Miss Wheelchair - Chapter 22

In the end, of course, no money was lent.

Her mind practically bursting with unsaid grievances, Xu Qiuxin trudged upstairs to find Gu Peisheng. She stayed up there for an entire hour without a single peep of movement.

Downstairs, back in their own private world, Tan Xin was absolutely ecstatic. She shot Gu Ci a playful, incredibly smug wink.

“Well? Aren’t I amazing?”

The green value floating above Gu Ci’s head ticked upward from 10 to 15. The coldness in her eyes melted away entirely, replaced by a gaze as warm as a spring breeze.

“I didn’t expect that guide of yours to actually be useful.”

Basking in the sudden praise, Tan Xin beamed with pride. “Of course! Luck favors the prepared mind. It pays to have a plan.”

Gu Ci gently brought her back to reality. “But they won’t let this go easily.”

Tan Xin waved it off carelessly. “That’s fine. I won’t let it go easily either. That guide is twenty-four pages long, and I haven’t even burned through the first page of knowledge yet.”

Having aced this first mock exam of dealing with toxic relatives, Tan Xin felt entirely confident about round two.

A moment later, the grandfather clock on the wall skipped forward an hour.

Huh, not bad. During these mission sequences, the system automatically fast-forwarded through the boring, unproductive chunks of time. It was a very user-friendly feature.

But a second later, Tan Xin immediately took back her praise.

Xu Qiuxin was helping Gu Peisheng—whose head was still heavily swathed in gauze—back down the stairs. Now, both of them had prominent colors hovering over their heads:

Gu Peisheng: Black: 80

Xu Qiuxin: Black: 60

(Black = Murderous Intent.)

Boom.

Tan Xin’s heart dropped. Her hand flew up to her chest, instinctively clutching her shirt.

Noticing her sudden change in demeanor, Gu Ci asked quietly, “What’s wrong?”

Realizing she was letting her panic show, Tan Xin quickly dropped her hand, smoothing out her expression. She leaned in and whispered to Gu Ci:

“Have you ever considered that for the sake of money, they might completely throw out any shred of father-daughter affection?”

To avoid triggering the system’s secrecy protocols, she could only drop subtle hints.

Yet, Gu Ci understood perfectly, her voice dripping with cynicism. “When has he ever cared about father-daughter affection?”

As they whispered, the two on the stairs drew near. Xu Qiuxin called out with forced warmth:

“Xiao Ci, I talked it over with your father. Since things are tight for you right now, there’s really nothing to be done. But it’s not often you come home. Why don’t you stay and have lunch with us?”

Lunch? Tan Xin thought. More like a one-way ticket to being poisoned by you two.

Straining her muscles, Tan Xin managed to squeeze out a painfully fake smile. “Thank you, Auntie, but we’ll have to pass. We actually need to head back to the hospital for a follow-up appointment soon.”

Xu Qiuxin let go of Gu Peisheng and stepped forward, grabbing Tan Xin’s arm with a grip that was aggressively non-negotiable.

“It’s just a quick meal, how much time could it possibly take? I’ll have the maids whip something up right now. It’ll be ready in a jiffy.”

Behind her, Gu Peisheng chimed in, his voice gruff. “You don’t even have time for a meal? Or is it that your company didn’t actually go under, and you’re just rushing back to manage a project?”

Gu Ci’s expression remained frostily detached. “There is no project. I simply have no desire to sit at the same table as you.”

Tan Xin cheered internally. God, my wifey is magnificent when she shuts people down!

Beep!

Red Premium: +20

A new color value stacked right on top of Gu Peisheng’s Black: 80. He was now simultaneously furious and murderous.

The old bastard.

The rich kid who beat him up yesterday really should have finished the job with one final punch. It would have saved her from having her romance progression interrupted.

“Fine. If you won’t eat, you won’t eat.”

Gu Peisheng shot Xu Qiuxin a look so glaringly obvious that Tan Xin wondered how he wasn’t embarrassed by his own transparency. He practically had “I want you dead” written across his face.

“Your Aunt Xin made some pastries yesterday. Taste them before you leave. Qiuxin, go fetch the pastries.”

Just as he spoke, a heavy rush of footsteps echoed from the entrance. Judging by the sound, there were at least seven or eight people. Most likely bodyguards or hired thugs.

Tan Xin had no desire to eat anything Xu Qiuxin baked, but Gu Peisheng was clearly trying to force them onto the path to the afterlife.

Dropping her gaze, Tan Xin’s mind went into overdrive, brainstorming furiously. Countless tropes from television dramas flashed through her head: Pretend to trip and flip the tray? Tap into some hidden superhuman strength, beat everyone up, and run? Force-feed the pastries to the villains and watch them succumb to their own poison?

None of them seemed viable.

Beating them up and running would be easy enough if she were alone. The problem was, she had a mobility-impaired Gu Ci with her. If she bolted, she’d be leaving Gu Ci behind like a sitting duck.

No, that’s out.

Pretend to trip and flip the tray? If Gu Peisheng and Xu Qiuxin were truly determined to end them, flipping one tray would just mean they’d bring out another.

No, that won’t work either.

Force-feeding them? That seemed slightly more plausible, but as Tan Xin thought about it deeper, would Gu Peisheng and his wife really be stupid enough to outright poison his own daughter inside their own house? If she died on the property, a forensic autopsy would instantly blow their cover.

Besides, Gu Peisheng had mentioned the pastries were made yesterday, meaning they had probably already eaten some themselves. The pastries were likely safe.

Right on cue, the system’s disembodied voice echoed in her mind:

[System]: “The sleeping pills are in the water.”

Tan Xin blinked. Alright, this system might lack detailed instructions, but it really comes through in a clutch.

She squared her shoulders, feeling the sudden, euphoric rush of a player using a cheat code.

Sure enough, Xu Qiuxin emerged from the kitchen carrying a tray of pastries alongside two glasses of water.

Gu Ci looked at the pastries, then at the water, remaining entirely motionless. Even without Tan Xin’s cheat-code perspective, her years of dealing with these two told her that whatever was on that tray was dirty.

Even if outright murder was a stupid move, desperate people do desperate things. If they were truly backed into a corner and wanted to kill her to inherit her estate before going bankrupt, she was currently a fish on a chopping board, entirely at their mercy.

It’s almost certainly spiked, Gu Ci thought.

Gu Ci’s tense silence didn’t escape Tan Xin. A sharp pang of sympathy pricked at Tan Xin’s heart. To have your own biological father plotting against your life, enduring the sting of family betrayal while trying to figure out an escape route must be so incredibly cruel.

Deciding to take the bullet, Tan Xin lunged forward, snatched a pastry, and stuffed it straight into her mouth.

“Thank you, Uncle, Auntie! I happen to be starving!”

Turning around, she met Gu Ci’s utterly bewildered stare. Tan Xin gave her a bright, dazzling smile, saying cheerfully, “What are you looking at me for? Weren’t you the one saying you weren’t hungry? I’ll just eat your portion for you too.”

With that, she grabbed Gu Ci’s share, jammed it into her mouth, and swallowed it down in a few quick bites.

Cold sweat began to break out across Xu Qiuxin’s forehead. Forcing a stiff, wooden laugh, she pushed the tray forward. “Tan Xin, you’re choking it down so fast. Here, have some water.”

She nudged the glasses closer. “Xiao Ci, you should have some water too. It’s honey water, good for washing down the sweetness.”

Tan Xin’s mind spun at hyper-speed. Everything she had read yesterday covered how to bicker with nosy relatives, but nobody had written a guide on how to escape a literal death trap.

She was entirely on her own.

She desperately needed a win-win solution—something that would protect both herself and Gu Ci.

Suddenly, a spark of inspiration struck. “Auntie,” she chimed in, “could you do me a favor and mix another glass?”

Xu Qiuxin blinked, caught completely off guard. “What for?”

Tan Xin offered a sweet, innocent smile. “Oh, because Gu Ci’s assistant has been waiting for us in the car this whole time. He’s probably parched too. It was quite a grueling drive getting us here so early in the morning, so we might as well call him inside.”

Xu Qiuxin instantly bolted her gaze to Gu Peisheng.

How on earth did they forget about Gu Ci’s assistant?

Panicking, Xu Qiuxin slammed the tray down onto the coffee table. “Yes, of course we should call him in! I’ll go get him.”

Gu Peisheng raised a hand to stop her. “No, let me handle it. You go mix another glass of honey water.”

With that, the two villains split up to execute their tasks—one heading to the kitchen, the other to the driveway.

The exact millisecond their heels cleared the living room doors, Tan Xin moved with lightning-fast reflexes. She snatched up both glasses of water and dumped them straight onto the couch.

It was a fabric sofa, so the liquid soaked right in, leaving a glaring wet patch. Fortunately, the couch was piled high with a chaotic assortment of Turkish-patterned throw pillows that Gu Gu had bought to show off. With a few quick adjustments, the pillows covered the stains completely.

Clack.

She deftly snapped the empty glasses back onto the tray, spun around, and hissed to a thoroughly dumbfounded Gu Ci:

“Lick your lips!”

“Huh?” Gu Ci muttered, her brain struggling to process the sheer volume of sudden plot twists.

“Lick them!” Tan Xin urged under her breath. To demonstrate, she swept her tongue across her own lips. The soft, pale-pink flesh immediately took on a slick, glistening sheen, making it look as though she had just taken a long drink.

Forcefully flushing any sudden, inappropriate thoughts from her mind, Gu Ci copied her action and licked her lips damp.

A moment later, Julie walked in, entirely oblivious to the danger. He happily gulped down the fresh glass of spiked honey water, and within a few short minutes, all three of them collapsed onto the furniture, completely out cold.

Xu Qiuxin instantly panicked, clutching tightly at Gu Peisheng’s arm.

“Husband, what do we do now?”

Gu Peisheng stared down at the unresponsive Gu Ci, a terrifyingly sinister glint flashing in his eyes.

“What do we do? Call the bodyguards over. Have them carry these three into Gu Ci’s car, and drive up the mountain.”

Xu Qiuxin swallowed hard, totally lost. “Up the mountain for what? To bury them?”

Gu Peisheng glared at her, utterly exasperated by her stupidity. “Bury them? Gu Ci has her own vehicle! We just need someone to rig the accelerator, drive it off the cliffside, and make it look like a tragic accident. Once Gu Ci is dead, her company, her hospital—everything becomes mine.”

Listening from her spot on the couch, Tan Xin was practically vibrating with pure rage. Even a vicious tiger won’t eat its own cubs! This decrepit, vile old bastard Gu Peisheng was actually willing to murder his own biological daughter for cash. It was sickening!

As she cursed him brutally in her head, her fingers twitched in an involuntary, reflexive spasm of anger.

“Ah!”

Xu Qiuxin let out a terrified shriek.

“Husband! I—I think I just saw her hand move!”