BDB Chapter 31

Jiang Rao sat on the bed for a while, trying to cast aside the nightmare of the day.

According to the clichés of romance novels, whenever the female lead and the second male lead appeared together, it would usually attract the male lead, leading to misunderstandings and conflicts.

However, she had her own abilities, was financially secure, and had no need to rely on anyone else for her life.

She could go on alone; why would she need to involve the second male lead?

After breakfast, she dressed warmly and went to the international organization to check her IELTS score.

She was always greeted by a chubby-looking young man named Xing Sen, who was very friendly. As soon as he saw her, he said, “Jiangjiang, you did very well on your exam.”

Jiang Rao’s heart filled with hope, “How much?”

Her eyes sparkled, so bright that it was hard not to tease her. Xing Sen cleared his throat, “The highest score is 9, and you got 6.5. You can already apply to quite a few schools.”

Jiang Rao’s enthusiastic heart cooled instantly.

A score of 6.5 was indeed sufficient to apply to foreign schools, but it wasn’t good enough for top-tier schools.

She knew that in five years, studying abroad wouldn’t carry the same prestige.

With the development of the internet, it would be easy to tell whether a university was prestigious or not with just a quick search.

If she wanted to return to China for work, holding such a diploma would make it nearly impossible to find a good job.

If she wanted to stay and work locally, with so many graduates from prestigious universities, why would employers hire her, an international student with a lower-level qualification?

Seeing her disheartened expression, Xing Sen quickly said, “Don’t think 6.5 is low. It’s just your first attempt, and it’s already quite good. Plus, IELTS doesn’t limit the number of attempts. If you’re not satisfied with this score, you can retake the test.”

Jiang Rao nodded with a smile.

She didn’t tell Xing Sen about her future plans when she left, as it was better for fewer people to know about her movements.

Instead of heading directly home, she contemplated for a while before turning toward the train station.

Her ticket was quickly printed. After slipping the pink ticket into her pocket, she rushed home to pack her belongings, preparing to catch the train at eight o’clock that night.

What she didn’t know was that her personal information had now been exposed to someone.

As one of the top educational institutions in the country, Dongfang International was always at the forefront of the industry.

That year, the fourth generation of Apple products emerged, quickly spreading the concept of smartphones to thousands of households.

Although most people still held onto their Nokia phones, using the flashy lights as a standard to measure how cool a phone was, some discerning entrepreneurs had already set their sights on the App Store. These platforms combined product promotion, user aggregation, and channel expansion into a single interconnected marketplace.

To expand an educational institution nationwide, Dongfang International’s president was naturally one of those astute businessmen.

Although he didn’t know how to develop apps himself, he could hire a team of university students to help with the creation. To make the final product more intuitive, he instructed his subordinates to extract a real data sample from the company’s internal database to provide to the developers. Among this real data were some customers’ genuine information.

Thus, Jiang Rao’s information ended up in Jiang Pei’s hands.

Jiang Pei was somewhat stunned.

He had used all his hacking skills to search for her online and found no trace of her, yet she appeared right in front of him because his roommate, seeing his dejected state, had given him part of a task. How did she show up like this?

“Brother Pei, get coding! Time is money! Finish the work quickly, and then we can all go play games together!”

Jiang Pei heard this but remained unmoved for a while.

Even in the most serious universities, dormitories often had two or three not-so-serious people.

Seeing him like this, Wei Wuliang, who was closest to him and had handed him the task, glanced at the enlarged face on the monitor. Although it was in black and white, it was easy to guess how beautiful the person looked in reality. Wei Wuliang sneered, “Spring has arrived, and even our aloof Brother Pei is feeling it?”

Jiang Pei didn’t respond, but his ears turned inexplicably red.

After a while, he clarified, “She’s my little sister.”

“Fuck fuck fuck!” Wei Wuliang hurriedly moved from his chair to stand behind Jiang Pei, “Your little sister is really pretty! How old is she? Is she married? What are her criteria for a partner? Do you think I fit the image of your ideal brother-in-law?”

As Wei Wuliang spoke, Jiang Pei quickly turned off the monitor and, with a stern voice, said, “She’s not my biological little sister.”

He then turned off the main power and grabbed his coat, heading out, “Take two days off for me. I’m going out of town.”

Not long after he left, Wei Wuliang, feeling mischievous, walked to the dorm window, took a sniff of the barely noticeable scent of a cactus on the windowsill, and murmured with a sigh, “Tsk tsk tsk, looks like spring really is here.”

…

As soon as Jiang Pei bought a plane ticket to City C, Li Jueyan found out about it.

At that moment, he had just received a call from the military district compound, “The Old Madam said she was at her limit and if you still had a shred of filial piety, you must, must, must bring Madam over to keep her company. As for you, she said you didn’t need to come; with a daughter-in-law, she had forgotten about her grandson, and now she didn’t care about you anymore.”

If anyone else had dared to speak to Li Jueyan like this, both the person speaking and the one who instructed them would have been finished the moment those words were spoken.

However, when it came to the aunt who had accompanied his grandmother for many years, and his grandmother, Old Madam Ma, Li Jueyan could not make any excessive moves.

After all, she was his only close family.

With most of his work for the day already completed, he grabbed his computer and got into the car. Just as he instructed the driver about his destination, his private phone rang again.

“President Li, the person you instructed us to monitor, Jiang Pei, has just arrived at City A International Airport. We checked, and he recently bought a ticket for a flight to City C.”

Li Jueyan’s eyes darkened instantly.

At this time, he had already learned from Bai Yurou about the details of the marriage substitution. Following the clues provided by Bai Yurou, he had thoroughly investigated her family background.

He knew she had a gambling-addicted mother.

A father who, unable to handle the financial ruin, had committed suicide by jumping off a building.

And a stepbrother who had no blood relation but had spent over twenty years studying and growing up together with her.

This stepbrother, named Jiang Pei, had not stopped searching for her whereabouts during the six months she had been at the old residence.

Thinking of this, his throat felt parched, and he couldn’t help but loosen his tie and throw it on the ground.

On the other end of the line, there was silence for a while, but the call was not ended, clearly waiting for his instructions.

Li Jueyan, however, remained calm. Lighting a cigar, he exhaled smoke and said, “Follow him, keep close. I’ll fly to City C within two hours, and keep an eye on him.”

Seeing the urgency in his expression, the driver, understanding the situation, sped up.

The military district compound was soon reached.

He pressed the doorbell, and the door creaked open from the inside.

Stepping inside, he entered the living room and saw the Old Madam with a beaming smile, her expression stretched wide like a living Maitreya Buddha.

However, once she glanced around to confirm that no one else was with him, the smile quickly faded, “Where is Tangtang?”

“Are you asking about Jiang Tang or the granddaughter-in-law who came to see you a few days ago?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m afraid it might raise your blood pressure, so I’ll hold off for now.”

At these words, Old Madam Ma’s eyes widened like copper bells.

The sudden spike in blood pressure that day, though it was caught in time and didn’t knock her down, had still affected her health, so she had been using a wheelchair for some time.

Had the doctor not advised her against standing and moving about, she would have hurried upstairs with her feather duster to give that unfilial grandson a good thrashing!

“You’re trying to make me mad, aren’t you? Where is my granddaughter-in-law?”

Li Jueyan’s smile was cold, “She ran away.”

“Ran away where? Did you bully her or upset her? I’m telling you, girls need to be treated with care. Are you stupid? Even though your grandfather arranged your lifelong affairs for you, today’s girls are independent. If you continue like this, you’ll end up alone!”

Li Jueyan met Old Madam Ma’s gaze.

When he was young, he had read a fairytale.

In the story, a fisherman released a bottle containing a devil. The devil wanted to eat the fisherman because during the first century of his confinement, he had vowed to reward anyone who freed him with wealth and honor.

During the second century, he promised to show the person all the treasures of the world.

During the third century, he vowed…

And so, after four or five centuries, the devil’s inner demons were finally unleashed.

The fisherman who had freed him appeared, but the devil, now impatient, only wanted to eat him.

Applying this to himself, Li Jueyan had shown her all his tenderness. How could he have bullied or upset her?

But even though he didn’t pressure or force her, giving her freedom and space, and even intended to use a divorce agreement and a grand wedding on Valentine’s Day to give her a proper ending, she had run away on that very day?

Since then, he felt as though he was the devil confined.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months… and in the blink of an eye, two months had passed.

The anticipation he once had had turned into deep disappointment.

He pursed his lips, “Grandma, I have to go now.”

Since his goodwill had not been reciprocated, he now only wanted to confine her, lock her away, and ensure she could never leave.

If that was considered bullying.

Then so be it.

The devil within him had been unleashed; what did he have to worry so much about?

——