Her background revealed: she was actually rich?!

When Xie Mi woke up again, she was in the hospital.

She vaguely recalled the madness before she lost consciousness.

Wait.

Cloud City...

Since novels weren't allowed to use real place names, many authors made slight changes to existing ones.

So Cloud City was Yunnan, and what they'd eaten were wild mushrooms!

That made even less sense!

In the original novel, Xu Shuangrong had clearly brought back ordinary mushrooms. The author had even specifically explained that they were the most common kind sold on the market.

Why had they become wild mushrooms this time?

Recalling Xu Shuangrong's smile as she handed her the mushrooms, then connecting it to how Xu Shuangrong had deliberately eaten less at the table, claiming she wanted to lose weight...

Everything became clear.

The changes in the plot had also changed Xu Shuangrong's behavior. She was supposed to bring ordinary mushrooms, but she had brought wild ones instead.

Everyone knew mushroom poisoning caused hallucinations, which could lead people to do all kinds of unexpected things. That was especially dangerous for public figures.

One slip could shatter their public image, or they might blurt out some little secret and bring their entire career crashing down.

What a vicious move, Xu Shuangrong.

Fortunately, Xie Mi's reputation was already in ruins, so she didn't have to worry about that.

Munching on an apple, Xie Mi took out her phone and saw a message Director Niu had sent to the guests' group chat.

It said that because all the guests had been poisoned, the doctors recommended two days of rest. Filming would therefore be suspended, and the production crew would send a car to pick them up in two days.

Holy shit, this was awesome! In a way, she even had Xu Shuangrong to thank.

She opened Weibo. The internet was already having the time of its life.

During the half day they had been unconscious, footage of their dramatic mushroom poisoning episode had spread everywhere. Everyone even had their own individual clip compilation.

The chaos-loving crowd churned out fan edits and memes like crazy, sending Love Watch hurtling down the road of unhinged variety television with no hope of turning back.

Their popularity had soared.

Their dignity had vanished.

Apparently, Qiu Chengye had been the first to wake up and leave the hospital. Someone online had spotted him furiously kicking a roadside trash can over, then pointing at the television station and cursing it out for half an hour.

Xie Mi burst into duck-like laughter again.

"Quack, quack, quack, quack-"

"Did we come to the wrong place? Why's there a Donald Duck in this hospital?" a middle-aged woman's voice suddenly asked outside the door.

Xie Mi: "?"

Then a young man's voice followed. "Mom, don't mention Donald Duck. Copyright infringement."

"Oh, right, right. They'll sue me in a minute. Anyway, is this the room?"

Whoosh-

The hospital room door swung open, and a middle-aged woman walked in, wearing a fiery red dress and covered in extravagant jewelry.

Behind her was a young man around twenty, dressed in a bespoke shirt and suit vest, with silver-framed glasses.

"Well, well, my darling daughter. Long time no see." The woman's scarlet lips curled high as she sashayed toward her.

"If you wanted to leave, you should've just gone abroad and stayed there forever. Wouldn't that have been nice? But no, you had to become a celebrity, prancing around on TV and getting cursed at. How can you be such an embarrassment?"

Her voice was sharp and cutting, her smile brimming with unconcealed malice.

The man wore the same contemptuous smile. "An embarrassment," he said softly.

Xie Mi: "?"

Who was this giant turkey?

"What? Gone stupid?"

Li Meiyan sneered. "If your dad hadn't told me to pick you up, I wouldn't have bothered coming. Tell me, why didn't that knife kill you last time?"

Dad?

She had a dad?

Xie Mi narrowed her eyes and racked her brains, finally pinpointing a passage buried in her memories of the original novel's long, tedious text.

{To follow in Xiao Jingxi's footsteps, Xie Mi had insisted on entering the entertainment industry despite her family's objections, severing ties with them in the process.

But she didn't care. She had never liked that family anyway. Her mother had died young, and her father had never cared about her. Her vicious stepmother only bullied her when her father wasn't around, and her stepbrother was dangerous too...}

The original novel had only mentioned Xie Mi's family situation in passing, so she had almost forgotten about it.

Xie Mi sized up the woman before her again. The diamonds covering the woman sparkled, and Xie Mi's eyes sparkled right along with them.

She was rich, too!

"Wh-what are you smiling about?"

Li Meiyan frowned and took two steps back, quietly asking Xie Lian, "What's wrong with her? Is she still poisoned?"

"The doctor said the symptoms have already disappeared," Xie Lian replied in a low voice.

"Then what's her problem? She used to bawl in terror whenever she saw me. Why isn't she crying today?"

"Maybe... she's been scared stupid?"

While the mother and son whispered to each other, Xie Mi had already taken out her phone and opened a text she had received two days earlier.

[Hungry and Happy Delivery]: Dear customer, the 0.5 yuan payment due this month for your installment purchase of Longjiang Pork Knuckle Rice (installment 2/10) is now overdue. Please deposit the full payment and late fee into the designated debit account as soon as possible. Otherwise, this will be recorded in your personal credit history and adversely affect your credit.

[Xie Mi]: Could you give me another two days? (sobbing)

Even the mighty Xie Mi had fallen on hard times.

But...

Looking at the mother and son before her, Xie Mi slowly broke into an evil smile.

An umbrella delivered when it rained, a meal delivered when she was hungry. Wasn't this exactly the help she needed in her hour of need?

Li Meiyan was still quietly plotting with Xie Lian.

"It took so much effort to drive her out back then. How could we possibly let her come back? Your dad told me to pick her up, but if I threaten and scare her a little like before, she definitely won't dare come-"

"What are you muttering about?"

Li Meiyan looked up and met the girl's smiling eyes.

"Holy shit! What's wrong with you, getting so close?!"

"I think I just heard something pretty shocking."

Xie Mi tilted her head, smiling brightly and innocently. "My dear old dad asked you to take me home, but you're trying to pull something behind his back?"

Li Meiyan froze for a moment, then quickly recovered and sneered. "I'm not stopping you from coming back. But do you dare? Don't forget what your life in that house used to be like. You'd better think it through..."

"What's there to think about? I'm going back. Right now."

Li Meiyan looked utterly incredulous. "Xie Mi, don't push your luck. I've made myself perfectly clear. If you dare-"

"Hello, police? Someone's stopping me from going home..."

"Fine, fine, fine! We're going now! Right now, okay?!"

Half an hour later, Xie Mi stood before a European-style estate as luxurious as a castle, smiling blissfully.

Happiness really was that simple.

"You really can smile, huh?" A male voice suddenly sounded behind her.

Xie Lian slowly walked up beside her and gazed at the mansion ahead, dark currents swirling in his eyes behind his glasses. "You seem to have forgotten. This place was once the hell you wanted to escape more than anything."

"Then I really didn't know how good I had it."

Xie Lian: "?"

Xie Mi turned to look at him, a faint smile playing at her lips. "Don't worry. Starting today, this place will be my heaven."

"Or rather."

"Your hell."