Tonight, Yunyang Hotel was hosting an important banquet, attended by a lineup of heavyweight guests.
Among them, the most eye-catching was Shengyi Group’s CEO, Shen Xingyi.
In fact, the noble families in Beijing were as numerous as hairs on an ox.
People online often joked: in Beijing, if a billboard fell from the sky, it could randomly hit ten people—and nine of them would be from prominent families with names and surnames.
So ordinary wealthy families truly didn’t count for much here.
And the Shen family stood at the very top of this pyramid among Beijing’s aristocratic circles.
They controlled a vast business empire, wielding immense power.
Shen Xingyi was the heir of this generation of the Shen family.
Everyone had assumed he would follow the traditional path, enter the Shen Corporation, and take over as successor—but instead, he took a different route, founded Shengyi Group, and carved out his own empire in Beijing’s cutthroat business world.
Such a heaven-blessed talent usually kept an extremely low profile and rarely appeared in public. Hearing that he would attend tonight’s banquet, everyone was naturally full of anticipation.
However, after arriving, the man only briefly toasted with the host, then sat in the lounge area the entire time, radiating an unmistakable “keep away” aura.
Opportunities were rare, and many wanted to build connections—but in the end, they all backed off under his overwhelming presence.
Inside the banquet hall, it was all luxury and clinking glasses. Outside the hall, Xu Xiu—dressed casually—had already brought her son to the back entrance.
According to the novel’s plot, halfway through the banquet, the male lead Shen Xingyi would leave through this exit.
The male lead was elusive, and he was always surrounded by bodyguards—getting close to him was not easy.
In the original storyline, the host feared that Shen Xingyi might refuse to acknowledge the child—or worse, acknowledge him and then kick her away—so she chose to reveal her “unmarried motherhood” on a livestream.
She subtly implied that the child’s father was Shen Xingyi.
This triggered public opinion, and only then was Xu Zhiran taken in by the Shen family.
Xu Xiu didn’t want to expose Xu Zhiran in public like in the original plot, so she could only seize this opportunity.
By her estimation, the male lead should be arriving soon.
At this moment, the mother and son were standing a bit away from the back entrance. Xu Xiu picked Xu Zhiran up and sat him on a large stone beside the road.
The little one was quickly distracted by a few blades of grass growing out of the cracks in the stone and began studying them intently.
A few minutes later, a car pulled up at the entrance, and soon a group of people came out through the back door. The man surrounded in the middle got into the vehicle.
Xu Xiu told the child to stay seated on the stone while she watched for the right moment. As the car just started moving, she stepped directly into its path.
The driver saw her from a distance and immediately slammed on the brakes. Security personnel quickly moved in to pull her away.
Just as the car was about to detour around her, it suddenly stopped.
Inside the back seat, Shen Xingyi frowned deeply, turning his head slightly toward the woman who had suddenly blocked the vehicle.
For a split second, he thought he was mistaken—but under the glow of the headlights, he saw her face clearly.
It was her. The woman he had seen in Country Y.
That was why he had instinctively ordered the car to stop.
The sudden halt surprised not only Xu Xiu but also the security team, who were momentarily unsure how to proceed.
Sensing the situation, Xu Xiu quickly stepped to the side of the car. The window slowly rolled down, revealing Shen Xingyi’s striking face.
As expected of the male lead.
Xu Xiu couldn’t help but silently admire him.
Shen Xingyi wore a low-key black suit, even his shirt black, though faint patterns shimmered subtly across the fabric.
He wore gold-rimmed glasses on his nose bridge, and behind the thin lenses were a pair of cold, detached phoenix eyes.
Looking at a face that was almost identical to her son’s, Xu Xiu couldn’t help but compare—wondering whether the child resembled her more or him.
But clearly, now was not the time for that.
Seeing Shen Xingyi’s increasingly impatient expression, Xu Xiu spoke directly:
“I’m here to bring you your son.”