When Gu Xiqiao arrived at the Gu Manor, the family had already finished their dinner.

The servant confusedly looked out towards the gate. She was sure that she had already locked the gates well, how did this girl get in here?

Su Wan'er was sitting in the living room, and upon seeing the girl come in, the smile on her face was immediately replaced with a frosty expression. She put down the necklace that she was holding in her hands on the living room table. "Auntie Wong, go get Miss Gu a pair of indoor shoes. She doesn't know the correct manners, but could you not know after being in the Gu Manor for such a long time? The floors had just been wiped, and she doesn't even have the common sense to change a pair of shoes coming in. People are going to say that I didn't teach her manners!"

Miss Gu was a polite way to call her, but every servant knew that the Gu family was bound to end up in the hands of Gu Xijin. What use was the second daughter of the Gu family?

The servant that was called by Su Wan'er was going to get a pair of indoor shoes for Gu Xiqiao before she was stopped by an old man next to her, the latter hissing softly. "Don't do it, you're going to get on Lady Su's bad side."

Gu Xiqiao squinted slightly and lowered her head, her peach-colored lips smirking mockingly slightly at her current situation. She only took off her shoes slowly and walked towards the stairs.

She would leave the first chance she gets, even if they beg her to stay!

Her back was straight, and her long hair blocked the expression on her face. Her skin was pale and somewhat sickly, and she was so thin that her joints could easily be seen.

For some reason, this silhouette that had never drawn any attention before made everyone that looked at it feel a twinge of remorse and pity for her.

Gu Zuhui who had never cared about her in the past couldn't continue looking at this scene any longer and put down the cup of tea in his hands. He waited until Gu Xiqiao disappeared in his field of vision before he furrowed his brows and looked at Su Wan'er disapprovingly. "Gu Xiqiao's new here, so you just have to remind her on these little things from time to time, you didn't need to force her like that. She's my daughter after all, can't you be a little more tolerant with her?"

"Gu Zuhui, has your conscience been eaten by a dog?! Father brought her back without discussing with me beforehand, and I've only been feeding her and giving her a roof to live under, have I treated her badly? What, am I treating her badly by teaching her manners? I just don't want her to sully our family name when she goes out into society in the future! Who knows what she was doing, coming home at such a late time? What, are you worried about her? Am I a wicked stepmother who's going to be a villain and ruin her future? I should have expected this, she's that woman's daughter after all!" Su Wan'er scoffed and went up the stairs, not giving Gu Zuhui a chance to reply.

Gu Zuhui's expression froze in place as his wife attacked him with a barrage of questions and nagged at him, immediately regretting his choice to speak up for Gu Xiqiao.

Gu Xiqiao's existence had always been one of the knots in their relationship, and also a stain in his record that couldn't be erased. She didn't have any talent in managing a company in the first place, and the only reason why they left her in the Gu family was only to make her grandfather happy.

If he thought about it, what Su Wan'er said did make sense in a way. If Gu Xiqiao were to stay, it would be important for her to learn manners and common courtesy so that she doesn't bring shame to their family. There were only two daughters in the current generation of the Gu family, so for Gu Xiqiao to learn well was paramount for their family.

Of course, she was just a child from the countryside, so it would be quite hard to teach her the proper manners, but Ah Jin's name couldn't be sullied by her sister! The Gu family won't support a useless girl, and if they taught her starting from now, perhaps she could at least be useful to them in the future.

In short, Gu Zuhui didn't really care about Gu Xiqiao either, so this matter was quickly let go.

Gu Xiqiao returned to her bedroom without talking with anyone. After her rebirth, she was already so disappointed with the Gu family that she didn't even bother to get angry with them. Let them see who would have the last laugh!

"System, how much is Jiang Shuxuan's affection towards me?"

[UhmI can't detect it]

Gu Xiqiao raised an eyebrow. "That's strange, are there things that you can't analyze?"

[He is quite strange and powerful, more than anyone that I have analyzed before] The system was quite miffed. It was the first time that it had met someone like that, and it didn't know what made him special, either.

"Then why did you say he was a respectable young man and made me add him as a friend?" Gu Xiqiao took out her clothes and entered the bathroom, opening the shower head to take a shower.

The system spirit propped its chin up with a palm and blinked cutely. [I only said that so that you could add this person that even I can't analyze so that I have the chance to research him in the futureSpeaking of which, why did you add him, but not Xia Zijun, Xiao Yun, and Wu Hongwen?]

"That's none of your business," Gu Xiqiao replied slowly, her silhouette hidden by the mist from the shower.

The system choked.

After finishing the handouts that the teacher gave them, she lay down on the bed and entered the virtual space. She first finished the daily mission of practicing her handwriting and calligraphy, before starting her revision.

When she entered the virtual space earlier, she had stayed there for an entire month to relearn all of her high school level mathematics. She used ten points to buy an elementary library from the system, so she could find all the books she needed for high school level studies.

There wasn't anything different in the virtual space and real life, other than the flow of time.

It did consume her mental power whenever she stayed in there, however. After recovering her mental power in the few hours from the afternoon to evening, she entered the system space again.

[Warning, the system has detected that your mental power is running out. You will be expelled to the real world forcibly in three seconds!]

Gu Xiqiao lay on the bed, broken out in a cold sweat and her lips pale from fatigue. She held her hand to her forehead and sat up to lean on the headboard of the bed.

[Beauty Qiao, your mental power is growing so quickly! You could only stay there for a month this morning, but you can stay there for one and a half months this time around, that's a great improvement! You have a lot of time left too, so you have no need to be so hardworking. It's great to be studious and diligent, but it's not good to exhaust yourself like this. You need to take care of your health so that you can live a long and healthy life, I'm counting on you!] The system was quite worried about Gu Xiqiao.

Gu Xiqiao felt its concern and nodded. "Alright, I understand."

It was the first time that it had heard such a gentle tone from her, and the system was a little unused to it.

The next day, the chauffeur waited outside dutifully, while Gu Xijin waved at her from the back seat.

"Little sis, where were you last night? We were so worried!"

Gu Xiqiao only glanced at her wordlessly. Gu Xijin was a born actress that could act out any expression and gaze authentically. Gu Xiqiao was tricked by this concerned expression of hers back in the day and let down her guard, and if people only looked at this expression, who would have known that her affection towards Gu Xiqiao was -48?

She couldn't even see that she was acting if she didn't have the system.

"The teacher asked for me." Gu Xiqiao got onto the car and closed her eyes, not wanting to say more.

Gu Xijin's was quite confused upon seeing her demeanor, knowing that something was wrong with Gu Xiqiao. She had always been a recluse but was still quite close to her as her older sister. She didn't know what happened, but everything about her changed ever since the day of her birthday party. Her aura and demeanor changed, and it even made her seem even more beautiful.

Where did everything go wrong?

Gu Xijin looked down, hiding the emotions in her gaze. Lately, Xia Zijun had been asking about Gu Xiqiao in passing when they talked, and this made him quite uncomfortable. She knew that Xia Zijun didn't mean anything, but she didn't like him talking about any other girl but herself.