Panda Novel

In a pitch-black room, a silhouette could be vaguely seen in the darkness, curled up in a corner.

Suddenly the door was opened, letting a bright ray of light into the room. The girl that was tied up in a corner seemed to react to the light, lifting up her head in the direction of the door to show her porcelain-skinned face. Her eyes squinted as if she were adjusting to the light, and her pillowy lips pursed slightly. Even though she was disheveled and her clothes were dirty, it still couldn’t hide her beauty like a diamond in the rough.

A split second later, she lowered her gaze again, hiding the indifference in her gaze.

The woman outside the door walked in, and her smile seemed extremely ominous under the lighting.

This was the eldest daughter of the Gu family, Gu Xijin. She was known far and wide for having a keen intuition in finance, and every choice that she had made on the behalf of the Gu family would bring it up to another level. In the three years she had taken over as the head of the Gu family, she was hailed by everyone in the scene as a genius that brought her family to glory from a second-rate family to one of the best in the world.

Not only that, her works of art were circulated in the art world as ones that would go down in history. All of her oil paintings were all kept as treasures in international exhibitions, and even the most talented artist in Hua Xia was infatuated with her because of her talent… She was the perfect daughter of the Gu family that countless people fawned over!

Thinking of this, Gu Xiqiao scoffed and started to laugh so hard that she almost cried.

This lady in front of her was her sister from a different mother, and they were quite close… Well at least that’s what she thought.

The day she joined the Gu family, she knew that she was an illegitimate daughter. She didn’t have Madam Gu’s favor especially when she stood out, so Gu Xiqiao continued to lower her presence as she hid behind Gu Xijin, helping her older sister step onto the heights of life.

The world only knew the eldest daughter of the Gu family, but none of them knew that all of her feats were sourced from the illegitimate daughter.

In the eyes of the general public, Gu Xiqiao was just a stupid girl that wasn’t talented in anything.

Meanwhile, Gu Xijin was widely praised as the perfect successor of the Gu family and a one-in-a-million genius.

Gu Xiqiao didn’t care about what the world thought of her. She was easily moved by acts of kindness towards her, and because Gu Xijin had always treated her well back when she first joined the family, she had always helped her sister without a single complaint.

She put in all of her blood, sweat, and tears into helping the Gu family reach the heights that it was at now, but now they were going to sacrifice her for the sake of Gu Xijin!

She was thrown away like a disposable tool!

Hilarious… How hilarious!

“Why?” Gu Xiqiao suddenly stopped laughing and fixed Gu Xijin with a questioning gaze.

Gu Xijin slowly crouched down and looked at Gu Xiqiao’s hands. The latter originally had a pair of beautiful hands with lithe fingers, but were now twisted and mangled as a result of torture.

“The Gu family has been taking care of you for such a long time, don’t you think you should repay us?” Gu Xijin glared at her, before covering her mouth with her hand as her expression turned mocking. “It’s me and Xia’s wedding day tomorrow, but I can’t calm down unless I get rid of you first, see?”

Perhaps it was because she thought that Gu Xiqiao didn’t have any chance to see the light of day ever again, Gu Xijin didn’t even bother to hide her malicious intent.

She had always been afraid that her cover might be blown, and that everything she had right now would not belong to her anymore. The world only knew how glamorous her life was on the surface, and not how she tossed and turned every night plagued by nightmares, and the only way she could rest well was by getting rid of Gu Xiqiao!

Not to mention the latter had prepared a proposal that was enough to last the Gu family another ten years!

Now that the Gu family was already at the top of the country, Gu Xiqiao had lost her usefulness.

“Don’t you know that I hate this indifferent expression of yours? What is there to be so proud about, you’re just a dog that our family picked up out of pity!” Gu Xijin lifted her leg and stomped on Gu Xiqiao’s hand, trampling it mercilessly until her hand started to bleed again. “Our family doesn’t keep any useless scum! You should see it as an honor to be seen by that person!”

The door then closed heavily, and the room returned to darkness.

Gu Xiqiao didn’t make a single sound, and her expression hadn’t changed at all.

She looked out of the window that let in a minuscule ray of light for a moment, before smiling mockingly at herself. There weren’t so many whys and hows, where there?

It was purely because no one cared for her.

She thought they did, but it was only a facade under Gu Xijin’s meticulous planning.

That night, the Gu family mansion was razed to the ground, and Gu Xiqiao was reported to be dead, and according to the official reports, they couldn’t even get her corpse. To this, everyone only looked on coldly, before returning their attention to the eldest daughter and the greatest lady in N City, Gu Xijin.

What came next, however, was beyond everyone’s expectations.

The Gu family was suddenly involved in a severe financial crisis, and while the eldest miss of the Gu family tried to turn the tide, she ultimately lost to a small company without even putting up much of a fight.

This was news that truly caused the discussion around the Gu family to grow even further, and at this point everyone had realized that something was wrong. Why did the eldest daughter of the Gu Family become useless as soon as the second daughter died? Did she feed all her genius and talent to some pigs?

Soon after, proof that the eldest daughter of the Gu family had been smuggling illegal goods and bribing people in high places and even more unspeakable acts, and was punished with life imprisonment.

The once glorious Gu family was reduced to dust in such a short time that no one could react.

Gu Xiqiao stood in the air as she looked at the scene before her, waving away the scene of the outer world that she saw reflected through the Void Mirror.

She stood deep in thought in the void. She knew that she was dead for a fact because she was the one who set herself on fire, but she hadn’t thought that she would retain her consciousness after death. Once she died, her soul was trapped in this endless void and she was unable to leave.

Thinking of this, she waved her hands and made a wooden table and chair appear in front of her. A pile of books and ancient tomes were piled messily on the table, and she picked one out of the pile to read.

There wasn’t any night or day in the void, and just an endless supply of books and scrolls on many different topics. She didn’t know how long she spent in this place before one day, a cold voice rang in her head.

[Conditions have been met. Now activating the system…]

When she reopened her eyes, she saw a young and beautiful face looking back at her in the mirror.

Her waxy and flowing hair cascaded down to her chest as her downcast eyelashes fluttered. Further down was a perfectly angled chin and supple cherry lips. Her young age masked her overly lovely features somewhat, but the basics of a beauty were there.

Gu Xiqiao closed the faucet and lifted her head slowly to show a pair of clear and untainted eyes, blinking slowly as she calmed her wave of emotion.

[Welcome back, Beauty Qiao!]

“Yes, I’m back, aren’t I?” Gu Xiqiao pulled out a paper towel to dry her fingers one by one, her tone somehow sounding dry and hoarse despite her young age.

The system turned into a human form, and propped its chin on its hand.

[Beauty Qiao, are you going to unlock your missions?]

“Yes.”

[Ding! Successfully unlocked daily missions! Successfully unlocked random missions! Successfully unlocked hidden missions! Successfully unlocked Level 0 System Shop! Congratulations to Beauty Qiao!]

Gu Xiqiao kicked the flip-flops off of her legs lazily and chose a cotton skirt for herself, her pale, doll-like legs contrasting the bright colors of the carpet below her.

A plain cotton one-piece dress and a pair of simple canvas shoes suited her unexpectedly well, and as she stared at her reflection in the mirror the coldness in her gaze slowly receded.

Today was the first of May on year 15, which was also the day of Gu Xijin’s adult ceremony. Gu Xiqiao walked down the stairs slowly towards the party that was being held on the floor below.

The crowd of young men and women all stopped in their tracks as the young lady walked down the stairs, their gazes being attracted to her as the hall plunged into silence.

Her head was tilted slightly as she made her way down, her hair covering her face so that it only showed a beautiful side profile and porcelain skin. She only wore a simple cotton dress, but it only served to make her even more attractive, and for a moment, everyone had the image of flowers blooming along with her steps.

Gu Xijin who had been the center of attention earlier frowned unnoticeably before putting on a well-practiced smiled and walking over to the younger girl, hooking their arms familiarly and introducing, “Everyone, this is my new younger sister Gu Xiqiao.”

The focus of that sentence was on the word ‘new’.

Once they heard Gu Xijin’s introduction, the crowd had a collective moment of realization, their gazes changing from that of admiration to something more complex.

The news that the Gu family had received an illegitimate daughter with great fanfare last month had become the laughing stock of the high society. They all looked at her like a wild hen that had barged into a group of phoenixes, and compared with the eldest daughter of the Gu family that was well educated and beautiful, she was like an ugly duckling.

The people said that she was a real-life Cinderella, but all she had was just a pretty face.

How could she be compared with them, who had been taught and educated well ever since they had been born?

Once they saw the real deal, quite a lot of them stepped forward to make small talk with her, but Gu Xiqiao only smiled and with a slight shake of the head to stop them from talking with her any further.

A young woman at a side in white close saw this and scoffed, before tugging at Gu Xijin’s clothes gently. “They’re only talking with her because she’s your little sister. She’s just an illegitimate b*tch who doesn’t have any worth other than helping you wear your shoes, how dare she be so high and mighty!”

She didn’t suppress her voice, so naturally everyone heard.

Gu Xiqiao’s smile didn’t even waver as she held a cup of wine in her hand, and as she saw Gu Xijin walk towards her, the sound of the system rang in her mind.

[Warning! The system has detected that Gu Xijin’s affection towards you is -48.]

[Affection level: Enemy]

[The system has automatically marked this person as red, proceed with caution!]

She lowered her head, her hair covering her expression momentarily as she smiled deviously for a moment.

Her crystal clear eyes seemed to suddenly be clouded with a complex emotion, and she only squinted her eyes with a mock-smile as she raised her cup towards her half-sister. “Happy birthday, sister.”

After she said so, she put down her wine cup and left.

Her tone was clear and gentle but filled with a frigid coldness, and was a far cry from her gloomy and depressed demeanor. Was this really that Gu Xiqiao?

Gu Xijin hadn’t reacted for a moment, and just let the younger girl walk out of the front door just like that.

The white-clothed young woman whispered at the bunch of rich kids, and because it had been uncommon to see such a pretty and delicate girl they immediately followed after Gu Xiqiao. Strangely enough, no matter how they walked, they couldn’t walk out of the main entrance.

Was something supernatural happening to them? A chill ran up the spines of the rich kids.