Bai Xi'er's gaze met the eerie eyes of the woman lying on the hospital bed, and her heart tightened inexplicably.
Then, recalling what her father was about to announce at the birthday banquet, she wanted Bai Tang to go back. Moreover, she had prepared a grand gift for Bai Tang—when the time came, she would watch Bai Tang get kicked out of the Bai family, leaving her as the only young miss from then on!
"You—"
"You can get lost now!" Bai Tang interrupted her coldly, expressionless.
"Bai Tang, just you wait. I'll go back and tell Dad how you bullied me..."
Bai Xi'er's voice faded away outside the door, and Bai Tang couldn't help but raise a hand to her forehead.
So annoying!
Less than ten minutes after Bai Xi'er left, Bai Tang's phone rang.
Seeing the word "Dad" on the screen, a faint, ambiguous smile curled at the corner of Bai Tang's lips.
She really did go tattle!
Hah...
Bai Tang reached out and hung up the call. As soon as she did, the phone rang again, so she simply turned it off.
Silence fell instantly.
She woke up early the next morning.
As soon as she turned on her phone, a flood of message alerts and missed calls appeared.
All the calls were from Bai Chengfeng, along with a message he sent demanding she come home today, or else he would cut off all her financial support.
The rest were taunting messages from Bai Xi'er.
Glancing at the time, it wasn't even seven yet.
She washed up, went downstairs for breakfast, and returned just as the doctor came to change her bandages.
"The wound is healing nicely," the doctor said with a smile.
Bai Tang smiled back.
She had been living like a pig, eating and sleeping on the same schedule—if she still wasn't recovering well, there would really be a problem!
The doctor reminded her of a few precautions and then left.
Bai Tang was about to rest for a bit when her phone rang again.
She reached for it—it was a photo sent by Bai Xi'er.
In the picture, the entire Bai family villa was decorated in a warm, princess-like style. On a wall of flowers was a photo of Bai Xi'er wearing a crown, grinning brilliantly.
Bai Tang found it somewhat amusing. So persistent, this need to show off—was she really that desperate to get her attention?
Taunting her like this—did she really think Bai Tang had no temper, or that she couldn't do anything about it?
Looking back at past birthday banquets, the original host had always ended up humiliated, and afterward, Bai Chengfeng, finding her too embarrassing, forbade her from appearing before his business partners.
So much so that everyone had almost forgotten she even existed!
Bai Tang didn't care for such matters; to her, they were downright childish.
She idly scrolled through her phone.
Eventually, she accidentally tapped on the memo icon.
"May 15th: Buy myself a cake, then go visit Mom and celebrate my eighteenth birthday with her."
Bai Tang stared at that line of text, her lips pressing together slightly, her brow furrowing instinctively.
From her memories, over the years, the original host had tried several times to celebrate her birthday with her father, only to be harshly scolded. Eventually, every birthday, she would take a cake to the cemetery and spend the whole day sitting by that gravestone.
Looking at this line, Bai Tang twitched the corner of her mouth, recalling the past ten years of her own solitary birthdays—perhaps with a touch of shared misery, or maybe a bit more reflection and sympathy.
Putting away her phone, Bai Tang changed out of her hospital gown and slipped back into her edgy, non-mainstream outfit from that day before leaving.