Chapter 5: The Shi Family Finds the Apartment (Comedic Chaos)

The next morning, Shi Xi woke to the smell of frying bacon.

She did not own bacon.

She sat up, bleary-eyed, to find her adoptive mother, Madam Shi, standing at the hot plate in a designer pantsuit, flipping strips of bacon with the delicate touch of a woman who had never cooked a day in her life. The fire alarm was beeping weakly.

“Mother?” Shi Xi croaked.

“Xiao Xi!” Madam Shi turned, spatula in hand, tears in her eyes. “You’re alive! And living in a… a cupboard!”

Behind her, Mr. Shi was trying to fit his entire large frame onto the futon’s single cushion. He looked like a very expensive bear in a very small cage.

“We’ve been worried sick,” he said, not sounding worried at all. More like mildly inconvenienced. “The police, the media, the scandal. Do you know what this does to our stock price?”

“I don’t care about your stock price,” Shi Xi said. “I’m not coming back.”

“But you’re our daughter!” Madam Shi wailed.

“I’m your fake daughter. And the real one, Ning Yu, is out there somewhere, probably eating instant noodles and being tragic. Go find her.”

Mr. Shi’s face went red. “You ungrateful—”

The door opened.

Auntie Chen, the landlord, stood there with a bucket of soapy water. She took in the scene: the crying socialite, the purple-faced businessman, the burning bacon, and Shi Xi in her wrinkled pajamas.

“Ah,” Auntie Chen said. “The runaway rich girl. I knew it. No pets, no parties, and no family reunions.” She pointed her mop at Mr. Shi. “You. Out. You’re dripping contempt on my linoleum.”

“I am a Shi! We own half the city!”

“And I own this mop. Guess which one has more power right now?”

Madam Shi burst into fresh tears. “Xiao Xi, please! At least take the penthouse apartment we bought you! Or the car! Or the personal assistant!”

Shi Xi looked at her adoptive parents—the people who had raised her (or rather, hired people to raise her), who had let the original Shi Xi be written as a disposable villain, who would ultimately choose Ning Yu without a second thought.

“No,” she said. “I’m going to be famous. On my own. Without your money, your name, or your pity.”

She grabbed the burning pan, dumped the charcoal-bacon in the trash, and handed the pan back to her stunned mother.

“Now leave. And take the fire hazard with you.”

Auntie Chen grinned, brandishing her mop. “You heard the girl. Scram.”

The Shis scrambled.

As the door slammed, Shi Xi leaned against the wall and let out a shaky breath.

[DING! ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: “Independence, Sort Of”]
Reward: 50 points + a coupon for 10% off your next instant noodle purchase.

“The rewards are getting worse,” she muttered.

[The budget is tight. We’re a new system.]

Her phone buzzed. A text from Gu Yan: “Heard your parents visited. Want me to send a cleanup crew? I know a guy.”

She typed back: “I handled it.”

A pause. Then: “I know. That’s why you’re interesting.”

She hated how that made her smile.