Chapter 49: A Beauty Beyond Compare
After listening to Jiang Xiaoyuan’s bold declarations, Miss Fan paused for three seconds, then smiled.
She had honed her skills to perfection: when she wanted someone to cry, they would cry; when she wanted someone to laugh, they would laugh. It was exceedingly easy for Miss Fan to shatter the fragile egos of these young and insecure individuals.
There was no need for her to argue or criticize; just a slight, helpless shake of her head and a hint of exasperation on her face could reflect any unreasonable behavior back to the other person.
Jiang Xiaoyuan understood her body language.
With her elegant smile and refined appearance, Miss Fan was subtly expressing: “My goodness, how can there be such an oblivious fool in the world? She doesn’t even blush when saying such foolish things.”
This effortless contempt felt like a feather weighing a thousand pounds—anyone who experienced it would feel a sharp pain, like developing a neck cramp from the pressure.
Only Jiang Xiaoyuan stood downstairs, her face calm, seemingly unfazed.
It couldn’t be helped; after all, she had lived in houses far more beautiful and elegant than this small two-story building, met people far more successful than Miss Fan, and had seen countless strivers mocked by people like her.
If there was any difference between the Jiang Xiaoyuan who had crossed over from another time and space and the original tough, intelligent country girl, it was that she clearly knew what kind of people these so-called “elite” were behind their pretentious facades.
“Auntie,” Jiang Xiaoyuan calmly retorted, “The reason you can’t do it is that you’re already old. There’s nothing left in the future for you to look forward to. Are you really upset about Jiang Bo’s divorce? Or are you simply realizing that the one person you thought you could keep forever is slipping away, leaving you with no one in the end? Is that why you’re clinging to the pet you’ve controlled since childhood?”
Jiang Bo was utterly shocked and looked up at Jiang Xiaoyuan—how did she know so much?
Jiang Xiaoyuan didn’t explain.
“Are you a pet?” she ignored Miss Fan, whose face had turned pale from being struck by her words, and looked directly at Jiang Bo. “If you still see yourself as a human being, use those legs of yours and walk down from that disgusting staircase. She’s a full head shorter than you, yet you let her hold your leash, not even remembering to resist… Mr. Jiang, don’t look at me like that. I have no issue with you. You’re stronger than me, better than me, and you’re my senior, my teacher. I’m in no position to criticize you—but don’t you despise yourself?”
Jiang Bo’s hand jerked back, breaking free from Miss Fan.
Jiang Xiaoyuan looked deeply into his eyes. “Come down.”
Jiang Bo involuntarily took half a step forward.
“Stop!” Miss Fan’s sudden sharp voice nearly pierced the ceiling, sending a shiver through the room.
Jiang Xiaoyuan wasn’t confident in her own voice and estimated she wouldn’t win a shouting match. So she raised her leg and kicked the wooden staircase hard, causing a loud “bang.” “Come down!”
… The sound was impressive, but her toe almost went numb from the impact.
Miss Fan: “Don’t forget who his legal guardian is, Miss Jiang. Don’t you know the law?”
Jiang Xiaoyuan barely suppressed her grimace, secretly wiggling her toes as she spoke in a haughty tone, “Oh, I’m just a high school dropout makeup artist. I don’t know much, but I’ve never heard of a man pushing forty who still needs a legal guardian—how about this, why don’t you call the court, and we can both get lawyers and attend a legal education session together?”
After her retort, she turned to Jiang Bo, who now looked like a gaunt ghost.
Perhaps most people are drawn to strength. When Mr. Jiang was strong, it was easy to admire him, even overlook his flaws. But compared to that, his current ghostly appearance somewhat diminished the image Jiang Xiaoyuan had of him.
But as she looked at him, she suddenly remembered things from her own childhood.
Her parents—the ones in her original time and space—didn’t raise her. Sometimes, she wouldn’t see them for weeks, leaving her with a secret fear of abandonment during her formative years.
One day, she complained to her nanny, “I might as well run away from home.”
The nanny, an uneducated middle-aged woman, responded bluntly, “Who’s going to take care of you if you run away? Planning to beg on the streets?”
Jiang Xiaoyuan was still young at the time, and this comment triggered a vivid imagination. She conjured up tragic images of herself begging and cried under the covers for three days. From there, she spiraled into all sorts of irrational worries—
What if her parents divorced and neither wanted her?
What if they had an accident and there was no one to take care of her?
What if they had another child and didn’t love her anymore?
Each time she thought about it, she would break down in tears, terrified, and would be in a state of panic all day long. She even vowed to die first if that day ever came to avoid suffering.
She grew up and stopped having such wild thoughts, but the fear never really left. When she found herself penniless in an unfamiliar world, nearly begging for survival, she realized that all her childhood nightmares had come true.
But she didn’t die. Instead, she jumped and scrambled her way through it, like a flea.
“Mr. Jiang, do you plan to keep kneeling there or come down by yourself?” Jiang Xiaoyuan softened her voice. “The studio renovation plan is nearly done, but you’re the majority shareholder. It needs your final approval. There are many things I can’t decide. Could you come down and take care of business?”
Jiang Xiaoyuan: “You’re the one who said this studio has to succeed no matter what. Are you planning to go back on your word?”
With every word she spoke, Jiang Bo’s vacant gaze sharpened a little more, as if someone was slowly stuffing his soul back into his lifeless body.
When she finished speaking, the room fell silent for a few seconds before Jiang Bo suddenly moved.
He slowly pulled down his hat brim, took a step forward, and actually began walking down the stairs.
“Stop!” Miss Fan’s pupils shrank, and she suddenly shrieked, “Jiang Bo, who am I doing this for? Who took you out of the orphanage? Who gave you your first hot meal? Who gave you your name, your identity, your status? Were all those things you said to me lies? Didn’t you promise you’d never leave me for the rest of your life? Are you really going to be so ungrateful?”
The veins on her temple bulged, and her entire face twisted. The once carefully sculpted features, refined by Jiang Xiaoyuan, had now shifted out of place. She looked like a skinless demon, about to peel off her skin and reveal a mouth full of sharp, jagged fangs.
Jiang Xiaoyuan was quite entertained by her hysterics—people like Miss Fan only show their monstrous side when they are truly at a disadvantage, much like a video game boss that goes berserk when its health is almost depleted.
At the same time, she felt a bit worried, wondering if Miss Fan might actually become violent.
Jiang Xiaoyuan knew she was all talk—she could only fight with words, and in a physical altercation, she’d defini:tely lose. She glanced at Jiang Bo, who looked as fragile as a reed swaying in the wind, and worried “If things get physical, can I even count on this guy?”
Jiang Xiaoyuan had initially planned to add fuel to the fire once Miss Fan started going hysterical, but her moment of hesitation made her miss the opportunity. However, Jiang Bo suddenly spoke up.
He lowered his gaze to the ground, carefully walking down the stairs without looking back, and said softly, “I will take care of you in the future.”
In this house, Jiang Bo had been like a ghost under a spell, silently watching his terrifying foster mother and the combative Jiang Xiaoyuan go back and forth. Now that he finally spoke, the two women fell silent.
Jiang Xiaoyuan frowned—no wonder, despite how incompetent and clueless she had been in the past, Jiang Bo had still been willing to pay her out of his own pocket and give her a month-long trial period. Beneath Miss Fan’s ferocious exterior, there was probably a soft-hearted saint underneath.
Miss Fan snapped out of her shock and, realizing her loss of composure, took a deep breath, trying to salvage the situation.
Miss Fan: “Those people you know, your biggest clients, aren’t they all connections I introduced to you? Now that you’ve quit your job at the school and started your own studio, who do you think you’re going to rely on? Without me, do you think small-time clients will be enough to keep your studio afloat? Don’t be naive.”
Jiang Bo paused briefly on the stairs. He extended one bony hand and gripped the wooden banister. Jiang Xiaoyuan stood about three steps away, and she could see the chiseled expression on his gaunt face—it was one of immense pain and coldness, so cold it bordered on venomous, yet there was a trace of tragic determination.
He was like a snake, ready to bite its enemy even if it meant being crushed.
He spoke up in a calm tone: “Mom, you don’t know this, but I’ve lost contact with most of the people I’ve mentioned to you. Recently, the business I’ve been developing has mostly been out of town… The reason the studio is set up here is that I got some information from a friend. They said the local government is about to allocate some land for a film production base. The land has already been prepped, and construction is about to start—it’s a matter of two or three years at most. I just want to be close to the action.”
Jiang Xiaoyuan: “…”
Even she didn’t know about this.
Jiang Bo: “I’m not living off you.”
Miss Fan was dumbfounded, completely unprepared for such a rebuttal. She stood upstairs, suddenly appearing old and frail. After a long pause, her lips trembled: “I’m the one who raised you.”
Jiang Bo gave her a look, both sorrowful and joyful: “You destroyed me, Mom. I just managed to find a way out from the ashes.”
With that, he walked down the stairs, bent down, picked up Jiang Xiaoyuan’s toolbox, and softly said, “Let’s… let’s go.”
When he uttered the word “go,” his voice seemed torn, as though leaving this place with legitimate reason was still incredibly difficult, as if a devout believer had suddenly committed blasphemy. Despite everything, he was still trembling, filled with disbelief.
Suddenly, Miss Fan rushed down the stairs in a few quick strides: “Stop, you can’t leave! I am your legal guardian! You’re not even a whole person, you have no right…”
Jiang Xiaoyuan: “Will you ever stop with this same old nonsense?”
Almost simultaneously, Miss Fan roared her final words: “You’re not even a real man!”
Their voices overlapped, and Jiang Xiaoyuan’s mind buzzed. She abruptly turned her head and saw the blood drain from Jiang Bo’s face, as if he had been pierced through the heart. In that instant, he could barely stand.
Just then, Jiang Xiaoyuan’s phone rang.
Startled for a moment, she saw that the caller ID was Qi Lian. She snapped out of it and answered the call.
Qi Lian: “Why haven’t you come out yet?”
Jiang Xiaoyuan blankly asked, “Why haven’t you left?”
Qi Lian ignored the stupid question and calmly asked, “Are you in some kind of trouble?”
Her mind, which had been paralyzed by Miss Fan’s outburst, finally began to turn again. She glanced at Miss Fan and replied into the phone, “Someone won’t let us leave, claiming she has guardianship. Do you think she’s joking?”
Qi Lian: “Yes, you’re right—now, hand her the phone.”
Jiang Xiaoyuan was momentarily stunned, but out of a certain inexplicable trust in Qi Lian, she turned and handed the phone to Miss Fan: “It’s for you.”
Miss Fan glared at her and snatched the phone from her hand, looking with disdain at Jiang Xiaoyuan’s off-brand smartphone.
Despite its low status and modest price, the phone was quietly dignified and didn’t leak sound. Jiang Xiaoyuan only heard Miss Fan ask, in a displeased tone, “Who are you?”
She could no longer make out their conversation.
During this call, Miss Fan, after a brief greeting, only asked three questions. The second was, “Who exactly are you?” and the third was, “You’ll all regret this.”
Whatever Qi Lian had said, Miss Fan’s face grew uglier and uglier, to the point where she looked almost monstrous. Her freshly manicured nails dug viciously into the phone’s body, leaving a long scratch on the plastic casing.
Jiang Xiaoyuan silently thought, well, that’s it, my little phone that I bought with my scrimping and saving is doomed.
But surprisingly, it wasn’t. A minute later, Miss Fan walked up to her, threw the phone violently into her arms, and snarled, “Get out!”
Then she grabbed a cup from the table and smashed it at Jiang Bo’s feet, the spilled water soaking his pant leg.
Miss Fan: “Get out! You’ll regret this! If you walk out that door, you’ll regret it, do you hear me?”
Jiang Xiaoyuan didn’t hesitate anymore. She grabbed Jiang Bo’s arm, feeling as though he were weightless, like a flagpole swaying in the wind, and with a single tug, he followed her out.
It might have been a problem with the villa’s design, but the lighting in the living room on the first floor was terrible. As soon as they stepped outside, the sunlight was so blinding that it was hard to keep their eyes open. Jiang Xiaoyuan raised her hand to shield herself and dragged Jiang Bo quickly toward the road, where Qi Lian’s car was still silently waiting at the corner.
Jiang Bo then shook off Jiang Xiaoyuan’s hand—she had already noticed that when not working, Jiang Bo seemed to dislike physical contact with others, whether men or women. She had always thought it was some kind of germaphobia, but now it seemed more psychological.
“Whose car is that?” Jiang Bo asked, tiredly.
“Our future investor’s,” Jiang Xiaoyuan shamelessly replied, carefully avoiding the topics from earlier. “Do you want to check out the studio?”
“Not today. I’m tired. I just want to rest.” Jiang Bo said, handing the toolbox to Jiang Xiaoyuan, and nodded toward Qi Lian, who had half his face visible through the car window.
Jiang Xiaoyuan: “But…”
Before she could finish, Jiang Bo had already turned, hands in his pockets, walking away from the villa alone. There was something delicate about him, as though he was neither fully alive nor dead. Even under the blazing sun of midsummer, there wasn’t the slightest warmth about him, just as he had described—he had crawled out from the ashes.
He had become a man shaped by ashes.
Jiang Xiaoyuan was just about to chase after him: “Hey…”
But Qi Lian suddenly interjected: “Xiaoyuan, get in the car.”
Jiang Bo’s figure quickly rounded a corner and disappeared from view. Jiang Xiaoyuan could only awkwardly climb into Qi Lian’s car, anxiously thinking about the words that old hag had said to her earlier.
“Heavens,” she thought in embarrassment, “Will I be silenced for knowing too much? How will I ever face Mr. Jiang again?”
What bothered her even more was that, until this moment, she couldn’t remember the final name they had decided on for their studio. With such poor recognition, how could they ever become the best in the universe?
Fidgeting with the edge of her seatbelt, Jiang Xiaoyuan asked Qi Lian, “Once a business license is registered, can the name still be changed?”
“Yes, you just need to register it,” Qi Lian replied. “What do you want to change it to?”
“A Beauty Beyond Compare” nearly rolled off Jiang Xiaoyuan’s tongue, but at the last moment, she held it in, saving her dignity as a normal person in front of Qi Lian. She let out an awkward laugh and didn’t answer, swallowing her bold idea and savoring it alone.
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