My Tongue Is Still A Tongue

If Xie Na had already tried to acknowledge her wrongdoings and stupidity, Zhu Li might have forgiven her by now.

Or not.

He couldn't say for sure because there was a chance that they had a contest about who pulled more hair from the other instead of reconciling and having a peaceful talk. It could also be that the two were no longer in the clinic but in the nearest hospital from there.

How would he know?

He was not interested in seeing how the conversation would go, so before they could begin their debate or heart-to-heart talk, he had already left the scene.

'I'm saving myself from a boring, uninteresting catfight,' he thought twenty minutes later as he got out of his car.

"Welcome back, young master?"

It was already past five pm when he arrived at his family's mansion.

The moment he appeared at the doorway, one of the maids immediately greeted him. He wordlessly nodded to her before heading towards the living room, where the original Jiang Li's mother would surely be wasting the afternoon watching dramas.

And his recently acquired knowledge did not fail him because there was 'his' mother, turning her head away from the show when he arrived.

"You're early today, ah!"

He replied, "Not really. I was involved in quite an accident, Mom. I'm back, by the way!"

The kind-looking, slightly short, and chubby madam of the Jiangs stood up from the sofa and approached him with a hug. His face became awkward, but he could feel his body and soul reacting to this warm welcome.

The original was blessed with a good family. As said before, his life was set to a very smooth sailing due to the protection of his loving parents. He didn't experience many setbacks because they always backed him, no matter what happened.

Whether it was the system's arrangement or not, this world's Jiang Li was really similar to him. Born to a rich family. Blessed with loving parents. Destined for a good future...

Except this world's Jiang Li was smarter. And luckier. He didn't give others any chance to cheat him.

Truth be told, the Jiang clan of this world was also pretty complicated because, like his late family, this one also had some scheming bastard members. However, aside from the original being a tad smarter than him, Father Jiang was also very capable and more trusting and protective of his family than his greedy, two-faced relatives.

In the past life, it was because of Father Jiang that the original's cunning uncle did not succeed in the power struggle, ending up as a mediocre businessman whose livelihood and standard of living went down so many levels.

Thinking of these, he sighed, envy and self-hate budding in his originally warming heart.

Jiang Li would have been proud if this was his real family. Now, he didn't know what to feel about his current situation...

The heart, which he thought had already turned stone-cold, felt very stuffy and conflicted. He had to take deep breaths in secret to calm the raging emotions and memories. Finally, the suffocating hug ended, and his mother let go of him. The smile on the other's face was too bright, so he looked away.

The kind madam thought her son was shy; hence, she laughed heartily, only stopping when she remembered what he said earlier.

"By the way, Ah Li, you said you got involved in an accident? Did you get hurt? What happened?"

Shaking his head, he answered, "No. Nothing. It's just someone I had to bring to the clinic."

"I see. If that person is your close friend or acquaintance, convey my get-well wishes to him."

'It's a troublesome 'her',' he almost interjected.

"Dad is not here yet?" He asked to change the topic of the conversation.

As if the madam remembered another important thing, she exclaimed with a widened pair of eyes,

"Oh, my son. Now that you mentioned this, your father's secretary called me a while ago, telling us to prepare and dress up. We will meet him at your uncle's house where we will have dinner. I think your Second Uncle wants a small family reunion because her daughter, Jiang Xinyi, finally returned home."

"Hmm?" He didn't know why, but his brows automatically furrowed at the mention of that supposed cousin's name.

Deep within his 'memories', a particular scene seemingly wanted to surface and present itself to him. However, this piece couldn't come out because he was still adapting to this body and identity.

He frowned. Oddly, he felt this information would be useful or good for him.

'Just what is that piece of information?'

'Jiang Xinyi... Jiang Xinyi... I'm sure she's an extra or cannon fodder because she didn't appear in the main plot. So why is her name familiar to me? I don't think it's because she's 'my' cousin. My family eventually cut ties with the second household due to Second Uncle's deeds.'

He sunk into deep silence and contemplation.

'Maybe mentioned by one of the leads?'

'For what though?'

'This system, whatever, does a terrible job for not fully synchronizing the set of memories with mine earlier...' he annoyingly thought when his reminiscing did not show him anything useful.

"You're not close to that cousin of yours, but she's quite pitiful. She just went through a lot, so try to get along with her later, okay?" Mother Jiang suddenly told him, knocking him out of his thoughts.

His ears seemed to perk up at the clues she gave him. Curious, he asked, "What happened to her?"

The short-statured lady shook her head,

"Your Second Aunt said she just broke up with her boyfriend. She's deeply in love with this man and is willing to run away from your Second Uncle's family to be with him. Sadly, this happened. Now, they're no longer together because the love the man has for her is not as deep. To be honest, I don't think their affection with each other is even true love because if it's true, no amount or degree of misunderstandings and disagreements could tear them apart."

Jiang Li showed a bored expression, not liking that the issue he thought was important was actually just a stupid love affair. To humor his mother, he half-heartedly replied, "Oh, then who's the damn bastard?"

The madam chastised him, "Ah Li! Your tongue!"

'Is still a tongue,' he almost said.

Sighing, his mother continued. "In the future, be careful with your words before me or anyone. A gentleman doesn't curse directly like that."

Jiang Li: Ah, okay, I see. So, I should learn how to curse or insult people using beautiful words. Nice...

He shrugged then asked again, "So, who is this wastrel that should be sent to hell as early as possible in order to free the earth from one more person breathing tons of evil energy and smelly, nature-destroying oxygen on it?"

Jiang Li didn't know if it was because he revised his first question and turned it into a damn tongue-twister that the madam finally stopped straying from the topic.

Whichever it was, she finally answered, "Oh, if I'm not mistaken, it's that heir from the Cheng family..."

...