After Marrying the Villain with Seven Personalities [Transmigration into a Book]) - Chapter 9

Shi Ji had been a favorite among elders since she was a child. Almost every elder had joked at some point about wanting her to marry into their family.

Xu Linqiu found the situation slightly amusing. She patted her mother’s back comfortingly and shook her head. “No, it wasn’t her.”

Upon hearing this flat denial, Fang Fengyu broke down again. She dabbed at her streaming tears with the now-damp towel, muttering, “It’s bad enough that you’re ruining your reputation, but the person isn’t even Ji-ji!”

“Ji-ji brought you here to have a good time, and you actually ditched her to get intimate with someone else…”

Xu Linqiu began to suspect that Shi Ji might actually be the biological daughter her mother hadn’t seen in nine years.

She had expected their long-awaited reunion to be a heartfelt scene of mutual confessions and tearful embraces. Instead, she stood there in silence, gently stroking her mother’s back. Seeing the strands of white hair scattered through Fang Fengyu’s smooth black hair, a long-dormant guilt surged within her. She lowered her head, her eyes stinging with a sudden heat.

Over the past nine years, she had indeed been too consumed by her pursuit of painting, refusing to spare even a little time to have a proper talk with her family. Now that she had looked back, she realized they had grown old.

Fang Fengyu had been thirty-five when Linqiu was born. During her years in Country F, whenever Linqiu searched for news of them, she saw them attending various events with bright smiles, looking to be in excellent condition. She had forgotten that those were just professional appearances maintained by meticulous grooming.

Fang Fengyu, finally calming down, looked at her somber daughter. A terrible thought suddenly crossed her mind. She grabbed Linqiu’s hand and asked urgently, “Tell Mom—did someone take advantage of you while you were drunk? Did they force you?”

The sadness in Xu Linqiu’s throat caught, and she couldn’t help but laugh. “Mom, what are you thinking? It was entirely consensual.”

“Then tell me: what’s their name? Where do they live? How old are they? What do they do for a living? What do their parents do—”

“Her name is… Xiao Hong.”

Fang Fengyu’s hand, still holding the towel to her eyes, froze. “Such a common, tacky name?”

Xu Linqiu quickly corrected herself, putting on a bittersweet smile. “I’ll have a good talk with her to define our relationship. But Mom, aren’t you going to ask what I’ve been doing all these years, or how I’ve been?”

At this, Fang Fengyu set the towel aside. She met her daughter’s melancholic gaze—the downcast eyes and the forced smile made her heart ache. She suddenly realized that for all these years, her daughter only had that one initial sum of money. Knowing Linqiu’s uncompromising nature and how expensive painting supplies were, she must have suffered greatly.

She probably only came back because she couldn’t survive out there anymore, Fang Fengyu thought. A vision of her pale daughter drawing portraits for pennies under overpasses or in parks flashed through her mind. She began to sob again.

“Mom realized long ago… acting was my passion, not yours,” Fang Fengyu said tenderly while wiping her eyes. “I shouldn’t have pressured you like that, and I shouldn’t have neglected you girls for work. Where are you staying now?”

She gripped Linqiu’s hand, terrified that her daughter might be sleeping on a mat under a bridge. “Come home. Pursue what you love; Mom will support you. I was wrong before; I was too extreme.”

Her words were so sincere that they finally triggered Xu Linqiu’s own tears. “I was at fault too,” Linqiu whispered, hugging her mother tightly. “Let’s let the past be the past.”

“And besides, I’m an adult now. How could I let you support me?” Linqiu pulled back slightly, laughing through her tears as she wiped her mother’s face. “I’m staying at Ji-ji’s place for now, but I’ll be moving out soon.”

“You’re already in this state and you’re still staying with her? How could you do that to her?” Fang Fengyu’s eyes widened in shock.

Xu Linqiu paused, then joked, “Well, she has so many girlfriends herself. We’re even.”

Fang Fengyu had experienced too many emotional highs and lows today. Her head began to throb. She leaned back against the car cushion, covering her face with the towel. “You and Ji-ji used to be inseparable… I never thought things would turn out like this. Ruining yourself just out of jealousy? We really can’t understand you young people anymore.”

Linqiu smiled and leaned back as well, sending a message to Shi Ji:

[My mom is downstairs. Nothing happened to you last night, right? Did you sleep well? You should probably tidy yourself up before coming down.]

Shi Ji was jolted awake by her ringing phone. Her head felt like it was splitting open. She put the call on speaker and heard her assistant Mu Yi’s frustrated voice.

“My dear eldest lady, if I knew you were going to be this hungover, I wouldn’t have helped you borrow that card. You missed the morning meeting, and the Chairman is furious.”

“I get it,” Shi Ji groaned, clutching her head.

Mu Yi lowered her voice. “Just how hard did you party? Your voice is completely hoarse.”

“I’m hoarse because I’m thirsty. I’m hanging up to call my dad and beg for mercy.”

Her lips felt dry and painful. After hanging up, Shi Ji braced herself and dialed her father’s number. To her surprise, a fairly pleasant voice answered.

“Fine, I know Linqiu is back; I saw the trending searches. I’ll have the PR team suppress the news this time. Your mother said she’s going to talk to Auntie Fang about getting you two married as soon as possible. Consider today a paid day off…”

“Wait—”

The line went dead.

Shi Ji was baffled. She quickly opened Weibo, scanned the photos, and clicked on the video. Her attention was instantly snagged by the second clip.

The footage was extremely blurry, shot from a hidden vantage point to avoid the security guards. It showed a woman in a white lab coat with a sharp, cold profile standing at the entrance of Hongxun. More importantly, she was holding a woman who was wearing denim shorts and a black top.

That was clearly her! And… Yi Yanbai?

How was that possible? She remembered encouraging Linqiu, then going to the sofa to drink a large glass of “Love Rival,” and then… she blacked out.

Shi Ji rubbed her aching head. She couldn’t remember a thing. Frustrated, she decided to stop thinking about it. What could possibly happen between her and the protagonist, Yi Yanbai?

She got out of bed, drank some water, and realized her lips hurt terribly. She went into the bathroom to wash up.

Then she saw herself in the mirror.

Her makeup was gone, but her lips were swollen and redder than if she were wearing lipstick. Worse, the hem of her low-cut T-shirt was torn, and her bra was unfastened. Even though the quality was top-tier, the stitching had been ripped!

There was a very obvious red mark on her neck. She pulled her shirt up further and saw another mark on her navel, looking particularly striking against her porcelain skin.

Surprisingly, she let out a sigh of relief.

Only two marks? It must have been mosquitoes, she told herself. If something had actually happened, there’s no way there would only be two ‘hickeys.’ I must have been so drunk that I bit my own lips and tore my clothes, and the mosquitoes got inside.

She brainwashed herself into dismissing any possibility involving Yi Yanbai. She had always made a point to avoid the protagonist. She would treat last night as a dream—after all, she had blacked out.

Shi Ji finished getting ready and headed out. As she walked out of Hongxun, she checked her phone and saw Xu Linqiu’s messages.

[I’m waiting for you at the entrance.] [My mom is downstairs. Nothing happened to you last night, right? …]

Crap.

Thinking of her swollen lips, Shi Ji turned to retreat, but a warm voice hailed her from behind.

“Ji-ji~”

Auntie Fang had rolled down the car window and was waving at her with a smile. “Come over here~”