2 A Grandmother's Strength (EDITED)

When Xia Meilin returned home, the first person who greeted her was her grandmother, Ji Ruo.

Despite Ji Rou's frail appearance and gentle expression, Xia Meilin knew what truly lied behind that facet of wrinkles. Stubborn and headstrong like that of a wild tigress, with a tongue so sharp, one could nearly be sliced in two if the woman believed you to be worth her time in the very least, let alone bothered to utter a word to you at all.

Due to an accident that claimed the lives of their parents, Xia Meilin and her older brother, Xia Sinian became orphans. They were brought up and taken care of by their grandparents, Xia Jiamu and Ji Ruo.

"How was your reunion with your friends, sweetie? Did you have fun?" Ji Ruo asked with a smile as she approached her granddaughter.

Xia Meilin had just graduated from college last week. Yesterday, she went out to attend the reunion of her high school class. Everything had gone well until Lin Qingge drugged her.

Xia Meilin faced her and let out a smile. "Hm, yeah... I did."

Even though she was old, Ji Ruo has sharp eyes and she could quickly read someone's facial expressions. Seeing that something was wrong with Xia Meilin, she became worried. "Sweetie, did something happen?"

Xia Meilin knew her grandmother well. Nothing would escape her attention. Plus, she was a woman no one could mess with, even her grandfather was afraid of her sometimes. After all, her grandmother was a former General in the country's military.

She turned her head away from her grandmother, trying to avoid her scrutiny. But this only made the hickey on her neck to be seen. "I-it's really nothing..."

Ji Ruo's eyes went wide upon seeing the hickey on Xia Meilin's neck. "Oh dear! What is this, Meilin?!"

When Ji Ruo placed her hand to touch her neck, Xia Meilin flinched. Tears glistened at the side of her eyes.

"P-please grandma... not now..." Stifling down a sob, Xia Meilin ran away from her grandmother and went to her room.

With a pounding heart, Ji Ruo followed her to her room. She was filled with uneasiness upon seeing how her granddaughter reacted.

When she entered Xia Meilin's room, she saw her crying brokenly on her bed. She quickly went to her side. "S-Sweetie..." She gently stroke her hair to comfort her. "Grandma is here for you, you can tell grandma everything, grandma will listen..."

Hearing Ji Ruo's gentle and motherly voice, Xia Meilin quickly got up and hugged her. "G-grandma!"

"It's okay... it's going to be okay, grandma is here..." Ji Ruo hugged her close and allowed her to cry, knowing that Xia Meilin was in no position to tell her what happened since her emotions were unstable at present.

Xia Meilin was really hurt and in pain. But it was more of emotional and psychological pain than physical. She was betrayed by her friend and defiled by a man! She didn't plan on telling anyone, she didn't expect that Ji Ruo would be the first person to greet her when she went home. Ji Ruo was her grandmother who became a mother figure for her. Xia Meilin couldn't control her feelings the moment Ji Ruo asked her what was wrong.

She cried at length, letting out all her pain, sadness and anger. After she finally cried it out, she calmed down.

Ji Ruo wiped her face and made Xia Meilin lie down on the bed. She stood while staring at her granddaughter's puffy face, and then said, "I will go and get warm milk for you, okay?"

Xia Meilin stared at the ceiling with tired eyes, she badly wanted to sleep but her mind wouldn't allow her to keep it to herself so she decided to tell her grandmother. Just as her grandmother turned to the door, she spoke. "Last night... I was happy to meet my high school classmates... but then... I was suddenly drugged by Lin Qingge without my knowledge."

"She did what?!" Ji Ruo gasped in surprise. Ji Rou knew that Lin Qingge was like a sister to Xia Meilin, it was even her who messaged her that Xia Meilin wouldn't be coming home last night since they would have to stay in their friends' place instead. Lin Qingge deceived her?! Ji Ruo started fuming in anger.

"I don't know what happened after but I woke up in the middle of the night and... a-and... there was this man... this man... touching me all over..." She clenched her fists as she tried not to cry again. "I was defiled by that disgusting man!"

Seeing the hickeys on Xia Meilin's neck earlier, Ji Ruo was given an idea on what happened last night but she never thought it would actually be like that. "Gush! Goodness! Those Lin bastards dare try to mess with my granddaughter?! I will show them hell!" Ji Ruo exclaimed in great anger.

When she turned to look at Xia Meilin, her face softened but the fire in her eyes remained. "Don't worry, Meilin, grandma will take care of everything, okay? Leave everything to me." She said softly as she gently stroked her wet cheek with her thumb.

----

A few days after, news about the Lin family's illegal business was reported. Lin Jinhao was involved in human trafficking while his sons were involved in using illegal drugs. Their business went down as most of their business partners cut off their connection with the Lin family after learning the news. They quickly became bankrupt in the following days to come.

Meanwhile, the police were given the authority to arrest Lin Jinhao and his sons because of the pieces of evidence that were placed against them. Aside from that, Lin Qingge was still a fresh model in the entertainment industry but because of the news that quickly spread like wildfire about her family, she was forced to quit her job.

Everyone started looking at her differently and she couldn't tolerate being bullied and backstabbed by other models. On her way home, she got kidnapped by a group of men and she ended up disappearing without a trace as no one went looking for her.

Ji Ruo was in the living room, watching the news. When her phone vibrated, she took it out and read the message. Seeing the message made her smile brightly.

"Who messaged you?" Xia Jiamu asked as he noticed the smile on Ji Ruo's face.

"Jianfeng." She kept her phone and looked at her husband with a smile. "He just came from a mission and told me how it went."

"That's why you're so happy?" He blinked a lot, Ji Ruo seems to be in a good mood after reading the message.

"Why of course. He came from a really hard mission and I am pretty happy that everything went well. As his mother, I should be happy, right? That youngest son of ours is pretty amazing, I am just a proud mother."