Two years in the Tao Family

Tao Niannian suddenly rolled her eyes back and fainted. The Tao Family immediately descended into panic, and Tao Jingxing roared, his eyes nearly splitting with fury, "An ambulance! Call an ambulance!"

Yan Wen could not help shaking his head. Li Zhaoxi must have had eight lifetimes of rotten luck to end up with a family like this. Their adopted daughter pretends to faint, and they panic like dogs have bitten them. Their biological daughter nearly starves to the point of a perforated stomach, and they don't even bother checking on her.

Xiao Qi spread both hands and sighed. Even we systems know to care for our families. The Tao Family isn't even as good as us robots.

Tao Jingcheng hoisted Tao Niannian onto his back and tried to leave. Yan Wen raised a hand, and three bodyguards blocked the exit.

Tao Jingcheng snarled, "Mu Yanwen! Our family affairs are none of your business. Tell your men to get the hell out of the way!"

Yan Wen gave his head a smug little shake. "I don't think I will."

The Tao Family was furious and frantic, but they could not lash out. They were no match for the Mu Family.

Yan Wen summoned the doctor who had been waiting for some time. "Give her a proper examination and see if anything's wrong. Why does she faint at the drop of a hat?"

"Yes, young master."

Seeing this, Tao Jingcheng had no choice but to set Tao Niannian down and let the doctor examine her. Where no one could see, Tao Niannian clutched the hem of her clothes, her eyelashes trembling uncontrollably with nerves.

The doctor listened to her heartbeat with a stethoscope, then examined her pupils before rising to report to Yan Wen. "Young master, this young lady is perfectly healthy. There's nothing wrong with her."

Tao Mother snapped angrily, "How could nothing be wrong? You're clearly a quack!"

"Madam, you can be held legally responsible for making reckless accusations. I've practiced medicine for twenty years and treated countless difficult cases. I am quite capable of telling whether your daughter is genuinely ill."

Yan Wen asked Xiao Qi for a flashlight and stepped down from the stage. "Why don't we take another look and see whether she really fainted? I've learned a little first aid. Let me check."

When Tao Jingxing and Tao Jingcheng saw Yan Wen approaching Tao Niannian, they immediately stepped in front of her. "What are you going to do?"

Yan Wen raised a hand, and two bodyguards came over and restrained the brothers.

"Honestly, you're getting in the way of me saving someone." Yan Wen walked around them and crouched before Tao Niannian. In a flash, he pried her eyelids open, switched on the flashlight with his other hand, and shone it into her pupils.

The sudden glare made Tao Niannian reflexively raise a hand to shield her eyes. Now she could no longer keep up the act.

Yan Wen stood and switched off the flashlight. "See? She's awake now. And you wanted to go to the hospital. What a fuss."

Tao Niannian cried, "Jingxing, my eyes hurt so much."

"Mu Yanwen, what did you do to Niannian?"

Yan Wen looked at them as though they were idiots. "Doctors use that flashlight to check changes in people's pupils. Someone who's truly unconscious wouldn't react to light of that intensity at all. Your eyes hurt? Serves you right. Who told you to pretend to faint?"

"Relax, she won't go blind. Now that your beloved sister is fine, can you wait patiently until the banquet is over?"

The Tao Family had no choice but to return to their previous places. They looked at Li Zhaoxi on the stage as though she were an enemy.

Tao Mother was the worst. She seemed to be looking at anyone but her own biological daughter, her venomous gaze suggesting she wanted to cut Li Zhaoxi into a thousand pieces.

Seeing that look, Li Zhaoxi still felt an inexplicable pang in her heart. Being treated like an enemy by her own biological mother hurt, no matter what she told herself.

But after this Family Severance Banquet, she would no longer have any connection to the Tao Family.

Li Zhaoxi closed her eyes to compose herself, then opened them again. "Chairman Tao, Mrs. Tao, you just admitted it yourselves. I'm the Tao Family's biological daughter, and Tao Niannian is the adopted one."

"So what? What does it matter if you're my daughter? You grew up in the countryside. In what way could you possibly compare to Niannian?"

The spectators around them were divided into two camps.

"Li Zhaoxi may have grown up in the countryside, but she's still the Tao Family's daughter. They've gone much too far."

"Exactly. Look at what she's wearing. She must have suffered so much. Forget making it up to her properly—they couldn't even bear to buy her a decent outfit."

"Li Zhaoxi may be the Tao Family's biological daughter, but they've raised Tao Niannian for twenty years. In terms of education and perspective, Tao Niannian really is more presentable. Besides, who knows whether Li Zhaoxi picked up any bad habits over those twenty years?"

"Right. She may be their biological daughter, but they didn't raise her. It's normal for them not to feel close to her."

"What parents don't love their own child? Maybe Li Zhaoxi brought it on herself."

"But it doesn't look that way to me."

Li Zhaoxi gripped the microphone in both hands. "Since you're all so curious, let's watch a few videos together."

(In the first clip, Tao Mother's haughty demeanor appeared on the screen. When she saw Li Zhaoxi, there was none of the joy or excitement of meeting her biological daughter, only disdain and displeasure. She casually tossed the paternity test results and a hundred thousand yuan to Li Zhaoxi's adoptive parents, then took Li Zhaoxi away. In the car, Tao Mother's voice dripped with undisguised disgust. "Now that you're coming back to the Tao Family, cut off contact with these people immediately. If anyone finds out you grew up in a place like this, you'll disgrace our family.")

(In the second clip, it was Li Zhaoxi's first day in the Tao household. Tao Niannian was saying something to her on the second floor, then deliberately fell backward and tumbled down the stairs. Li Zhaoxi reached out to catch her but failed. Tao Niannian was sent to the hospital, while Tao Father beat Li Zhaoxi until she was covered in injuries, then locked her in a small, dark room for an entire day and night.)

(In the third clip, it was Li Zhaoxi's first birthday in the Tao household. She had specially bought a cake and brought it home, along with gifts for everyone, hoping to grow closer to her family. The moment Tao Niannian saw the cake, she began crying pitifully. "Jingcheng, why did my sister only buy one cake? Does she not want to celebrate our birthday together?"

Tao Jingcheng slapped Li Zhaoxi across the face. "You're deliberately trying to humiliate Niannian, aren't you?" To comfort the upset Tao Niannian, the whole family went out, leaving Li Zhaoxi alone with the cake that had been knocked all over the floor.)

(In the fourth clip, the family sat at the dining table eating. Li Zhaoxi carefully took a seat, but she had barely picked up her chopsticks when Tao Niannian covered her nose. "What's that smell on you, sis? I can't eat." Before Li Zhaoxi could speak, Tao Jingxing kicked her viciously off her chair. Tao Jingcheng dragged her toward the small, dark room. "Get in there! Just looking at you ruins my appetite!")

Li Zhaoxi took a deep breath. "You all saw that, didn't you? That's what my two years in the Tao household were like. That's what they meant when they said they worked so hard to raise me for two years!"

Tao Mother was shocked. "Weren't these videos recorded in my house? Who recorded them?"

"Oh, those." Yan Wen smiled. "I specifically sent some technical professionals to your house to recover the surveillance footage Tao Niannian deleted. No need to thank me!"

Li Zhaoxi sniffed. "These videos are all real. They show what the Tao Family did to me over these past two years. I never did anything, yet they constantly beat and berated me. During my two years in their house, I never had enough to eat or enough clothes to keep warm. I also developed a severe stomach condition, malnutrition, and severe anemia."

"No, they're fake! They're all fake!" Tao Jingxing roared in protest.

Li Zhaoxi sneered. "Don't you know perfectly well whether they're fake, Young Master Tao? You left this scar on my leg with a whip. Surely you haven't forgotten?"

Li Zhaoxi bent down and rolled up her right trouser leg. On the outside of her calf was a scar half the length of a forearm. "I've never dared to wear skirts. Even in summer, I can only wear long sleeves and trousers because I'm afraid people will see the scars covering my body. You call me an ungrateful wretch, so let me ask you—what have you ever given me since I returned to the Tao Family?"

The Tao Family could not answer. Whether they felt guilty was unclear. Li Zhaoxi continued, "You gave me a body covered in wounds. You gave me a sickly, weakened body. You gave me two years without a single ray of light!"

Tao Mother finally lost control. She covered her mouth and began to cry. "I'm sorry, Xixi. I'm sorry. I didn't know. I didn't know you'd suffered so much..."

"Did you not know, or did you not want to know? Mrs. Tao, every time Tao Niannian lied to you, you had the chance to check whether it was true. But you only listened to her and believed her. Whenever Tao Niannian said I'd bullied her, you beat and berated me without even trying to find out what happened."

Tao Jingcheng hastily grabbed Tao Niannian's wrist. "Niannian, is all of this true? Did you falsely accuse Xixi? Did you throw yourself down the stairs? Tell me, is it true?!"

Yan Wen felt nothing but contempt. Go on, keep calling her Li Zhaoxi if you've got the nerve. Why switch to Xixi now? Disgusting.

Xiao Qi thought, With face-changing that fast, the traditional performing arts are saved!