The living room was quiet at this point. The Jiang family’s servants, seeing the scene, had long since withdrawn. Father Jiang stared at his son kneeling before him, silent for a long while.
After who knows how long, Father Jiang finally let out a deep sigh and said helplessly, ”How about this—if you can win that plot of land in Jiangbei on your own merits, your mother and I will no longer oppose you two.”
Jiang Hao had always been an easy child to raise—excellent at his studies and obedient, always the ”other family’s kid” that people talked about. Now, for the sake of an ordinary girl, he had run away from home and was fighting against his own family. Father Jiang had only this one son; no matter how unruly he was, what could he do about it? He was an adult now—it was time he took on his own responsibilities.
“Thank you, Dad. Don’t worry, I will definitely win this project. I’ll go to the company tomorrow to take it over.” Hearing his father relent, Jiang Hao finally breathed a sigh of relief and spoke with a smile. As for whether he could win the project, he wasn’t worried at all. Jiang Corporation had already cultivated the necessary connections—they could simply be put to use again.
Mother Jiang stood up, helped Jiang Hao to his feet, and brushed off his trousers, saying with affection, “You’ve lost weight lately. I had the kitchen make lots of your favorite dishes—eat more in a bit. Why don’t you move back home? Every day you were away, I worried about you.”
“Mom, I’m doing fine, no need to worry about me. My current place is close to school. I’ll move back home after I finish the college entrance exams. I’ll come back on weekends to have meals with you, okay?” Jiang Hao said with a grin as he walked arm in arm with Mother Jiang toward the dining room.
“Fine. But you can’t be living with that woman,” Mother Jiang said.
“Okay, okay, I know,” Jiang Hao replied perfunctorily. It was true he wasn’t living with Li Qiuman anyway—they just met at the apartment every day.
After dinner was over, Jiang Hao’s bank card was unfrozen, and he couldn’t wait to drive one of the sports cars out of the garage, inviting Li Qiuman out to go shopping and watch a movie. These past few months living an ordinary life, pinching pennies and budgeting everything, had long been unbearable for him—no money to buy what he wanted. He had never suffered like this in his life.
At that moment, Gu You and Ning Ning were also shopping at the mall. They entered a niche light-luxury women’s clothing boutique. After browsing around, Gu You took a fancy to a black dress and went into the fitting room to try it on. Ning Ning continued browsing.
When Gu You came out after trying on the dress, she saw Ning Ning in an argument with the male and female leads, and hurried over.
“Ning Ning, what’s going on?”
The three arguing people looked up at Gu You. She was wearing a black slip dress that made her skin look even more fair and smooth, and her faint smile made her stunningly, bewitchingly beautiful. Her dark eyes shimmered with a seductive luster as she swept her gaze over everyone present.
“Youyou, Jiang Hao and this woman are bullying me. I picked up this dress to look at it first, but she insists she saw it first. This dress is a limited edition—this is the only one.” Ning Ning was furious. She had never seen such a shameless woman, grabbing at everything.
Jiang Hao stepped in front of Li Qiuman in a protective stance, refusing to back down. “Ning Ning hasn’t paid for it. Only once it’s paid for does the dress belong to her. So if I say we want it and we want to buy it, what’s wrong with that?”
“Heh.” Gu You picked up the garment and applied slight pressure with both hands—the clothes tore into several pieces. She handed the ruined clothes and the bank card to the sales assistant, saying, “This one and the one I’m wearing—ring them both up together.”
The sales assistant hurried off to the register with the clothes and the card. The feud between the eldest daughter of the Lin family and the eldest young master of the Jiang family was not something she dared get involved in—offending either side could cost her her job.
Ning Ning clapped and cheered nearby, the displeasure on her face vanishing completely. Gu You was simply too badass. Right—why bother reasoning with someone like that? She should have just thrown a punch from the start.
But Li Qiuman and Jiang Hao were nearly driven mad with anger. Li Qiuman stepped out from behind Jiang Hao and pointed at Gu You. “Lin Youyou, this is going too far!”
“Youyou, I know you resent me over the broken engagement. But please don’t take it out on Manman.” He narrowed his eyes, his gaze bottomless black.
Gu You crossed her arms over her chest and said disdainfully, “Yes, I’m going too far. Yes, I’m targeting her. What are you going to do about it?”
Whether it came to an open confrontation or something underhanded, she wasn’t afraid—her sister had practiced Chinese martial arts for over a decade. Though this body could only perform at seventy or eighty percent of that level, it was more than enough to deal with them.
Jiang Hao’s face darkened as he seemed to forcibly suppress his rage. But he said nothing more, taking Li Qiuman and leaving. Toward such an unreasonable, insolent woman, he couldn’t be bothered to waste another word. Just wait—once Mrs. Lin’s company collapsed, let’s see how this eldest daughter of the Lin family carried on with her arrogance then.
Only after they left did Gu You go to the fitting room to change back into her own clothes. Ning Ning followed behind her, going on and on about how satisfying her little performance had been.
Meanwhile, Gu You was thinking to herself: Jiang Hao has money to go shopping now, and Li Qiuman is wearing designer clothes too. Could it be that the Jiang family has already accepted her?
At that moment, Xiao 8 spoke up. [The Jiang family hasn’t accepted the female lead yet. It’s just that Father Jiang gave Jiang Hao a project—if Jiang Hao can land it, the Jiang family will no longer oppose the two of them being together.]
[I see. Xiao 8, do you think I should go stir things up a bit?] Gu You said to Xiao 8.
[Yes, yes! Let’s go steal his project right out from under him!] Xiao 8 said.
[In the original Plotline, it was the Original Host whose reputation was ruined, while the female lead used her admission to a prestigious university to win the male lead’s parents’ approval. If the male lead’s parents keep refusing to let the female lead into the Jiang family now, what will she do next? I’m actually looking forward to finding out.] Gu You said to Xiao 8 in her mind.