after all, his daughter, Ming Chenmu.
The blood flowing within her was, after all, Ming family blood.
This was the first time in the year since he brought Ming Zheng back that Ming Chenmu had this thought.
A complex emotion flickered in Ming Chenmu’s eyes.
He lowered his gaze slightly, his voice as sharp as ever. “Ming Zheng, are you done making a scene?”
“You have your grievances and your anger, and you’ve vented them now.”
“Come home with me.”
His gaze seemed to be directed at a child throwing a tantrum.
Unusually, there was a hint of patience.
If it were in the past,
Ming Chenmu’s words, “Come home with me,” would have been enough for Ming Zheng to risk her life.
But now.
For Ming Zheng, who had been exhausted mentally and physically in the Ming family, utterly disappointed, and had crawled back from hell,
It could no longer stir the slightest emotion.
Instead…
It felt ironic.
A year ago, Ming Chenmu had appeared before her in the same way, extending the hand from a father that she had longed for.
He had said to her, “You are Ming Zheng, aren’t you? I am your father, come home with me.”
She had abandoned everything without hesitation.
And placed her hand into what she had naively believed to be familial love.
She thought she was heading towards warmth, towards hope.
But what greeted her in the end was endless darkness, hell.
“Chairman Ming is still as indiscriminate as ever, always quick to accuse people wrongly,” Ming Zheng scoffed lightly. “If I really wanted to make a scene, your Ming family… wouldn’t be able to bear the consequences of my tantrum.”
She curled her lips.
A trace of arrogant disdain spread across her radiant face.
“It’s not impossible for Chairman Ming to want me to go home with you.”
She raised her hand, her slender, fair fingers pointing at Ming Zhirou. “Before I go back, erase all traces of Ming Zhirou’s existence in the Ming family. I don’t want to see her anymore.”
“Ming Zheng!” Mother Ming’s face turned pale with anger again, her chest heaving, her breathing growing heavier. “How… how can you be so vicious! What has Zhirou ever done to offend you?”
“What can you compare to Zhirou?” Ming Xiujin, kneeling on the ground, suddenly lifted his face, baring his teeth in a furious snarl, his eyes bloodshot red. “You’ll never replace Zhirou!”
Ming Zhirou was also startled by Ming Zheng’s mention.
Soon, she lowered her head, her eyes turning red, and began to sob softly.
Facing the enraged reprimands from Mother Ming and Ming Xiujin,
Ming Zheng’s expression remained completely unchanged. Her eyes were noble and indifferent, with that arrogant and malicious smile still on her lips, she spoke clearly, word by word:
“She has occupied my nest for nineteen years, stealing my parents, my brother, and the nineteen years that belonged to me.”
“After all, in your hearts, she is far more important than me, the true daughter.”
“If you want me to return to the Ming family, so that I can properly enjoy the life of a true daughter whose nineteen years were stolen, it is only natural to send away the one who stole my life, isn’t it?”
Ming Zheng’s words sent a ripple through the crowd, like a stone dropped into a calm lake, instantly creating layers of ripples.
Most of those present at Imperial Capital Academy were either wealthy or noble.
They had initially thought that the trash eldest daughter of the Ming family was toying with and framing Ming Zhirou simply because she was a cripple and jealous of her genius sister.
They never expected the truth behind it to be like this!