Chapter 71: Prison
The cold iron gates surrounded everything, as if they had blocked all fantasies of freedom. The environment, which was wrapped in a solemn gray and white, always made people feel an inescapable sense of oppression.
The man’s face was pale and bleak, as if he had aged decades in an instant. The loose skin on his face was squeezed into wrinkles, and his expression was haggard and tired. He was wearing a blue vest, and through a layer of cold and transparent glass, his forehead was pressed against the hard glass, and he was a little hysterical.
“Qian… Qian Ge, you’ve finally come to see me. Listen to me. I was really framed. They just arrested me for investigation. I’ll be out soon. You have to believe me.”
Xia Qiange was wearing a plain white shirt and a pair of slender jeans. Her outfit was fresh and clean, like a spotless gardenia, which added a few bright colors to the gloomy atmosphere around her. She curled her lips and smiled, and she slowly sat down in the man’s anxious gaze.
The man didn’t dare to show a single bit of anxiety. His hand, which was holding the phone, was covered in sticky sweat. He endured the deep despair in his heart and looked at his young and beautiful biological daughter with a fawning expression.
The face of the nouveau riche, who had made a fortune, was gone. He had been reduced to a prisoner. Now, less than a year of imprisonment was about to make him collapse completely. But it was just the beginning.
His past misdeeds had been completely exposed overnight for some reason. He had been broken into in his sleep and had been imprisoned without any warning. His former network of relationships had also been completely cut off. He had been in prison for so long, and not even a few people had come to visit him.
Xia Qiange looked at the man who was putting on a show in front of her with a cold expression. Her lips were curved into a smile, but her eyes were as cold as the winter that had not yet arrived. “Of course you’re wrong…”
“Ah, what are you talking about, Qian Ge? Dad… what did I do wrong?” Xia Changhe’s mouth was agape, and he was stunned for a moment. He stared at his daughter, who had always been well-behaved and submissive, and suddenly felt a little cold, as if the cold wind from outside the prison had blown in through the closed high wall.
“Haha… nothing. I’ve been too busy these past few days and haven’t had time to see you. I hope you don’t mind, father.”
“No, how could I? I’ve been waiting for you.”
What could be so busy that it would take so long? It was just a casual lie. But the man had long since lost much of his reason. He was clinging to the glass wall, his face twisted menacingly, as if the girl in front of him had become his only support.
“Hurry up and tell me, how is Auntie Zhou now? The child should have been born by now.”
“Yeah… he was born a long time ago.”
Xia Qiange’s lips were curved into a smile, and she squinted her eyes and nodded. Her clear black and white eyes were full of an innocent and simple color. She frowned with her delicate eyebrows and thought for a moment, as if she were not sure. She said with a smile, “It should be… a boy, right?”
The man was overjoyed, and the joy dispelled the despair that had accumulated between his eyebrows. He tried to compose himself, but his tone was still uncontrollably rushed and happy.
“I can’t get out now. You have to take good care of Auntie Zhou and the child. Remember to study hard… and be successful. You can go and ask my old friends for some money… or else…”
The man gritted his teeth and made up his mind. “Or you can just sell the car or the house.”
“Oh~ is that so.” Xia Qiange raised her eyebrows and looked at the man, who had suddenly risen from the bottom of the valley to his current excitement. She couldn’t help but look forward to what kind of expression the other party would have later. It would be better if she wasn’t disappointed, she thought coldly.
“What about me then?”
“Qian Ge, you’re this child’s older sister. This is what you should do, right? And besides, I treated you well during that time. What do you mean by this now?”
The expression on the man’s face suddenly froze, and his heart sank. He couldn’t react for a moment.
“I’m your biological daughter. Mom loved you so much, but you wouldn’t even look at her, just because she couldn’t give you another child?”
“How could you think that? I know you miss your mom, Qian Ge. But your mother and I… it was because of our relationship problems that…”
“Enough. Who are you still acting for now?”
Xia Qiange was suddenly a little sad. The increasingly desperate expression on the man’s face was already as she had wished. But her heart still felt a dense pain, and her voice, which she had tried her best to suppress, was a little trembling.
The person in front of her was her last blood relative in this world. But at this time, he was still thinking about others. She was deeply disgusted, and she also felt that it was not worth it for her mother.
“You should have loved my mother, not a dirty and filthy… bitch. You don’t really think that Xia Xinnan is your biological daughter, do you? A woman like Zhou Hui is really a good match for you.”
“Qian Ge, what are you talking about? Don’t lie to me. What you’re saying… how could that be?”
“Why do you think your old secrets were suddenly exposed? You’ve been calculating all your life. You just didn’t expect your own biological daughter, right?”
Xia Qiange took a deep breath and swallowed the sour and bitter grief in her nose. She would never cry again, and no one would be able to bully her again. She raised her eyes proudly and stared at the man’s dejected and desperate, foolish appearance, and she sneered.
“Whether it’s the house or the car, they’ve all been used to pay off the debt. They won’t get a single penny. And your woman, I heard that she couldn’t stand the days without money and went back to her old profession. But you say… who would be willing to sleep with a woman who has had a child and is old and ugly? This is retribution… Xia Changhe. It’s your retribution.”
“You… you madwoman. You and your mother are both madwomen. You sent your own father to prison. How could you do such a thing? After your mother passed away… wasn’t I good enough to you?”
“That’s what you owed me. Now all of this is what you deserve.”
“Okay… I know you hate me, Dad. Then tell me about the child. How is the child now?”
Xia Changhe suppressed his violently heaving chest, and a single ray of light shone in his gray and dark eyes.
“This, well, Auntie Zhou is still very sad about your matter, Dad. She’s still thinking about the money I have left. She brought Xia Xinnan to Qingchuan and knelt down to beg me. But my mother is still watching me from heaven. How can I grant her wish? Is the suffering they have endured comparable to my mother’s?”
Xia Qiange restrained the strong hatred in her eyes and curled her lips into a soft smile. Her wet eyes were slightly red, which made her tone even more innocent.
“It must be hard to live without money. It’s normal for accidents to happen. For example, if you accidentally fall down the stairs when you’re pregnant. This kind of thing… who knows.”
“Oh… by the way, you should care more about yourself than others. Your business partners are very angry because of your withdrawal of investment. After you get out of prison, your remaining days will probably be a little difficult.”
“If you really can’t stand it, you can go and accompany my mother. She should miss you very much.”
Xia Qiange stopped speaking. Before the man could reply, she hung up the phone. Her dark black pupils were slowly moving on the whites of her eyes, and she was staring at the hysterical man being held up and taken away. There was not a single trace of pity in her eyes, and they were so dark that not a single ray of light could penetrate… it was chilling.
