Becoming the Empress: Golden Finger Set Under My Bed

When Zhao Xiaotao ran back with her belongings, there was merely An Rushuang in the room. Hong Yu went to send Cheng Gong back to the restaurant, while other maids were appointed to do other affairs outside. An Rushuang was enjoying the dishes quietly at the table. The room seemed very empty.

Greatly embarrassed, Zhao Xiaotao stood where she was and didn’t know what to say.

Fortunately, An Rushuang didn’t want her to explain anything. She merely raised her head and said, “You are too late. He has left.”

Zhao Xiaotao’s eyes turned red at once. With her head slightly lowered, she responded in a dull voice, “Well, Miss An, I will leave, too.”

With a sigh, An Rushuang put down the silver chopsticks and raised her tone, “Where are you going then?”

Zhao Xiaotao stopped all of a sudden. Turning her back to An Rushuang, she answered, her eyes still bloodshot, “I have no idea. But I probably cannot stay here anymore.”

Zhao Xiaotao remembered the words the maid guarding at the door said that if Mr. Cheng was a toad who hoped to curry the favor with Miss An, then she was even worse than a toad.

Though everything seemed perfect now, it was actually no more than an illusion. When she was disillusioned one day, she would suffer more than she did before.

Just like to Cheng Gong. Even though she was wearing beautiful clothes and no longer the poor beggar wandering before his restaurant, but to him, she was still that poor beggar.

She wanted to escape to a place where no one knew her and her mother. Maybe only in this way could she make the illusion a real life.

An Rushuang sighed with a chuckle before waving her hand. “If you think you can only feel better after leaving here, you can go as you want.”

Upon hearing her words, Zhao Xiaotao suddenly felt that her leg was filled with lead and couldn’t move a single step forward.

An Rushuang said as she gazed at her figure, “When you ate the Hundred Tastes Cake just then, have you thought that your sufferings had almost come to an end? Your past was filled with bitterness and saltiness, and what about now? All the sufferings had passed already, so you don’t want to meet any troubles in the future. You are already frightened before the troubles come.”

She stretched out her hand, but before the other one seized her hand, she was terribly afraid that even didn’t dare to stand where she was. She intended to bury and hide herself in a hole, in case someone would see her stretch out her hand with hesitation.

She was terrified by the gossip outside.

As long as she didn’t stand firmly, they would push her into the hell.

Zhao Xiaotao wiped her tears off with her sleeve before saying in nasal voice, “Miss An, I am not afraid of troubles. I just...” She hesitated.

“Just what?”

An Rushuang pressed her for an answer.

Zhao Xiaotao gritted her teeth. “I don’t want to get him into trouble. It seemed that he wanted to stay away from me.”

She stared at the downpour outside. Everything was blurred by the heavy rain. Nobody knew what she was gazing at on earth.

Tears trickled along her cheeks again.

Thought unable to see Zhao Xiaotao’s expression, An Rushuang still knew her sorrow clearly. However, instead of comforting her, An Rushuang just sneered.

“If I were him, I would also keep a distance from you,” she continued, “A weak girl can do nothing except for sobbing. If I were a man, I would stay away from the weak girl showed her kindness to me, even though I like her very much.”

“Just leave if you want to go, and never come back to make me angry,” An Rushuang scolded her harshly.

Zhao Xiaotao turned back at once, her bag falling on the ground and things in the bag scattered around. There was nothing valuable within, merely some hairpins and small silver ingots. Theses few things were Zhao Xiaotao’s belongings.

She didn’t care about it at all, as if they were merely pebbles. She widened her eyes and gazed at An Rushuang. “Why?! Why would you keep a distance from her even if you like her?”

She didn’t understand.

An Rushuang raised her eyebrows, her eyes, as beautiful as the lake in the moonlight, sparkling with a tinge of smile.

“As abject as I am, I even can’t give her a loaf of bread. Given her weakness, I don’t dare to take her away and support her for the rest of her life.” An Rushuang raised her head and asked seriously, “If you were him, would you take the girl to suffer with you together or leave her here to live a carefree life?”

Greatly stunned, Zhao Xiaotao opened her mouth with her eyes wide open. She was already speechless.

Without seeing her, An Rushuang just said, “If you insist on leaving, since you have packed up already, I will give you another one hundred taels of silver. Never let your mum suffer with you. If you don’t go, just fulfill your duty by cleaning the dishes at once.”

As she said, she just turned around, took the story book again, and read carefully after lying down on the fluffy soft couch.

Standing in the room for a moment, Zhao Xiaotao squatted down slowly, gathered all of her belongings into the bag and stepped out of the door.

An Rushuang didn’t move. Sitting where she was, she seized the story book which she didn’t read at all, her knuckles turning slightly white.

There suddenly came footsteps after a while. Zhao Xiaotao hurried into the room.

An Rushuang couldn’t help feeling incensed. “Forget something?” She asked coldly.

Pressing her lips tightly, Zhao Xiaotao turned to An Rushuang before kneeling down slowly and saying in a low voice, “Lady, I came here to clean the dishes. I will never leave the An family again. How can I leave without repaying your favor?! If I mention it again, I will be killed by the thunder for my ingratitude!”

She raised her hand to make a promise.

An Rushuang threw the story book aside with a frown and pretended to say angrily, “Do you think I want you to repay my favor?!”

This silly girl still had no idea why she was so furious!

Zhao Xiaotao raised her head and glanced at her, no knowing what to say.

Zhao Xiaotao was not stupid, but sometimes too stubborn.

With her chest rising and falling, An Rushuang said as she pointed to Zhao Xiaotao who was kneeling on the ground, “Remember. If you turn strong, you can get every man you want. However, if you are coward and undetermined, you are impossible to win a man’s heart no matter how many of them you will meet in the future! You’ll seize their hearts when you turn strong.”

With her eyes sparkling with cunning light, she did make a “seizing” movement with her hand.

Seize...a man’s heart?

Zhao Xiaotao felt her heart beating faster, her palm full of sweat.

She licked her dry lips before stuttering, “How... How is it possible?”

As submissive as a woman, how could she seize a man’s heart?