After Rebirth, I Discovered the Whole World Wants to Harm Me [GL] - Chapter 5

Tang Xiaoran stared at the phone lying beside her, her legs crossed and her expression grim, as if she were facing a bitter enemy. She debated whether or not to pick it up again.

Half a minute later, she braced herself to face that chat box again, feeling as if her soul had already died—

“Sister Xin… it’s like this: I wanted to ask which companies you’re planning to outsource the production for your new series to? Are there any specific standards I could refer to?” After a lot of typing and deleting, Tang Xiaoran finally sent out the message.

Then, her mood began to rise and fall with the “The other party is typing…” notification.

At that moment, Xiao Shixin had just finished bathing. Wrapped in a pale purple bathrobe, her cold, clear eyes seemed even brighter after being dampened. Her skin was so fair and tender it seemed to glow. Combined with her aloof, unapproachable aura and her striking figure, she was the kind of person who could draw anyone’s gaze.

Holding her phone in one hand, she looked at the text and simply typed:

The specific standards and design material data have already been provided to your big brother.

She hesitated for a rare moment before pressing send.

After a pause, she changed it to a different sentence:

“Whether it’s material pricing or proposal selection, manufacturing and processing are Gaosheng’s specialties. You don’t need to worry too much about the competitive outcome.”

Huh?

For a moment, Tang Xiaoran wondered if the person on the other side was a fake Xiao Shixin.

Why was she answering a question she hadn’t asked?

After subconsciously reading the chat content a few more times, she realized: it seemed Xiao Shixin was trying to give her peace of mind.

Given that woman’s personality, wouldn’t it be more normal for her to give a strictly business-like reply?

The girl flopped back onto her bed, unconsciously twirling the ends of her hair with her fingers, her deep brown eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. She suddenly remembered dinner tonight—when checking the menu, that sharp checkmark placed next to her favorite rice noodle rolls.

In the end, she hadn’t seen Xiao Shixin touch them once…

So, she really did order them for me?

Why do I suddenly have the illusion that Xiao Shixin is actually quite nice to me?

There were too many riddles to solve, and all of them seemed to entwine around this one person.

Tang Xiaoran let go of her hair, grabbed her phone, and expressionlessly typed:

“Thank you for the reminder, Sister Xin~ I feel much more at ease now~”

“So, can I treat you to a meal in a couple of days as a thank you?” She added a cute pleading emoji at the end.

Xiao Shixin thought back to Tang Xiaoran’s performance at dinner: her initial rejection, her uncharacteristic move of grabbing her hand, and then her complete lack of focus on the meal.

…She still wants to treat me to dinner?

The woman looked at her phone and let out a long, slow breath—it sounded like a lingering, unending sigh.

As if anticipating all the possible reactions if she refused, she finally replied as Tang Xiaoran wished: “Okay.”

“It’s late. Time to sleep.”

Tang Xiaoran tilted her head, obediently replied with a “Goodnight,” and poked the chat box with a pretty, light-colored fingernail, muttering to herself:

“Surprisingly easy to flirt with, President Xiao?”

Whether President Xiao was easy to flirt with remained a mystery, but the project had to be secured.

The next morning, Tang Xiaoran woke up and, after confirming she was still in this world and none of it was a hallucination, headed downstairs for breakfast in high spirits.

“Morning, Dad. Morning, Big Brother.” She pulled out a chair at the dining table and greeted the two men, who were listening to the news on a phone while discussing current affairs.

The stiffness in Tang Xiaozhang’s face melted significantly as he nodded to her.

Tang’s father glanced at her, interrupting his conversation with his eldest son. His face, marked by deep laugh lines, was full of authority. In a deep voice, he asked: “Up so early? Where are you planning to go?”

Tang Xiaoran’s eyes curved into crescents as she thanked Uncle Zhao for bringing over breakfast. As she lifted the lid of the porridge bowl, the fragrant steam wafted past her energetic face, making her deep brown eyes look even more innocent. “I don’t have any plans to go out today.”

Then why are you up so early?

The question was written clearly in the eyes of her family, who were well-acquainted with her lazy and luxurious habits.

Tang Xiaoran gave an “Mm” and put the lid back on the porridge.

“Oh right, I need to talk to Xiaoyu about the project today. I’ll go wake him up then.” With that, she stood up and headed toward the stairs, a subtle hint of excitement on her face.

Tang Zhihua almost thought he was hallucinating.

He turned to his eldest son and asked in an incredulous tone: “Has Xiaoran started following up on company matters lately?”

A smile flickered in Tang Xiaozhang’s eyes. Thinking of her changes over the past two days, his tone became almost gentle: “Yes. She even intends to handle the contract with the Xiao family.”

Tang Zhihua rubbed his chin, unable to figure out what had caused this miraculous change in his daughter. Ultimately, he could only attribute it to the ancestors showing their favor, deciding to light a few extra incense sticks when he went to pay his respects at the ancestral home this year.

While Dad and Big Brother were happy, Tang Xiaoyu was about to explode with rage.

It was bad enough having his job snatched away last night, but to have his sleep disturbed by Tang Xiaoran so early in the morning was the last straw. With nowhere to vent his morning grumpiness and unable to go back to sleep, he could only follow her downstairs to eat breakfast with a dark face.

Tang Xiaoran was the only one in the family immune to his bad mood. She cheerfully opened the porridge lid for him and even waved the steam toward him with her hand. “Smell that? The chef’s new seafood porridge. It’s best while it’s hot.”

Tang Xiaoyu listened to the hypnotic news playing on his father’s side and squinted at the smiling face of the culprit in front of him, feeling the suppressed irritation in his heart grow.

He irritably swatted her hand away, picked up his spoon, and buried his head in his breakfast without a word.

That swat wasn’t light. Tang Xiaoran hissed in pain, and just as she was about to put on a show of feeling wronged, a sentence rang out strangely in her mind:

【Tang Xiaozhang’s death was his own fault. It has nothing to do with this young master, you hear me?】

The familiar tone was laced with a sense of exasperated rage.

The reason it was familiar was because the voice belonged to none other than Tang Xiaoyu.

But the person in front of her was clearly stuffing his mouth with porridge—how could he possibly be speaking?

And what he said… that Big Brother’s death had nothing to do with him…

What did that mean?

She suddenly felt a wave of coldness rising from the depths of her heart. While clutching her hand, she felt a delayed shiver run through her.

The chill instantly surged through her entire body; there was no blocking it. Even though it was the “Autumn Tiger” season where the heat was still oppressive, the hairs on Tang Xiaoran’s arms stood on end, and she broke out in goosebumps.

It felt as if even her teeth were about to start chattering.

“Xiaoran?” Tang Xiaozhang had looked over when he heard her hand being swatted. Seeing no movement from the girl for a long time, and then seeing her hunch over, he couldn’t help but call out.

Tang Xiaoran’s brain was completely occupied by that sentence; she couldn’t hear any other sounds. Immersed in her own world, she hugged her arms, trying to curl herself into a ball.

Tang Xiaoyu heard the call, though. He glanced at the seat beside him, and the moment he saw her, his previous irritation was instantly shoved into a corner.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you? Feeling sick?” Tang Xiaoyu reached out to pull her arm, wanting to lift her up. The icy temperature of her skin startled him.

Tang Xiaoran raised her dazed eyes to look at him. The sorrow, pain, and struggle within her gaze fell into his eyes simultaneously, looking as if she might burst into tears at any second.

The boy immediately began to reflect on whether he had hit her too hard. Knitting his brows, he apologized: “Fine, fine, my fault. I won’t hit you again next time. Where does it hurt? Say something.”

“It has nothing to do with you…” Tang Xiaoran blankly repeated the sentence she had just “heard.”

Tang Xiaoyu was completely bewildered. Before he could say anything else, the girl had gradually pulled herself out of her emotions. She looked at her brother and father, then back at Tang Xiaoyu.

After a moment of silence, Tang Xiaoran looked at her brother earnestly and said in a very determined tone:

“The project with the Xiao family—hand it over to me.”

The mysteries surrounding her death in her past life seemed to be piling up.

She was desperate to know more. She was desperate to see that person.

Tang Xiaoyu hadn’t yet reacted to this sudden shift. Hearing her forceful tone, he asked back: “Huh?”

“Otherwise, I’ll tell Dad right now about your secret date with that third-tier model at a certain private club last month!”

“Take it! Take it! You really are my own sister! You’re most skilled at taking my stuff!” Tang Xiaoyu interrupted her, speechless. Even the red and yellow tufts of hair on his forehead seemed to stand up in frustration.

Tang Xiaoran gave a triumphant smile and lowered her head to sip her porridge contentedly.

She lowered her eyes, hiding all the cautious, unspoken fear within them.

…In the last life, whose fault was Big Brother’s death, exactly?

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