Chapter 191 - 144: The Conflict Intensifies

Chapter 191: Chapter 144: The Conflict Intensifies

When they saw Mr. Yan arrive, they all took the initiative to greet him. "Old Yan is here! We haven’t seen you out in a while. You should come out for a walk more often."

"That’s right. We were getting worried not seeing you for so many days. At our age, we ought to get out and move around more."

Mr. Yan might be disabled, but when it came to chess, he was in a league of his own—unbeatable in the entire residential community!

Mr. Yan chuckled, grabbing the two large wheels on his wheelchair and propelling himself toward the chess tables.

"Well, lately I’ve just been..."

He had been about to say he was busy playing chess with his son-in-law at home, but then he suddenly remembered that Xiao Ran hadn’t visited in a very long time.

A chill ran through him. He quickly changed his tune, "It’s just been too hot, hasn’t it? It’s really sweltering out here."

’That kid, Xiao Ran, is a really good person,’ he thought. ’And a good chess player, too.’

’It’s a shame. I probably won’t get to see him for the rest of my life!’

Just then, a game ended. One of the old men nearby smiled and gestured to Mr. Yan. "Care for a game?"

Mr. Yan nodded decisively, a spark of excitement lighting up his cloudy eyes.

"You’re on!"

Seeing that Mr. Yan was about to play, Mrs. Yan slapped her forehead, feigning alarm. "Oh, would you look at my brain! I forgot your cup. I’ll just go back and make you a cup of tea to bring over."

She was in no mood to watch him play chess right now. ’I just want to ask Yan Xici how things ended up between her and Yan Li!’

Mr. Yan waved a hand. "Go on, but hurry back."

Hearing this, everyone looked on with envy. Old Yan might be disabled, but he was truly blessed in life.

He had a good wife and a devoted daughter; one could say he had no major regrets in life.

Mrs. Yan walked quickly back in the direction of their home. Once she was a good distance away, she hastily pulled her phone from her pocket.

She found Yan Xici’s number and made the call.

At that moment, Yan Xici was sitting in her hanging chair, intently editing a video. Her fair, slender legs were crossed, with her laptop resting on them.

Her hand, poised over the mouse, hadn’t even clicked down when she heard the phone beside her start to ring.

The young woman frowned and picked up the phone. Seeing it was a call from her mom, she couldn’t help but feel a little tense.

"Hello, Mom."

Her intuition told her. ’This call from Mom is definitely still about my sister.’

’To be honest, I really don’t want to hear anything about my sister right now.’

’When she had those videos made, she didn’t consider me at all. Since she won’t give me any consideration, I won’t worry about her anymore either.’

Mrs. Yan stood at a bend in the building’s hallway, making sure Mr. Yan couldn’t see her before covering her mouth to whisper, "Today, your father and I went downstairs for a walk, and I overheard a lot of people saying a man had dumped his wife for her younger sister. It made my conscience prickle."

"By the way, how did things get handled between you and your sister?"

Hearing this, the young woman on the other end of the line closed her laptop and set it aside. She then slipped her feet into a pair of strawberry-print slippers and climbed out of her hanging chair.

Her beautiful eyes gazed at the lush camphor trees outside the courtyard, her expression turning solemn.

’If they were going to talk about this, she had plenty to say!’

"Do you have any idea what your eldest daughter has been up to? She hired four internet influencers to slander Brother Xiao Ran. All those rumors you’re hearing now? She’s the one who spread them."

"You have no idea. A single video got seventy to eighty thousand likes, to say nothing of all the comments."

"If you translate that to real life, Brother Xiao Ran would have already been drowned by the sheer volume of criticism."

"And the crucial part is, she’s not even telling the truth! It’s a fact that they divorced first, so how come in her version of the story, Brother Xiao Ran got together with me *before* divorcing her?"

"And she even called him a kept man!"

"Didn’t she always claim she was afraid of people finding out? So why would she have someone else leak the story? This way, the whole world is going to know, isn’t it?"

Fueled by anger, the young woman’s words came out like a constant stream of fire from an extended-barrel Gatling gun, rattling on without end.

She had said all that in the span of just one minute.

’Now she was sure of it. This was nothing but revenge!’

’On the one hand, she claims she doesn’t want people to know, but on the other, she acts terrified that someone, somewhere, might not have heard about it yet.’

’There was only one possible reason for such contradictory behavior: she just didn’t want the two of them to be together.’

’No other reason at all!’

Hearing this, Mrs. Yan felt her chest tighten. One hand subconsciously clutched the hem of her shirt, her face a mask of utter astonishment.

"What did you say? Your sister actually did that?"

The sheer volume of this information made Mrs. Yan gasp.

The disbelief in her eyes was so strong, it was as if she were hearing a story about a completely different family.

’Yan Li was certainly willful, and her temper wasn’t good.’

’But she wouldn’t go so far as to do something this crazy, would she?!’

’This is completely unhinged!’

Yan Xici stared resolutely at the towering trees of the neighborhood, one hand gripping the courtyard’s black iron fence.

"It was my sister who did it. And Brother Xiao Ran has already gone to see her. I don’t know how their conversation went."

On the other end of the line, Mrs. Yan was utterly stunned by Yan Xici’s words.

"How could your sister do such a thing?"

’Isn’t this going to ruin Xiao Ran?’

’He works at a school, a job that’s extremely sensitive to rumors and gossip. If everyone finds out about this, how could he possibly have the face to continue working there?’

’Forget the students laughing at him—the principal would probably fire him!’

’The education system places a huge emphasis on reputation.’

Yan Xici said peevishly, "You’ll have to ask my sister. How would I know?"