"Who’s the girl beside Elder Ning? She came here dressed like that?"
"I heard the elder call her Xiao Xi just now, could it be...the adopted daughter, Ning Xi?"
"So that's her! It’s been five years and she's still like that, there's been no improvement at all!"
"Hehe, she’s still wearing pirated goods after five years. Has her taste in clothes not improved?"
…
Ning Xi had been going around to do some furniture shopping for the studio decoration with Gong Shangze and Little Treasure, so she had casually worn just a leather jacket with jeans, and tied a neat ponytail.
However, because all of the ladies there that night were wearing long dresses and high heels, she stood out like a sore thumb.
The elder was over the moon about his granddaughter’s return and could not care less about what Ning Xi wore, so he kept on talking to Ning Xi until Zhuang Lingyu had to remind him about the guests waiting for him. Eventually, she let Ning Tianxin accompany Ning Xi to get something to eat.
After the elder had left to see to the guests, any trace of a smile left Zhuang Lingyu's face as she looked at Ning Xi with despise. "Take a look in the mirror. Don’t you know what day it is?"
Ning Xueluo rushed to say, "Mother, don’t blame Sister, she must have rushed here and had no time to change!"
She acted as if she was afraid of Ning Xi getting angry at her. She walked up to her, "Sister, if you don’t mind, do you want to change into one of my outfits upstairs?"
"What are you waiting for? Go and follow Ning Xueluo to change! You’ve been so busy but you never do anything properly. Who knows what kind of trouble you’re involved in?!" To Zhuang Lingyu, Ning Xi was the bane of her existence and she could not even stand looking at her.
When she was younger, Ning Xi would have been embarrassed if she was scolded like that the last time, but now she just glanced at Zhuang Lingyu. "Oh, it wouldn’t really matter to you whether I got changed or not. Aren’t you being a bit too controlling, Madam Ning?"
She then took hold of Ning Tianxin's hand and headed for dessert.
"You...you…" Zhuang Lingyu sputtered in frustration, "Xueluo, look at her, does she still treat me as a mother? She’s got no manners at all!"
Ning Xueluo was gloating happily as she comforted Zhuang Lingyu and pretended to speak up for Ning Xi, but the more she said, the deeper Zhuang Lingyu’s hatred for her own daughter ran…
Oblivious to her mother's anger, Ning Xi sat down at a table with Ning Tianxin. She helped herself to some wine and felt no awkwardness about crashing an unfamiliar place. It was as if the place was her backyard garden and what had happened here was merely a hilarious performance which she was taking as entertainment.
Ning Tianxin looked at her cousin sister with her nonchalant attitude in surprise. "Xiao Xi, you’ve changed a lot over the years!"
Ning Xi raised her eyebrows. "Have I?"
When she was discovered wearing a ripped-off dress five years ago, she recalled feeling like she might as well have been naked in public and her world collapsed under the mockery and the looks of disgust from everyone…
But now…
By comparison, it seemed that there had been drastic changes over the years...