Shen Wei had long anticipated the events on the school forum and was prepared. Seeing things develop in the direction she desired, she couldn’t help but let a small smile grace her lips.
In this life, she had gained control of the assets her mother, Jin Yuan, had left for her early on. She now had a bit of power of her own. Although it was nothing compared to the behemoth that was the Shangguan family, it was enough to make some small moves in the shadows.
At this thought, she looked toward Shangguan Xianxian’s door, her eyes filled with guilt. The fact that they had been switched at birth was no accident; it had been part of her mother’s plan.
After realizing that Shangguan Chong had been deceiving her all along, with the sole purpose of seizing the inheritance her parents had left her, Jin Yuan had calmly arranged everything.
First, she sent her daughter away, far from the turmoil of the Shangguan family. The family that took her in had once received a great favor from Jin Yuan’s father, and with the addition of financial compensation, they could more or less guarantee her daughter would grow up safe and healthy.
Then, while secretly drugging Shangguan Chong, she began transferring her assets. If Shangguan Chong hadn’t discovered it early, the consequences would have been far more severe than just damaged reproductive function.
However, this caused Jin Yuan and Shangguan Chong to completely fall out. Later, Shangguan Chong even imprisoned Jin Yuan in a remote old mansion, leading her to commit suicide, unable to bear the humiliation.
Fortunately, by that time, most of Jin Yuan’s assets had already been transferred. In her past life, she and Shangguan Xianxian had relied on their mother’s remaining legacy to contend with Guo Siwan after being kicked out of the Shangguan family. It was a pity they fell short by a single step and ultimately failed to bring down the giant that was the Shangguan family.
The people on the forum said Shangguan Xianxian had stolen her life. Shen Wei found it laughable. What life? A life of being schemed against by her own biological father? If Jin Yuan hadn’t bribed the doctor at the private hospital Shangguan Chong frequented, the annual paternity test on the anniversary of Jin Yuan’s death would have landed Shangguan Xianxian in serious trouble. Shangguan Xianxian had even been packed off to a foreign country before she finished elementary school. The official reason was to let the child broaden her horizons, but that was just a story for outsiders.
In reality, Jin Yuan had just died, and Shangguan Chong had a guilty conscience.
It was a shame that for all her mother’s scheming, she couldn’t account for the human heart. After she was imprisoned by Shangguan Chong, the family that had taken Shen Wei in stopped receiving their monthly payments. They gradually started to beat and curse her. It was, in a way, karma.
If it weren’t for her mother, Shangguan Xianxian would have been adopted by someone else. She was so smart and so beautiful; she would have lived a happier life anywhere else than in the Shangguan family.
Shen Wei knew her actions the previous evening had been reckless. It had only been two months since her rebirth; she should have waited longer, waited until their bond was stronger, until her own power had grown.
But how could she wait?
Her sister was by her side every day, treating her with a gentleness that was hers alone. The panic of losing Shangguan Xianxian in her past life still haunted her. Under these circumstances, Shen Wei just wanted to hold on to Shangguan Xianxian as tightly as possible.
Looking at her phone, Shen Wei let out a soft sound of surprise. The people she had hired told her that besides them, another group had also intervened last night, and their objective was the same.
Shen Wei pursed her lips in thought. It couldn’t be Song Zhiqing, could it?
But then she remembered that strange Ye Yuhuan and thought it wasn’t impossible. The thought of Ye Yuhuan made her look toward Shangguan Xianxian’s door again. Shangguan Xianxian hadn’t come out all evening, even eating her dinner in her room.
Shen Wei sighed. She would just have to take things slowly from now on.
The storm lasted late into the night. Though it seemed to be just a small school forum, in reality, the parents of these students represented more than half of the capital’s elite circle. In other words, the news about the Shangguan family’s true and false daughters had already spread throughout the capital’s high society.
Although these people maintained a veneer of decorum, who among them hadn’t privately inquired about the Shangguan family’s affairs? Trying to seize his wife’s family inheritance only to be outmaneuvered—that incident alone was enough to make Shangguan Chong a lasting joke in high society. The students who had been educated by their parents on the Shangguan family’s old grudges the night before still wore dazed expressions the next day.
Tang Xue was one of them.
Her family was in the textile industry and had business dealings with the Shangguan family. The Shangguan affair had been a huge scandal back in the day, and her mother had broken it all down for her last night. The main reason was that she, too, was an only daughter. The idea of someone preying on a family without a male heir was terrifying to any family with a daughter, even if no one dared to say anything to Shangguan Chong now that he was the richest man. It was also ironic that a man like Shangguan Chong had ended up with two daughters. Perhaps that was fate’s mockery.
Tang Xue never imagined that the glamorous Shangguan family had such a dark side. Thinking about how hard it must have been for Shangguan Xianxian to grow up in such a family, she felt an almost uncontrollable surge of pity for her.
Last night’s forum drama made it clear: that illegitimate daughter was no pushover. And the true daughter’s intentions were unknown. They seemed to have a good relationship, but back then, Shangguan Chong had also seemed madly in love with Jin Yuan. In a wealthy family, everyone was an actor.
So, the moment Song Zhiqing arrived in the classroom, Tang Xue rushed up to her and said, “Song Zhiqing, I support you in pursuing Shangguan Xianxian. You have to help her escape the mire of the Shangguan family.”
Song Zhiqing was utterly bewildered. Song Chen was on a business trip, and Gao Yiren was filming. There were no adults at her home, so no one had told her about these things. And since this was all gossip that couldn’t be posted online, she had no way of looking it up. Yet everyone around her seemed to assume she knew, probably because her family was in media and had extensive connections.
Heaven have mercy, she truly had no idea why they were suddenly encouraging her to pursue Shangguan Xianxian.
Tang Xue was the fifth person that day. Before her, three junior members of the Cosmic Beauty Garden and one classmate had also encouraged her as if they were exchanging a secret code.
Song Zhiqing wanted to ask what on earth had happened, but Tang Xue had already turned away, her eyes slightly red.
Song Zhiqing frowned in annoyance and chose to put it all aside.
She strode directly to Ye Yuhuan’s desk and tapped on it. Hearing the sound, Ye Yuhuan looked up from her vocabulary book. A paper bag suddenly appeared before her. Song Zhiqing cleared her throat and said, “The clothes I borrowed from you the other day. They’ve been washed.”
Ye Yuhuan raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Thank you. That was thoughtful of you.”
Song Zhiqing pouted. “What’s so thoughtful about it? It’s not like I washed them. The housekeeper did.”
Ye Yuhuan corrected her, “The fact that you even remembered this is surprising enough for me.”
Song Zhiqing’s eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean? What kind of person do you take me for? I’m not the type to borrow things and not return them.”
Of course, Ye Yuhuan didn’t think she was someone who wouldn’t return borrowed items. She had just assumed that in the young heiress’s mind, clothes she had worn would be thrown away rather than returned, with a gift offered as compensation at most. In short, it was a kind of “spoiled rich girl” filter. However, recalling their interactions over the past few days, Ye Yuhuan felt this filter was incredibly unfair to Song Zhiqing.
So she apologized earnestly, “Of course not. My previous impression of you was too stereotypical. That’s my fault. It won’t happen again.”
Song Zhiqing huffed before saying, “That’s more like it. I’m much better than some stereotype, okay?”
Ye Yuhuan agreed, “You’re right about that.”
Sitting to the side, Tang Xue watched the two of them and started to regret what she had just said. Song Zhiqing was still pursuing Shangguan Xianxian, right?
And she and Ye Yuhuan weren’t dating, were they?
Because this conversation sounded a little… strange.
If Song Zhiqing could hear Tang Xue’s inner thoughts, she would have jumped two meters away and loudly retorted, “There’s no way I’d date Ye Yuhuan. Never mind that she doesn’t like girls… just the fact that she doesn’t like girls means we could never date!”
But Song Zhiqing had no such special abilities, so she continued chatting with Ye Yuhuan until Ye Yuhuan brought up their requisite daily topic: “Did Shangguan Xianxian reply to you last night?”
Ye Yuhuan had actually hesitated to ask. After all, Song Zhiqing had just seen Shangguan Xianxian and Shen Wei kissing passionately yesterday. To still have the presence of mind to complete her daily pursuit checklist under such circumstances would demonstrate truly remarkable perseverance. But this topic had come up every day for the past half-month, and to suddenly stop would be strange, as if alluding to yesterday’s events.
After some deliberation, Ye Yuhuan asked anyway. She thought that if Song Zhiqing said no, she would ask one more day. If Song Zhiqing didn’t send the conversion file package tonight either, then she could stop asking in the future. It would mean Song Zhiqing was slowly letting go of Shangguan Xianxian.
Song Zhiqing’s heart skipped a beat. She had been so busy paying attention to the forum last night that she had completely forgotten to use her alternate account to send that thing to Shangguan Xianxian. But Ye Yuhuan was so concerned about the progress of her love for Shangguan Xianxian; if she said she forgot, Ye Yuhuan would surely be disappointed. So, with her eyes darting around, Song Zhiqing replied, “Of course I sent it. How could I forget something like that?”
Ye Yuhuan nodded, feeling a pang of regret. She hadn’t expected Song Zhiqing’s feelings for Shangguan Xianxian to run so deep that she could quickly pull herself together and continue her pursuit even after seeing the person she liked kissing someone else.
As expected of the villainess driven mad by love.
Seeing Ye Yuhuan nod made Song Zhiqing even more flustered. Fearing she would ask for details, she quickly changed the subject. “By the way, did you see what happened on the forum last night?”
Ye Yuhuan had only seen the beginning and the end, checking it against the plot without observing the process. So she nodded, then shook her head.
“Hey, so did you see it or not?”
“I saw it, but not all of it.”
Hearing this, Song Zhiqing’s spirits lifted immediately. “I’m telling you, my guess yesterday was right. Guo Siwan was behind it. The entire forum was shut down later, and when I checked this morning, everything about the Shangguan family was gone. An adult from the Shangguan family must have stepped in. The younger generation doesn’t have that kind of power.”
Song Zhiqing spoke cryptically, but the “adult” she was referring to was Guo Siwan’s mother. As for Shangguan Chong stepping in to defend his daughter’s name, that was a laughable thought. Not many people knew about Shangguan Chong’s past attempt to seize his wife’s inheritance, but everyone knew how desperately he wanted a son. He had spent years abroad, claiming to be expanding his business empire, but everyone knew he was seeking medical treatment.
Therefore, a man with a mind so obsessed with carrying on the family line would never pay attention to a small school forum at his daughter’s school.
Having read the original novel, Ye Yuhuan knew more of the inside story. The reason Shangguan Chong’s condition never improved was partly because Jin Yuan’s drugs were potent, and partly because Guo Siwan’s mother was secretly sabotaging things on the side. It was like trying to collect water with a broken bowl—everything just leaked out.
Thinking of the petty-mindedness of the entire Shangguan family, Ye Yuhuan reminded her, “You should stay out of what happens next. That’s the Shangguan family’s internal struggle. Getting involved will make things complicated.”
Song Zhiqing’s eyes widened. “Wow,” she said, as if seeing Ye Yuhuan for the first time. “Ye Yuhuan, I never thought that besides being good at studying, you’d have such insight into these things too.”
“I’ve read some materials on the subject. Anyway, these kinds of things have been more or less the same throughout history.”
Indeed, she had carefully studied the original novel and cross-referenced it with some history books and news events. She could at least discern some patterns in the early-stage power struggles of wealthy families. However, she was a bit helpless when it came to the later love-hate entanglements.
Song Zhiqing recalled the bookshelf full of books in Ye Yuhuan’s dorm room and immediately shut her mouth. A study god could learn anything.
Speaking of materials, Ye Yuhuan took a stack of papers from her desk and handed them to Song Zhiqing. “These are the key points and difficult topics for this semester that I’ve compiled. If you start studying now, you can maintain a rank in the top one hundred by the final exams.”
Song Zhiqing swallowed hard and tried to negotiate, “But the semester just started.”
Ye Yuhuan sternly rejected her struggle. “This is already the latest possible day according to my calculations. Based on your academic ability, for every day you delay starting from today, your rank will drop by five places.”
Then Ye Yuhuan quickly added, “And you said it yourself, you have to get into the top one hundred to be qualified to pursue Shangguan Xianxian.”
Song Zhiqing hung her head in defeat.
Although she had no idea how Ye Yuhuan had calculated her “academic ability,” she didn’t dare to ask. She knew Ye Yuhuan would just show her a huge sheet of calculations that she wouldn’t understand anyway.
Hmph, Shangguan Xianxian, I’m suffering so much for you, and you still give me the cold shoulder.
You damn scumbag!
