The CEO's Substitute Wife Is A Genius-Chapter 444: The Truth Unveiled from That Year! Jiang Man is the True Lifesaver
Chapter 444: Chapter 444: The Truth Unveiled from That Year! Jiang Man is the True Lifesaver freewebnøvel.com
The family looked at each other in dismay, watching Jiang Man leave without anyone attempting to hold her back.
Even Lu Xuemei opened her mouth, but in the end, she swallowed her words back down.
"She couldn’t catch up with Nan Juefeng herself, so why blame Manman? How is it Manman’s fault?"
"Enough!" The elder matriarch was extremely frustrated at this moment.
The Lu Family hadn’t had a moment of peace recently, with one problem barely settling before another arose.
She was mentally and physically exhausted, very tired.
She sat back in her seat and took a big gulp of the soup: "Cough cough cough..."
She drank too hastily and choked on it.
"Mom, take it slow," Lu Xuemei hurried to rub her back.
The elder matriarch waved her hand, her face looking extremely unpleasant.
Who knows how much time had passed when sparse sounds from the courtyard reached them.
The butler hurried in, reporting: "She’s gone."
"Let it be, let it be," the elder matriarch waved her hand again.
Her heart suddenly felt empty.
She had raised a granddaughter for twenty years, and she died.
She recognized another granddaughter for just a few months, and now she left.
Maybe she was never fated to have a granddaughter to dote on for her lifetime.
"Elder matriarch, she took all her belongings, but she left only this..."
The butler gestured.
A servant presented a canvas bag.
"I remember this is your treasure, elder matriarch. When we entered Jiang Man’s room, we found this bag under the bed..."
The moment she saw the bag, the elder matriarch’s eyes first filled with nervousness, then she waved her hand dismissively.
"I have nothing to do with Jiang Man anymore, just throw her things away."
"Huh??" Wu Yingfan stared at the canvas bag and frowned. "That’s strange, Sis Man, didn’t you lose a bag like this before? The needles in it were all hand-forged by you, and at that time, you were quite upset about it."
"It does seem similar," Jiang Man said nonchalantly.
After all, such bags were sold everywhere.
"Needles? What a coincidence." The butler opened the canvas bag and took out a black bundle: "There are needles in here, too."
"Damn!" Wu Yingfan couldn’t help but curse. "Sis Man, isn’t this your stuff?"
Jiang Man’s brows furrowed, and she took a quick step forward, opening the black bundle to reveal several rows of silver needles.
She pulled out a needle and looked closely at the tail end.
The needles she had forged herself each had an ’M’ mark.
"These are definitely mine." She put the needle back and picked up the bag, holding it against her chest. "I lost this bag quite some time ago."
"Manman, I’m not hearing things, am I? Is this bag really yours?" Lu Xuemei asked excitedly, stepping forward.
"It’s mine. Not long after I came back to the country, I saved an old lady."
"I even complained to Sis Man that after saving her, we never saw her come to show her gratitude. Even if she didn’t offer anything in return, at least she could have said thank you," Wu Yingfan couldn’t help but join in. "Could it be, elder matriarch, that you’ve been mistaken about who your savior is?"
The mention of being mistaken about the savior made everyone stiffen.
"No wonder," Lu Xuemei realized belatedly. "When we gave Manman this bag, she first said it wasn’t hers, then later she claimed it was. She doesn’t understand medical skills, how could she have this bag?"
"Manman, is it really you?" The elder matriarch stood up excitedly.
Her mood had been terrible, but now that she had found her savior, she felt revitalized.
Clutching Jiang Man’s hand tightly, her emotional heart trembled, and her eyes shone as she looked at her.
They had suspected it wasn’t Jiang Man before because Jiang Man didn’t have a red mole on her wrist, while Manman did.
"When the incident happened, there were many passersby, and I was afraid of falling from my horse. In my hurry, I dropped the bag and couldn’t find it when I went back," Jiang Man explained lightly.
"Manman... my good child... my dear child..." The elder matriarch’s eyes blurred with tears. "You child, why didn’t you say anything after doing such a good deed? You made it so hard for me to find you!"
"Alright, alright, this is a happy ending for everyone! I didn’t expect Manman to be the lifesaver!"
...
Time flew by.
Wen Jingya’s cause of death was quickly determined, after a forensic examination, she was found to have died from an accidental drowning.
However, based on some eyewitness accounts and by reviewing related surveillance footage, the police uncovered another strange case.
Not long before, Wen Jingya had been kidnapped by the Zhang Family, who held a ghost marriage for her and the corpse of Zhang Jianwen.
As if bowing to heaven and earth at the memorial hall wasn’t scary enough, the Zhang Family forced Wen Jingya to share the coffin and consummate the marriage with Zhang Jianwen’s corpse.
Wen Jingya disagreed and was forcefully stuffed in by the Zhang Family members.
In the end, a perfectly sane person was literally scared into madness.
The Zhang Family had seriously violated the law and were criminally arrested.
This case, once posted online, instantly sparked heated debate, with the tradition of ghost marriages and the related practices of human trafficking becoming the most intensely discussed topics.
Hu Hao was invited by the police for questioning.
Later, it was found that Jiang Man was suspected of instigating the Zhang Family to kidnap Wen Jingya, and not long after, she was caught and imprisoned by the police.
"Why did you plan this kidnapping?"
In the interrogation room, an officer asked Jiang Man.
Now locked up, Jiang Man had lost all her former glory.
"She had surveillance footage in her hands that could prove I wasn’t the savior of the old mistress of the Lu Family, and I was afraid of losing my identity as the second young miss of the Lu Family, so I planned this kidnapping. The Zhang Family promised me that after the ghost marriage was complete, they would take Wen Jingya and her son’s ashes back to their hometown, never to appear in Beicheng again," she disclosed.
The officer swiftly wrote down the statement.
After the questioning, an officer mentioned that someone had applied to see Jiang Man.
Jiang Man was elated, to say the least.
Who could be visiting her?
Her grandmother?
Or her mother?
Or perhaps... Nan Juefeng?
When Hu Hao appeared, the anticipation and smile on her face instantly vanished.
Separated by only a step through the iron bars, they were now worlds apart.
How foolish she had been.
To forsake a promising future as a scion of the Hu Family, she committed a series of stupid acts.
Stupid! It was just so stupid!
"Hao, can you find a way to get me out? The lawyer said that given my situation, I might be sentenced to three years, and I don’t want to stay here, could you find a way to help me serve my sentence outside of prison?"
"Jiang Man," Hu Hao sat outside the bars, his gaze heavy upon the woman in the cell.
Her face was full of pleading, even greed, a greed for freedom.
This look was nothing like the one he had first seen.
Or perhaps, from the very beginning, it was all pretended, and he had misjudged her character.
"I won’t help you," he said flatly. "I just wanted to ask you, on that day you met Wen Jingya, had you already decided to kidnap her? Was it then?"
Jiang Man’s eyes widened. "Why do you ask that? It was then, alright, if she hadn’t used the video to threaten me, why would I have resorted to such a scheme?"
"So it was!" Hu Hao was suddenly disheartened.
He clearly recalled hearing the key words ’saved grandma’ before.
If he had reacted in time, could Wen Jingya have avoided being trafficked and ultimately dying from a distraught fall into the water?
"A life? It seems like you don’t care?"
"A life? She was a villain, you have no idea how she treated your sister behind the scenes!" Jiang Man raised her voice. "I guess I helped remove a thorn from Jiang Man’s side, didn’t I?"
"Heh." Hu Hao scoffed coldly and stood up. "Sister was right, a dark soul like you doesn’t deserve love from anyone! Three years in prison? Don’t get too happy too soon; I’ve seen Uncle and Aunt Lu’s attitude, they’re not satisfied with the first trial’s verdict, they’re appealing the case, it’s completely legal for you to be sentenced to ten or eight years!"
"Don’t go... please, don’t go..."
Seeing Hu Hao turn to leave, Jiang Man panicked.
But Hu Hao didn’t look back.
This trip to Beicheng had made him grow up overnight.
Some people can’t be judged by their appearance alone—beneath a beautiful exterior, who knows what kind of ugly heart is concealed?
