After Rebirth, I Discovered the Whole World Wants to Harm Me [GL] - Chapter 7

Three seconds later, she was added back into the group.

To prevent the eldest Miss Tang from becoming angry out of embarrassment, a stream of addresses and locations popped up in the chat box—all of them restaurants within five hundred meters of the Xiao Group.

Tang Xiaoran chuckled, clicking through them one by one. She casually replied: “That’s more like it. See you tonight, little fairies.”

“See you tonight! 9:30 PM! I’ll send the location in a bit. Old rules apply: latecomers have to do a penalty drink~”

“You absolutely have to come, Xiaoran! The fire of gossip in my heart is roaring…”

“Exactly, I’m dying of curiosity here [Clawing at heart.gif]”

The girl pressed her phone screen off, ignoring the flood of repetitive messages in the group. She propped her chin on her hand and watched the woman working.

She suddenly realized that Xiao Shixin was actually quite beautiful. However, most people could only ever remember her decisive, vigorous demeanor. This woman, who dominated the business world with a flip of her hand, was the monarch standing at the apex of the Xiao family’s commercial empire.

“Am I better looking than the phone?” Out of nowhere, the woman who had been buried in work suddenly asked this.

Tang Xiaoran found that even when working, her perception of the outside world was incredibly sharp. She didn’t deny it, replying with a grin: “Of course. I feel like Sister Xin could clearly survive on her looks alone, yet she chooses to rely on talent. You could say that’s very impressive.”

Because of this sentence, Xiao Shixin paused her pen and looked up at her once more.

She was waiting. Waiting for the moment Tang Xiaoran couldn’t hold it in anymore and finally spoke the words hidden in her eyes.

Tang Xiaoran always felt like those eyes could peer directly into the depths of her soul, as if even the secrets buried in her heart had nowhere to hide. Thus, she could only smile nonchalantly, putting on a perfectly innocent act.

Having just praised the other’s charm, even if it was awkward, Tang Xiaoran couldn’t look down at her phone now—that would be a live broadcast of her losing face. So, her only options to pass the time were:

Awkwardly chatting with President Xiao, awkwardly chatting with President Xiao, and… awkwardly chatting with President Xiao.

Tang Xiaoran: …Fate, just shoot me. My heart is already dead anyway.

She let out a long sigh in her heart and chose to daze off with her head in her hands. Ever since she started seeing those strange images and hearing those voices, the contents of the notebook she carried had become increasingly cryptic.

But the day of her brother’s accident was drawing closer, and she still had no leads.

—There must be something I’m overlooking.

What pulled her out of her wandering thoughts was the ringing of Xiao Shixin’s phone. The woman’s slightly cold voice echoed in the room: “Uncle Zhou.”

“Since you’ve come to S-City, it’s only right that I fulfill my duties as a host.”

“I’ve set up a separate department for the new series. The project manager is specifically responsible for the outsourcing cooperation; I don’t know the details.”

Tang Xiaoran, who accidentally overheard the whole thing: …Whoa.

It was her first time seeing someone lie through their teeth with such a serious, convincing expression.

After hanging up, Xiao Shixin checked the time: 11:45 AM.

She looked at the remaining documents on her desk, stood up, and headed for the door. “Let’s go.”

Tang Xiaoran gave her a meaningful look, but Xiao Shixin didn’t look back at all. She walked straight ahead, picking her bag off the coat rack with a casual flick of her wrist.

Tang Xiaoran had no choice but to trot after her. As they entered the elevator, she teased with a smile: “Sister Xin, society is truly sinister.”

Xiao Shixin casually replied: “Shall I drop you back at school?”

Tang Xiaoran: “…”

She had to skillfully change the subject: “Sister Xin, was that the Zhou family calling you just now?”

The interior of the elevator was decorated in gold tones, and the doors provided a clear reflection. Thus, Tang Xiaoran clearly saw the flickering, half-smiling light in Xiao Shixin’s eyes after the question.

It locked right onto her own gaze in the reflection.

She inexplicably understood the other woman’s meaning. It was as if a single look answered all the remaining questions in her gut.

—So what if it was the Zhou family? Wasn’t it Gaosheng that signed the contract this morning?

Tang Xiaoran was stunned for a moment, then heard the other woman speak up: “Where is the place? Do we need to drive?”

She shook her head, gave the restaurant’s name, and added in a relaxed tone: “It’s just across the street.”

She was spacing out again, thinking about the sudden, unexpected chemistry between her and Xiao Shixin.

Since when were they this close? Whether in her past life or the present, who in the S-City “wealthy second-generation” circle didn’t know she hated people of Xiao Shixin’s type?

It was because she always felt they lived in two different worlds.

But some ill-timed memory fragments surfaced in her mind, slapping her face with the facts: You call this not being close? This is well-done steak levels of “done”!

It was a long time ago, requiring a lot of effort to tune her memory back past her family’s downfall to those trivial teenage channels.

Even as they sat in the restaurant, she was knitting her brows, trying to recall those childhood events.

Xiao Shixin noticed that this youngster started spacing out every time they ate together. For some reason, she felt a resigned sense of habit and took the menu to begin ordering practicedly.

The menu was then pushed toward Tang Xiaoran: “See if there’s anything else you want to add.”

Tang Xiaoran instinctively looked at the menu—

Plum-seasoned spare ribs, my favorite.

Eggplant pot, mmm, love it.

Stuffed tofu, delicious.

…

As she looked down the list, she found that every dish she was interested in and wanted to order had already been checked off. Even the soup was her favorite seafood soup.

The pen strokes were sharp, still pressing through the paper with strength.

Climbing over the high wall of memory, a tiny person in her heart was now scratching their head in frustration. How did I never notice what Xiao Shixin likes to eat?

Because when she was hanging out at Xiao Shixin’s house as a kid, the food the nanny made every day was everything she, Tang Xiaoran, liked to eat!

Noticing her gaze on the menu was so focused it was eerie, President Xiao finally couldn’t help but ask: “What’s wrong?”

Tang Xiaoran looked up with immense difficulty, her gaze carrying a hint of grievance.

Xiao Shixin was taken aback by the grievance in those deep brown eyes.

Then, she heard the other woman mutter softly: “Sister Xin, it wasn’t easy for me to treat you to a meal. I can’t just order everything I like, right? But I’ve been thinking for so long, and I really don’t know what you like to eat…”

Xiao Shixin hadn’t expected her to be stuck on the menu for so long just for this.

And clearly, she was the one who couldn’t remember, yet in the end, she was the one feeling aggrieved.

As a result, Xiao Shixin didn’t even realize how gentle her voice became when she comforted her: “Whatever you like is what I love to eat.”

She was telling the truth.

Growing up, her family never let her be a picky eater, and she never really developed dietary preferences.

But Tang Xiaoran was different. She had been a picky eater since she was little and was exceptionally good at ordering food. Since discovering the Xiao family’s nanny’s cooking suited her palate, every time she dragged her brothers to the Xiao house, the first thing she did was run to the kitchen on her short legs, hugging the nanny’s leg and chirping out the menu in a milky voice.

She couldn’t even speak Mandarin well yet, but she was smoothest when calling for the nanny to read the menu.

Even Xiao Shixin, who would be in the study discussing problems with Tang Xiaozhang, could hear that crisp voice.

Before Tang Xiaoran was ten, she would run to the Xiao house next door every day, bringing her whole family along to eat, simply refusing to stay at her own home.

So, Xiao Shixin had long since gotten used to following her tastes. Not just her—everyone in the Xiao family was the same. To this day, the nanny they employed specialized in S-City’s local Benbang cuisine.

But this fact left Tang Xiaoran’s expression completely blank.

She repeated Xiao Shixin’s sentence in her heart twice.

She was sure the other was speaking Chinese, so the question was: Whatever you like is what I love to eat—what does that mean?

Especially since the image of her brother and President Xiao mutually coming out to each other popped into her head for some reason, she felt… it was time to plug up her overactive imagination.

Forcing herself into a state of self-hypnosis, she ignored President Xiao’s answer and smiled as she handed the menu to the waiter.

Then, she finally asked the question she had been setting the stage for all morning, the one she truly wanted to test:

“Sister Xin, what is your impression of Gaosheng?”

“Your family’s industry.” Xiao Shixin held her cup, gently blowing on the jasmine flowers inside. Watching the pale blossoms float to the far side of the water, she half-lidded her eyes and replied nonchalantly.

Tang Xiaoran waited a bit longer. “That’s it?”

Xiao Shixin sensed that this question was indeed the source of Tang Xiaoran’s recent abnormality, but she truly didn’t know the scope of this “impression,” so she had to add: “Skilled in mechanical processing.”

“Then… are you interested in acquiring such enterprises?” Tang Xiaoran knew this question was very inappropriate. If her current expression and tone were processed by someone with ill intent, rumors of Gaosheng’s impending bankruptcy would be everywhere by tomorrow.

But she wanted to know so badly.

Before gaining more information from Xiao Shixin, she was desperate to understand the story that occurred in the previous “vision” and the connection between that story and the news she saw before her death in her past life.

Xiao Shixin put down her cup, the slight upward tilt at the corners of her eyes stretching the sharpness in her gaze.

In those black pupils, Tang Xiaoran saw a tiny reflection of herself. She didn’t need to look to know how tense her posture was, sitting with a perfectly straight back.

Then, she heard Xiao Shixin’s crisp, refreshing voice ring out without a moment’s hesitation:

“No.”

It was too certain, too absolute.

So certain that Tang Xiaoran instinctively followed up: “What if… my family was about to go bankrupt?”

As if she wouldn’t give up until she heard an answer she was satisfied with.

Xiao Shixin paused for a long time—so long that Tang Xiaoran’s eyes began to ache from staring, realizing she had forgotten to blink.

Instead, she heard the woman’s light chuckle.

Then, she replied with total conviction: “It won’t happen.”

Tang Xiaoran blinked instinctively, not knowing why she was given such a “rule-breaking” answer.

Xiao Shixin was amused by her worried appearance, looking as if she were about to be out on the streets the next second. Her lips curved up like peach blossoms blooming on a branch.

“You just negotiated a 50-million-yuan partnership with the Xiao Group, and you already think you’re going bankrupt?”

“Is it yourself you lack confidence in, or is it me?”

The Author has something to say:

Little Theater:

About the truth of their childhood.

Xiao Shixin: Every time she came to my house, it was very lively.

Tang Xiaoran: Her family’s food is insanely delicious.

The truth… is revealed.