The next morning, someone was already kneeling in the living room of the Shen family’s main residence.
It was Shen Wan’er.
She had changed into a simple white dress. Her long hair hung loose, and her eyes were swollen and red from crying, as though she hadn’t slept all night. Every servant who passed by couldn’t help but glance at her, and a few of the older ones even looked visibly sympathetic.
After all, she had lived in this house for twenty-three years.
To most of them, she had always been the Shen family’s Second Young Miss.
But familiarity didn’t mean she had the right to keep occupying a place that had never belonged to her.
When Shen Nian walked in, nearly everyone had already gathered.
Shen Chongshan sat on the sofa, his expression grim. Lin Man stood beside him with reddened eyes, as if she had been crying. Shen Yanzhou and Shen Yue were both present, while the Old Madam, having just been discharged from the hospital, sat in the seat of honor with someone’s help.
“Sister…”
The moment Shen Wan’er saw Shen Nian, tears immediately streamed down her face.
“I know you hate me, and I accept that. But please… don’t let Grandma drive me out. I really have nowhere else to go…”
Shen Nian didn’t even slow her pace. She walked straight up to her.
“And what does that have to do with me?”
Shen Wan’er froze, caught off guard.
Her tears flowed even harder.
“I know I’ve taken your place all these years, but that wasn’t my choice. You can hit me, scold me—anything you want. Just… please don’t drive me to my death…”
“You’re mistaken.”
Looking down at her, Shen Nian said calmly,
“I’m not forcing you into a corner. You’re simply returning something that never belonged to you in the first place.”
Lin Man finally couldn’t stay silent.
“Niannian, Wan’er has been kneeling here all morning. Do you really have to push her this far?”
“Push her?”
Shen Nian turned toward her.
“Living in the main house, carrying unlimited supplementary bank cards, driving luxury cars, growing up with Ye Chen, using my mother’s belongings—that’s your idea of being driven into a corner?”
Lin Man’s face instantly turned pale.
The Old Madam spoke coldly.
“Let her finish.”
Shen Nian withdrew her gaze, took out a tablet from her bag, and placed it on the coffee table.
“Since everyone’s here today, let’s all watch together.”
Shen Wan’er’s heart lurched.
The screen lit up.
The first video began playing.
It was the video call she’d had with Qin Shuya the previous night.
“Grandma wants to kick me out of the main house… Auntie, what should I do…”
The entire living room fell silent.
Lin Man’s expression changed dramatically.
“W-What is this…?”
Then came the second video.
The third.
The fourth.
Secret recordings.
Screenshots of chat messages.
The memo.
Everything was laid out clearly, one piece after another.
Especially the document titled “Plan for Dealing with Sister After She Comes Home.”
Every line felt like a slap across the face.
1. Cry first, so everyone thinks Sister rejects me.
2. Get Brother Ye Chen to publicly take my side.
3. If she investigates the jade pendant, say Mom gave it to me.
Shen Yue’s face turned green.
Even though Shen Yanzhou had mentally prepared himself, he was still shocked by how meticulous—almost disturbingly meticulous—the plan was.
This wasn’t the scheming of an immature young girl.
It was calculated manipulation.
Shen Wan’er’s face turned deathly white.
She lunged toward the tablet.
“No! These are fake! Sister, why are you framing me like this?!”
Shen Nian sidestepped effortlessly and seized her wrist.
“I’m framing you?”
She raised the tablet high enough for everyone to see the cloud synchronization account and timestamp displayed on the playback screen.
“This came directly from your own cloud backup.”
“Would you like me to send the original data to the police for forensic verification?”
The blood drained from Shen Wan’er’s face.
She knew.
She had lost.
But she refused to accept it.
She suddenly turned toward Lin Man, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe.
“Mom! Say something! I was just scared… I was afraid that once Sister came back, all of you would stop loving me…”
The word Mom came so naturally.
So pitifully.
In the past, Lin Man would have softened immediately.
But this time…
She stood rooted to the spot.
Her face was pale.
For the first time, she saw clearly that Shen Wan’er wasn’t incapable of acting.
She was simply too good at it.
The Old Madam looked at her coldly.
“Do you have anything else to say for yourself?”
Shen Wan’er trembled with tears.
“Grandma… I know I was selfish. I admit it. But I’ve always thought of myself as part of the Shen family. I can’t bear to leave this place… I can’t bear to leave Dad, Mom… or my brothers…”
“What you can’t bear to lose…”
Shen Nian interrupted calmly.
“…is your identity as a member of the Shen family.”
One sentence shattered every ounce of sympathy Shen Wan’er had managed to cry out.
Shen Chongshan stared at the young woman kneeling before him.
His expression was unbearably conflicted.
To say he had no feelings for her would be a lie.
For twenty-three years, he had watched her grow up.
For twenty-three years, she had called him Dad.
But with all her schemes now laid bare before him…
He could no longer deceive himself.
“Starting today…”
His voice was hoarse.
“…you will move out of the main house.”
Shen Wan’er looked up abruptly.
Even her tears stopped falling.
“Dad…”
“Your bank cards will be frozen. The car will be taken back. Everything registered under the Shen family in your name will be reclaimed.”
He closed his eyes.
“If you’re willing, the Shen family will give you a settlement payment.”
“But you can no longer live here.”
As he spoke those words, Shen Chongshan himself seemed to age several years.
Because twenty-three years of hearing someone call him Dad had never been fake.
When his decision was made, Lin Man’s eyes immediately filled with tears.
But in the end…
She didn’t plead for Shen Wan’er.
She no longer had the right.
Only then did Shen Wan’er truly realize she was about to lose everything.
Panic overwhelmed her.
“No!”
She suddenly grabbed Lin Man’s skirt, crying hysterically.
“Mom, I’m not leaving! You raised me! You promised you’d always protect me!”
Lin Man stumbled from the force of her grip.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as well.
Her voice was hoarse.
“Wan’er… stay somewhere else for a while…”
“For a while?”
Shen Nian looked at them coldly.
“Have you still not understood what Grandma meant?”
She raised her head toward the butler.
“Pack her belongings.”
“Escort her out.”
“What right do you have?!”
Shen Wan’er suddenly shrieked.
The gentleness and helplessness on her face tore away completely, exposing naked hatred beneath.
“The moment you came back, you wanted to drive everyone away!”
“Shen Nian!”
“What gives you the right?!”
Her scream rang through the house.
Even the servants standing outside lowered their heads, too frightened to look up.
Everyone finally saw it.
The delicate, soft-spoken Second Young Miss…
couldn’t keep pretending anymore.
Silence fell over the living room.
So…
This was her true face.
Shen Nian looked at her.
Then, unexpectedly…
She smiled.
“What gives me the right?”
She slowly crouched down until they were eye level.
“Because I’m the child who was stolen and replaced.”
“Because I suffered outside for twenty-three years while you enjoyed twenty-three years of comfort here.”
“Because your aunt poisoned Grandma.”
“Because you helped her keep up the act.”
“Because you knew you weren’t a member of the Shen family, yet still tried to crush me.”
With every sentence…
Shen Wan’er’s face turned a shade paler.
Finally, Shen Nian enunciated every word.
“Because this was never your home.”
She stood.
Then said calmly,
“See our guest out.”
Two servants immediately stepped forward.
Shen Wan’er tried to resist.
But the Old Madam suddenly struck her cane heavily against the floor.
“Get out.”
Those three words settled everything.
The sharp crack of the cane against the marble floor sounded like the final period at the end of a sentence.
Shen Wan’er cried herself hoarse, but she was still dragged upstairs to pack her belongings.
As she reached the staircase, she suddenly turned back.
She stared at Shen Nian with such hatred that it almost overflowed from her eyes.
Shen Nian met her gaze without flinching.
She knew this woman would never simply accept her fate.
Sure enough…
Half an hour later, Shen Wan’er came downstairs with her luggage and caused another scene.
Dragging a suitcase behind her, her face was ashen, as though she might collapse at any second.
Just as everyone thought she had finally accepted reality…
She suddenly turned toward Shen Chongshan.
“Dad…”
“Don’t you want to know who the last person Aunt Su Lan met three days before she disappeared?”
The living room instantly fell silent.
Shen Chongshan’s expression changed dramatically.
“What did you say?”
A pale smile spread across Shen Wan’er’s lips.
It looked almost vindictive.
“I don’t know everything.”
“But I do know…”
“…that it wasn’t my aunt.”
There was unmistakable satisfaction in her eyes.
As though, if she was going to fall…
She would drag as many others down with her as she could.
Nevertheless, the butler and servants escorted her out together.
The moment the front doors of the main house closed…
The living room suddenly felt emptier.
No one spoke.
Lin Man still stood where she was, clutching her skirt tightly.
Tears slipped silently down her face.
She didn’t dare cry out loud, perhaps afraid that doing so would only make it seem as though she still favored Shen Wan’er.
The Old Madam glanced at her.
“They’ve already sent her away.”
“You still can’t bear to let her go?”
Lin Man’s lips trembled.
Finally, she said hoarsely,
“She called me ‘Mom’ for more than twenty years…”
“And because she called you Mom…”
The Old Madam’s voice turned icy.
“…you forgot your own flesh and blood?”
“Lin Man, you’re not merely confused.”
“You’re greedy.”
Lin Man’s face went completely white.
Those words were too heavy.
So heavy that any attempt at defending herself would only sound ridiculous.
Standing quietly to one side, Shen Nian remained expressionless.
She had no interest in Lin Man’s belated wavering.
What concerned her far more…
was Shen Wan’er’s parting remark.
“The last person Su Lan met wasn’t my aunt.”
It might not be entirely true.
But it definitely hadn’t come out of nowhere.
The Old Madam appeared to have reached the same conclusion.
She suddenly turned to the butler.
“Give Niannian the password to the study on the east side.”
“From now on, whatever she wants to investigate in this house…”
“No one is to stop her.”
Everyone’s expressions changed.
That study contained the Shen family’s most confidential archives.
Even Shen Yue normally had to ask permission before entering.
By granting Shen Nian unrestricted access in front of everyone…
The Old Madam’s intentions couldn’t have been clearer.
From this day forward…
Shen Nian was no longer merely the long-lost daughter who had been brought home.
She was stepping directly into the center of the game.
“Grandma…”
Lin Man tried to speak.
“Be quiet.”
The Old Madam fixed her with a cold stare.
“If you’re capable, then confess every filthy thing you’ve hidden over the years yourself.”
“If you’re not…”
“Then stop getting in the way of those who are trying to uncover the truth.”
Lin Man’s eyes reddened once more.
She didn’t dare utter another word.
Shen Chongshan frowned deeply as he watched everything unfold.
Yet he offered no objection.
Because he understood perfectly well…
At this point, trying to stop Shen Nian would only make him look guilty.
Taking the password card from the butler, Shen Nian said nothing.
She simply headed upstairs.
The study on the east side was even larger than she’d expected.
Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined the walls, and beyond them stood an entire row of private archive cabinets.
She ignored the paper files for now.
Instead, she sat at the desk and powered on the computer.
After entering the password three times, the system finally loaded.
The desktop was spotless.
Almost too spotless.
As if someone had cleaned it only recently.
A faint smile tugged at Shen Nian’s lips.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard.
Within moments, she’d pulled up the login history and deletion records from the past week.
Just as she’d suspected.
At 2:07 a.m. that morning, someone had remotely deleted part of the system’s historical index.
The cleanup wasn’t thorough.
It looked rushed.
Following the remaining cache files, she dug deeper.
Soon, a temporary anonymous port identifier appeared on the screen.
Zero
Shen Nian paused slightly as she stared at the codename.
Then her expression returned to normal.
Whoever had done this clearly had no idea…
that they’d just crossed paths with the real owner of that name.
She copied the recovered traces onto a separate storage device.
Just as she shut the computer down, she heard the faint sound of movement at the doorway.
Shen Yanzhou had appeared without her noticing.
“You know how to do this too?”
He looked at the screen, his expression unusually complicated.
“I know far more than you think.”
Removing the storage device, Shen Nian answered evenly.
“Tomorrow’s board meeting.”
“Don’t let the wrong people speak first.”
Shen Yanzhou frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“It means someone’s already rushing to erase the Shen family’s past.”
She stood and looked at him.
“If you still think you’re just the eldest son in charge of company projects…”
“…then don’t be surprised when someone sells both you and your car before you even realize what’s happening.”
With that, she walked past him without another glance.
The hallway lights cast a cold glow.
Standing in the doorway, Shen Yanzhou watched the sister who had only recently returned to the Shen family.
For a long time…
He didn’t move.
“Who was it?”
Shen Wan’er hadn’t answered before.
Instead, she looked directly at Shen Nian, her gaze icy.
“Sister, aren’t you so good at investigating?”
“Then find out yourself.”
With those words, she dragged her suitcase out through the Shen family’s front gate without looking back.
When the doors closed behind her, everyone’s expressions darkened.
Because her final words…
had become another thorn.
One that tore open an old wound all over again.
The room remained silent for a long time.
Eventually, Lin Man was the first to break.
Covering her face, she slowly sank into a chair.
She cried quietly this time—not with the hysterics from before, but with the exhaustion of someone who had finally run out of strength.
“I thought…”
“I thought that if I just kept her by my side…”
“…everything would eventually fade away.”
“Fade away?”
The Old Madam looked at her coldly.
“Every one of you treated your sins like dust, thinking you could simply sweep them away.”
Lin Man had no response.
Shen Chongshan remained standing where he was, staring at the front door that had just closed, his expression impossibly conflicted.
The daughter he had raised for twenty-three years had just been driven out.
Of course he wavered.
But when he remembered the schemes and secretly recorded videos they’d just watched…
He knew this step, no matter how painful, had to be taken.
Shen Nian put away the tablet.
She had no intention of staying behind to help them process their emotions.
As she reached the staircase, however, the Old Madam suddenly called out.
“Niannian.”
Shen Nian turned around.
The Old Madam looked at her for several seconds.
It seemed as though she wanted to say much more.
In the end, she simply spoke slowly.
“The study on the east side of the main house.”
“I’ve instructed the butler to give you the password.”
“From now on, whatever you want to investigate…”
“…you won’t have to avoid anyone.”
Those words carried enormous weight.
She was effectively handing over access to one of the family’s most closely guarded domains.
Everyone in the living room visibly reacted.
Shen Nian simply nodded.
“All right.”
Then she turned and walked upstairs without the slightest hesitation.
From this moment on…
She was no longer the one who had reason to fear anyone inside the main house.
The ones who should fear her…
were the people who had finally begun to regret what they’d done.