Chapter 585: Men Tend to Be Fickle
Li Beinian leaned over curiously and saw what Mu Xichen was holding.
This item had accompanied her for more than ten years, she could recognize it at a glance.
Seeing the amulet, Li Beinian exclaimed in surprise. “You haven’t thrown it away. Didn’t this break the other time?”
Li Beinian stepped forward and took it from him. “It’s so broken. I still remember that the cotton inside was dug out by me.”
Mu Xichen’s expression darkened on hearing this.
Sensing that something was wrong, she asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Do you remember if there was anything else inside after you took out the cotton?”
This time round, it was Li Beinian’s turn to look surprised. She said without a moment of hesitation, “No, it was just cotton used for filling. What else would there be?”
Although she had said that, her mind was racing.
At that time, Mu Xichen was injured. She had thought that there would be cotton in the pouch.
However, the cotton had been soaked by his blood and became a sticky mess.
Hence, Li Beinian had thrown it away without a second thought. She then took off her cotton top to cover his wound.
After dealing with it, she did not pay attention to the amulet.
Now it seemed that Mu Xichen had picked it up.
Mu Xichen looked at Li Beinian and frowned slightly. He said steadily, “Think again.”
Li Beinian thought for a long time and shook her head. “No, there was nothing inside.”
Mu Xichen was silent.
He looked down at the amulet in her hand. After a long pause, he asked, “Where did you get this amulet?”
“I had it for a long time.” Li Beinian didn’t seem to mind. She tried to recall the details and said, “My godmother told me, they were very close to my mother. Godfather personally hung it on me. Just that they didn’t expect the Li Family to lose me later on. Eventually, when they went to the orphanage, they recognized me at once because of this amulet.
“And that’s all?”
“Yes.” Li Beinian nodded, but she quickly remembered it didn’t end there. “There’s something else.”
“Uh huh?”
“A gemstone.” Li Beinian looked at him. “Similar to this amulet, the gemstone had been with me since I was a child. It was a ruby, and it was obviously very valuable. When I was a child, the orphanage director tried ways and means to steal the gemstone from me. I tried my best to hide it. Later on, the director thought that I lost it and stopped bothering about it.”
“Gemstone?”
“Yes, I hid it well. Later on, because Godpa and Godma had to send the two children to school, finances were tight. I handed them this gemstone. It was only then that they knew I had it.”
Life wasn’t easy.
Raising two children was even more difficult.
Besides, Li Beinian wasn’t their biological daughter.
Under such circumstances, no matter how reluctant Li Beinian was, she couldn’t be so ungrateful.
As a result, she insisted that they took it. She initially wanted them to sell it to improve their lives, but unexpectedly, Tang Xiaoge and Chi Dali ended up hugging her and wailing.
Li Beinian remembered their words very clearly.
They kept apologizing: Sorry, Beinian, we’ve let you down!
At the time, Li Beinian was only 15 years old. She only thought that it was because they couldn’t give her and Hailang a comfortable life that they were so apologetic.
Feeling their sincerity, Li Beinian had cried in her sleep.
It was not for anything else, but this sense of kinship that she was moved to tears.
She wasn’t sure if it was her own imagination, but her life indeed improved after she handed the gem to them.
Unexpectedly, not only did they not sell the gemstone, Chi Dali and Tang Xiaoge used it to create a set of jewelry for her.
Chi Dali and Tang Xiaoge were beneficiaries and they could have chosen other ways.
However, the couple spent a lot of time and effort to create that set of jewelry.
Hearing this, Mu Xichen’s eyes flashed sharply and he asked, “Where’s the gemstone now?”
“Now, it’s with me.” Li Beinian didn’t care, but from the corner of her eye, she could see the unfathomable expression on Mu Xichen’s face.
Mu Xichen pondered in silence for a few seconds, then asked, “Is it at home?”
“No.” Li Beinian shrugged. “I don’t wear it often, so I kept it.”
“Where?”
“I hid it. It’s in my old home in Qian Zhou.”
Observing Mu Xichen’s expression, Li Beinian was very surprised. She raised her eyebrow and asked, “Why did you take a sudden interested in this?”
Mu Xichen drew her towards himself and stuffed the amulet into her arms. He told her honestly, “Since it had been with you since you were a child, it should have something to do with your identity.”
“Pfft!” Li Beinian burst out laughing. “Identity? That’s all there is to my background. For sure, my mother left the gemstone and amulet to me. Later on, she died of depression because she lost me. I can only say it’s fate.”
“You believe that Li Haoran is your father?” Mu Xichen narrowed his eyes. “He treats you so badly, he’s definitely not your biological father.”
Li Beinian pursed her lips. “I wish so too, but it’s impossible. I’m his biological daughter.”
“How do you know? Who told you so?”
“Do I need someone to tell me? Have you seen my mother’s photo?”
Mu Xichen shook his head.
Li Beinian got onto her feet and said, “Wait a moment.”
As she spoke, she walked to the dressing table opposite the bed.
She bent over and opened the bottom left drawer.
Mu Xichen knew that it was where she kept her belongings.
Even the marriage certificate was there.
Li Beinian took out a booklet and flipped through it twice before drawing out a neat and fading photograph.
The photo was not laminated and the four corners were worn.
As for the quality of the photo, it was obvious that it was a piece of work from a long time ago. The quality was particularly bad.
In the colored photo, a woman was standing. She looked tall, graceful, and had a quiet and shy smile.
Her long black hair fluttered in the wind as she looked ahaed, smiling brightly.
On the back of the photograph was a poem:
She has long eyebrows and a slim waist.
Her bare face is like a Spring breeze, her smile is worth a thousand pieces of gold.
The writing strokes were exquisitely slim, forceful yet vigorous and fluent.
Mu Xichen looked at the woman in the photograph whom Li Beinian bore an uncanny resemblance to, and frowned. “Your mother?”
“Uh-huh.” Li Beinian held the photo in her hand and said, “I stole this from Li Haoran’s drawer. He probably doesn’t even realize it’s missing.”
Stolen from Li Haoran’s drawer?
Mu Xichen felt a little relieved, but his gut feeling also told him that something was wrong.
But what was wrong?
Li Beinian added regretfully at once, “But that no-good father of mine doesn’t have such beautiful writing normally. One look and you can tell that he made a serious effort. It doesn’t look like he doesn’t like my mother. Sigh, what a pity that men tend to be fickle.”