Only Jiang Shanhuan and Jiang Zhaoting remained in the hospital room.
Jiang Shanhuan's gaze was unfocused; she didn't dare meet Jiang Zhaoting's eyes.
Should she say something now? Should she beg for mercy first, or keep pretending to have amnesia to the very end?
Or just run away?
But she had only just arrived—where could she even go?
Better to beg for mercy first. Perhaps, considering their decade-plus of sibling bonds, Brother Jiang might spare her.
But… those ten-plus years as siblings—there had been no sibling affection at all.
Only mutual hostility, a hatred so deep they wished they could dig up each other's ancestral graves.
Jiang Shanhuan ranted inwardly while secretly observing Jiang Zhaoting's expression.
She thought she was being subtle, but to Jiang Zhaoting, it was all just clumsy provocation.
"This is the last time I tolerate you. From now on, if you dare do anything out of line again, I will expose you to Mom and Dad. When that happens, no matter how much they dote on you, I will not hold back anymore."
"Watch yourself."
With that, Jiang Zhaoting stood up, ready to leave.
As he reached the bedside, Jiang Shanhuan, quick as a flash, grabbed his arm.
The force was so great it yanked him off balance.
Jiang Zhaoting's expression darkened, his gaze sweeping coldly across Jiang Shanhuan's face.
Jiang Shanhuan sheepishly withdrew her hand, put on a big smile, then thought better of it and lowered her humble head. "Brother~ I'm sorry."
"I may not remember many things, but I know I must have done a lot of bad things before. But now I've turned over a new leaf and become a new person."
Truly a new person.
"I promise from now on I'll only spend money and not cause trouble. I'll reform myself completely, cut all ties with the old me, and be a cute little sister to my brothers and sister, and a loving little padded jacket to Mom and Dad."
Jiang Shanhuan rattled on and on, but Jiang Zhaoting remained silent, his gaze fixed on her face.
That face was too pure and flawless—no one would associate it with the word "scheming."
Yet it was precisely such a seemingly harmless face that could do those things.
Framing and slandering, betraying family for outsiders, selling company secrets—coaxing Mom and Dad into happiness while ruthlessly striking at the three siblings.
Hypocritical, two-faced, an ungrateful wolf that could never be tamed—disgusting.
But today, she had actually apologized and admitted fault.
"Hmph." Jiang Zhaoting sneered, his tone dripping with mockery. "Changed your persona again?"
"Mm~" Jiang Shanhuan blinked her watery eyes at Jiang Zhaoting. "This is the real me—a sincere, adorable, pure and flawless… mm, law-abiding citizen."
Jiang Zhaoting neither confirmed nor denied, but clearly he didn't believe her.
Jiang Shanhuan pressed her lips together, indicating understanding.
After all, the original owner of this body did have a notorious record, nearly getting the three Jiang siblings killed several times.
As the current head of Jiangshi Group, if Jiang Zhaoting really believed her so easily, how would the Jiang family survive in high society?
"Brother, I've bared my heart. You can go now."
Go quickly, go quickly—if you don't leave soon, I won't be able to keep up the act, Jiang Shanhuan screamed inwardly.
Jiang Zhaoting looked down at the top of her head, then turned and walked toward the door.
The moment he opened the door, Jiang Shanhuan heard him say: "I'll come pick you up tomorrow to discharge you and go home."
"Go home?" Jiang Shanhuan jerked her head up. "I can still go home?"
Jiang Zhaoting looked up. "What, should I get you an annual membership at the hospital?"
"Huh…? Hahaha, no, of course not." Jiang Shanhuan pretended not to understand the mockery in Jiang Zhaoting's tone, and instead looked at him ingratiatingly. "Home. We're family. Of course I'm going home."
Seeing her sycophantic manner, Jiang Zhaoting only felt that she was deeply scheming.
He figured that once she got home, she'd be up to her old tricks again, playing dumb and acting out with all her might.
After Jiang Zhaoting left, Jiang Shanhuan sighed endlessly in her hospital room. Even after everything she'd done, the Jiang family still wanted her. Even toward one's own flesh and blood, it couldn't be more than this.
…
Early the next morning, the people coming to take her home arrived.
It was quite the spectacle—over a dozen black Maybachs parked at the hospital entrance, with dozens of bodyguards lined up in two rows. All that was missing was a red carpet.
Jiang Shanhuan took one look out the hospital room window, quickly tidied herself up, and obediently followed Jiang Zhaoting, who had come to pick her up, into the car.
In the car, Jiang Shanhuan's curiosity exploded, and she couldn't help but ask, "Big Brother, why pick me up from the hospital in such a flashy way?"
Jiang Zhaoting: "Mom arranged it."
Jiang Shanhuan pondered for a moment. "Then why did Mom use such a flashy way to pick me up from the hospital?"
Jiang Zhaoting had been reading financial news. Hearing this, he glanced sideways at Jiang Shanhuan. "Perhaps because Mom thought you like big spectacles."
She liked them?
Jiang Shanhuan nearly choked, almost rolling her eyes.
Jiang Shanhuan's expression looked somewhat humiliated, while the other party's tone carried a hint of mockery.
Very good. Now the first pit the original body had dug—she had died in it peacefully.
"What, you don't think it's good?" Jiang Zhaoting asked.
Jiang Shanhuan quickly waved her hands. "How could I? I'm just so excited I don't know what to say, hehe…"
Insincere.
How could Jiang Zhaoting not see through it? "Even if you feel humiliated, you'll have to endure it. Otherwise, don't even think about mixing in high society circles in the future."
"Huh?" Jiang Shanhuan didn't understand. "So what's the connection between the two?"
Jiang Shanhuan used to run around in war zones. There, everything was decided by firepower and force—there was no such convoluted nonsense.
Jiang Zhaoting looked at Jiang Shanhuan with a strange expression, as if puzzled as to why she couldn't even understand something so simple.
Did the car accident knock her IQ backward too?
Should he book her a brain CT?
Jiang Zhaoting's expression was too blatant. Jiang Shanhuan saw through what he was thinking at a glance. "Oh, Big Brother, don't look at me like that."
"My head just isn't quite clear yet. I need Big Brother to help me analyze it."
Jiang Zhaoting sighed and slowly spoke. "You slapped Ethan, the Asia-Pacific president of the Gordon Group from Country M, so hard he saw stars. The other party has ties with the International Mercenary Organization—"
"Cough cough cough…" Jiang Shanhuan choked on a mouthful of water she hadn't swallowed, coughing so hard she saw stars. "International Mercenary Organization?"
Isn't that her old stomping ground?
What a coincidence.
The name Ethan also sounded very familiar.
Jiang Zhaoting was speechless, but couldn't help sizing up Jiang Shanhuan. He kept feeling that ever since she woke up, she seemed like a completely different person.
But he interpreted Jiang Shanhuan's sudden loss of composure as being frightened.
"Now you know you've provoked someone you shouldn't have?"
Jiang Zhaoting mocked her.
"This person is vindictive and has countless ties to the International Mercenary Organization. He's already put out the word that he absolutely won't let this matter go, and that once you wake up, he'll make you pay."
Quite the martial artist, not taking advantage of someone in a vulnerable position.
"Mom was afraid you'd be retaliated against, so she used this high-profile method to tell everyone that you're still the Jiang family's second young lady, and that anyone who touches you makes an enemy of the Jiang family."
So today wasn't about making her stand out—it was about protecting her.
Jiang Shanhuan's heart felt as if something had stirred it.
It was a feeling she had never experienced in her past life.
"That Asia-Pacific president is called Ethan?" Jiang Shanhuan couldn't help but confirm.
Jiang Zhaoting nodded.
"Has a tuft of white hair on top of his head?"
Jiang Zhaoting: "He had a tuft of white hair before you beat him up."
Jiang Shanhuan pursed her lips, remembering now. Tsk, isn't this an old acquaintance?