After getting out of the car, Jiang Shanhuan obediently linked her arm through Jiang Zhaoting's.
"Brother, don't you think we're totally badass?" Jiang Shanhuan raised her proud head, looking truly like a princess descended to the mortal realm.
Jiang Zhaoting glanced at her sideways without a word, leading her toward the banquet hall.
He didn't speak, but Jiang Shanhuan didn't mind. Instead, she chattered on to herself, "Brother, I really think this outfit looks great on me today."
"What if someone takes a fancy to me and pursues me?"
"I've never been in a relationship before—what if I get scammed and lose everything?"
Something in her words must have hit Jiang Zhaoting's funny bone, because he suddenly laughed. "You've never been in a relationship, but you do have experience being a simp."
Jiang Shanhuan: "…" She wasn't a simp—the original body's owner was!
"Big Brother, stop always ragging on me."
"Mom said you have to take good care of me."
"If you keep digging up my embarrassing past, I'll tattle to Mom."
"Tattle?" Jiang Zhaoting said coldly, the implication in his eyes unmistakable.
Jiang Shanhuan immediately turned into a little quail.
Come to think of it, her skeletons in the closet were bigger.
"Hahaha—just kidding, just kidding."
As they spoke, they had already reached the entrance of the banquet hall. When the waiter opened the door, Jiang Zhaoting turned his head and instructed Jiang Shanhuan: "You're the star tonight. Don't rush over to Tao Zhuolin's side the moment you walk in—it's beneath you."
Jiang Shanhuan nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, holding up three fingers. "Big Brother, I swear, I'll stick by your side the whole time and never leave your side."
After all, staying by Big Brother's side helped elevate her status.
The moment the doors opened, everyone in the hall turned their gazes toward them.
This was Jiang Shanhuan's first time attending such a banquet, and she found it quite novel. "Wow~ Big Brother, is this what it feels like to be the center of attention?" She leaned close to Jiang Zhaoting and whispered.
How wonderful.
This felt different from standing at the top in her previous life.
In her previous life, the looks those people gave her were mostly fear and awe.
But now, these people's gazes were mostly probing, curious—and even mocking.
Jiang Zhaoting had no idea who had raised her to be so utterly lacking in worldly experience. He was rather speechless. "Talk less. Stay by my side. I'll take you to greet a few elders."
"I'll listen to Big Brother."
As the star of the evening, Jiang Shanhuan was the focus of the entire banquet.
Every topic in the hall revolved around her.
As she passed by people, Jiang Shanhuan overheard them saying: "What kind of magic does this Jiang Shanhuan have? She screwed up the Jiang family's deal, and they still acknowledge her."
Jiang Shanhuan couldn't help but pout. Hmph, that's right—they still acknowledge me.
"She's just an adopted daughter. Is she really this favored?"
Sour grapes—what a pickle.
"Adopted daughter? Would an adopted daughter be this favored? Maybe she's Tong Wanqiu's or Jiang Enhua's illegitimate daughter from an affair."
Yikes—! Surely not, Jiang Shanhuan's heart skipped a beat.
"They say she's adopted, but it's just a cover-up."
"After all, the Jiang family has always enjoyed a spotless reputation. If word got out about an illegitimate child, the losses would be enormous."
The voices around them grew louder. Jiang Shanhuan tugged at Jiang Zhaoting's sleeve. "Brother, I really am adopted, right?"
Jiang Zhaoting speechlessly pushed her forehead. "With your IQ, if you weren't adopted, Mom and Dad would have taken you for a paternity test."
"Big Brother…" Jiang Shanhuan glared at Jiang Zhaoting furiously.
Jiang Zhaoting: "Alright, why listen to all that sour talk?"
"True. They're just jealous of me."
Now Jiang Shanhuan could finally straighten her back—she was an adopted daughter, not an illegitimate one!
Jiang Zhaoting continued taking Jiang Shanhuan around to greet people. Since she now had the persona of someone with amnesia, she didn't recognize anyone present, and no one dared say anything about her.
Jiang Shanhuan quite liked this persona of hers, because it meant everything could start over.
This time, she was determined to overturn everyone's opinion of her and reclaim everything that belonged to her.
But as she moved through the venue, she kept feeling a gaze following her like a shadow—no, two gazes.
"Brother, I think I'm being watched." Jiang Shanhuan raised her champagne and spoke softly, tilting her chin toward a corner of the venue. "Tao Zhuolin keeps staring at me."
Jiang Zhaoting: "So you want to go over and say hello?"
"No way. He's too ugly. I'm afraid he'll taint my eyes." Jiang Shanhuan shook her head firmly. "Brother, go chase him off."
"You sure?"
"Sure. He's so ugly I've lost my appetite."
Just as Jiang Shanhuan finished speaking, before Jiang Zhaoting could say anything, the two of them saw Tao Zhuolin in the distance crook his finger at them, wearing an expression of certain victory.
"Brother, he's beckoning you." Jiang Shanhuan struck first.
Jiang Zhaoting's lips barely moved: "Heh."
Then he ruthlessly turned around and went to talk to an elder.
Jiang Shanhuan turned a step behind him, and out of the corner of her eye she just caught Tao Zhuolin's slightly narrowed eyes and his figure slowly walking toward them.
"Brother, how can you be so unkind, turning around without calling me—it makes us look like we have no chemistry at all."
"Tao Zhuolin is coming over. Brother, protect me." She said this while edging closer to Jiang Zhaoting.
Before Jiang Zhaoting could speak, a man's voice came from behind them. "Xiaohuan, why aren't you wearing the dress I bought you today?"
The man's words stirred up a thousand waves. Everyone turned their gazes toward them. Everyone present knew that the former Jiang Shanhuan had been Tao Zhuolin's number one simp.
Their stares made Jiang Shanhuan inexplicably furious.
This little nobody was absolutely doing this on purpose to cause her trouble.
Since you've come to me on your own, I don't need to hold back.
"Because my brother said that dress was too cheap and didn't suit my class."
"Only something like what I'm wearing—top-tier luxury private custom, a master's final work—deserves to appear in my wardrobe."
After Jiang Shanhuan finished speaking, she winked at Jiang Zhaoting.
Jiang Zhaoting understood, and the corner of his mouth curved downward. "Not just any rag can enter the Jiang family's doors."
The people around them were struggling hard to hold back their laughter. Tao Zhuolin's expression immediately turned cold.
"Xiaohuan, come here."
This commanding tone was everywhere in the original body's chat records with him.
Jiang Shanhuan clenched her fists, already on the verge of exploding.
But Tao Zhuolin hadn't realized it yet and continued, "I'll take you to apologize to Mr. Ethan."
The moment Tao Zhuolin said this, Jiang Shanhuan's fists immediately relaxed. "Go apologize?"
"Mr. Ethan is very angry right now." Tao Zhuolin walked to Jiang Shanhuan's side and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear. "He said if you don't go apologize to him, my collaboration with him is off."
Jiang Shanhuan was delighted—absolutely delighted.
This nobody not only had no ability, he even wanted to sell out a woman to climb the ladder.
Jiang Shanhuan squinted and smiled. "Alright, I'll go with you."
The two of them headed toward the other side of the venue as they spoke. Jiang Shanhuan left with Tao Zhuolin without hesitation, and no one showed the slightest surprise.
Jiang Zhaoting was not overly surprised either, as if he had long anticipated it.
Suddenly, the phone inside his suit jacket vibrated.
It was a message.
From Jiang Shanhuan: "Bro, I'm off to snag a partnership for our family. Wait for my good news—open a nice bottle of wine and cheer for me."