Strike Back, Proud Goddess!

Chapter 4: Return to the Xiao Family

Translator: Henyee Editor: Henyee

However, it was gratifying to see that all her experience points were increasing. It seemed that she had improved her Charm Point by having built up good relations with the people around her recently.

Tang Xi stood up, walked to the window to gaze at the faraway lake and frowned.

Just as she was in a daze, the door of her ward was pushed open. Lin Ru came in and said coldly, “I’ve handled the discharge procedures for you. Now go back with me!” She scowled at the sight of the clothes Tang Xi was wearing. “You did it on purpose! You have clothes! You just want to embarrass me, right?”

Tang Xi took a look at her clothes and shrugged, saying, “I just forgot that I still had a set of clothes under my pillow.”

“Xiao Rou, I tell you, you’d better behave yourself after you go back home. If you dare say anything improper in front of your grandfather, I won’t let you get away with it!” Facing Tang Xi’s indifferent attitude, she was angry and resentful.

“Okay,” Tang Xi said with a nonchalant nod, adding, “I’m going to say goodbye to my friends. Wait for me at the gate of the hospital.”

“Xiao Rou, don’t you know how busy I am?!” Hearing that Tang Xi wanted to say goodbye to the other patients, Lin Ru lost her temper. “Just because of you, I was absent from a movie investment conference this morning, and now you still have time to say goodbye to those patients? And do you know how much Jinning earns from a job? She turned down a job and came to pick you up with me. Are you trying to torture us?”

Tang Xi paused, turned to look into Lin Ru’s eyes and said word by word, “Or you can go first.”

“Xiao Rou!”

Pretending not hearing her roar, Tang Xi trotted down the stairs and greeted the doctors, nurses and patients she passed by along the way. When she reached the lake of the hospital, she slowed down her steps. Looking at Aunt Qiao and her son by the lake, she grew slightly nervous.

Tang Xi, who had lived two lifetimes, was feeling nervous for the first time.

When she had died, it was so sudden that she didn’t even have a chance to get nervous. Now she finally experienced how it felt.

Spotting a girl walking towards them, Qiao Liang recognized her as the girl who had been accompanying his mother just a while ago. He looked down at his mother and said softly, “Continue with your chat; I’ll make a phone call over there.”

Seeing Qiao Liang turn to leave, Tang Xi loosened her clenched fists. She smiled at Aunt Qiao, who was looking at her, and walked up to squat before her. She said, “Auntie, I came to say goodbye. My family has come to take me home.”

A touch of sadness flickered across Qiao Yuxin’s eyes as she nodded and said, “Okay. You can still come to the hospital to chat with me when you’re free.”

Tang Xi nodded and replied, “Alright, Aunt Qiao. We’ll meet again.” She then stood up and turned away

Qiao Liang, who had been making a phone call, came over at this time. Looking at Tang Xi’s receding figure, he frowned and asked, “What did you talk about?”

Still staring at Tang Xi’s receding figure, Qiao Yuxin smiled at his question. “You mean Rourou? She came to say goodbye to me. Her family came to take her out of the hospital.”

Qiao Liang nodded and was about to push Qiao Yuxin’s wheelchair back to her ward. “The wind is getting stronger. Let’s go back.”

Tang Xi thought Lin Ru and Xiao Jinning must have left by the time she came back. To her surprise, though, the two were still waiting at the gate of the hospital. She walked up to them with a smile, pulled open the door of their car and sat in the back seat. “Sorry for wasting your time. Let’s go.”

Surprised at Tang Xi’s graceful manners, Xiao Jinning clenched her hands. Why was Xiao Rou so different from before after living in the hospital for a month?

Lin Ru got on the car with a dark face. As the two had occupied the back seats, Xiao Jinning had to sit on the passenger seat. As the driver drove, Xiao Jinning suddenly turned to Tang Xi and said, “Rourou, don’t be capricious when you talk to Grandpa. Grandpa is aged and can’t stand stimulation. Please take care of his health.”

Tang Xi closed her eyes and pretended not to hear what she was saying.

Lin Ru was irritated by her cold attitude. “What kind of attitude is this? Jinning is talking to you. Don’t you hear her?”

Tang Xi lazily opened her eyes, picked at her ear with her little finger and said with a faint smile. “If her voice was as loud as yours, I could hear it.”

“Xiao Rou, you’re trying to make me angry, aren’t you?”

“Sorry, but I only answered your question,” Tang Xi said, glancing at Lin Ru. “If I don’t answer your question, I guess you might say I ignore you.”

She was Tang Xi, someone who had never lived at the mercy of others. It was instead the other people around her who were dependent on her whims and pleasures. Besides, though Lin Ru was Xiao Rou’s biological mother, she was actually the culprit to Xiao Rou’s death. She had decided to help Xiao Rou regain family love, but that didn’t mean she would forsake her dignity and beg for their love like Xiao Rou!

She was going to make them regret and beg for her forgiveness.

She would return good for good and evil for evil.

“Mom, don’t be angry. Rourou is just childish. Don’t blame her for that, alright?” Xiao Jinning was quite glad upon seeing Lin Ru being so angry at Tang Xi that she was on the verge of having a heart attack, but she still played the peacemaker.

Glaring at Tang Xi who had closed her eyes again, Lin Ru said coldly. “If she were as half as sensible as you, I would not be so angry!”

Tang Xi merely ignored her words. Along the way, Lin Ru and Xiao Jinning continued talking about Xiao Jinning’s upcoming movies and new endorsements, totally ignoring Tang Xi, but Tang Xi didn’t even care.

When they arrived at the Xiao Family’s mansion, Tang Xi raised her eyebrows and directly got off the car. Just then, an old man who had been surrounded by many people rushed up to look at her excitedly, asking, “Is this girl my dear granddaughter?”

Xiao Hongyi and Xiao Hongli supported Grandpa Xiao. A gleam of surprise flashed through Xiao Hongyi’s eyes when he saw Xiao Rou, but he soon became expressionless again and nodded, saying, “Yes, she is Xiao Rou.”

Grandpa Xiao nodded with a smile, reached out his hand to Xiao Rou and said with a trembling voice, “Rourou, come here. Let me have a look at you.”

When Tang Xi saw the loving smile on Grandpa Xiao’s face, a sudden feeling of sorrow came over her. Had her grandfather been waiting for her to return? Her eyes reddened at the thought of him. She walked up to Grandpa Xiao, hugged him and cried, “Grandpa, I missed you so much.”

‘How are you doing? Have you heard about Xixi’s death?’

Everyone present was dumbfounded at Tang Xi’s reaction. It was her first time meeting Grandpa Xiao. Why did she say she missed him so much? Who taught her to say this?

“Good, good, I missed my granddaughter too.” Grandpa Xiao patted Xiao Rou on the back, eased her out of his arms, looked her up and down and frowned as he said, “How much did you suffer these years? Look how skinny you are!”