“Wu Nian and Wu Liang… severed their father-daughter relationship?”

That last sentence was asked by Jin Zhao.

She looked at Zhao Yu. Even though Zhao Yu hadn’t yet given the final answer, she was already certain—they were talking about Wu Nian.

Though it had long since become riddled with holes, in the end, did they really have to tear away even the last shred of dignity?

Across from her, Zhao Yu nodded, then corrected the order. “It was Wu Liang who severed the father-daughter relationship with Wu Nian.”

“Why?” Jin Zhao asked softly. “Why go that far?”

Zhao Yu didn’t know about Jin Zhao’s relationship with Wu Nian, nor did she know Wu Nian herself. This had merely been a piece of gossip she’d suddenly thought of to change the subject. Since it had already been made public, it wasn’t really a secret—just that Wu Nian was too obscure and no one cared about her, so people didn’t know.

But seeing Jin Zhao’s reaction, she must know Wu Nian. Realizing that her gossip had landed on a classmate’s friend, Zhao Yu felt apologetic. Faced with Jin Zhao’s question, she could only answer honestly. “I don’t know the specific reason either, but when my colleagues talked about it, they all felt a bit contemptuous of Wu Liang, thinking this man’s heart is too ruthless—too trashy.”

Si Tian had drunk more than Jin Zhao and was off to the side, dizzy and trying to sober up. As she listened to everyone gossiping, she didn’t know Wu Liang and curiously interjected, “How is he trashy?”

Beside her, Luo Heng let out a cold laugh. “You probably don’t watch much TV and haven’t heard of him. Old Wu is actually quite famous on television. An old husband–young wife pairing—Madam Wu is twenty years younger than Old Wu. The two are famously a true-love couple. Their ‘true love’ has even been publicized on TV. They say Madam Wu doesn’t covet money or power, only Old Wu himself, because he dotes on her. And Old Wu, too—he doesn’t care that she’s young or pretty, only that she’s kind-hearted. The couple has two sons and a daughter, all graduates of top schools, all outstanding. Whenever Old Wu mentions them outside, no one can interrupt him—he can praise them nonstop for an entire day. A perfect picture of a devoted couple, a virtuous wife, and filial children, enviable to all.”

Si Tian blinked blankly. “Isn’t that pretty good? Why is that trashy?”

Luo Heng said, “It does look pretty good—if you don’t look at it from the perspective of the first wife’s daughter.”

“The first wife’s daughter?”

“That’s Wu Nian—the female lead who got her father-daughter relationship severed. A classic case of the doting wife ruining the younger daughter. The daughter that the original wife risked her life to give birth to was raised by the doting wife into a delinquent. Old Wu never even wanted to mention her outside—when others brought her up, his whole face would spell out the word ‘shame’… and now, he’s finally gone as far as severing the father-daughter relationship.”

After Luo Heng finished speaking, everyone sighed with mixed feelings. One girl let out a cold laugh and remarked, this is men.

Only Jin Zhao, after being quiet for a long while, softly asked Zhao Yu, “Will it affect her career?”

Zhao Yu thought Jin Zhao was asking about Wu Liang and smiled helplessly. “How could it affect him? Society is always so tolerant of men it’s beyond your imagination. Things like family affairs end up being brushed over as nothing more than a romantic escapade.”

“No, I mean… Wu Nian.”

Zhao Yu froze, then shook her head. “That won’t affect her either. Wu Nian isn’t famous, no one is paying attention to this.”

That was the polite way of putting it. If she hadn’t noticed that Jin Zhao knew Wu Nian, Zhao Yu would have said it outright: no one cares about her at all.

Cao Bo had majored in biology as an undergraduate and was now researching infectious diseases. Recently busy with publishing papers, even when he came out to have fun his mind was still on his lab mice. After the meal, he left in the afternoon, and two other classmates went with him in his car. The remaining few had rarely come to a place like Linyuan and planned to stay the night, to experience the pleasure of “clinging to a big shot’s thigh and enjoying a life of luxury.”

Meng Yanxi had told Jin Zhao in advance to bring clothes, and Jin Zhao stayed overnight there together with Meng Yanxi.

Because Linyuan had originally been a private estate and wasn’t open to the public, there weren’t many rooms. Although Feng Chi had expanded it after taking over, the newly built rooms were rather assembly-line in nature, a bit like tacking a dog’s tail onto a sable.

Of course, what everyone wanted most was still the legendary rooms built inside caves.

Si Tian whispered to Jin Zhao, “I haven’t seen them either, I heard about them from Luo Heng. The rooms are built right inside natural caves, and they keep the natural texture of the raw stone dome. Lying on the bed, you can look through huge floor-to-ceiling windows at the layered mountains opposite, clouds steaming and rosy clouds glowing—super atmospheric!”

Jin Zhao asked, “Are all the rooms like that?”

Si Tian said, “Of course not. Supposedly there are only two.”

Jin Zhao fell silent for a moment, then said with great self-awareness, “I think everywhere is the same.”

Si Tian let out a snort of laughter. “Zhao Zhao-bao, you’re really good at comforting yourself!”

What else could it be? Two rooms—just looking at how Feng Chi enjoyed life, you could tell he’d definitely keep one for himself. That left only one room. Take a look around: who here was the big shot and who was the NPC? The answer was obvious.

The room wouldn’t be given to her.

Even Lu Jingyue didn’t get one.

Who knew which of those two brothers disliked the other more; anyway, Feng Chi arranged shared rooms for everyone else. Only Meng Yanxi and Lu Jingyue each had a room to themselves—Lu Jingyue stayed in a small courtyard up on the mountain, while Meng Yanxi stayed in the cave room where you could lie in bed and look out at the opposite mountain ridges, waterfalls, sunrise, and seas of clouds.

As it turned out, when Luo Heng saw the two of them being treated differently, he was displeased as well and also demanded a room of his own.

The young master personally handed out the room cards. Jin Zhao shared a room with Si Tian. Feng Chi kept Meng Yanxi’s room card in his own hand at the end and said attentively, “Brother Yan, I’ll take you over.”

Luo Heng clicked his tongue and sneered, “Bootlicker.”

Feng Chi pretended to kick him. Luo Heng quickly jumped aside, reminding him at the same time, “Don’t offend me. If one day a few illegitimate children pop up in your family, you’ll still have to rely on me to help you fight over the assets!”

Everyone burst into laughter. Feng Chi laughed and scolded, “You crow-mouth!”

Luo Heng then looked at Meng Yanxi again and asked with a grin, “Brother Yan, how about switching rooms? I want to stay in yours.”

After all these years, Si Tian still loved bickering with Luo Heng. As soon as she heard he wanted to stay in Meng Yanxi’s room, she immediately refused to fall behind. “No way. Brother Yan should switch with us—I want to stay in your room too, Zhao Zhao and I!”

Luo Heng let out a “hey,” laughing and cursing, “You doing this on purpose to mess with me? Fine, then neither of us is switching!”

Luo Heng had just finished an exchange where he lost eight hundred to kill a thousand, when he saw Meng Yanxi walk up to Jin Zhao and extend his hand toward her.

His sudden closeness made Jin Zhao’s heart race. She froze for a moment and looked at him blankly. “Huh?”

The man’s peach-blossom eyes lowered. He glanced at the room card in her hand and reminded her, “The room card.”

Jin Zhao: “?”

Meng Yanxi: “Didn’t you want to switch rooms?”

Jin Zhao was shocked.

Si Tian reacted extremely fast and ran over at once, shouting, “Switch!”

As she spoke, she snatched the room card from Jin Zhao’s hand and put it into Meng Yanxi’s, then shot Luo Heng a smug look.

Luo Heng was so irritated by Meng Yanxi’s choosing beauty over brotherhood that he laughed in anger, protesting indignantly, “Meng Yanxi, have you forgotten you were just begging me to sell you a house? Even if you’re returning the favor, you should switch with me!”

Meng Yanxi glanced at Jin Zhao and said, gentlemanly as ever, “Ladies first.”

Luo Heng was left speechless by him, thinking, there are so many ladies here—why are you only switching with Jin Zhao? Unfortunately, the earlier heckling had gone a bit too far. The big capitalist had ordered them to behave and forbade any more madness.

Luo Heng had his grievances but nowhere to voice them, so he could only give him a thumbs-up.

You’re really something.

In the afternoon, under Feng Chi’s instigation, a group of them went into the mountains to pick mushrooms.

Jin Zhao and Si Tian had been drinking and stayed in the room to rest, falling asleep straight through to evening.

When she opened her eyes, through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the room, she could see clouds flooding the valley. The sea of clouds billowed, reflecting the orange-red glow of the setting sun—an awe-inspiring sight.

Jin Zhao lay on the bed admiring the magnificent mountain scenery for a while. Si Tian still hadn’t woken up. Feeling a bit thirsty, she got up to get something to drink.

The restaurant was down below. As she followed the bluestone path downward, she saw Meng Yanxi sitting in the courtyard, looking at his phone.

A small mountain courtyard, a row of bamboo fencing separating it from the bluestone path beside it.

When Jin Zhao looked over, Meng Yanxi happened to look up at her as well. Their eyes met, and Jin Zhao’s lashes trembled lightly.

He didn’t speak. Jin Zhao hesitated in place for a moment, then stepped toward him.

The courtyard gate was ajar. Meng Yanxi still stood up politely and took the initiative to open the gate for her.

Even so, he knew Jin Zhao well enough to easily guess her reason for approaching him.

“You want to ask about Wu Nian?”

He gestured for her to sit, then sat down across from her at the same time.

Being seen through at a glance made Jin Zhao a little embarrassed. She had originally thought up a whole long opening, planning to start by thanking him for helping her last time, easing into the topic so she wouldn’t seem so abrupt.

With everything laid bare in a single sentence, her ears grew a little warm. She could only go along with it and ask, “Do you know what happened?”

“I don’t,” Meng Yanxi lifted his eyes to look at her, “but I can roughly guess.”

Their gazes met. Jin Zhao didn’t know if it was guilt, but she almost didn’t dare meet his eyes directly. Her gaze fell on the bridge of his straight nose, and she asked softly, “What?”

Meng Yanxi said, “Old Wu kept a woman outside. She was eight months pregnant, a son. In the first half of the year there was a car accident—a rear-end collision. The child was gone, and the woman’s uterus was removed as well.”

It took Jin Zhao a moment to process it. She found it absurd. “They think Wu Nian did it? But she has no motive at all. These past years she’s had nothing left. Whether there was an outside child or not, Wu Liang never treated her like a daughter. If she did this, aside from staining her hands with blood and living with a guilty conscience, what benefit could she possibly gain?”

Meng Yanxi neither agreed nor disagreed, only looked at Jin Zhao. “You believe your friend?”

Jin Zhao: “I do.”

Meng Yanxi: “Then keep believing. This grand drama of the Wu family, we’ll have a day when we see the ending.”

The Wu family truly was a grand drama, but she probably wouldn’t see it.

She murmured softly, “Wu Nian never tells me these things. I don’t know anyone else in the Wu family either.”

Meng Yanxi watched her. “I do.”

Jin Zhao paused for a moment, then said, “Alright. Then update me when the time comes.”

Meng Yanxi suddenly let out a low laugh, fixed his gaze on her, and shook his head. “Can’t update you. Watch it yourself.”

They were only six simple words. At first, she didn’t react. Until, in one instant—as if struck by sudden insight—Jin Zhao abruptly lifted her eyes.

The man looked straight at her. His peach-blossom eyes were cool and striking, their depths an inky black.

She didn’t know the Wu family. He was, in a sense, her only connection between herself and the Wu family. Then did that mean that only by holding on tightly to him, by staying by his side, could she see the ending?

A startled bird suddenly took flight. The sound of wings beating came from the silent forest, crashing into her chest.