Return of the Goddess

To many people, a wedding is a grand, once-in-a-lifetime ceremony, hence they would place utmost importance to a wedding, and would even spend copious amounts of time and effort to prepare for it.

To Chang Shi Gui, this day had become the most unforgettable day of his life. The woman he loved was willing to marry him and spend the rest of her life with him. That was the best present in his life. Hence, right now, he was immersed in a joyful spirit, and no matter how much his friends teased him, he simply smiled but didn’t say a word.

After Tao Shenyan and the others teased them for a while, they knew that it was time for them, the lightbulbs, to leave. Hence, they tactfully left, leaving the space for this engaged couple.

Zhang Qingyun left with Tao Shenyan and Zhao Meng. Once they walked out the door, they were faced with the clearing of the roses outside. Some of the workers were still sweeping up the petals on the ground. He looked at the two young masters walking in front of him, but he didn’t say a word. It was Tao Shenyan who suddenly turned back and said to him with a faint trace of a smile on his face, “We all know what happened this morning.”

Zhang Qingyun heaved a sigh of relief. It looked like Mr. Chang truly didn’t mind the atrocious rumours on the internet.

“I heard that Jiuji is a famous entertainment company in the industry, and Brother Chang had also invested in it, but your company’s PR management was a little too slow this time.” Tao Shenyan said casually, “In future, when faced with such things, the reaction needs to be faster.”

Zhang Qingyun could clearly hear from Tao Shenyan’s words that he was warning them that they weren’t handling it correctly this time. He smiled bitterly and nodded, “Young Master Tao, the company will arrange for an entirely new PR team for Ning Xi. Today’s situation will never happen again.”

Tao Shenyan smiled and nodded, but didn’t say anything further.

Zhang Qingyun sat in his car and turned on his phone. The pinging sounds of incoming messages rang without stopping, jamming his phone.

He then returned his boss’ call, telling him that Mr. Chang had already proposed to Ning Xi, and that Mr. Chang did not believe the rumours online. He then turned off the phone again, blocking off the annoying text messages and calls.

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“They’ve all left.” Ning Xi stood by the window, and saw that the workers cleaning up the garden had also left. She turned and sat beside Chang Shi Gui, took the cup on the table and sipped the slightly bitter coffee, “After coming back, meeting you was completely unplanned.”

Some things, some words, at this point in time, there was nothing that couldn’t be said anymore.

Perhaps it was because her plan had been extremely successful all the way, and was almost at its conclusion. Ning Xi felt that she had slowly put down her past, and was ready to accept a new beginning, a new life.

“Signing on with Jiuji, coming back to be a celebrity and to raise my popularity in the country; all of these had been intricately planned.” Ning Xi chuckled as she said this. “In the eyes of my high school classmates, I was back to get my revenge against them, but in reality, that’s only one of the reasons why I’m back. If it was only to deal with them, I wouldn’t have had to waste so much energy.”

“The one who caused my father’s death was the drunk-driving Jiang Hongkai! Back then, my mother had already suspected this, but my mother died mysteriously too, and was even diagnosed as being depressed. Who gave my mother this diagnosis?! The most ridiculous thing was, it wasn’t just anyone else who presented this diagnosis; it was my second uncle.” Ning Xi gripped her cup tightly, as though this could help her calm down. “In order not to let those relatives at home become suspicious, I pretended to be unaware of all of these. Two years later, I found a chance to return to the country to make a police report, but there wasn’t any evidence, and the police couldn’t establish a case.”

“During that period, I couldn’t sleep for nights. Once I closed my eyes, I’d dream about the horrific scenes of my parents’ deaths.” As she said this, Ning Xi felt that it was meaningless to speak about the past. She put down her coffee and shook her head slowly, “Later on, when you started showing interest in me, I was already moved. However, the Chang and Jiang families are related. I didn’t want to put you in a spot, nor did I want to wait for things to blow up, causing you to think that I approached you for revenge, and making it difficult for both of us to deal with.”

“Love is fragile, yet beautiful.” Ning Xi smiled lightly, “How could I bear to let myself become a devious woman who would do anything for revenge in your mind?”

Every line that Ning Xi said was like another wound on Chang Shi Gui’s heart. Hearing this, he couldn’t stay silent any longer. “No, Xixi, you’re wonderful.”

His gaze was sincere, and Ning Xi knew that he wasn’t lying.

“Do you know why I agreed to your proposal?” Ning Xi smiled, then reached out to pinch Chang Shi Gui’s earlobe.

“I like the you who always thinks that I’m wonderful.”

It is a fact that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. A person who feels that you’re wonderful may not necessarily love you, but someone who feels that you’re not good at everything would certainly not like you.

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“Madam,” the butler in the Chang family placed the laptop in front of Tao Huixue, the screen showing an image of Chang Shi Gui proposing to Ning Xi. “Young Master’s proposal was a success.”

Tao Huixue put on her spectacles, picked up the laptop and stared at it. She then nodded, “I was still worried that this child is unromantic and wouldn’t know how to propose. From the looks of it now, he still resembles his father, and knows that when a man is pursuing a woman, he needs to be a little shameless.”

The butler lowered his head and chuckled, not knowing how to respond to her.

“Time flies, my son is going to get married.” Tao Huixue touched the corner of her eyes; there were already some wrinkles there. She sighed. Time really passed by quickly. Sometimes, in her dreams, she was still a young lady, but she would realise it was only a dream when she woke. She casually surfed around, and pulled out the news link from this morning, where there were several photos of Ning Xi with other men, looking as though they were kissing or hugging.

Tao Huixue frowned, and immediately closed the article. Her voice was plain as she said, “The media nowadays are becoming increasingly irresponsible.” When she was young, she had been fascinated with photography for some time. She could tell from these pictures that they were all staged.

“Prepare the car, I’m going out for tea with a few good friends.” This was her future daughter-in-law. She wasn’t going to let her be bullied by these rumour-mongering entertainment reporters.

That afternoon, reporters who had camped outside the Chang family villa managed to interview Tao Huixue and asked her about her thoughts on her future daughter-in-law, Ning Xi. After all, many female celebrities who married into rich families weren’t well-liked by their mother-in-laws. Now that Ning Xi had a massive scandal, how would Chang Shi Gui’s mother feel? She was probably not going to be happy with this daughter-in-law?

Unexpectedly, when Tao Huixue faced the camera, she had nothing for compliments for Ning Xi, completely overturning the stereotype of rich mother-in-laws being hard to manage.

“Mrs Chang, I heard that Mr. Chang has already proposed to Ning Xi. Do you know about this matter?”

“I’ve known for a long time about them being together. However, I didn’t think that Shi Gui would actually take so long to propose to Ning Xi.”

Reporter: ???

Shouldn’t she be saying on the surface that she knew what was happening, but then pull out the airs of a mother-in-law, and let her future daughter-in-law know who the woman with the most say in the house was?

“Then, are you satisfied with this future daughter-in-law? Will you still be agreeable for her to continue acting after she marries into the family?”

“I’m satisfied, I'm satisfied. Early on, when she was still friends with our Shi Gui, I already felt that this young lady looked full of vitality. Also, not only is she good at acting, she’s also outspoken on shows. Back then, I was already thinking, it would be good if Shi Gui could find a girlfriend like this. Now, my dream has come true, what’s there to be unsatisfied about? As for the issue of her future career, I’ll support all her decisions. Us women don’t necessarily have to stay at home to look after the family. If we have our own interests and careers, life will be more interesting and meaningful.”

Reporter: …..

Now, they were certain that Ning Xi’s life was extraordinary. Otherwise, how could she have met such a good man and a good mother-in-law? Everything good was taken up by her, how could others live their lives?

It didn’t matter how others lived their lives. The important thing was, after this clip was released, Tao Huixue was given a new title, “The New Century’s Best Mother-in-law”. This title was unanimously recognised by a lot of women.

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After Chang Shi Gui and Ning Xi officially got engaged, those who had released negative news about Ning Xi disappeared within a day. Instead of falling, Ning Xi’s popularity rose instead. She was already recognised domestically as an A-lister, and the companies looking to work with her on endorsements were over the roof.

When the crew of “A Father's Great Love” heard about this piece of news, they were originally worried that Ning Xi might not be able to join them for the filming. Unexpectedly, not only did Ning Xi report punctually to the set, she didn’t put on any air when they were filming. In scenes where doubles weren’t needed, she would never use them, and she would never complain when it was tough. Her actions made the director of this film realise why so many other directors had raving reviews of Ning Xi.

An actress who wasn’t picky and had believable acting skills, which director wouldn’t like her?

Zhang Yimin was a veteran in the production, and had extremely harsh expectations on acting skills. Anyone who acted with him would be very stressed, and even if the results of the filming were outstanding, they wouldn’t dare to say anything no matter how aggrieved they felt.

On the other hand, Ning Xi didn’t appear to mind this. Not only wasn’t she afraid of Zhang Yimin’s scrutiny, and on many occasions, even when she wasn’t filming with him, she would proactively ask Zhang Yimin questions about filming.

For someone at Zhang Yimin’s age, he didn’t have to worry about anyone’s good acting skills being a threat to him. Hence, as long as Ning Xi asked, he would teach her seriously. After a few times, the two cultivated a teacher-student relationship. Sometimes, if Ning Xi wasn’t on set, the director would joke with Zhang Yimin, asking where his disciple was that day, she might have been on a date with her fiancé.

Zhang Yimin wouldn’t be angry. Rather, he would laugh heartily, but not say anything. Clearly, he was very satisfied with this young actress Ning Xi, and had even tacitly acknowledged their teacher-student relationship.

When the other actors on set saw these, they were somewhat unhappy. Zhang Yimin was a strict person, and many people couldn’t stand the intensity he had when he was acting. Yet, not only was Ning Xi able to tolerate it, she had even started learning from him.

It was no wonder that Ning Xi’s acting skills improved after each production. All the directors she cooperated with had nothing but compliments for her. She had a powerful fiancé, a supportive agency and manager, and her good friends were international superstars. She didn’t lack resources or reputation, but she didn’t forget to hone her acting skills, and was willing to work harder than any one of them.

How could they compare to her?

However, Ning Xi couldn’t be bothered about what the younger actors in the crew thought about her, because right now, she was faced with a more important matter.

She was going to meet Chang Shi Gui’s mother tomorrow.