Chapter 11
"What?"
Li Peirong thought Zi Yi had finally caused some trouble and felt at ease. She instantly put on a worried expression. "She has been home all day and hasn't gone out at all."
Zi Xu could no longer suppress his excitement as he spoke in an airy voice, "The He family from the capital called me. Their fourth son is interested in her, so they want her to make a trip to the capital and meet the family asap."
"What?"
Li Peirong's heart skipped a beat. She found it unbelievable. "Did you make a mistake? How could she be acquainted with Young Master He?"
She specially introduced people to Zi Yi to lead her down the wrong path, so Zi Yi's circle mostly consisted of privileged brats or hooligans.
Li Peirong was 100 percent in control of Zi Yi's social circles.
Zi Xuan's heart was filled with contempt. Zi Yi was a good for nothing. Birds of a feather flock together, so what good could the fourth son of the He family be?
"Xu, are you sure? Does he really like Yiyi?"
"I'm positive. Their butler personally called me."
Zi Xu was still reeling in the joy that they were about to get to know the He family. He urged Li Peirong, "Go tell Yiyi to get ready. We're going to the capital tomorrow."
Li Peirong tightly clenched her hands at her sides. She felt so angry that she gnashed her teeth.
The He family from the capital was an elite family. Although their clan was important in City S, they could not compare to them. What right did that little b*tch have to marry into their family?
Li Peirong's heart contorted thinking about it, but she pretended to be happy as she said, "Okay. I will talk to her now."
...
Zi Yi spent the day reading through the syllabus for senior high. Since she was an Interstellar Trooper with a top-level mental power, having a photographic memory came naturally to her.
Someone happened to knock on her door, after she was done finishing all the past year's papers for the college entrance exam.
Zi Yi walked over to open the door and saw Li Peirong standing outside.
A maternal expression radiated from Li Peirong's face. "Yiyi, you have spent the entire day stuck in your room. You must be really bored, right?"
Zi Yi looked at her with a distant expression.
Li Peirong was caught by surprise. She thought Zi Yi must be giving her this cold attitude because she did not help to defend her last night. A sad expression instantly appeared on her face.
"Yiyi, are you angry that I didn't help you last night? Your father was too angry, so I did it for your own good. If I said too much, he might have ended up even angrier."
She wanted to take Zi Yi's hand and continue brainwashing her.
Zi Yi tilted her body sideways slightly and narrowed her eyes as she asked, "Yes?"
Although her voice was soft, it felt like a crushing weight on Li Peirong's heart, so her hand froze.
"Yiyi..."
Li Peirong felt that Zi Yi's reaction was unusual. However, she could only suppress her curiosity and focus on the matter at hand, so she naturally pulled her hand back and asked, "When did you get acquainted with Young Master He, the fourth son of the He family from the capital?"
"Who's that?" Zi Yi felt puzzled.
Li Peirong was perplexed. "Does that mean you don't know him?"
"I don't know him."
Zi Yi was certain that the original owner of the body did not know the guy.
Li Peirong noticed that Zi Yi did not seem like she was lying, so she felt relieved. She put on a fake smile as she said, "He must have seen you without you realising it. Since you are pretty, it's only natural that he fell for you, but..."
She swiftly got to the point. "If Young Master He wants to marry you, would you agree to it?"
Zi Yi looked into Li Peirong's eyes. She felt that ancient people were certainly an intriguing lot; they were such great masters of hypocrisy.
Zi Yi pursed her lips and said nothing as she looked at Li Peirong and waited to see what she was actually trying to say.
Chapter 12
Zi Yi was being completely abnormal. In the past, she would have kicked up a huge fuss if she encountered such problems. Why was she so quiet today?
Li Peirong's sense of uncertainty rose up in her heart once more.
She asked in concern, "Yiyi, are you unwell or upset? If you are unhappy, you must tell me. Don't keep it to yourself."
A knowing look swept across Zi Yi's eyes as she pursed her lips and looked at Li Peirong.
She was certainly a fantastic stepmother and it was no wonder that the original owner of the body would end up such a good for nothing.
Li Peirong thought she had guessed correctly, so she thoughtfully comforted her, "It's okay. If you don't want to go to the capital, I can talk your father out of it."
"Who said anything about not wanting to go to the capital?"
Li Peirong would never allow her to marry into the He family, so the marriage proposal was the least of her concerns.
Since the examination for the Metropolis University's independent enrolment was taking place in a couple of days, she naturally wanted to go.
The moment Zi Yi finished speaking, she walked out of the room, past Li Peirong who was standing in the doorway, and closed the door behind her before heading downstairs.
Li Peirong frowned as she looked at Zi Yi from behind.
What on earth happened to her yesterday that would lead to such a huge change in her personality?
She decided to ask some of the people that she had planted beside Zi Yi.
Zi Yi happened to hear Zi Xu call out to the rest of the Zi family when she got to the staircase.
From the sound of his voice, it seemed as though Zi Yi was about to marry into the He family immediately and it was time to celebrate.
Zi Yi came downstairs to catch Zi Xuan's look of ridicule.
She spoke mockingly in a soft tone, so that it was inaudible to their father, "You are only useful for a political marriage."
Zi Yi pursed her lips and suddenly said, "Dad."
Zi Xu pulled the phone away as he looked at her and could not stop smiling as he said, "I will take you to meet the He family tomorrow. If you perform well and they like you, you can marry into their family and make our family proud."
Zi Yi looked at him with her bright and beautiful eyes. "Are you planning on selling me to obtain glory?"
"What are you saying?" Zi Xu did not see this coming at all. His face immediately flushed in fury.
He gritted his teeth as he asked, "Who told you that?"
Considering his daughter's IQ, there was no way she was capable of coming up with such a conclusion.
Zi Yi pointed at Zi Xuan. Zi Xuan looked on in disbelief as Zi Yi said, "She did."
Zi Xu was instantly furious.
Li Peirong was observing Zi Yi when this transpired. She suppressed the shock on her face as she hurried over.
She beat Zi Xu to it and scolded Zi Xuan, "How could you say that? Have you gone daft from all that studying? No dinner for you tonight. Go back to your room and reflect on what you have said this instant!"
Zi Xuan wanted to defend herself. "Mom, I..."
Li Peirong looked at her sternly. "Go this instant!"
Zi Xuan glanced at Zi Yi with her eyes fuming as she stood up and headed upstairs.
Zi Xu and Li Peirong brainwashed Zi Yi by telling her how wonderful it was to marry into the He family.
Zi Xu even promised her by saying, "If you perform well when we meet the He family, I will tell the assistant to activate your cards and you can spend the money freely."
However, with every peace offering came a threat. "If you don't do well, you can forget about taking a dime from me. Since you are a lousy student, you can work at my company."
Zi Yi looked at Zi Xu as she pursed her lips without answering.
Zi Xu and Li Peirong thought she was just startled.
Li Peirong said to Zi Xu, "Yiyi is such a good kid. How could she perform badly? Stop scaring her."
She suggested, "Why don't we go to the capital the day after tomorrow? That way I can bring her shopping for some new outfits tomorrow."
That way, she could find some way to prevent the He family from taking a liking to her.
Zi Xu finally recalled the awful clothes Zi Yi owned. He sensed a headache coming on and rubbed his temples. "Okay. Take her out and get her some nice clothes tomorrow."
Chapter 13
The next morning, the Zi residence living room was full of people.
In Zi Xu's generation, there were three brothers and two sisters in total.
One of his sisters married into an elite City S family. The other sister was married to the Chen family who was as influential as the Zi family.
Even though the Zi family was looked up to in City S, they were far less influential than the capital's true elites.
Now that they finally had the chance to get backing from a powerful family like the He clan and had a chance to break into the capital's market, they naturally felt thrilled.
The men headed to the study the moment they arrived, while the women kept on praising Zi Yi nonstop.
Her eldest uncle's wife said, "Yiyi is the best for making Young Master He fall for her."
The wife of her second uncle chimed in, "It really helps for girls to have good looks. No one else in City S can compare to Yiyi's beauty.
Her fourth aunt said, "We can sit back and enjoy the high life after she marries into the He clan."
Her youngest aunt said, "I told you Yiyi is destined to have a good life with good looks like hers."
Even though they were bursting with envy, they praised Zi Yi on the surface.
Li Peirong felt upset, but she kept chiming in with her sisters-in-law.
All their daughters sat without saying a word. They glanced at each other from time to time with envy and disdain.
The only thing praiseworthy about that idiot was her good looks!
Zi Yi stood by the staircase to admire their micro-expressions before she headed back to her room. The moment she turned around, she made eye contact with Zi Xuan who was coming out of her room with her backpack.
Zi Xuan was clearly still angry about what happened last night. The moment she saw Zi Yi, she threw a temper. "Are you happy now?"
Zi Yi smiled ambiguously. Her face that was free from makeup was flawless, rosy, delicate, and smooth. Her slightly upturned eyes were particularly mesmerizing. It was both harmoniously innocent and sexy.
In comparison, Zi Xuan had been studying till the wee hours of the morning and had just three hours of sleep before she woke up to start it all again, so she had severe dark eye rings, her skin was dull and she had a few zits.
The sisters were simply worlds apart.
"There's nothing for you to be cocky about. How could a family as powerful as the He clan be interested in an idiot who hasn't even graduated from senior high?"
Zi Xuan stared at her face and cruelly mocked, "Other than your face, you are absolutely useless!"
The moment she finished her words, she wanted to turn and leave.
Zi Yi suddenly grabbed Zi Xuan by the wrist, when she came close by, and pinned her against the wall.
Zi Xuan could not help feeling afraid. "W-what are you doing? If you hit me, I'm going to shout."
"Go on." A shred of coldness emanated from Zi Yi's eyes as she analyzed her with composure. "I am the most important person in the family right now. What would they do if I suddenly said that I don't want to go to the capital because you hurt my feelings?"
"W-what do you want?" Zi Xuan was just a nerd and was not as tall as Zi Yi, so it was futile for her to struggle.
Although the moment she heard what Zi Yi said, she felt annoyed.
A cold smile suddenly appeared on Zi Yi's face. "You pissed me off. What do you think I want to do to you?"
She punched Zi Xuan.
"You... Ahhhh!"
Zi Xuan's piercing scream penetrated through the entire villa and immediately caught everyone's attention downstairs.
"What?"
"What happened?"
The moment everyone saw Zi Xuan squatting on the ground wailing as she held her belly, all eyes instinctively turned to look at Zi Yi as she calmly stood by.
Everyone promptly realized what happened.
Li Peirong's eyes reddened as she darted over to hold Zi Xuan and asked anxiously, "What's wrong? You're scaring me."
Chapter 14
Zi Xuan was breathless from crying and incapable of finishing her sentence.
Everyone looked at Zi Yi reprovingly.
Li Peirong almost could not conceal her fury as she asked with a stiff expression, "Yiyi, why did you hit your little sister?"
Zi Yi looked at Li Peirong's face that was on the brink of contorting, before she unhurriedly retrieved her phone from her pocket. She pressed a button and Zi Xuan's ridicule could be heard.
"There's nothing for you to be cocky about. How could a family as powerful as the He clan be interested in an idiot who hasn't even graduated from senior high? ...Other than your face, you are absolutely useless!"
Everyone looked uneasy when they heard what Zi Xuan said.
How could she have said such things to Zi Yi at a time like this?
Zi Yi was dumb, but how could Zi Xuan be just as stupid?
Zi Yi said calmly, "She was right. I am not fit to marry into the He family."
Everyone was shocked.
If Zi Yi refused to cooperate, how could the Zi family gain such powerful relatives?
Their eldest and second uncle's wives and both aunts scolded Zi Xuan in unison.
"Xuanxuan, how could you have said that about your older sister? Don't you want our family to succeed?"
"Precisely. What's wrong with Yiyi? She has an edge because she was born pretty. Anyway, Yiyi is still young. Even if she gets engaged to Young Master He first, she can continue her studies."
"Have you gone bonkers from studying? How could you talk to your older sister so rudely?"
"Yiyi, don't take what she said to heart. If you can marry into the He family, you can have anything you want. Don't you love spending money? The He family is far richer than us, so you can buy anything you want after you get married."
Zi Yi crossed her arms and smiled as she listened to everyone trying to convince her that it was a good idea to marry Young Master He, while Li Peirong hugged her daughter.
Li Peirong hated Zi Yi to the core. An evil thought suddenly rose in her mind. If some other girl from the Zi family was married into the He family, it would not affect the clan's plans. However, her husband would beat Zi Yi to a pulp for disappointing him.
A sinister look swept across Li Peirong's eyes before she whispered to Zi Xuan, "Stop crying. Apologize to her and go to school. I will take care of her."
She stood up and pulled Zi Xuan up with her.
Zi Xuan's face was flushing from everyone's reproving. Now that she heard what Li Peirong said, she felt even more humiliated. However, she was no fool and knew that she had to give in, so she lowered her eyes to conceal her hatred as she said to Zi Yi, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
The moment she finished speaking, she took her school bag and ran downstairs.
"Xuanxuan knows she shouldn't have done that. I apologize on her behalf as well. I will take you shopping now. If there's anything else you want, we can get it while we're out."
Since Li Peirong spoke so nicely, Zi Yi would seem unsensible if she continued to be angry about it.
Zi Yi looked at Li Peirong's seemingly sincere face and saw that everyone was siding with her and helping to speak up for her. She calmly looked at them without arguing.
All of them headed to the designer boutiques located at the city center.
After Zi Yi picked out a few casual outfits, she left it to the women to choose the rest while she sat in the lounge playing with her phone.
She casually broke through the code exchange of two hackers on her phone.
They were talking about a well-defended company.
"Lu Group?"
"What are you doing?"
Zi Lian sat down next to her.
Zi Lian was the daughter of Zi Yi's second uncle, she was the third child of this generation and was 24 years old. Since she was great at making herself look good superficially, she was well-accepted in the elite circles.
Zi Yi turned her head to glance at her calmly before she veered her eyes and continued reading the hackers' conversation.
[Someone offered 200 million dollars to crack through Lu Group's second firewall. Does anyone want to take the job?]
[Just 200 million? They are renowned for having a top-notch security system. Cracking through every layer of security means hell. The mortal realm is a beautiful world, so I have no interest in taking a walk in hell. ]
Chapter 15
Zi Lian curiously angled her head to take a glance when Zi Yi kept playing with her phone.
She did not know what Zi Yi was doing on her phone and purposefully asked, "Are you playing a video game? This game looks so complicated. You are really cool for playing such a hard game."
However, she sneered in her heart about how useless Zi Yi was. Despite being a lousy student, Zi Yi sure knew how to have fun.
Zi Yi turned her head sideways to glance at Zi Lian. The look in her eyes made Zi Lian feel uncomfortable.
She had a feeling Zi Yi was silently calling her an idiot.
Zi Lian inhaled deeply and told herself not to lower herself to Zi Yi's level, in case she ended up as stupid as her. She acted as though nothing happened and asked, "I'm curious about how you met Young Master He. Why don't you tell me about it?"
Zi Yi read as the hackers kept gossiping about how insanely secure Lu Group's security was and replied without even looking up, "I don't know him."
"..." Zi Lian went quiet.
Zi Lian continued to breathe deeply. She was starting to grit her teeth a little behind her smile. "You must be joking. Why would he suddenly want to marry you if you don't know each other? Don't tell me he fell in love with you at first sight and wants to marry you?"
If that were true, Young Master He must have fallen for her beauty.
Zi Lian felt that she was pretty too. She was also more thoughtful and feminine than Zi Yi.
A bold thought suddenly crossed her mind as she pondered.
If she could visit the He family with them, the family would definitely like her more than Zi Yi. All she needed to do was put in a little effort and Young Master He might just fall for her.
Zi Yi glanced at Zi Lian as she gave an imperceptible smile.
Li Peirong and the rest of Zi Yi's female relatives helped to select a whole bunch of outfits. After they went home, they were still worried and kept reminding Zi Yi to be on her best behavior and that the future of the clan was now in her hands.
Everyone stayed until 9:00 pm before they finally left.
After the relatives had gone home, Zi Xu called Zi Yi to the study and suddenly asked, "Do you want to marry into the He family?" He sounded as though he was seeking Zi Yi's opinion.
Zi Yi looked at him and asked rhetorically, "Would you turn them down if I said no?"
"No." Zi Xu frowned and felt displeased with her answer. "If you don't go, I will send you to a girls' boarding school to receive some proper discipline. That means three years of your life without any freedom and only studying. Do you want that to happen?"
Zi Yi stared at Zi Xu.
Zi Xu could not help feeling nervous. He softened his tone a little and said earnestly, "I know you like having fun, so I didn't restrain you all these years. Think about it. I can't let you live without restraint for your entire life, right?"
"You have to marry one day. Since Young Master He is the future head of the family, you will definitely become the mistress of the family if you marry him."
"We might look influential in City S, but we are nothing in the capital. Any one of those powerful families in the capital can finish us off just by wagging their fingers."
Zi Xu said thoughtfully, "I'm doing this for your own good."
The moment Zi Yi heard this, she laughed in her heart. That was well said. If the original owner of this body was around, she might have just bought it.
Zi Yi said, "The He family might not pick me."
"If you stay on your best behavior, I won't blame you if they don't pick you." Zi Xu was confident about Zi Yi's stunning good looks. He finally added, "Don't put on thick makeup when we visit the He family."
Zi Yi pursed her lips. "Okay."