Chapter 115: The Argument

She stood blocking the doorway, so Yang Ying couldn’t get in and could only crane her neck to peer inside.

The lighting inside was quite good, but there was no sign of Ji Zhenshi. Yang Ying grew even more irritable.

Although Li Yunli hadn’t responded to her accusations, she also wasn’t giving her a chance to enter. The two of them remained locked in a standoff.

“Li Yunli!” Yang Ying growled in a low, impatient voice.

“Auntie, if you have something to say, just say it. I’m listening, so there’s no need to shout,” Li Yunli replied, frowning deeply as the roar made her eardrums feel like they might shatter.

Li Yunli was unresponsive to both soft and hard tactics, leaving Yang Ying furious.

She seemed like a soft target on the surface, but in reality, she wasn’t easy to manipulate at all.

It felt like punching cotton—no resistance at all. Her emotions were terrifyingly stable, and her attitude was impeccable, leaving no room to strike back.

“Have you two not actually broken up these past six months? Is Ji Zhenshi just outwardly complying but inwardly opposing me? Are you both teaming up to deceive me?” Yang Ying demanded.

She truly suspected they were secretly living somewhere she couldn’t find, leaving her helpless against them since she couldn’t locate Ji Zhenshi.

Otherwise, why hadn’t she even caught a glimpse of Ji Zhenshi in all these months?

Li Yunli’s tone carried a chill, her beautiful eyes rippling with emotion. “We did break up. Over the past six months, as you’ve seen, we had no contact at all. There’s been no outward compliance or inner opposition, and Xiao Zhen hasn’t deceived you.”

Li Yunli wasn’t lying. They had broken up, but from now on, they would never separate again, no matter the reason.

With that thought, Li Yunli’s resolve strengthened a fraction. “Auntie, we’ve already shown you enough respect. I hope you won’t be so aggressive. Ji Zhenshi is an adult—she has her own life path. Her choices in love were made after careful consideration, not on a whim. Isn’t respecting her the right thing to do? I’ve never understood your insistence on breaking us up. Is it simply because you think we’re an embarrassment, that I don’t deserve her, or because of your near-obsessive need to control Xiao Zhen? Has your dignity been challenged by her defiance, so now you want to compete with her head-on?”

Li Yunli couldn’t think of any other reason.

Yang Ying just wanted to see Ji Zhenshi bow her head and stop defying her.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. Stop stalling and let me in.”

Whether it was because one of Li Yunli’s words had struck a nerve, Yang Ying didn’t answer her directly.

But Li Yunli was convinced of her own assessment. “Auntie, you do understand. I believe what I said isn’t so complicated it’s beyond comprehension. Xiao Zhen is very smart, just like you. You two share many similarities—she has your stubborn temper too. Once she sets her mind on something, she’ll see it through to the end, even if it means crashing and bleeding. So, staying at constant loggerheads like this will lead nowhere. She’s not some teenager anymore—why not respect her choice?”

She hadn’t even mentioned that Ji Zhenshi had secretly loved her for six years.

Ji Zhenshi had harbored a crush on her for six whole years—a span so long that surely Yang Ying didn’t still think it was just childish play?

Li Yunli spoke with sincerity, but Yang Ying detected something unusual in her words.

Li Yunli didn’t lie, so they might have broken up, but were back together now? That person earlier must have been Ji Zhenshi!

“No! Li Yunli, have you forgotten how you even met her? How can you disregard all sense of propriety and shame like this?” Yang Ying brought up Li Yunli’s identity once more.

After all, she had been Ji Zhenshi’s sister-in-law for a full six years!

Such blatant disregard for ethics and morality—she’d lived for decades and never seen anything like it!

The word “sister-in-law” stabbed sharply at Li Yunli’s heart. She knew her earlier words had been utterly futile—like playing a lute to a cow.

With a slight sigh, Li Yunli appeared far more composed than Yang Ying’s emotional outburst. “Fine, it seems I’ve wasted my breath again. Auntie Yang, if I were you, I wouldn’t be here yelling at me over some fabricated identity. I’ve never been her sister-in-law, never claimed to be. I don’t want to repeat this over and over—I can’t wake someone who’s pretending to sleep. Please leave, right now.”

“Are you feeling guilty? Who’s the one pretending? If Tingjun hadn’t rushed in and registered with you, would you even have the face to face him now? Don’t you have any sense of propriety or shame?”

“That’s not even a possibility,” Li Yunli replied with utter certainty.

If she and Ji Tingjun had legally become husband and wife, or if they’d been intimate, she never would have let the flame named Ji Zhenshi ignite in her heart afterward. Nothing that followed would have happened.

She would have treated Ji Zhenshi purely as a little sister, even if that now seemed utterly absurd.

No matter how much Ji Zhenshi crossed the line, she wouldn’t have responded—otherwise, she really would be harming her, just as Yang Ying claimed.

“You!” Yang Ying was speechless.

Li Yunli’s logic was airtight, leaving no flaws to exploit.

Li Yunli remained calm. “Since Auntie has nothing more to say, please go. Wasting time here with me serves no purpose. First, this isn’t a police station—if you’re looking for someone, you’ve come to the wrong place. Second, people come and go here constantly. You care so much about whether Xiao Zhen embarrasses you—have you considered her face? She’s finally getting her career on track. Do you want to create some scandal for her? Please, mind your words and actions.”

Ji Zhenshi was right there inside. If Yang Ying kept being so aggressive in front of her, it would only erode what little affection Ji Zhenshi had left for her mother—hardly a wise move.

She had already warned her twice to mind her words, but Yang Ying clearly wasn’t taking it to heart.

Why did she always do such troublesome things?

Yang Ying was left momentarily speechless, her anger building. “Li Yunli, don’t think that just because you can speak now, you can act all superior. Do you really believe that not being mute makes your relationship something you can show to the world? You think teaching Ji Zhenshi to rebel by not coming home will make me back down? Dream on!”

Yang Ying grabbed Li Yunli’s arm, glaring at her furiously.

Li Yunli’s slightly furrowed brow tightened further, her lips pressing into a thin line that revealed a hint of authority. “I didn’t teach her not to go home. In fact, I don’t think our strained relationship is entirely my fault—haven’t you ever considered your own role? And I must emphasize: even when I was mute, I never felt our bond was something to hide.”

Because Ji Zhenshi had secretly learned sign language for her, becoming the only person in the world who could communicate with her effortlessly during her silence. She had never felt inferior.

The person who loved her would go all out to protect her last thread of connection to the world.

Seeing Yang Ying about to barge in, Li Yunli’s voice turned icy. “Entering private property without permission, Auntie—if you take even one step inside, I guarantee I won’t hold back on that face you care about so much. You’ll regret it, absolutely.”

Her cool words carried an inexplicable menace.

It felt just like a scholar facing a soldier—reason was useless.

Previous visits had been tolerable; Yang Ying would mutter a few unpleasant things and leave when she didn’t see Ji Zhenshi. Li Yunli had ignored her every time. Even the shop workers had grown sympathetic a few times, suggesting she call the police—this woman was just harassing her, using her as a free outlet for her anger.

But Li Yunli didn’t want to waste energy on her. She was busy running two shops and occasionally dealing with court summonses, already stretched thin. Plus, she considered Ji Zhenshi and Grandma—especially Grandma, who cared for her so much. She pretended not to hear.

Today, though, perhaps because she’d glimpsed Ji Zhenshi, Yang Ying seemed determined to see her before leaving, unmoved no matter how Li Yunli tried to shoo her away.

As Li Yunli finished speaking, Yang Ying’s steps faltered. She frowned, turning to snap back at her.

Suddenly, a wall of flesh appeared before her. Ji Zhenshi forced Yang Ying to retreat a step, her face dark with barely contained fury. “Do you really not know why I haven’t been coming home? I just found out that these past six months, when you couldn’t find me, you’ve been harassing her instead?”

Ji Zhenshi had heard everything from inside, along with some words from the renovation workers.

So, even without any trace of her, Li Yunli had endured Yang Ying’s inexplicable rage.

Probably every time Yang Ying messaged her without reply, she’d come here to vent, finding her just an excuse now.

She was purely using Li Yunli as a punching bag, and yet Li Yunli’s temper was so good that she’d tried reasoning with her time and again.

Ji Zhenshi’s presence was overwhelmingly powerful. Yang Ying never expected that after not seeing her for so long, Ji Zhenshi’s aura had grown even more unapproachable. Even she was stunned for several seconds upon first laying eyes on her.

Ji Zhenshi leaned against the doorframe with one hand. Seeing Yang Ying had no intention of answering her question, she didn’t press for one—the answer was obvious anyway. With a complex glance at Li Yunli, Ji Zhenshi spoke in a casual tone, “Weren’t you looking for me? Here I am, Mom. What do you want?”

Frost seemed to blanket her eyes as Ji Zhenshi stared at her coldly.

“So you really are here. Ji Zhenshi, have you truly disowned me as your mother? Do you really want to cut ties and shack up with this woman?”

Yang Ying’s first words were, as always, an accusation.

Li Yunli caught Ji Zhenshi’s eye, then called the shop workers away, leaving the two of them inside to talk.

As the door closed, Ji Zhenshi’s back ached so much she couldn’t stand straight and had to lean against the counter.

Yang Ying, however, took it as deliberate defiance and snapped angrily, “Ji Zhenshi, what’s with that attitude?”

Ji Zhenshi didn’t move. Li Yunli started to speak up to explain for her.

But Ji Zhenshi didn’t want to bother explaining anymore. She raised a hand to stop Li Yunli, her gaze icy. “Talking about cutting ties again? You throw that out every time there’s trouble, as if you actually cared about me those years we weren’t talking about it. Who took care of me—you know damn well. Half a year ago, that might’ve scared me, but now? I couldn’t care less.”

She really didn’t care anymore.

Obeying Yang Ying would ruin her life. She didn’t want to live that way—she only got one shot at it, and she’d regret wasting her youth.

She had never been the obedient daughter Yang Ying imagined.

“You don’t care about anything anymore, do you?” Yang Ying’s intuition told her Ji Zhenshi now was different from half a year ago.

Unable to pinpoint why, Yang Ying chalked it up to not seeing her for so long.

Ji Zhenshi nodded without hesitation, sounding flippantly indifferent, as if in a huff. Her voice was lazy. “I do care—about you too. But what we care about can never align. You care about face; I care about Li Yunli. Mom, if that’s how it is, can you handle me not coming home anymore?”

“Ji Zhenshi! Don’t be ridiculous!” Li Yunli frowned in disapproval.

When Ji Zhenshi’s temper flared, her words lost all reason.

She could swallow the hurtful barbs herself, but Yang Ying would feel genuinely provoked, and Ji Zhenshi would be the one to suffer.

How could she say something so blatantly designed to enrage Yang Ying? Once tempers flared, it’d just be endless shouting with no resolution.

Yang Ying’s face darkened, at a loss for a retort, so she turned and coldly snapped at Li Yunli instead. “Shut up! This is between mother and daughter—mind your own business! Li Yunli, don’t play the good guy in front of me. Who knows what nonsense you’ve been filling her head with behind my back to turn her into this!”

Before Li Yunli arrived, Ji Zhenshi had been an excellent student, always progressing academically. She didn’t talk much with the family, but it never escalated to arguments.

It started after Li Yunli came—after she gave Ji Zhenshi that violin for her birthday. That’s when Ji Zhenshi began clashing with the family, with Li Yunli unconditionally backing her in secret. She’d even led Ji Zhenshi to depend on her utterly.

In Yang Ying’s eyes, Li Yunli had ruined her.

Rebuked like that, Li Yunli felt a mix of emotions, squeezed uncomfortably in the middle.

Her face flushing, Li Yunli suppressed her anger. “I admit I spoiled her a bit too much in my approach to raising her, but I won’t accept your baseless accusations. She’s doing great now, and I think at least those years by my side, I raised her well. If I’d wanted to stir trouble, I wouldn’t have suggested breaking up half a year ago.”

“If you broke up, why are you together now?” Yang Ying shot back.

“Enough.” Ji Zhenshi stepped between them. “Mom, slandering someone is easy—just move your lips. But why would anyone put up with your baseless attacks for no reason? It’s only because you’re my mother that she tolerates it. Don’t think she’s a pushover.”

Even when Li Yunli couldn’t speak, she’d run a whole coffee shop flawlessly. Did they really think she was simple?

She wasn’t that helpless girl anymore—she just chose not to quibble because of Ji Zhenshi.

“Mom, can’t you see? Her putting up with you isn’t letting you bully her—it’s to avoid escalating things between us. Where do you even get the idea she’s the one putting me up to this?” Ji Zhenshi shook her head in disbelief as she spoke.

Yang Ying pinned all the blame on Li Yunli without evidence, never reflecting on her own faults.

Yang Ying just stared at Ji Zhenshi, a sudden wave of helplessness washing over her—the familiar, uncontrollable kind. “You’ve really changed, Ji Zhenshi. To fight with the family like this over someone like her… Do you even remember the last time you came home? No matter what happens, you never return. Do you really like her that much?”

Ji Zhenshi pulled Li Yunli close by the shoulders. “Yes—and I’m telling you seriously now, I like her so much I can’t live without her. I’m pathetic like that; I just want her. And yes, we’ve gotten back together. We’re together.”

With that, Ji Zhenshi deliberately kissed Li Yunli right in front of Yang Ying.