"My phone was on silent, I didn't hear it just now." Xu Huan's tone was flat, lacking the eager excitement she used to show when they reached out to her.
"Your roommate said you didn't go back to school last night. Where did you go?"
Eldest Brother Xu's tone carried the stern reprimand of an elder, seemingly deeply displeased that Xu Huan had stayed out all night.
Xu Huan fell silent for a moment, her fingers unconsciously rubbing the edge of her phone, her gaze drifting.
She didn't want to explain much, but faced with her eldest brother's interrogation, she knew evasion wasn't a solution.
"Last night... I had some things to do, and stayed out for the night." Her voice remained calm, yet carried a trace of imperceptible exhaustion.
"Some things? What could possibly be important enough to keep you from returning to school?" Eldest Brother Xu's voice rose slightly, clearly unsatisfied with her answer. "You're a young woman staying out all night—do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"
Xu Huan frowned slightly, a wave of irritation welling up in her heart.
She knew her eldest brother cared about her, but this kind of concern always carried an intangible sense of oppression, as if she were forever a child needing to be disciplined.
"I am an adult; I can take care of myself." Her tone remained flat, yet tinged with a streak of stubbornness.
"An adult? An adult can just run wild however they please?" Eldest Brother Xu's voice was laced with obvious anger. "Xu Huan, don't bring your past behavior into the Xu Family. Get your ass home this instant!"
She should have grown numb to this long ago.
Yet hearing Eldest Brother Xu's undisguised disgust, Xu Huan still couldn't help feeling a pang of bitterness in her heart.
Her past behavior?
What past behavior did she even have?
Enduring drunken customers trying to grope her and not daring to fight back, just so she wouldn't get fired?
Or being forced by her adoptive father to flirt and sell smiles to customers just to help him pay off his loans by pushing drinks?
Back then, Xu Huan was barely struggling to stay alive; she had no energy to care about what anyone thought of her behavior.
Besides, Xu Huan didn't feel there was anything wrong with how she had behaved.
When you have no backing to rely on, what else can you do besides swallow your insults and endure?
Xu Jiahe had been born to adoring crowds, with everyone bowing their heads to him; how could he possibly understand how hard it was for Xu Huan just to survive back then?
Xu Huan couldn't be bothered to explain. In the final days of her life, she had no energy to waste on hysterical explanations for things she had never done.
"I know."
Better to avoid extra trouble than to invite it.
Xu Huan knew that the matter of 'her' destroying Xu Yan's paintings was something she could never clear up or explain away.
She couldn't be bothered to argue with Xu Jiahe.
Given that Xu Huan had been switched at birth nineteen years ago, no matter how angry Xu Jiahe was with her, he wouldn't go as far as Second Brother Xu did in forcing her to kneel and apologize to Xu Yan.
Even if Xu Jiahe were to demand that she kneel, Xu Huan figured kneeling wouldn't cost her a pound of flesh.
Since it couldn't be explained anyway, she might as well just admit it and let the matter be done with.
She was tired.
She simply didn't have the time to repeat over and over again that she hadn't done it.
Besides, Xu Yan had somehow gotten hold of surveillance footage to confirm her guilt.
She didn't possess Xu Yan's heaven-defying abilities to wash away her grievances, so she could only swallow this injustice powerlessly.
After hanging up with Eldest Brother Xu, Xu Huan turned and walked back toward the tattoo parlor.
"Um, I have something to do, I'm leaving first."
Inside the shop, Pei Cheng was wiping down his tattoo machine. Hearing this, he nodded slightly and handed her the ointment he had prepared: "Remember to apply the ointment on time."
Xu Huan nodded and quickly vanished from the shop.
Pei Cheng stood at the doorway, watching her retreating figure, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the switch of the tattoo machine.
*
When Xu Huan walked into her family's house, the living room was dead silent. Only Eldest Brother Xu Jiahe sat on the sofa clutching a document, his expression darkly terrifying.
Hearing the domestic helper announce that the eldest miss had returned, Xu Jiahe raised his head. His gaze swept over Xu Huan as sharp as a knife, and his voice was as cold as ice: "Where did you go last night?"
Xu Huan stood at the entrance, her fingers curling slightly. Her heart tightened, but she maintained a calm facade. She replied softly: "I went to a friend's house."
"A friend's house?" Xu Jiahe let out a cold laugh, his eyes flashing with obvious disbelief and anger. "Which friend? Since when do you have friends in Lincheng who warrant you staying out all night?"
Xu Huan pressed her lips together and didn't answer.
She truly had no friends in Lincheng.
Even if she had, the moment those people laid eyes on Xu Yan, they would sever ties with her as if she were some primordial beast that might devour them.
Seeing Xu Huan remain silent, Xu Jiahe's anger flared even higher.
He stood up, walked over to Xu Huan, looked down at her from above, and spoke with unquestionable authority:
"From today on, you are not allowed to step out of this house. I've already arranged it—in three days, I'm sending you abroad to study."
"Study abroad?" Xu Huan abruptly raised her head, her eyes filled with shock and resistance. "I'm not going!"
"It's not up to you whether you go or not." Xu Jiahe's voice suddenly rose, his gaze so piercing no one dared meet it. "If we let you continue running wild like this, you'll be completely ruined sooner or later!"
Xu Huan's face turned instantly pale. Her fingers gripped the hem of her clothes tightly, and her voice trembled: "In your eyes, I was already ruined long ago, wasn't I? Sending me abroad is nothing more than your fear that I might go crazy one day and hurt your precious baby sister again."
"You—" Provoked by her tone, Xu Jiahe's temple throbbed with a hidden vein. Yet he forced down his anger and said coldly, "Xu Huan, don't be ungrateful. Sending you abroad is for your own good; your current state makes you completely unsuited to stay here."
"For my good?" Xu Huan let out a cold, choked laugh. "Sending me to a strange place and leaving me to face things I can't possibly handle all by myself—is that what you call 'for my good'?"
Xu Jiahe's expression grew even uglier. He took a deep breath, his tone laced with unyielding firmness: "This matter has been decided; you have no choice in the matter. In three days, I will personally take you to the airport."
Xu Huan's heart sank completely, weighed down as if by a massive boulder, making even breathing difficult.
She had assumed Xu Jiahe would at most force her to apologize to Xu Yan, grow even more disgusted with her, and perhaps give her the cold shoulder for a while.
Yet she never imagined he could be so ruthless as to send her abroad, completely excising her from their lives.
Xu Huan stood frozen in place, her fingers clenched so tightly around the hem of her clothes that her fingertips turned white from the force.
Her voice trembled, carrying a trace of resentment and desolation: "If you despise me this much, why bother bringing me back in the first place?"
Standing before Xu Huan, looking at her reddened eyes and slightly trembling shoulders, Xu Jiahe felt as though something had fiercely clutched at his heart.
He had thought he was utterly disappointed in her, but when she asked with such desperate despair, "If you despise me this much, why bother bringing me back in the first place?", a complex emotion he couldn't put into words welled up inside him.