Chapter 281 – As Long As You Are Safe, Nothing Else Matters
So, were her inner thoughts not being broadcasted publicly?
After confirming this, she breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, no one wants their innermost thoughts to be heard by everyone. Otherwise, what would be left of secrets and privacy?
So, who could hear her inner thoughts?
Could everything she said in her heart be heard, or only certain specific things?
Xu Jinning thought that after school, she should ask her big sister to confirm it.
Finally, when noon dismissal arrived, Xu Jinning politely declined Xie Ting’an’s invitation to lunch and went to the Chinese Department to find her big sister, Xu Fanghua.
“Ningning, weren’t you going to have lunch with Xiao Xie? Why did you come to find me?” Xu Fanghua was both surprised and delighted to see her little sister.
“Big sister, I have something very important to ask you. I want to talk to you alone.” Because she didn’t know if her brother-in-law, Song Yi, could hear her inner thoughts, she decided to talk to her sister first to confirm.
“Then Fanghua, I’ll go to the cafeteria to get your meals.” Song Yi thought that perhaps the two sisters had something private to discuss and felt it was inappropriate for a man to be present, so he considerately offered to get their meals. “I’ll get a portion for Ningning too.”
“Alright, thank you, brother-in-law.”
After Song Yi left, Xu Fanghua and Xu Jinning went to a secluded, deserted garden on the school grounds.
Xu Fanghua pulled Xu Jinning to sit on a stone bench and asked, “What do you want to talk to me about, making it so mysterious?”
Looking at her big sister, Xu Jinning hesitated for a moment, then asked bluntly, “Big sister, can you hear my inner thoughts?”
As soon as these words were out, Xu Fanghua’s eyes widened instantly.
Xu Jinning immediately noticed that her big sister’s eyes only showed surprise at the sudden question, but not at its content.
This meant that her big sister really could hear her inner thoughts!
“Big sister, you can hear me? It’s not just you, right? Dad and Mom, and our brothers too…”
Xu Fanghua hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded.
“Yes, we can all hear your inner thoughts.”
With this single sentence, Xu Jinning received a definitive answer.
“I originally thought you might not find out about this for a long time, but I didn’t expect you to know already.”
“Ningning, it’s not that we intentionally kept it from you after we found out. We couldn’t tell you before; it felt like there was some kind of restriction. We wanted to say it, but the words just wouldn’t come out. It’s strange that we can talk about it now.”
“Maybe because I’ve already guessed it, the restriction is gone,” Xu Jinning speculated.
Previously, Xu Jinning had suspected that her family might be able to hear her thoughts. Now, with her big sister’s confirmation, it turned out to be true.
“It’s not just us. Your brother-in-law can hear you too…”
Xu Jinning: …
Alright, it might not stop at her brother-in-law. Now Xu Jinning suspected that her Dad Changzheng, sister-in-law Wen Yulan, Aunt Hongling, and anyone whose fate had been changed could also hear her inner thoughts.
Could it be that they awakened and changed their destinies because they heard her inner thoughts?
Xu Fanghua’s next words confirmed Xu Jinning’s speculation.
“Ningning, we all have to thank you. Even though we don’t know why you knew these things in advance, it was the moment we heard your inner thoughts that we felt truly alive. No longer did we feel like emotionless robots being controlled.”
“Ningning, you knew my original fate. I would have been deceived by Wei Rou, forced into a marriage with the Yang family, and ultimately suffered domestic ab*se, leading to a miscarriage and dying from severe bleeding, right?”
“Because of you—because I heard your inner thoughts—I learned about my future, woke up to the reality, and avoided that tragic end.”
“Now, I can be with Song Yi, study at Beijing University, and fulfill my dreams, all because of you.”
“And it’s not just me. Dad, Xiangdong, and Xiangbei—they all avoided their dire fates because of you.”
“Ningning, you are the lucky star of our family, our benefactor!”
Xu Jinning was silent.
So, this is how things were. It was almost exactly as she had guessed.
“Big sister, don’t you find it strange?”
“Aren’t you puzzled about how I knew these future events?”
“Aren’t you curious why I knew but didn’t tell you directly to warn you?”
Xu Fanghua shook her head and then held Xu Jinning’s hand, saying, “Ningning, remember what I just said? We wanted to tell you we could hear your thoughts, but we were restricted and couldn’t speak out. We think you must have been similarly restricted.”
“But being able to hear your thoughts, and even see visions of them, was already a great help.”
“Of course, it’s strange and raises questions, but we won’t ask.”
“Because you are my sister, our parents’ daughter.”
“We don’t need anything else. As long as you are safe, as long as you are with us, as long as you are happy, that’s enough.”
“Besides, this matter is so fantastical. It might just be your secret, your unique ability, like a form of foresight. It’s truly astonishing.”
“Such a big secret should naturally be known by as few people as possible. As family, we must guard this secret.”
By keeping this secret, they were also protecting Ningning.
They understood this.
“As long as you are safe, nothing else matters,” Xu Fanghua concluded.
“Big sister…” Unbeknownst to her, Xu Jinning’s eyes had turned red, and her heart felt heavy with emotion.
She hadn’t realized that her family had been silently protecting her all along.
And she was only finding out now.
“So, Ningning, if there’s anything you want to say, say it. If you don’t want to, that’s okay too.”
“Don’t cry, silly girl.”
It wasn’t until Xu Fanghua reached out to wipe away Xu Jinning’s tears that she realized she had started crying at some point.
As she spoke, Xu Fanghua embraced Xu Jinning, gently patting her back to comfort her.
After a while, Xu Jinning’s emotions settled down.
She asked a few more questions.
In the end, she concluded that those who could hear her thoughts were likely the kind-hearted individuals who had met tragic ends.
Moreover, they couldn’t hear all of her inner thoughts.
They only heard inner thoughts related to the plot, particularly the parts concerning their own storylines, and saw the corresponding visions.
At other times, they couldn’t hear Xu Jinning’s thoughts.
Initially, it was one person hearing her inner thoughts one-on-one. Later, if the plot involved multiple people, then multiple people could hear her inner thoughts.
And unless Xu Jinning proactively asked about it, they couldn’t share the information with others who couldn’t hear the thoughts, nor could they discuss it with Xu Jinning.
So, this was also a way of protecting Xu Jinning in some mysterious manner.
It couldn’t be said they were protecting her since the restriction stopped them from mentioning it…