Miss Wheelchair - Chapter 19

Gu Ci’s character profile was that of a chaebol’s daughter.

The word “chaebol” inherently carried an air of authority, oppression, and—naturally—high-society family drama.

Five Years in the System, Three Years of Simulation had recently rolled out a version update, and the new chapter introduced Gu Ci’s biological family in meticulous detail.

Her mother passed away when she was twelve. Her father remarried in a flash, taking a new wife who brought along a son who was only a year younger than Gu Ci.

The moment Gu Ci passed her university entrance exams at eighteen, she moved out. During her college years, she began learning how to start a business. By the time she was a graduate student, she co-founded a startup alongside a basic medical science major.

The profile didn’t specify who that student was, but it was highly likely to be Lu Ran.

Initially, they just outsourced a few biological experiments. As time went on, however, Gu Ci realized that cell therapy technology was developing at a breakneck pace. She quickly contacted more professionals, and together they founded Sun Moon Biopharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.

Before long, the business grew larger and larger. Fearing that an increasingly powerful Gu Ci would eventually fight her son for the family fortune, the stepmother whispered sweet nothings into her husband’s ear, successfully convincing

Gu Ci’s father to draft a will that left 95% of the assets to the son.

Gu Ci’s father was easily swayed, but Gu Ci was no submissive, obedient little girl.

The moment she caught wind of this, she immediately declared her intention to establish Hongkang Private Hospital, stating that whether it flourished or went bankrupt in the future would depend entirely on her own fortune and would have absolutely nothing to do with the Gu family. If they tried to cross her, she would immediately file a lawsuit against her father for bigamy and extramarital infidelity during his marriage to her mother. The ultimate piece of ironclad evidence was that very son who was a mere year younger than her.

In the end, Gu Peisheng had no choice but to cough up a hefty sum of money to help her establish Hongkang. Combining that capital with the professional network Gu Ci had built over the years running her company, she quickly secured new co-founders. The three of them established Hongkang together.

Lu Ran was one of those three.

Reading up to this point, Tan Xin’s eyes welled with tears.

My beautiful, resilient, fiercely capable, tragic yet powerful disabled wife!

The private car wound its way up the concrete mountain road, pulling up at the entrance of a grand estate.

It was a four-story detached villa designed in a classical Roman architectural style, its eaves adorned with elaborate reliefs of a dozen obscure little Greek deities. Towering trees filled the front courtyard; looking from the main gate, one could only see that gathering of little deities on the roof.

“The eldest young lady has returned,” a maid announced, her tone neither hot nor cold as she ushered Gu Ci and Tan Xin inside. “The Master and Madam had to go out on some business. Please wait a moment.”

Summoning Gu Ci and Tan Xin from all that way, only to pretend to have urgent business elsewhere.

What a pathetic attempt at a power move.

Tan Xin calculated in her head—the mental age of this middle-aged couple added up to twenty at most.

Ding!

A sound effect chimed above Gu Ci’s head.

Red +10.

Oh no, her wife was angry.

Gu Ci lifted her wrist to check her watch. “Then I’ll be leaving.”

The maid panicked instantly, hurriedly throwing herself in front of them to block their path. “No, no, no! Eldest Miss, the Master and Madam only stepped out for a tiny bit. They’ll be back any second!”

Gu Ci lifted her cold eyes. “Get out of the way.”

Leaning into her role as the fierce protector, Tan Xin stepped up, blocking the maid from Gu Ci. “Exactly, get out of the way. Your Master and Madam were the ones who invited us here, yet now that the guests have arrived, they’ve run off. Is this how you properly host people?”

Nailed it. This exact scenario fell right into the second paragraph of the “First Meeting” chapter she had memorized.

The maid grew frantic, blurting out three “No, it’s nots” in a row. Seeing that the two of them were completely set on leaving, she was forced to come clean: “Actually, the Master drank way too much at a dinner party last night and got into a physical altercation with someone.”

Ding!

Red -10.

Gu Ci’s interest was piqued. “Do tell.”

Tan Xin took a step to the side, clearing her throat. “Yes, do tell.”

The maid confessed, “Well, both sides fought until their heads were bloodied and bruised. The other party even shoved a leftover chicken bone right up the Master’s nostril. The police hauled them away on the spot, and he hasn’t been back all night. Madam went to post bail today, and she just called to tell me they should be cleared to leave in a bit.”

Ding!

Green +10.

Perfect. Her wife was starting to feel pleased, and Tan Xin felt a surge of joy in her own heart.

“I see.” Tan Xin turned her head to look at Gu Ci. “Then shall we wait for a bit?”

Gu Ci nodded, pivoting her wheelchair to head toward the sofa in the main lobby.

The maid quickly served two cups of hot tea and vanished into the pantry, never to emerge again. It was as if speaking a single extra word to Gu Ci risked being pierced to death by those razor-sharp eyes.

The house was designed to mimic a medieval European cathedral. The ceiling height of the first-floor lobby was utterly absurd, easily equivalent to two and a half stories of a standard residential home. While the space was vast and airy, the decor was strictly traditional Chinese, featuring elaborate folding screens, incense burners, and even a literal bucket of old ginger—a pun signifying “Unifying the Rivers and Mountains.”

The Qing Dynasty had been dead for over a century, so Tan Xin honestly had no idea what rivers and mountains Gu Peisheng still needed to unify. But the arrangement of these objects was incredibly calculated, looking precisely like the work of a hired feng shui master.

With a bit of thought, she could practically smell the scent of Gu Peisheng being scammed.

In that instant, Tan Xin figured Gu Ci’s mother must have been incredibly brilliant to have produced a daughter as exceptionally sharp and clever as Gu Ci with a man like Gu Peisheng.

Taking advantage of the empty lobby, Tan Xin quickly pulled out her thick stack of papers from her bag—the 108 Methods for Clapping Back at Relatives she had compiled the night before. She had specifically run out to print them after waking up this morning.

This was the sheer power of literacy.

“What are you doing?” Gu Ci asked.

“Reviewing.”

“Reviewing?”

If this were last night, Tan Xin would have generously shared the fruits of her labor, talking herself up like a precious flower to win Gu Ci’s favor. But time was ticking, the exam was about to begin, and she had zero interest in chatting with her classmate.

“Don’t disturb my focus.”

Gu Ci fell silent.

Playing hard to get. Tan Xin is definitely playing hard to get.

Gu Ci swiftly reached a conclusion in her mind. While Tan Xin had her eyes closed to recite a passage, Gu Ci craned her neck to steal a glance at the pages. She caught snippets like: “Instead of worrying about how much money I make in a month, why don’t you worry about how many years of life you have left?” and “My life is still long, but yours is pretty much a wrap,” and “You can be blunt with your words, that’s fine—I’m just heavy-handed with my fists.”

What on earth was all this nonsense?

Yet Tan Xin was memorizing it with absolute relish, putting in more effort than a student cramming for the postgraduate entrance exams.

Running through the text one final time at lightning speed, Tan Xin slammed the document shut, stuffed it back into her bag, and picked up the teacup from the table to chug two gulps. The cup was an electric heating mug; as long as it stayed plugged in, the tea would never grow cold.

Tan Xin drained the entire cup, poured another one from the adjacent hot water thermos, and cradled it in her hands.

Gu Ci shot her a look. “You’ve prepared quite thoroughly.”

Tan Xin nodded. “Of course. Didn’t you say they were difficult to get along with? I have to bring my A-game. I can’t let you suffer any grievances.”

Ding!

Green +5.

Hehe.

Her wife was happy.

Gu Ci had no idea her emotional stats had completely betrayed her. Her face remained a mask of aloof, expressionless calm. “No need to be nervous. Those few are incredibly easy to deal with.”

Tan Xin didn’t believe her. “How is that possible? Even if Gu Peisheng is stupid, he still runs a massive family estate.”

Gu Ci stated frankly, “He’s already been bled dry by feng shui masters.”

“Really?” Tan Xin had just taken a wild guess earlier; she hadn’t expected to hit the nail right on the head.

“That’s why when he threatened to disown me as his daughter and let his son inherit the entire estate, I agreed without a second thought.”

“Oh. I thought—”

“Thought what?”

“I thought they bullied you. Like those tragic female leads in web novels who get kicked out of the house by their evil families.”

Gu Ci let out a soft, amused scoff. “Hehe.”

Gu Ci laughed. It was rare for her to laugh.

To be exact, it was rare for her to let out a genuinely amused, lighthearted laugh from the bottom of her heart, sparked entirely by another person.

She looked at Tan Xin, a touch of pride flashing in her eyes. “Even if I were a web novel protagonist, I’d be the ultimate boss who starts with nothing but a rusty knife, slays everyone in her path, and constantly levels up her gear.”

Tan Xin stared at her blankly. She absolutely adored the arrogant, disdainful look on Gu Ci’s face. The mere thought of pinning her down in bed in the future, kissing her until she cried, and witnessing that delicious contrast was enough to make her heart do backflips.

“Yes, you absolutely are.”

Gu Ci caught sight of her utterly smitten, daydreaming expression and narrowed her eyes slightly. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Because you’re gorgeous,” Tan Xin replied with total honesty.

“Then why have you been clutching that cup this whole time?”

“Oh, this? It’s to help calm my nerves.”

“What do your nerves have to do with a cup?”

Tan Xin explained, “The cup is hot. When I get nervous, my hands get a little numb, so I’m just using it as a warm compress.”

They always say the ten minutes right before an exam are the most nerve-wracking, and that couldn’t be closer to the truth. At the thought that Gu Peisheng and his wife could walk through the front door at any given second, the tingling numbness in her palms grew increasingly intense.

Strange. Back when she took actual exams in school, she had never been this close to a panic attack. It was probably because she cared way too much about Gu Ci and wanted to make a stellar impression.

In fact, her hands were so numb she was completely losing sensation in them!

Gu Ci calmly pried the electric heating mug from her grip and set it down on the coffee table.

“The cup is short-circuiting. It’s leaking electricity.”

Tan Xin: “?”