The Shangguan family estate, where the adoption banquet had been held, fell into a state of quiet desolation afterward. But the desolation was relative to its human inhabitants; for the estate itself, nothing had changed. The absence of a mistress who often stood beneath the ginkgo tree, feeling the breeze, was not enough to affect it. The birds chirping in the early morning still sang the same tune, and the gardeners and maids came and went as if they were just another type of tree here.
Nearly a month later, Guo Yu returned to the estate that had brought shame upon the Shangguan family. She had been driven away with great fanfare, so it was only natural that her return was silent. A bodyguard was handing her luggage to a servant while Guo Yu sat quietly on a bench by a crabapple tree. In Guo Yu’s eyes, autumn held little scenery worth looking at, only a slow scent of decay that she found quite captivating.
Guo Yu gently caressed her stomach, a loving smile gracing her lips as she recalled what her daughter had said to her a few days ago.
That little girl who would only tremble by her side had grown up.
Guo Siwan’s threat to make Shangguan Xianxian pay wasn’t just empty words. Although her reckless behavior at the banquet had later earned her a punishment from Guo Yu, she hadn’t resorted to such low-class physical methods to deal with Shangguan Xianxian afterward.
She was very calm. She knew she didn’t have much room to be willful; her status didn’t allow for it. Slapping Shangguan Xianxian had already been crossing a line.
Without a doubt, the woman who had stormed into the banquet hall and caused a scene became the focus of everyone’s attention. The Shangguan family’s property wasn’t a place just anyone could enter, and for it to happen on such an occasion, not even the dishwashing auntie in the kitchen would believe there wasn’t someone behind it.
However, although Shangguan Chong knew Shen Wei was responsible, he wanted to use the suspicion of the Jin family’s meddling to eliminate some of their power, so he didn’t focus his actions on Shen Wei at first. On the contrary, with Shen Wei’s true parentage not yet public, his plan was to frame Shangguan Xianxian. A die-hard loyalist of Jin Yuan, a daughter known to all as Jin Yuan’s, secretly colluding to bring shame upon the Shangguan family—there was so much room for manipulation there.
As for Guo Yu, she had offended many people, so correspondingly, she had many suspects.
Guo Siwan, however, kept her eyes fixed on Shangguan Xianxian.
The woman who crashed the party insisted she hadn’t been instigated by anyone. And looking at her history, she didn’t need to be instigated to have a motive for wanting to destroy Guo Yu and that scumbag.
After all, the man who had cheated with Guo Yu was a master at feigning deep affection. After tricking his wife into giving up her career to stay home and have a child, he was nowhere to be seen during her pregnancy. After the child was born, the woman struggled to raise it on her own, only to be served with divorce papers from the scumbag. After several confrontations, she finally understood that he had found a rich woman on the side. The rich woman didn’t want him to have family baggage, so the man promptly went home and kicked out his wife.
He didn’t even want the child.
But he did want to take the house.
The woman was driven to a dead end and nearly committed suicide. It was at this moment that she received an email containing photos of her husband and Guo Yu kissing and going to a hotel, which sent her into a vengeful rage.
The Shangguan family’s adoption banquet had been announced online early on. After finding out the location, the woman turned the venue upside down that night. She was now in a detention center on charges of provoking trouble, and her child had been sent to live with her parents.
If she had been instigated, she wouldn’t have ended up in such a miserable state.
More importantly, there were no unusual transactions in her bank records.
Thus, the focus of the investigation fell on the security that night.
It was true that one bodyguard had suddenly resigned, but his resignation was due to a normal contract expiration. He had a daughter studying abroad, so his cash flow was not easy to trace.
Almost everyone else locked their sights on this bodyguard.
Only Guo Siwan was investigating Shangguan Xianxian’s assets. As she dug deeper, she discovered that Shen Wei, who was always by her side, seemed very suspicious, because Shangguan Xianxian and Shen Wei held far too many assets jointly.
It couldn’t even be explained away by Shangguan Xianxian’s deep sisterly affection for Shen Wei.
Because there was no way Shangguan Xianxian could have so many assets.
Guo Siwan recalled that it seemed ever since Shen Wei had arrived at this home, all of her and her mother’s moves had been neutralized, seemingly by accident.
Shen Wei was no pushover. Once Guo Siwan solidified this thought, the investigation became much simpler.
No matter what advantage Shen Wei had from being reborn, it couldn’t change the fact that she had been reborn for less than half a year. The power that Guo Yu and Guo Siwan had cultivated under the Shangguan family’s protection for over a decade was not to be underestimated. Shen Wei could only hide the truly fatal secrets, but she couldn’t hide everything.
Originally, the investigation could only uncover that Shen Wei was secretly making large-scale investments.
But as it happened, Shen Wei, tipped off by Ye Yuhuan, had changed her strategy and appropriately left a small trail, which was immediately picked up by the ever-watchful Guo Siwan.
The problem wasn’t the bodyguard who had resigned, but a gardener. He had secretly let the woman in.
And that gardener was someone Jin Yuan had personally hired years ago. This man was far more loyal than Shen Wei’s adoptive parents; after so many years, he was still willing to help his benefactor’s daughter, even taking the fall without a single complaint.
With that, the truth seemed to be out.
But it was of no benefit to the mother and daughter.
Guo Yu did indeed have another man. Because of this, Guo Siwan received Shangguan Chong’s classic paternity test treatment. Not long after the banquet, she was put in a car heading to the hospital.
Shangguan Chong was in another car.
Guo Siwan didn’t understand. Do people suspect others of the very things they themselves lack?
It seemed Shangguan Chong had never truly treated any of the three of them as his own flesh and blood.
By the time the results came out, it was the middle of the night. White autumn frost clung to the grass and trees by the roadside. It was silent all around. Shangguan Chong’s emotionless voice sounded from behind the report: “Stay away from your mother from now on.”
Guo Siwan quietly agreed.
Then Shangguan Chong left in his car.
Guo Siwan stood in place for half an hour. She was about to lose all feeling from the wind before she finally got in the car and returned to the Shangguan estate.
The servants were already bustling about. In the faint morning light, Guo Siwan walked past them as they greeted her, pretending nothing had happened.
She would probably never forget this scene. It was as if she had returned to the day she was brought from the slums to the Shangguan estate; everything she saw gave her the feeling that she didn’t deserve it.
So when she went to find Guo Yu with the evidence, the first thing she said was, “Can you still return to the Shangguan family?”
Hearing this, Guo Yu stopped arranging her flowers and looked at her underage daughter with a scrutinizing gaze, asking calmly, “What do you mean?”
Guo Siwan stood to the side, dressed in clothes personally selected by Guo Yu, looking every bit the pampered darling raised in the lap of luxury. She looked at her mother calmly and said, “If you can’t make a comeback this time, then I probably won’t visit you often in the future. To be precise, I can’t, unless I also want to become an outcast of the Shangguan family like you. So I want to ask you, do you have another move up your sleeve?”
Guo Yu’s hands had been well-maintained over the years, but no expensive cream or treatment could completely erase the scars on her once-battered hands. On close inspection, her hands always looked a bit mottled, not the pure, jade-like hands of a noblewoman. Guo Yu slowly rotated her wrist, as if seeing her own struggle and despair in the slums over a decade ago. She looked up at her daughter, a rare gentleness in her expression. “Do you think I love Shangguan Chong?”
Guo Siwan hesitated for a moment before saying, “No.”
Guo Yu asked again, “Do you think Shangguan Chong loves me?”
This time, Guo Siwan answered much more quickly. “No.”
“There you have it. Why can two people who don’t love each other stay together for over a decade? Siwan, my relationship with Shangguan Chong is much more complicated than most people think. It’s less that I’m his lover, and more that I’m his co-conspirator.”
Guo Siwan was confused. Co-conspirator? Conspiring for what?
Guo Yu showed no intention of explaining further. She patted Guo Siwan’s shoulder and chuckled lightly. “Just give me this evidence. I’ll make sure it serves its purpose. It’s also time to remind Shangguan Chong of what we’ve done in the past.”
With that, Guo Yu turned and half-reclined on a soft sofa chair nearby. A brown shawl was wrapped around her thin shoulders, and a fragile life was gestating in her lower abdomen. She glanced at the half-arranged flowers and smiled.
Then she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Guo Siwan left, still bewildered. She remained bewildered until the day Shen Wei was beaten.
A thick, black fog seemed to hang over the Shangguan family. The suffocating atmosphere that had long pervaded this home stemmed from it, yet everyone treated it as a taboo subject. Guo Siwan could only think of one name, the one who was perhaps the root of this black fog.
“Jin Yuan.” Guo Siwan slowly uttered the name, her gaze unconsciously shifting toward Shen Wei’s room.
“Jin Yuan.” Ye Yuhuan also wrote these two words on a piece of paper.
Shen Wei had told her what happened at the Shangguan estate over the phone. For now, things were developing just as they had expected. If they continued on this path, the revenge Jin Yuan had half-completed years ago could finally be realized in Shen Wei’s hands.
And then everything will be over, Ye Yuhuan thought.
By then, everyone’s lives can be untangled. We might be able to welcome true freedom.
What will I do then?
Continue to be Song Zhiqing’s good friend and love strategist?
By then, Song Zhiqing should be able to easily let go of her obsession with Shangguan Xianxian. A love strategist probably won’t be very necessary. But she might fall for someone else. At this thought, Ye Yuhuan subconsciously frowned. The possibility made her a little uncomfortable.
To be honest, Song Zhiqing’s tragic life in the plot could almost be said to be the result of her own making. It was she who pursued Shangguan Xianxian with great fanfare, she who abused her family’s power to slander others, and she who, after her slanders failed, walked into a dead end and even tried to take Shen Wei down with her.
But could that really be Song Zhiqing?
Her previous conviction was based on the idea that people are influenced by their environment to do things that might not align with their true nature. But after spending these past days together, Ye Yuhuan couldn’t imagine what kind of environment would push Song Zhiqing to that state. Her family, while not perfect, was a happy one. Her life was comfortable, and she had dreams she wanted to pursue. Could the arrogant, almost crazed girl from the plot be the same Song Zhiqing who stayed up all night helping Liu Meng find evidence?
Ye Yuhuan found it hard to believe.
But everything else in the plot matched up. Even Song Zhiqing’s outward behavior matched. Only her inner self was completely different from the plot. Ye Yuhuan thought, Is this due to my bias as a friend?
Or has my appearance already changed Song Zhiqing’s personality?
Regardless, Shangguan Xianxian remained a danger to Song Zhiqing. Her affection for Shangguan Xianxian was so persistent it surprised even Ye Yuhuan. A one-sided, obsessive love like this would not end well. It would either hurt others or hurt herself.
Thinking of this, she finally smoothed over the discomfort in her heart.
She tore off a piece of paper, skillfully folded it into a paper crane, and wrote a line: 【Lunch together at noon?】
The reply flew back quickly.
【Okay, I want to eat mini wontons!】
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