When Song Zhiqing returned home that evening, the bronze wall clock in the living room showed it was already nine o’clock. The family’s housekeeper came over to take the schoolbag from her hands. Song Zhiqing thanked her, then changed her shoes and went upstairs to the second floor.
After her shower, she took out her phone and opened the friend locator. It showed that she and Ye Yuhuan were 25 kilometers apart.
Song Zhiqing stared at the two small dots on the screen, one blue and one orange, until the screen automatically went dark. She left her room. Downstairs, the housekeeper was cutting fruit for her. Song Zhiqing leaned against the kitchen doorway, the light seeming to soak into her, making her glow. The housekeeper sighed inwardly at how good the family’s genes were; from the madam to the young miss, they were all one-in-a-million beauties.
Following Song Zhiqing’s usual habits, the housekeeper asked, “Xiao Qing, is there a dessert you’d like to eat?”
Song Zhiqing shook her head. “No, Auntie Wang. I wanted to ask if the clothes I gave you yesterday are washed. If they are, please pack them up for me. I’m taking them to school tomorrow.”
The clothes had dried in the afternoon. The housekeeper had been surprised when Song Zhiqing had so solemnly asked her to wash them yesterday. After all, the two pieces of clothing didn’t look like they were from any expensive brand. A single pair of socks from Song Zhiqing’s closet was probably more expensive than this entire outfit. The housekeeper figured that Miss Song must have made a very good friend to be so attentive.
The housekeeper smiled and said, “They were washed long ago. I’ll put them in the living room for you tomorrow. Remember to grab them on your way to school.”
Song Zhiqing nodded. Before turning to leave, she added, “Auntie, I don’t want any fruit tonight. Um, could you make me a bowl of brown sugar ginger tea?”
“Is your stomach hurting again?” the housekeeper asked, knowing about Song Zhiqing’s menstrual cramps.
“No, I just feel like drinking it.”
The housekeeper was taken aback. What was wrong with Song Zhiqing today? Didn’t she always dislike sweets with strong flavors?
After Song Zhiqing left, the housekeeper was still a bit puzzled, finally chalking it up to the fickle nature of girls this age.
In truth, Song Zhiqing didn’t know why either. She had just suddenly remembered the taste of brown sugar ginger tea. When the housekeeper brought it to her, she took one sip and put it down.
It was just as strange as she remembered.
Song Zhiqing buried her head in her velvet pillow. She loved the scent of jasmine, so everything in her room was infused with it. Usually, immersing herself in this fragrance would calm her mind, but for some reason, today she recalled the scent she had smelled during those ten quiet minutes in Ye Yuhuan’s dorm room. It was a very gentle fragrance, mixed with the warmth of the sun. At that moment, she knew Ye Yuhuan was sitting right behind her. Though Ye Yuhuan had tried to be quiet when she pulled out her chair, Song Zhiqing had still heard it.
Song Zhiqing felt a sense of being enveloped, a comfort reminiscent of being lulled to sleep as a child.
But that was a memory from a long, long time ago. In a family like hers, the companionship of parents was a rarity. Although her father and mother both loved her very much and had never been lacking in their concern, ever since she could no longer travel with her mother due to her studies, coming home to an empty villa every day still left her with a sense of loss.
Her parents’ love story was one of a talent scout and his discovery. Her father had discovered her mother while she was still a student at a film academy. Though her mother was initially mocked as a pretty face who relied on connections to get ahead, after she brought home one Best Actress award after another, everyone could only praise their beautiful love story. Song Zhiqing knew well that her mother’s outstanding achievements were inseparable from her passion for acting. This passion had driven her back to the film set less than three months after giving birth. Song Zhiqing had spent most of her infancy on film sets, but fortunately, her father, as a producer, was also there with them.
Those were Song Zhiqing’s happiest days.
Later, as she grew up and became more independent, her parents let her live alone in the capital. Song Zhiqing had always managed well, but today, when Ye Yuhuan had said with such earnestness, “This way, I’ll be able to find you from now on,” Song Zhiqing realized that she still needed a nest where she could find mutual warmth.
It didn’t have to be big. Just having someone who was willing to look for her would be enough.
But would Shangguan Xianxian be that person?
Song Zhiqing didn’t know.
The scene she had witnessed that afternoon and Tang Ke’s subsequent confession kept replaying in her mind.
She had told Tang Ke that she didn’t care if others confessed to Shangguan Xianxian, because she knew she wouldn’t accept.
But was she herself the exception who would be accepted?
If she were to try and force a kiss on Shangguan Xianxian, she probably couldn’t even get close enough to do it.
Besides, maybe Shen Wei hadn’t even forced the kiss. After all, Shangguan Xianxian had only pushed her away, not hit her.
It was truly laughable when she thought about it.
Ye Yuhuan hadn’t asked her to explain her sudden mood swing, which was a very considerate gesture. Honestly, if she had to explain, all she could say was: I think I’m a joke.
On what basis had she been so certain that her future would definitely include Shangguan Xianxian’s companionship?
She still liked Shangguan Xianxian.
She just didn’t know if she should continue to like her.
Just as Song Zhiqing was clutching her phone, hesitating over whether to send her daily harassment-style “turn-gay-for-me” care package, her phone suddenly began to vibrate wildly. Song Zhiqing exited the WeChat chat interface and switched to Weibo, only to find that her friends and the members of the Cosmic Beauty Garden were all telling her to log into the school forum immediately.
Utterly confused, Song Zhiqing opened the school forum and found the main topic in less than a second. It was impossible to miss—all the posts on the forum had only one theme: Shangguan Xianxian was the Shangguan family’s switched-at-birth fake daughter, and Shen Wei was their true blood relative.
??????
What the hell? Even TV dramas didn’t use this plot anymore.
But when she opened the first post, the black-and-white paternity test report told Song Zhiqing that what TV dramas didn’t dare to show, the Shangguan family did.
Looking at the one-sided comments on the forum, everyone was saying that Shangguan Xianxian had stolen Shen Wei’s life. The topic was reportedly already starting to spread to Weibo. The Shangguan family’s corporation was well-known throughout the country; if the news truly spread, one could only imagine how badly Shangguan Xianxian would be vilified.
Unlike ordinary netizens, the young masters and misses of Qinglin had already sensed that this was an internal storm within the Shangguan family. A paternity test like this wasn’t something that could be casually obtained. Who knew how many of the accounts swarming the forum were paid trolls.
Someone wanted to smear Shangguan Xianxian.
Song Zhiqing came to this conclusion immediately. Before this afternoon, her first suspect would have been Shen Wei. Although she called Shangguan Xianxian “sister” so sweetly to her face, there were far too many honey-tongued, dagger-hearted types in wealthy circles. But after seeing them kiss that afternoon, Shen Wei’s suspicion instantly gave way to Guo Siwan. It wasn’t that Shen Wei was completely innocent, but she couldn’t possibly be trying to win Shangguan Xianxian over while simultaneously trying to drag her through the mud. One would have to be a complete psychopath to do something like that.
Right now, although Song Zhiqing’s feelings for Shangguan Xianxian were complicated, her underlying affection hadn’t changed. She still couldn’t bear to see Shangguan Xianxian get hurt.
Song Zhiqing was about to mobilize the Cosmic Beauty Garden’s army of trolls when she saw that Tang Ke had already sprung into action. It seemed his feelings for Shangguan Xianxian hadn’t ended with her rejection; in fact, Song Zhiqing’s words might have even strengthened his resolve. A true man of culture, the reigning champion of unrequited love.
Seeing the tide gradually turning on the forum, Song Zhiqing sent Tang Ke a thumbs-up with mixed feelings and instructed him to steer the conversation toward the Shangguan family’s internal strife, specifically mentioning that this was Guo Siwan’s scheme to try and get her name into the Shangguan family register.
On the other end of the internet, Ye Yuhuan had thought Song Zhiqing would direct all her attacks at Shen Wei, just like in the original plot, and was about to send her a reminder. But when she saw Song Zhiqing’s clear-headed response in the group chat, she deleted the notes she had prepared.
It seemed the shock from this afternoon had changed a lot of things.
In the original novel, this was the point where Song Zhiqing relentlessly targeted Shen Wei, until the two became mortal enemies. With her secret crush ending in failure and being suppressed by Shen Wei at school, Song Zhiqing completely descended into darkness, beginning her descent toward a life behind bars.
From the way things were going now, at least Song Zhiqing and Shen Wei wouldn’t be at each other’s throats.
While Ye Yuhuan breathed a sigh of relief, Guo Siwan was gritting her teeth. She had gone to great lengths to cover her tracks and release this paternity test before the Shangguan family’s official welcoming banquet for Shen Wei, precisely to plant the impression of Shangguan Xianxian as a usurper in the minds of the entire capital’s social circle. In the two months since Shen Wei’s return, Shangguan Xianxian had protected her at every turn. Otherwise, a country bumpkin from a small town would have been dealt with so thoroughly she wouldn’t know which way was up. Shangguan Chong had no other children. If he didn’t want to hand over his life’s work to those bloodsucking relatives, his only choice was to pick her as his heir.
Guo Siwan didn’t want the two of them to team up, so she exposed the truth, using public opinion to force them to turn on each other.
But now, the forum was abuzz with analysis of whether she, Guo Siwan, had been the one to leak the evidence, with the goal of pushing Shangguan Xianxian into opposition with Shen Wei, playing the part of the fisherman who profits while the snipe and the clam grapple.
The fact that Guo Siwan was Shangguan Chong’s illegitimate daughter was an open secret in the capital’s circles. Shangguan Chong had never tried to hide it, and Guo Siwan herself wished she could plaster the Shangguan family logo all over her body. This line of analysis was completely plausible. As for evidence, that wasn’t important. The upper class had plenty of ways to get by without evidence; sometimes, motive itself was a form of evidence.
Guo Siwan’s hands and feet went cold. She hurriedly called her mother. After explaining what had happened, the other end of the line was silent for a long time. Guo Siwan didn’t dare to speak rashly. Her mother had climbed from a mere secretary to Shangguan Chong’s acknowledged mistress, and now she was even on the verge of entering the Shangguan family home. The depth of her cunning and scheming was beyond anything Guo Siwan could hope to match.
After a long while, a mature and alluring female voice came through the phone. “Stay out of this. I’ll clean it up for you.”
“Keep a low profile for a while. I’ve taught you before, when you lack sufficient ability, feigning incompetence is also a useful skill.”
Guo Siwan dug her nails into her palm in humiliation, but her voice was gentle and obedient. “I understand, Mother.”
“Mm. Your father and I will be home in a few days. Also, I won the bid for that necklace you liked.”
“Thank you, Mother.”
After hanging up, Guo Siwan violently threw her phone across the room. She stared with hatred at everything in the room—these clothes, this jewelry, these beautiful works of art were all things she had snatched from Shangguan Xianxian’s hands.
Father? What father? If it weren’t for the fact that Shangguan Chong’s wife had drugged him until he could no longer have children, she would still be stuck in the slums, and her mother would just be pinching her ear, complaining over and over, “Why aren’t you a son?”
The Shangguan family. The Shangguan family. Her entire life’s glory and humiliation were tied to it.
That was why she had to have it, no matter the cost.
