Chapter 36: Unrepentant

Zheng Qiaoling made a face of disdain: “Forget it, I don’t need you anymore. There’s not even a bit of hope, you’re completely useless.”

After saying that, she pushed Yang Jingyu, who was standing in the way, aside and stormed into the room.

Somehow, she managed to get hold of a loudspeaker. Standing on the open ground in front of the dance troupe’s dormitory, she switched it on and tried the microphone with a “Hello, hello.”

After confirming it worked, she cleared her throat and spoke into it, “Jiang Jingru, Jiang Jingru, come out! Can you hear me? If you have the guts, come out! You promiscuous woman, always changing your mind, how dare you put a green hat on a hero guarding the border, have the audacity to get pregnant before marriage, spread false rumors about others, and even plot to steal someone else’s treasure. What’s wrong now? Hiding like a turtle, too scared to come out?”

At this time, everyone had just finished lunch and was on break. Zheng Qiaoling’s voice was clear and sharp, and with the loudspeaker amplifying her words, almost everyone heard it loud and clear.

Almost immediately, people began to appear from all directions. Soon, the open space in front of the dormitory was crowded with people.

They whispered to each other: “What’s going on with Jiang Jingru?”

“Is what she said true?”

“I knew there was something wrong when she got arrested by the police station and came back with a bruised face after being beaten. Something’s definitely off!”

“Wow, this is more dramatic than a TV show.”

“Really? I never would have guessed. She always acted like a pure, virtuous woman, but behind the scenes, she’s this wild? She’s even pregnant!”

“Hey, where is Jiang Jingru? Could it be she really won’t come out?”

Jiang Jingru had come back from the police station in the morning, her face bruised and her body disheveled from the beating by Zhang Jinbao. She naturally couldn’t go to work, and the troupe’s leadership had ordered her to go home and reflect.

As a result, she stayed in her dorm and didn’t dare to come out, even skipping lunch.

Now, hearing her entire situation being blasted through the loudspeaker, she froze. Who was doing this to her? Who was out to ruin her?

She had thought her disastrous start in this world, with the whole “fall from the sky” situation, was bad enough. But now, things had somehow gotten even worse.

At first, the fact that she was pregnant out of wedlock didn’t seem like a big deal. In the modern world, this wouldn’t have been a huge scandal.

She thought she could handle it—just get beaten up, be unable to have children afterward, but as long as she got that money and married the male lead, everything would eventually be fine.

But why—why was this happening?!

She hadn’t even recovered from the blow of realizing the framed “Mi Fu” painting wasn’t the real one. After returning, she had been trying to figure out whether the change in the plot caused the painting to disappear, or whether Song Xilan had known about it and had hidden the genuine painting beforehand.

And now, what was going on? Who was trying to kill her?

The only person who could possibly be behind this was Song Xilan. Maybe, like herself, she had crossed over and knew everything.

But no—if Song Xilan had crossed over, she shouldn’t have changed the plot. Originally, Jiang Jingru was supposed to be the clear female lead. Why? Why was this happening?

Jiang Jingru pulled at her hair in a frenzy, her thoughts chaotic.

Outside, someone knocked urgently on the door: “Jiang Jingru, come out, the troupe leader is here. They’re asking you to come out and explain what’s going on!”

Zheng Qiaoling’s shouting not only attracted a crowd of onlookers but also alerted the leaders of the dance troupe. In order to avoid causing too much of a negative impact, they brought Zheng Qiaoling and her group to the meeting room and asked someone to fetch Jiang Jingru.

Jiang Jingru, disoriented, walked like a puppet to open the door.

Her appearance startled the two people who had come to call her. Just two days ago, she had been a beauty, but now, she looked like a ghost.

Like a walking corpse, Jiang Jingru made her way to the meeting room. She wasn’t surprised to see Song Xilan and Jiang Chengxiao. A cold smile appeared on her face. “The three-day deadline isn’t up yet. What’s the rush? I should have known. You’re all a bunch of unreliable jerks. I should never have trusted you.”

Song Xilan looked at her in disbelief: “So, up to this point, you still don’t think you’ve done anything wrong? It’s all everyone else’s fault?”

Jiang Jingru retorted, “Wrong? What did I do wrong? If you weren’t targeting me on purpose, trying to harm me, would I have ended up like this?” She suddenly screamed hysterically, “When I first arrived, who did I offend? Why are you doing this to me?”

Jiang Chengxiao took a step forward and seemed to struggle before finally restraining himself, his expression filled with grief and anger. He pointed at her, “Do you know how Guangshan died? He died protecting our precious cultural relics, beaten to death by smugglers! And what about you? What were you doing? You colluded with the antique dealers to sell our national treasures to foreigners! Do you know what that means? It’s treason, it’s the actions of a traitor! By doing this, can you face Guangshan? Can you face the soldiers who shed blood and sweat on the border to defend our country?”

This was the first time Song Xilan had seen Jiang Chengxiao like this. She suddenly felt very sad and thought of the fierce battle he had described in a lighthearted tone, her heart aching with pain.

In fact, just now, she was still hesitating whether they were being too harsh on Jiang Jingru.

Because the barrage in her mind was all about sympathizing with Jiang Jingru, blaming them for not doing this.

But the moment she heard Jiang Chengxiao’s words, she immediately stopped regretting it.

Perhaps in the eyes of those people, the transmigrator had just transmigrated, and encountered such a mess, which was indeed quite miserable.

But the things she did after transmigrating – contacting antique dealers to prepare to sell the authentic works of Mi Fu, finding someone to spread the news behind her back that she went to the obstetrics and gynecology department – these were all things she did with her own hands after transmigrating!

If she hadn’t done these things, she clearly wouldn’t have ended up in this situation.