Free Web NovelChapter 12: Chapter 12: Guaranteed to Teach, No Refunds if Scammed
Gu Zhao tilted her head and looked at her, completely baffled. "I’m not stopping you from eating! If you’re in such a hurry to lie in your coffin, then go ahead."
"You can’t just drag them along with you because you’re scared of being lonely on the road to hell."
"Zhaozhao, Yibao doesn’t mean any harm. If there’s a problem, we can talk it out civilly," Tang Yuexuan said with a frown.
Tang Yueying’s eyelid twitched, and she stomped on her sister Tang Yuexuan’s foot.
Seeing someone stick up for her, Ye Zuiyi’s eyes welled with tears. She explained in a choked voice, "Sister, I know you hate me. You think I came back and stole our brother, and Mom and Dad, but I never wanted to fight with you over anything."
"And I certainly didn’t want to harm anyone. This is water celery; it’s edible. I just wanted everyone to have something to eat..." The more she spoke, the more aggrieved she sounded, and tears began to fall.
[OMG! What is Gu Zhao doing?! Ye Zuiyi was just trying to get food for everyone, so why is Gu Zhao being so passive-aggressive?!]
[Gu Zhao doesn’t care if people are starving, and now she’s stopping them from eating. Her behavior is so bizarre!]
[Ye Zuiyi called Gu Zhao ’sister’! Is this some kind of rich-family catfight? So exciting!]
[You can tell from the "brother" and "Mom and Dad"! These two are definitely related. I’m waiting for the full story!]
Ye Zexi’s face turned livid. His eyes wide with rage, he raised his hand and slapped Gu Zhao across the face.
But he wasn’t finished. In a cold, merciless tone, he said to Gu Zhao, "We can’t stand you because you’re a malicious person! You keep trying to hurt Yibao, again and again. The Ye Family has no place for a menace like you!"
Ye Zuiyi hid the flash of glee in her eyes, her expression a mask of urgency and worry. "Brother..."
The others: ???!!!
Gu Zhao clutched her slightly swelling cheek, stunned for a second. Then, she was furious!
"You think I won’t bite back?! You think I’m just some piece of trash?!"
Gu Xulin was furious too. "Who the fuck do you think you’re hitting?!"
A vicious look on his face, he slammed a fist into Ye Zexi’s cheek. Still not satisfied, he grabbed him by the collar and drove a knee hard into his stomach.
Ye Zexi had no chance to fight back, his face turning pale.
Zhong Siqi deliberately waited until the beating was over before stepping in to "break it up." "Brother Lin, stop, stop..."
Gu Xulin shoved Ye Zexi to the ground in disgust.
Ye Zuiyi’s face was also pale. She threw herself over Ye Zexi on the ground and started crying. "Brother, SOB, it’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have come back, WAHHHH."
Gu Zhao looked around for a weapon, finally scooping up a handful of mud from a puddle and flinging it at Ye Zuiyi’s face. "If you’re so shameless, you might as well cover up your face! Who do you think you’re playing the victim for?!"
"Do you dare tell them why I’m targeting you?! Wasn’t it you who came to me, acting all high and mighty, and said that when you came back, I, the ’fake heiress,’ would be kicked out? That I was just an unwanted little bitch."
"Fine, call me a bitch! I’ll be the biggest bitch you’ve ever seen and cut you down to size!"
Cursing furiously, Gu Zhao was still so angry that she dug up another handful of mud and threw it in both of their faces.
"It’s bad enough running into you on a variety show, but you just keep pushing yourselves on me! Can’t you tell I want nothing to do with you?!"
"If your eyes don’t work, just throw them out! Don’t even think about donating them—you’d just be cursing someone else!"
"You can’t even tell the difference between water celery and poison hemlock! And you were going to let everyone eat it? So we can all end up in coffins together?!"
[Wait, Ye Zuiyi keeps saying she’s innocent, but she was the one who ran her mouth and provoked Gu Zhao first? This whole thing is wild!]
[HOLY CRAP! We’re getting a live look at a rich-family true-vs-fake heiress catfight on a variety show! By the way, can any experts weigh in? Is that water celery or poison hemlock?]
[It’s poison hemlock. Water celery leaves have serrated edges, like cilantro. Poison hemlock leaves are longer and thinner, like carrot tops. The plant on the show is clearly poison hemlock.]
[Even if they had issues before, isn’t Gu Zhao going too far by throwing mud and yelling insults?! Look how scared Ye Zuiyi is!]
[Gu Zhao literally said eating it would put them in coffins, but Ye Zuiyi didn’t ask why. Instead, she just brought up their past issues. Something felt off from the very beginning, like she was deliberately trying to get people to speculate.]
Zhong Mingrui patted his chest with the gravity of a world-weary old man. "My life... has been spared."
Zhong Siqi shot him a look. "Let’s see if you’re still so eager to eat just anything you find."
Zhong Mingrui: "You bet!"
The director’s voice came through one of the small broadcast drones. The situation had probably gotten too ugly for the viewers, so he was asking if they wanted to temporarily go offline to handle it.
Gu Xulin’s hand twitched, and he ruffled Gu Zhao’s hair. "It’s a private matter. No need."
Ye Zexi was too ashamed to ask for outside help, so he just stayed silent with a dark expression on his face.
And so, the farce came to an end.
Gu Zhao thought that after this whole mess, Ye Zuiyi and her brother would leave. As it turned out, she had underestimated their shamelessness.
A little while later, Ye Zuiyi brazenly approached Gu Zhao to apologize, acting as if nothing had happened.
Gu Zhao: ...
’Oh, heavens above! Oh, dear Earth! You can’t torture a person like this!’
’I hit her, she cries, and then she shamelessly comes back. I yell at her, she still cries, and she still shamelessly comes back.’
’Is this the legendary shamelessness of a pampered female lead?!’
’This is just pure torture!’
Gu Zhao ignored Ye Zuiyi’s apology and stalked forward, her face dark.
Tang Yueying looked at Tang Yuexuan, whose face was pale with fright, and sighed. She hurried forward to walk beside Gu Zhao.
"Gu Zhao... I’m sorry... My sister doesn’t mean any harm. She’s just a bit of a... naive idiot..." She thought for a long time before coming up with that term to describe her own sister.
Gu Zhao waved her hand dismissively. "She’s her, you’re you."
The meaning was clear: she would judge the two of them separately.
Tang Yueying pressed her lips together and said no more, simply following beside Gu Zhao.
Tang Yuexuan followed with her head down.
Incredibly, Ye Zuiyi also started following, pulling Ye Zexi along with her. Gu Zhao didn’t dare yell at her again, afraid that after crying, Ye Zuiyi might start fawning all over her.
Zhong Mingrui followed listlessly, his stomach rumbling. He had secretly finished off his cookies the night before.
"Bro... I’m so hungry."
Zhong Siqi: "Just hang in there a little longer."
"I knew it. Following you just means I’m going to starve," Zhong Mingrui said aggrievedly, rubbing his empty stomach.
He looked around, hoping to find something to eat, and his gaze landed on a nearby tree.
"Brother! Food!" Zhong Mingrui shouted happily.
Everyone looked over and saw a large beehive in the tree.
Gu Xulin frowned. "If you get stung by those... you could die, right?"
Gu Zhao: "But it looks so delicious."
"Yeah, yeah! It looks so sweet! If I could just have a taste, I can’t even imagine how happy I’d be!" Zhong Mingrui licked his lips.
Then he looked at Gu Zhao with pleading eyes.
’He had already figured it out. Sister Zhao was the Big King of animals!’
Seeing that Gu Zhao wanted to eat it, Gu Xulin hesitated. ’The kid has been pretty well-behaved...’
’She hasn’t killed anyone or set any fires... Maybe I should figure out a way to get her a bite?’
"How about I throw you up there, you take a bite, and then we go straight to the hospital?" Gu Xulin said with a completely straight face.
Gu Zhao’s face fell. "You’re so great. You should open a ’Scamming Academy.’ The brochure can read: ’Lessons guaranteed. You’ll definitely learn. No refunds if you get duped!’"
Gu Xulin burst out laughing, looking particularly smug and unrestrained.
Gu Zhao: "I’ve decided I’m going to make you watch me eat it!"
With that, she walked toward the beehive.
