The smell of alcohol hit her in the face, mixed with a woman’s fragrance.
Shang Wu pinched her nose and backed away. “What is that smell in your room?”
Zhou Yanci’s face stiffened slightly. He followed her lead and sniffed twice. “I probably drank too much yesterday. It smells pretty awful, and the room’s a mess, so don’t come in. Let’s go downstairs and talk.”
He pulled Shang Wu away and casually closed the door behind them.
Shang Wu did not even get a glimpse of what was inside. Zhou Yanci practically dragged her downstairs.
She asked, “Weren’t you dealing with your friends’ fight yesterday? How did you end up drinking so much? The Finance Department said transferring my account requires an additional key, and you didn’t answer when they called.”
“I didn’t hear it.”
Zhou Yanci’s palms were slightly sweaty. He took out his phone and called the Finance Department, flashing them a gentle, faintly ingratiating smile.
“There. You can use the money in the account however you like now.”
Shang Wu smiled. “Good. Then I’ll be leaving.”
Zhou Yanci secretly breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll see you at the company. I’ll come over at noon, and we can have lunch together.”
Shang Wu remained impassive. “I have something to take care of this afternoon. I might not be at the company.”
“That’s fine. Then we’ll have dinner tonight.” Zhou Yanci escorted her to the door.
At that moment, the upstairs bedroom door opened with a click.
They both froze.
Shen Mian appeared, bleary-eyed, rubbing her forehead as she yawned. “A-Ci…”
Zhou Yanci’s expression instantly turned ugly.
When Shen Mian saw him and Shang Wu behind him, she froze. Then she put on an awkward, guilty expression and hurriedly shook her head.
“No, Miss Shang, don’t misunderstand! Nothing happened between us!”
Shang Wu could tell at a glance that Shen Mian was doing it on purpose.
No mistress would knowingly charge out to provoke the official partner when she knew that woman was outside.
So that was how she wanted to play it?
As it happened, Shang Wu had just returned from visiting her brother in prison. The resentment in her heart had yet to fade, and she had been unable to find anywhere to vent it.
Her gaze turned cold, and she raised her hand and slapped him.
Smack!
Her palm landed squarely on Zhou Yanci’s face. She had put all her strength into it.
Zhou Yanci’s head snapped to the side.
Ignoring Shen Mian’s startled cry, Shang Wu raised her hand and struck him again.
The slap landed on the other side of Zhou Yanci’s face.
Shang Wu hit him with all her strength. When she finished, her hand trembled from the pain.
She clenched her fist tightly and put on a perfectly measured expression of anguish. “Zhou Yanci, I happily stayed home and saved myself for our wedding night, and this is how you repay me—cheating on me with your ex-girlfriend behind my back? You’ve gone too far!”
Shang Wu stormed out the door.
There was no movement behind her from Zhou Yanci. Instead, Shen Mian called out to him and sprinted downstairs.
It sounded as though he had been struck senseless.
With mockery in her eyes, Shang Wu stepped on the accelerator and decisively left that disgusting place behind.
As soon as she returned to Chengzhou Company, she took the savings account and went to Dingfeng Law Firm.
It had not even been three days, but Shang Wu could no longer wait.
After thinking it over from every angle, she could not find a more suitable partner than Dingfeng Law Firm.
For one thing, Dingfeng and Jinshui Law Firm, which Zhou Yanci supported, were competitors.
For another, she had looked into it. None of Dingfeng’s lawyers had participated in the Shang Family Case back then, and none of them had been bought off by Zhou Yanci.
Finally, although Lu Rang was not easy to approach, his professional ability and ethics were exceptional. Once he agreed to work with a client, he prioritized efficiency, cared only about the result, and never gossiped about the client.
He was practically the ideal person to overturn her brother’s case.
Whenever Shang Wu thought of her brother’s circumstances in prison, a wave of heartache came over her.
She hurried anxiously to Dingfeng.
Unexpectedly, when she arrived, the receptionist told her that Lu Rang and the other lawyers were out gathering evidence and were not in the office.
Shang Wu asked for Lu Rang’s business card and left first. She had barely stepped outside when she received an email.
She opened the file Qiu Ting had sent her.
It contained an entire set of winter limited-edition designs.
They looked very similar to her style, but the designs were somewhat crude. Clearly, Qiu Ting had dug them out of her old discarded drafts.
Qiu Ting called her. “Sis, is it all right?”
Shang Wu smiled and opened the car door before sitting inside. “It’s more than all right. You really are my apprentice. But you still have that bad habit of calling me Sis instead of Master, huh?”
“What master? That would make you sound old.” Qiu Ting laughed along, but still sounded troubled. “Last time everything was so rushed that I didn’t get to ask you—how are you going to take revenge on Ji Yu? What did she do?”
Shang Wu’s chest felt heavy. The smile disappeared from her face, replaced by a trace of cold hatred in her eyes.
“She’s been clinging to me and sucking me dry for ten years. When we were in school, she ate my food, wore my clothes, and used my things. Once we started working, she became famous using my designs, while cursing behind my back that my work was vulgar and unsophisticated. And there’s something else—she also had a part in what happened to the Shang family back then.”
She recounted these things calmly. She was explaining them to Qiu Ting, but she was also practicing her ability to control her emotions.
Did it hurt? Of course.
Remember the feeling of pain. It would become the strength that supported her as she moved forward.
Qiu Ting remained silent for a long time. Finally, he said through gritted teeth, “I’ll help you. Whatever you want to do from now on, I’ll help you.”
Shang Wu curved her lips into a smile, and the hatred before her eyes faded. “Just wait. When the time is right, you’ll have to appear in person.”
She ended the call and scheduled the file to be sent to Ji Yu three days later.
But just then, an unwelcome visitor came calling.
When Shang Wu saw “Madam Zhou” on the caller ID, her fingers paused.
Zhou Yanci’s mother had never liked her. She had even refused to let Shang Wu call her Auntie.
She looked down on Shang Wu because her family had fallen into decline, yet Zhou Yanci had insisted on getting involved in the Shang family’s mess.
Even after Shang Wu had distinguished herself in the Jewelry Division and worked herself to the bone for Chengzhou, Madam Zhou had never once treated her kindly.
Because of that, Zhou Yanci had defended Shang Wu countless times and quarreled with his own mother.
Back then, Shang Wu had been deeply moved. She had remained utterly loyal to Zhou Yanci and worked even harder to prove her worth to Madam Zhou.
She had taken complete charge not only of everything in the Jewelry Division, but also of the business partners Zhou Yanci could not handle, the resources he could not find, and even the speech manuscript that went missing right before an interview.
Later, when the Jewelry Division finally got on its feet, Madam Zhou still did not think much of her.
It just so happened that whenever Madam Zhou came looking for trouble, Zhou Yanci needed Shang Wu to run around handling matters for him and deal with some emergency at the company.
One of them played the villain and made things difficult for her, while the other played the hero and defended her—then took advantage of the opportunity to have her solve the company’s problems.
For the past few years, Shang Wu had been thoroughly manipulated by the staged routine of Madam Zhou and her son.
Shang Wu pressed her fingers to her brow and answered the call.
“Hello, Madam. Is something wrong?”
Madam Zhou’s voice was low. “Come over. I need to speak with you.”
Shang Wu narrowed her eyes.
Was Zhou Yanci planning to put on another big performance?
She agreed and headed to the Zhou Family home.
The Zhou Family’s butler was waiting at the entrance.
When he saw Shang Wu arrive, he went to meet her.
Shang Wu followed closely behind him into the house, arriving in the luxurious, brightly lit living room.
Madam Zhou sat upright before the floor-to-ceiling windows, her jade-bangle-clad hand fiddling with the vase on the table.
When she saw Shang Wu enter, she let out a cold snort without even raising her eyes.
“You’ve really become something, haven’t you? You beat my son until his face swelled up, and did you not know there was a regular company meeting today? How is he supposed to show his face and attend the meeting after you made such a scene?”
At the last sentence, Madam Zhou raised her voice. She picked up a slightly wilted hydrangea and threw it at Shang Wu.
Petals fluttered down, with some sticking to Shang Wu’s clothes.
Shang Wu’s gaze turned cold. Unhurriedly, she brushed the petals from her clothes and picked up the hydrangea.
“So, Madam, you mean that if Yanci sleeps with another woman behind my back, I should simply endure it and pretend I know nothing?”
Madam Zhou slammed her palm onto the table. “You need to understand the truth of what happened! Nothing happened between them. Yanci only brought Miss Shen home for the night because she was drunk and had nowhere to go. Is that enough reason for you to hit him?”
Shang Wu walked toward the trash bin beside the table. At those words, her hand paused.
She laughed softly. “Even if nothing happened, shouldn’t I be angry that my fiancé brought his ex-girlfriend home to spend the night without asking my permission? Zhou Yanci didn’t even say anything. Why did you call me here?”
Shang Wu suddenly changed direction and stuck the hydrangea into the vase.
In an instant, she ruined the harmony of the entire arrangement.
Madam Zhou drew a deep breath. “It seems you don’t realize that hitting someone was wrong at all! Fine. Then I’ll give you two slaps as well and let you see how much my son is hurting!”
She turned and shouted at the butler and servants.
“Hold her down!”
Shang Wu’s eyes shifted, and she spotted the ostentatious Alte Karlmann parked outside.
They had arrived at just the right time.
The butler and servants crowded around and restrained Shang Wu.
Shang Wu had never resisted fiercely before, so they held her carelessly.
Madam Zhou walked over, a vicious gleam in her eyes, and raised her hand to slap Shang Wu.
Shang Wu grabbed the butler and pulled him in front of herself, taking a step backward.
Smack!
The butler took the slap squarely. Before he could react, he suddenly felt someone shove him hard in the lower back.
His entire body flew uncontrollably toward Madam Zhou.
“Ah!”
A series of screams rang out as the two went tumbling together.
Zhou Yanci rushed in. “Don’t hurt A-Wu!”
The moment the words left his mouth, he froze.
Shang Wu and the stunned servants were standing safely to the side, while the fat, ball-shaped butler had Mother Zhou pinned beneath him on the floor.
Madam Zhou’s eyes rolled upward from the pressure. When she turned her head and saw that the jade bangle she had worn for decades had shattered, she could not catch her breath and fainted on the spot.
The butler hurriedly scrambled to his feet.
“Mom!”
Zhou Yanci immediately rushed over, pulled Madam Zhou into his arms, and pressed his fingers to her philtrum.
Mother Zhou kicked her legs and slowly regained consciousness. She fixed her eyes on Shang Wu behind the servants, her gaze vicious and cold.
“It was her…”
She shakily raised a hand. “It was her!”
Zhou Yanci frowned. A clear red handprint still marked his face as he turned to look at Shang Wu.
Shang Wu put on an appropriately helpless expression and explained, “Madam was going to hit me. I only dodged, and I don’t know how the butler ended up crashing into her.”
“That’s not what happened!” The butler stepped forward, covering his face. “She didn’t just dodge—she pushed me too. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have fallen onto Madam!”
Shang Wu glanced at him through misty eyes. “Do you have any proof? Or… did anyone see me push you?”
The servants looked at one another.
Everything had happened so suddenly that none of them had noticed.
The butler was unwilling to give up. “But…”
Shang Wu’s face turned cold. “You can’t simply blame everything on me because you broke Madam Zhou’s jade bangle, can you? And you, Madam—you threw things at me and tried to hit me the moment I arrived. I work myself to the bone for Chengzhou, and when I come home to find a woman staying at my fiancé’s house, I’m not even allowed to be angry with him?”
Her tone suddenly grew agitated, and her eyes reddened. “Fine! Since Madam hates me so much, everything I do is wrong anyway. I won’t come to the Zhou Family again!”
Zhou Yanci’s heart tightened. He released Mother Zhou and stood up.
“A-Wu!”
Shang Wu hurried away, giving him no chance to react.
She had come and gone so quickly that she had not even stayed ten minutes, yet she had left the Zhou Family home in chaos and ruined the scene Zhou Yanci and Mother Zhou had carefully planned.
After getting back into her car, Shang Wu closed her eyes and let out a long breath.
At last, she had found somewhere to vent.
That felt good.
Hearing footsteps, she opened her eyes and fastened her seat belt. When Zhou Yanci chased her outside, she lowered the window.
“If you really feel so wronged about being slapped that you even ran to Madam to complain, then there’s nothing left for us to say. Let’s both calm down for a few days.”
Shang Wu stepped on the accelerator and drove away.
Zhou Yanci’s expression grew taut, veins standing out at his temples.
The feeling of being unable to follow the plan he had set was utterly awful.
In the past three years, Shang Wu had never lost her temper so badly. Whenever she had been upset, a little coaxing had always been enough to calm her down.
It seemed Shang Wu really did care about Shen Mian.
Fortunately, losing her temper meant she cared about him and could not bear to leave him.
After thinking for a moment, Zhou Yanci took out his phone and made a call.
“Don’t contact me about Shen Mian for the next couple of days.”
“Mm. Let things cool down for a few days. I’ll calm things down here first.”
He hung up and returned to the company.
Zhou Yanci entered the executive-only elevator and went straight to the Jewelry Division.
The moment he stepped out of the elevator, he received a call.
Zhou Yanci answered casually. “Speak.”
“Word has come from the prison. Miss Shang went to see her brother this morning.”