<h4>Chapter 1341: Chapter 1354</h4>


    At that moment, the phone chimed with a text message.


    Xiao Manshu sat up abruptly, unexpectedly feeling a flicker of hope, thinking it might be a message from Xiao Jingchen. Yet another voice told her it was unlikely, as he had never texted her before.


    She stared at the words shing on the screen, her pupils suddenly contracting.


    It was a scandalous photo!


    A suggestive photo of Tang Ran and Xiao Jingchen, apanied by a line: "I’m back, and I’ll take back everything that belongs to me."


    Xiao Manshu tightened her grip on the phone, her gaze fixed on the screen as if to pierce through it. She initially tried to see something in the photo, like Xiao Jingchen being coerced, but all she saw was Xiao Jingchen’s expression of enjoyment, with no reluctance at all.


    In fact, the gentle look on his face was something she had never seen before. Gradually, her eyes began to sting, a mist clouding her vision.


    Without sleeping a wink all night, she woke up the next day with puffy red eyes.


    The refrigerator was stocked with countless ingredients, her lips curled into a bitter smile. Even knowing that Xiao Jingchen wouldn’t eat her cooking, she habitually prepared ingredients each day, harboring hope.


    But thatst vestige of hope had turned into bubblesst night.


    "Bang!"


    The door was suddenly kicked open, startling Xiao Manshu. She looked in terror at the figure striding in, stunned for a moment.


    "Jingchen?" Xiao Manshu’s face just lit up with joy, ready to step forward, but stopped abruptly when she met those menacing eyes.


    She weakly asked, "Jingchen, why are you back so early in the morning? Have you had breakfast? I..."


    The words "help you cook" stumbled at her throat, echoing with Xiao Jingchen’s previous words, raising a sadness within her, "I ordered breakfast for you."


    He didn’t eat her cooking, so she decided to order delivery for him instead.


    She knew a delivery ce with good and nutritious breakfast. She had even visited their restaurant’s cafeteria once to check, and it was very sanitary. Jingchen should like it.


    "Xiao Manshu!!" Xiao Jingchen’s eyes were fierce, his tone chilling to the extreme, "Who gave you the guts to send photos to Ranran?"


    "Wha-what?" Xiao Manshu paused her dialing action in confusion, looking up in bewilderment, "What photos?"


    Xiao Jingchen harshly tossed the phone at her face, "See for yourself!"


    On the phone screen, it clearly showed a photo of her stealing a kiss from Xiao Jingchen. At the time, seeing Xiao Jingchen asleep, she impulsively kissed him secretly. To preserve this rare moment, she deliberately took a picture.


    But how did this photo end up on Xiao Jingchen’s phone?


    Xiao Manshu was shocked, her trembling hands nearly dropping the phone, "This! I didn’t!"


    It was Tang Ran who sent her a scandalous photost night!


    She looked at Xiao Jingchen’s looming shadowy face, shaking her head desperately, trying to exin. But his gaze was so cold, like being plunged into an ice cer, freezing to the bone. Unexpectedly, she was sure Xiao Jingchen didn’t believe her, otherwise, he wouldn’t havee back in such a rage.


    "Xiao Manshu, I’m telling you, she is not the third party! You are the third party in my and Ranran’s rtionship! I used to give you face out of respect to Grandpa, but now Grandpa is gone, so we are divorcing!"


    Xiao Manshu felt a chill spreading from her feet to her entire body, the blood in her veins freezing, and her vision instantly became misty, the soreness in her throat choking her speechless.


    She was the third party in Tang Ran and his rtionship?


    For a good while, she opened her dry lips, the words of exnation formed at her mouth but turned out to be so pale and powerless.


    Finally, her voice ethereal, faint as a mosquito, she asked, "Jingchen, after loving you for so many years, what am I to you in your heart?"


    Her voice weak and powerless.


    She was trying hard to contain herself, but her trembling voice betrayed her current emotions.


    "Xiao Jingchen, what am I to you in your heart?"


    Xiao Manshu didn’t get an answer, obstinately asking again.


    Tears blurred her vision, her thin, frail figure swayed as if ready to fall at any moment.


    Xiao Jingchen’s breath inexplicably stalled, his chest felt blocked as if stuffed with cotton, making him inexplicably irritable.


    "You never entered my heart! From beginning to end, there has been only one person in my heart! That person is Tang Ran!"


    Xiao Jingchen swung his hand, strode to the table, took a big gulp of water, a suppressed brooding arising in his heart, stubbornly lingering!


    Unwilling to stay here any longer, Xiao Jingchen stormed out, flicking his sleeve furiously.


    Xiao Manshu stood there dumbstruck, his words like a blow to her head, leaving her unable to recover for a long time.


    She had secretly loved him for fifteen years, spent her most beautiful years, her purest time on him, only to end upbeled as the third party. She thought, even just a bit, if only she had a small ce in his heart, those grievances wouldn’t be of concern, yet now he says she never entered his heart at all.


    Yes, how could she be in his heart, when his heart held only Tang Ran.


    Tears clung to Xiao Manshu’s eyshes, sliding down her cheeks with each blink, like broken pearls on a ne, unable to be stopped.


    Suddenly, the door opened again, Xiao Manshu lifted her gaze, thest remaining glimmer of hope in her eyes reced by indifference upon seeing the visitor, "What are you doing here!"


    "Achen he... Manshu, aren’t you weing me?"


    Tang Ran’s exquisitely made-up face held a faint smile, "Manshu, I just got backst night and didn’t get a chance to call you. How have you been thesest three years?"


    No time to call her, yet time to call her husband!


    Xiao Manshu’s lips curled into mockery, "Tang Ran, Jingchen isn’t here, so why the pretense?"


    Tang Ran paused,ughed softly, the previous softness gone, reced by arrogance and ridicule, "Xiao Manshu, hasn’t it been hard staying alone? You’ve sat as Mrs. Xiao for three years, surely enough. I advise you to be sensible and willingly give up the Mrs. Xiao position!"


    Xiao Manshu bit her lip, "Since you like Jingchen, why did you leave him back then? I clearly said, I absolutely wouldn’t let Jingchen be responsible for me, it was you! You gave up Jingchen!"


    Tang Ran stepped lightly, ying with keys on her fingers, the keys to their bridal house, now in her hand.


    What did this imply? Obvious enough.


    Tang Ran nced around leisurely, sneering, "Xiao Manshu, you think I’m dumb? You refusing to let Xiao Jingchen be responsible for you was to make him feel guilty, so you’d have a ce in his heart, right?"


    Gradually, her gaze turned fierce and unscrupulous, "Too bad, I’ll never let things go your way! I want Xiao Jingchen topletely hate you! Hate you to the core, now that Old Man Xiao is gone, no one can stop us from being together, so I’m back, to reim everything that belongs to me!"


    Xiao Manshu looked at the once familiar yet now strange woman before her, unable toprehend why she harbored such deep malice toward herself.