Chapter 2: Visitors
"Hey, Rourou, what are you still looking at?" The little nurse who had come to call Xiao Rou over waved her hand before Tang Xi's eyes and urged, "Hurry up, they're waiting for you. It took me a long time to find you. Stop looking at Mr. Qiao. If you really want to look at him, you can watch him on television!"
Recovering from her trance, Tang Xi found that Aunt Qiao was looking at her with strange eyes. She grinned embarrassedly and said, "Aunt Qiao, your son is so handsome!" She then held onto the little nurse's hand and ran away.
Qiao Liang walked to his mother. Spotting Tang Xi who had just run away, he frowned. He then crouched down, covered his mother's legs with a blanket and asked her softly, "Do you feel better?"
Aunt Qiao smiled, held Qiao Liang's hand and nodded. She said, "You don't have to come here if you are busy. I will be out of the hospital soon."
"This time, I…" Qiao Liang suddenly fell silent before saying, "I will stay here with you for two days, and then I'll go to Country M."
"On business again?" Aunt Qiao frowned. "Didn't you just come back from a month-long business trip? Why are you going on a business trip again?"
"I have something to attend to." Qiao Liang stopped talking, clearly unwilling to continue this topic.
Seeing that, Aunt Qiao knew that she wouldn't get the answer she wanted even if she continued to ask him, so she changed the topic. "I was going to get some air by the lake with Rourou. Can you take me there?"
"Okay."
Tang Xi dragged the little nurse along and ran towards the hospital building. As she ran, she asked the little nurse, "Who came to see me?"
"A beautiful lady," the little nurse answered.
Tang Xi frowned. "Anyone else?"
"And a pretty girl."
Tang Xi had a vague idea of who they were, so she was not in a hurry. She slowed down her pace and chatted casually with the nurse, "What did you have for lunch today?"
"Stewed beef in the canteen…"
"Oh, you had stewed beef to eat! I didn't!"
Tang Xi sauntered over to the ward and said goodbye to the little nurse before pushing the door open. As soon as she entered the room, a torrent of abuse flew towards her. "Why are you running around? Don't you know you're a patient?! You're just embarrassing me! Can't you just behave yourself? We were waiting so long for you! Do you know that I could have even signed a contract during this time?!"
The person who was cursing her was Lin Ru, Xiao Rou's mother and a successful career woman.
Lin Ru used to be an ace agent of Shengda Entertainment Corporation before she married to Xiao Hongyi, president of Shengda Entertainment's parent company—Xiao's Group—and gave birth to a daughter and a son. Now she had become the general manager of Shengda Entertainment.
Perhaps because she was a successful businesswoman, she measured everything with money, even including her family. Xiao Jinning was an A-lister in the entertainment circle, while Xiao Rou was just an ugly duckling who was brought up in the countryside, so it was a simple choice for her to choose between Xiao Jinning and Xiao Rou.
"Didn't you hear me?!" Lin Ru glared at Xiao Rou and was about to scold her again, but then she suddenly paused. She hadn't seen Xiao Rou for a month and her skin had improved a lot.
In fact, she had found out that she had mistaken someone else's child for her own from the very beginning, so she had felt guilty towards her own daughter and tried her best to find her. When she had finally found her, however, the result had been greatly disappointing. How she had wished that this ugly, rustic and timid girl was not her child! But DNA identification wouldn't lie…
"Yes," Tang Xi replied with a deadpan expression. "Didn't you say I'm not allowed to cut in while you're talking? I just let you finish."
With that, Tang Xi took a glance at Xiao Jinning who was standing behind Lin Ru and triumphantly sneering at her, went straight to her sickbed, sat down and said coldly, "I'm sorry. There is nothing in my ward except this sickbed, so you'll have to stand."
Lin Ru looked back at the girl sitting on the sickbed in surprise. Was this her daughter who was as timid as a mouse and looked as if she was trying to find a hole to hide in whenever they met? Was this the girl who she didn't want to see at all?
Xiao Jinning frowned, but soon eased her brows. She hadn't expected that after just a month, Xiao Rou had greatly improved her skin and grown equally bolder!
"Rourou, how can you speak to Mother like this? Mother is concerned about you. She was just too worried about you when couldn't find you in the ward, so her tone was a little strong. But you really shouldn't talk to her like that." Xiao Jinning looked kindly at Xiao Rou and smiled, saying, "And Mother specially came here to take you home."
It seemed like she was explaining for Lin Ru, but if others were to hear her words, they would only feel Tang Xi to be very ignorant and rude.
"Home?" Tang Xi chuckled, a cold gleam in her eyes. She looked up at Lin Ru and raised her brows. "If my memory serves me right, I remember I was kicked out of the Xiao Family by Ms. Lin a month ago."
"Don't you know why I kicked you out?" When Lin Ru heard her words, the last bit of tenderness in her heart disappeared. She cast a cold glance at Tang Xi and said, "Xiao Rou, my daughter would never be a thief! You stole from Jinning. You should be ashamed!"
"Haha." Tang Xi sneered and suddenly turned her eyes to Xiao Jinning.
Xiao Jinning felt slightly guilty under her stare, so she hastily said, "Mother, maybe I accidentally left that thing in Rourou's room. Please don't blame her. She is still a patient."
Lin Ru finally stopped upon hearing this, but she still glared at Tang Xi. Tang Xi glared back and said coldly, "Ms. Lin, since you've seen me, you can go now. I am a bit tired and need rest."
"Xiao Rou, can't you understand what I'm talking about?!" Seeing that Tang Xi wasn't taking her seriously, Lin Ru became furious. She rushed up and reached out her hand to slap Tang Xi.
It was at this moment that Tang Xi caught her hand and coldly warned, "Ms. Lin. Sorry, but I have no relationship with you now. You can't beat me. Otherwise, I'll sue you for intentional assault."
"I'm your mother!" Lin Ru struggled and tried to free her hand from Tang Xi's, only to find that she couldn't shake off Tang Xi's hand. She angrily growled, "You ungrateful girl, let go of my hand!"
Releasing her as she asked, Tang Xi said unconcernedly, "I remember Ms. Lin said that I had nothing to do with you, so I don't think you are my 'mother'."
Lin Ru clenched her hands. She did say that, but that was because she was too angry and disappointed at that time. It had never occurred to her that her daughter who looked like an ugly and stunted beggar was so disappointing, even stealing Jinning's necklace. Such a person was not worthy to be her daughter, so she had driven her out in a rage, telling her she didn't have any relationship with her and forbidding her from calling her Mother. However, she didn't expect that she would disappear after that and have an accident…
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone