The Real Heiress Just Wants to Be a Lazy Fish - Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Changing Medicine

Given Tao Yitong’s personality, she usually wouldn’t miss a chance to be sarcastic, but right now she was unusually silent. She seemed not to have even noticed that Li Xu had left; if Jiang Zitan hadn’t reminded her, she would still be standing like a fool in the company lobby.

After the three protagonists of this disturbance departed, the lobby returned to its usual calm.

Watching the two figures walk away, the receptionist, who had been trying her best to diminish her presence, now had eyes shimmering with the light of gossip.

“My god, the eldest miss was right that Li Xu really is a piece of work. How did he have the face to pursue President Jiang? Did he really take everyone for a fool?”

“But then again, those other young masters of the Jiang family aren’t worthy of President Jiang either. By comparison, I actually think President Jiang and the newly recognized eldest miss look more compatible…”

“Right, right! I think so too!” the other receptionist said excitedly. “They’re both sisters, but I’ve never seen President Jiang be this good to the others. It doesn’t even feel like they’re just sisters…”

“You know how the Chairman wants President Jiang to be his granddaughter-in-law… he never actually specified if she was for a grandson or a granddaughter, did he?”

Tao Yitong stood by the roadside clutching her canvas bag, waiting for the bus, her jaw tight enough to show the shape of her masseter muscles.

Finally, reaching the end of her patience, she turned around and said, “Can you stop following me?”

Behind a thick tree, a corner of a garment had been tucked away, but now a half-body hesitantly and slowly poked out. It was actually Liu Ruomeng.

“I… just let me follow you!”

She frowned and pouted, using every ounce of strength to try and act cute. She clearly had great confidence in her “moe” act. Unfortunately, her makeup had been dried by the wind into streaks of crusty marks. On a road with a howling night wind, hiding half her body behind a tree trunk in total shadow, she looked rather like something out of a horror movie.

Totally unnecessary.

Tao Yitong couldn’t bear to look and closed her eyes for a moment.

“What can you even do by following me? I can’t give you a role.”

“I can’t give you investment either; after all, I’m poor as hell.”

“Sister!” Seeing Tao Yitong about to leave, Liu Ruomeng hurried out from behind the tree and grabbed Yitong’s arm. “Sister, don’t go!”

“In the past, everyone just coddled me and let me do whatever I wanted. No one has ever dared to tell me the truth like you did.”

“You hit me! No one has ever dared to hit me.”

“My god, you hit me, so you must be right. You can’t chase me away even if you hit me!”

Tao Yitong:

Looking at Liu Ruomeng’s determined face, Tao Yitong fell into deep thought—Is this Liu Ruomeng a masochist?

“Then what can you do by following me?” Tao Yitong issued a soul-searching question.

This time it was Liu Ruomeng’s turn to be silent, but only for a second. She immediately stomped her foot and said, “That doesn’t matter, I just have to follow you anyway.”

“I know now that you didn’t steal anyone’s fiancé. It was all a certain person’s obsessive delusions, and it cost me so much!”

“Oh…” Tao Yitong looked at the sky speechlessly. “And how do you know I didn’t steal a fiancé?”

“Isn’t that obvious!” Liu Ruomeng slapped her “smart” head. “If you really had the ability to steal someone’s fiancé, would you be in a position where you can’t even scrounge up a car?”

Tao Yitong:

That’s a low blow!

Liu Ruomeng, never one to read the room, continued to cling on.

“Anyway, I don’t want to go back to the housing the company arranged. I hate those sycophants. I see it clearly now—now that I’ve fallen on hard times, the people who used to praise me to the skies are showing their true colors!” She looked ready to spit on the ground.

Tao Yitong frowned helplessly. “…So where are you going?”

Liu Ruomeng: “Where are you going, Sister?”

“I’m going home, and you should” Before she could finish saying “you should go to your own home,” Tao Yitong felt a heavy weight on her arm. Looking back, she saw Liu Ruomeng clinging to her arm like a koala.

“Your home! That works!” Liu Ruomeng’s eyes lit up. “Then let’s go to your place! I’ve never been to another actress’s house before…”

Tao Yitong felt truly powerless. She shook her arm twice but couldn’t shake her off. The next moment, she moved forward with the added weight, her words leaking through gritted teeth.

“No. You cannot come to my house.”

“Why not? Why not?” Liu Ruomeng hung off her arm, her core strength engaged and her teeth bared.

“It’ll start a scandal.” On Tao Yitong’s fair face, the jaw muscles had never been so prominent.

“Ah?!” Liu Ruomeng: “I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Yes, and neither did I,” Tao Yitong continued walking, struggling to pull out her phone to check the time. Realizing the last bus was likely missed, her mood turned heavy, and the person on her arm felt even heavier. Her tone was very unfriendly: “Then don’t look for trouble.”

Although Tao Yitong had a bit of buzz lately, she was essentially still a “nobody.” Liu Ruomeng was different; she was a well-known actress. Despite her young age, she had many films and variety shows under her belt. Even with the current negative news, she still attracted a lot of attention. The wise move was to keep a distance. She didn’t want to ride anyone’s coattails.

Tao Yitong kept walking and stopped speaking. It was obvious she was in a bad mood.

After hanging on for a long time, Liu Ruomeng finally dropped down. She kept chattering, but didn’t receive a single response. She finally realized Yitong was in a bad mood and wanted to ask, but Yitong was unwilling to acknowledge her.

Just when her throat was dry from talking, she finally asked something Tao Yitong was willing to answer.

“Why are you just walking straight ahead?”

Tao Yitong stared at the flat road ahead, crossing the patches of light illuminated by the streetlamps.

“Because I’m going home.”

Hearing this, Liu Ruomeng was shocked. “Ah? You’re walking back on your own two legs?”

“No.” Tao Yitong sighed. “There’s a bus stop two kilometers ahead. If I walk fast, I might catch the last bus.”

Looking at the back of Tao Yitong’s head, Liu Ruomeng showed an expression of admiration. “Sister, you are really amazing. That dog-crap male assistant of mine checked you out before; he knew you’ve supported your bedridden mother on your own for all these years. Now you’re walking two or three kilometers just to catch a bus home no one else would have such a tenacious will, right?”

Probably because I’m poor…

Once again, Tao Yitong thought of Jiang Zitan’s elegant handwriting—the red annotation: Because of poverty.

Ah… Jiang Zitan.

Thinking of Jiang Zitan again, Tao Yitong felt that sour, stifling sensation in her chest again. So many unclear emotions were churning in her heart, making her dazed for the past few days. It was fine during work, but in her idle moments, memories would flood in from all directions, her heart feeling like a leaky sieve, with gusts of cold wind swirling through her tattered thoughts.

In her own view, she was essentially a piece of tough wild grass, growing tenaciously in adversity—which made her look soft but feel resilient. When in a bad mood, she would snap at people or ignore them.

Except for that one person, of course.

“You talk too much.”

Tao Yitong dropped the sentence and walked ahead without looking back, her words colder than the night wind.

Liu Ruomeng started to lose her breath. “Yitong Sister, good Sister, let’s stop walking, okay? I can’t walk anymore.” She had always been pampered, with cars picking her up and dropping her off. Walking this far on her own legs was her limit.

“Then you go back. I have to go home.” Tao Yitong remained firm.

Gasping for air, Liu Ruomeng rushed forward and grabbed Tao Yitong’s arm. “Sister, are you really going to walk the whole way? You’ll be ruined!”

Tao Yitong: “I won’t be ruined. I walk often.”

“Why won’t you listen? Are you a masochist?!” Liu Ruomeng raised her voice, about to lose her temper, but then she saw the slight furrow on Tao Yitong’s fair face. She immediately gasped and made a “begging puppy” gesture.

“Sister, Sister, let’s not walk. I’ll have my assistant bring the car over. I’ll drive you back, okay?”

“Assistant?” The suspicion in Tao Yitong’s voice was unmistakable. “You still have an assistant?”

Liu Ruomeng pouted. “Sister, that’s hurtful. I still have some authority.” She kept pulling on Yitong’s arm, her other hand waving frantically. “No more walking, I’ll send you. Don’t walk anymore.”

Since Liu Ruomeng had just been tearfully complaining that everyone had abandoned her, one couldn’t blame Tao Yitong for thinking she was in a truly pathetic state.

In less than ten minutes, a car drove up. Liu Ruomeng personally opened the passenger door. With her messy, tear-stained face, she made an incredibly enthusiastic “please” gesture.

“Get in, Sister. I’ll personally send you home.”

The assistant who delivered the car was one of the people who had been peeking earlier. His eyes were blinking as if they had thorns in them. If Liu Ruomeng hadn’t put her hands on her hips and yelled “Stop staring and get lost,” he would still be standing there with a racing imagination. — There is always one thing to subdue another; the ancients did not deceive me.

The vehicle drove off smoothly. In the shadows of the bushes behind the assistant, a long-focus lens poked out. Click-click went the sound of the shutter.

“And you are?” Tao Yitong smelled a faint scent of sandalwood on her.

“My name is Liu. You can call me Auntie Liu. Guo Hanyu sent me to pick you up.” The woman identified herself.

So she’s an old colleague of Grandma’s, Tao Yitong thought, relieved.

Surnamed Liu… she remembered. This should be her grandmother’s former Vice Captain, once a famous genius. However, shortly after, she left the Special Affairs Bureau and returned to Mount Mao, rarely appearing since then. It was said that during the retaliation against the Zhao family, she was the one who acted the most in the shadows, and no one could ever trace it back to her. Her strength likely reached the S-class already.

“Hello.”

The woman gazed at her for a long time, as if seeing the shadow of another person through her.

“You look very much like your grandmother,” she said softly. That noisy fellow Guo Hanyu really wasn’t wrong.

Then, Tao Yitong saw Auntie Liu take a talisman from her robe and throw it out. The talisman turned into a ball of eerie green flame in the air. Tao Yitong saw many twisted ghosts within the flame; if one listened closely, one could hear their screams.

Since she was no longer a member of the Bureau, she wasn’t bound by so many restrictions. That ball of fire, gathered from countless resentful thoughts, burrowed directly into Li Xu’s head. The man’s face turned gray instantly, looking more like a corpse than an actual dead person.

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