In the hotel bathroom.
Several girls were touching up their makeup, among them a girl who pressed her newly applied lipstick and said aningfully to Fang Han beside her, "Your cousin really has a knack for making a splash."
Fang Han leaned in, expressionless as she looked in the mirror, not responding, seemingly focused on checking if her makeup was smudged.
Seeing Fang Han not reply, the girl continued, "Your uncle is so handso, and your forr aunt so beautiful, it’s no wonder she turned out that way."
Another girl chid in, "I think after today, who knows how many young lads in town will have their hearts set on her."
This Ning family’s young lady, suddenly thrust into the public eye, imdiately outshone everyone else upon her appearance.
Among the debutantes in Jin City of similar age, few didn’t feel a sense of crisis.
"My cousin is indeed pretty, but tastes vary, no need for everyone to put themselves down." Fang Han smiled, throwing the hand towel she was holding into the trash bin.
As she turned around, the smile on her face vanished.
"True enough." The girls laughed and intimately linked arms with her as they headed to the banquet hall, "Why didn’t your cousin co out to play before?"
"Don’t ask about things I don’t know."
...
Outside, the sumr cicadas chirped relentlessly like thorns in the bone.
Inside the Shi family villa, the atmosphere was suffocatingly silent.
Today, Shi Jinrong and his wife, Shi Fanghao and his wife, who had long since moved out, were here.
The Shi family was enacting a trial.
Everyone sat on the sofa, quietly watching Liu Susu, who had fallen to the ground.
Seated in the main position, the brows of Shi Manchuan and his wife were furrowed tightly, as if with a long-lost lock.
They were silent, and no one dared speak or act rashly in the tense and severe atmosphere.
Liu Susu stared blankly at the papers scattered on the ground, thrown down by Shi Manchuan in his anger, teeth chattering, both scared and terrified, her legs trembling uncontrollably like they were sifting chaff.
After all these years, her affair was still discovered by the Shi family.
"The disgraceful things you did." Lin Huayin looked at the daughter-in-law on the ground with full contempt.
As she spoke, others began to move as well.
Zhao Fei’er, with an expression of anger but inwardly enjoying the spectacle, picked up a piece of paper from the floor, which had the WeChat ssage screenshots of Liu Susu flirting with the man she had an affair with.
She spread the paper out in front of her, reading aloud as she spoke:
"Really, of all the n, you had to find our neighborhood’s security guard. Now look, the entire neighborhood knows our Shi family’s eldest daughter-in-law had an affair with a security guard. Soon, everyone of note in Jin City will know our family has such a big scandal."
As Zhao Fei’er finished speaking, the faces of the Shi family present displayed contempt, disdain, and annoyance...
"Tingsong is gone; if you wanted to leave and find soone else to marry, just tell us — we would’ve understood. But look what you’ve done: you were fooling around while Tingsong was still alive. You’re truly despicable."
Lin Huayin was utterly disgusted with her daughter-in-law. Originally, the Shi family had brought her in to give the eldest son a descendant, but now she was so restless and brought such a disgrace to the family.
Liu Susu looked at everyone in anxiety and fear, as if her mouth were filled with candied hawthorns, mumbling for a long ti before finally crying out:
"As a woman, if you have a husband who loves, cares, and protects you, who would cheat? Wangyue’s father doesn’t understand anything. Ever since Wangyue was born, we have slept in separate rooms. Even a woman just for bearing children might receive so care from her husband at tis, but I didn’t. Marrying him, I was just his nanny, taking care of his life, bearing him children. What is our marriage? I’m a person, a living woman. I see other couples every day sharing everything, consulting with each other, and I also hope for soone to love , but there’s none. I’m alone at ho, revolving around them, father and son, with no friends, no circle of my own. Every day except for dropping Wangyue off at school, I wandered around the neighborhood. Once, by chance, I t him. He was attentive, had a good temper. Whenever he saw I couldn’t carry sothing, he’d lend a hand, show concern. After more interactions, things just naturally happened. I had no choice."
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