A Father's Love

As much as Li XinYun was upset with her dad, he was her biological father and was nice to her in the past. Li XinYun didn't want to think poorly of him. But she also didn't believe her mother would badmouth her father intentionally, so she was dumbfounded.

Fang JunRong didn't want to say much. She simply picked up the phone and called up Li WangJin. Her voice was cold. "You gave a painting to XinYun?"

Li WangJin sounded a little tired from the other end. "Yeah, hadn't she wanted this one painting of mine? It's her birthday, so I thought I'd give it to her as a gift. She is my daughter. Of course, I care about her."

Hearing his words, Li XinYun relaxed.

Fang JunRong wanted to sneer. How did he have the guts to pretend that he cared about his daughter after he made such a disgusting move? Her voice became even colder. "Oh? I don't want anything reminding me of you in my house, so I plan to auction the painting off."

Li WangJin's voice went up a notch right away. "Wait, you can't do that! It's my gift to XinYun. It represents my love for her!"

Fang JunRong looked at Li XinYun and mouthed to her to play along.

Li XinYun trusted her mother more than her father. Taking the phone from her mother, she sounded very apologetic. "I'm sorry, Dad, but I don't want to upset Mom. If it will make her feel better auctioning the painting off, I'll do that. Besides, you have already gifted it to me. I should be able to decide what to do with it."

As Li XinYun didn't have the speaker on, Fang JunRong couldn't hear what Li WangJin was saying from the other end, but she could see that Li XinYun's look grew darker and darker. Li XinYun finally just hung up the phone.

She pouted and said, "As soon as I said I would auction the painting off, Dad went crazy. He said he regretted giving it to me and wanted it back. He said he would send me a different gift."

Had Fang JunRong not told her something was wrong with the painting, Li XinYun wouldn't have given it much thought. Li WangJin's reaction had confirmed everything. He was worried about the painting getting appraised if sent to auction, which meant he knew there was something wrong with it the whole time.

Her father. The gift from him was a counterfeit? How ironic and laughable!

Li XinYun wanted to cry. She felt very wronged. She didn't understand what she had done that made her father dislike her and would do such a thing to her. He was generous with other women, but not when it came to his daughter. And he'd insult her in such a way.

She sniffled, choking back tears pitifully. "Why would Dad do such a thing?"

Fang JunRong was calm. "Because Jiang YaGe is the daughter of his puppy love. Puppy love is always the best." To be precise, it was Li WangJin who had a one-sided crush on Jiang YaGe's mother, Wang SiEr.

According to the book she read, Li WangJin tried his hand at business during his sophomore year in college and failed. He had lost all the funds given to him by his family and all the money in his savings. Li WangJin was not Li's official heir, so he did not ask for help, not wanting to leave a poor impression on the elders. If he did, that would be the equivalent of giving up his chance of being their heir.

During the period when he was in abject poverty, Wang SiEr told him that she had tightened her belt and saved up some money to help him out. She had since become his white moonlight. However, Wang SiEr already had a boyfriend back then, so she turned him down. Li WangJin had buried this love affair deep inside his heart since.

Li XinYun was so upset that her face was beet red. "So that's why he treats Jiang YaGe better than me?"

Did he think of Jiang YaGe as more his daughter than she was?

Li XinYun severed all of her father-daughter ties with Li WangJin at that very moment. She held her head up to stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks. He was not worth her tears. But she was still angry and upset!

Then, she recalled her brother, who had not visited them once since he had fallen in love with Jiang YaGe. He didn't even text her on her birthday.

The father and son were now dead to her.

Fang JunRong comforted her for a little bit longer. "It's alright. We don't care about the painting. Let me use this to get more cash from your dad. The market price of that painting is at least 2 million yuan."

It wasn't that Fang JunRong needed the money but that she knew that Li WangJin had been short of cash lately – unless he sold more company shares. This month would doubtless be like cutting flesh off of him. Every time she saw him in crisis, she felt happy.

Alternatively, she could just let words out about this event, but she didn't want to do that. XinYun was, after all, his daughter. When others spoke of Li WangJin negatively, XinYun couldn't stay out of it altogether. She treasured her daughter and couldn't allow a piece of shit to stick to her.

She squinted a little. She could, however, encourage others to appreciate Li WangJin's collections and preferably have a few experts in antiques in there to help expose him.

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Li WangJin talked and talked. He spent a lot of time getting the painting back from Li XinYun. Then, he had to give her 2 million yuan in shopping money for her birthday. He felt mistreated when he handed the money over.

He realized that Fang JunRong had changed from how he remembered her since the divorce. She was even more aggressive than before like she didn't love him anymore.

He never should have sent over that painting to save some money. Now WangJin was out of pocket even more. What made him worry even more was whether XinYun noticed something wrong with the painting.

No, probably not. With XinYun's temperament, she would have unleashed on him already if she knew about it.

He wiped away the sweat on his forehead. Divorcing from Fang JunRong hurt him a lot. Even when he took out a loan, he didn't get much cash to work with. XinYun, being with JunRong, had also gotten worse. All she saw now was money. She didn't care about her father at all.

Another call came in. Looking at the name flashing on the screen, Li WangJin picked up the phone quickly. He hung up after five minutes. Even though he was still forlorn, he felt a sense of satisfaction.

The call was from a private investigator that he had hired. After a lot of time and effort, he was finally able to collect evidence that Wang Xiao tried to set him up. Once this evidence was revealed, even if Wang Xiao could weasel out of it, he for sure wouldn't be able to get off scot-free.

Ah, he was finally able to take revenge on Wang Xiao and let him know that he wasn't someone that could be offended with no consequences.

The private investigator was good, but it cost another 2 million yuan. Li WangJin still needed to save some money to network with others and cover his daily expenses.

He thought about it before deciding to stop Jiang YaGe's pocket money temporarily; after all, the reason that Wang Xiao had been targeting him was because of her actions. He'd make it up to her once he had earned money in the company. YaGe was kind and tender; he was sure she wouldn't mind.

His brows unfurrowed – he just needed to make it through this period. He even started thinking that perhaps this was just a bad year for him. Maybe he should travel to a temple or have some feng shui master come and check his place out to improve his luck.

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Jiang YaGe, who was kind and tender in Li WangJin's eyes, was still staying with Wang SiXian in the hospital right now. Wang SiXian had already undergone her first surgery and needed to stay in the hospital for a few days.

Jiang YaGe was not happy after her adopted father told her the news. He had expressed that all his assets were bound to his company; he was tight on cash and had to halt her pocket money. She had just experienced what it was like to spend money madly like a wealthy girl, and now she was deprived of that privilege.

She recalled what she had heard when she visited her adoptive father's company that afternoon.

"Chairman said to send Master Xu's masterpiece to Miss."

"Which Miss?"

"Li XinYun, the Li's real Miss, of course. I heard that the painting is worth over 1 million yuan. It shows that the Chairman's favorite is still his real daughter, Li XinYun. I had mistakenly thought that he preferred Jiang YaGe over her before."

"You are overthinking this. Jiang YaGe is something fun and a flavor of the day thing. Of course, she won't measure up to the real daughter. Just because a sparrow can land on a tree branch doesn't make it a phoenix," said the female voice sarcastically.

"Boy, you are a mean one. Didn't you accept the milk tea? She has brought us milk tea every afternoon in the last few days."

"Who cares about a cup of 5 - 6 yuan milk tea? I don't even drink it normally. When Miss came to visit last time, she brought everyone Essence Coffee. Now that's what a real Miss should be, not frugal like Jiang YaGe."

"Ha. Are you still going to drink the milk tea tomorrow?"

"I am not going to drink it, but I can still take it and give it to a beggar on my way home. That will be my good deed of the day."

Jiang YaGe tried very hard to squeeze the words out of her head, but she only ended up with an even more lasting impression of them. No, they were just instigating. She can't trust them! They were envious of her and couldn't bear to see her happy.

She had felt so much appreciation for how her adoptive father had doted on her. Yet that feeling of appreciation changed when she found out that her adoptive father had given such an expensive painting to Li XinYun. Her adoptive father had always treasured his collection and would not give any away, so she had never received any herself.

Now that her adoptive father had run out of money, he would sooner stop her pocket money than give her one of his collections. He probably didn't care for her as much as he said he did.

As the saying goes, going from a wealthy lifestyle to a frugal one is always challenging. Jiang YaGe has been going out with her friends lately and has bought luxurious clothing and accessories to emphasize her status as Li's Miss. That had led to her not having much money remaining at her disposal.

She had planned to take her roommate to a 5-star restaurant in a couple of days. She thought her adoptive father would have given her more pocket money so she wouldn't embarrass herself in front of others.

She typed "Li XinYun" in the browser's search bar. as though her hands had gained sentience.

Immediately, an article showed up about her – Li XinYun standing at her birthday banquet in a dress adorned with diamonds, looking proud like a princess. She quickly skimmed over the article. It talked a lot about the birthday banquet; they even hired a few famous singers to perform there. She could only imagine how much the banquet had cost, and she, on the other hand, had her pocket money taken away from her.

All of the discussions were about how envious others were of Li XinYun. She had become everyone's ideal.

Jiang YaGe took a deep breath and closed up the webpage. The more she read, the more unhappy she became. And it wasn't just because of Li XinYun. Even Zhong Yi looked poised and elegant in the picture.

First, she needed to figure out how to get some cash. Everybody knew that she had become Li WangJin's adopted daughter. She needed to play the part when school started again. If she didn't, many would gossip about her behind her back. More importantly, she couldn't let Zhong Yi outshine her.

She couldn't possibly sell her clothing or shoes; she would need those to put up the front.

Then something popped into her mind, and her eyes lit up.

That's right. Fang JunRong had gifted her a painting by Xu FangWeng at their first meeting. If she were to sell the painting, the money she got from it could tie her over for a few months. By then, her adoptive father's fortune would be free, and she would receive her pocket money again.

The thought put a smile back on her worried face.