Chapter 6

Shen Manyao lowered her head in a daze, gently inhaling the sweet fragrance of the white bouquet in her hands. A trace of barely noticeable melancholy flashed through her eyes. After today, she would become the daughter-in-law of the Li family, Wancheng's richest family. The boy standing opposite her, with exquisite features and incomparable good looks yet an air of childish innocence, would become her fiancé.

To other girls at the age of dreaming, she had a lavish, dreamlike engagement ceremony that would make every woman envious; a fiancé who adored her; and future parents-in-law who trusted and supported her. Everything seemed so perfect. But why was she not happy at all...

Li Rongxiu, standing across from Shen Manyao, looked at her reddened eyes and then at Chi Junrui in the audience, who looked as though his entire family had died. He struggled to suppress the undignified urge to roll his eyes. Their feelings were displayed so blatantly. Did they really think everyone else was blind?

The host of the engagement ceremony was Sir Yakesa, Wancheng's most prestigious socialite. Decades ago, the young Sir Yakesa had come to Wancheng at his family's orders to develop the market and expand their business. By chance, he became close friends with Grandpa Li, and the two families had interacted frequently ever since. Sir Yakesa had watched the Li children grow up little by little. He had been invited to host this engagement ceremony because he was Li Rongxiu's godfather, and he desperately wished to witness Li Rongxiu's coming of age with his own eyes.

At this point, it was necessary to introduce a few Wancheng customs. For example, when members of Wancheng's upper circle held weddings, there was an old tradition of inviting a person blessed with complete familial fortune to preside over the ceremony. Those qualified to bear that honor were generally the closest family friends of the hosts, aside from relatives by marriage. Although this was only an engagement between Li Rongxiu and Shen Manyao, the Li family wanted to show how highly they regarded Shen Manyao, so every part of the ceremony followed the standards of a formal wedding. Naturally, the Shen family readily agreed.

After learning of the Li family's plans, Sir Yakesa volunteered himself to Grandpa Li. This year, sixty-year-old Sir Yakesa had met and fallen in love with his wife in their youth. After getting married, they had two sons and three daughters. Last summer, his eldest son and daughter-in-law had married because of an unplanned pregnancy, and that winter the Yakesa Family welcomed a blond, blue-eyed baby. Sir Yakesa had smoothly transitioned from being a father to being a grandfather. He had a happy family, a harmonious home, a successful career—he was a true winner in life.

Someone blessed with such complete good fortune was always the first choice for such a role. Moreover, Sir Yakesa had such a close relationship with the Li family that Grandpa Li naturally accepted his request with pleasure.

At that moment, Sir Yakesa, the self-recommended bearer of complete familial fortune, looked kindly at his godson Li Rongxiu. Then, following the script he had prepared long ago, he began recounting how Li Rongxiu and Shen Manyao had grown up together as childhood sweethearts. He sincerely wished that they would accompany one another in the years ahead and grow old hand in hand. As Sir Yakesa spoke with rich emotion and rising cadence, the large screen behind him began displaying moments from Li Rongxiu and Shen Manyao's acquaintance.

In his previous life, after seeing those photographs recording their shared history, Shen Manyao had somehow gone mad and burst into tears. She had suddenly changed her mind and demanded to break off the engagement. While crying and reneging on her promise, she had not forgotten to dump one bucket of filth after another over Li Rongxiu's head. One moment, she said Li Rongxiu had no ambition and was lazy and pleasure-seeking. The next, she said he did not strive to improve himself. Then she claimed the gap between them was too great, and that she did not want a husband who would depend on his family for the rest of his life and never grow up...

In short, after Shen Manyao had happily called off the engagement, Li Rongxiu and the Li family became Wancheng's greatest laughingstock. Although the Shen family—more precisely, Madam Shen—felt embarrassed by Shen Manyao's decision, the media kept touting it as "a wealthy young lady crying out for independence and refusing to bow to money." With an air of Li Rongxiu truly isn't worthy of our daughter, they offered the Li family polite apologies.

Such arrogance naturally enraged the already furious Li family. In their anger, they immediately canceled their joint infrastructure project in T Country with the Shen family and kicked the Shen family out of the arrangement. If he had not later been incited by Chi Junhao to send people to teach Lin Junrui a lesson, indirectly causing Shen Manyao to miscarry and giving the Shen family an opening to threaten the Li family with his safety, the Shen family would have been dreaming if they thought they could snatch the T Country infrastructure project from the Li family.

Therefore, in Li Rongxiu's eyes, even if Shen Manyao had not intended to get engaged to him after learning she was pregnant, using Lin Junrui as bait to trap him and then scheming for the Li family's T Country infrastructure project was absolutely unforgivable.

What was more, in this life Shen Manyao had gone even further, using her influence over him to help the Chi family... Li Rongxiu felt that being tripped by the same stone once might be stupidity or carelessness. But being tripped by the same stone twice—that was simply foolish.

Thus, while Sir Yakesa was warmly recounting how his most adorable godson had plucked off his beard at the age of twelve to dress up as Santa Claus, a sudden uproar erupted from the audience below. Everyone—including Li Rongxiu and Shen Manyao—looked in disbelief toward the area behind him, occasionally turning to glance at a corner of the audience. Sensing that something was wrong, Sir Yakesa abruptly turned around. The next second, the photographs on the large screen entered his sight—

They were not the photographs he had imagined, showing his adorable godson and future granddaughter-in-law growing up together. Instead, they were intimate photographs of Shen Manyao and another man. On streets abroad, in coffee shops, amusement parks, corners of five-star hotel lobbies, fountain plazas, and even hotel rooms—there were embraces, kisses, and photographs of things even more indecent.

There were also photographs taken after they returned to Wancheng. Although they were not as explicit as the ones abroad, and there were not even any pictures of them together in public, there was evidence that the two had bought a villa in Wancheng's southern district to build a love nest. There was proof of them entering the villa one after the other, then staying inside for hours or even days. The final image frozen on the large screen was a gynecological examination record showing Shen Manyao had gone under Chi Fengya's name and had ultimately been diagnosed as pregnant, along with photographs of Shen Manyao in disguise...

In an instant, Sir Yakesa felt his rage surge into his heart. His eyes reddened, and his expression turned terrifying as he glared viciously at Shen Manyao, who had collapsed onto the red carpet with a pale face. Before Li Rongxiu and the Li family could react, he pointed at the Shen family's table and the restless Chi family members seated in the corner, roaring, "This is humiliation! This is naked humiliation toward the Li family and our Yakesa Family! You cannot treat my poor grandson like this. You cannot trample upon our dignity like this. I swear I will make you pay the price! The most terrible price!"

The entire venue erupted. Ignoring the security guards and staff trying to stop them, reporters rushed toward the stage. Camera flashes went mad, capturing the constantly changing photographs on the screen and the chaotic, disheveled scene. The Li family, the Shen family, the Chi family—the other party involved—and even the Yao family, the family of Chi Junrui's fiancée, were surrounded. Microphones crowded before them as the reporters' machine-gun-like questions rang through the air.

"...Young Master Rongxiu, what do you think of your fiancée cheating with another man and becoming pregnant despite knowing she was already engaged?"

"...Mr. Li, did the Li family know that the Shen family's eldest daughter and the Chi family's eldest son were secretly involved? Was the photograph swap an accident, or had it been planned all along?"

"...The Li and Shen families formed a powerful business alliance because of the marriage between their younger generations and jointly planned the T Country infrastructure project. Now that the scandal involving the Shen family's eldest daughter and Young Master Chi has been exposed, will it affect the business cooperation between the Li and Shen families?"

"...Mr. Chi, you knew that the Shen family's eldest daughter was engaged to the Li family's young master. Why did you still interfere and become the third party... Is the child in Miss Shen's womb yours?"

"...Mr. Shen, did you know about your daughter's relationship with the Chi family's eldest son?"

"...Miss Shen, what is your view on this matter? Did you choose to be with Mr. Chi because you were dissatisfied with this commercial marriage alliance? Or were you already with Mr. Chi before agreeing to the Li family's engagement? You clearly knew you were carrying another man's child, yet you still chose to become the Li family's future granddaughter-in-law. What made you do this? Family pressure, or the Li family's wealth..."

"...Miss Shen, after marrying into the Li family, do you plan to give birth to the child or abort it?"

"...Miss Yao, what do you think about your fiancé Chi Junrui secretly dating the Shen family's eldest daughter? Will this affect the marriage alliance between the Chi and Yao families?"

"...Mr. Yao, when you chose the Chi family's eldest son, Chi Junrui, as your son-in-law, was it because you believed he was steady and dependable, kind-hearted, and talented in business? Now that Young Master Chi's scandal with the Shen family's eldest daughter has been exposed, will you still stand by your choice and allow Chi Junrui to become the Yao family's son-in-law and the heir to Yao Corporation?"

"...Mr. Yakesa..."

Li Rongxiu coldly watched the media below the stage frantically taking photographs and shouting questions, as well as the Chi family members being surrounded in the corner. His gaze was so grim it seemed capable of killing, yet he restrained himself from exploding in front of everyone. His body trembled uncontrollably with rage, his fists clenched tightly, and his face was livid as he said nothing. Yet silence spoke louder than words. Every camera captured the scene of Li Rongxiu seemingly wishing he could glare Chi Junrui to death, ready to put it on the next day's headlines.

Li Rongyu, the Li family's eldest son, pushed through the noisy crowd and walked over to Li Rongxiu, reaching out to pat his shoulder. He calmly glanced at the reporters crowding around them and gave his secretary a look. Seeing this, Zhou Fan immediately strode onto the stage and addressed all the reporters. "Thank you to all our journalist friends for your concern. However, due to a small incident, today's engagement ceremony cannot continue. Please leave for now. Three days from now, the Li family will hold a press conference at the Evening City Grand Hotel and answer all your questions regarding this matter."

Upon hearing this, the media reporters became even more agitated. With a journalist's professional ethics and instinct for news, they naturally did not want to let the matter go so easily. Yet given the status of the Li and Shen families in Wancheng, if they truly did not want something exposed, the reporters present would not get any answers no matter how many photographs they took or questions they asked. What was more, this also involved another old Wancheng powerhouse, the Yao family, and the Chi family. Though not quite a great family, the Chi family had entered Wancheng's second-tier circle in recent years thanks to sound business decisions and formidable methods. But after today, whether the Chi family could maintain its standing in Wancheng was uncertain.

One had to know that the enraged Li family, along with their relatives and friends, were not people to be provoked. Since the Chi family dared to stroke a tiger's whiskers, they had to be prepared to be devoured by one.

Meanwhile, the security guards and staff, who had finally recovered from their shock, rushed up to drive the reporters away. The guests all stood up awkwardly at the sight of this scene. They had dressed beautifully and arrived with poise and elegance to attend the engagement ceremony, intending to add glory to the Li and Shen families. Who could have expected such a scandal to occur during the ceremony?

Everyone exchanged glances, their eyes covertly sweeping between the Li, Shen, Chi, and Yao families. The female guests looked at Shen Manyao, who was still collapsed on the floor and had yet to recover from the shock, as well as Madam Shen, who had been thrown into disarray by the sudden turn of events and was continuously explaining and apologizing to the Li family. They could not suppress their gloating—

Although Shen Manyao had always appeared flawless before others, with a gentle temperament, her mother, Shen-Sun, was not someone low-key or generous by nature. Ever since news of the marriage alliance between the Li and Shen families had spread, Madam Shen had boasted about it at every public and private gathering. At times, she praised her daughter's excellence, saying that winning over the Li family's young master—Wancheng's most deeply rooted heir—was only natural. At other times, she claimed other girls could not compare with Shen Manyao, because Shen Manyao had not only earned the Li family's favor but had also received an interview invitation from an Ivy League university in Country A. She was an independent, ambitious career woman who surpassed ordinary daughters of prominent families. She had even acted smug despite gaining an advantage, subtly complaining to her close friends that it would have been better if the one who liked her daughter had been Li Rongyu, the Li family's eldest son—