Chapter 48

As mentioned before, Mother Jiang felt the inheritance distribution was unfair, and secretly, she and Jiang Yunjuan must have come to some kind of understanding.

In short, the previous generation has completely stepped back, and the power in the family has now shifted to Jiang Yunjuan.

Naturally, Jiang Muti took charge of her own little kingdom and started acting like the queen in her own territory.

Her brother, although overly protective of her, basically indulged her without any principles.

Especially after returning from the island, because of guilt and a compensatory mindset, Jiang Muti had a strong feeling.

Even if she went out and set fire to things or hurt someone, her brother would probably nonchalantly hand her a match first and then clean up the mess.

In her past life, Jiang Muti’s parents had spoiled her terribly, and in this life, she ended up with such a heavy-handed, overbearing older brother.

She used to think her temper was bad, but now she increasingly feels that, despite everything, she didn’t grow into a societal failure, which shows just how upright she really is at her core.

Yun Duo, however, had nothing but deep contempt for her shameless self-satisfaction.

To get back on track, the whole Jiang family is now ruled by Jiang Muti, but at the same time, she still took on some social duties of her own volition.

Although Jiang Yunjuan wanted her to stay home and rest, not worrying about anything, Jiang Muti was unwilling to just sit at home and rot.

Besides various parties, they had recently found a new hobby: tormenting Yun Cheng.

Previously, he had been intimidated by Ji Feishi and had saltwater bags shoved into him. Later, this was turned into a joke and shared with Jiang Muti.

As luck would have it, a popular anime had recently aired, which told the story of three gang members who made a mistake and were sent to Thailand for gender reassignment surgery, eventually becoming idols.

Thus, every time a new episode aired, Yun Cheng would be forced by Jiang Muti and Yun Duo to sit in the middle, both of them squishing him in, and they would make him watch the show.

They subjected him to cruel mental torture over and over, discussing all sorts of gender reassignment procedures as though it were no big deal.

Every time Yun Cheng left, his steps were always unsteady, and even his enthusiasm for his brothers had decreased.

Now, Jiang Muti made sure to take Yun Duo with her to all the parties she attended. It wasn’t like before when she was just interested in the fun, since Yun Duo had career ambitions, she saw it as a way to help her.

Although, in principle, she didn’t offer any special treatment, making appearances in various social circles also increased Yun Duo’s future leverage.

The party they attended that day was a celebration for a famous food industry tycoon in the province, marking the 50th anniversary of their brand. The atmosphere, though festive and relaxed, was rather formal and proper due to the age of the main guests.

Jiang Muti chose an elegant and demure style for her dress, though what she truly enjoyed were the more laid-back parties where young people could dress freely and have fun.

Arriving at the event arm-in-arm with her brother, Jiang Muti’s family was riding high thanks to the success of the land project, and the future development plans for the next few years revolved around it. The entire family was quite popular.

As soon as they arrived, people rushed to compliment them, with no sign of anyone trying to act distant because of Jiang Yunjuan’s youth.

After all, the Jiang family’s succession was seen by outsiders as simply the passing of the older generation with the heir stepping up. But those who understood the situation, even if not knowing every little detail, could still tell what was really going on.

Moreover, Jiang Yunjuan had already become well-known and was long seen as an equal businessman.

With such grandeur around them, Jiang Muti naturally had no shortage of people to please on her side.

Although she had a low status in the social circle and was young, her net worth was the highest among the women present.

Some people privately expressed their jealousy, saying, “She’s truly born with a princess’s fate, with a prosperous family business, few family members, and such a large fortune to be split between only two people—just two people!”

These days, even families with fewer members don’t have such cheap deals. It’s said that the wealthier families are more concerned with having many descendants to continue their legacy.

The previous generation, with its big house, second house, mistress, and so on, even in that era, wasn’t considered illegal. Then the second generation went on to expand the family.

While there were also families with simpler lineages, such cases were actually not rare. Having wealth gave the capital to do many things, so certain issues were often understood implicitly.

For example, Jiang Muti had once mocked Miss Huo for having many relatives, which meant the amount of money left to her was limited. However, when you really think about it, the Huo family was still one of the simpler families in similar high-society circles.

Even more extreme, Jiang Muti knew of a local business tycoon’s family where the patriarch had five wives back in the day. That was decades ago, and all the wives were legal.

Each of the wives had more than three children, and those children married and had kids. Now, the grandchildren were mostly grown and many were already married with children.

Not to mention the extended family, just the direct heirs numbered over a hundred people. It was truly terrifying.

So, compared to that, one can see how fortunate Jiang Muti’s situation was.

Jiang Muti loved this kind of envious admiration accompanied by jealousy. It was her spiritual food, so she had been in a great mood throughout the entire social season.

But people really shouldn’t dwell on things, just when she thought of Miss Huo, she immediately saw her within her line of sight.

It wasn’t surprising, since their social circles overlapped, and it was inevitable that the Jiang and Zhou families would appear at the same events. Recently, Jiang Muti often ran into Zhou Lu, but Miss Huo was a first for today.

After their confrontation outside the school last time, this real-life antagonist hadn’t come back for another round of humiliation.

Jiang Muti thought that she would at least be a little wary, but she didn’t expect that, upon seeing her, the other person would walk straight toward her.

“Look who it is, the fallen mermaid?”

“Look who it is, the firewood maid who picked up someone else’s high heels to sneak in?”

Without thinking, Jiang Muti shot back.

Although the incident where she had been stranded on the island wouldn’t be made public, and it had happened tens of thousands of miles away, when it came to operating in another country, such a large-scale operation still required some coordination to proceed quickly and efficiently.

Moreover, it definitely relied on some local police power, and too many people were involved, so it wasn’t something that could really be kept secret.

Although no one would pay special attention, for those who were keeping an eye on her family, who had some power and sources of information, it wouldn’t be hard for them to find out.

Jiang Muti wasn’t surprised because, with Miss Huo’s personality, not only did she continue to see her as her number one imaginary enemy, but after the humiliation she suffered last time, her strong self-esteem had led her to go back, do her homework, and come back looking for trouble.

As expected, relying on something, Huo Xin didn’t get as angry as before when she was directly mocked for being poor.

Instead, she gave a cold smile and said, “I’m curious when your disaster movie is going to be released. A person away from the hustle and bustle, blending with the water and sky, must feel quite nice, right? By the way, did you play with dolphins or chase sharks?”

“Just thinking about it sounds romantic, but I heard the boat was a little small, and there was no food or champagne.”

“Miss Jiang, aren’t you known for your wealth and power? What’s going on? After going out to sea, you couldn’t even get a small yacht? Do you need me to sponsor one for you?”

If it were any other young lady, raised with everything at her disposal, facing such a blow, it wouldn’t be surprising if she developed PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Even those in better circumstances would need some psychological therapy, since facing the loneliness and despair of potentially dying alone in the middle of the vast sea, feeling abandoned by the world, would be unbearable just to imagine.

And there’s a great chance that this could be accompanied by a fear of the deep sea.

There’s a saying that makes sense: you think you’re not afraid of heights? Maybe it’s just because you haven’t stood high enough yet. The same applies to the deep sea.

So, when Huo Xin pricked at Jiang Muti’s sore spot, it was clear how malicious her intentions were.

But Jiang Muti wouldn’t criticize her from a moral standpoint, because if she wanted to, she could do something even more vicious than this.

She had truly faced death before. Death made her value life even more, and since she had been chosen as one of the lucky few, her second life was going well.

Of course, in many ways, she was a strong person, and the fact that she could still live and move freely, attending social events, showed that provoking her with mere words was a mistake.

Jiang Muti shook her wine glass at her: “Oh? Sponsor? I didn’t know I had already emptied the Zhou family’s wallet, having to pick up shoes just to contribute to their cheap daughter, and still manage to scrape together some pocket money for a sponsorship.”

“Miss Huo, maybe you’ve been hidden away in your boudoir for so long that you haven’t even checked your own wallet? Don’t be so generous, especially with me. You should know that even if you scraped together everything you could, I wouldn’t necessarily be impressed. The standards are different, you should understand that, right?”

“How embarrassing would that be? Not only would I not appreciate it, but I’d also have to thank you for your kindness. Come on, be reasonable. I’ve just been through a disaster, why be so cruel?”

Huo Xin was furious. Not only was Jiang Muti unfazed by her misfortune, but she also continued to ridicule her from all angles, mocking her poverty, cheapness, and suggesting she was on a lower level.

Huo Xin’s anger flared, but she started to doubt the sources of the news. Could someone who was this lively have really been in such a miserable situation?

Could it be that she had just been reckless, drifting away on a kayak and had to be rescued?

She hesitated, but then forgot that she wasn’t the only one around.

The mocking incident from outside the school was still fresh in her mind, but Huo Xin didn’t expect that someone would rush to come out and play the sycophant for Jiang Muti at this event.

She overheard a girl who had just been chatting with Jiang Muti say, “This must be Miss Huo from the Huo family in Province X, right? Generosity is a good trait, but when you’re in a new place, shouldn’t you be more careful about how you act?”

That was still quite polite. Another voice chimed in: “Exactly, don’t think just because you’re used to bossing people around at home, we’re so poor here in this place that we need your charity.”

“Right, the levels are different, so where does your confidence come from? With Miss Huo’s age and family structure, the head of the family is still your grandfather, so the resources you can use must be at the tens of millions level, right?”

“But Miss Jiang can access resources at the hundred-billion level. If you’re planning to sponsor her, are you trying to make us laugh?”

“There’s a new term online recently for situations like this, it’s called ‘^[1]“Moon landing scamming” (登月碰瓷) is an internet slang term in Chinese. It describes a situation where someone of much lower status, influence, or capability tries to challenge or … Continue readingmoon landing scamming.’“

As they spoke, the young ladies around them couldn’t help but cover their mouths and giggle.

They didn’t necessarily like Jiang Muti, but their parents had instructed them to be nice, and since the Huo family had been so aggressive lately, Huo Xin’s recent high-profile behavior had drawn a lot of attention.

How many girls of her age could they even stand? Since Jiang Muti was leading the way, they might as well step on her while they were at it.

Huo Xin’s face turned a mixture of red and green with anger, and just as she was about to lash out, a voice suddenly came from beside her:

“So this is where you are, I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

Jiang Muti turned around and saw Ji Feishi walking toward her.

After returning from the island, he had gone to the capital for a visit and had just returned these past couple of days. This was the first time they were meeting since then.

Ji Feishi’s prominence in this circle was obvious, and Jiang Muti hadn’t yet had the chance to fully let out her frustrations.

But as soon as he appeared, all the attention from the young ladies shifted away from Huo Xin.

Ji Feishi smiled politely and said, “Sorry to interrupt, I need to speak with Jiang Muti about something.”

Since he had said it like that, the young ladies could only suppress their envy and jealousy and continued to express that they didn’t mind.

Seeing that the atmosphere had already shifted, Jiang Muti didn’t pay any attention to Huo Xin and Ji Feishi and was about to leave.

However, she suddenly heard Huo Xin’s voice:

“By the way, I heard that Miss Jiang once achieved the incredible feat of losing over 100 pounds. With the holidays coming up, I also feel like I’ve gained some weight, so I’d like to ask you for some tips.”

She glanced at Ji Feishi, then smiled maliciously at Jiang Muti: “How did you manage to lose those 200 pounds?”

She particularly emphasized the words “200 pounds” with a biting tone.