Qin Ruolan shot him a chilly glance.
Shen Shu’s lips twitched under her stare. He was still stubbornly set in his opinion, but at least he stopped spewing venomous remarks.
Shen Yi could sense the subtle tension between the married couple before her.
When Shen Sixing and Wen Ya argued, there was always give and take between them, full of the lively warmth of actual human beings.
But the conversations between these two were like stones dropping coldly onto the ground, the hollow sound swallowed up by the chill wind.
Each sentence was simply a sentence, without an aftertone or a trace of warmth.
Shen Sigui silently took Shen Yi by the wrist, watching his parents nervously as he prepared to drag her away at a moment’s notice.
If things came down to it, he would fight his parents.
When neither of them said anything, he pulled Shen Yi toward the door, trying to leave without making a sound. He was immediately called back.
“Stop.”
Shen Sigui’s throat tightened, and his feet froze in place.
Qin Ruolan’s fingers were leisurely rubbing the outside of her teacup. She pointed toward the sofa in the distance and smiled.
“Sit down.”
Shen Shu added, “We need to talk.”
His tone was not quite as cold this time.
Shen Yi and Shen Sigui exchanged a glance before cautiously sitting down.
Out of pure reflex, Shen Yi placed her hands properly on her knees and sat with her back straight.
“What exactly is your relationship with Shen Sixing?” Shen Shu’s gaze moved slowly up and down her, as if he were taking apart some object of unknown origin. “You’re not related by blood, so don’t tell me anything about affection or family bonds. I know him better than you do.”
Shen Yi raised her head and met his gaze head-on. “Do you really know him better than I do?”
“What kind of attitude is that?” He frowned at her. “Are you saying you know him better than I do?”
From the moment this child had seen them, she had shown no fear whatsoever. Her composure was downright abnormal. There was none of the awkwardness children usually displayed when facing their elders. She simply sat there quietly, as relaxed as if she were speaking with someone familiar rather than strangers.
It was strange.
Relying on the fact that she knew more than he did, Shen Yi deliberately put on a solemn air and drawled, “I don’t just know Shen Sixing. I know you too.”
“You know me?”
Her unexpected opening piqued Shen Shu’s curiosity.
He had been leaning back against the sofa, but now he shifted slightly forward, like a hunter who had caught an unfamiliar scent. “What do you know?”
In Shen Shu’s eyes, an eight-year-old child could do nothing more than babble nonsense. What could she possibly know?
Perhaps Shen Sixing had taught her a few lines and sent her here deliberately to shut him up.
Shen Yi said, “I know that you get up at six every morning to practice tai chi, and that you’ve been secretly studying how to become stronger.”
Her grandfather had told her this secret before. He had said that when Shen Shu was in his thirties, he had secretly practiced tai chi for several years to prepare for the possibility of domestic violence in an emergency.
But he had not improved in the slightest over more than a decade. In this lifetime, he would never be able to defeat Qin Ruolan.
“…”
The living room fell silent for a moment.
Qin Ruolan’s hand, which had been holding the teacup, came to a stop. The lid made the faintest click against the rim.
“You practice tai chi?”
The two of them slept in separate rooms, and their relationship was not exactly close enough for them to know everything about each other.
She turned her head toward Shen Shu, one eyebrow arching slightly. Her expression hovered somewhere between surprise and amusement.
He really was a peculiar man.
The muscles in Shen Shu’s face visibly tightened.
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
Shen Yi was not satisfied yet. “When you were seventeen, you ran with a rough crowd at school. You got beaten up because you stole someone else’s girlfriend.”
In his younger days, Shen Shu really had been a wild one—gambling, fighting, and following his parents around as they moved through negotiation tables and high society.
Growing up in such a privileged family had allowed him to thrive in every environment.
And when someone from a family like his went abroad to study, free from parental supervision, he became even more reckless and lawless.
Under Qin Ruolan’s meaningful gaze, Shen Shu felt as if thorns were pricking his back.
Yet he had to admit it was true.
Who had not been young and reckless, ready to fly into a rage for the sake of a beautiful girl?
But being beaten up abroad for stealing someone’s girlfriend was humiliating. He had never told anyone in his family about it—not even Qin Ruolan knew the details. Where had this child dug up that old scandal?
He lowered his voice, gesturing for Shen Yi to come closer, and asked quietly, “…How exactly do you know that?”
“You told me yourself back then.”
“When I found all those clothes you used to wear when you were running with that crowd—I found a leather coat and a fur coat. They were pretty cool. I asked you about them, and you told me.” Shen Yi covered her mouth as she laughed.
Shen Shu’s breathing grew noticeably heavier.
He had told her just because she asked?
Was he really that incapable of keeping his mouth shut?
Shen Yi continued, “When you were a teenager, you also had a cat named Mimi. You’re a cat-loving man.”
After she finished, the living room sank into an eerie silence.
The emotions on Shen Shu’s face were impossible to read, but his pupils trembled without stopping.
Shen Sigui finally could not hold it in and let out an extremely restrained snort of laughter.
Shen Shu’s gaze scraped across him like a knife. Shen Sigui immediately lowered his head and stopped laughing.
“So he used to be a childless cat person?” Qin Ruolan was genuinely intrigued now. “You know him so well. Then, little friend, do you know anything about me?”
“…”
Shen Yi was silent for two seconds. “I’m not very familiar with you, ma’am.”
“The only things I know about you come from Grandfather.” Shen Yi stood up from the sofa and walked over to the wall, pointing at the abstract paintings hanging there. “I know you really like famous paintings, while Grandfather can’t appreciate them and often says they’re ugly. He believes the paintings themselves aren’t worth what people pay for them.”
The paintings on the wall were among Qin Ruolan’s most treasured pieces. Their intense colors and daring compositions made them priceless in the eyes of the art world.
But in Shen Shu’s mouth, they could be summed up in only two words:
A waste.
And—
Ugly.
“Am I wrong?” Shen Shu said, relieved that she was no longer exposing his dark history.
He habitually adopted a mocking tone, tilting his chin up slightly as he spoke with studied composure. “Do you know how many paintings Van Gogh sold while he was alive? One. And even that one was bought because his brother arranged the sale. What does the current value of his work have to do with him—or with his life before he died?”
Shen Yi shrugged. She had anticipated his reaction. “Exactly. You once tried to use that example to educate me. You said those painters’ stories taught me what?”
She raised one finger and imitated his tone as she recited, “First, scarcity. Once a painter dies, the works can no longer be reproduced, so capital naturally pours in. Second, narrative. Critics write articles, auction houses manipulate the market, and a group of wealthy people take turns picking up the tab.”
She raised her fingers one by one.
“For example, foolish rich people like Grandma, who have more money than sense. Only when stupid wealthy people like her drive up the prices can the entire chain of capital be completed.”
“Third—”
“That’s enough.”
Shen Shu could no longer hold back. He practically shouted the words, feeling as if Qin Ruolan’s gaze were preparing to butcher him.
He could not let Shen Yi continue.
How had every one of his secrets been seen through?
Faced with the sudden reprimand, Shen Yi wisely fell silent.
“Go on, darling.” Qin Ruolan’s expression remained unchanged, but her gaze at Shen Yi grew so gentle it seemed sweet enough to drip.
She said, “Let me hear what else he’s said about me behind my back besides calling me stupid, rich, and fond of buying piles of worthless junk paintings.”
