The woman slid a card across the table. “Two million. Take it, divorce Cui An, and walk away. He belongs to me now.
”
Xeni didn’t look at the card. She looked at the man who had been her husband for seven years. He was holding the older woman’s hand like she was something precious. “You love her?
”
“She’s the woman I’ve loved most in my life. ”
Xeni laughed. “Then you’re more blind than I thought. I left my family for you.
I turned my father against me. I spent seven years cooking, cleaning, and serving your mother and sister. And this is how you repay me? ”
She finally took the card.
“If you want him, the price just went up. ”
She took the two million, plus a little more, and divorced him without a tear. Then she did something she had forgotten how to do: she bought clothes that fit her, got her nails done, and opened a small restaurant in a shopping mall. The restaurant served simple home-style food and a medicinal soup her ex-mother-in-law used to demand she make.
The soup was good. But Xeni didn’t know her real luck had just walked through the door. The day the young man came in, he had circles under his eyes and a stomach that had been hurting for months. He barely touched the food.
Xeni brought him a bowl of warm soup. He tasted it, frowned, then cleaned the bowl. “Who made this? ”
“I did.
”
“Chef, I want to work here. ”
“I can only pay three thousand a month. ”
“The soup is worth more than that. ”
He became her kitchen helper.
His hands were soft, his suit expensive, but he insisted. He washed dishes, wiped tables, and learned to chop vegetables without cutting himself. He said his name was Guton. She didn’t ask questions.
She just noticed that, for the first time in years, someone had her back. The trouble came with Cui An’s mother. She arrived with Cui An’s sister and Jinchufan’s people, screaming about how Xeni was a husband-stealer, a lazy country woman, a scheming liar. They knocked over tables and called her names.
They staged an injury, an old woman screaming that Xeni had beaten her. The mall manager came and sided with them. “Close the shop,” he ordered. “This damages the mall’s reputation.
”
The kitchen helper stepped in front of Xeni. “I saw everything. These people came here to cause trouble. Throw them out and ban them from the mall.
”
“Who do you think you are? ”
A staff member whispered something in the manager’s ear. The manager’s face went white. The dishwasher was Gu Group’s president.
The mall belonged to his family. But before anyone could apologize, the old woman screamed again. She called Xeni a lowlife. Xeni picked up an empty bottle and smashed it on the floor.
“If you’re hurt, stay down. If you can run, get out. ”
The old woman ran faster than her sixty-year-old daughter-in-law. The mall security dragged the rest of them out.
The ex-in-laws didn’t stop. They began preparing for a banquet where the president of the Gu Group was supposed to appear. “We’ll tell him what kind of woman she is,” they said. “He’ll have her shop closed by morning.
”
They didn’t know the president had been washing dishes in her kitchen. On the night of the banquet, they found their chance. The president of the Gu Group was there, surrounded by important people. Cui An’s mother pushed through the crowd, dragging Jinchufan with her.
“Mr. Gu, we must speak with you,” she said. “There’s a woman in this city using the Gu name to destroy our family. Please, do us justice.
”
“What’s her name? ”
“Shen Xi. She divorced my son and now she runs a filthy little restaurant, seducing men and spreading lies. Please, Mr.
Gu, cut ties with her. ”
Guton’s eyes went cold. “That woman is my girlfriend. ”
He didn’t raise his voice.
He didn’t need to. Security appeared and removed the family from the banquet hall before they could say another word. The woman Xeni called Auntie Bai called her the next day. Bai had been kind to her since the beginning, when Xeni was still a worn-out housewife with no future.
“I’ve been trying to set up my son for years,” she said. “He’s a workaholic, never eats, has a terrible stomach. Please go have a meal with him. ”
Xeni didn’t want to go.
She was busy, and she had learned the hard way not to trust blind dates. But Bai had never asked her for anything. She went. The son never showed.
Xeni walked back to the restaurant, a little embarrassed, and found Guton wiping down her tables. “I got stood up,” she said. “Then he’s an idiot. ”
“His mother is a good woman.
He takes after his father, I guess. ”
“Don’t worry. When a man is serious, he doesn’t cancel. ”
She smiled.
“And what do you know about serious men? ”
He looked at her for a long moment. “More than you think. ”
The attacks escalated.
Someone planted a cockroach in a customer’s meal. Rumors spread online that Xeni was a shameless woman who had seduced a married man. The restaurant was vandalized, then closed by the mall until the investigation was complete. Inside the Gu Group, the vice president used the scandal to call a board meeting.
“The president is protecting a woman of bad character. We should remove him from power. ”
Guton didn’t hide. He walked into the boardroom with Xeni beside him.
The shareholders sneered. The vice president pointed at her. “Who is this woman? A nobody from nowhere.
She has no family, no status, no reputation. She doesn’t deserve to stand beside the president. ”
Guton took her hand. “This is my girlfriend.
If you have a problem with her, you have a problem with me. ”
“Then you’re a fool,” the vice president snapped. Xeni pulled a folder out of her bag. “Since you care so much about reputation, let me show you mine.
” She opened it. “These are all my expenses from seven years of marriage. Cui An gave me five hundred a month for food. I paid for everything else.
This is the record of his affair with Jinchufan. Dates. Hotels. Gifts.
If anyone here has no morals, it’s not me. ”
The room went quiet. Then the door opened. The woman who entered was Guton’s mother.
Xeni knew her as Auntie Bai. “I have known Xeni for seven years,” Bai said. “Her character is not something any of you have the right to question. ”
“Mother?
” Guton said. Xeni turned. “Auntie Bai? This is your son?
”
The vice president recovered quickly. “Even so, Mrs. Gu, you can’t deny she has no family. A woman of unclear origins cannot be the wife of the Gu Group president.
”
Another voice answered from the doorway. “Who said she has no family? ”
An older man in a plain coat stepped forward. The room seemed to hold its breath.
It was the patriarch of the Shen family, one of the old noble houses of the south. “Father? ” Xeni whispered. “Seven years,” the old man said.
“You disappeared for seven years. You chose a worthless man over your own father. And still, you didn’t come home after the divorce. I had to come get you myself.
”
The shareholders began to whisper. Shen and Gu. The two most powerful families in the region. The woman they had called a nobody was the only daughter of the Shen family.
Outside the boardroom, Cui An, his mother, his sister, and Jinchufan stood frozen. They had sold Xeni for two million. They had spent months trying to destroy her. And now they had just watched her become the most powerful woman in the room.
“She’s… the Shen heiress? ” the sister-in-law whispered. Jinchufan couldn’t speak. Guton turned to Xeni, ignoring the chaos behind them.
“So it was you the whole time. ” He smiled. “Auntie Bai’s blind date. And you stood me up.
”
“You’re the one who stood me up,” she said. “Then let’s call it even. ” He held out his hand. “From now on, you don’t have to sell anyone anything.
You have me. ”
She took his hand. For the first time in seven years, Xeni didn’t have to bow to anyone.
