Chapter 19

◎Well, well. Whipped much?◎

Liang Shi didn’t know how the original owner had put on an act in front of Xu Qingzhu’s parents before.

But there were many forms of bad in the world, and only one form of good.

Playing the sweet, obedient daughter wasn’t Liang Shi’s strong suit. She didn’t have much experience with elders, but during her time on film sets, some of the senior veterans had taken a real liking to her.

So this wasn’t particularly difficult for her.

Xu Qingzhu’s suggestion was perfect.

So she agreed cheerfully.

“No need for rent.” Liang Shi said. “The second floor is still yours. I’ll take the first floor. When we get back, have the bedroom lock changed. That should give you more of a sense of security. But…”

She paused. “If your sister stays with us, it seems like… we can’t exactly sleep in separate rooms yet.”

“So I’ll convince her to go back.” Xu Qingzhu promised her. “Whatever it takes. She might try to butter you up and persuade you to let her stay. I hope you can hold firm.”

Liang Shi: “…?”

Since when was she not firm?

She looked over with a slightly bewildered expression. Xu Qingzhu pressed her lips together, turning her face away. “You’ve always had a hard time resisting little girls’ sweet talk.”

Liang Shi: “…”

Ah. Well.

The original owner truly… seemed to be helpless against it.

Otherwise there wouldn’t have been so many “female confidants.”

“I’ll work on that.” Liang Shi coughed lightly and immediately changed the subject. “Who’s your sister’s favorite celebrity?”

She wondered if there might be any stars from her old world here.

“Chen Zhengxuan.” Xu Qingzhu said. “Seems to be an idol? From a boy band.”

Liang Shi searched through every memory in her mind and found no recollection of this person.

The entertainment industry here was probably not the same one she’d come from.

“All right.” Liang Shi’s tone carried a hint of disappointment.

“You know them?” Xu Qingzhu raised an eyebrow.

Liang Shi shook her head. “How could I?”

After a beat, she asked: “If I said I wanted to act, what would you think?”

Xu Qingzhu looked her up and down, her gaze settling on her eyes. She said thoughtfully: “You’d probably make a good actress.”

Liang Shi: “…”

She had a feeling that wasn’t exactly a compliment.

But she didn’t go deeper into the topic with Xu Qingzhu. She didn’t know much about the entertainment industry here yet. The original owner had so many tangled family connections and social circles. If she entered the industry, she could hit a landmine at any moment.

Most importantly, there was still a garbage system forcing her to complete tasks.

These three months were the critical window.

Whether she survived depended on these three months.

So it was just an offhand remark.

Clearly, Xu Qingzhu hadn’t taken her seriously.

The car drove past Jiangyuan Road, past Century Plaza, past Jinmao Tower, past many of Haizhou City’s landmark buildings.

This place was different from where Liang Shi had lived before.

Being coastal, even the air was humid, carrying a faint salty tang.

This was Liang Shi’s first time returning to the villa.

She’d been here for days and had been stuck in the hospital the whole time.

Quite the struggle.

Other people transmigrated into books and coasted through life like winners.

She transmigrated into a book and was stuck cleaning up messes and babysitting a sister-in-law.

“…”

Liang Shi had barely pulled onto the main road when she spotted Xu Qingya standing at the villa’s front gate.

Today’s outfit was more modest: a T-shirt, jeans, white canvas shoes, no heavy makeup. She stood by the entrance with a backpack, scrolling on her phone.

The moment she saw their car approaching, she pocketed her phone, hands stuffed in her pockets, expression flat.

Probably still sulking at Xu Qingzhu.

Liang Shi drove into the courtyard. As Xu Qingzhu unbuckled her seatbelt, she said: “You go inside first. I’ll handle sending her off.”

Liang Shi: “…”

Xu Qingzhu was working pretty hard to avoid living under the same roof as her.

“I’ll stay in the car.” Liang Shi said. “You go deal with it. Call me when it’s done.”

Xu Qingzhu looked at her, then relented. “Fine.”

Liang Shi’s car had privacy film. You couldn’t see in from outside, but you could see out clearly.

Xu Qingzhu got out and said to Xu Qingya: “Either go home or go back to the hotel. Pick one.”

“I pick option three.” Xu Qingya huffed. “The hotel is too quiet. I’m sick of takeout.”

“Then go home.” Xu Qingzhu said. “Mom is waiting for you.”

“I already talked to Mom.” Xu Qingya shrugged carelessly. “Mom told me to come stay with you and cool off for a week.”

Xu Qingzhu: “…”

“And besides.” Xu Qingya pouted. “Isn’t me staying at a hotel just wasting your money anyway? Let me stay here. Just give me a small room. I absolutely won’t get in the way or play third wheel.”

“No.” Xu Qingzhu refused again.

But Xu Qingya had already circled around the car to the driver’s side and yanked the door open.

Liang Shi, sitting in the driver’s seat playing Snake: “?”

“Sister Liang Shi, tell me: isn’t my sister being unreasonable?” Xu Qingya appealed to her.

Liang Shi: “…?”

She looked at Xu Qingzhu.

Xu Qingzhu frowned. “Xu Qingya, can you stop causing a scene? Go home or stay at a hotel. Go out and clear your head for a few days. Why do you have to come to my place? Do you think my life is too easy, so you need to make it harder?”

Xu Qingya’s composure cracked for a second, but a moment later she turned back and stuck out her tongue, saying with supreme smugness: “Yep, yep.”

Xu Qingzhu: “…”

She pressed her fingers to her aching brow.

“Are you even my sister? I’m about to be out on the streets and you won’t even take me in for a few days.” Xu Qingya complained with a wounded pout. “Even Sister Liang Shi said I could stay. Why won’t you?”

Liang Shi quickly waved her hands. “I didn’t. I never said that.”

Xu Qingya: “…”

She fell silent for a moment, then drawled: “Well, well. Whipped much?”

Liang Shi: “…”

She just didn’t want to be inexplicably punished by the system.

It hurts!

“I’m calling Uncle Liu right now to have him come pick you up.” Xu Qingzhu, afraid Xu Qingya would discover her real motive, added a cover story. “If you were on break and staying for a while, that would be fine. You could even stay a whole vacation. But school starts in a few days, and you just had a fight with Dad. Dad’s health is bad. Have you forgotten? Did you think about how he’d feel when you ran away?”

“Did he think about how I’d feel when he tore up my idol posters?” Xu Qingya said coldly. “You’re the filial daughter, and I’m just being unreasonable? I want to understand him too. But his company’s in trouble, so he takes it out on me, and then I’m supposed to forgive him with open arms? I don’t understand.”

Xu Qingzhu: “…”

At the end, Xu Qingya even asked: “Sister Liang Shi, do you understand?”

Liang Shi: “…”

She didn’t dare to understand.

“Dad was wrong about this.” Xu Qingzhu still dialed Uncle Liu’s number, but it rang for a long time with no answer.

Xu Qingya advised her: “Don’t bother. Uncle Liu is busy dismissing the household staff. He can’t come to the phone.”

“Why?” Xu Qingzhu asked.

Were things at home really this bad? She had no idea.

“Mom didn’t want you to know, so just pretend you don’t. Okay?” Xu Qingya stood with her hands in her pockets, looking effortlessly cool. “Just be a good Mrs. Liang over here. I’ll stay at your place for a few days. Once the storm passes, I’ll go back. Or when school starts, I’ll live in the dorms. I promise I won’t interrupt your married life. Deal? My dear sister.”

Xu Qingzhu: “…”

With things put that way…

If Xu Qingzhu still refused, she’d look heartless.

She turned her gaze to Liang Shi. Liang Shi, who had been playing the invisible wall all along: “…?”

“Then she can stay?” Liang Shi read Xu Qingzhu’s expression and posed it as a question first. Seeing Xu Qingzhu’s shoulders relax slightly with relief, she continued: “Let her stay. It’s not like we’re short on rooms.”

“Awesome.” Xu Qingya said sweetly. “Thank you, Sister.”

“Tell me first: why is the family dismissing the staff?” Xu Qingzhu asked.

Xu Qingya shrugged carelessly. “The company’s finances are bad. No money at home, can’t pay wages, so naturally some get let go. No big deal.”

“No big deal?” Xu Qingzhu’s voice went cold. “What does count as a big deal? When the company goes bankrupt and we have to sell the house and the land? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What’s there to tell?” Xu Qingya said. “Dad’s no good at business. It’s not like you don’t know. If it’s going to fail, it’ll fail. You’re married now. Be a good Mrs. Liang and stay out of the family’s messes, okay? As for us, even if we end up on the streets, we won’t come bothering you. Just take care of yourself. Got it?”

She spoke with all the swagger of a big shot, her tone sharp.

Then she turned and went to wait by the villa entrance.

Leaving Xu Qingzhu alone at the gate to think.

The family business had been left by her great-grandfather and flourished under her maternal grandfather before passing to her father. Now it had come to this desperate state.

That wasn’t acceptable.

A fire lit in Xu Qingzhu’s chest. She was ready to go home and confront her father.

Back when she’d traded her marriage for the Liang family’s financing, her father had promised that with the money, he would stage a magnificent turnaround. But now?

Less than half a year later, they’d already sunk to dismissing household staff to cut costs.

“Let me borrow the car keys. I need to go out.” Xu Qingzhu said.

Liang Shi could guess her intentions from her expression. “Going home? To ask your parents about this?”

Xu Qingzhu nodded.

“Maybe hold off,” Liang Shi said.

Xu Qingya, on the other side, had her ears pricked toward the commotion. Liang Shi leaned in closer and said: “Going back in this state won’t solve anything. And you don’t know the full picture yet. What if there’s more to the story? Besides, it’s noon. Let’s eat first and think this through…”

Xu Qingzhu’s gaze swung toward her, carrying a sharp edge. Liang Shi rubbed the tip of her nose sheepishly and added uncertainly: “…Right?”

The word “right” came out as barely a breath.

Xu Qingzhu looked at her, still thinking. Xu Qingya lounged by the door and drawled: “Can you stop dawdling? I’m starving to death.”

Liang Shi wasn’t confident she could convince Xu Qingzhu. But Xu Qingzhu stood still for a few seconds, then turned her face away with a hint of awkwardness and rubbed her own ear.

Liang Shi only then realized she’d gotten a bit too close to Xu Qingzhu.

She immediately stepped back half a pace and apologized earnestly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s fine.” Xu Qingzhu cut her off. Then, smoothly, she took Liang Shi’s hand, leaned in, and brought her lips close to Liang Shi’s ear. Warm breath ghosted across the shell of her ear, carrying a teasing heat that made Liang Shi’s ears itch and her throat go dry. She coughed awkwardly.

Xu Qingzhu’s lips were a hair’s breadth from her ear. A fraction closer and their skin would touch.

Liang Shi’s heart pounded, ready to leap out of her chest.

Xu Qingzhu’s slightly moist lips grazed past her ear as she murmured: “Sorry for the trouble.”

Her voice was low, husky and smoky, utterly bewitching. “I need you to play along with me.”

Liang Shi: “…”

Sure, she could do that, but could she not stand this close?