Villainous Sick Beauty Chapter 71

TL: Hua

---

Although they live on the same floor of the same building, Grandma Zhang’s house and Qin Chaoyan’s house have different floor plans, and hers is much larger.

After Ye Rongxu was invited into the living room, he sat by the sofa.

While preparing tea for him and his bodyguards, she recalled while busying herself: “Xiao Qin was very pitiful when he was a child. His mother was very irresponsible. She often left him at home and went out to fool around…”

Ye Rongxu frowned while listening; his eyes fell on an open album on the table.

Just then, Grandma Zhang brought tea over. She smiled and said, “This is my family’s old album. My granddaughter came to visit me yesterday and found it. You can look at it if you want. I remember there are two photos of Xiao Qin when he was a child. They were all taken by my daughter when she just bought a camera in her early years.”

“Really?” Ye Rongxu was curious and picked up the album to browse through.

After putting down the tea, Grandma Zhang sat on the sofa and leaned over to help him find it.

After a while, they found the photos of young Qin Chaoyan.

The little boy in the photo was dark and emaciated. He was standing on a stool and reaching out to take food from the pot. He turned his head to look at the person taking the photo. His face was expressionless, but his eyes were particularly dark. Despite his thinness, which accentuated the size of his head, his delicate features revealed a truly beautiful child.

“Alas, this is a photo of him when he was three years old. His mother didn’t come home much at that time. She often went out for two or three days. When she came back occasionally, she was drunk. The child was sometimes pitifully hungry. Fortunately, his neighbor Aunt Zhao and I found out and often sent him some food…”

Grandma Zhang recalled the past and couldn’t help but have some moistness in the corners of her eyes.

Ye Rongxu touched the photo with his fingertips, and a strange feeling arose in his heart, sour and astringent.

“Was he always so thin when he was a child?” He retracted his fingertips and asked with furrowed eyebrows.

He didn’t even realize that his voice sounded a little angry.

“Not really. This child is easy to take care of. He grows taller even if he just drinks water. His aunt Zhao and I gave him food every day, and soon he grew taller and fatter. I remember there was also a photo of him when he was five years old…”

Grandma Zhang searched again and soon found it. She pointed at the photo and said, “Look, he wasn’t so thin in this one.”

It was a photo of a five-year-old boy, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and blue overalls. He was indeed taller and fairer. His facial features were very similar to Qin Chaoyan’s now, especially handsome, and with a slightly deeper contour.

But the clothes he was wearing were old, his white short sleeves yellowed from washing, and he had rolled somewhere, his face and clothes dirty with mud and leaves.

He pursed his lips and looked coldly at the camera, seeming stubborn and headstrong.

But what shocked Ye Rongxu the most was that he was wearing a very familiar jade pendant around his neck.

This jade pendant is an exact replica of the one with a pony engraved on it that his mother gave him at birth.

He was abducted by human traffickers when he was four years old, and it was Qin Jingxu who carried him to escape, so the jade pendant was given to Qin Jingxu at that time.

His mother said that the jade pendant was designed by her personally and specially customized. There’s only one of it. How could five-year-old Qin Chaoyan have the same jade pendant?

Ye Rongxu stared at Qin Chaoyan in the photo, and his eyes gradually changed from shock to confusion.

“This was taken when he was five years old. That day he went to the woods on the mountain to dig wild vegetables but did not return for a day and a night, which scared me and his Aunt Zhao. Later, we heard that there were human traffickers on the mountain that day. Fortunately, this kid didn’t run into them. He is really lucky…”

Ye Rongxu was focused on the photo and couldn’t hear what Grandma Zhang said. It wasn’t until his ears caught the three words “human traffickers” that he finally came back to his senses and asked in a hurry, “Human traffickers? Did he meet human traffickers on the mountain?”

Grandma Zhang said “ah” and corrected subconsciously: “No, I mean fortunately he didn’t meet them…”

Xiao Ye is so young; why is his hearing worse than hers?

Ye Rongxu asked anxiously, “Did he not meet them, or did he escape after meeting them? Or did he not expose himself after meeting them and then secretly rescue a person from the human traffickers?”

After asking, he saw that Grandma Zhang was stunned. Obviously, she didn’t understand what he was saying and probably didn’t know the details.

Ye Rongxu sighed and changed the topic: “Which mountain is that?”

“Oh, I remember that.” Grandma Zhang slapped her forehead and said, “It’s Dalin Mountain in the north of Jiangcheng. Back then, Dalin Mountain was barren, and at night, the tree shadows were dark and frightening, unlike now…”

Ye Rongxu also recalled the memory that was so blurred it seems like a dream even till this day.

He actually didn’t remember what happened that day, and he didn’t even know that he was abducted or how he was abducted. He only remembered that he was inexplicably locked in a very dark place.

Even the abduction was told to him by his parents later.

For him, who was four years old and had a high fever at the time, it wasn’t easy for his brain to remember things.

That memory now only consists of some fragmented images with no end in sight, vaguely telling him that such an event had happened.

The only thing he remembered was that there was a big brother who was about his age, carrying him and running in the dark woods.

It was cold all around, and the shadows of the trees were twisted and terrifying, like a huge monster that was going to devour them. He hugged the big brother’s neck tightly, his tears falling into his collar.

That big brother whispered to comfort him all the way, coaxing him to gradually fall asleep and forget his fear.

He always thought that person was Qin Jingxu, because he gave the jade pendant to that big brother before he fell asleep, then Qin Jingxu showed him that jade pendant later.

But now, he suddenly found that Qin Chaoyan also had a similar jade pendant.

No, it’s very likely the same one. His mom said that this style of the jade pendant is unique.

So his jade pendant was given to Qin Chaoyan back then? The person who saved him was actually Qin Chaoyan?

Ye Rongxu was shocked, at a loss, confused, and then happy.

It turned out that he and Qin Chaoyan knew each other so early? It turned out that their fate started so early? Was it Qin Chaoyan who saved him? It was Qin Chaoyan…

He suddenly clenched his fingers, and a thread of sweetness emerged in his heart, as sweet as honey.

It was strange. Back when he believed the person was Qin Jingxu, he felt nothing but gratitude.

Now that he knew it might be Qin Chaoyan, his heart suddenly started beating non-stop, and he didn’t even notice when the corners of his lips curved.

But he soon regained his senses, and another question emerged.

If the person who saved him was Qin Chaoyan and he did give the jade pendant to Qin Chaoyan, how did it end up in Qin Jingxu’s hands?

Ye Rongxu solemnly traced the jade pendant in the photograph with his white fingertips. After a long time, he asked in a hoarse voice, “Grandma Zhang, this jade pendant on Qin Chaoyan’s neck… do you know where it came from?”

His heartbeat sped up a little as he looked at the kind elderly woman in front of him.

He didn’t actually hold much hope and thought he might have to ask Qin Chaoyan. After all, Grandma Zhang had only taken care of Qin Chaoyan for a period of time and wouldn’t necessarily pay attention to a pendant on the other party.

But surprisingly, Grandma Zhang recognized the jade pendant as soon as she saw it and recalled, “I don’t know where this jade pendant came from, but I remember that it was taken away by his mother later.”

“She took it away?” Ye Rongxu was stunned.

“Yes.” Grandma Zhang nodded, very sure.

The reason why she still remembered the incident was because the five-year-old Qin Chaoyan refused to let go when Zhang Yun wanted to take the jade pendant. Zhang Yun was so angry that she hit him with a stick.

“I was there at the time and tried to stop her, so I remember it clearly.” Grandma Zhang continued to recall, “”Alas, Xiao Qin was also stubborn. He didn’t let go of the pendant and didn’t say a word when his mother hit him like that. Later, his hands and legs were beaten black and blue, which was very heartbreaking to see. However, the five-year-old child had limited strength, and the pendant was later taken by his mother.”

Ye Rongxu became angrier and angrier as he listened, as if something was blocking his heart.

He suddenly regretted that he was just scaring Zhang Yun in the hospital before. He should have… Forget it; he couldn’t really do anything illegal.

But Zhang Yun is really despicable; how could there be such a mother? It’s basically domestic violence! Child abuse!

Also, the jade pendant was most likely given to Qin Chaoyan by him. Why did Zhang Yun snatch it? Even if it wasn’t given by him, it wasn’t Zhang Yun’s.

What did she want to do by snatching Qin Chaoyan’s jade pendant? She—

Suddenly, Ye Rongxu remembered the jade pendant that appeared in Qin Jingxu’s hand later. Did Zhang Yun give the jade pendant to Qin Jingxu?

“But why did she do that?” Ye Rongxu murmured subconsciously.

Grandma Zhang thought he was asking, “Why did Zhang Yun take the jade pendant?” and explained: “She said that the jade pendant was stolen by Xiao Qin, so she beat him and asked him to hand it over. But I think she was talking nonsense. I know Xiao Qin. No matter how hungry or difficult it is, he would never steal other people’s things.

But the jade pendant does look valuable. I guess Xiao Qin picked it up somewhere. His mother didn’t have a proper job at that time besides drinking and fooling around all day. It seemed she was in desperate need of money, and seeing the jade pendant, she wanted to exchange it for money, but Xiao Qin didn’t want to, so he was beaten.”

No…

Ye Rongxu shook his head slowly, thinking that it wasn’t the case.

It must be Zhang Yun who snatched the jade pendant and gave it to Qin Jingxu. But why did she do this? Qin Chaoyan is her biological son, and Qin Jingxu is… you can even say that he’s the son of her love rival.

In addition to giving the jade pendant, Zhang Yun seems to have always been good to Qin Jingxu. Didn’t she help Qin Jingxu transfer Qin Chaoyan’s school registration and household registration last year, causing Qin Chaoyan to almost fail to register for the college entrance examination?

She’s a third party who interferes with other people’s marriages and may even be the fourth or fifth party. Not treating her own son well but being good to the son of the legal wife, how does this even make sense?

She even helped the legal wife’s son make things difficult for her own biological son.

Does she have a guilty conscience?

But if she really had a conscience, she wouldn’t have been the third party at the beginning or worked as a nanny in the Qin family and had an affair with Qin Qijiang.

And would a person with a conscience abuse her own son?

“But after that incident, Xiao Zhang changed for the better again for a while. She got a decent job as a nanny in a rich family, taking care of the family’s youngest son.”

“!” It was to take care of Qin Jingxu.

Ye Rongxu suddenly looked up and immediately realized that Grandma Zhang was talking about when Zhang Yun was a nanny in the Qin family and taking care of Qin Jingxu.

“During that time, she stopped drinking or fooling around all day. She spoke more kindly and occasionally bought some clothes and food for Xiao Qin, finally giving off a motherly demeanor. It’s a stark contrast to when she first moved here and left her three-year-old by himself. We all thought the child wasn’t her biological child…”

Grandma Zhang continued to chatter.

Ye Rongxu’s mind buzzed for a moment, but as he looked at the photo, a crazy thought suddenly came to his mind—

Qin Chaoyan… Could it be that he’s not Zhang Yun’s biological child?

At least compared to treating Qin Chaoyan, Zhang Yun was obviously better towards Qin Jing Xu.

And when Grandma Zhang said that Zhang Yun finally acted like a mother, wasn’t it the time when she went to the Qin family to work as a nanny for Qin Jingxu?

Of course, it wasn’t as if there were no nannies who were so good to their employer’s children that they treated them like their own. But Zhang Yun wasn’t even nice to her own son. Her and Qin Jingxu’s relationship wasn’t just a nanny-employer’s child relationship. Zhang Yun had an affair with her employer and gave birth to a son, so her relationship with Qin Jingxu should be antagonistic.

Also, if the speculation about the jade pendant is true, then she was very nice to Qin Jingxu even before she went to work as a nanny for the Qin family and helped Qin Jingxu replace Qin Chaoyan’s credit. She also helped Qin Jingxu deal with his own son…

Would a normal mother treat her own son like this? Unless there’s a grudge or it’s not her own son to begin with…

Ye Rongxu just had this idea suddenly at first, but the more he delved into it, the more plausible it became.

He looked at the photo, pondered for a moment, and suddenly asked the bodyguards nearby, “Do you think Qin Chaoyan looks like Zhang Yun?”

The bodyguards recalled carefully and shook their heads.

Grandma Zhang also thought they didn’t resemble each other, saying, “Little Qin looks like his father, right?”

She had never seen what Qin Chaoyan’s father looked like.

Ye Rongxu shook his head slightly. Qin Chaoyan did look a bit like Qin Qijiang, but only a bit, nothing more.

But what’s certain is that he doesn’t look like Zhang Yun either.

In the past, he never really looked at Qin Jingxu carefully. Now that he has this idea, he suddenly feels that his curved eyebrows and narrow eyes look a bit like Zhang Yun’s.

Once this thought appeared, it could not be shaken off.

This speculation even overwhelmed the joy of knowing that “his childhood’s lifesaver might be Qin Chaoyan,” but there was no evidence for this speculation.

No, it’s actually very easy to verify. They only need to do a paternity test.

He can arrange it secretly first. If he guessed wrong, it wouldn’t matter. If he guessed right…

Ye Rongxu narrowed his eyes slightly, suddenly picked up the photo, and asked Grandma Zhang, “Grandma, can you give me this photo for now?”

Grandma Zhang smiled and said, “Okay, you can take the other one too. There are not many photos of Xiao Qin when he was a child. There are only two left in my house.”

She took it as a special thought between the young couple to take back as a souvenir and nodded her head in agreement.

Ye Rongxu picked up the photo and thanked her, then asked the bodyguard to take him back.

 

---

If you’re not reading this translation at knoxt.space, it’s stolen content!!!

Consider supporting me on Ko-fi if you like what I’m doing. Thank you for reading! (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

If you notice any mistake or error, comment or contact me on discord –> huarricane