The private room was filled with a faint haze of smoke and alcohol.
Cheng Jili lounged on the leather sofa, his black shirt open at the collar, his long, slender hands resting casually on his crossed legs.
His brows and eyes were slightly lowered, betraying the weariness of consecutive sleepless nights.
An unlit cigarette hung from his lips.
“Bro, are you going for the brooding look?” Qin Lang leaned in, reaching for the lighter on the table. “Here, let me light it for you.”
Cheng Jili turned his head away. “No need. I quit.”
“Why quit smoking for no reason?”
Qin Lang blinked and scooted closer. “By the way, I see Xiaoxiao carrying that bag you gave her all the time. I remember that bag was a freebie the brand threw in when they gave you an antique bag. Why’d you give the freebie to her?”
“What about the antique bag? That was a one-of-a-kind piece the brand specially reserved for you based on the tastes of the wives in your circle. Who are you planning to give it to?”
Cheng Jili said nothing. His fingertips tapped lightly twice on his knee, but his eyes had darkened compared to before, hiding a trace of barely perceptible irritation.
Qin Lang was stunned. “Don’t tell me you haven’t given it away? You went to all that trouble to have someone find it, just to let it gather dust?”
Before Cheng Jili could answer, the door of the private room was pushed open from outside.
Jiang Shi’s slender figure stood in the doorway, backlit.
She was a classic Eastern beauty, with impeccable bone structure and a clean aura. Her black hair was loosely pinned up at the back of her head, giving her a crisp yet stubborn kind of beauty.
The private room fell silent instantly. The men and women who had been laughing and joking all froze in place.
Every one of these people was from a prominent family, wealthy or powerful, each with considerable standing.
Jiang Shi was an oddity among them. She rarely appeared at occasions like this, but for Cheng Jili’s sake, some still awkwardly addressed her as “Sister-in-law.”
Cheng Jili slowly raised his eyes, a lazy smile curling at the corners of his lips. “Miss me after just a few days apart? Mrs. Cheng, you’re so clingy?”
“Yes, I missed you.” Jiang Shi closed the door behind her and approached with a faint smile. “My husband is busy, after all. So busy he has no time to come home. I just didn’t expect that my husband’s business has expanded to private clubs. Changed industries?”
The sarcasm was unmistakable. Everyone in the room caught the whiff of gunpowder and averted their gazes. No one dared to interject.
Only Qin Lang stepped forward with a placating smile. “Sister-in-law! A misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding! Jili-ge really has been busy these past few days. We were worried he’d wear himself out, so we dragged him here. Absolutely no other meaning! Once we wrap up later, I’ll personally deliver Jili-ge back to you!”
The moment the words left his mouth, Cheng Jili let out a scoff through clenched teeth. “Am I her personal belonging? That she needs to have me delivered back?”
He lifted his head, his gaze meeting Jiang Shi’s eyes, and smiled with a roguish air. “Mrs. Cheng, are you that free? Don’t you think you’re overstepping?”
Jiang Shi’s heart clenched. Her hands, hanging at her sides, balled tightly into fists, so tight that her nails dug into her palms.
Her husband didn’t come home, and yet when she, as his wife, came looking for him, it became unreasonable meddling?
Over two years of marriage, and even this basic right had become an overstepping of bounds.
The gazes of onlookers around her eroded her dignity bit by bit.
The Cheng family held an eminent position in Jingbei. Most people present acted according to Cheng Jili’s mood.
When Cheng Jili treated her well, these people greeted her with smiles. When Cheng Jili was cold to her, these people naturally watched with indifferent eyes.
Jiang Shi quietly steadied her breathing and reached into her bag for her eye diagnosis report. “I’m not here to manage you. I have something urgent to tell you. Find a quiet place and give me ten minutes—I’ll leave as soon as I’m done.”
Cheng Jili rose to his feet, his posture tall and his demeanor languid. “Sorry, I don’t have ten minutes to give you.”
Jiang Shi froze on the spot.
The air pressure between them dropped to something terrifying.
Just then, the private room door opened again.
Cheng Xiaoxiao walked in carrying a cherry-pink handbag. “Brother! I’m here—”
Her words cut off abruptly when she saw Jiang Shi, and a flicker of discomfort crossed her face. “Sister-in-law… you’re here too?”
“Why can’t I be?” Jiang Shi didn’t even look at her. “Is this place only open to you and not to me?”
Cheng Xiaoxiao immediately lowered her head, twisting the bag strap with her fingers, looking frightened. “That’s not what I meant… I was just a little surprised. Sister-in-law is so refined, you never come to the club with us.”
That remark directly cast Jiang Shi as an outsider to everyone present, and a few snickers rippled through the room.
Cheng Xiaoxiao shuffled closer to Cheng Jili, her brows drooping, looking aggrieved and innocent. “Brother, is it because you haven’t been home in so long that sister-in-law has built up so much resentment that she’s taking it out on me?”
“Taking it out on you?” Jiang Shi laughed out loud. “Miss Cheng, you’re exceptionally gifted—a master at twisting the truth and turning things upside down. If you don’t toy with me, I should already be thanking Your Highness for sparing my life. Where would I get the nerve to take anything out on you?”
Cheng Xiaoxiao’s eyes reddened instantly. “Sister-in-law, do you have some misunderstanding about me? I know you’ve never liked me since we were young, but I’ve always wanted to get along with you, treating you like my own sister. How could I toy with you? Please don’t wrong me…”
To anyone listening, it sounded like Jiang Shi had been bullying her all along.
Jiang Shi sneered inwardly.
She suddenly remembered a long time ago, when she had stayed up all night making a silk knot pendant for Cheng Xiaoxiao, only to find it in the Cheng family trash can the next day.
Back then, she hadn’t yet known that this girl would tell Yu Xianzhi that she was a thief, that she was calculating—making Yu Xianzhi look down on her from the very beginning.
Jiang Shi curled her lips. “Cheng Xiaoxiao, did you just crawl out of a vat of tea? You reek of it. You have the Cheng family backing you, parents protecting you, a brother doting on you—who could possibly wrong you?”
Cheng Xiaoxiao bit her lip. “Sister-in-law, how can you say that about me?”
“You manage everything under the sun, and now you’re managing how I speak?” Jiang Shi said coldly. “If you don’t like hearing it, shut up. Don’t go looking for trouble.”
Cheng Xiaoxiao was originally surnamed Yan and was an adopted daughter of the Cheng family, deeply cherished by all.
Jiang Shi had once thought Yu Xianzhi would marry her off to Cheng Jili, and had been upset about it for quite a while.
But unexpectedly, Xiaoxiao later changed her surname to Cheng, officially registered in the Cheng family household, becoming Cheng Jili’s legal sister.
As for why the surname was changed, Jiang Shi didn’t know—only that the entire Cheng family doted on this daughter even more afterward.
Cheng Xiaoxiao never regarded her sister-in-law with any respect. She could call Cheng Jili in the dead of night, demand he buy her anything she fancied, and every request was always granted.
Jiang Shi had endured it all before. For the sake of this marriage, she had tried so hard to fit into the Cheng family, accommodating here and tolerating there—but what had it gotten her?
A mother-in-law’s favoritism and a husband’s coldness?
Perhaps some positions were never meant to be hers.
She had been forced into it.
Like an ill-fitting piece of furniture, it felt out of place no matter where it was put.
The only right choice was to step away.
“Cheng Jili,” Jiang Shi said, no longer holding the diagnosis slip, zipping up her bag. “Go have your fun. I’ll wait here until you’re done tonight.”
Cheng Jili said nothing, but the chill in his eyes deepened by a fraction.