"It feels like I have just listened to a script of some soap opera." Li Ming said as she looked through the rough sketches of some designs that Jin Jing had drawn.

"Soap what?" Jin Jing asked with a frown. She wasn't sure whether she should be amazed at the indifferent behavior of Miss Li and praise her or if just kicked that girl out of her shop.

"Soap Opera. You know the same sad typical stories of nearly every other person." Li Ming replied without even looking at her.

"Miss Li, you are so heartless. We just shared the sad story of our lives and you are acting like it means nothing." Jin Jing said in an irritated tone.

She was still not sure how she exactly ended up sharing their past with the strange girl whom her little brother had brought to their shop.

No one except her mother and little brother knew exactly what was the truth behind the corrupted words of Eldest Young Miss Lan which had spread across the Capital City of the Wang Empire, ruining their lives.

They never tried to explain themselves because there was no point even in trying. But for the first time in the past five years, she had let the truth out and that also in front of a complete stranger.

According to her brother, the girl was supposed to be a kind-hearted and understanding, but what she was seeing in front of her was a cold and indifferent Young Miss of some high noble family.

She initially was not going to answer any of Miss Li's questions but her brother's constant nagging made her to be at least polite towards their guest.

But the next thing she knew, she was already spilling out everything about their dark past. There was something about this strange young girl which made her heart believe that she and her family could believe her (Li Ming).

She even let Miss Li see her last few designs that she had succeeded in protecting. But all she received, in the end, was her cold comment about how her past sounded like the story of every other person. Though there was no lie in her words but again she didn't need to be so heartless.

"Then what do you want me to do? Should I cry or pretend to be sad? Is there even a point in that?" Li Ming asked as she finally looked up from the designs and stared at Jin Jing.

Her eyes were challenging and there was no trace of any kind of humor in them.

"..."

Everyone was at a loss of words. The young girl was actually right. There was no point in her being sad over their unfair past.

"See! Even you agree with my point." Li Ming said as she slightly shook her head before once again returning to her task of examining the designs.

Only heavens knew exactly what she was looking in those sketches for the past half an hour.

"But Miss Li, what made you believe us? Everyone else believed in what Miss Lan told them but you are the first one who believed us and not her." This time it was Madam Xia, Jin Jing and Xiao Sheng's mother, who asked the question.

Madam Xia was a woman in her late thirties. Though she was still young but the harshness of her life had taken a toll on her body. She looked tired and a little too old for her age.

Jin Jing was seventeen and actually pretty. But just like her mother she also looked tired. Her body was also weak despite the fact that their family wasn't poor enough to not afford at least two times of proper food a day.

Xiao Sheng, on the other hand, was only seven and Li Ming could see that both his mother and elder sister had tried to keep him healthy and fit.

"Do you think I'm also an idiot like the rest of those brainless people who can't see the truth behind the facade of that Miss Lan? But to be honest, I agree that I wasn't expecting the truth to be something like this." Li Ming said as she collected all the scrolls of designs and folded them before putting them aside.

"Whether you believe it or not but I still think that behind your accident back when you were poisoned had something to do with this Miss Lan." Li Ming said as she looked at Jin Jing.

"Why do you think like that? Though she had indeed stolen my designs and made me the villain in front of everyone but can she really be the one behind my accident?" Jin Jing asked but it was clear from her tone that even she had her own doubts.

It's just she didn't want to believe that her childhood best friend or more like ex-friend, could hate her to such a level.

But if she looked back, all the hints were there from the starting.

Jin Jing's father was one of the third rank officials while her mother was the only daughter of a merchant. Their family was definitely not one of the high-class nobles but they were living a happy life.

When Jin Jing was born she had a very strong spiritual core which instantly made her one of the few genius children of the Wang Empire.

As she grew up her cultivation level increased rapidly. Just at the age of eight, she had already surpassed the eighth level of Basic Cultivator Rank, something that had not happened in the Wang Empire for quite some decades.

Due to her good cultivation, she was immediately summoned to the Imperial Academy of the Wang Empire. She was undoubtedly the most favorite student of all the teachers and one of the best students at the Academy.

The Imperial Academy was exactly where she met Ming Zhu, the eldest daughter of General Lan. In very little time both of them became close friends.

Jin Jing was so innocent and simple-minded that she never realized the sudden change in Ming Zhu and how her friend started to turn cold towards her.

And all that started when her father tried to stand against one of the plans that General Lan had suggested for the flood relief in the villages of the western province of the Empire.

Both their fathers were never on good terms with each other throughout their career as the officials but this time there was something deep behind their clash.

As time passed by there were many incidents where she had seen the jealousy and anger in Ming Zhu's eyes but always ignored it as her overthinking.

And then after a few weeks, her accident happened. They were on the task of collecting spiritual herbs from one of the mountains ranges near the Capital City when out of nowhere Jin Jing was attacked by a group of poisonous pythons.

Somehow she got separated from her group and when she was attacked there was no one there to help her. She was barely eleven years old at that time and it was impossible for her to fight with more than a dozen third rank python beast all alone.

By the time her group and teacher found her she was already badly injured. Her body was filled with so much venom from all the bites from the pythons.

She somehow saved herself from dying due to the poison, by sealing her acupoints but by the time she was taken to a doctor, it was already too late to save her.

The best the doctors could do was to seal some of her meridians so that the poison won't reach her heart. And that led to the end of her cultivation journey.

The most unusual thing about this incident was that the mountain ranges where they went to find the herbs had no spiritual beasts residing in its outer parts. And the group of pythons that attacked her was never seen outside of the very center part of the mountains.

A few months after her incident, her father disappeared suddenly. It was rumored that he had committed treason by selling some inside military information with one of the rogue's clans that were situated at the north border of the Empire.

For some unknown reason, the Emperor never sentenced their family to be beheaded for the crime of treason that was blamed on her father.

Jin Jing and her mother tried their best to find her father and the truth behind his disappearance but whoever was the real culprit behind all this was far more powerful than them.

Her brother was barely a few months older at that time and he needed protection from the enemies that were trying to ruin their family.

But their bad luck didn't stop there. After her father's disappearance, there was no way left for income.

Her mother had received a shop of clothes from her parents in the dowry.

Jin Jing had always loved to design new ideas of clothes and other than her family only Ming Zhu was aware about this hidden talent of hers.

With the help of her mother and the sketches of her new designs, they opened their clothes shop again which immediately attracted attention due to their unique designs.

And then one night, someone stole all her designs that she had spent years in sketching.

Her body had become weaker after her incident and the most affected part of her body was her hands. As time had passed it became difficult for her to sketch or even write anymore.

The designs that were stolen were the ones that she had designed before her incident. Not only her designs got stolen but the very next day she and her family got another shock.