Chapter 105: Aunt
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Li Mei and Jiang Hai didn’t agree immediately as usual. They looked at each other and asked curiously, “Why are you suddenly going to Xiyun?”
Tan Ming walked into the room and sat beside Li Mei on the sofa at the end of the bed with a smile on her face. “It’s my aunt’s birthday next week. She’s a jewelry designer. There are a lot of raw jade stones in Xiyun. I want to pick good jade material for her.”
Xiyun was close to Myanmar in Southeast Asia. That area had a large number of jade mines and was the main source of jade in the world. It could produce the best jade in the world. If Tan Ming wanted to buy jade materials, that was the best choice.
After hearing Tan Ming’s words, Li Mei looked at the sincere smile in Tan Ming’s eyes and asked curiously, “That aunt treats you very well.”
Tan Ming nodded vigorously. “If not for my aunt, I might not have lived to this age!”
Li Mei and Jiang Hai panicked when they heard this. “What happened?!”
Recalling the past, Tan Ming recounted, “When I was 10 years old, my adoptive parents brought me to the resort on a mountain to play. That was the first time I was allowed to attend the Tan family’s family gathering. I was especially excited at that time, thinking that Tan Si and my adoptive parents were willing to accept me. I was so excited that night that it was almost dawn before I fell asleep.”
“When we arrived, everyone started barbecuing. Tan Si suddenly pulled me along and said that there was a very fun place at the resort. She wanted to bring me along. At that time, I wanted to stay behind to help to show my good behavior. Tan Si made a fuss on the spot and insisted that I go. My adoptive parents scolded me, then I left the crowd with Tan Si.”
“She brought me to a stream. The water wasn’t deep, but it was far from the resort’s activity area, so there was no one around. After playing for a while, Tan Si pushed me into the water when I wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t know how to swim, so I struggled and cried for help.”
At this point, Li Mei and Jiang Hai’s hearts tightened. Although Tan Ming was right in front of them now, for a 10-year-old child who couldn’t swim, the suffocation and fear of drowning could be imagined.
Looking at Li Mei’s reddened eyes, Tan Ming reached out and held her mother’s hand. “It’s alright. It’s all in the past. At that time, when I thought that I was going to die there, my aunt suddenly appeared and jumped into the water to save me. She even brought me back to my adoptive parents to seek justice for me. My adoptive parents were naturally biased towards Tan Si.”
At that time, her aunt was very angry. Tan Si was still young at that time. Once her aunt put on a straight face, Tan Si was so frightened that she admitted her crime.
Her aunt brought her and Tan Si back to the barbecue venue. She looked for Wang Li and Tan Xiang to get them to educate Tan Si. However, not only did they say that her aunt was siding with an outsider, but they also said that she had fallen into the water because she was playful, and was afraid that she would be scolded and hence deceived her aunt to shirk the responsibility and slander Tan Si. However, she was already stunned after being saved so she did not say a word.
This obvious bias made her aunt’s heart ache even more. In addition, in the past, when she saw that she could not eat her fill in the Tan family and had to work like an adult, her aunt simply took her in and raised her until she was 16 years old and in her third year of junior high school.
Later on, because of her divorce with Tan Ming’s uncle, her aunt’s mental state was very bad and she even became depressed. However, in order not to delay her middle school examination, her aunt did not dare to let her know. She only said that her family was in a mess and it was not convenient for her to revise there, so she sent her back to the Tan family.
When she went to see her every week, she acted as if nothing had happened and fooled her. It was not until the third year of high school that she realized that her aunt’s depression was already very serious.
Mr. Tan had given up on the marriage because his aunt had married a poor boy back then. He had not brought any benefits to the Tan family and was unwilling to fork out money. Once his uncle became rich, he couldn’t wait to marry a woman who had given birth to his child outside. He even hoped that his aunt would die early to make room for the newbie.
Tan Ming had no choice but to use herself to do business with Tab Xiang. Tan Xiang had taken a fancy to her appearance and wanted to find a rich family to sell her to for a good price. That was why she married Si Cheng, who was in a vegetative state. The Si family was rich, but anyone who had a daughter could not bear to let her marry into the family.
Tan Xiang, on the other hand, seized the opportunity to rely on his superior’s family in exchange for many benefits. Hence, she was like a servant in the Si family. No, it should be said that she was even worse than a servant. It was as if she had been bought by them..