Day n of not wanting to be a kept man's canary

A woman's voice is assertive and allows no room for resistance.

An hour later, at the Mu family mansion.

Madam Mu sat upright, dressed in a dark green cheongsam, holding a photograph in her hand and examining it closely. The air around her exuded a stern and imposing aura.

Mu Yanxin carefully walked up to her, bowed, and greeted her, "Madam Mu!"

Madam Mu didn't look at her directly, and absentmindedly tapped the photo on her other palm.

Seeing this, Mu Yanxin picked up a cup of tea from the table and handed it to Madam Mu tentatively, "Madam Mu, is there something you need from me to come back?"

Madam Mu glanced at her and said sternly, "Why aren't you kneeling down?"

"Why?" Although it was a rhetorical question, her tone was not at all forceful.

"You still have the nerve to ask why? What have you been doing at the Leng family? Your future mother-in-law even called me. Where do you think you're putting the Mu family's reputation?"

No wonder she ran into Feng Yaqin when she went out, and Feng Yaqin, unusually, didn't scold her; it turned out she had called to complain.

Madam Mu swung the photo at her face and said coldly, "If you don't listen to me, don't blame me for being impolite!"

The moment the photo fell to the ground and the person in it saw it, Mu Yanxin completely lost all resistance.

She knelt down with a thud, her trembling hands picking up the photo from the ground, tears streaming down her face. "I'll be good, I'll be good."

She stroked the man in the photo; he was pale and covered in blood, looking like he had just been brutally beaten.

"It's best to listen to me. Make sure you understand that you're here to atone for your sins. If it weren't for your father, my Xin'er wouldn't have died." Madam Mu's eyes were filled with bottomless hatred.

As Madam Mu said, the real Mu Yanxin is dead. Five years ago, a medical accident occurred where the attending physician sexually assaulted an intern during surgery, causing the patient to miss the optimal time for surgery and resulting in her death. The deceased was Mu Yanxin, the real eldest daughter of the Mu family, and the attending physician was her father.

From then on, her life plummeted from heaven to hell, and she lived a life worse than death.

Three years ago, she and her brother were found by Madam Mu and brought to the Mu family.

"You should be glad you can take Xin'er's place, otherwise you and your brother would have to pay for your father's life!"

Holding her brother Song Siwen's photo, Mu Yanxin nodded, her voice choked with emotion, "I know, I'll be obedient, I'll listen to everything you say!"

"If you're obedient, then be the second young mistress of the Leng family and behave yourself. If you let them return you, neither you nor your brother will be of any use anymore, understand?"

Mu Yanxin gritted her teeth, "I understand, Madam Mu."

"Get up!"

Mu Yanxin struggled to get up from the ground. The wound on her knee had reopened before it had healed, and blood was seeping through her skirt.

"By the way, I heard that the usually elusive Fourth Young Master of the Leng family has returned to the Leng family?"

Before he could even stand up straight, he was so frightened by Madam Mu's words that he almost fell back to the ground.

"Yes!" Mu Yanxin tried her best to maintain her composure, but in reality she was panicking.

Madam Mu took a sip of tea. "Is it ready?"

While observing Madam Mu's expression, Mu Yanxin forced herself to remain calm and said, "I've met her once."

Madam Mu's eyes flickered, and her tone was no longer as sharp as before, "That's good. Find a way to talk to him and get closer to him."

……

Emerging from Madam Mu's place, Mu Yanxin relaxed her back and breathed a sigh of relief. Thinking of her brother, her heart ached terribly again. Her steps were heavy, yet that heaviness seemed to lack solid ground, making her movements even more difficult.

Madam Mu didn't use force against her today, she just gave her a lecture, but her brother in prison was beaten badly.

Mu Yanxin felt helpless and heartbroken; she had no other choice at the moment.

"Oh my, isn't this my sister?"

Mu Wanyi walked towards Mu Yanxin with an arrogant and domineering air. "What, didn't my brother-in-law come with you?"

Mu Yanxin didn't want to talk to her and left.

Seeing that she didn't speak, Mu Wanyi got even angrier. She turned around, rushed in front of her, and slapped her across the face. "What are you so high and mighty about? Don't forget that everything you have now belongs to my sister. If it weren't for your lecherous father, my sister wouldn't have died."

"Shut up, my dad isn't that kind of person!"

She can be insulted, but she cannot tolerate her family being insulted.

"Why don't you like what I'm saying? Is what I said wrong? Everyone knows your father is a white-clad devil. You need to know your place. You're here to atone for your sins, and you're destined to be a slave to the Mu family for the rest of your life."

The sarcastic words were like sharp blades stabbing at her, causing her to instinctively raise her hand to retaliate.

Mu Wanyi raised her face and brought it close to her palm, saying provocatively, "Oh ho, you've really made something of yourself, sister."

"Come on, I'll hit you, but I prefer your brother's screams."

Upon hearing the word "brother," Mu Yanxin deflated like a punctured balloon. If she were alone, she would disregard everything, even the possibility of paying for murder with her life.

She knew in her heart that if she acted impulsively, it would be her brother who would suffer, which was always the way the Mu family dealt with her.

Mu Wanyi giggled, "No way! If you don't dare, then just be my good older sister!"

She deliberately tossed a bone far away, saying, "You know what I mean!"

This was Mu Wanyi's trick to torture her. She had lived like this every day for the past three years. Her brother was having a hard time in prison, and she was suffering just as much as she was outside. If it weren't for her brother, she would rather die.

Mu Yanxin clenched her fists. She crawled step by step toward the bone, picked it up with tears in her eyes, and crawled back to Mu Wanyi.

"Hahahaha, that's more like it! You did a great job. I'm in a good mood today, so I'll reward you with this bone."

From afar, Madam Mu watched all this with smug satisfaction, a twisted smile spreading across her face. "Song Renzhi, did you see that? Do you regret it now? You did it for other reasons..."

……

After having dinner at the Mu family home, Madam Mu instructed the driver to take Mu Yanxin home. According to custom, Leng Changqing was supposed to pick her up, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Mu Wanyi launched into another round of sarcastic remarks at her, and Madam Mu said something about maintaining the marriage alliance with the Leng family.

Leng Changqing finally sent a voice message, his tone impatient, "I have a business dinner tonight and won't be going home. I'll take a taxi home myself! If anyone asks me where I'm going, you know how to answer!"

To save face, Madam Mu instructed the driver to take Mu Yanxin home.

night.

Mu Yanxin hesitated, recalling what Madam Mu had said during the day: what was the intention behind spending more time with Leng Tingye and getting closer to him?

She looked out the window with a troubled expression. On the street, groups of people, whether families or couples, chatted and laughed about life, their smiles so radiant.

The car windows blocked the summer night breeze, and the air inside was bitterly cold. Mu Yanxin hugged her arms, curled up into a ball, and tried her best to hold back her tears.

Think of her, her home is gone, and her only relative is still in prison.

A voice inside her kept telling her not to cry, that she had to find a way to survive.

Upon returning to the Leng family home, Mu Yanxin paid her respects to Feng Yaqin and then went straight to her room.

Sure enough, Leng Changqing didn't go home, just as he said on the phone. As for what he did, it's obvious even to a child.

Even so, she still covered for him when Feng Yaqin asked.