My Online Girlfriend Has a Twin Sister

Seeing Jiangg Ning’s reddened eyes and the tears welling up, ready to fall, Jiangg Ruxue fell silent. But her shoulders remained tense, not yet fully free from the emotions of their argument.

For a moment, the office was terrifyingly silent, the only sound the faint whisper of breathing.

The silence was broken by a few more sobs from Jiangg Ning. As she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, Chen Yuan finally snapped out of it, quickly pulling a tissue from his pocket and pressing it into her hand.

Jiangg Ruxue shot Chen Yuan a glance.

Perhaps because an outsider was present, Jiangg Ruxue, who had always cared deeply about her reputation, felt utterly humiliated to be scolded like this. Her face was ashen, and while not quite contorted with rage, it was far from a pretty sight.

At this point, under the onslaught of countless emotions, Jiangg Ruxue was incapable of thinking rationally. After two days of suppression, she realized she was facing an impossible situation, which only intensified her need to vent her pent-up frustration.

In a situation like this, how could Jiangg Ning possibly make her recognize her mistakes and sincerely repent with just a few words?

It was a feat in itself that she hadn’t already become hysterical.

"Say whatever you want. Say I’m unworthy, say you’re unhappy with me, it doesn’t matter. Your surname is Jiangg, not Liu. Your father is dead, and the Liu Family won’t take you in. In that regard, I have far more of a conscience than they do. At least I didn’t let you two grow up all alone." A sarcastic smile played on Jiangg Ruxue’s lips.

So, she saw the basic responsibility of a parent as some kind of unending favor she had bestowed upon them.

This time, even Chen Yuan couldn’t stand to listen anymore. He stared at her, his eyes wide with disbelief.

’Does a mother like this really exist in the world?’ He felt like he’d seen it all now.

"So Yaoyao and I should be thanking you? If you hadn’t forced Dad to leave back then, would he have gotten into a car accident in the middle of the night?"

"You bastard!" Jiangg Ruxue’s neck stiffened. Provoked by that single sentence, she flew into a rage, stood up, and rushed toward Jiangg Ning.

Her high heels went CLACK CLACK on the floor.

She pointed at Jiangg Ning’s nose.

"Your father’s death had nothing to do with me! Did you think I wanted him to die? Has it been easy for me all these years, all alone?! I didn’t find a stepfather for you two for your own sakes! I can handle other people making wild accusations, but for you to say this to me? He got the hell out in the middle of the night to go find that little homewrecker!"

"Mom," Jiangg Ning said, looking her mother in the eye without a trace of fear or retreat. Her hoarse voice was heartbreaking to hear. "If you hadn’t insisted Dad fight Uncle for Grandma and Grandpa’s assets, if you hadn’t taken Yaoyao and me and left home, not seeing him for the better part of a year, would he have become so disheartened that he’d go find someone else? That night... it was raining so hard. You shoved him out the door and wouldn’t listen no matter how much Yaoyao and I cried."

"You... How do you remember all that?" Jiangg Ruxue’s face instantly turned pale, her expression shifting rapidly.

She clearly remembered Jiangg Ning and Jiangg Yao being so little back then. How could they possibly remember so much?

"I remember. Of course, I remember. I’ve just never said anything... You married Dad only for his money, to live a more glamorous life, and you forced him to do so many things... When he left that night, he told Yaoyao and me to listen to you and not make you angry... He said he’d come back another day to take us home. But from that day on, I no longer had a father..."

As she said this, Jiangg Ning’s lips twisted, and tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.

Witnessing this firsthand made Chen Yuan’s heart ache as if it were being squeezed.

"After Dad passed away, you used us two children’s names to claim a very generous inheritance, as well as the assets Dad never managed to get while he was alive... because my uncle didn’t want to fight two children over it, right?"

"Afterward, you decided that still wasn’t enough, so you took Grandma and Grandpa to court to demand child support until we turned eighteen, right?"

Jiangg Ning spoke word by word, each question landing with immense force.

It left Jiangg Ruxue with no room to argue.

Then, Jiangg Ning asked, "And Jiangg Yao and I have never seen a single cent of that inheritance. To this day, you’ve kept it clutched in your hands. That’s not right, is it? You’d even exploit your own daughters. Ask your conscience, are you even worthy of being a mother?"

"Jiangg Yao doesn’t know all this. If I told her the whole truth, what would she think of you? Have you ever thought about that? Even now, do you still see my sister and me as naive children who don’t understand anything?"

Jiangg Ning wiped away her tears and pulled out her phone, her voice trembling. "Here, you tell me what’s going on with this exposé. Did you ever think about the consequences of breaking the law? You won’t let me handle it now, so what’s the plan? Do you want me and Yaoyao to have to visit you in prison, talking to you through a pane of glass?!"

The afternoon light filtered through the gaps in the curtains, cut into slivers that flickered across the mother and daughter’s faces.

Pain, grief, guilt, evasion...

A hundred different emotions flickered in their eyes.

These countless emotions, brewing for over twenty years, had long since solidified into hard, insoluble grit.

This grit swirled in their eyes, stinging them.

No matter how many tears they shed to soothe them, the pain would not dissolve.

Jiangg Ning’s once-delicate features were now a mess, her makeup smeared... Yet her forehead, on which she never wore any makeup, remained pristine, tightly furrowed.

Just like so many years ago...

Jiangg Ruxue stared at her daughter’s face, stunned. It was as if she could see the past through those eyes—see Jiangg Ning as an older sister, shielding Yaoyao.

"Mama, stop hitting her... I won’t move! Daddy told me to protect my little sister. Even if you’re our mother, you can’t just hurt her whenever you want."

The childish voice echoed from a distant past, still clear after so many years.

Jiangg Ruxue, pale-faced, took several steps back, her lips trembling.

"Don’t... Don’t tell Yaoyao. Don’t tell her about the company situation, either. It’s no use her knowing. I’ll figure something out... I’ll figure it out."

She steadied herself against the office desk, head bowed, her nails digging so tightly into the surface that they carved a curved white line.

"Sell this building. Mortgage the assets in your name. Give me the compensation bills and all the details. I’ll calculate exactly how much we need to pay, and then I’ll consult a lawyer," Jiangg Ning said, turning her head away as she laid out her plan.

"It’s not enough. It’s nowhere near enough to cover the compensation," Jiangg Ruxue murmured.

"Then come clean about the inheritance and assets Dad left behind. We’ll use that first. I know that money is worth a fortune," Jiangg Ning said, looking at her.

"It’s long... It’s all gone. The company has been operating at a loss for years. I’ve been using my personal funds to keep it running. I mortgaged the most expensive properties for loans, and now I can’t pay them back, so the bank has forcibly repossessed them..."

At this, Jiangg Ruxue closed her eyes in despair, not even daring to look at Jiangg Ning’s expression.

Without a doubt, after hearing those words,

Even Jiangg Ning was stunned.

’No wonder she’d never seen the inheritance. Jiangg Ruxue had squandered it all long ago... If that was the case, then the company’s decline must have started years ago. Who knew how long this situation had been going on?’

’Everyone was kept in the dark, and Jiangg Ruxue was just lying to herself.’

’How incredibly stupid.’

Jiangg Ning couldn’t help but clench her fists.

’Even though she had prepared for the worst, the reality was far more terrible than she had ever imagined.’

Her original plan had been to sell this building, add it to the value of Jiangg Ruxue’s assets and the inheritance to pay off the investors, and then use her own life savings to clear the more than ten million in unpaid wages for the employees.

As for the shareholders, she would have to find a way to ask for help and try to reach a reasonable settlement amount.

Now, it seemed that was all just wishful thinking.