"Well, I've finished bandaging the wound. Although I see that you have no issues with balance and no difficulty in speaking, which indicates that your brain hasn't been affected, I still think it would be advisable for you to undergo a more detailed examination because there is a risk of complications if any bone has been fractured. If you want, I can call an ambulance right now to take you to the hospital...", the doctor, an attractive woman in her mid-thirties, told Liu Fengying, who was sitting on one of the beds in the school's medical office with her head wrapped in bandages.
"No, I don't want to go to the hospital...", Liu Fengying said, aware that if she went to the hospital, either her father or stepmother would be contacted to accompany her since she was not yet an adult, and the signature of one of them was needed to be subjected to investigations, but she didn't want to deal with either of them right then.
The doctor, who knew some details about the tense relationship between Liu Fengying and her family, and expected that Liu Fengying wouldn't want to go to the hospital, didn't make much effort to convince her to change her decision because she not going to the hospital meant less trouble for her. After giving Liu Fengying some instructions on how to care for the wound to prevent infection, she went to her office, which was separate from where the patients were, to gather her things and change, since her shift was coming to an end, expecting Liu Fengying to get up and leave in the meantime.
"Huh, you haven't left yet?" the doctor asked Liu Fengying when she came out of her office and noticed that she was still in the same position as when she left.
"How was I supposed to leave if I haven't finished my business yet?" Liu Fengying replied, her dissatisfaction evident on her face.
"What business is left to do? I've already done everything in my power to treat you...", the doctor responded with a puzzled tone.
"Yes, it's true that you've treated me, and I'm grateful for that. However, you haven't given me any documentation to prove that I was injured, which I can use to file a complaint against the person who attacked me, and we haven't discussed the duration of my medical leave either...", Liu Fengying replied, ignoring the fact that with each word she spoke, the doctor was becoming increasingly irritated.
"From what you've told me, even though you had a conflict with one of the students in this high school, you fell and hit your head on the curb without her physically touching you, so I don't see why you should go to the police. As for medical leave, considering you're in your final year and there's only a month left until the final exams, I can't give you more than three days unless complications arise...", the doctor said, trying to convince Liu Fengying not to complicate things further.
"Well, it's the police's job to decide if there's a culprit for what I've been through. As for the medical leave period, I think two weeks would be more suitable to recover from both the head injury and the trauma of being attacked by a fellow student. Otherwise, I might have panic attacks in public places, and I bet the media would be very interested in finding out the cause. I can almost see the headlines from articles describing how some students at this school are harassed, and the school's administration does nothing, like 'Money Trumps Justice at Linghua High School' or 'Teacher Apathy at Linghua High School Leads to Tragedies'"..., Liu Fengying told the doctor, her calm tone as she uttered these threats making the doctor wonder if she might be experiencing auditory hallucinations.
"Do you, do you realize what you're saying? Are you aware of how this will affect you in the future?" the doctor asked Liu Fengying, finding it hard to believe the words coming out of Liu Fengying's mouth, a proud girl who, on previous occasions when she had conflicts with someone and was injured, always tried to appear as if she was unaffected because she didn't want to be seen as weak and unworthy of her mother's memory.
"Maybe you're not aware, but in the last two weeks, so many rumors have circulated about me that no matter what I do, my reputation can't sink any lower. So, I don't think I have anything to lose...", Liu Fengying replied, seeming completely unaffected by the situation, as if it were happening to someone else and not her.
Realizing that the person in front of her was no longer the same as before when she could use her pride to manipulate her, the school doctor had no choice but to provide Liu Fengying with the necessary documents, thinking that after Liu Fengying left, she would call her superiors to make sure they were prepared in case Liu Fengying intended to do something that would affect the school's reputation or their relationships with the wealthy families in the city, whose children were often responsible for harassment cases.
After checking the documents received from the doctor and seeing that everything was in order, Liu Fengying didn't waste any time and left the medical office, making no effort to mend the relationship between her and the doctor, as she had grown tired of the doctor's two-faced attitude long ago.
'When I remember that two years ago when this doctor was transferred here, I had a little crush on her, it makes me laugh at how naive I was back then..' Liu Fengying thought as she left the school and began walking slowly toward the apartment where she lived alone, an apartment that had been put in Liu Fengying's name by her mother a few months before her death.
Reflecting on the nearly 18 years she had lived in this world, Liu Fengying, who had regained her memories from her previous life and now had a clearer understanding of human nature, easily concluded that most people she had interacted with were two-faced, and they only pretended that they wanted to be friends with her. This was especially true for the school doctor, who always smiled and tried to cheer her up when everyone believed she would inherit the business her father had created with her mother, who had died when Liu Fengying was only 8 years old. However, when she decided to leave home and live on her own at the age of 16, a move that made everyone realize there was a conflict between her and her father, all these people who had tried to gain her favor began treating her with indifference or even hostility.
'Yes, it's truly comical when I think about how disappointed I was when I noticed the change in the attitude of everyone I knew when they found out about the conflict I have with my family, or rather, with those hyenas dressed in human skins. Although at first, I was confused and angry because of this, after a while, I started to believe it was my fault, thinking that I wasn't strong enough and couldn't meet their expectations. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried to prove that I was good enough on my own, no matter how well I did in my studies, and no matter how much I tried not to pay attention to the rumors about me, so as not to be seen as a weak person, the people around me continued to see me as a disfigured girl with mobility difficulties who was disadvantaged by her father...' Liu Fengying continued to think as she walked through the scorching streets, where the blazing sun seemed determined to show everyone walking on foot at this hour that in front of it, they were all equally powerless, no matter how strong or rich they believed themselves to be.
Although the apartment Liu Fengying was heading towards was in a very upscale area of the city and was worth a lot of money, it didn't mean her financial situation was great at that moment, because, when she left home, her father, Liu Yichen, froze all her funds and didn't allow her to take any valuable items that she could sell for money, except for a few pieces of jewelry that had belonged to her mother, but she didn't want to part with them.
To some, it might seem strange how a father could be so harsh with his daughter, but for those familiar with Liu Yichen, the father of Liu Fengying, these things not only seemed normal but were even expected to happen, given the things that came to light after Jiang Min, who was his first wife, and Liu Fengying's mother, died, although until then, he had seemed to be a model husband.
Liu Yichen, who in his youth, when he was a finance student, could be considered a representative specimen for the category of phoenix men, hailing from a village that only geography enthusiasts could locate on the map, spent his entire last year of college trying to win over Jiang Min, one of the brightest students in the chemistry department and the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in the city of Liyuan. Although most of his classmates laughed at him and said he didn't stand a chance, even though he was as handsome as a model and among the top performers in all exams, Jiang Min eventually agreed to start dating him, impressed by his persistence and the fact that he didn't seem to have hidden motives; his confessions, made almost every month, appeared genuinely sincere.
Although Jiang's family members weren't very supportive at first because they felt that Liu Yichen's status wasn't comparable to theirs, they eventually accepted the relationship as they saw that the two had been together for over two years and got along very well. Liu Yichen also seemed to be a capable young man, so they eventually accepted the couple's wish to get married, even paying for the wedding arrangements and offering a large sum of money as a wedding gift so they could start their own business.
Since Jiang Min had become a proficient chemist and had close relationships with many of her former college colleagues, she came up with the idea that their future business should primarily focus on creating and selling cosmetic products. Since Liu Yichen couldn't come up with a better idea, immediately after their honeymoon, they bought a spacious building in which they established a laboratory for the creation and testing of cosmetic products and they recruited ten young and skilled chemists, over half of whom agreed because they were friends with Jiang Min.
Although in the first four years, their business didn't generate any profits because developing quality products required a lengthy period, surviving solely because many of the daughters from wealthy families, who knew Jiang Min, came to order custom-made perfumes, after launching a highly effective scar-reduction cream, their small company became well-known nationwide within just six months. In the following years, their company introduced increasingly innovative products, surpassing expectations in profits, this prompting them to keep the company private, and by the time they reached the age of 30, their company was considered one of the country's leading cosmetic suppliers.
During that period, Jiang Min became pregnant as she had always wanted a child and feared that if she waited too long, it might no longer be possible, so, in the following years, she had to give up some of her duties to be with her baby daughter, Liu Fengying.
After five years in which she wasn't involved in managing the company, only overseeing the development of new products, Jiang Min thought it was time to resume all her responsibilities since Liu Fengying was no longer a baby and could be left in the care of a nanny when she had to go on business trips. However, Liu Yichen, who had grown to enjoy running the company by himself, didn't quite agree with this, and he found all sorts of excuses to retain as much power as possible. Unfortunately for Liu Yichen, the fact that his wife was highly popular, as many considered her the soul of the company, left him with no choice, and eventually, he had to share the company's leadership with Jiang Min. However, things didn't go as smoothly as before, as conflicts frequently arose between them regarding product quality and future business partners, Liu Yichen being more focused on increasing profits and market share.
Although Liu Yichen had almost lost control over the development of new products and the improvement of existing ones, he managed to remain responsible for negotiating contracts and establishing new partnerships, because, in the last five years, he had become quite influential in the business world, securing all major contracts for their company. Unfortunately for Liu Yichen, his situation was about to become even more challenging, because, after about a year of his wife taking back a significant portion of decision-making power in the company, several newspaper articles emerged with evidence that their company had used questionable quality raw materials for some of the products developed and marketed while he was overseeing product quality. Consequently, the company was sued by several consumers, resulting in significant damages, and Liu Yichen had to step back from company leadership, allowing Jiang Min to assume full control.
Most people in the business world expected that after this blow, the company that was then led by Jiang Min would not be able to recover anytime soon, however, after launching some excellent new products at surprisingly low prices and organizing numerous events to renew the relationship between the company and its customers, the company managed to not only bounce back but also become even more popular than before in less than two years, a fact that led to Jiang Min being nominated for the Businessperson of the Year award.
Unfortunately, whether Jiang Min would have won this award or not will forever remain a mystery because, following a car accident that occurred as Jiang Min was returning home after inspecting one of the new factories that had been opened a few days earlier, she lost her life on the spot, and her glorious future, which had been foreseen, had no chance of materializing.
Although the police launched a thorough investigation to determine why Jiang Min's car crashed into a tree, nothing irregular could be found because the car was severely damaged, and there were no surveillance cameras in the area where the accident occurred. Thus, at the end of the investigation, it was concluded that the cause of the accident was fatigue accumulated by Jiang Min due to her extremely busy schedule, which probably caused her to fall asleep at the wheel.
When the result of this investigation was heard, no one could believe that things were so straightforward. Many people directed their suspicions towards Jiang Min's business rivals and even towards her husband, who had recently faded into obscurity. However, after seeing the footage from Jiang Min's funeral, in which Liu Yichen was crying while holding their eight-year-old daughter in his arms, almost everyone felt ashamed of suspecting a man who had loved his wife so much.
After his wife's funeral, Liu Yichen spent almost a month at home to grieve Jiang Min's death in silence and to help his daughter cope with the loss of her mother. During this time, many began to believe that he would never recover from this tragic incident and that he probably wouldn't want to return to the business world, especially since the company was in complete chaos, and he showed no signs of returning.
In the end, Liu Yichen, still with red eyes from crying, returned to the company's headquarters to set things right, and after a few days, he held a press conference in which he argued that the only reason he decided to return to the company's leadership was his desire to ensure that his wife's work had not been in vain and that he wanted to continue her legacy. In conclusion, he apologized for the mistakes he had made in the past, blaming them on the fact that five years ago, he was still inexperienced in business and had been deceived by some of the raw material suppliers, and he asked everyone to give him one last chance to make his late wife, who surely watched over him from heaven, proud.
Liu Yichen kept his word, and in the following two years, his company continued on the path paved by Jiang Min. It gained an increasing share of the domestic market and even expanded internationally, where it opened its own cosmetics stores, allowing it to offer very competitive prices since its products no longer went through intermediaries.
When Liu Fengying was 10 years old, Liu Yichen, who was almost always busy and hadn't seen his daughter for months at a time, publicly expressed his desire to remarry to provide his daughter with a complete family and all the love she deserved, and after half a year in which everyone wondered who the beauty capable of seducing Liu Yichen would be, with most expecting it to be a famous actress or a young businesswoman, he appeared in public with a woman his age, whom he introduced as his new wife, who was still very beautiful, her voluptuous figure attracting the attention of all the men around her. It was later revealed that she had been a singer 12 years ago, known more for her beauty than her talent and that she had two children, a daughter of similar age to Liu Fengying, and a boy about two years younger, whose father was unknown.
The fact that her father had remarried didn't bother Liu Fengying at all, because, over the two years since her mother's passing, she had gotten used to the idea that her mother had gone to live among the stars. So, she happily accepted living with her new stepmother and her two step-siblings, as her father was mostly away, and the nannies and housekeepers who looked after her always maintained a professional attitude, leaving her feeling rather lonely.
In the first four years of living together, her stepmother, whose name was Wang Xia, her step-sister, Wang Zihan, and her step-brother, Wang Zihao, treated Liu Fengying very well, and she came to consider them as her real family. Among the three, Liu Fengying was closest to Wang Zihan, as they were of the same age, with only a three-month age difference, and they had a lot in common. They played together, did their homework together, ate together, and even ended up sleeping in the same bed at night. So, it's no wonder Liu Fengying had come to see Wang Zihan as her true sister.
However, what was about to happen made Liu Fengying, who had wished for Wang Zihan to be her real sister, realize that some dreams were better left unrealized because, once various scandalous publications started publishing articles claiming that there was a 16-year-long relationship between Wang Xia and Liu Yichen, and that he was the father of her two children, Liu Fengying had only conflicts not only with her father and stepmother but also with her younger brother, who had started to see himself as the true heir to the company led by Liu Yichen.
In the week after she found out that her father was also Wang Zihan's father, Liu Fengying refused to speak a word to her, even though she was aware that Wang Zihan knew nothing about being half-sisters and was not to blame for the current situation, but after seeing in one day Wang Zihan sitting alone in the garden, crying, Liu Fengying realized that it was a mistake to punish Wang Zihan for their parents' mistakes. So, that evening, she entered Wang Zihan's room and embraced her, apologizing for how she had treated her and promising that from then on, they would always be together.
After they reconciled, the two climbed into bed and fell asleep in each other's arms. However, Liu Fengying did not have a very peaceful sleep because she realized that, even though the fact that they were real sisters should have made them closer, she began to feel a sense of regret that she couldn't explain, this feeling growing every time she sensed the smell of milk coming from Wang Zihan's body and breath.
Although the rumors about Liu Yichen, which he did not attempt to suppress, had somewhat affected sales in the country, as some loyal customers wanted to express solidarity with Jiang Min, whom he had deceived for nearly a decade, the company's rapid expansion overseas in the following year resulted in a record profit. This made Liu Yichen completely ignore public opinion and return to social events with Wang Xia by his side, and he even gave his surname to her two children, thus confirming that all the rumors were true.
Due to her father's influence, everyone who met Liu Fengying pretended not to know anything about her situation and behaved the same as before, so, she had no problems during that time and she couldn't tell if people didn't care at all about the rumors surrounding her or if they were trying to be as delicate as possible to avoid hurting her feelings. However, the situation was different for her half-siblings because the fact that both of them were now potential heirs to Liu Yichen's business made everyone who met them treat them with respect, hoping to benefit from their future connections.
The fact that more and more boys from wealthy families in the city started showing interest in her half-sister, now named Liu Zihan, didn't please Liu Fengying too much, so she often intervened to stop the discussions between Liu Zihan and them, which led to rumors that Liu Fengying felt threatened by her half-siblings becoming more influential than her.
Hearing these rumors one day at school, her half-brother, Liu Zihao, who had already started considering himself the Chosen One, caused a huge scandal as soon as he got home, accusing Liu Fengying of ruining their family's reputation and telling her that she didn't deserve to inherit even 1 percent of the company.
Looking at her half-brother, who didn't even have a hint of a beard but had started believing himself to be a big shot, Liu Fengying slapped him in the face (a real face slap), then she informed him that even if their father didn't leave her anything in his inheritance, she already owned 70 percent of the company's shares, as she was the only person mentioned in her mother's will, and when she turned 18, her father, who currently administered them on her behalf, would be obliged to hand them over. Thus, she would become the majority shareholder in the company.
Because the conflict occurred on the upper floor, Liu Fengying, who was heading to the kitchen on the ground floor when she was interrupted by Liu Zihao, continued on her way after putting him in his place, but as she began descending the stairs, she was suddenly pushed from behind by Liu Zihao, who, furious beyond control, had become unhinged. As a result of the fall, she fractured her left leg and suffered a deep cut on her right cheek, as she had hit a piece of glass from the staircase's balustrade with her head.
After this fall, Liu Fengying had to spend nearly a month in the hospital, and despite receiving the best treatment, she didn't fully recover, as the knee from the broken leg bothered her every time she put weight on it and she remained with a 4-centimeter-long scar on her face, these facts making her hate her half-brother more and more.
After Liu Fengying returned home from the hospital, conflicts between her on one side and her half-brother and stepmother, who tried to defend her son, on the other side, continued in a chain, as Liu Fengying insisted that Liu Zihao be sent to a correctional center for delinquent children and that he be disowned by her father to prevent him from ever setting foot in the company created by her mother. Liu Zihan, caught in the middle between the two parties, tried to make them find a middle ground every time they met and started arguing, but her interventions weren't appreciated by either side as Liu Fengying glared at her every time with reproach, and Liu Zihao began scolding her, reminding her that he was her true brother.
This situation continued for more than half a year until one day when Liu Fengying had a fierce argument with her father in which she accused him of never loving her or her mother, suggesting that he might be the one who killed her mother, given that his son, who resembled him so much in appearance, had shown criminal tendencies from an early age, and then she decided to move into the apartment her mother had given her as a gift for her 8th birthday, the place Liu Fengying was heading at the moment while analyzing these events using the experience she had gained in her previous life and trying to decide the best way to get revenge.
'I've always thought that death is too gentle for such bastards. To truly get my revenge, I'll have to take everything precious to them. But what do they value most? Is it reputation? Is it their loved ones? Is it money?... Anyway, it doesn't matter. I'll take it all... I will make sure that all they have left is suffering...', Liu Fengying concluded as she reached the door of her apartment.