19 Like Mother, Like Daughter
The sound of thumping, which was coming from the wooden floor of the old house, meandered its way to An Yufei's ears. Little Yufei involuntarily covered her ears and curled up in An Qi's arms in horror.
An Qi's eyes never left the ladder, as she wanted to see who the madam who had made such an elaborated welcome ceremony was. However, at that moment, a pair of well-maintained feet, donned in high heels, appeared in front of An Qi as the door behind her was suddenly pushed open.
An evil wind blew in from the door, which made An Qi's hair blow back and caused her mood to become inexplicably agitated. When she was finally able to see clearly who the person was, the anger in her surged.
"What are you doing here?" An Qi shouted instinctively.
"My An Qi! You're back at last!" Facing her was Gu Xiaonan. As Gu Xiaonan spoke, she moved forward to give An Qi a loving embrace.
An Qi did not expect that Gu Xiaonan would have mastered the art of fakery, and An Qi pushed Gu Xiaonan away without embracing her. She then asked in disgust, "Are you crazy?"
Gu Xiaonan pretended to be hurt as she held on to An Qi's shoulders with alligator tears rolling down her face. At that moment, An Qi's brain immediately produced two images...
The first image was an actual memory, where Gu Xiaonan had used similar facial expressions and behavior to trick their high school teachers into getting An Qi to give the only scholarship available at their school to Gu Xiaonan. At that time, it was not the money that was important to An Qi, but it was that the scholarship represented honor.
In fact, she had planned to get the scholarship and thus win the honor, then give all of the benefits to Gu Xiaonan anyway. But, in the end, Gu Xianon had convinced the teachers to have An Qi answer all of the questions wrong, therefore forfeiting her chance to attain the scholarship.
The second image was entirely from An Qi's own imagination. She imagined that, if Gu Xiaonan used the same charm in bed, very few men in the world would be able to resist her charm.
Unfortunately, after all, this was the An family's old house, and An Qi, even if she was unhappy, she still needed to think of her father. However, before An Qi could speak, Gu Xiaonan said two words which stunned An Qi...
"Daddy... An…"
These words seemed to have consumed all of Gu Xiaonan's strength. As a single teardrop slipped down her face, the moment she had called out to An Qi's father, she eventually fell down on the cashmere carpet, immediately disappearing without a trace!
Gu Xiaonan's performance had clearly helped to make her image more positive. At the moment, a large number of people had gathered in the hall on the first floor. Some of them were not clear about An Qi's identity, and they immediately assumed that An Qi's had pushed Gu Xiaonan and was a bossy tyrant.
As for An Qi, Gu Xiaonan's sudden appearance had broken her heart. However, the next scene would make An Qi angry...
The sound of high-heeled shoes, which had stopped for some time, could be heard again. The sound was so clear and crisp that it immediately attracted everyone's attention.
An Qi looked in the direction where everyone else was looking to see someone truly unexpected. It was Gu Xiaonan's mother, Zeng Xuerou!
An Qi gulped hard, then turned to An Shijie and asked in a stutter, "Dad, is this your new wife?"
In fact, the answer was already obvious. But, as An Qi was stubborn, she wanted An Shijie to answer her personally.
"Oh, Qiqi is back! Aunt Rou has prepared a room full of flowers for you! Go see if you like it…" As Zeng Xuerou spoke, she went downstairs. When she got to the empty living room, her facial expression changed immediately.
"Housekeeper, what's the matter? Where did you put all of the flowers that I prepared for Miss An Qi?" Zeng Xuerou was half-squinting and angry, while totally ignoring the stunned An family, who were all standing at the side.
During these past five years, she had been living as a queen in the house. She was no longer the widow, who had once endured humiliation and had to prepare food for her three children daily.
As to her good points, An Qi still remembered them. This was the only reason why, even when Gu Xiaonan had framed An Qi, causing her to roll down the stairs, An Qi had not disclosed the incident in front of the police. Instead, she had lied and said that she had stumbled down them accidentally.
It turned out that Zeng Xuerou was the one who had informed her father that she was admitted to the hospital. Zeng Xuerou was also the one who told him that she was staying at Dong Manman's house.
The purpose for these actions was to get credit in front of her father. An Qi had witnessed similar trickery from Gu Xiaonan, too. It seemed that the old saying was true… Like mother, like daughter!
An Yufei looked up and observed her mother's facial expression carefully, then displayed a satisfied smile. It seemed that her mother was not tricked by such fakeness this time!
"Qiqi, your Aunt Rou and I..." When An Shijie saw An Qi staring hard at Zeng Xuerou, he thought that An Qi did not understand his decision to remarry.
Thus, he gently laid his hand on An Qi's shoulder and carefully tried to explain softly, while whispering in her ear, "Actually, when you were in high school, your Aunt Rou and I were already interested in each other. But, after considering that you were getting ready to face your college entrance examination, we feared that it would negatively affect your studies, so we kept our relationship a secret."
He sighed. "After that, you and I became estranged because of your relationship with that man, so you went abroad to study. During these past years, Your Aunt Rou and I had always wanted to announce our relationship to you, but then, you unexpectedly became pregnant with Yufei and lost contact with us once again."
As An Shijie spoke, he felt as if he was a child who had done something wrong. While she was listening to her father's explanation, An Qi was so angry that she felt close to losing her mind. She clenched her fists as she wondered...
Does this mean that my father and I were doomed all along to be fooled by Gu Xiaonan and her mother?
