[Ding! Host, there's some juicy gossip. Get up and dig in!]
Tang Shiba, who had been lying in bed playing dead, scrambled out from under the covers the instant she heard there was gossip.
Her cheeks were rosy and her eyes sparkled, making her look just like a child begging for candy.
Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!
Anyone who wasn't eager for gossip had something wrong with their head.
Feast on gossip today, live to eighty-eight tomorrow.
[Three people are outside: your mother, your father, and Tang Xueqing, the fake heiress who was switched with you at birth. They're here to reunite with you.] [They're here. Go open the door.]
The system had barely finished speaking when a knock sounded at the door.
Tang Shiba got up, hastily tidied herself, and went to open it.
As soon as she did, three pairs of eyes examined her suspiciously.
She looked them over too, unable to resist snarking inwardly.
Ohhh, so these are my blind-as-bats parents.
Hearing the voice, Tang Dad and Mom looked around as though they had seen a ghost.
Who was speaking? Why couldn't they see anyone?
While they were still puzzling over it, the voice came again.
Tsk, tsk. My blind parents let their fake daughter pull the wool over their eyes, and she ended up getting them all killed!
After sizing them up for a while, Tang Shiba spoke first. "Can I help you?"
Hearing Tang Shiba's voice, Tang Dad and Mom were stunned!
Had that voice just now belonged to Tang Shiba?
Could they hear Tang Shiba's thoughts?
Strange things happened every year, but this year was full of them!
Song Jia glanced at her husband. Seeing nothing unusual in his expression, she assumed she was the only one who could hear it and relaxed a little.
She smiled at Tang Shiba. "We're your family. We've come to find you. Shiba, you've suffered so much all these years."
As she finished, her mother wiped away tears of heartache.
Suffered? No, no, no. Your biological daughter has already ascended to paradise. She's living the good life now.
Call me Playing Dead, not Tang Shiba. In the end, you still came a step too late.
Neither of them understood what she meant before they heard Tang Shiba snarking again.
Didn't you hear what Tang Xueqing said about me on the way here? That I'm a washed-up nobody, a bottom-tier celebrity with a terrible reputation.
She even said I might be sick in the head—a lunatic who bites people!
Whatever Tang Xueqing said, you two just went, "Right, right, right. Yes, yes, yes." Didn't you?
What?
That was exactly what had happened. They had indeed been quite happy on their way here.
But once Tang Xueqing told them their biological daughter was a showbiz nobody with all sorts of problems who hit people, they had gradually grown disappointed.
They had even wondered what use there was in bringing home a daughter with such a rotten reputation.
They were raising their fake daughter as their own anyway. Why not just leave the mistake as it was?
Yet hearing Tang Shiba think this left them rather embarrassed.
As for her claim that their fake daughter would get them killed, how could that possibly happen?
At home, Tang Xueqing was always sensible, obedient, and devoted to them. She was their sweet, caring girl, the whole family's darling.
She was so delicate she didn't even have the strength to kill a chicken. How could she possibly hurt anyone?
They won't like me anyway, so I can't be bothered with them.
Hearing their daughter say they didn't like her made both of them feel a little guilty.
"I don't have any family. You've got the wrong person." With that, she moved to shut the door.
Tang Xueqing stepped forward from beside them and said meekly, "Sis, we really are your family. I'm your younger sister, and these are Mom and Dad."
Shock spread across Tang Shiba's face! "Really? You really are my family?"
I might as well put on a little act. I am a daughter of the Tang Family, after all. I ought to return to the fold.
But it took the Tang Family so long to find Tang Shiba. Were they really trying, or not?
One look at Tang Xueqing's delicate little act tells me she knows how to fake it. Is she going to say, "Oh, Sis, your reputation may be awful, but as long as you change, things will get better"?
Sure enough, Tang Xueqing said, "It's true, Sis. Mom and Dad have been really worried about you. Your reputation in showbiz may be bad, but as long as you make a serious effort to change, things will definitely get better."
Her nearly identical words left Tang Cheng and Song Jia silent.
It was as though they were seeing their adopted daughter in a new light.
But they didn't dwell on it. Their adopted daughter held a very important place in their hearts, after all, and no one could replace her.
After saying that, Tang Xueqing began to cry again. "Sis, I don't really count as a daughter of the Tang Family. Once you come home, if you don't like me, I'll move out."
"I'm afraid you'll resent me for taking your place, for taking Mom, Dad, and our brothers."
"I know my place. Once you come home, I'll pack my bags. I just can't bear to leave Mom and Dad. After I move out, I hope you'll take good care of them for me."
Seeing Tang Xueqing cry, Tang Dad and Mom grew anxious.
They hurried to comfort her. "Who said you had to move out? You'll always be our daughter. No one can change that."
"That's right. Whatever your sister has, you'll have too. Our Tang Family can afford to support you."
Tang Xueqing looked pitifully at Tang Shiba, secretly gloating. "But once Sis comes home, you'll have to announce who she is. When people find out, they'll criticize me for not knowing my place."
Tang Dad said, "They won't. We won't announce her identity. You're both our daughters. We'll just say you're twins, and your sister was raised in the countryside because of her poor health. All right?"
Only then did Tang Xueqing smile through her tears. "Thank you, Mom and Dad. You really do love me. Luckily, I've been by your side for these past eighteen years, unlike Sis, who's been suffering out there all this time."
Watching their display of parental affection and filial devotion, Tang Shiba sneered inwardly.
In a bit, she'll insist on driving herself and deliberately get into a car crash? Then she'll tell Mom, Dad, and our brothers it was my fault? That I upset her and caused her accident? And then the whole family will hate me?
[System: Host, I think you'd better not go back. The female lead has plot armor. You can't kill her.]
Fuck that. Whoever wants to deal with her can do it. I'm giving up. System, you're dismissed.
Song Jia and Tang Cheng felt that Tang Shiba was deeply hostile toward Tang Xueqing. How could the daughter they had raised since childhood possibly do such things?
The two of them produced the DNA test results, and all four officially acknowledged their family ties on the spot.
Tang Shiba packed her belongings. In truth, she had only one bag, containing her ID and bank cards. She took nothing else.
Looking at the home where she had lived for two days since transmigrating, Tang Shiba turned away without a trace of attachment.
She wasn't from this world to begin with. She was Tang Shiba, a twenty-first-century actress.
She had transmigrated to this world because of cancer.
Originally, she had thought that after coming here, she could coast through the rest of her life with the Gossip-Watching System she had gained.
Then the system told her that her entire family were cannon fodder, and the female lead would eventually get them all killed.
The original owner of her body would also be thrown into the sea to feed the fish as part of the male lead's revenge.
But she wasn't the original owner, hello!
She was willing to go back because she could watch the drama unfold anywhere, and doing it back there would be relatively safer.
[Host, don't worry. As long as we complete gossip-watching missions and accumulate points, we can exchange them for whatever we want, including money.]
Exchange them how? Your shop isn't even open. Exchange them for jack shit?
[System: We only just got here, didn't we? Keep it up!]
As they went downstairs, the couple focused entirely on Tang Xueqing in her high heels, worried she might fall and telling her to walk slowly. They paid no attention to their biological daughter behind them.
Tsk, tsk. You don't care about your biological daughter at all. No wonder you're blind.
She's definitely going to fall in a moment, then claim someone pushed her. I'd better keep my distance so that shit doesn't stick to me.
Two-faced female leads generally used tricks like this.
The couple glanced behind them, just as Tang Xueqing suddenly pitched forward as though someone had pushed her. If they hadn't been supporting her, she would definitely have tumbled down the stairs.
"Waaah, Mom, Dad, it felt like someone pushed me just now. I must have imagined it. Sis would never do that."
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