Strike Back, Proud Goddess!

Chapter 21: Please Accept Me

Translator: Henyee Editor: Henyee

Tang Xi looked up at the shocked three, and a touch of sarcasm flashed through her eyes. “Do you think I can remain harmless and vulnerable after all those things?”

Xiao Jing fell silent. The people who showed up on that day were them. They had also accompanied Lin Ru to send Xiao Rou to the hospital and heard the doctor’s diagnosis on her. The doctor said that her aorta was badly injured, so she was dying, but it had never occurred to them that she was injured by Xiao Jinning.

Xiao Sa felt suffocated. He lunged to his feet and said, “I’ll go ask Xiao Jinning!”

“Stop!” Xiao Yao shouted. “What are you going to ask her?”

“I’ll ask her why she did it!” Xiao Sa looked annoyed. “Will you just let her get away with it?”

“Do you have any proof?” Xiao Yao looked up at Xiao Sa.

“I...” Xiao Sa looked at Tang Xi and said flatly, “Rourou is the proof. With Rourou here, we have solid proof!”

“Humph.” Xiao Yao gave a sneer and shouted angrily, “Sit down!”

Seeing Yao get angry, Xiao Jing hurriedly pulled Xiao Sa back to his seat. Xiao Yao took a glance at him before turning his eyes to Tang Xi, who had been indifferent to Xiao Sa’s actions, and then he asked, “Aren’t you going to tell Lin Ru about this?”

Xiao Jing and Xiao Sa were used to the way Xiao Yao called Lin Ru. He always called people by their names when they were not present.

Tang Xi had no feelings for Lin Ru, so she didn’t feel anything wrong with the way Xiao Yao called her. A touch of sarcasm flickered across her eyes as she asked, “Do you think she’ll believe me?” If she believed her, the real Xiao Rou wouldn’t have died. Xiao Rou had said many times that she didn’t see the necklace, but Lin Ru insisted that Xiao Rou had sticky fingers because she grew up in the countryside. She simply believed everything Xiao Jinning told her and thought Xiao Rou stole that necklace.

Xiao Jing and Xiao Sa sat there despondently. Naturally, they knew Aunt Lin wouldn’t believe Xiao Rou, because Lin Ru didn’t take her as her daughter at all. There was only her adopted daughter who won honors for her in her heart.

Xiao Yao asked with a frown, “Why did you hide your potential? If your mother saw the present you, she would have accepted you.”

“But I don’t want to accept her.” Tang Xi turned around and straightened up. She then stared at Xiao Yao and said with great seriousness, “I’m not going to accept a mother who has no affection but only fame and benefits in her mind.”

“She has affection for Xiao Jinning though,” Xiao Sa said.

Tang Xi nodded. “Yes. I don’t want a mother who kicked her own daughter out for an adopted daughter, so brothers, please accept me, the present me.”

She couldn’t go back to the past to change Xiao Rou’s situation when she had first returned to the Xiao Family, but she wanted to make everyone look at Xiao Rou differently from now on, make those who abandoned Xiao Rou regret it, and make those who killed her get the punishment they deserved.

She would not let Xiao Jinning get away with what she did. Although it was only when Xiao Rou died that she could enter Xiao Rou’s body and extend her life, she had no right to forgive Xiao Rou’s murderer for her!

“Who said we didn’t accept you?” Xiao Jing said a little awkwardly. “We just don’t understand why you are so different from what we know about you. Don’t take it to heart.”

Tang Xi replied with a nod, “I know.”

Seeing that the tension had finally eased a bit, Xiao Sa picked up the glass on the table and laughed. “Haha. Since we’ve cleared the air, let’s have a toast.”

Tang Xi held up the glass on the table and raised it, saying, “Thank you, brothers. I promise that I will bring you all many surprises in the future, because I’ll never let down anyone who loves me.”

Xiao Yao picked up his glass and clinked glasses with Tang Xi. “Just tell me if you have any trouble. Now you’re no longer alone, but a member of our family.” Tang Xi’s eyes turned red and she felt a lump in her throat. She pursed her mouth and nodded, saying, “I see.” Her voice became hoarse.

Xiao Sa took a sip of wine and said with a snort, “I always wondered why I got along well with Xiao Yan, but disliked Xiao Jinning since childhood even though they are both children of the Xiao Family. Now I know the reason!”

Xiao Jing gestured for him to keep drinking. “You’d better drink more and talk less... No, don’t drink too much. You’ll talk too much when you get drunk.”

Tang Xi rested her chin in her hand and said with a smile, “I really like my life now, having dinner with you guys in a restaurant, talking with you guys and drinking wine together. I never expected such a life before.”

“Tell us about your past?” Xiao Jing looked at Tang Xi, and his heart ached with pity for her.

Tang Xi recalled her past life, which was very boring. She was a typical girl from a rich family before her grandpa fell sick. The housekeeper and servants took very good care of her, whether at home or at school. She only needed to eat, go to school and play. However, Grandpa became sick, and she had to learn how to run Empire Group while accompanying Grandpa, and flew all over the world to check the properties of Empire Group. Then her boyfriend broke up with her because she was so busy that she ignored him. Two years later, Grandpa finally recovered, but she died.

Looking back at her past life, she found that she really didn’t do anything meaningful.

She didn’t even say ‘I love you’ to that guy.

She really regretted it.

There was no chance now, because she knew he didn’t love her any more.

Tang Xi smiled darkly, gulped down the wine in her glass and looked at the Xiao brothers with blurred eyes. “Brothers, you can investigate my past, and then you’ll know all about it. I don’t want to recall painful memories.”

Xiao Yao replied with a nod, “Don’t think of it if you don’t want to. Since you’re no longer called Yao Rou, you don’t have any relationship with that family.”

The family name of Xiao Jinning’s biological father was Yao, so Xiao Rou was called Yao Rou.

Tang Xi got up with a smile and said, “I’m going to the toilet.”

She staggered to her feet. Perhaps because she thought of Grandpa and that man, or because she was bad at drinking, she felt dizzy even though she only drank two glasses of wine. Seeing her stagger, Xiao Jing, who sat opposite her, hurriedly stood up and supported her with his hands. “Let me take you there.”

Tang Xi gave him a smile, held out a finger and shook it. “No, I can handle it. Keep drinking.”

With that, she turned and walked towards the toilet. Xiao Jing gazed worriedly after Tang Xi’s receding figure. “Does she know where the toilet is? Will she go to the wrong toilet?”

Xiao Yao glanced after her and thought for a while before saying, “I don’t think so.”