The Shen Family.
Second Madam Shen, the woman known to the outside world as the illustrious Madam Shen.
She had an outstanding son, Shen Que.
At this moment, she sat on the living room sofa, her well-maintained face etched with anxiety.
She held her phone, the screen displaying a chat log with Madam Gu, who had politely accepted the cancellation of the arranged meeting.
Not even daring to ask why, Second Madam Shen feared leaving a bad impression on Madam Gu.
She took a deep breath, forcing a strained smile as she turned the phone toward her daughter, who was idly flipping through a fashion magazine.
"An'an, look. Madam Gu said Young Master Gu had urgent matters to attend to, so your meeting is postponed for now—no fixed date yet."
Second Madam Shen's voice carried helplessness and appeasement; she knew her daughter's temper all too well.
Shen Nian'an glanced up indifferently.
But when her eyes landed on the chat log, her delicate face visibly darkened.
"Postponed?"
She spat the word out syllable by syllable, slamming the magazine shut with a loud smack against the coffee table.
She shot to her feet, her carefully styled brown curls swaying violently with the motion.
"What do you mean 'postponed'? 'No fixed date'?"
"Mom! Didn’t you say Madam Gu personally assured you that Chengyu was serious this time?"
Her voice trembled with fury and disappointment, her chest heaving.
"An'an, calm down first—"
Second Madam Shen reached out frantically to soothe her.
"How can I calm down?!"
Shen Nian'an swatted her mother’s hand away.
Like a cat with its tail stepped on, she paced restlessly across the living room.
Her anger mounting, she snatched a soft cushion and hurled it with all her might at the armchair opposite.
The cushion bounced off weakly and dropped to the floor.
The feeble outburst did nothing to quell the storm inside her.
She then kicked the expensive low table in front of her.
"Bang!"
The table wobbled dangerously, the delicate tea set atop it clattering as tea spilled everywhere.
The servants froze, not daring to breathe, their heads bowed.
"Gu Chengyu! How dare he?!"
Shen Nian'an’s foot throbbed, her voice cracking with tears, her beautiful eyes brimming with resentment and injustice.
"How could he do this to me? He knows—"
"He knows how I feel!"
She remembered the first time she saw Gu Chengyu at her brother Shen Que’s birthday banquet when she was eighteen.
The man had stood lazily by the champagne tower, dressed in a simple white shirt with his sleeves casually rolled up, yet he commanded the attention of the entire room.
When his phoenix eyes swept over the crowd and briefly met hers, her heart skipped a beat.
At that moment, she knew she was doomed.
Shen Nian'an had never failed to get what she wanted.
She refused to believe Gu Chengyu would be any different.
She recalled gathering her courage one night when he stayed over at the Shen Family estate.
She had slipped into the lace nightgown that accentuated her figure, practiced a coy, alluring smile in the mirror, and knocked on his guest room door.
The moment he opened it, she threw herself into his arms, still fragrant from her bath.
And what happened?
The man had sidestepped slightly as she lunged.
She only collided with his unyielding arm.
He frowned slightly, his gaze devoid of warmth—only cold scrutiny, even disgust.
He had pushed her away immediately.
What had he said then?
Shen Nian'an would never forget it.
"Stand properly." His voice was flat, indifferent.
Then, without so much as a glance at her ashen face or her trembling body, he picked up his phone and called, "Shen Que, come to my room. Take your sister away."
The humiliation of that moment haunted her even in her dreams.
Shen Nian'an, the pampered jewel of the Shen Family—when had she ever suffered such disgrace?
"Why?! Why won’t he even give me a chance?!"
"He canceled the meeting too!"
"Is it because of that Song Qingwan? Or has some other bitch caught his eye?!"
Her voice rose to a shrill, hysterical pitch as she grabbed a teacup, ready to smash it.
"Enough, An'an! Stop this disgraceful scene!"
Second Madam Shen was frantic. The household wasn’t entirely loyal to her, and she feared someone might capture her daughter’s meltdown.
Amid the chaos, a woman in a plain, ivory-colored vintage qipao stepped forward, standing silently.
Her gaze was eerily calm as it swept past the flustered Second Madam Shen before settling on Shen Nian'an’s contorted face.
It was First Madam Shen.
Since her only son—the once-promising heir of the Shen Family—had been left disabled in an accident, losing all claim to succession, she had become this hollow, occasionally unhinged shadow of her former self.
The outside world believed Master Shen had long divorced her, with Second Madam Shen and her children now reigning supreme.
But only the Shen Family’s inner circle knew the truth: First Madam Shen was Master Shen’s rightful, lawfully wedded wife.
First Madam Shen spoke.
"Go on, smash everything."
"Even if you break it all, it won’t change the fact that your mother was brought in from the outside."
"Nor will it erase the filth of your brother climbing over others’ bones to get where he is."
"You think the Gu Family would ever stoop to your level?"
"Dream on."
The last two words were uttered softly, deliberately.
Shen Nian'an paled with rage, but she didn’t dare make a scene in front of this woman.
First Madam Shen didn’t even spare them another glance, as if the sight of them was beneath her.
She turned and walked toward the garden.
Silence, thick and suffocating, settled over the living room.
Shen Nian'an collapsed onto the sofa, drained.
Only her clenched fists betrayed the tempest of resentment inside her.
Why wouldn’t her father divorce that woman?
Why wouldn’t Gu Chengyu even see her?
Shen Nian'an could barely breathe.
