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She fully believed Chen Muyu would march right up and tear Jiang Ruoning apart with her bare hands.

She could not figure out what could have made this elegant, wealthy lady lose her composure.

Before Chen Muyu had heard Su Wanqiao's inner thoughts, she had thought quite well of Jiang Ruoning and even occasionally had afternoon tea with her. Now that she knew the plot, she wished she could go up and slap her twice.

If Jiang Ruoning dared to boss her son around again, she absolutely would not let him off.

Naturally, Jiang Ruoning could not curse as viciously as Chen Muyu. Besides, no one had ever scolded her like this in her entire life. How could she bear such an affront? Her eyes could not help reddening.

She turned to Fu Yuze with a pitiful look.

Fu Yuze watched her being scolded, then turned his face away, pretending he had seen nothing.

Now Jiang Ruoning had completely lost face and burst into tears of anger.

[Romance novel heroines all have thin skin. Fourth Brother, you mustn't go soft on her.]

Fu Yuze still gave no response.

In the end, the Jiang Ruoning sisters left in tears, declaring, "Brother Yuze, you've really disappointed me!"

Fu Yuze thought, This really couldn't be better.

You sisters had better never have any hopes for me again.

Su Wanqiao had not expected today's events to end with Chen Muyu scolding the heroine into leaving, thereby derailing the plot.

She sighed in admiration.

[Well scolded, Mother-in-law!]

The more Chen Muyu looked at this daughter-in-law, the more pleased she was with her. Hearing Su Wanqiao praise her in her thoughts, she unconsciously smiled.

How had she never noticed before how understanding Su Wanqiao was, how sweet, sensible, and likable?

But she herself had never behaved this way before, either. Only after learning the Fu Family's future ending had she stopped caring about etiquette or face, wanting only to stop the tragedy from happening.

Chen Muyu breathed a small sigh of relief at having stopped the heroine today, but immediately warned Fu Yuze sternly,

"Fourth, you absolutely must not operate on that patient from earlier. His condition is already very serious. If you insist on operating, he definitely won't survive, and then all the responsibility will fall on you. A qualified doctor cannot be so irresponsible. Do you understand?"

Fu Yuze hurriedly assured his mother, "Mom, I understand. Zhao Xu cannot undergo surgery. I'm perfectly clear on that. No matter what happens, this operation absolutely cannot go ahead at present."

"Good. Remember to keep your word. Then I can rest easy."

Su Wanqiao accompanied Chen Muyu through her examination and brought back plenty of medicine. There was nothing seriously wrong with Chen Muyu's health, but the toxins could only be metabolized slowly, so she could only recuperate gradually. There were no other problems.

After returning, she told Fu Huaiyan about what had happened at the hospital that day and realized that the plot now seemed to be developing in a good direction in every respect.

A few days after the hospital incident, Chen Muyu called with some shocking news.

"Wanqiao, do you remember that patient, Zhao Xu? He died today."

Su Wanqiao was rather shocked this time and hurriedly asked,

"What happened? Didn't you refuse to agree to the surgery?"

"Fourth didn't operate on him, but at his family's urging, Zhao Xu wanted to transfer to another hospital for surgery. Yet less than two days after he got there, before his surgery date had even been scheduled, he was already beyond saving. It seems his illness really had reached the point of no return. His family was simply too extreme in their thinking. If they hadn't put him through all that, he might have lived a little longer."

Hearing this news left Su Wanqiao sighing deeply.

Zhao Xu had died even without undergoing surgery, but this time his family had no excuse to cause trouble at the hospital, much less pin the blame on any doctor.

Nor had they dragged Fu Yuze into a lawsuit and left his reputation in tatters, so this really was wonderful.

They had completely sidestepped this danger.

"That's good, then. That family was so difficult. If Fu Yuze had kept refusing to agree, who knows what they might have done?"

"Wanqiao, I'm truly so happy. Let's have afternoon tea together another day, just us mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. I have something to give you."

Chen Muyu wanted to thank Su Wanqiao for her warning. She felt that this daughter-in-law's inner thoughts were truly important. She was simply the Fu Family's treasure.

"Thank you, Mom. All right," Su Wanqiao agreed, realizing that she was getting along increasingly well with the Fu Family.

After Fu Huaiyan returned that evening, he said to Su Wanqiao,

"Qiaoqiao, next month is the birthday of a highly respected teacher of mine. I need to choose a gift for him. Could you see whether what I've prepared is suitable?"

"Which teacher?"

Su Wanqiao really knew nothing about the villain's teachers. Their relationship as husband and wife had not been good before, and now that they had suddenly become more harmonious than before, she would have to learn about everything little by little.

"He's Master Wu Songshan, the renowned traditional Chinese painter. This visit is also an attempt to secure a collaboration with him, so we absolutely cannot be careless with the gift. What do you think we should give him? I know Teacher Wu loves antiques. As it happens, I recently acquired a landscape painting. Take a look and see whether it's suitable."

After saying this, Fu Huaiyan had his assistant bring out the antique painting recently acquired at auction and spread it across the desk.

Something suddenly seemed to occur to Su Wanqiao.

Why did this scene feel so familiar? She felt as though she had overlooked some detail.

She suddenly opened the landscape painting in Fu Huaiyan's hands. Seeing its contents, she could not help asking,

"These lines of poetry are written in the Song dynasty's ninefold seal script. Do you know what they mean?"

Fu Huaiyan's expression briefly froze, and a hint of confusion appeared in his eyes. "I only know that the general meaning should describe a husband and wife living in harmony, like a qin and se resonating together. Teacher Wu and his late wife had a very loving relationship, so these words should cater to his tastes, shouldn't they?"