The next day, when Claire comes to the college, she finds something unusual. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Most of the students hide from her as if she were a monster. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And in class, there is no one around her except Ling. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Claire is confused. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
After school, Claire knows the truth. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
She hears that Qi’s family suddenly went bankrupt. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Of course, the students think Claire got back at her. They didn’t expect Claire to be so cruel. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“This woman is very cruel.” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“She’s the wife of Master Howard. Don’t associate with her in the future.” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“Although Qi is a bit excessive, she should not retaliate against her family.” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When Claire hears it, she is surprised. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Did Leo do it? <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Claire goes home and asks Leo, “I want to ask you something!” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Leo sits on the sofa and glances at Claire. He lights a cigarette. “Say it.” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“They said I did it, but I didn’t. Did you do it?” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Leo spits out a bunch of white smoke. He doesn’t answer. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“It’s none of your business.” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Claire says, “well, it’s none of my business. You mentioned my father last night. How is he doing?” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Leo obviously didn’t expect Claire to suddenly change the subject. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He frowns. “You belong to Howard Family now.” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“I’m his daughter anyway. I need to know about him.” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“Then you shouldn’t ask me. You should ask your stepmother.” Leo takes a smoke and Claire coughs. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“She’s not my mother. I don’t admit it. You’re my husband. Can’t you tell me? Why keep it from me?” Claire has some complaints. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Leo snuffs out the cigarette and stands up. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“I don’t know about your father, and I won’t tell you if I know. Are you satisfied with this answer?” Leo’s tone is cold again. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Claire clenches her teeth and says nothing. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Leo, you son of a bitch! <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When Claire and Leo are talking in the living room, Ling has already entered Leo’s study. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He sits in the chair that Leo used to sit in. He turns over the papers on the desk. Most of them are company documents, and Ling feels bored. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Even on Leo’s bookshelf, there are all books about company management, not even a literary work. Ling thinks the study is an office. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ling opens a cupboard beside the desk. There he finds the only thing worth playing in the study. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It’s a simple jade pendant. It’s elegant and ancient and should be priceless. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
But Ling doesn’t care about its price. He only thinks the jade pendant is pretty, so he can’t help wearing it on his neck. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The warm jade sticks to his chest. He feels very comfortable. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“I didn’t expect that my brother has these things!” Ling plays with the jade pendant and says to himself. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Just as he is thinking about it, footsteps come from the stairs. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ling shivers. He almost jumps up from the chair and tries to run out of the door. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
But just as he opens the door, Ling sees Leo’s cold face. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“Didn’t I tell you not to enter my study without my permission?” Leo frowns. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ling is embarrassed. He nods. “I’m bored and just looking around. Why are you so nervous?” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Leo ignores him and waves. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ling walks out with a sigh of relief. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As he goes downstairs, he sees Claire watching TV and ignoring him. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“What’s the matter?” Ling feels puzzled and looks at the TV screen. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A familiar face appears in the news broadcast. It is Qi, the president of the student union. He is shocked when he sees the headline. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“A family business in this city went bankrupt, and the eldest daughter was suspected of suffering and committing suicide.” Ling reads the headline word by word. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“The news has been broadcast. It must be true. But Qi looks shameless. She actually killed herself.” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Claire is a little sorry after the shock. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Although Qi and she had conflicts and she always embarrassed Claire, she should not die. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Claire hopes that Leo didn’t bankrupt her family, or she will feel guilty. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Claire sighs at her suicide. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“Sister in law, you are so kind. She really shouldn’t have died. It seems that she can’t stand the blow.” Ling is also a little sorry. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“Well, it’s none of our business.” Claire turns off the TV and looks back at Ling. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
But soon Claire’s eyes change. She finds a jade pendant on Ling’s body. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It’s not the most important. She feels that the jade pendant is similar to the one she has lost before. But how could it be on Ling? <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ling also notices the confusion in Claire’s eyes. “What’s the matter?” <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This is her jade pendant… <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u0003\u0003\u0003<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The next day, when Claire comes to the college, she finds something unusual. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Most of the students hide from her as if she were a monster. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And in class, there is no one around her except Ling. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Claire is confused. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
After school<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extnovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extnovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extnovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extnovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extnovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/extnovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extnovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extnovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extnovel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}