Principal Tan was well-connected, and with her car conveniently parked outside, it didn’t take much time to help the “fainted” Ting Wan out and carry her into the vehicle. Getting her to the hospital was even quicker.
On Principal Tan’s instruction, the hospital came up with a mysterious diagnosis for Ting Wan: an illness brought on by extreme anger and excessive worry.
To put it simply, it was a sickness of the heart that had triggered other ailments, requiring her to stay in the hospital for a period of time.
And so, Ting Wan’s brief hospital stay began.
Hospitalization, feigning illness—that was still quite easy.
Especially since Principal Tan, fearing she wouldn’t be able to keep up the act, had arranged a private room for her.
The newspaper reporters were very efficient. The next day, everything that had happened at the banquet was in the papers, and the issue was not suppressed after its release.
Xiao Tang did not order anyone to stop them from publishing. However, given Xiao Tang’s identity and status, the newspaper’s content approached the story from the Su family’s angle. As for the text that alluded to Xiao Tang, the reporters merely stated they were presenting the facts and hadn’t put it in the headlines.
Of course, Xiao Tang’s side didn’t make an issue of it either. No fuss, no response.
But it was also possible that Xiao Tang himself didn’t read the papers at all, or simply didn’t care about the matter.
The one who cared most about this was Mr. Su—he had just moved from Liu City to Hong City and hadn’t even re-established his business yet, and now he had suffered a great humiliation! He had lost all face, both inside and out.
To salvage his image, he went to the hospital to see Ting Wan.
He did see her, but Ting Wan’s first words were:
“Where is my younger sister? What, she doesn’t dare to come see me?”
Mr. Su had no answer to this. He had told Su Xiaomo to come with him to the hospital to visit Su Youning, hoping to get Su Youning to salvage the Su family’s reputation. Su Xiaomo, however, had said that the most urgent task was to maintain the relationship between the Su family and the Young Marshal, so she had dressed up beautifully and gone to the Shaoshuai Residence.
And Ting Wan’s second sentence was:
“Has Father come to return Mother’s dowry to me?”
Mr. Su couldn’t answer this either. Now that Ting Wan had publicly announced in the papers her intention to return the engagement to the Young Marshal and draw a clear line with the Su family, he had no desire at all to give Ting Wan the dowry left by his first wife. It was a huge sum of money! The Su family’s situation was currently uncertain. With that money in hand, he could both handle emergencies and feel a bit more secure.
Mr. Su hemmed and hawed. One look and Ting Wan knew what he was thinking.
It was nothing more than Su Xiaomo running off to find Xiao Tang, and him not wanting to part with that large dowry.
Heh.
Ting Wan looked at Mr. Su with cold eyes, feeling fortunate that she had made the first move.
Then, her eyes reddened, tears streamed down, and her voice was surprisingly strong:
“Father, that is the private property my mother left for me! It’s not what the concubine left for my younger sister! Mother told me that when the concubine entered our home pregnant, she brought nothing but the clothes on her back!”
Passing doctors, nurses, and fellow patients all stopped at the doorway.
Mr. Su’s eyes widened.
Su Xiaomo’s mother had indeed entered the family in a rather undignified manner, but this was Hong City, and no one knew. If Ting Wan’s shout spread from person to person, the whole of Hong City would probably know within three days.
After all, the Su family was currently occupying the biggest gossip column in Hong City!
“You unfilial daughter, what nonsense are you spouting!” Mr. Su grew furious, his voice rising, yet it betrayed a sense of guilt.
Ting Wan also raised her voice. “Am I spouting nonsense? Do you think I don’t know how my mother was angered to death by that concubine!”
After speaking, she threw herself onto the pillow and began to sob.
The crowd of onlookers at the door had already grown to a considerable size. After that sentence, before Mr. Su could truly rush forward, people came in to block him, drag him out the door, and criticize him for being an unkind father.
Mr. Su’s first and last visit to the hospital to see Ting Wan thus ended with him being wretchedly thrown out of the hospital by the intervention of the warm-hearted crowd.
As for Ting Wan, the doctors and nurses were all comforting her.
The original host hadn’t wanted revenge because she felt it was unnecessary; she just wanted to live a good life.
But Ting Wan felt that not taking revenge would leave her feeling aggrieved.
From the original Su Youning’s memories, the death of her biological mother was inextricably linked to Su Xiaomo’s mother, the current Mrs. Su.
Of course, Mr. Su’s inaction and indifference played an even greater role in pushing things along.
The day after Mr. Su’s visit, Ting Wan was discharged from the hospital.
She had stayed in the hospital for nearly a week, which was long enough to keep up appearances. Principal Tan mentioned that the new Defense Commissioner appointed by the Military Faction was arriving soon, and Ting Wan felt there was no longer any need to stay in the hospital. It was time to get out and do some real work.
There wasn’t a large population of foreigners in Hong City, and since Xiao Tang had “offended” the foreign negotiator last time, there wouldn’t be any foreigners coming to Hong City to do business with large sums of money in the short term, unless they invaded.
Hong City didn’t have a Department Store, so Principal Tan seized the opportunity, planning to open one under the name of Hongcheng Women’s University.
The students at the university could consign their works for sale in specific shops within the Department Store.
This would also make it convenient to place her own people inside the Department Store to gather intelligence and exchange information.
After learning of this news, Ting Wan planned to invest a sum of money and open a shop for her lipstick business in the newly built Department Store.
A shop specializing in lipstick, with a dazzling array of colors, would have no trouble attracting people.
And as for buying lipstick, any girl who loved beauty would come.
This way, business would be done, information would be updated in a timely manner, and she could even guarantee a supply of gossip—a mix of truth and falsehood with a high degree of credibility—that outsiders couldn’t get their hands on.
Principal Tan’s plan to open a Department Store in the name of Hongcheng Women’s University went directly through the government. The Shaoshuai Residence? In Principal Tan’s eyes, it was just a local tyrant.
Besides, Xiao Tang no longer had the time to care about whether a Department Store was opening or not.
Because news of the Defense Commissioner’s appointment had finally reached his ears.
He only found out when the Defense Commissioner was about to arrive.
“How dare they! Do they have no regard for our Xiao family’s army?!”
Upon learning this news and being unable to refuse it, Xiao Tang furiously wrecked a study, the kind of wrecking that involved firing a gun.
His sycophantic aide-de-camp had already been killed by Xiao Tang over the incident at Yehuanchen that night. This new aide-de-camp was not as good at flattery as the previous one. While Xiao Tang was smashing up the entire study, he stood outside the door pretending not to hear, even moving a little further away.
When Xiao Tang, done with his rampage, opened the door looking for someone, the aide-de-camp used the excuse that he had been summoned by the Second Miss Su.
In any case, Su Xiaomo came to the Shaoshuai Residence every day, to the point where she might as well live there, and Xiao Tang wouldn’t press for details about this excuse.
For this new aide-de-camp, this was the best of both worlds!
“Go, find a few nimble-handed men and set an ambush on the road into the city. This new Defense Commissioner—I don’t want to see him enter the city alive.”