The Cold, Aloof Dominatrix After Parasitically Entering a Rich Family - Chapter 61

Chapter 61: The Pawn: “You offended me twice, so I gave you two…”

Gong Shayu was in a stock option incentive meeting when she received a call from Xu Zhixia.

She hung up, and the phone rang again. This time, it was Weng Hongye.

Gong Shayu signaled for everyone to take a ten-minute break before continuing the discussion.

“Busy again?” Weng Hongye’s disappointed voice came through the receiver. “Busy on the weekend, busy after work. Didn’t you have a cold? Why are you still pushing yourself so hard?”

Gong Shayu was in a good mood and playfully scolded him: “You know I’m busy, yet you still disturb me?”

Weng Hongye feigned grievance: “That’s unfair of you. Big Bro specially flew over from the other side of the world to celebrate your housewarming.”

“Spare me the drama.” Gong Shayu knew she couldn’t avoid him. Thinking she should introduce Tu Si to them first, so she wouldn’t be bored at the Grandmother’s birthday banquet in a few days, she conceded: “Tonight. Come to my place.”

Weng Hongye gave an exaggerated “Yo!” “Now that sounds like a human being talking.”

She hung up Weng Hongye’s call, and it rang again. This time, it was Xu Zhixia.

“Young Master Weng said you were busy this weekend, but would I be disturbing you tonight?” Xu Zhixia asked thoughtfully.

At the mention of “weekend,” Gong Shayu’s mind flashed back to a collection of censored scenes, and she uncharacteristically stammered: “Ahem, ah, yes, I was quite busy this weekend. Tonight is fine.”

…

The moment Tu Si got into the car, humming an off-key tune, her small face drooped: “Why did you come to pick me up?”

Since Blind Wei “incidentally” calculated Assistant Tan’s career, Tan Ke’s attitude toward Tu Si had done a complete 180-degree turn.

Hearing this, she wasn’t even annoyed: “President Gong is quite busy tonight.”

She then added: “It seems she’s having a meeting about employee stock option incentives. It’s quite complicated, Miss Tu… You helped me a lot last time. Correspondingly, if you have any questions that don’t compromise President Gong’s interests or excessively probe her privacy, I will tell you everything I know.”

Tu Si didn’t know what “tell you everything I know” meant, but she felt that Tan Ke’s attitude toward her was much better than before.

Assistant Tan prepared for various tricky questions Tu Si might ask. To her surprise, Tu Si only asked her: “So what time will she be back?”

Tan Ke: “…”

“Well, I genuinely don’t know. My main task tonight is to take you home, and then later…”

Here, Tan Ke paused. Last time, when she drove Xu Zhixia home, she saw her reaction upon hearing about Gong Shayu’s marriage. Even with Assistant Tan’s slow emotional radar, she could tell Xu Zhixia had inappropriate thoughts about her boss.

“Tonight, President Gong’s cousin, as well as a friend of hers, will be coming to Yufu.” Tan Ke decided to remind her even if she didn’t ask: “Xu Zhixia. Do you know her?”

Tu Si shook her head: “I don’t know her.”

Good. No celebrity halo. No pressure.

“She’s a very good friend of President Gong. I hear they attended kindergarten, primary school, junior high, and high school together…”

Tu Si: “Oh.”

Tan Ke: “Oh”? Just “oh”?

With this IQ, how did she manage to catch President Gong?

“Ahem, she and President Gong are very close, extremely close. The kind that, well, you know?”

Tu Si nodded seriously: “I know. As close as you and her.”

Ah, forget it. Tan Ke gave up on the spot, thinking that if Xu Zhixia made things difficult for Tu Si later, she would try to help her a little as a way to repay the favor.

…

When the red plum, blooming alone by the wall, catches one’s eye, it signals that winter has truly arrived.

Tu Si felt her energy was noticeably lower than before. She just wanted to lie down on the sofa and sleep when she got home.

“Miss Tu, why don’t you go back to the bedroom to rest? It’s easy to catch a cold here,” Li Ma, the cook, kindly reminded her.

Tu Si: “It’s fine. I like sleeping on the sofa. That way, I’ll know when Jie-jie comes back.”

Li Ma smiled. Her eyes held the unique affection of an elder: “You and Miss Gong have such a good relationship.”

This experienced nanny was specially selected by Weng Fangshu. She didn’t live in the house and was quite familiar with Gong Shayu’s habits.

She usually tried to do her housework when Gong Shayu wasn’t home. Today, hearing that there were guests coming, was the first time she really met Tu Si.

Li Ma placed the osmanthus milk tea she prepared for Tu Si on the side table. She enjoyed talking to Tu Si, finding that the pretty young girl had a comforting aura, like a small flower blooming in the winter wild—gentle yet resilient.

Tu Si sat up, took a big gulp of the tea, and let out a satisfied sigh: “Li Ma, what do you mean by a ‘good relationship’?”

Li Ma just smiled, handing Tu Si two small shortbread cookies: “A good relationship… Oh, be careful!”

Before she finished speaking, Tu Si reached for the cookies, her sleeve inadvertently knocking over the milk tea cup on the side table. The remaining half-cup of milk tea spilled out, rolling down her sleeve onto the carpet.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Tu Si subconsciously apologized.

Li Ma froze at the sound, her eyes instantly welling up. She had worked in several celebrity mansions and met many famous people, but not a single one had shown as much respect as this young girl who apologized for accidentally spilling milk tea.

Li Ma: “You go change your clothes. It’s my fault. The milk tea was too sweet… I’ll brew a new cup.”

Tu Si smacked her lips, thinking it wasn’t sweet at all, but since there was more milk tea to look forward to, the Cuscuta spirit didn’t bother correcting Li Ma.

…

The glorious living room, with its walls full of smiling faces, seemed to be emitting merciless laughter. Every corner of the lips was curved into a perfect arc, yet they felt like curved knives slicing at Xu Zhixia’s heart.

Her gaze fixed on the photo directly above the violin—a back view of two people.

She was extremely familiar with Gong Shayu’s back, but in this one, she saw a strange new softness.

Her shoulder was slightly inclined toward the person next to her, no longer the cold rejection of a determined refusal. Her neck was still slender, and her spine was held as straight as before, yet it gave the impression of a willingness to embrace thousands of things for the person beside her.

Xu Zhixia unconsciously clenched her fists, her nails digging deeply into her palms. Anger and jealousy burned through her, so much so that she didn’t realize when a person had quietly appeared behind her.

“Hello,” Tu Si greeted Xu Zhixia very politely.

She was casually wearing loungewear, her hair still damp from a recent wash. She seemed to exist on a different layer than the meticulously dressed Xu Zhixia.

Yet, it was precisely this nonchalant posture and sense of effortless comfort that silently proclaimed who the true owner of the house was.

“Is that you?” Xu Zhixia turned around, staring fiercely at Tu Si.

“!” Staring at me?

Tu Si copied her, staring back, her tone identical: “Is that you?”

“?”

Xu Zhixia: “…When did you get to know Shayu? I’ve never heard her mention you before!”

Tu Si: “When did you get to know Shayu? I’ve never heard her mention you before!”

Xu Zhixia was certain Tu Si was intentionally provoking her and became even angrier: “Are you sick?”

Tu Si didn’t copy her this time. In fact, the Cuscuta spirit hadn’t deliberately imitated her; it just so happened that the question Xu Zhixia asked was one she wanted to ask the other party.

“You are being impolite. Breaking into someone else’s house, not greeting, and swearing. You are not welcome here,” Tu Si said haughtily.

Xu Zhixia sneered, slowly walking toward Tu Si, stopping one meter away: “Do you know who I am? Do you know why this violin is broken?”

Tu Si didn’t want to talk to her, but out of politeness, she still shook her head.

“And why I learned the violin?” Xu Zhixia ignored Tu Si’s reaction and plunged into a whirlpool of her own memories: “Hmph, let me tell you why: because Shayu liked it.”

Her voice gradually took on a morbid tenderness: “From kindergarten, we were inseparable. She liked the violin, so I learned it with her. She liked blue, so my schoolbag was always blue. Look! I specifically wore a blue dress today.”

Tu Si suppressed her physical discomfort and commented fairly: “It’s quite pretty.”

“Even that violin hanging there was chosen by me for her. That period was the happiest time for us, practicing together, competing together.”

“Every important moment in her life involved me. Every step of my growth had her shadow. Until, until her sister had that accident. Her sky changed color, and my sky changed color too.”

Xu Zhixia’s tone shifted sharply: “So, I desperately lived to be her ideal person. All these years, I practiced the violin day and night, searching the world for famous teachers, just to stand at the peak of the next competition. Because that was where Shayu wanted to go. I went there for her.”

Suddenly, Xu Zhixia let out a sarcastic, cold laugh, her eyes becoming sharp: “Do you think she married you because she likes you? You are nothing but a mere pawn in her plot to seize the Gong family—”

“Slap! Slap—”

Two crisp slaps abruptly interrupted Xu Zhixia’s words. Tu Si had moved so fast, she was already right in front of her, her movements leaving only an afterimage.

Symmetrical red marks quickly swelled on Xu Zhixia’s fair cheeks. She was completely stunned.

Tu Si bowed to her: “I’m sorry. Jie-jie told me that if someone offends me, I can slap them, and Assistant Fang will handle any issues. You offended me twice, so I gave you two.”

With that, Tu Si held up two fingers, the gesture much like the “V for victory” sign.