Volume One, Chapter 16: Reporting the Case
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She pushed someone?
Shen Nian'an could hardly believe what she had just heard.
Before she had a chance to defend herself, Wen Lin and her mother, who entered the room only a step behind Liu Jinyue, chimed in together and all but confirmed Shen Nian'an's guilt.
Wen Lin had once been the belle of the military arts troupe.
Even after getting married, she had never given up on Si Jinnian.
And now, the moment she heard that Si Jinnian had fallen for another woman, she could no longer sit still. Ignoring her mother Sun Qian's attempts to stop her, she comforted Liu Jinyue and then rushed straight to the Si residence.
The moment she entered, she saw the older sister An'an Jinyue had mentioned.
Though she could see only the woman's profile, that skin was astonishingly fair and delicate, as tender as a slab of silken tofu.
Beside her, Wen Lin's own reasonably fair complexion seemed to darken several shades.
She clenched her fists, digging her fingernails into her palms, and nearly ground her teeth to powder.
Hearing Jinyue accuse Shen Nian'an of pushing someone, Wen Lin had not seen the scene clearly, but that did not stop her from throwing the blame onto Shen Nian'an.
“You look so respectable, yet you’re so vicious. Auntie kindly invited you to the island, and you actually pushed her? Do you have no conscience?”
Sun Qian, standing beside her daughter, felt her eyelid twitch at those words.
Unlike Wen Lin, whose eyes held nothing but Si Jinnian, Sun Qian was more perceptive. Although she had not witnessed what happened, when she saw Shen Nian'an baring her teeth in pain, frowning as she limped over to retrieve the crutch lying nearby, she vaguely sensed that things might not have been as her daughter imagined.
Besides, A-Lin had already said those things aloud. Sun Qian could not undermine her own daughter in front of outsiders.
More importantly, Sun Qian knew exactly what was in her daughter's heart.
She had loved that boy from the Si family for years, even after marrying someone else.
If the young man from the Si family remained single and never married, perhaps A-Lin would eventually come to her senses and live a good life with her promising husband.
But this had happened so soon after A-Lin's marriage...
There was no way A-Lin could accept it. And as her mother, Sun Qian could not stand by and watch her daughter lose her judgment and take the wrong path.
“Such a young girl, yet so vicious at heart.” Sun Qian launched straight into a merciless scolding, her face filled with disgust, as though Shen Nian'an had committed some unforgivable crime.
She went over to Su Wanhua and helped her sit down, putting on an expression of concern. “Wanhua, I know you’re anxious about Jinnian’s marriage, but think about it. She dares to push you today. If she really marries Jinnian in the future, who knows how she’ll make trouble for you?”
“As the saying goes, once a man marries, he forgets his mother. Wanhua, you’d better think this through!”
Sun Qian had no other motive. She had only one goal: to drive Shen Nian'an off the island.
Her words struck Su Wanhua in the heart. The motion with which she had been pulling Sun Qian's arm came to a halt, and she sat down in a daze.
Had An'an... really pushed her?
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One accusation followed another until Su Wanhua herself became confused.
All she remembered was that everything had suddenly gone black. In the midst of her dizziness, she seemed to recall a pair of hands reaching toward her...
“Auntie, you should know that I didn’t push you.” Shen Nian'an walked over, her clear eyes meeting Su Wanhua's with complete candor.
“You say you didn’t, so you didn’t? We all saw it.”
“You’re awfully talkative.” Shen Nian'an frowned at Wen Lin. “I’m asking Auntie. I wasn’t asking you.”
The moment Wen Lin saw Shen Nian'an's face directly, her panic deepened.
There was no denying that Shen Nian'an was beautiful, but her beauty was entirely different from Wen Lin's.
Wen Lin had a seductive, alluring appearance—not the sort favored by the older generation, but one that young men were especially fond of.
Shen Nian'an, by contrast, possessed a sweet, obedient beauty, the kind of pleasing face beloved by the older generation. It might have been somewhat less tempting to men, but she was young enough to make up for that.
Her youthful features made her look no more than fifteen or sixteen.
Yet Wen Lin knew that she could not truly be that young. Otherwise, Si Jinnian's mother would never have introduced her to his elder brother. That would have been a serious mistake.
Her more vibrant features and completely different style left Wen Lin engulfed in overwhelming fear.
Deep down, she had a vague premonition that, given enough time, Si Jinnian might truly be drawn to Shen Nian'an.
Then what would the five years she had spent chasing after him amount to?
At that moment, fierce jealousy and resentment filled Wen Lin's entire heart.
The man she could not have—this woman called An'an could forget about having him, too!
“You’re such an evil woman. You’re taking advantage of Auntie’s soft heart, thinking you can bury this matter.”
“You’re so noisy.”
Shen Nian'an suddenly raised her crutch. No one saw exactly how she moved. They only saw a dark blur flash past before Wen Lin staggered and fell toward the floor.
“If I were going to push someone, I wouldn’t give you any chance to be rescued.”
With that, Shen Nian'an paid no further attention to Wen Lin's cries of pain from the floor. She turned to Su Wanhua once more and asked, “Auntie, did I push you?”
Su Wanhua looked into those eyes—clear, yet stubborn. Shen Nian'an's entire face silently proclaimed one fact: she had done nothing wrong, while Su Wanhua had been making trouble for no reason.
The realization made her deeply uncomfortable.
She had fainted, after all. If An'an had simply softened her attitude and lowered her head, what harm would it have done?
Although Su Wanhua was annoyed by Shen Nian'an's unyielding manner, she was still the daughter of her best friend.
Since she was unharmed, Su Wanhua decided not to pursue the matter. There was no need to let outsiders watch their family become a laughingstock.
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“All right. Let’s let this matter end here.”
Hearing that vague answer, Shen Nian'an felt a pang of disappointment. Auntie had been so delighted to welcome her the day before. She had thought Auntie would believe her.
The sadness lasted only an instant. Shen Nian'an would never allow herself to bear a baseless stain on her reputation.
“Auntie, I didn’t push you. If you believe that I did, then let’s report it to the authorities.”
“Report it?” Su Wanhua stared at her in astonishment.
She had never expected Shen Nian'an to be so stubborn. Even if Shen Nian'an had not pushed her, it was true that she had been angered into fainting by the girl.
She had already decided not to pursue the matter. Couldn’t the child take one step back? If this became a major incident, how could it benefit the family?
Unfortunately, Su Wanhua did not understand Shen Nian'an. As a national scientific researcher, Shen Nian'an could not afford the slightest blemish on her reputation. She represented not only herself, but also the standing of her country.
Faced with Shen Nian'an's utterly uncompromising stance, Su Wanhua rubbed her brow with a headache and said, “There’s no need. I remember now. You...”
Before Su Wanhua could finish, Liu Jinyue interrupted her.
“An'an, Mom isn’t pursuing the matter, yet you insist on making the whole island hear about it? How will Dad and Big Brother be able to face people afterward?”
Shen Nian'an remained unmoved. “I didn’t push anyone. Whether Auntie chooses to pursue it or not has nothing to do with me.”
“And as for the reputation you mentioned—if people pass judgment without finding out the truth, accusing a junior of pushing an elder, that is what will truly make us a laughingstock.”
Every word Shen Nian'an spoke was reasonable, leaving Liu Jinyue unable to refute her.
She stubbornly insisted, “I clearly saw it. It was you, An'an, who pushed—”
Su Wanhua cut her off. “Jinyue, An'an didn’t push me.”
“Mom!”
“Jinyue, do you no longer believe what I say?”
They were not even mother and daughter-in-law yet, and her mother was already this biased?
If Shen Nian'an truly married into the family, wouldn’t she be driven out of her own home?
Liu Jinyue dug her nails into her palm and forced herself to endure. “Mom... I believe you.”
Her mother might let Shen Nian'an off, but she would not.
This matter would not end here!
A vicious glint flickered beneath Liu Jinyue's eyes.
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