In the living room, only Gu Zuhui and Su Wan'er were left there, pale from being berated by Master Gu.

"I told you that you should have asked and referred to my brother, now you've done it! Father is completely disappointed in you, do you want him to give the Gu family to someone else?" After a while, Su Wan'er spoke.

Gu Zuhui sat down on the sofa and looked at her with a gaze that held a thinly veiled disdain at her words, but his tone was calm. "In any case, Father is back now. He'll find a way to deal with this."

Ask those ravenous dogs from the Su family? Did they think that he was a fool that didn't know their schemes?

Upstairs, Gu Xiqiao took out her papers as always, and as she was in the middle of finishing it, she realized that something was tugging at his pants. She lowered her head slightly, and her gaze locked with a pair of bright and beady eyes.

The fluffy ball of fur realized that Gu Xiqiao had finally noticed it, and so it rolled around and whimpered softly, turning its head over to one side and playing dead.

The weak whines of the dog made Gu Xiqiao feel pity even though she knew very well that it was just acting, so she carried it up and looked at its somewhat weak expression. Its white fur lacked a sheen to it as if it hadn't been taken care of properly lately, and Gu Xiqiao couldn't help but pat its head gently. "Look at you, how many days have they not fed you?"

As if it sensed the caring tone in Gu Xiqiao's voice, the puppy's cries became even more tragic.

Gu Xiqiao stopped teasing it and dug around her bag for a while before taking out a piece of bacon and a box of milk.

The puppy finished the food she offered quickly before looking up at her again, evidently hadn't had its fill yet.

Even though this was a stray that Gu Xijin took back home, but she didn't care about it at all. The servants didn't exactly like it either because it was just a regular white dog without a pedigree, and they would only feed it leftovers whenever they felt like doing so. Meanwhile, all of the high-grade dog food was fed to Su Wan'er's Lowchen dog.

"You're Gu Xijin's dog, so I don't like you at all!" Gu Xiqiao carried it up by the scruff of its neck and threatened emotionlessly.

The dog's paws froze in place for a moment, before it tried even harder to act cute.

Gu Xiqiao put it down again, herself not having eaten anything either and starving, so she chose to just enter the virtual space, quickly calming down and finishing her daily missions and practising ancient martial arts.

"The spirit protects the Kun Palace, and the chi shall flow freely."

Chi Induction was the second level of ancient martial arts, and the Kun Palace referred to a spot in the body where chi was produced.

In the virtual space that didn't have a concept of time, Gu Xiqiao used roughly two months yet she felt as if she were perpetually one step away from the next level. She didn't know what she lacked, but she felt as if there weren't much use to stay in there any further, so she could only leave the space first.

Seeing that the dog had laid down by her bed, she held her palm to her forehead and chuckled softly. "Hey, I'm going to leave this place now, are you willing to come with me? Bark once for yes."

"Woof~"

As soon as she finished her sentence, it barked at her once while wagging its tail.

This dog had always been smart, or else it wouldn't have attracted the attention of Gu Xiqiao. "Saying this beforehand, but you better behave once we get out of here. Don't think I didn't know that you peed on the bed and made it seem like the Lowchen did it!"

The beady eyes of the puppy looked at her for another moment, before barking once in reply.

Gu Xiqiao carried it up and put it into her bag. "Don't make a sound."

[Beauty Qiao, do you want to buy an Invisibility Talisman with ten points?]

"Sure."

[Ding! Invisibility Talisman bought successfully, effects active for half an hour.]

At the moment that the system spirit spoke, Gu Xiqiao's body rippled like water, before disappearing in thin air. The Invisibility Talisman sounded like a big deal, but it was just a low-grade talisman that changed the light rays so that they would distort around her.

Gu Xiqiao pushed open her window and jumped out from the second floor, and with her current mastery of ancient martial arts, it was a piece of cake to land safely.

It was almost ten o'clock at night, and the servants were still doing chores around the house, but none of them could see her. She wanted to leave the manor immediately, but some urge possessed her to make her way to Gu Xijin's balcony, peering in through the glass windows.

Gu Xijin was even more pale and frail than Su Wan'er, and she was currently sitting on the bed while Su Wan'er was trying to convince her to eat.

"Mom" Gu Xijin didn't eat at all and only cried as she looked at Su Wan'er.

Su Wan'er was on the verge of tears upon seeing Gu Xijin in this state and immediately hugged her tight with her teeth grit. "Ah Jin, I know things have been hard for you, but don't worry! In a few days, your grandfather is going to send you two to America, and by then I'll have someone accept you over there. It's quite chaotic over there, so I'll find a way to help you get revenge!"

It was way too easy to make someone disappear in those foreign lands, and judging from Master Gu's reaction, he wouldn't mind even if Gu Xiqiao disappeared, and even if she died, who would care?

Gu Xijin kept on crying, while Su Wan'er continued to comfort her, cursing Gu Xiqiao and swearing that she would make her pay the price as she did.

After a few minutes, Gu Xiqiao got sick of looking at the disgusting scene and scoffed, before jumping down from the balcony and leaving Gu Manor without any regrets.

Even if Gu Xijin was clearly in the wrong, but Su Wan'er still believed in her unconditionally.

Taking out the puppy from her bag, she held it to eye level and tilted her head. "What's your name? Can't tell me? Then I'll make one up for you... Hm, I'll call you Haha then."

As she talked, she rubbed and squished it as if Haha were a stuffed toy. "Since no one wants you and no one wants me, let's have each others' backs hm?"

If she were to get into a fight with Gu Xijin, the latter would have Su Wan'er to protect her, and now she would at least have a puppy that would stand on her side. Would it bite Gu Xijin even though it was picked back by her?

Gu Xiqiao rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she looked at Haha.

The evening wind was quite cool, and even though she wore the dress that Xiao Yun bought for her, it only looked pretty but didn't do much in terms of keeping her warm. Gu Xiqiao could only grumble about how useless the dress was as she rubbed her arms to warm herself up.

The road she picked didn't have any streetlights, but she wasn't scared in the least.

A light shone from behind her, and she nimbly dodged to one side as the screeching noise of a car braking was heard. The black car drifted and stopped in front of Gu Xiqiao before the window rolled down slowly, revealing a handsome face.

Yin Shaoyuan switched on his phone and looked up at Gu Xiqiao, before showing her the screen. "Look at the time, it's one o'clock in the early morning. What are you doing, second daughter of the Gu family?"

Gu Xiqiao looked at him with a clear and calm gaze, smiling softly. "Just having a little stroll."

After half an hour, the car stopped in front of Jiang Shuxuan's mansion. The lights were switched on and the door was open because Yin Shaoyuan had given Jiang Shuxuan notice beforehand.

Inside the mansion, Jiang Shuxuan was sitting on the couch and reading a book, his lips pressed into a thin line. He was wearing casual clothes, and it made him seem a little less imposing and gaze him a lazy and relaxed air.