Chapter 59: She Had Never Been Protected

The elevator doors slid open slowly, and it was Jian Qing who emerged, just as everyone had anticipated.

To be honest, Jian Qing had originally intended to take the stairs, but sensing that the atmosphere had reached this point, she thought stepping out of the elevator might draw even more attention.

And she wasn’t wrong.

As the woman stepped out in a pure white dress, all eyes instantly turned to her. It was as if she were the true protagonist of the day.

With her head slightly raised, Jian Qing’s gait was both graceful and elegant—lithe in one sense, refined in another. She was like the scent of a rose, permeating the crowd the moment she appeared.

When she came to a gentle stop before Ren Yishan, Jian Qing let out a helpless sigh and said only,

“Sister, how muddle-headed you are.”

She offered no further explanation, yet those five words seemed to say everything.

Ren Yishan bristled instantly, grabbing Jian Qing by the collar. But the police immediately pulled Ren Yishan away. Like a mad dog, she struggled to lunge at Jian Qing.

“Jian Qing! I warn you, don’t talk nonsense. This isn’t one of our usual squabbles at home—you’d better tell everything, word for word!”

Jian Qing covered her face and laughed, then scratched her ear as if annoyed by the noise.

“If shouting could solve problems, donkeys would rule the world. Ren Yishan, don’t you know in your heart whether you stole it or not?”

“I didn’t steal it!”

“If you didn’t, then why isn’t the diamond ring on my finger?”

“Because you gave it to me!”

Ren Yishan insisted, and when she saw several people descending the stairs, her eyes lit up as if she’d found a lifeline, and she shouted,

“Dad!”

Ren Tianchuan, together with several prominent figures from the business world, came down from the second floor. Since most of the guests today were young, the first floor had been left for them to enjoy themselves, while the elders rested upstairs where it was quieter.

Spotting Ren Yishan and Jian Qing in the crowd—Ren Yishan still restrained by the police—Ren Tianchuan abandoned his conversation with Xiao Nan and Du Yu’s father, hurrying over to shield Ren Yishan behind him.

“Officers, what’s going on here?”

With her father’s arrival, Ren Yishan clung to him like a drowning person to driftwood. She grabbed Xiao Nan, who had come over to watch the commotion, and whispered urgently,

“Father-in-law, I’m carrying Yunchen’s child—you can’t let them falsely accuse me like this!”

Xiao Nan hadn’t expected Xiao Yunchen to have left such a consequence; his brows furrowed as he glanced between the police and Ren Yishan, listening to the crowd’s chaotic explanations of what had happened.

With someone finally standing up for her, Ren Yishan regained her bravado and jeered at Jian Qing in a low voice,

“Jian Qing, you’d better know your place. Dad and Uncle Xiao won’t be on your side. If you care about your position in our family and the Xiaos, don’t be as stubborn as a pile of dog droppings!”

Jian Qing closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. She had long since lost all hope in both her father and her sister.

“If I’m dog droppings, what are you? At least that’s soft—you're foul and hard.”

Soon, Ren Tianchuan grasped the whole situation. He apologized first to the police.

“I’m sorry, officers. Our family matter has taken up public resources. It’s nothing but a misunderstanding between two daughters over exchanging jewelry.”

Then, Ren Tianchuan approached Jian Qing, who was still exchanging words with Ren Yishan, and, without waiting for an explanation, barked at his daughter,

“Jian Qing, don’t trouble the police over your personal matters. Go and clarify that Shanshan didn’t steal from you.”

Jian Qing glared at him, her face cold.

“She clearly—”

“Jian Qing! Behave yourself!”

Ren Tianchuan cut her off sharply, then pulled her aside and said menacingly,

“I’ve already received the video of you pushing Shanshan upstairs at the welcome party! Between intentional harm and theft, which do you think has more serious consequences, Jian Qing?”

Her mind buzzed—the words shocked Jian Qing into clarity.

That day, she had indeed shoved Ren Yishan, and she’d received the video herself. Later, she’d traced the email sender’s IP address, only to find it had been sent from an internet café. Hacking into the café’s surveillance system, she realized she didn’t recognize the sender.

She’d sensed something strange, but since the person had made no demands using the video, the matter didn’t seem pressing, and Jian Qing had planned to deal with it after handling Ren Yishan.

She hadn’t expected, though, that the video would quietly find its way to Ren Tianchuan—becoming his bargaining chip in their confrontation.

Head slightly raised, Jian Qing looked at the father she had called so for twenty-two years, incredulous.

“Are you threatening me, Dad?”

Ren Tianchuan took a deep breath. Everyone’s eyes lingered on the two speaking privately and on the bewildered Ren Yishan behind them.

“Jian Qing, I’m showing you the right path.”

He was racking his brains to exonerate Ren Yishan, his fist clenched tight.

Jian Qing was weighing her options—between dragging each other down, who would come out ahead?

She saw it clearly now: this father, this sister, were nothing but obstacles in her way.