“If you can’t afford a formal dress of your own, you deliberately ruined mine just to make me embarrass myself in front of everyone, didn’t you?!”
Hua Yao’s pretty little face was flushed red with anger.
“This is the latest limited-edition haute couture from Paris. So tell me, how are you going to compensate me?”
Ruan Jiaqi pursed her lips.
“Is this dress very expensive?”
“Obviously.”
Hua Yao arrogantly lifted her chin.
“Every diamond and pearl on this dress was hand-set. It uses the most exquisite fabric, and more than a dozen craftsmen spent half a year making it. There are only three in the entire world. Do you think it’s expensive?”
How about that? Scared now, aren’t you?
If you’re scared, hurry up and kneel down to apologize!
Hua Yao actually didn’t care about the dress at all.
She had already planned everything.
Even if Ruan Jiaqi humbly apologized to her, she had no intention of letting her off that easily.
She would make this vicious woman kneel right here in front of everyone and use ice-cold water filled with ice cubes to slowly wash the dress until not a single trace remained.
Then she would see whether Ruan Jiaqi dared to put on airs again.
But the scene Hua Yao had imagined—Ruan Jiaqi looking humble, flustered, and on the verge of collapse—never happened.
After a long while without hearing a response, Hua Yao looked down.
Ruan Jiaqi was still sitting quietly, her delicate little face tilted up toward her. There wasn’t the slightest trace of hatred in those clear, luminous eyes.
Instead, they were filled with completely undisguised, sincere admiration.
“Wow… Your family is really rich.”
Hua Yao: “……”
Ruan Jiaqi was delighted.
They were willing to spend so much money just buying a dress for their younger sister. Surely, giving her a little money would be nothing to them.
Even a respectable master would give a servant a severance payment when dismissing them.
When Granny Liu made her second visit to the Rongguo Mansion, she even left with a hundred taels of silver.
A hundred taels would have been enough to buy her freedom ten times over.
Judging by the extravagance before her, the male lead’s family was probably even richer than the Rongguo Mansion.
Besides, she was the male lead’s wife in name.
Surely the severance payment they gave her would be enough for her to compensate Hua Yao for the dress and still have enough left over to eat and travel freely from south to north.
Hua Yao felt as though she had thrown a punch into cotton.
She couldn’t even put into words what she was feeling.
For a fleeting moment, she seemed to see the Little Match Girl.
Why did she suddenly feel inexplicably guilty?
Hua Yao cleared her throat awkwardly, looked away, and said coldly,
“Stop talking nonsense. Hurry up and compensate me for my dress!”
Ruan Jiaqi was indeed in a bit of a difficult position.
If she told them about the System and the drugged wine, who would believe her?
Everyone would definitely think she was crazy.
She didn’t want to spend the rest of her time in a mental asylum.
So Ruan Jiaqi thought for a moment and honestly said,
“I don’t have any money to compensate you.”
That was exactly what Hua Yao wanted to hear. She gave a smug little snort.
“No money, huh? Fine. If you don’t have money, then kneel down and—”
“But I’ll have money soon.”
Ruan Jiaqi continued with absolute certainty.
Hua Yao: “?”
Hua Yao looked confused.
Where would this woman get money from?
After using up the allowance Big Brother gave her every month to support her poor relatives, she should barely have anything left.
Could it be that this woman had secretly sold off the gold bars and antiques Big Brother kept at home while the servants weren’t paying attention?!
Hua Yao crossed her arms and raised the corner of her eyes.
“Give me a break. Stop trying to bluff me. I know exactly how much money you have in your pockets. It all belongs to the Hua family anyway.”
Ruan Jiaqi seemed completely incapable of hearing the sarcasm. She answered earnestly, even with a hint of anticipation.
“When your big brother comes back, he’ll give me money.”
The guests exchanged glances, uncertainty and surprise flashing through their eyes.
Wasn’t this little gold digger supposedly extremely disliked?
Would Mr. Hua actually give her money?
Hua Yao rolled her eyes in exasperation. She couldn’t even be bothered to expose her anymore and sneered.
“Ruan Jiaqi, are you dreaming?”
Ruan Jiaqi pinched her own cheek.
It hurt.
She blinked.
“No.”
Hua Yao looked utterly speechless.
“Don’t tell me you really think you’re Mrs. Hua? Even at a time like this, you’re still hoping to squeeze money out of my brother?”
“Ruan Jiaqi, should I remind you, just as a friendly gesture, exactly how much my brother hates you?”
“You’re no different from one of the servants in our household. Oh no, to be precise, your position in our family is even lower than theirs. It’s been two years already. How do you still not understand reality?”
Hua Yao unleashed a barrage of words at Ruan Jiaqi, successfully watching as the woman’s head sank lower and lower, her face becoming so pale that it was almost translucent.
Hua Yao raised an eyebrow smugly, the corners of her lips curling into a contemptuous smile.
Hmph.
Now she should finally understand where she stood, right?
Now she knew to be afraid, didn’t she?
If she was scared, then she should hurry up and—
“I know.”
Ruan Jiaqi lowered her head slightly. Her voice was as light as a feather brushing across the surface of a lake, yet it clearly reached everyone’s ears.
“I know how much he hates me. You don’t need to remind me.”
Her voice remained soft and gentle, but her next words were earth-shattering.
“After all, no one would be willing to have compromising photos of themselves constantly held in someone else’s hands.”
That was what the System had said, at least.
If it was true, then it was understandable that the male lead hated her.
If she were in his position, she would definitely hate the person who had done that to her too.
So even if she didn’t bring it up herself, she believed the first thing the male lead would do after returning home would be to tell her to pack her things and get out.
Then… he should at least give her some severance money, right?
The moment she finished speaking, it was as if a bomb had been dropped into the room.
The entire banquet hall fell into a stunned silence.
Only the orchestra in the distance continued playing energetically.
The spectators around them immediately perked up their ears, their eyes burning with the spirit of gossip.
Now this was something worth paying attention to.
The chairman and president of Hua Corporation, Hua Feng, had been set up and secretly photographed in an intimate situation.
It was a secret everyone in their circle knew about, yet no one dared discuss.
And now, the woman at the center of that setup had personally torn away the veil of secrecy and casually exposed the scandal in front of everyone?
Where was human decency? Where was morality? Where were the photos?!
Just how compromising were they for her to be this brazen?
Hua Yao staggered backward two steps, staring at Ruan Jiaqi in disbelief. Even her voice had changed.
“…What exactly are you trying to say?”
Ruan Jiaqi pursed her lips and gazed at Hua Yao expectantly. Her long eyelashes fluttered, her large eyes filled with cautious probing and hope.
“I mean, even if your brother hates me as much as he does, for the sake of maintaining the dignity of a wealthy family, he should… still give me at least a little money, right?”
“As soon as I get the money, I’ll immediately compensate you. Is that okay?”
Hua Yao had never, in all her life, been so blatantly challenged and threatened.
For crying out loud.
What Little Match Girl?
This was a crazy black widow!
How could this woman make extortion sound so innocent and righteous?!
Seeing that Hua Yao remained silent, Ruan Jiaqi leaned a little closer.
Money shouldn’t be flaunted, and she was afraid someone else might overhear, so she lowered her voice and quietly asked Hua Yao,
“Judging by the prices here, how much do you think your brother would give me?”
If it wasn’t enough to pay for the dress, she would have to think of another solution.
The girl’s delicate fragrance, mixed with a faint, cool scent, drifted closer, causing Hua Yao to space out for a moment.
Then came an overwhelming wave of fury!
Hua Yao nearly fainted from anger on the spot.
Was this woman really trying to get herself killed?
She had to be, right?!
She gritted her teeth and glared at Ruan Jiaqi, so furious that all ten of her fingers trembled.
But as she continued staring…
She suddenly realized that the woman who had once only lowered her eyes, acted timidly, and fawned over her had seemingly undergone a complete transformation overnight.
It was still the same face, but her entire aura seemed different.
The timidity between her brows had vanished without a trace. In its place was a strange calmness and composure, even… a hint of lazy innocence?
She was saying the most sinister things while wearing a face as clear and harmless as translucent candy.
Those eyes were like a little deer stumbling into a field of reeds—innocent yet mesmerizing.
Not a cartoon deer from Disney, though.
More like an ink-wash deer from the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.
Light, classical, with a faint air of world-weariness.
All in all, she possessed a complex and unusual kind of beauty.
And she was so cool and fragrant.
The moment this thought suddenly popped into Hua Yao’s mind, she almost wanted to scream and kill herself.
“Enough!”
A cold, stern male voice suddenly rang out across the enormous banquet hall.
Hua Yan abruptly rose from the sofa nearby, his dark eyes resembling a frozen lake.
The spectators who had been thoroughly enjoying the drama were intimidated by the chilling aura and instinctively took several steps backward.
There was a saying in Shanghai.
Whenever the Second Young Master of the Hua family lost his temper, someone was bound to have a very bad day.