CHAPTER 290: WHOSE CHILD, WHOSE BURDEN?

Of course Mrs. Jiang didn’t believe a word YanLan said. He was one of AiLin’s people, loyal, silent, and just as manipulative as his mistress. His words might as well have come from AiLin herself, which, in Mrs. Jiang’s mind, made them absolutely worthless.

AiLin had never lied to her as a child. In fact, she had always been painfully honest, almost naive. But even then, Mrs. Jiang could never truly see her as family. To her, AiLin was an outsider—someone to blame, someone to cast aside when things went wrong.

And now, with her already drowning in problems, Mrs. Jiang wasn’t about to fall for what she assumed was another one of AiLin’s games. Perhaps a revenge plot, or a carefully spun trap.

Snatching the letter from YanLan’s hand, she tore it open with trembling fingers.

Her eyes widened. Her expression twisted.

Because what she read inside wasn’t a prank. It wasn’t fake.

It was real.

The handwriting unmistakable, delicate, slanted strokes of none other than Grandmother LinLin herself.

She had written to AiLin. Personally.

Inviting her to the birthday banquet. Pleading, in fact. So humble, so desperate that it almost read like a sinner begging at the gates of heaven for one final chance.

"This... No. This must be wrong," Mrs. Jiang muttered, her voice low, almost broken.

Wrong.

Funny, wasn’t it?

Even her ex-mother-in-law understood how wrong this letter felt. Grandmother LinLin, who had never so much as looked at AiLin kindly, was now groveling on paper like she owed her life.

In the past, the old woman couldn’t stand AiLin. Everyone knew that.

And yet this letter... felt almost tender. Like she wanted AiLin’s forgiveness.

Mrs. Jiang still couldn’t believe it.

Truth be told, if AiLin had received this letter any earlier, she wouldn’t have come.

Even if Grandmother LinLin had knelt and kowtowed in the middle of the street, AiLin wouldn’t have budged.

She was long past the stage of mercy.

Long past caring.

She was here now for one reason only, to uncover the secret Grandmother LinLin was so desperate to tell her.

"Whatever. Move," AiLin said coldly, brushing past Housekeeper Xu and Mrs. Jiang without hesitation.

Before anyone could react, YanLan stepped in like a wall of stone, his gaze sharp and posture guarded. No one dared follow.

And so, AiLin walked forward.

Each step toward Grandmother LinLin’s room felt both heavy and strangely weightless.

Once, she had longed to enter that room. She had prayed for a day she would be welcomed there, not as a guest, but as family.

Now?

This place held nothing for her.

No warmth. No fear. No nostalgia.

Just a hollow emptiness, like stepping into a museum of someone else’s life.

She sighed softly, mind drifting to the one place she did feel safe now, Li ZiChen’s arms. That warmth, that security... things no one in this house could ever offer her.

Just as she neared the door, she stopped.

Her eyes narrowed.

Standing at the entrance was a familiar face she hadn’t expected to see, but one that stirred no rage. No sorrow.

Only disgust.

Jiang MengYao.

The young man stood stiffly, his face still bruised and swollen from a beating he clearly hadn’t forgotten. His once proud features were now distorted, pitiful and ugly.

AiLin smirked.

For a fleeting second, she was tempted to pull out her phone and snap a photo. Maybe even send it to Li ZiChen, just to say "nice work."

But instead, she rolled her eyes and walked past him like he was nothing more than an annoying piece of furniture. The silent treatment irked him, she could tell, but he didn’t dare move. He didn’t dare speak.

It seemed Li ZiChen had hit him in just the right places to finally fix whatever was broken in that cruel, abusive mind of his.

Mrs. Jiang spared her son a glance, frowning at his hesitance. He didn’t even try to stop AiLin.

Odd.

But she didn’t have time to think too deeply about it.

Because right then, AiLin pushed open the doors to Grandmother LinLin’s room brazen, unapologetic, and utterly unafraid.

"I am here," she said as she entered and Grandmother LinLin who was sitting on the bed, coughing with a blanket covering her shoulder immediately swerved her head toward her side, a brief look on her face seemed to show shock and displeasure but upon seeing her, that displeasure was overtaken by guilt.

"AiLin-a," Grandmother LinLin called her affectionately but Ailin only looked at her with nothing but passiveness, an ice cold stare that made Grandmother LinLin’s smile to slowly fade away with sorrow.

But so what?

"I came here because I heard you wanted to see me," AiLin took one of the chair and sat down. "But everyone else seems so displeased by my appearance so it would be great if you could speed up the things you said you wanted to speak with me."

"How could you speak to your grandmother that way!" Mrs Jiang snapped, "You have always been a burden to me, embarrassing me any time you could but to think you would even behave this way to your own grandmother!"

"Whose burden?" Grandmother LinLin was the one who had asked that question in such a frightening tone.

AiLin swept her eyes at her grandmother’s face which was covered with such annoyance, as if she was about to snap Mrs Jiang in halves.

"Whose burden is she?" Grandmother LinLin asked again, "Is she your child? Is she YOUR burden?"

Mrs Jiang was deterred as she held her hand in a fist, "But still... she was once my burden."

"A child isn’t supposed to be anyone’s burden, but since you don’t know that, it shows just how lacking you are as a mother and a person," Grandmother LinLin coldly admonished her.

Mrs Jiang’s face turned ugly at once. She was pampered as a young lady and thus being admonished in front of the one person she dislike was enough to turn her face red with anger.