Chapter 96 - If anything, it was his father's fault for trying to save that money and now he had to suffer the consequence (3)
The bedroom door opened up at this moment, and Li ShiZe walked out. His tie wasn't completely tied yet, giving him an unruly look. When he saw the angry look on his father and Jiang YaGe with her watery eyes, his face dropped right away.
He took a step forward and stood in front of Jiang YaGe in a protective stance. "Dad, what are you doing to YaGe? Are you blaming her? You are the one who is at fault here. YaGe was the innocent one. How can you be blaming her?"
Seeing him coming out of Jiang YaGe's room, Li WangJin's eyeballs were about to pop out of his sockets from anger. "What is the relationship between the two of you?" Even though Li WangJin had doted on Jiang YaGe as though she was his daughter, it had never crossed his mind for her to become his daughter-in-law. Li ShiZe was his very important son, and he'd need to marry someone who was worthy of him in the future. Not someone like Jiang YaGe who'd only hold him back.
After all, daughters and daughters-in-law were not the same.
That thought was especially true now that his son was taking a stance against him for her. This double whammy made all of Li WangJin's blood rush to his head, and he almost couldn't remain standing upright.
Li ShiZe said loudly and clearly, "She is my girlfriend.
"I would not let anyone hurt her and that includes you."
Li WangJin almost spit out a mouthful of blood. He looked at his cold son in disbelief and clutched his own chest.
"You...both of you get the h*ll out of here!"
What kind of a person was Li ShiZe? His entire life had gone smoothly with no hardships whatsoever. He immediately struck back. "I bought this house." The subtext was, this was his house and if anyone must leave, that would be Li WangJin. He didn't even have start up capital because of this house.
Li WangJin could not believe how unfilial Li ShiZe was. His eyes widened, and then everything went black in front of him. He had passed out.
Everything was hectic after that.
***
Fang JunRong knew nothing of the drama that had just taken place at the Li's. She frowned upon reading the explanation from Li WangJin. Not even a three-year-old would believe in his cruddy excuse.
Li WangJin obviously was well aware of this as well, which was why he straight up locked the commenting section under Weibo, so he didn't have to look at them. It might have kept his Weibo page nice and clean, but the netizens, not having an outlet for their opinion, went straight to Ayron's official Weibo.
Fang JunRong, who had been watching everything unfold like a joke, focused a lot of her energy in the company. According to its official website, pre-orders of Beautify Pills has already reached 20,000 units. That was way more than they had originally anticipated.
Sun Mei even gave her a call and asked whether she'd need some help advocating about how Li WangJin had cheated on her.
To a certain extent, Sun Mei was an interesting character. Even though she had previously spread the words about Li WangJin's cheating all over the place, she had smartly never sent the video clip to anyone else. At most, she'd show it to them. At this point in time, Fang JunRong and herself were the only two individuals who have a copy of the video clip.
That was probably why she was still scot-free up to this point.
Fang JunRong thought about it for a little bit and said, "Let's wait on that. Wait until I am launching my next new product."
She has already viewed Li WangJin as her free marketing scheme by now.
Granted, she had also promised Sun Mei that she would give her internal-only Beautify Pills when the time came. The products online were made of mystical spring water that was diluted 10 folds and even the internal version was diluted 5 folds. That was part of the reason why Sun Mei had flipped sides and befriended Fang JunRong now.
On September 8th, Beautify Pills was launched officially. That was also the first day of school for Li XinYun. Fang JunRong had further announced that there would be a 10% discount across the board to celebrate the first day of school for her daughter. The discount would be for one day only, and the discount would also be applied to any pre-orders that were placed before today.
Even though 10% off wasn't a lot, it did stimulate the sales a little. By September 9, they had sold around 40,000 boxes of Beautify Pills.
It only took one round of treatment with the Beautify Pills for the result to show. Seven days later, when the words of mouth spread, there would be no worries about the sales. All in all, this was a good start, and it was mostly attributed to Li WangJin and Jiang YaGe.
Had they not done what they've done, she'd have to spend money on advertisement.
She thought about it for a little bit, unblocked Li WangJin temporarily, and sent him a text.
[I want to thank you and Jiang YaGe for sacrificing yourself to save me the advertisement cost. Just for that, I have decided to temporarily forgive everything that you have done to me in the past. You two are too nice.]
Finally, she was able to collect on some interest from her previous life.
After she sent the text, she blocked Li WangJin all over again and felt much better.
~~~~~~
Chapter 97 - Perhaps, adopting her was the first of his mistakes (1)
Li WangJin woke up at the hospital. He looked around. Lao Sun, his chauffeur, was the only one there looking after him. Neither his unfilial son nor Jiang YaGe could be seen anywhere.
Recalling the incident before he lost consciousness, he felt his chest tightening again. All the anger returned at once, and his voice was gloomy when he asked, "Where's that evil spawn of mine?"
One could tell from his word choice of "evil spawn" how angry he was this time.
Hearing that, Lao Sun had on an awkward look. "Young Master left with Young Miss. He thought you feigned your fainting."
It was Lao Sun who finally couldn't bear it anymore and took his boss to the hospital.
Li WangJin was so angry that his face turned beet red. He felt that if he had died, it would be from anger caused by his unfilial son. When he was going through the divorce with Fang JunRong, Li ShiZe would stand on his side as he defended Jiang YaGe. He had enjoyed that back then. Now that he had become Li ShiZe's target, he couldn't even describe how that made him feel.
At this very moment, his feelings had oddly overlapped with that of Fang JunRong's in her previous life.
How was it that the son that he had always been proud of turned into someone so unrecognizable?
Li ShiZe was his own son. He couldn't even outright disown him. As for Li XinYun, she was a daughter. Li WangJin never considered her as an option to be a successor.
If disowning Li ShiZe wasn't an option, he'd have to educate him.
He snickered. That son of his. He thought he was strong enough now to treat his own father this way? Then, it's time to let him know that he was just a nobody without the status as the successor of Ayron Corporation.
The company had finally made some profit in the last couple of weeks and money finally wasn't as tight as it was before. With the pressure of finance being lifted some, he was now able to spare some time in teaching his unruly son a lesson.
He made a few calls and gave his commands coldly.
"Freeze all of his cards."
He wanted to see what else he could do without money! And then there's that Jiang YaGe...
He, once again, recalled the look of Wang SiEr. She was smiling tenderly at him in his memory, as though she was lending him support wordlessly.
As much as Jiang YaGe looked like her mother, in the end, she didn't have her mother's sparkling personality. She had the appearance, but not what was inside. She even instigated his son to go against him. He trusted that even Wang SiEr would be very sad if she knew that her daughter had turned out like this.
Then he thought about Wang SiXian. She too, was a pitiful person. She had lost her beauty because of Jiang YaGe. She now stayed quietly at the hospital everyday like a body without its soul.
He was suddenly startled. In certain perspective, Jiang YaGe was a sh*t magnet. Her parents died in an accident; her aunt lost her beauty because of her; even Wang Xiao, whom she only met for the first time, turned into a handicapped person because of her, which had subsequently brought about his series of revenge. And, ever since he had adopted her, his business at his company hadn't been as good as it was before and he further ran into one issue after another. On the flip side, Fang JunRong, who had a poor relationship with Jiang YaGe was getting better and better by the day. Her stupid Beautify Pills was super popular the day it was launched.
Perhaps, adopting her was the first of his mistakes. It was time to put a stop to his loss.
A cold look flashed past his eyes. By now, he had completely forgotten how excited he was for Jiang YaGe to join them just two months ago.
Suddenly, his cellphone vibrated. He looked down at it. It was a text from Fang JunRong. He hesitated for a little bit before he clicked it open and read it.
After he read the content of the text, veins could be seen throbbing on his forehead.
"How dare she!?"
~~~~~~
Chapter 98 - Perhaps, adopting her was the first of his mistakes (2)
At this very moment, Fang JunRong was inside of Jiang WenYu's laboratory.
She didn't even blink when she looked at Jiang WenYu. "You mean to tell me that you have already figured out ways to grow qixing (previously referred to as: phymatopsis trisecta) and qingxia?"
She had previously retrieved these two herbs from her dimension and had Jiang WenYu analyze their composition and see if he would be able to find any substitutes for them. She didn't have high hopes on it, but thought she'd just give it a try anyway. She was prepared that this would be a long journey. She never would have thought that Jiang WenYu would be able to deliver her such great news in less than a month.
The Zhang's in her previous life had totally taken this pearl as fish's eyeball.
Wonderful. Now this pearl belonged to her!
With her looking at him that way, Jiang WenYu felt oddly embarrassed and felt that his ears were burning a little. With a slight blush on his face, he suppressed his peculiar emotion and refocused on the task at hand. He said to her seriously, "Yes, I have noticed that qixing and qingxia will survive if you place some gems around them and not die off in three days like they used to."
Truth was, he only figured that out because of the jade that he had been wearing all the time. He had tried many different ways previously but neither the qixing nor the qingxia survived more than three days with the exception of the one that he brought around with him day in and day out studying it.
Jiang WenYu knew that his jade necklace had special abilities, so he took it off to research it some more. Sure enough, when the two types of plants were around his necklace, they would be able to survive. He continued with his experimentation and learned that it didn't have to be his necklace, any other types of gemstones would work as well, though the effect wasn't as significant. The higher quality the gem, the better the result. As to where Fang JunRong found these two plants from, he had no intention to ask.
He omitted the part about his own necklace when he recounted his experience to Fang JunRong.
After Fang JunRong had heard him, she had on her a big smile. She has no shortage of gemstones! She even bought a lot more right before the divorce just to mess with Li WangJin. Interesting how they became useful now.
She thought about it for a little bit and said, "We can try planting them in a field to test out your theory. Let's just make sure we bury the gemstones way deep."
Even if others could steal the plants, they wouldn't be able to figure out the ways to grow them. She suspected that gems themselves possessed some sort of mystical qi. They may not be strong, but still enough to support these two types of plants. It would be a lot of investment at the beginning, but compared to the benefits that they would eventually reap, this was nothing.
"You have been working so hard lately. Thank you so much," said Fang JunRong with her deepest sincerity. She decided to give Jiang WenYu a big raise.
Jiang WenYu, on the other hand, wasn't too happy with his finding. Frowning slightly, he said, "Still not enough. They may be able to survive, but the active ingredients in them are of a lower quality and the final products also aren't as good as yours."
Fang JunRong felt a little bit ashamed of herself. All she could say was that Jiang WenYu had a higher standard than she did. All she wanted to do was to be able to mass produce the three types of medications, so they would benefit more people.
She remembered the white jade cream. Yunying (previously astragalus sinicus), required for the making of white jade cream, was also from the dimension. Perhaps, they could try to grow it using the same method.
She'd leave that to the professional. Fang JunRong had a lot of faith in Jiang WenYu on this matter.
~~~~~~
Chapter 99 - Perhaps, adopting her was the first of his mistakes (3)
She suddenly recalled something. Speaking of, Jiang WenYu's family, the Jiang's, as medical doctors for generations, also have formulas that have been passed down for several hundreds of years. One of the most famous was their Bone-Reattaching Cream. Their effects were unquestionable but also extremely expensive. A small bottle of one would run upwards of 10,000 yuan. Not a small amount for a normal family. The Jiang's had been very established over the years from the profit of this product.
Fang JunRong trusted that her White Jade Cream could only be better than their Bone-Reattaching Cream. When her product hit the market, she'd sell them for cheaper than theirs just to spite them. She hasn't forgotten how Zhang Bi poisoned her in her previous life and made her a very mentally unstable person.
***
Right this moment, Jiang YaGe was at work. After school had started, she found a job as a tutor for a high school student through a fellow schoolmate in her activity club to make some extra money. That was the last resort. She didn't think that Li WangJin would be so upset that he even stopped hers and Li ShiZe's credit cards.
ShiZe didn't have a lot of cash lately and was busy looking for investors. As a very considerate girlfriend, naturally Jiang YaGe couldn't be more of a burden for him and should at least earn her own expenses. She even sold off a few of her purses as his start up capital. Unfortunately, they were but a drop in a bucket.
She recalled her lifestyle just a month ago. It was still clear in her head. Going from a lavish lifestyle back to a frugal one is dangerous. She found her frugal lifestyle particularly difficult now. She had no choice but to encourage herself: ShiZe was mighty. Once his career started to take off, they could go back to their previous lifestyle.
No, wait. That wasn't why she was dating him. She truly liked him as a person.
She dragged her exhausted body back to the dormitory. The soundproofing of the dormitory wasn't that great. She could hear the cheerful voices of her roommates.
"Yan-er, your skin looked so much better than it was before! Is that really the effect of the Beautify Pills? Had I known, I would have gotten one myself too! They were already sold out on their official website. It will be another week before more becomes available."
"I've spent every penny I made over summer on this. I got three boxes!" Jiang YaGe's roommate bragged contently.
"Say, should we ask YaGe? Isn't she the Li's adopted daughter? Maybe she can help us get some."
"Yeah, right. Haven't you seen all the drama on Weibo? Jiang YaGe's relationship with that Boss Fang was awful, alright? Why else would she get on the show trying to set her up? She looks so innocent normally but is so conniving deep down inside. Boss Fang had already adopted her and that was her way of repaying her."
"Boss Fang doesn't recognize her as her adopted daughter, she only recognizes Zhong Yi. Look at Zhong Yi now. She is so different than she was last semester. Now she walks and talks like a lady from a prestigious family. And look at Jiang YaGe, she still has to work part-time for money. You can figure out her status at the Li's."
Jiang YaGe's hand that was resting on the doorknob trembled and tears came rolling down her cheeks. No, that wasn't who she was. They didn't know anything. They only spoke kindly of Fang JunRong because she was rich.
Society is too cruel.
She couldn't stay in this dormitory any longer.
She turned to leave and ran all the way to Li ShiZe's office. It's been a few days since she had last seen him. He was good-looking and handsome as usual, but his aura had changed a lot. He was elegant and prideful in the past and always calm and charming no matter what happened. Now, with all the recent obstacles that he had been running into and all the hardships, he was irritable and ill-tempered.
The halo that had been shining down on him seemed to have dimmed.
"YaGe." Li ShiZe looked up at her and his eyes were bloodshot.
He was a privileged one. Him becoming like this for her made her feel both proud and disappointed. The Li ShiZe that she liked was the confident and mighty one.
Sniffling, she looked fragile and heart-broken in front of him as she said to him, "ShiZe, why don't you go home? Apologize to Dad and Mom. You are their son. They wouldn't really disown you. I don't want to see you like this because of me. You are a prideful male eagle and shouldn't break your wings because of me. It is my fault. I am pulling you down."
She had to choke back tears toward the end but her voice was very decisive.
~~~~~~
Chapter 100 - For the sake of their future, she was willing to suck it up and sacrifice herself (1)
Yang MeiHua was standing in front of the mirror. She was stroking her very smooth and flawless cheeks. Her eyes were filled with disbelief.
Ever since her teenage years, she always had pimples. She had tried different kinds of pills and skincare products but nothing seemed to help. And, she didn't know any better when she was young and would always pop her pimples. That had left a lot of pockmarks on her face. She wasn't bad looking, but the pockmarks made it difficult to see that. It had given her an inferiority complex. She had spent a lot of money over the years, but nothing was effective in improving her skin condition.
That was until she saw the drama between Jiang YaGe and Fang JunRong unfolded on the web. She was in the same class as Jiang YaGe and never liked her much. Every time when it was their turn to do the cleaning, Jiang YaGe would always pick the easiest of all tasks. When they didn't do a good enough job and were criticized, everybody would say she did a bad job. Nobody had ever once said that Jiang YaGe was in the wrong. That was all because Jiang YaGe was pretty and was the type that men liked.
That was why she pulled the trigger and placed the order for three boxes of Beautify Pills when she saw that Fang JunRong's company had released the product. Her parents doted on her and provided her with plenty of cash for school. She could afford three boxes if she just tightened her belt a little. She already liked Fang JunRong's company just from the fact that they had given Jiang YaGe a bad time.
She was only going to try it first, but the result after a week had exceeded her expectations. The pockmarks on her face had become much lighter in color. Even her skin tone had become a few shades lighter and she had become more attractive instantly. What sort of magical pills were these?
888 yuan was a steal. It was practically the price of a liquidation sale. These pills were worth at least another 0 at the end of their price.
After she had finished appreciating her look in the mirror, she quickly fished out her cellphone and wanted to order another five boxes. Unfortunately, when she navigated to the official site, all she saw was that they were all sold out. She was gravely disappointed.
"Why did Meifang sell so little of them? They need to replenish their inventory!"
After she had griped about it some, her hand seemed to have a mind of its own. She went into her account and confirmed receipt of the products before she left a 5-star rating and a long review singing the praises of the Beautify Pills. Of course, she did not forget to urge them on the official site to quickly restock. She wanted to buy more to share with her friends and family.
Luckily, she still has two more boxes of them. By the time she finished her two remaining boxes, all of the pockmarks on her face should be gone and she'd truly have flawless skin.
Humming, she walked out of the bathroom.
Her roommates came up and surrounded her as they all asked at the same time.
"MeiHua, do you have any more of those Beautify Pills? I will buy a box from you. I am offering you 12x the price that you've paid!"
"And I am offering you 15x!"
Yang MieHua's lips twitched, and she said, "Didn't you guys say I was paying IQ tax when I placed my order?"
"You have such great insights. How could we ever measure up to you? Pretty please? I will be going to ComicCon next month and I will be cosplaying. I need to go there with my best self!"
Everybody surrounded her, flattered her, and they have all given MeiHua a big head. Except that she couldn't part with the pills herself as well... As for the amount that they were offering, that she didn't care about. Instead of money, her relationship with her roommates was more important.
She gritted her teeth and said, "You know that my skin isn't as good as yours, so I need to continue the treatment. I can't spare more than 1 box."
"OOOOOOOH! Starting from today, you are my real sister from different parents!"