Chapter 52: Just Worth That Much Part 2

Miao Ling didn’t even change out of her shoes. She charged straight into Miao Zhu’s room in her high heels.

The room had changed. The gift cabinet that had been full to bursting was now empty, with several storage boxes stacked on the floor.

Miao Zhu was dressed for going out. She sat primly on the edge of the bed, hands on her knees, with her cello case and a suitcase standing side by side nearby.

Miao Ling let out a few laughs, then her face twisted sharply!

“You’re pretty clever, huh? Caused a catastrophe and now you’re just packing up to leave?” Blood rushed to her head. She swung her handbag at Miao Zhu.

The leather scent hit her face, and the sturdy metal fittings struck her temple and nose bridge one after another.

Sarcastic words poured into Miao Zhu’s ears without delay. “Do you know what price Mu Shanyi put on you?”

“What a high and mighty attitude, making me wait from morning till night at the company.” Miao Ling grabbed Miao Zhu by the collar, forcing her to look up. “Twenty thousand a time! Ha, she said that’s all you’re worth. If you want to settle accounts, tally up the times, haha!”

Clashing with the Sheng Family, being humiliated by Mu Shanyi, the projects facing funding chain breaks—each one was a burning torment. Miao Ling raised her hand to slap Miao Zhu.

The marks from her nails poking Miao Zhu’s forehead in the early morning were still there, not to mention the hits from the bag. Irregular red welts rose on her delicate skin. Miao Ling, in the heat of her rage, ignored them all. Thinking of how all their current hardships were thanks to this wonderful daughter, she gritted her teeth and swung down!

Miao Zhu toppled onto the bed from the blow. Her teeth cut the inside of her mouth, and the taste of rust spread. She stared up at the crystal chandelier on the ceiling. The light shadows fell onto her eyelashes, scattering into tiny specks of fragmented glow.

Her mind buzzed. Miao Ling’s shrieks were like a faulty signal—sometimes clear, sometimes faint.

“Twenty thousand a time! Is that beggar’s change? What’s the difference from being slept with for free!?”

“And that bitch Ni Xiaoying—my phone rang all day with her asking why you were cheating after getting engaged. She’s stirring up the whole city just to ruin the Miao Family’s reputation!”

“Miao Zhu, Miao Zhu, why did you cheat? You’d already slept with Mu Shanyi, keeping it airtight. Now all our relatives and friends know you’re engaged to Xingran—why couldn’t you keep it quiet then? What scheme are you playing? You wanted everyone to know what you’d done, didn’t you? So calculating! You’re coming for me, aren’t you!?”

“Did I offend you? Was growing up clothed in silk and fed delicacies not enough? Or were Xingran and He Zizhou not good enough for you? Are you that cheap, going to let Mu Shanyi sleep with you for free? Well, congratulations—it’s just as you wanted! The Sheng Family wants to cut you into pieces, the family will go bankrupt because of you, and no one respectable in Cloud City will touch you now. Satisfied?”

“Great, just great!” In her towering rage, Miao Ling’s strength surged. She yanked Miao Zhu off the bed. “Keeping you around is just an embarrassment. Get out! Get out now!”

Miao Zhu didn’t feel the pain. She neither resisted nor struggled. Once Miao Ling paused her frenzy and bent over, gasping for breath, Miao Zhu wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. Her thin voice brushed over her tongue and dissipated into the air. “The storage boxes contain all the gifts Xingran gave me over the past decade or so. I’ve booked a courier, and I’ve told Aunt Huang. She’ll help mail them to Xingran tomorrow.”

“The password for this bank card is your birthday. The deposits inside are mostly the study abroad expenses you and Dad gave me, plus all the New Year’s money from childhood. In the future, when I take on commercial performances or teach students, I’ll transfer money into this card regularly.”

Miao Ling sneered. “What, trying to buy out our parent-child relationship with money? Don’t worry! I’ll settle that account with you properly once I’m done with everything else! You owe us that much already!”

“I owe you.” Miao Zhu clenched her fists repeatedly without thinking, her breathing turning rapid and fragmented. “I owe you… I tried my best too, emptying my mind, accepting your arrangements, trying to be the daughter who’d make you proud… But Mom, you can’t understand, can you? It was so exhausting. I want to save myself now. I’m leaving. Take care of yourselves, you and Dad.”

Even after flipping the table, this daughter still appeared so meek and compliant on the surface—taking the hits without fighting back, enduring the scolding without retorting, spouting naive, childish platitudes. But in reality, she schemed against hearts, acted ruthlessly and heartlessly, with no one in her eyes, caring for nothing, willing to drag the whole world down for herself! Miao Ling shuddered in horror. She’d actually raised such a demon! Her disgust for Miao Zhu reached its peak. “Get out! The farther, the better!”

Miao Zhu bowed to Miao Ling, slung her cello over her back, and wheeled her luggage downstairs.

Smashing and crashing sounds erupted from upstairs. Aunt Huang poked her head out from the kitchen and quietly wiped tears as she watched Miao Zhu’s departing figure.

Miao Zhu pushed open the courtyard door. The cold wind blew across her damp cheeks. The mountains that had weighed her down, leaving her breathless, collapsed with a roar. Her heart had never felt such liberation. After bidding farewell to the self trapped for 24 years, Miao Zhu didn’t look back. She walked alone into the silent winter night.

Twenty thousand a time.

Just worth that much.

Thanks to Mu Shanyi’s New Year’s blessing, she had truly gotten what she wished for.

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