"The situation is being managed. The surrogate explanation is working. You don’t have to be so angry."
"Managed?" Lu Cheng’s laugh was harsh.
"The stock dropped thirty-four percent in one day. THIRTY-FOUR PERCENT. Do you understand what that ans? That’s billions of yuan in market value, gone. Because my son couldn’t resist won."
He resud pacing, his hands clasped behind his back in a gesture that would have looked composed if not for the white-knuckle grip.
"I always tell him, always, cover your tracks. Be discreet. If you’re going to have affairs, make sure they can never be traced back to you. Make sure there are no photos, no videos, no evidence. But does he listen? No!"
Madam Lu set down her phone with a sigh.
"What’s done is done. We can’t change the past. We can only manage the present and protect the future."
"The future," Lu Cheng repeated bitterly.
He stopped in front of the window, staring out at the manicured gardens that surrounded the estate.
"One woman is out of prison, wrongfully convicted, vindicated, and now the public’s favorite victim. The other one is pregnant with what everyone now believes is a surrogate baby. Tell , wife, if Lin Yueling hadn’t co up with that surrogacy idea, do you think the situation would have cald down like this?"
He turned to face her, his expression grave.
"Do you think we’d still have a company to save?"
Madam Lu was quiet for a mont, considering.
"Probably not," she admitted. "That pregnancy... without the surrogate explanation, it would have been catastrophic. Unrecoverable."
"Exactly."
Lu Cheng moved to pour himself a drink from the crystal decanter on the sidebar, whiskey, expensive, the kind that cost more per bottle than most people earned in a month.
"That girl and her mother may be opportunistic vultures, but they’re clever opportunistic vultures. The surrogate story was brilliant. Morally questionable, easily disprovable if anyone digs too deep, but brilliant for imdiate damage control."
He took a long drink, letting the burn settle in his chest.
"But it’s still just a bandage on a severed artery. The real problem...."
He gestured with his glass toward the phone that was now buzzing again with another call from who knows who.
"...is that my son has lost the board’s confidence. Lost the shareholders’ trust. Lost his carefully constructed reputation. And all because he couldn’t keep his personal life private."
Madam Lu picked up her own phone, scrolling through contacts until she found the one she wanted.
"Speaking of managing the situation," she said, her tone shifting to sothing more calculating, "we need to secure Lin Shuyin."
Lu Cheng raised an eyebrow.
"Shuyin? Why?"
"Because she’s the key to all of this remaining stability," Madam Lu explained, already composing a ssage.
"Right now, the public loves her. She’s the wronged woman, the innocent victim, the gracious ex-wife who forgave and walked away with dignity. As long as she maintains that image, the surrogate story holds. But if she turns against us, if she starts asking questions, demanding proof, challenging the narrative....."
"Everything collapses," Lu Cheng finished, understanding dawning.
"And we’re back to ’CEO knocked up his mistress during his engagent to his fiancée.’"
"Exactly."
Madam Lu hit send on her ssage, then imdiately tried calling.
The call went straight to voicemail.
She frowned and tried again.
Still voicemail.
"She’s not picking up," she said, frustration creeping into her voice.
"Maybe she’s asleep," Lu Cheng suggested. "It’s evening now..."
"She just walked away from a press conference with a billion yuan and a villa," Madam Lu replied dryly but you could hear anger laced in those words.
"I doubt she’s sleeping. She’s probably celebrating."
She tried calling twice more, each ti reaching only voicemail, each ti leaving no ssage, because what could she say?
Hello, we need you to continue playing nice so our family doesn’t completely implode.
She tried twice more.
Nothing.
Finally, she let out a sharp breath.
"We’ll try again in the morning. We have to keep her close."
Lu Cheng took another drink. "Do you think she’ll turn vindictive?"
Madam Lu paused, thinking of the girl she’d once known.
"She was always good," she said softly. "Smart, capable, well-mannered. But..."
"But she couldn’t give Zeyan an heir," Lu Cheng finished bluntly. "Primary ovarian insufficiency. We saw the dical reports."
Madam Lu nodded. "It had made the engagent complicated."
"Complicated?" he snorted. "It made it pointless. Love doesn’t matter when inheritance and legacy are on the table."
"She loved him," Madam Lu said.
"He loved the idea of her," Lu Cheng countered. "But once she couldn’t give him an heir... everything shifted."
He looked away, jaw tense.
"Still, she was loyal. I almost felt bad when..."
He stopped.
"When what?" Madam Lu pressed.
"Nothing." Too fast.
"You knew," she whispered. "You knew she was innocent."
"Of course I knew!" he snapped. "Anyone with half a brain knew. But by the ti we realized, she was already convicted. And Zeyan was too busy with Yueling to care."
"So you did nothing."
"What could I do? Fight the CEO? Split the family? Over a girl who couldn’t give heirs?"
" You could have told the truth."
Lu Cheng laughed coldly.
"The truth is a luxury we couldn’t afford."
Madam Lu turned her gaze back to her phone. The trending hashtags glowed on the screen:
# ShuyinIsMagnanimous
# RespectdicalPrivacy
# LinShuyinDeservesBetter
She clicked the first.
Comnts flooded in:
"She stood there supporting him, after everything."
"They violated her dical privacy. That’s disgusting."
"She’s so strong. So composed."
"She’s magnetic. Those green eyes, wow."
"I want a daughter like her."
Madam Lu scrolled silently.
Then.....
# IStandWithShuyin
Now trending #2.
The comnts were even more intense.
"This woman survived prison and ca out a queen."
"She’s the standard now."
"This is perfect," Lu Cheng suddenly said.
Madam Lu looked up. "How is this perfect?"
"The public LOVES her. Which ans if she stays neutral, the Lu family benefits. We’re forgiven by association."
"But if she turns against us..."
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