In the end, Shen Yu was practically dragged out of the old family residence by his parents.
To calm Shen Yao and Shen Ling, the old master of the Shen family ultimately withdrew his decision to let Shen Pei take charge of the project. No matter how desperately Shen Pei pleaded, he refused to change his mind.
The whole family left in disgrace.
Shen Pei was furious. He couldn’t vent his anger on Shen Yu, so Xiao Ran became the target instead.
On the drive back to the city, Xiao Ran endured a relentless storm of scolding from him.
Her tears were almost completely dried up.
How did things end up like this? All she wanted was to fight for a bit of dignity for her son!
Biting her lip, Xiao Ran weakly tried to defend herself.
“I… I didn’t know that girl would call the police… Who in our circle calls the police over something like this? She—she has no sense of propriety. What was I supposed to do…?”
“You didn’t know?!” Shen Pei turned around from the passenger seat and exploded. “Are you an idiot?! You don’t know anything?! This is the second time she’s sent you to the police station and you still ‘don’t know’?! Is that thing on your neck just for decoration?!”
“So noisy!”
Shen Yu slumped to the side and snapped through gritted teeth.
Shen Pei paused for a moment, but couldn’t hold back. “A-Yu, why are you so disappointing?!”
Shen Yu’s whole body ached, his head spinning. His mouth moved faster than his brain:
“Didn’t I inherit that from you?”
“You—!”
“Cough, cough, cough…”
Shen Yu couldn’t stop coughing. Xiao Ran quickly reached out to pat his back, trying to help him catch his breath.
“Honey, why are you yelling at A-Yu?”
Whenever it came to Shen Yu, Xiao Ran somehow found her courage.
“The child is already—ah! A-Yu, you’re burning up!”
She touched his forehead and realized it was scorching hot.
Shen Yu finally couldn’t hold on any longer and fainted.
…
The high fever made his mind unusually active, and memories long buried deep inside began to resurface.
He dreamed of his childhood.
He was back at the school gate again.
Around him were the familiar followers who used to trail behind him.
The Shen family had always been a leading powerhouse among the elite circles in the capital. As the only boy of his generation, Shen Yu had grown up being doted on and surrounded by attention.
He was already used to being the center of it all.
At the start of the new semester, he heard that the unlucky kid from the Xu family had returned after medical treatment.
The Xu family…
The boy, who was about to turn nine, curled his lips.
He had already begun to understand the concept of “family power.” From what he overheard from his grandparents and relatives, he vaguely knew that the Xu family, by leveraging forces outside the capital, had become almost as powerful as the Shen family and the Qiao family.
“Almost as powerful” was still not something to ignore.
But wasn’t that basically cheating?
He had heard that the Xu family had been making waves in recent years. If not for the scandal caused two years ago by the mistress of the Xu family’s head, then—setting aside the Shen family’s deep foundation—the Qiao family might have already been surpassed.
Listening to the elders speak with both wariness and disdain, Shen Yu’s impression of the Xu family worsened.
He had even heard that Mrs. Xu didn’t dare to tear things apart and had endured the humiliation of accepting the mistress’s daughter into the family.
How embarrassing. The lady of the house, yet so useless.
Just like his own mother.
Thinking of how his mother couldn’t even speak properly in front of his grandfather, Shen Yu grew irritated.
Why couldn’t his mother be as capable as his aunts?
He didn’t even dare imagine having siblings who weren’t born from his mother…
Ugh, no way—that would be bad luck!
…He also heard that the Xu family had donated a whole building to the school just to get that illegitimate child admitted.
Why does she deserve that?!
Puffing up his cheeks, Shen Yu waved at the kids around him.
“Come on, let’s go teach that illegitimate girl a lesson!”
He charged over aggressively—but the moment he saw the Xu sisters holding hands, he froze.
…Why didn’t anyone tell him that girl was this pretty?!
Like Xu Yingjia, she wore a pink backpack with little white wings, a neat and tidy new school uniform, and shiny black leather shoes.
Kids like them, born into wealthy families, usually didn’t like wearing uniforms. Aside from the opening ceremony, they mostly wore their own clothes.
But somehow, the plain uniform didn’t look cheap on her at all. She looked fresh, bright, and full of life.
Not to mention her carefully styled pointed buns that resembled cat ears, paired with her slightly upturned large eyes—she looked just like a little fox.
Shen Yu felt as if something slammed hard into his chest.
The unfamiliar and intense feeling startled him.
This illegitimate girl really is bad luck!
He clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and tried desperately to suppress the strange emotions rising within him.
With an arrogant air, he publicly exposed the girl’s background.
But the reaction he expected—panic or tears—never came. Instead, she nodded calmly and even introduced herself.
Shen Yu froze, the name “Gu Nianqing” echoing repeatedly in his mind.
That name… actually sounds kind of nice…
Wait—no!
Annoyed at his own distraction, he launched another attack.
But Gu Nianqing effortlessly deflected him and ran off with Xu Yingjia, leaving him and the onlooking kids behind.
Shen Yu was furious.
He had never been treated like that before.
He had to win back his pride.
And then—
He got himself into serious trouble.
In Shen Yu’s nine short years of life, it was the first time he had ever seen the adults so shaken.
In the main hall of the old residence, his grandfather—who had always doted on him—pulled down his pants and whipped him hard with a willow switch.
“Have you all lived in comfort for so long that you’ve forgotten where you came from?!”
His grandfather struck the backs of the uncles who tried to plead for him with his cane. “How did the Shen family build its fortune? And this is how you’re raising your children? You’ve forgotten your roots!”
Shen Yu was beaten until his skin split, but his grandfather only allowed the doctor to apply medicine to the surface wounds before sending him to kneel in the ancestral hall as punishment.
Shen Yu felt deeply wronged. All he had done was try to show that illegitimate girl how powerful the Shen family was—so why was he the one being punished?
From outside the door, he heard his mother, unusually shrill, arguing:
“A-Yu was just set up by that illegitimate girl! How would a child understand any of this? It’s all that little wretch’s fault!”
Then came his grandfather’s furious roar:
“An indulgent mother ruins her child! What right do you have to look down on that girl? Shen Yu had a whole group behind him—she was alone! She’s clever and bold enough to toy with your son like he’s nothing!”
Xiao Ran’s sobbing came and went between her words:
“…How can you say that…? She—she’s rotten to the core. How could she ever compare to my A-Yu…”
“Useless!” The old master, seeing she refused to change, scolded harshly. “Look at Madam Zhou from the Xu family, then look at yourself! You’re not fit to be seen in public!”
Xiao Ran fell silent, kneeling outside and crying.
Shen Yu had never been beaten before. This first punishment left him badly shaken.
A week later, he finally recovered enough to return to school.
During his recovery, he had time to think things through—and at last, he figured out how he had been played.
At first, he had gone there to expose that illegitimate girl’s background. But with just a few words, she had led him off track—from talking about her, to talking about the Shen family, then to whatever “class conflicts” his grandfather mentioned—until he ended up causing a huge disaster.
How vicious!
Grinding his teeth, Shen Yu avoided his usual followers during the long break, slipped into a second-grade classroom, and dragged Gu Nianqing to the small grove behind the school building.
There had been so many of them, yet not one noticed her scheme. Useless!
The weather was still warm, and Gu Nianqing was wearing her summer uniform.
The bruises on her arm—left by Xu Mingzhen—hadn’t fully healed. The darkened marks stood out starkly against her pale skin.
So she got beaten too…
Shen Yu forced himself to ignore the sudden tightening in his chest when he saw the injuries.
“Illegitimate girl!” he snapped angrily, striking first. “You’ve got some nerve, setting me up like that!”
Grimacing, Gu Nianqing pulled her arm free from his grip and gently blew on the sore spot.
“You’re hurting me, Young Master Shen.”
The moment Shen Yu heard that title, he thought of his grandfather’s switch—and his backside seemed to ache again.
His hair stood on end. “Don’t call me that!”
Gu Nianqing tilted her head, as if realizing something. “Oh, your title is—‘Prince of the capital cir—mmph—’”
Shen Yu quickly covered her mouth.
“Don’t say it! From now on, you’re not allowed to call me that either!”
His hand wasn’t large, yet it still covered most of her face, leaving only those lively, fox-like eyes blinking.
For some reason, her long eyelashes felt like they were brushing against his heart, light and ticklish.
Gu Nianqing nodded to show she understood.
Only then did Shen Yu let go.
He glared at her, displeased. “Why did you set me up like that?!”
Gu Nianqing looked at him, confused.
Those watery eyes irritated him even more, so he raised his hand to block her gaze.
“Don’t look at me like that!”
…
Pinned against the tree with nowhere to retreat, Gu Nianqing tried to push his arm away, annoyed.
But she was simply too weak. After struggling for a while, she had no choice but to accept it was useless.
Strangely, her helplessness pleased Shen Yu.
“Tell me the truth, or I won’t let go!”
He saw her soft pink lips purse before she calmly delivered a blunt answer:
“Didn’t you say the young lady was stupid? I just wanted to see how smart you really are.”
Shen Yu: …
“…So you were getting back at me?” he said in disbelief. “For Xu Yingjia? That idiot?”
“What are you so proud of? You’re an idiot too.”
Gu Nianqing huffed and stomped on his foot. Shen Yu winced and stepped back, finally letting her see clearly again.
She bent down and slipped out from under his arm.
“Stop bullying the young lady, Shen Yu.”
Standing a few meters away, she turned back, her expression serious as she warned him:
“I’ll protect her with everything I have. If you bully her, I’ll deal with you.”
Shen Yu had just been thinking how nice his name sounded when she said it—but her words made his expression turn cold.
“What’s so great about her?!”
There was a hint of resentment in his voice, though he didn’t even realize it himself.
“You’re so loyal—what, do you think you’re Xu Yingjia’s dog?”
The moment he said it, he saw Gu Nianqing narrow her eyes.
At the time, he didn’t know—that was the look of a fox spotting its prey.
“So that’s how it is.”
He heard her say, as if she had just figured something out:
“Shen Yu… you’ve never had anyone who truly wanted to protect you, have you?”
“…What did you say?”
Gu Nianqing smiled, her eyes holding both malice and pity.
“You’re kind of pitiful.”