Chapter 16: The Vase Actress Who Was a Fake Heiress in Modern Society (16)

"You are not Xiandu, who are you!" Mother Jiang tried to pull her hand away from Jiang Youan's, but because she had just regained consciousness and her body was still very weak, she could only push it aside.

On the base of Jiang Xiandu's left thumb was a scar, sustained when she had accidentally cut herself while mixing reagents in the laboratory. The cut had been deep, nearly severing the nerve.

This was a secret known only to Jiang Xiandu and her mother.

"Old Jiang, what is going on? What happened to Xiandu? Could it be... could it be that Xiandu has had an accident?"

Mother Jiang's emotions instantly spiraled out of control, and the equipment beside the hospital bed immediately began to alarm.

"Huimin! Huimin, don't get excited. Xiandu is fine, she's perfectly fine, there was no accident." Father Jiang comforted her, trying to help her calm down.

"...Then what happened?" Mother Jiang looked at him.

Father Jiang's eyes darted away, searching for a way to cover the truth.

"Jiang Lei!" Mother Jiang shouted at him, causing the instruments to sound their alarms again. "Tell me the truth! Otherwise, if I find out later, I will never forgive you!"

Father Jiang had no choice but to tell her everything, though he omitted the origin of N-39.

"...So, you just threw Xiandu out of the house like that?" Mother Jiang said angrily, tears streaming from her eyes. "For the sake of me, who might never wake up, you could just watch your daughter die? Jiang Lei, how cruel your heart is—cough, cough, cough!"

The more agitated she became, the louder the alarms blared. Finally, Mother Jiang coughed up blood and collapsed back onto the bed, reaching out with her hand as she faded into unconsciousness, whispering something.

Father Jiang was frantic. He leaned his ear close to her lips and heard her whisper weakly:

"...Xiandu, I want to see Xiandu."

"Alright, alright! I'll go find her right now!" Father Jiang promised quickly.

Hearing his answer, Mother Jiang drifted into an unconscious state, seemingly at peace.

Jiang Youan stood where she was, head bowed, lost in thought.

...

Today's scene was a pivotal one. It depicted Huang Yueliang, who, after living in the resort for a while, began to feel that things were becoming increasingly eerie and attempted to flee by car, only to fail.

"Three! Two! One! Action!"

Huang Yueliang ran to the car like a madwoman; she could no longer care about anything else.

She had come to this rural resort to relax. At first, it had indeed been the perfect place to soothe her highly strained nerves. The environment was beautiful, the people were simple, and she had even learned weaving from the elderly. Life had been simple and comfortable; she had even considered settling down there.

When had it started to feel wrong?

First, there was the feeling that people around her were always watching her. She had dismissed it as paranoia. Then, her earrings, lipstick, and even her silk scarves and clothes would go missing, only to be found torn to shreds in the river the next day. Finally, she began waking up in different places without any memory of moving, though her clothes remained perfectly intact.

Huang Yueliang had even installed a surveillance camera in her room.

However, the footage showed that she had never left the room!

Suspecting the footage had been tampered with, she used her phone to record herself sleeping and tied herself firmly to the bedpost with hemp rope. Yet, the next day, she woke up in a new location, with the marks of the rope still on her wrists!

She rushed back to her room to check the footage. It showed her sleeping restlessly, but the moment the clock hit midnight, space itself seemed to distort for a split second. She vanished from the frame, and the rope fell to the floor.

No! She absolutely could not stay here any longer!

Huang Yueliang grabbed her car keys, but because her nerves were so frayed, she failed to insert the key into the ignition several times.

"Click—"

It finally went in. She let out a small sigh of relief, but she could not let her guard down—she hadn't left this eerie place yet. She wasn't sure what was in this resort or if the villagers were accomplices. She didn't dare to gamble.

So, she had stayed awake all night, even resorting to self-harm to keep herself alert, just to escape during the gap between dawn and the villagers waking up.

Good, the car started, the tank was full, and she had checked it the day before. She could make it back to the city!

Huang Yueliang breathed a little easier. Once the car cleared this tunnel, she would hit the highway and see the town.

But she didn't notice the mist drifting toward the car in her rearview mirror, gradually swallowing the entire mountain. She felt the tunnel was taking too long, and her GPS had stopped speaking. She pulled over to check, only to find her phone had no signal.

*It must just be the tunnel,* she consoled herself.

"Ahhhhh!"

Huang Yueliang finally snapped, pounding the steering wheel like a maniac before collapsing over it in tears. The mist caught up to the car, swallowing it bit by bit, and the sky outside, which should have been bright, plunged into darkness in an instant.

But Huang Yueliang, lost in her own despair, didn't notice a thing.

"Good! Cut! That's a wrap!"

Xiandu opened the car door and nearly collapsed onto the ground. The crew immediately rushed over to support her and help her onto a reclining chair. Because many scenes had to be filmed from multiple angles, she had to repeat the performance, and the emotional outbursts had left her so exhausted she could barely stand.

Feeling lightheaded from the sheer exhaustion, Xiandu felt vague, fragmented memories of the original owner's first kidnapping surface—but they were blurry. More prominent were the original owner's feelings of anger, resentment, and despair when abandoned by Father Jiang.

There even seemed to be a sense of regret... though she didn't know what for.

Thinking of this, her head throbbed. Anyone abandoned twice by their own father, especially when their life was at stake, would be crushed.

Fortunately, Gu Qianxi said he had already cut down several of the Jiang family's pillar projects; Task One was almost complete.

"Cough, cough!" To save money, the crew hadn't even used dry ice, opting instead to burn damp wood to create the fog. They were stingy to a fault. Xiandu hadn't noticed while in the car, but now, smelling the lingering smoke, she started to choke until tears streamed down her face.

[Host, you are amazing! Have you really never acted before? You portrayed that despair, helplessness, anticipation, and resentment perfectly! If I hadn't been with you the whole time, I would have suspected you bought acting skills from the point mall!]

Xiandu took a sip of water, thinking of her meager points. "Heh, save it. At the prices in your point mall, if I bought that, I'd probably have to sell my next few lifetimes to your department."

Besides, Xiandu only trusted what she earned bit by bit. If the Space-Time Department could give her something that shouldn't exist out of thin air, it could take it back just as easily. If she ever turned against them, relying on those external things would leave her in a precarious position.

Of course, she wouldn't say this to Wangcai.

[Oh, Host, points will accumulate eventually. It’s a great deal, no loss!]

"Wangcai, doesn't your conscience hurt when you say that?" Xiandu set down her cup. "Don't think I've forgotten how you tricked me into signing that contract in the first place..."

Seeing that Xiandu was about to bring up old grievances, Wangcai quickly pledged its loyalty:

[Host! Even if our meeting started with a trick, ever since we entered this plane, I have been wholeheartedly devoted to you! Not a shred of selfishness! Heaven is my witness!]

"Then I should remind you: 10 points—you took a kickback, you little cat!"

[?!!]

[H-Host, how did you know?!]

"Just now."

Wangcai was sweating bullets, scrambling to find a way to salvage their crumbling trust.

A staff member ran over and shouted at Xiandu:

"Teacher Jiang, someone is here to see you! They say they're your brother!"