Chapter 1263: Identity Exposed
Gu Jinxiu felt something wasn’t right. “Are you misunderstanding something? Xia Yingluo, I didn’t compliment you.”
Du Jingjing and Jin Ying also looked down on them. “Are you shameless, couldn’t you hear that Jinxiu is degrading you for having no discipline?”
Xia Yingluo felt aggrieved again. She turned to Xia Ling. “Mother, she scolded us for having no discipline.”
Mother…
Mother?!
In that instance, the few noble ladies were stunned. What did Xia Yingluo just call Xia Ling?
Looking at their shocked expressions, Xia Ling said calmly, “Who was scolding my daughter just now?”
The ladies thought they were hallucinating. What… did Xia Ling just say “my daughter”?! That was to say, Xia Yingluo, whom they had just degraded, was Xia Ling and Li Lei’s daughter?!
This… how was this possible?!
Gu Jinxiu’s face turned pale and she looked at Xia Ling in disbelief. “Aunt, you, you were just saying that your daughter was Ms. Jennifer, right? How did she become Xia Yingluo?”
Xia Ling looked at her disdainfully. “I’m not suitable to be called your aunt, please call me Madam Li from now on. Is it strange that my daughter is Yingluo? Jennifer is her English name. Her father and I are both Chinese, did you think she wouldn’t have a Chinese name?”
“Hahaha.” Jin Ling’er couldn’t help but laugh. She scolded Gu Jinxiu softly. “Retarded.”
Gu Jinxiu’s face turned a shade of white. Amazing, she realized with a shock that she had offended the person she should never offend. Rumor had it that the Li couple had always held their daughter in their hands like a precious treasure, and would even pluck the stars from the sky if they could. Whoever touched her was going against the whole Li and Xia families—she was such a precious little princess held as treasure, but she had offended her so badly!
Her body swayed slightly and she suspected she was dreaming. Her gaze fell on Xia Yingluo and swept past Xia Ling, Li Lei, and the others. She didn’t dare to believe it was real. But she really couldn’t be blamed, Xia Yingluo’s appearance simply didn’t match with the Li couple’s. Only upon closer inspection could people tell that they were of blood relations. Furthermore, with Xia Yingluo’s “poor student” identity, who could have possibly thought of their connection!
“You, aren’t you a poor student in Imperial Entertainment?” Gu Jinxiu asked weakly.
Xia Yingluo smiled evilly. “Yes, I’m a poor student. Ms. Gu is so intent on currying favor with my family, why didn’t you go and check our family traditions first? Each child must experience a trial, and in that period, they must hide their identity. It’s a very common thing.”
Very common…
Who was she kidding!
Gu Jinxiu simply wanted to curse. Who knew that the Li family was so strange, they even had to go through trials?!
She had heard that the Li family had such a rule before, but she had never imagined she would personally experience such a thing. How could she have thought of it?!
Gu Jinxiu wanted to weep but had no tears. In front of Xia Yingluo, she sweet-talked to Xia Ling and complimenting Ms. Jennifer that she had never even met before. Who knew that Ms. Jennifer was standing right in front of her, and she was the girl she had looked down on and tried to step on, Xia Yingluo! At the thought of how her fawning had been witnessed first-hand by Xia Yingluo, Gu Jinxiu simply wanted to dig a hole and hide inside it.
The other two noble ladies were also stunned. They looked at Xia Yingluo in disbelief. “You’re really Jennifer?”
Xia Yingluo didn’t even want to bother with them.
Xia Ling gestured to her. “Come here.”
Xia Yingluo grinned and ran to her mother. She linked arms with her and whined. “Mother…”
Xia Ling tidied her hair affectionately. “Why did you offend so many people so fast? Your second brother isn’t even as troublesome as you.”
Xia Yingluo whined. “They were the ones making trouble with me first. Humph, they even scolded me for having no discipline. I only stole Grandpa Shankou’s flower, what’s the big deal. Grandpa Shankou isn’t even anxious and yet they’re fighting over themselves anxiously.”
Old Master Shan Kouya also laughed.
Old Master Shan Kouya looked at her affectionately. “I knew you were the little thief who stole the flower.” The only person in this whole world who would dare to steal his flowers was her. He still remembered the first time he had visited the Li family’s headquarters. Li Lei had cut off a cluster of various famous flowers as a gift, and the two were chatting in the tatami pavilion when suddenly, Old Master Shan Kouya had felt movement beside him—he had looked down and seen a delicate little girl hugging tightly onto the big cluster of flowers that had been gifted to him. She had intended to steal it secretly, but after being discovered, she had smiled with an air of innocence.
Since then, he had become friends with the little flower thief despite the difference in age.
In the quiet hall just now, the attendant had said that the “flower was stolen by a beautiful lady”, so Old Master Shan Kouya immediately knew she was here.
He had come out in a good mood to welcome the little buddy but didn’t expect to see the dispute at the door.
So, when Xia Yingluo had wanted to call him “Grandpa Shankou”, he had stopped her secretly. He had to give these so-called noble ladies who didn’t know their place a lesson, and see if they would dare bully his little buddy in the future?
Old Master Shan Kouya turned and looked at Gu Jinxiu. His affectionate and warm expression changed to sternness. “Did you say my Yingluo has no discipline? I see that you can’t distinguish the situation, nor recognize a precious pearl, and even dared to argue back with nonsense. I think you are the one with no discipline. Did the Gu family not discipline their own daughter?”
Gu Jinxiu was humiliated and embarrassed by him. But the other party was the Old Master Shan Kouya and she couldn’t offend him.
She could only swallow her anger. “Old Master’s teaching is right. I was unable to recognize a precious pearl and didn’t know that Sister Yingluo was Jennifer. Yingluo, I’m really sorry. I was just afraid that people who shouldn’t barge in had barged into the banquet and would ruin Uncle Li’s and Aunt’s spirits, so I…”
Her apologies simply threw the whole of the Gu family’s faces.
Xia Ling interrupted her without restraint. “I told you, you don’t have the right to call me Aunt.”
Gu Jinxiu’s face turned paler. She stammered and readjusted her feelings, then said in a voice as soft as a mosquito’s, “I’m sorry.”
Xia Yingluo was impatient and waved her hand. “Forget it. Seriously, I don’t know how Uncle Du and the rest even let you into the banquet, you’re really dampening my spirits.” She turned and looked at Du Jingjing and Jin Ying. “You two are really stupid, how could you believe everything that Gu Jinxiu says? You believed her when she said I was a random girl that my second brother brought inside secretly, is my second brother such an insensitive person?”
Du Jingjing and Jin Ying were speechless, but their hearts were tearing. Isn’t your second brother such an insensitive person?
If it had been Du Zheng, no matter how vividly Gu Jinxiu described it, they wouldn’t have believed her!
Du Jingjing smiled in mockery. “Jennifer… no, Yingluo, I’m sorry.”
Since she had a Chinese name, it was even more affectionate to call her by her Chinese name.
Jin Ying, however, refused to apologize. The scene of Du Zheng talking to the two girls was still spinning around in her head, and it rang a huge alarm in her—what was their relationship with Du Zheng? Were they really just brothers and sisters and family friends?