Ye Shuyang asked, "Why are you at the hospital? Are you feeling unwell?"
Fang Tong nodded and then shook her mouth. "I'm fine, just came to pick up a report."
"You... look a bit haggard. Are you sure everything is okay?" Ye Shuyang's gaze fell on the report in her hand.
Fang Tong hurriedly shoved the report into her bag and managed a forced smile. "It's fine. I was sick before, but I've already recovered and been discharged."
Ye Shuyang let out a sigh of relief. "That's good. But you still need to take care of yourself. You just got out of the hospital, so your body is still weak."
Fang Tong nodded. "Yeah."
After a moment of hesitation, Ye Shuyang cautiously brought up, "By the way, I saw in the news before that you... got married?"
The news of her marriage three years ago had indeed been a massive sensation. A rising young starlet scheming to snag the heir of Chuangsheng Group, successfully getting pregnant to secure her position before retiring from the industry. Such explosive gossip meant that even those who paid little attention to the entertainment world had heard about it.
Fang Tong fell silent.
Noticing her poor mood, Ye Shuyang quickly changed the subject. "Right, my aunt..."
With things weighing heavily on her mind, Fang Tong hadn't heard a word he said and hastily interrupted him. "Cousin, it's getting late. I should head home."
Ye Shuyang was slightly taken aback, then nodded and said, "I'll see you out."
"No need. My house is pretty far from here, I can get back by myself."
Ye Shuyang didn't insist and walked Fang Tong to catch a ride.
Just before the car arrived, he still said, "Tongtong, I watched the movie you were in before. It was great, and your acting was wonderful."
Fang Tong froze.
A movie?
To be honest, she had almost forgotten the days when she used to act. Discovered by Director Song at seventeen and retiring from the industry at nineteen, she had actually only starred in one film and shot a few commercials.
Later, after marrying into wealthy society, public opinion of her plummeted. Her biggest title changed from "Director Song's muse" to "scheming bitch," and whenever that movie was mentioned online, people went out of their way to avoid talking about her—the mocked and reviled female lead.
Fang Tong added Ye Shuyang on WeChat, exchanged phone numbers, and they parted ways.
When she returned to the Fang family home, her parents were out, leaving only her younger brother, Fang Chenchen, in the house.
Fang Chenchen was twenty years old this year and still in college, usually living in the dorms. He attended an ordinary private undergraduate university with loose management and no bed-check policies.
Because of this, he ran back home every few days.
In the past, Fang Tong always worried about him and would remind their mother to pay more attention to him, lest he sneak out to play and pick up bad habits from others.
Unfortunately, Qiao Shu didn't appreciate it at all, even feeling that Fang Tong was deliberately cursing him and acting nothing like a real older sister.
It was dinnertime now. If it were before, Fang Tong would definitely have asked Fang Chenchen why he hadn't gone to eat, worried whether he was hungry, and cooked a meal for him herself.
But today, Fang Tong acted as if she hadn't seen him at all, walking straight in and heading upstairs to rest.
"Fang Tong, are you blind to a living person standing right here?" Fang Chenchen shouted with displeasure.
"Didn't see you."
Fang Chenchen's eyes widened. He abruptly stood up and said fiercely, "Fang Tong, you've grown some nerve, daring to talk to me like that?"
Seeing that Fang Tong ignored him entirely and went straight upstairs to her room, Fang Chenchen grew anxious. He rushed up after her and blocked the door just as she was about to close it.
"Fang Tong, give me money."
Fang Tong rolled her eyes. "Don't have any."
"If you don't have any, go ask your husband for it."
Fang Tong let out a cold laugh. "My husband? Isn't your sister Fang Huahua? Go ask her instead, why are you bothering me?"
It was always like this. Fang Chenchen looked down on her as an older sister and always called her directly by her full name, but he certainly didn't look down on Xu Yizhi, acting like a sycophant and calling him "brother-in-law" every other word whenever he saw him.
It was utterly pathetic.
Fang Chenchen choked on his words for a moment. Rolling his eyes, he said, "I don't care, Xu Yizhi is your husband, giving you money is only natural, so go ask him for some. If you don't dare, I'll tell Mom and Dad and have them beat you!"
What a family of bloodsuckers. Whenever they saw her, it was always about money, money, and more money.
Fang Tong took a deep breath.
For all these years, she had craved so-called family affection and endured endless grievances, but despite suffering all that hardship, she hadn't seen a single trace of that affection!
She didn't want to live anyway, so why should she keep pampering them?
Fang Tong turned and went back downstairs. Thinking she was scared and wanted to run away, Fang Chenchen quickly followed her down.
"Did you hear me? Get me some money..."
Fang Tong walked straight to the laundry room, picked up a broom, turned around to find Fang Chenchen, and swung it right at his head and face.
Fang Chenchen's eyes widened. He instinctively raised his arm to block, taking the blow solidly, and let out a sharp scream.
"Fang Tong, have you lost your mind... Ow!"
Perhaps all the grievances she had harbored for so long exploded in this single instant—how could she care about Fang Chenchen's reaction? Gathering all her strength, she rained down blows furiously across his head and face.
At first, Fang Chenchen even tried to snatch the broom away to fight back, but after taking a few heavy thumps, he realized it was impossible to wrest it from her. At that moment, Fang Tong truly looked like a demon possessed, leaving him utterly defenseless.
He hugged his head and scrambled wildly around the room, wanting nothing more than to dodge away, but escape was impossible.
Fang Tong thought of what the doctor had told her—that the stomach was actually an emotional organ.
The Xu family had dedicated nutritionists planning her three daily meals, so there were no flaws in her diet; her stomach problems were most likely caused by long-suppressed emotions.
"You're the ones who are utterly shameless!"
Fang Tong scolded as she beat him.
"Fang Chenchen, you're the most shameless of all. I'm your sister, yet you boss me around without a shred of respect, and you still expect to profit off me. Have you no shame at all?"
Fang Chenchen no longer had any breath left to care about what Fang Tong was saying. Earlier he could still curse a few times, but now he could only hug his head and beg for mercy.
"Stop hitting me, Fang Tong, stop hitting me! Sis, stop hitting it, it hurts so much! Sis, I was wrong, I was wrong, okay?!"
"You were wrong? You don't think you did anything wrong at all. You lot are just a bunch of ungrateful wolves with eyes painted white—Mom and Dad are like that, and you and Fang Huahua are the exact same, shameless parasites!"
Fang Chenchen couldn't figure out what had gotten into his usually timid second sister today to make her snap like this. Even if his words hadn't been very polite, it still shouldn't have triggered such a massive temper tantrum.
Besides, he had often asked Fang Tong for money in the past, and she had satisfied most of his requests. He hadn't even named a sum yet today!
Right at that moment, a commotion sounded from outside. It was Fang Xu and the others returning.
Energized by this, Fang Chenchen shouted loudly, "Mom and Dad are back! You still dare hit me? I'm telling you, I'll definitely have Mom and Dad break your legs!"
Fang Tong hadn't eaten much, and after such heavy physical exertion, she had originally wanted to pause for a moment. But hearing Fang Chenchen's words, she dashed to the door and slammed the deadbolt shut.
Turning back, she resumed her frenzied beating of Fang Chenchen.
Fang Chenchen wailed at the top of his lungs, "Dad, Mom, Fang Tong has gone crazy! Dad, Mom, help!"
Hearing her son's voice from outside, Qiao Shu grew frantic and rushed over to open the door, but it was bolted from the inside and wouldn't budge no matter what she tried.
"Open the door! Fang Tong, are you sick in the head? How dare you hit your little brother! Open the door right now, open the damn door for your mother!"