章 11: Last Day of the Holiday

"My dear Ms Qiaoqiao, how much longer are you intending to bum my guest room off me?"

"…I'm going on set tomorrow. You know this, I've told you about a million times in the past couple of days."

After that eventful night at Club Apex, Su Qiao had done a 180-degree turn, becoming a hermit in Yao Xun's home as she spent the rest of the week loafing around on that couch, which was now a new favourite. She considered buying one herself for the new apartment that she had in the works.

It might be unusual that a wealthy young heiress like her didn't have a place to call her own. But this was because before this older soul of hers had woken up in its younger body, that younger, naive version of her had let her father handle all her assets. After all, she was a princess, and princesses didn't have to be financially savvy right? They just had to be pampered and doted upon by their loving royal fathers.

Wrong.

Su Qiao had been careless last time, not recognising that beneath her father's loving disguise had been a cunning, manipulative man who had schemed after the wealth of her mother's family while secretly resenting her for coming in between him and the love of his life.

And Su Qiao had borne the brunt of this petty, undeserving resentment in the end.

Because Su Yongshen had been reluctant to gift Su Qiao any real property, all the mansions and apartments that he had gifted to her in the past had still been under his name. As his daughter, she had 'permission' to use them and had done so enthusiastically, even kissing him on the cheek as enthusiastic thanks.

But once he'd kicked her out of the Su Family, it was like the clock had struck midnight and suddenly she'd been left with nothing but a pumpkin and some mice. Just like Cinderella, except she wasn't even worth that much, was just the wicked stepsister to Bai Meixin's female lead.

This time around, Su Qiao was going to plan ahead. She only had one apartment that was fully in her name and it had been a gift to her by her mother. It hurt to sell it, she wasn't going to lie, but sentimentality was dangerous. Su Yongshen knew the address of this apartment and Su Qiao couldn't say whether Bai Lixian and her sweet little lotus-flavoured daughter was aware of it too. But Su Qiao's attachment to the place was a weakness in her past life. Her enemies had taken advantage of this memento she'd kept of her mother and used it against her.

"Qiaooo…"

She sighed and shut the script she was reading. "What? Why're you so eager to get rid of me suddenly?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "Is my presence threatening Young Master Yao's new squeeze?"

He gave her a megawatt grin and flopped onto the carpeting with a happy sigh, now that she wasn't ignoring him anymore. "Nope," he promised. "But I can't tell if you're moping or not and I want you to get back on your feet if you are, even if I have to steel my soft bleeding heart and kick you out myself."

A wave of fondness for him washed over her. She wouldn't forget Yao Xun helping her out of a couple of tight spots last time too, even offering her refuge as he did now until something cropped up with his family and she lost contact with him.

She still didn't know what had happened to him but if she had a chance this time around, she would try her best to help him.

"Don't worry," she murmured. "I'm really going on set tomorrow, it's not an excuse. And I'm sorting things out." She told him about the new apartment she was planning to get after her current one was sold off. She wouldn't need a place to stay for a while since she was going to be travelling with the film crew for a couple of months at least. But after that, she would be free to furnish it however she liked.

"As long as you're okay." Yao Xun sat up. "Has Lin Zizhou tried contacting you?" She'd told him all about returning the ring and it had reduced Yao Xun from hot male god to gossiping auntie at the fish market. It wasn't an attractive look but he wasn't her boyfriend so she supposed it was fine.

"Yes, actually." She waved her phone screen at him, a taunting smile spreading on her lips as she thought about the missed calls from all these unknown numbers that had to be her family and Lin Zizhou. Oh. And her manager, of course, who was still trying to hunt her down, but for some reason, she hadn't received angry notifications from the higher-ups telling her to stop acting up or risk being fired.

Interesting.

"What did he say, hurry, I wanna know, you're the first person who managed to one-up this arrogant bastard, I'm almost considering popping my 2018 Millemann Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru to celebrate this achievement."

"…or you could just go watch a dog-blood drama."

"What for? I'm waiting for your newest one to finish filming."

Rolling her eyes, Su Qiao unlocked her phone and showed Yao Xun the text conversation from the unknown number that had come in just yesterday.

+XX XXX XXX XXX XXX:

18/09/2021 10:51 am

This is Zizhou

Su Qiao, you've had a whole week to stop being childish

You've inconvenienced everyone and jeopardised the relationship between our families

18/09/2021 04:44 pm

Do you have nothing to say for yourself?

If you come back now, we can negotiate the engagement arrangements

18/09/2021 10:03 pm

Fine.

Don't regret it.

Yao Xun chortled. "Regret it? Wah, our Young Master Lin here really thinks he's the hottest commodity in town."

Su Qiao made a rude noise. It was distinctly unladylike and she loved it enough to repeat it, taking delight in being able to behave comfortably in her own skin.

"Him?" she muttered. "There's a long list of people in front of him, like Zhou Ye, Wang Xiao, and well, you I suppose."

"…why, thank you for your vote of confidence."

She patted his cheek. "You're welcome." She pointedly didn't mention Lin Zixun's name. She hadn't told Yao Xun about her curious encounter with Lin Zixun either and wasn't sure she wanted to. Knowing Yao Xun, he would either waggle his eyebrows and tell her to flirt with the older brother to get back at the younger, or he would burst into a melodramatic fit and warn her against rebound romances.

She didn't want to handle that much noise on her last day of vacation. And she most definitely didn't want to consider having a fling of any kind with Lin Zixun. Something told her that he was even more trouble than his brother was and her default stance on him, for now, was for the 'well water not to intrude on the waters of the river'. She would mind her own business and hopefully, he would mind his own. But if he tried to take revenge for his brother…

"Did Young Master Yao want something else from this hapless poor girl today?" she asked. Now that Yao Xun had reminded her that she was leaving for work tomorrow, she suddenly realised that she had a lot of packing to do.

Yao Xun blinked at her in confusion. "Why are you suddenly talking like that?"

"Because I'm trying to come up with an excuse to toss you out without being too rude."

"…"

After finally chasing the poor owner of the apartment out, Su Qiao shut the door firmly behind her and took stock of what she had. It felt uncomfortable to be living out of a suitcase again. She'd hated the feeling last time and it gave her insecurities now like she was spiralling down inevitably into the same pattern as before.

But it would only be for a couple of months. Then she would be able to lay roots in a new home that belonged solely to herself. With that last comforting thought, she set aside her angst for now and settled her mind on packing away all the beauty products, clothes, and electronics that she would need to have with her. Instead of the whites and pastels, her attire had changed completely to bold statement pieces and dark, daring shades.

Tomorrow, she would walk onto the set of 'Diamond in the Rough' like she owned it. This modern corporate drama that she was about to act in wasn't her best work by a long shot, because she'd been affected by her father's remarriage. But she hadn't been able to tell anyone that this was what was affecting her. And besides, it was undeniable that she had been unprofessional to allow her personal life to get the better of her when on the set.

Although she wasn't the only reason why the drama had flopped, as the female lead, she had carried a huge part of that responsibility on her shoulders. The hype had been too much and fans had been too disappointed, the bad ratings earning her scathing criticism. Haters, especially, had had a field day, calling her a one-trick pony who could only act in period dramas.

'Diamond in the Rough' had been the start of her downfall.

This time around, she was going to use it to climb to greater heights.

クリエイターの想い
Queeniecat

A/N: Thank you very much for reading. I returned home earlier than expected from dealing with a family emergency and managed to finish this chapter today. I'm may be required to help out tomorrow too though and cannot promise that there was be an update. Thank you in advance for understanding.

Special thanks to: novel128 and SmolBabyBun for the power stones/comments and the kind words of support in difficult times. <3

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