Gu Nianqing spent the entire morning in meetings with the company’s legal team.
The amount involved in the dispute was enormous. Even though Qimeng had the upper hand, she didn’t dare to be careless.
Qin Fu had already backed her up by taking that batch of goods off her hands, giving her the breathing room to deal with the conflict with Feixian. In return, she had to make sure everything was handled cleanly and properly before delivering the goods to him.
Otherwise, the price she’d have to pay wouldn’t be as simple as a few cries in bed.
By the time she walked out of the conference room, she was already feeling dizzy and exhausted.
“President Gu, you don’t look well. Do you want to take a break?” Xu Xiaxia asked worriedly, leaning in and lowering her voice. “You really need to watch your schedule these days, it’s almost—”
“President Gu!”
Before Xu Xiaxia could finish, the head of the company’s security hurried over.
“There’s a woman downstairs causing trouble. She says she’s from the Shen family. The guards don’t dare to act too forcefully—what should we do?”
“The Shen family…”
Gu Nianqing frowned, irritation flickering across her face as she reached for some hot water.
“It’s probably Shen Yu’s mother,” she said after recalling some news she’d received the night before. “Ignore her. Just have her escorted out. If she tries to force her way in, call the police—and make sure the surveillance cameras are ready.”
Shen Yu’s parents had always been on the fringes of the Shen family, often the last to hear important news—slower even than outsiders like her.
As early as yesterday evening, word had already spread in their circles: Shen Yu had been dragged back to the family estate and punished again.
The elders of the Shen family weren’t completely unaware of Feixian’s contract breach. At first, Shen Yu had downplayed the situation, acting as if he had everything under control. With a professional team backing him over the years, he hadn’t made any major mistakes before, so no one took it seriously.
It wasn’t until his clash with Gu Nianqing at the airport—when the details were leaked by paparazzi—that the figure of 38 billion finally caught the attention of the family elders.
Of course, not everyone was caught off guard. Shen Yao and his daughter Shen Ling, who had already gone abroad to negotiate with Gu Nianqing, clearly knew about the situation long before.
As for why they chose to stay silent until Shen Yu made things worse—only to then complain at the family estate about how difficult things had been—that wasn’t something Gu Nianqing, even as someone in the middle of the storm, cared to dig into. She was content just watching the drama unfold.
Shen Yu hadn’t returned home all night. It wasn’t until the next morning, when his parents were summoned to the family estate, that they saw him—bruised and battered—standing in the garden, smoking with a dark expression.
Shen Pei was called in by the old master for a scolding, while Shen Yu’s mother broke down the moment she saw her son’s injuries.
Her son was her greatest support. She could tolerate many things, but she absolutely couldn’t accept him being wronged.
Still, she knew that beating was unavoidable.
Just counting the zeros in that 38-billion figure was enough to make her feel faint.
There was no way she would let Shen Yu bear the burden of that lawsuit.
Having made up her mind, she quickly redirected her anger—
Toward Gu Nianqing.
That woman who had repeatedly humiliated and blocked Shen Yu.
Every time Shen Yu got involved with her, his rationality seemed to disappear.
Thinking back to what happened six years ago, Shen Yu’s mother clenched her teeth so hard it felt like they might shatter.
Xiao Ran noticed that her son had been in an unusually good mood lately.
In the past, he had been so absorbed in university life that he rarely came home on weekends. Even when she visited him, he would act impatient.
It hurt her, but she always made excuses for him—boys just needed their space as they grew up.
And Shen Yu, who was about to be engaged to Xu Yingjia, was certainly no longer a boy.
Thinking about the two daughters of the Xu family, Xiao Ran couldn’t help but frown.
She wasn’t satisfied with either of them as her future daughter-in-law.
The Xu family… seemed cursed in some way.
After Zhou Ya gave birth, she suffered severe complications and could no longer have children. Unwilling to accept having no male heir, Xu Mingzhen secretly kept a mistress—rumored to be a student of an old Chinese medicine doctor who had treated him and Zhou Ya during a stay in the south.
In the end, the woman gave birth to twins—a boy and a girl.
But the son he had longed for… was born with a congenital illness.
Xiao Ran hadn’t been present when the incident happened, but from gossip circulating in their social circle, she knew enough.
The boy had looked abnormal—his features noticeably different from others. It was said to be a typical manifestation of trisomy syndrome associated with congenital leukemia.
In the end, Xu Mingzhen gained nothing. His long-awaited son died, the daughter born to his legal wife lost her sanity, and the only one left to benefit was the illegitimate daughter he never favored.
One daughter was foolish, the other disgraceful—neither worthy of her son!
Xiao Ran recalled how she had once mustered the courage to suggest to the old master of the Shen family that they change the marriage alliance. In response, she had a cup of tea thrown in her face and was harshly scolded for not knowing her place.
The mocking looks from her sisters-in-law that day still burned in her memory. She had been so humiliated she wished she could disappear into the ground.
What she found even harder to accept was this—although Shen Yu was also unwilling to marry Xu Yingjia, his reason wasn’t to cancel the engagement entirely…
He wanted to replace her.
He actually wanted to marry that illegitimate daughter.
Worse still, his recent good mood stemmed from rumors that all those years of Gu Nianqing targeting him had been because she liked him—but, feeling unworthy due to her background, she had taken a roundabout way to get his attention.
Shen Yu was delighted by this idea.
Xiao Ran, on the other hand, cried herself to sleep several times.
The son she had raised with such care was her greatest pride. Only when the topic of children came up could she hold her head high in the Shen family—after all, she was the only one of her generation who had given birth to a son.
To her, Shen Yu was a priceless treasure. Anyone she considered a threat—any pest that tried to get close to him—would be eliminated without hesitation.
After learning about Shen Yu’s rebellious thoughts, Xiao Ran went to meet that illegitimate daughter in person.
She started with the classic move—writing a check.
But the girl sitting across from her, dressed neatly in her school uniform, merely glanced at the amount and burst out laughing.
“Aunt Xiao, that’s… a bit stingy, don’t you think?”
Gu Nianqing browsed through the café menu, picked out Darjeeling tea, and placed her order without a care.
“If I didn’t know you couldn’t control Shen Yu,” she added lightly, tapping the check, “I’d almost write you one myself—just to buy some peace and quiet. Does Shen Yu know that, in your eyes, his ‘first love’ is only worth 200,000?”
Xiao Ran’s face turned pale with anger, her hand trembling as she pointed at her.
“W-Who do you think you are, claiming to be his first love?! If you hadn’t deliberately seduced him, he wouldn’t have lost his mind! Do you think everyone is like you—scheming at such a young age, trying to hook men? You’re just like your mother—cheap and shameless!”
Her voice was loud enough to draw attention from the surrounding tables.
Gu Nianqing tilted her head, calmly taking in Xiao Ran’s twisted, furious expression. Then she nodded slightly, as if reaching a conclusion.
“I see… so it’s hereditary.”
The judgment in her gaze made Xiao Ran feel her blood rush to her head.
Gu Nianqing pushed the check back toward her with a faintly pitying smile.
“Aunt Xiao, if money’s tight, you really shouldn’t make things harder for yourself… Besides, Shen Yu and I have never been together. You’re asking me to leave someone I was never with. You’d be better off using that money to buy a wig for the current King of France.”
Xiao Ran blinked in confusion.
King of France? A wig?
Was a king’s wig really worth only 200,000?
She had the vague sense she was being mocked—but she couldn’t quite understand how.
A wave of helpless frustration washed over her. Her breathing grew uneven, her chest heaving.
“…What gives you the right to speak to me like this?!”
She couldn’t understand why a girl of such questionable background could make her feel so belittled—as if she were once again standing before those high-and-mighty women in the Shen family.
Why?!
She had already endured so much humiliation—was she now supposed to be mocked by an illegitimate daughter too?
Before she could think it through, Xiao Ran suddenly grabbed the freshly served tea from a waiter’s tray and hurled it at Gu Nianqing.
The waiter reacted quickly, blocking most of the scalding liquid with the tray—but some still splashed onto Gu Nianqing’s hand, leaving it red and burned.
She turned her wrist slightly, feeling the sting, and met Xiao Ran’s panicked gaze.
“…Heh.”
Gu Nianqing let out a soft laugh and immediately called the police.
“You and your son really are alike—never learning your lesson.”
Xiao Ran: …
As a member of the Shen family, she had never imagined that one day she would end up in a police station—on suspicion of intentional assault.