Ji Mingyu straightened up, her expression turning serious.
“Mom, don’t you think Sheng Xiuwen is so much better than Sheng Tianqi?”
Su Wanyun raised an eyebrow at her.
Ji Mingyu counted off on her fingers. “Auntie Huang is no pushover. If I became her daughter-in-law, she’d be laying down the rules today, making me serve her tea tomorrow, and putting me in my place the day after. Who knows how she’d torment me?”
She paused, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly.
“Sheng Xiuwen would be perfect. If I married him, I wouldn’t have a mother-in-law—and I’d be on equal footing with Auntie Huang.”
She couldn’t help laughing at her own last remark.
Su Wanyun didn’t laugh with her. Instead, she turned her head, her eyes serious. “You’re the Ji family’s Second Miss.”
Her tone was calm. “The Ji Group may not be as powerful as Shengshi Group, but we’d never let anyone torment you.
“If you’re worried about getting along with Huang Huixin, you can simply live separately after you marry. Families like ours own plenty of properties. There’s no need to live under the same roof.”
Ji Mingyu shook her head. “Mom, you don’t have to talk me out of it. I’ve really made up my mind.”
She paused, lowering her voice.
“Besides… Sheng Tianqi already has a woman on the side.”
The smile vanished from Su Wanyun’s face.
“How do you know?” She abruptly sat up straighter, her voice turning cold. “So this is how the Sheng family treats us?”
She gripped her handbag tightly, her gaze sharp.
“When we get home, I’ll tell your father.”
Ji Mingyu didn’t answer. She lowered her eyes, absently rubbing the hem of her skirt with her fingertips.
She wasn’t actually sure.
Had Sheng Tianqi and Ji Mingyue gotten together by this point or not?
She could only remember the original novel’s timeline in broad strokes.
Meanwhile, at a French restaurant in western Nanzhou City.
Warm yellow light fell across the white tablecloth in a secluded private dining room, and the silver cutlery gleamed softly.
Ji Mingyue lifted her glass of red wine and swirled it gently. Looking over the rim, she fixed her gaze on the man across from her.
Sheng Tianqi.
The eldest grandson of Shengshi Group—and the marriage-alliance prospect the Ji family had gone to great lengths to secure.
And now, he was sitting right across from her.
Ji Mingyue took a sip of wine, unable to suppress her smile.
Wasn’t Ji Mingyu supposed to marry into the Sheng family?
Well, she wanted to see.
Would Sheng Tianqi still be willing this time?
After all, this time Sheng Tianqi had met her, Ji Mingyue, first. Thinking of that, her return to Nanzhou City ahead of schedule hadn’t been in vain.
A flicker of smugness crossed Ji Mingyue’s mind. This time, she wanted to see whether the marriage alliance with Shengshi Group would still go to Second Miss Ji.
Holding her wineglass, Ji Mingyue smiled brightly at the man across from her.
“I hear Shengshi is planning a marriage alliance with the Ji family,” she teased. “Eldest Young Master Sheng will have a beautiful bride by his side before long, won’t he?”
Sheng Tianqi continued what he was doing, cutting the steak on his plate unhurriedly. The knife and fork clinked against the china, crisp and restrained.
“The Ji family has more than one daughter.”
He looked up, his gaze settling on Ji Mingyue’s face.
“And isn’t one of them sitting right in front of me? What do you think, First Miss Ji?”
Ji Mingyue’s smile stiffened slightly.
She knew Sheng Tianqi was clever, but she hadn’t expected him to know even that.
She had lived in Jianghai City since childhood. Plenty of people in Nanzhou City probably didn’t even know the Ji family had an eldest daughter named Ji Mingyue.
Besides, she hadn’t told the Ji family she was coming back. She didn’t want to return quietly like this; she wanted to make a grand entrance.
“Eldest Young Master Sheng really does have excellent sources,” she said, quickly recovering her smile and adding a coy note to her voice. “You found out who I am so quickly.”
“I only found out in the past couple of days, actually.” Sheng Tianqi set down his knife and fork and picked up his napkin to wipe his hands. “Your name is just so similar to those of the Ji family’s other two young masters and misses.”
Ji Mingyue heard how casually he said it, and felt a little uncomfortable.
She studied his expression. He wasn’t angry or questioning her; he barely showed any emotion at all.
That very calmness only irritated her more.
“Since you’re going to marry my younger sister,” she said, setting down her glass, her tone turning sharper, “why did you come looking for me?”
“You know perfectly well,” he replied, lowering his voice a little. “Even if there’s a marriage alliance, it would be with you. Why use your younger sister to make me jealous?”
Ji Mingyue’s lips curved faintly, and another thread of smugness stirred in her heart.
She raised her chin slightly, her voice turning coy. “That’s easy to say.”
She paused, her gaze shifting, her voice softening.
“My younger sister is so graceful and lovely—a rare beauty. You really haven’t felt anything for her?”
Sheng Tianqi looked at her. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, but he didn’t answer.
The Maybach rolled through the gates of the Ji family villa, and the wrought-iron gates closed silently in the dusk.
Ji Mingyu and Su Wanyun entered the house one after the other.
Nanny Wang came forward to take Su Wanyun’s handbag and remarked, “Madam, the young master is back.”
Ji Mingyu’s eyes lit up. “Where is he? Where’d he run off to?” she asked as she changed her shoes. “Didn’t he go on a business trip with Dad? How did he get back so soon?”
Nanny Wang hesitated. “It seems the young master came back… by himself. As soon as he got home, he shut himself in his room.”
Su Wanyun and Ji Mingyu exchanged a glance.
Ji Mingxuan, the future successor to the Ji Group, had always been a cheerful, sunny boy. In all the years they’d known him, he’d never once “shut himself in his room.”
Something was wrong.
The mother and daughter exchanged a silent understanding and went upstairs one after the other.
Ji Mingyu knocked twice, then pushed the door open without waiting for an answer.
The main light was off; only the bedside reading lamp was on. Ji Mingxuan was curled up on the bed, phone held sideways, fingers furiously jabbing at the screen as game effects crackled and clattered.
Ji Mingyu walked over and smacked him twice on the back, not holding back at all.
“Ow!” Ji Mingxuan jolted, nearly flinging his phone away. He scrambled toward the corner of the bed. “What are you doing?”
Dodging her, he shouted toward the door, “Mom! Look at Sis! All she ever does is bully me!”
Leaning against the doorframe, Su Wanyun watched her lively son, and the tight knot in her chest loosened.
“Keep pretending, why don’t you,” she said mildly. “Serves you right.”
“What am I pretending about?” Ji Mingxuan protested.
Ji Mingyu sat on the edge of the bed and gave him a sidelong look. “You came home and shut yourself in your room. Of course we’d worry.”
Ji Mingxuan paused.
He turned his phone face down on the bed and sat upright, absently ruffling the hair at the back of his head.
“Mom,” he began, his voice much quieter than usual. “I… Dad, he…”
The words reached his lips, then caught in his throat. He glanced at Su Wanyun and moved his lips, but in the end said nothing. He merely ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
Su Wanyun looked at him, already understanding.
She went over and sat beside her son, speaking softly and evenly. “Mingxuan, did you see your father getting close to another woman?”
Ji Mingxuan froze.
“How did you know?”