Only after spending a long time together can someone be like an orchid in a secluded valley, releasing a more and more enchanting fragrance.

What a pity...

"It’s your birthday today, so I came to see you. I heard you’re also getting engaged today?" Jian Panying was a little ill at ease. Maybe it was because she was looking at her daughter, who had cultivated herself into such a beautiful and dignified woman, and comparing that to herself now, already like an old tree and withered grass, that she felt all the more ashamed.

Seeing Jian Panying like this, Jian Anning instead didn’t know what she ought to say. All these years in the Cheng Family, although she’d been living under someone else’s roof, apart from Cheng Tingting being very sharp and aggressive toward her, the other three were at least outwardly very cordial to her.

Especially Jian Panying—after all, she was her biological mother. If there was a conflict of interest between Jian Anning and the Cheng Family, and Cheng Tingting, she might stand on Cheng Tingting’s side. But when it was just her facing Jian Anning alone, Jian Panying was also a normal mother.

Seeing her so humbled, Jian Anning naturally couldn’t bring herself to say anything too harsh to her. However much she might dislike her—this was still her own mother.

But the one about to leave right away was Jian Panying: "I, I came today because I wanted to bring you something." At this moment she was instead a bit nervous. She lowered her head, turned around and picked up the shopping bag on the floor, taking out something that was wrapped up very tightly. "This was given to me by your grandmother. I’m leaving it to you."

When she opened it, it was a brilliantly gleaming gold brooch. Jian Anning seemed to have seen it before—Jian Panying had a pair of brooches like this, all heirlooms passed down from her grandmother back then.

"This used to be a pair. One of them was..." She couldn’t bring herself to say it—one of them had been sold off to cover living expenses, the money all spent on Cheng Tingting. She had owned a pair of these, originally planning to give one to each daughter. Since that one had gone to Cheng Tingting, then this one was to be kept for her.

As soon as Jian Anning heard her say they’d been split up, she could guess it had been given to Cheng Tingting, and she didn’t get angry. After so many years, if she were going to hate, she’d have done it long ago. She knew Cheng Tingting hadn’t liked her from the very beginning, but she hadn’t expected back then that Cheng Tingting would go so mad as to kidnap and kill.

She wasn’t a saint, but that woman had already, because of her crimes, been locked up in prison. Most likely, for the rest of her life, she would never get out.

For Cheng Tingting, this kind of torment of living a life worse than death might be even more painful than sentencing her straight to death. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

However, none of that had anything to do with Jian Anning anymore. Since Cheng Tingting had already been punished, she couldn’t be bothered to keep resenting her for anything.

Life still had to go on; she had many more meaningful things to do. To keep hating someone who was already behind bars—she wasn’t that idle.

Still, when Jian Panying at this moment handed her this heirloom passed down from her grandmother, even though there was only one, Jian Anning’s heart was stirred slightly.

"Thank you."

Seeing that she really accepted the brooch, Jian Panying was so happy that her whole face bloomed like a flower. All the wrinkles on her face opened up with her smile, and it made both Jian Anning and Yu Zexiao feel a bit unsettled. After a long moment, Yu Zexiao frowned, and only then said, "Today is the day Anning and I get engaged, and it’s also her thirtieth birthday. Why don’t you... stay and have a meal?"

This was the first time that Jian Anning and Yu Zexiao had taken the initiative to invite Jian Panying to stay.