Ruan Jiaqi was standing beneath the domed ceiling, staring absently at the enormous crystal chandelier overhead.
The dazzling light pouring down from it was like a brilliant galaxy.
It illuminated everything, making the whole world seem bright and radiant.
Back in the era she had come from, very few households could afford electricity. The Ruan residence was already the wealthiest and most prestigious household in town, yet at night, they could only rely on candles for lighting.
Before her eyes was a world of glittering gold and silver. Layer upon layer of crystal chandeliers cast shifting golden light across her face, making her look as though she had stepped into a beautiful, winding dream.
She had never seen a lamp this beautiful, not even in her dreams.
Ruan Jiaqi was still gazing upward in fascination when she suddenly heard Hua Yao calling her from across the room.
Reluctantly, she tore her gaze away and walked toward Hua Yao.
Hua Yao was chatting and laughing with several of her friends. When she saw Ruan Jiaqi approaching, she let out a cold snort through her nose, raised her delicate chin with an arrogant tilt, and tossed out two or three words as though bestowing a favor.
“Sit down.”
Her tone sounded exactly like a master giving an order.
Ruan Jiaqi, however, didn’t care. She happened to be tired from standing anyway.
The women of this era didn’t seem to have it much better. High heels were practically torture devices, and she suspected both of her feet had already been rubbed raw.
Ruan Jiaqi had no idea that her simple act of sitting down had fallen into the eyes of Hua Yao and her friends as an obvious symbol of obedience and submission.
The socialites secretly snickered, taking malicious pleasure in it.
What they hated most about Ruan Jiaqi was the way she usually acted as though her life was as fragile as paper while her ambitions reached the heavens.
Just because she had married into the Hua family, did she really think she had become a phoenix?
She was always putting on an aloof, high-and-mighty act, unwilling to say more than a few words to anyone and never bothering to attend any social gatherings in their circle.
She wanted to be shameless while still pretending to have virtue. What a pretentious pauper.
But behind closed doors?
Wasn’t she still as obedient as a dog before her sister-in-law Hua Yao, following her master’s every command?
One of Hua Yao’s friends sauntered over, swaying gracefully. Her eyes roamed over Ruan Jiaqi from head to toe, repeatedly sizing her up, while a playful smile tugged at her lips.
“Jiaqi, your outfit today is really… distinctive. Which designer’s work is it?”
Ruan Jiaqi looked down at the qipao she was wearing.
“This? I’m not really sure.”
The wealthy young ladies around her, dressed in elaborate haute couture gowns, all covered their mouths and laughed. They were amused by the seriousness with which she answered the question, like an elementary school student responding to a teacher.
Ruan Jiaqi lowered her head slightly. She had never liked being exposed to the attention of so many people.
“Miss Ruan, I heard you work at a fashion magazine. How can you not even say what brand you’re wearing?”
“Could it be… something you bought from one of those cheap online shops?”
“Nonsense~ How could the wife of the president of Hua Corporation possibly wear a qipao bought online to a formal banquet~”
Someone finally failed to hold back and burst out laughing.
“Oh, but this style is really popular among those little internet celebrities who hang around nightlife spots trying to pick up rich men. What do they call it again? Oh, right—‘qipao beauty!’”
……
The socialites’ mocking voices were partially drowned out by the classical orchestra, but people still occasionally turned toward them at the sound of the laughter, their eyes landing on Ruan Jiaqi’s face as they sized her up meaningfully.
Hua Yan watched the group of women laughing and giggling together and felt utterly bored. He hadn’t said a word the entire time, merely drinking and clinking glasses with a group of young heirs and childhood friends.
The privileged young men’s gazes toward Ruan Jiaqi were no kinder than those of the socialites.
They merely scrutinized her with an even more condescending attitude, regarding her as though she were some newly arrived species at a circus.
Novel, but beneath their notice.
Many of the fresh terms the socialites threw around were completely unfamiliar to Ruan Jiaqi. The original owner’s memories came and went unpredictably, so most of the time, she could only rely on her own guesses.
But she wasn’t stupid. Even though she didn’t fully understand what they were saying, she could still keenly sense the mockery hidden between their words.
Actually, even without them saying anything, she knew she didn’t belong here.
Her soul was that of a successor to traditional cultural heritage.
Her body belonged to a universally despised woman who had started the story with every possible disadvantage.
And everything here was so dazzling and magnificent.
Ruan Jiaqi suddenly felt a little lost.
Whenever she didn’t know what to do, she wanted to eat something.
So Ruan Jiaqi, who was at the center of the storm, casually picked up a glass of Coke from the table. Following the example of the people beside her, she carefully put the straw between her lips, puffed out her round cheeks, and took tiny little sips.
Countless fine, lively carbonated bubbles instantly exploded inside her mouth.
Ruan Jiaqi’s eyes widened instinctively.
She cautiously took another sip through the straw, then began gulping it down in big mouthfuls.
Having discovered a new source of amusement, her mood immediately brightened. Her cheeks puffed up around the straw, giving her an innocent, adorable air, like someone completely untouched by the ways of the world.
She treated all the socialites’ mocking remarks as if they were nothing more than wind blowing past her ears, imagining herself as a silly little goldfish.
She didn’t want to think about anything, nor did she want to deal with anyone. She simply hugged her glass and drank her ice-cold Coke.
“Hey! Ruan Jiaqi, you still haven’t answered. Where exactly did you buy that qipao?”
“Could it be that they were actually right? Hahahahaha!”
The unrestrained laughter was particularly grating.
Ruan Jiaqi stared at them with her big, round eyes and responded with a melodious single syllable:
“Burp—”
The air seemed to freeze for a strange moment.
The socialites were stunned, unable to react for a second.
They all had the vague feeling that Ruan Jiaqi, who had already been rather aloof, had somehow become even stranger.
In the silence, a man’s amused chuckle suddenly came from across the room.
“I actually think Miss Ruan looks very beautiful tonight.”
“As for clothes, as long as they fit the person wearing them, that’s enough. The brand and the price don’t matter.”
The speaker was Qin Ziyan, the second young master of the Qin family.
There was no other young heir in all of Shanghai more notorious for his debauchery than him. Women came and went at his side like flowing water, never in short supply.
Qin Ziyan held a wineglass in his hand, the amber liquid gently swaying inside.
His gaze fell unabashedly upon Ruan Jiaqi.
He had never paid much attention to her before. Only today did he realize, to his surprise, that this “little concubine” of the Hua family was actually stunning.
The wealthy young ladies around the room, competing to outshine one another with jewels and extravagant dresses, suddenly looked like piles of makeup beside her.
The young woman’s skin was delicate and fair, soft enough to seem as though it could be broken by a gentle touch. Under the lights, it glowed with the translucent luster of white jade.
The curves wrapped in the qipao were perfectly proportioned. Her waist was slender as a willow, her hips rounded like a full moon. The more completely the fabric covered her, the more striking the few glimpses of her pale skin became.
But what truly caught Qin Ziyan’s breath was her eyes, veiled in a mist like spring fog.
What kind of beauty had a playboy like Qin Ziyan not seen before?
Yet when his eyes met Ruan Jiaqi’s just now, his heart had actually skipped a beat.
Her brows were like smoky willow branches, seemingly frowning yet not quite; her eyes seemed filled with affection, seemingly smiling yet not quite.
Hazy, moist, and captivating.
The only imperfection was that deep within those eyes, there was a lack of warmth and romantic allure. They appeared somewhat empty and bewildered.
But that emptiness instead aroused the man’s innate, twisted desire to conquer.
Just looking at her, Qin Ziyan could already imagine how those mist-filled eyes would glisten with tears and become coquettishly alluring if she were pressed beneath a man.
No wonder she had managed to climb into Hua Feng’s bed.
Men hated being coerced more than anything.
Especially someone as ruthless as Hua Feng, a man practically known as the King of Hell.
The former chairman of Hua Corporation had died prematurely in a tragic car accident, leaving behind a widow, three children, and a fortune vast enough to rival a nation’s treasury.
In order to preserve the fruits of her husband’s lifetime of work, Mrs. Hua had no choice but to take her three underage children and marry the former chairman’s right-hand man.
Hua Feng took control of Hua Corporation at the age of eighteen. There was even a rumor that the first thing he did after taking power was personally kill his stepfather.
No one knew whether the rumor was true, but over the years, under Hua Feng’s iron-fisted rule, the old retainers of Hua Corporation had either left or died.
Now, the entire Hua Corporation was effectively Hua Feng’s personal domain. Its size and wealth had multiplied several times over what it had been during his father’s lifetime. It was no exaggeration to say that Hua Feng held enormous power over Shanghai.
And Hua Feng’s well-known obsession with cleanliness was legendary. His attitude toward women who threw themselves at him was cold to the point of being frightening.
Over the years, countless beautiful women had gone to extraordinary lengths to approach Hua Feng, only to fail to make even the slightest ripple. Without exception, their wings had been clipped, leaving them disgraced and defeated.
Yet this woman before him had been bold enough to scheme against Hua Feng. Not only had Hua Feng failed to snap her neck, he had actually made her “Mrs. Hua.”
No matter how nominal the title might be, it was still a title.
A ruthless man like Hua Feng could never have been controlled by a few compromising photographs.
Even rumors that he had “climbed to power over his stepfather’s corpse” were nothing more than a passing breeze to him. What public opinion in this world could possibly threaten him?
What value could a woman of such lowly origins possibly possess that would make Hua Feng look upon her favorably?
Only her beauty.
But certainly not ordinary beauty.
Clearly, this woman must have had something special to offer in bed.
Such a breathtaking beauty had nevertheless fallen into Hua Feng’s hands.
And Hua Feng had actually been willing to leave her alone for two whole years?
What a waste.
Qin Ziyan’s Adam’s apple bobbed heavily.
The way he looked at Ruan Jiaqi had something in common with the gazes of the socialites around him.
The women wanted to tear her apart.
Qin Ziyan wanted to tear her apart too, just in an entirely different setting.
If he could only get her into bed…
Just imagining it was enough to make his bones go soft.
……
“Miss Ruan, do you usually like wearing qipaos?”
With a flirtatious smile on his lips, Qin Ziyan swirled his wineglass and walked over to Ruan Jiaqi. He naturally exchanged a glance with the socialite sitting to her left before gracefully taking the seat beside her.