As soon as Liang Danyi woke up, she noticed Yun Xi's disappearance, and even the backpack in the corner was gone. She instantly began screaming shrilly.
"Mom! Mom! Yun Xi ran off!"
She yanked open the door, but it was still deadbolted shut from the outside. However, the screen had already been cut off.
Chen Lixue also ran over from the kitchen when she heard the loud screams and hurriedly opened the lock.
"Mom! Yun Xi ran off! What do we do?!"
"Don't worry! We'll go to town and chase after her right now!"
Chen Lixue ripped off her apron and ran outside as soon as she heard that Yun Xi had escaped. However, she was stopped by Liang Weimin as soon as she got out of the house.
"What are you chasing her for? Even if you run over there right now, the train would've left already!"
Chen Lixue was at her wit's end. "Old Liang, what should we do? If she ends up returning to the Yuns, this will force Xinyi to take her own life!"
Liang Weimin glanced at her and, although he hadn't expected Yun Xi to run off, this could be considered the best ending for her.
He was useless as her uncle and stuck in the middle, so this was the most he could do for her.
"Yun Xi has never seen her parents, nor does she know the Yuns' address. She might not be able to find the Yuns even if she returned to Jingdu, so what are you even worried about?!"
Liang Weimin was speaking the truth, and this was precisely what he was worried about since he didn't know where Yun Xi would run off to.
The outside world was a very complicated place, so there was no way she could handle it as a girl who had never experienced anything before.
The train had already left, so he didn't even know where to go find her!
Chen Lixue finally realized that this was the truth; even if the wretched girl returned to Jingdu, it might not even impact them at all.
"Right, right! She doesn't have any money on her, so she might even run back here if she can't find the Yuns! She's just a girl who doesn't know anything, so she should suffer a bit and learn a few hard lessons so she knows what's good for her!"
Chen Lixue would wait for Yun Xi to come back home after all. Even if the Yuns stopped sending living allowances to them, Chen Lixue still had ways to make Yun Xi drop out of school and start working so she could earn money to support them.
––
Yun Xi's nerves finally calmed down when the train started to move.
She had bought a ticket for a seat on the train. It would take more than ten hours to arrive at Jingdu, and she was bored with nothing to do, so she began examining the jade pendant hidden in her backpack.
It was a white, jade pendant carved into the shape of a dragon, with exquisite workmanship and translucent stone quality.
She had brought this jade pendant to the village when she was young, but it didn't belong to the Yuns. This had been gifted by the Jiangs when they'd agreed to the arranged marriage with the Yuns all those years ago.
Chen Lixue had always coveted the jade pendant, and it would've probably fallen into her clutches if it hadn't been for her uncle stopping her.
When Liang Xinyi replaced Yun Xi in returning to Jingdu, she took a pair of silver bangles that Chen Lixue had stolen from Yun Xi when she'd been young. These were engraved with her name, "Yun Xi."
But the most important object was the jade pendant, and a major reason why her grandfather had asked her to return to Jingdu was to execute the arranged marriage between her and the Jiangs.
After all, she would be 18 in another year.
In her previous lifetime, the Yuns had exerted all efforts to latch onto the Jiangs because of this marriage.
As for Yun Xi, she had been used as a pawn and taken advantage of by her father over and over again to squeeze out any remaining value she possessed.
Even her biological mother had been cold-blooded enough to ruin her face with sulfuric acid, and it had all been for the sake of this marriage!
Yun Xi couldn't help but touch her face when she recalled these memories.
She could still redo everything, so she must learn to calculate the next ten steps before taking the next one and proceed with the utmost vigilance.
Liang Xinyi had returned to the Yuns by now. With how superstitious Liang Xiuqin was, there was no way she would accept Yun Xi, even if she brought this jade pendant back with her.
So she had to create an opportunity to make the Yuns personally escort her home.
She hadn't yet planned out this opportunity, but there was a long road ahead that gave her ample time to plan it properly.
The coach was noisy, with several kids near her running and jumping in the corridor. She looked around the coach and noticed a well-dressed mother and son sitting diagonally from her.
The wealthy lady took great care of herself and had a delicate mole by the corner of her lips that accentuated the feminine allure of her entire face.
Yun Xi thought that face looked somewhat familiar. Frowning in thought for some time, she finally remembered who this woman was.