Rebirth of the Film Empress' Beloved Wife [JenLisa Adaptation]

Chapter 54: The Manoban Family Calls

As the topic of Lisa’s life experience continued to spread, the result was contrary to what the Lee family had hoped for. They had a feeling that they had lost the bait along with the fish. Currently, the public held a very high opinion of Lisa, as well as the Kim family. Although the Lee family was the main instigator, they felt as though they had nothing to do with the affair!

Then, three days after the news went out, the other instigator finally showed a reaction. It was not a public reaction; rather, Old Master Manoban had his assistant give Lisa a call.

Old Master Manoban, named Enci Manoban, was Lisa’s biological grandfather. Although the old man was very ill, he was still clear-headed. After he was informed about the news, he had investigated and confirmed Lisa’s identity before deciding to contact her.

Actually, it wouldn’t be accurate to say that Old Master Manoban hadn’t known about what his son did to Lisa all those years ago. He did, but he had done nothing to stop it. Zhenyi’s conservative and prideful personality had been inherited from him, after all, so he naturally wouldn’t have tried to prevent Zhenyi from trying to hide the existence of an illegitimate daughter.

But now that the old man was on his deathbed, his attitude had changed. He wanted to see Lisa, a granddaughter who was a stranger to him, at least once in his life.

Lisa was somewhat surprised when she received the call because although she had guessed the Manoban family would contact her, she hadn’t expected the first person to be the old Master Manoban.

To go, or not to go? Lisa hesitated for only a moment before rejecting. She really didn’t want to be involved with the Manoban family in any way or degree.

“Heh, if that old man Manoban was actually sincere, it wouldn’t have taken him this long to think of finding you,” Jennie automatically defended her. She was sitting nearby and had heard the entire conversation.

“I know.” Lisa wasn’t stupid, so naturally, she had figured it out too. However, she was still very touched by her wife's concern, and the current her seemed so cute that she suddenly got an urge to hug her.

But in the end, an urge was still just an urge, and not something she dared to actually act upon.

“What do you want to do?” Jennie asked suddenly. At the same time, she noticed that Lisa's expression seemed a little off.

“Most likely, they’ll try again.” Lisa quickly suppressed the urge and changed the subject.

“Hmph. You’re mine, so even if they want to make a move, they wouldn’t dare.” She couldn’t be more dissatisfied with the Manoban family.

Hearing the words “you’re mine,” Lisa's heart began to beat at an abnormal rate. She thought, it seemed like she now had another “untreatable disease” on top of her auditory hallucinations…

“Mhm.”

As long as you’re by my side, I’m not afraid of anything!

Some people would abandon everything for power, while others would abandon the whole world for love. Lisa Manoban, a woman who had grown up without knowing love, obviously belonged to the latter.

…..

Sure enough, Old Master Manoban persisted. This time, instead of using his assistant, he chose the biological father card and sent out Zhenyi.

When Zhenyi called, Lisa was in the middle of talking to a makeup artist and a stylist about how she wanted a specific character to look. Kang Seulgi was in charge of handling her business calls.

“Mister Zhenyi Manoban is calling. Will you answer?” Seulgi asked with concern.

For a second, Lisa was confused, almost as though she was trying to remember who this “Mister Zhenyi Manoban” was. It was a name that she learned a long time ago, and yet it felt so foreign to her.

“Hello, this is Lisa Manoban.”

Some things, she had to face. Escaping wouldn’t solve the problem, and she wasn’t someone who liked to escape from her problems anyway. She just didn’t like to be bothered.

“Since your grandfather wants to see you, you should go visit him. Don’t let others think you’re childish and ignorant.” The man spoke with a cold and firm tone of voice, leaving Lisa chilled to the bones.

Lisa fell silent, wondering… did this man think they were close? What made him think he could command her like this?

“Who’s this? Wrong number?” Lisa retorted harshly. She refused to show respect to those who didn’t deserve it. Should an orphan who was abandoned since birth be expected to obey the one who had abandoned her? Lisa certainly didn’t think so.

At the other end of the phone, there was a brief silence, caused by either speechlessness or anger, but what did it matter?

“Since it’s a wrong number, don’t call again,” Lisa said before hanging up and handing the phone back to Seulgi. Then, as if nothing had happened, she resumed what she had been doing before. The shooting for her new film was starting soon, so she was very busy—too busy to be dealing with calls from strangers.

Sometimes, Lisa would wonder, just how cruel did a man have to be to throw his own newborn daughter into an orphanage? If it was because he couldn’t afford to raise a child, then fine, but the Manoban family clearly had more than enough money to raise a child with. Even so, they had thrown her into an orphanage, forcing her to grow up as though she were a real orphan. Every time she thought about it, her heart would fill with bitter disappointment.

When she was ignorant, she would come up with excuses for her parents, convinced that they must’ve been forced to make such a choice, but years later, she stopped thinking so naively. The one who was abandoned had once tried to find excuses for the people who abandoned her… how ridiculous.

Seulgi held the phone, slightly speechless. She asked hesitantly, ”If Mr. Manoban calls again, should I answer?”

“Answer when you have to, ignore it if you don’t. As my assistant, it’s your job to filter out unimportant calls for me.” Lisa didn’t directly say no because she knew that the Manoban family wouldn’t give up so easily, but if they tried to use that commanding tone to talk to her again, then… they shouldn’t blame her for being equally impolite!