In the past, she had thought that great wealth was a blessing, but now, she could only feel sorry for Nico.
Li Beinian’s eyes stung as she stuffed the red packet back into Nico’s hands. “No, I don’t need this. Take it back. Besides, it’s not true that you have nothing. You still have the Rothschild family…”
Li Beinian’s eyes had turned bloodshot. She looked at Nico steadily and said, “You still have us. Although I can’t go back to England with you, I will always remember you. Nico, no matter how far you go, I will always remember you as… a friend.”
A friend.
Nico looked disappointed when he heard this.
But very quickly, he smiled again and said, “Beinian, you don’t have to stand on ceremony with me.”
“I’m not.” Li Beinian looked very serious as she continued, “Nico, you’ve been around Xia Nation for some time. You should have heard of the saying: One should not accept undeserved payment.”
“But… I just wanted to give this to you.” Nico looked at her sadly. “Don’t you like it?”
“Nico, not everyone likes this sort of gift.” Seeing that he wasn’t taking the red packet back, Li Beinian placed it on the table. “Nico, we all need time to get used to each other’s presence.”
Her voice gradually softened. “Nico, I know you understand.”
Nico paused for a moment, then chuckled. “Okay.”
Li Beinian looked at him and said, “Nico, I don’t want to have anything to do with the Rothschild family. I hope you will allow me freedom.”
When Nico heard this, he seemed to vaguely understand what Li Beinian meant.
His hand trembled slightly as he looked at her in disbelief. “Beinian…”
“I was orphaned from a young age,” she explained. “Later on, I was adopted by Chi Dali’s family. They treated me very well and I treated them like my own parents.”
Chi Dali’s family.
Nico had investigated them, in fact.
This was not a family with decent background. Chi Dali had a wide network of contacts in the underworld; Tang Xiaoge too, had her own ways of earning money. The couple looked honest and kind on the surface, but in reality, they were not people to be trifled with.
That was why Li Beinian had turned out this way.
“Later on,” Li Beinian continued, “Later on, someone who claimed to be my biological grandfather came looking for me and I was asked to take a DNA test. It was then proven that I was their long-lost granddaughter. Hence, I was given the surname Li. Before that, my surname was Chi. Before my surname was Chi, my surname was Bei.”
Nico took a deep breath to calm his own emotions.
Li Beinian continued, “After I went to the Li Family, the father of that family didn’t treat me well. He had a wife and a daughter. I was like an outsider, occupying a room in their house and an extra set of cutlery at their dining table. Hence, they wanted payment. They wanted me to be their daughter’s stunt double.”
She had to work under the scorching sun, in thick ancient costumes and wired up, performing stunts .
In her previous life, Li Beinian had fallen very sick twice from heatstroke. Not only was Li Xueqing not grateful, she even scolded her for delaying the filming process. After that, she had complained to Li Haoran.
At the time, Li Haoran would call her on the phone to berate her for being delicate and useless, and not being able to carry out small tasks. He blamed the hooligan family for spoiling her and said that it was fortunate that she had cut off all ties with them.
Every time, his words would cut her heart like a knife.
She yearned for parental love and a sense of belonging.
However, she was ultimately an outsider in this family.