Song Jingyu’s men kept following Shi Nuan, but discovered nothing suspicious about her whereabouts. Every day, she’d either go back home after work or go to dinner and shop with her colleague before going home. The woman didn’t even contact Fu Chengyan.
Those men were assigned to Song Jingyu by the Song family, so she knew how capable they were and never questioned their findings. After some time, Song Jingyu finally relaxed her guard on Shi Nuan, but she was still annoyed whenever Shi Nuan’s face popped up in her mind.
She was constantly looking for a chance to kick Shi Nuan out of Shengyuan, but it wasn’t the right timing yet. Now, Fu Chengyan had a poor impression of her. If she continued targeting Shi Nuan just because she looked like Shen Qianan, Fu Chengyan might rebel. The more she wanted him to stay away from Shi Nuan, the more he would go to her.
Song Jingyu decided not to touch Shi Nuan for now, but she wasn’t letting Shi Wei off lightly. Recently, there was a tremendous uproar on the Internet. The keyboard warriors she hired were great at hyping things up.
Shi Wei was terribly criticized online, especially after her photos were posted. She remained at home and dared not go out.
Because she didn’t talk to Fu Xicheng prior to leaving Sheen City, her husband never came looking for her after he had returned to Jiang City. Shi Wei was drowning in distraught and anxiety. Fu Xicheng was not the only one to ignore her; Fu Yuqing and Liu Minjun never called to console her or ask if the scandal was true.
Shi Wei remained in the Shi residence for about half a month. She was haggard and pale by the end of it.
Because Shi Wei dared not go out, she didn’t receive any job offers and could only rot at home. Jiang Yu’s heart ached whenever she saw her daughter in this state. Every night, she had trouble falling asleep as her mind was constantly racing through the possible solutions.
Shi Jingzheng couldn’t help but frown when he saw his wife pacing around the bedroom. He put down the newspapers and asked impatiently, “Why are you pacing around? You are making me dizzy.”
“‘Why’? What else can it be?” Jiang Yu flew into a rage since Shi Jingzheng wasn’t concerned at all. “Don’t you care about Wei? Don’t you know… Wei is being criticized badly online? She’s too traumatized to even go out of the house. My daughter has never suffered this much!”
“What can I do? Huancheng has no connections in the entertainment industry. Plus, her scandals have affected Huancheng greatly as well. I’ve been working my butt off to salvage the situation every day. What else can I do?” Shi Jingzheng replied exasperatedly. “We don’t know who’s behind this. Isn’t Wei under Xinhuang? Isn’t her company going to interfere? Don’t forget Fu Chengyan – I thought he was nice to us back then?”
Shi Jingzheng’s words reminded Jiang Yu of that incident. Back then, Fu Chengyan had attended Shi Wei’s wedding, but that wasn’t because of Fu Yuqing. Jiang Yu could still remember how grim Fu Yuqing and Liu Minjun looked that day.
Fu Chengyan’s surname was Fu, but he wasn’t related to Fu Yuqing at all. Jiang Yu only got to know this fact later on. Fu Yuqing played them all by letting them think he was part of Jiang City’s Fu clan, but that wasn’t the case.
Fu Chengyan’s reaction that day was clear enough. He told them he came because of Shi Yunsheng. Shi Yunsheng had retired for years, and Jiang Yu hardly paid attention to him. However, she never expected the old man would know someone influential like Fu Chengyan.
Jiang Yu felt frustrated whenever she thought of this. That meant Fu Yuqing’s Fucheng was no help to them. Instead, Fu Yuqing had managed to secure the help of the Shi family.
If nothing else, the Shi family was once influential. Although Shi Jingzheng wasn’t as capable as Shi Yunsheng was back then, the Shi family had always been wealthy. They weren’t part of the nouveau riche.
When Jiang Yu recalled Shi Wei and Fu Chengyan’s scandal, a thought suddenly occurred to her. Still reeling back from the shock, she didn’t realize that Shi Jingzheng had already stood up and was glancing at her suspiciously. “What are you thinking about?”
Jiang Yu was taken aback, and she shrugged in response to his question. “I-I was thinking about how great it would be if Shi Wei had married Fu Chengyan in the first place. Fu Xicheng is nothing compared to Fu Chengyan. No, he is definitely worse. Fu Chengyan is the owner of Shengyuan Group. Besides Shengyuan, he may very well end up being the leader of the great Fu clan.”
Jiang Yu’s head was swam the moment she started fantasizing. Why is Wei still hung up on that Fu Xicheng who’s merely a manager? Fu Xicheng would never get full control of Fucheng. But Fu Chengyan’s different. He’s the CEO of Shengyuan.
“Shut up!” Shi Jingzheng glared at Jiang Yu. “How dare you say that out loud? Does Wei have anything to do with Fu Chengyan as the rumors speculated?’
“I…”
“Do you know that Wei will be in deep trouble if it turns out to be true? Do you think it is easy being Mrs. Fu? The Fu clan has high requirements – Fu Chengyan can’t just marry anyone he likes. Wei is married and is working in the entertainment industry. Do you think the Fu clan will allow her to join them?”
Shi Jingzheng’s mind was clear. “Don’t mention this ever again.”
“Have you never thought about it?” Jiang Yu was unwilling to admit defeat, but when she saw Shi Jingzheng glowering at her, she shut up and dared not go on.
Shi Jingzheng rarely reprimanded her this sternly, so Jiang Yu knew he was being serious.
After hearing what Jiang Yu had to say, Shi Jingzheng admitted that thought once crossed his mind. But that was merely a thought, and he never wanted it to happen for real.
If Shi Wei didn’t marry Fu Xicheng back then, their fantasy might come true. Right now, that wouldn’t happen in reality. “Rather than wasting time on worthless fantasies, why don’t you think of a way to help Wei out of this mess? I think there’s more to it,” Shi Jingzheng had been thinking about this for a couple of days. “Who is Fu Chengyan?”
“What do you mean?” Jiang Yu was surprised. “Fu Chengyan is influential in Jiang City. The person behind this dared to offend him publicly, so it must be his enemy. Otherwise, this person might want something from him or his family.”
Jiang Yu belatedly realized what her husband meant. “I got it. That day, I overheard Wei and Su Su’s conversation. I heard Fu Chengyan’s cousin isn’t related to him by blood. She is his uncle, Song Huaiyan’s adopted daughter. I think she is the daughter of his uncle’s first love. The girl’s name is Song Jingyu, and she looks exactly like Song Huaiyan’s first love. They separated and married other people, but Song Huaiyan couldn’t forget his first love, so he took her daughter in after she passed away. As a result, the daughter is now part of the Song family. This is Song Jingyu’s story.”
“Seriously?” Shi Jingzheng knew nothing about this, hence he was astounded upon hearing this. “How did you know?”
“Well, it’s because of what happened recently,” Jiang Yu sighed. After overhearing Shi Wei and Su Su’s conversation, Jiang Yu hired someone to investigate Song Jingyu. The findings of the investigation shocked her to her core. “Song Jingyu had been harboring feelings for Fu Chengyan since young, but Fu Chengyan doesn’t like her at all.”
“Mm, go on.” Shi Jingzheng’s interest was piqued. “Let me find out if it’s related.”
“Okay, I’ll go on then.” Jiang Yu told Shi Jingzheng everything she knew. “Song Zhenyan is a strange woman, too. It’s understandable if her brother adores Song Jingyu, because she’s his first love’s daughter. But strangely, Song Zhenyan adores Song Jingyu, too. She even helped Song Jingyu to scheme against her son. I heard that a few years ago when Fu Chengyan was in the capital, his mother even drugged him and sent Song Jingyu to his bed. Guess what happened after that?”
“What?” Shi Jingzheng arched his brows. “Did she succeed?”
“Of course not,” Jiang Yu scoffed. “Fu Chengyan chased Song Jingyu out at once. Then, he left. But after that, the Song family pinned this on him. They insisted he raped Song Jingyu that day and demanded an explanation from him. Song Zhenyan backed up Song Jingyu, too. Fu Chengyan announced he would never marry Song Jingyu and also banned Song Zhenyan from returning to Jiang City.”
“Oh?” Shi Jingzheng found the story interesting. He did not know about this. If that had really happened, news would get out for sure. However, since that happened in the capital, and Jiang City was the Fu clan’s territory, they wouldn’t allow anyone to leak the news out. “Then?”
“The Song family arranged an engagement party which Fu Chengyan didn’t attend. From then onwards, Song Jingyu refers to herself as Fu Chengyan’s fiancée.”
After the lengthy explanation, Jiang Yu came to a conclusion. “So Song Jingyu must be the person behind this.”
“We can’t be sure of that,” Shi Jingzheng shook his head. “Song Jingyu isn’t that capable.”
“So?” Jiang Yu was confused. If it wasn’t Song Jingyu, who else could it be?
“Did you forget Song Jingyu’s father, Song Huaiyan?” Shi Jingzheng’s mind was still sharp. “This culprit leaked the news to defame Wei, but Fu Chengyan did nothing to stop him. Besides the Song family, who else would dare to do so?”
