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In April 2008, Jiang Muwan returned to C City from the Capital, erasing everything from the Capital and coming back with nothing.
She had not even wanted to bring Fu Jing along.
The night she left C City for the Capital, Fu Jing learned of her departure, drove to the airport, and stood there holding a bunch of parsnip flowers, wearing a beige trench coat, silently watching her.
Muwan's pace faltered slightly, then she pulled the corners of her mouth into a smile and headed toward her.
As she approached, she heard Fu Jing say, "What sort of skill is it to sneak away? If you have any guts, take me with you."
Finished speaking, she stuffed the bunch of parsnip flowers into her arms with anger.
She gave her a proud and coquettish glance and walked away with her head held high.
So, in April that year, Jiang Muwan brought Fu Jing back to the place of her birth.
The very source of the war.
That afternoon, Fu Jing entered the room and glanced at her; then, casually tossing the car keys to her, she said, "The stuff is in the trunk."
With just that sentence, Muwan understood what she meant.
In a first-tier developed city, merchants and tycoons come and go rapidly, today's billionaire might be tomorrow's prisoner.
But no matter how this city changes hands, the people of Mengxi Garden have remained unchanged for years.
This revealed the status of Mengxi Garden in C City.
In the afternoon, Jiang Muwan drove to Mengxi Garden, where she happened to run into Yang Hu.
The siblings, who were already at the height of their anger, ran into the instigator and wished they could tear her to pieces.
But Muwan acted as if nothing was wrong, simply saying, "I came to see Grandfather."
"When did Huazhong's management get so lax that people can wander around during work hours?" Yang Hu said, obviously looking for trouble.
"I just happened to be nearby on business and came to check on the old man. Besides, Manager Yang, who are you referring to?" The first half of her sentence was polite, but the latter half was a pointed question laced with veiled anger.
Her implication was clear, as if to say, how dare a subordinate who is shirking his duties criticize the leadership for being lax?
Jiang Muwan's "who are you talking to" clearly stumped Yang Hu.
His face turned shades of red and white, quite spectacular to behold.
Although Yang Hu's position had been demoted, apparently, he still harbored the temperament of a vice president.
He must have thought Jiang Muwan would show restraint out of respect for him as an elder, but she did not.
Not a hint of politeness.
That soft and gentle "who are you talking to" was enough to put him in his place. Even if Yang Hu was dull, he could sense the disdain in her words.
"Indeed, I have overstepped," Yang Hu scoffed coldly after a while, his disdain clear.
Jiang Muwan smiled at him, saying nothing.
With their respective positions in the hierarchy clear, Yang Hu certainly had no advantage over her, and if he wasn't careful, he could be labeled as insubordinate.
But Yang Shan was different. No matter how you looked at it, she was the current mistress of the Jiang Family, while Muwan was nothing but a stepdaughter.
"No matter how you put it, this is your uncle in name——"
"My uncle's last name is Song. Ms. Yang sure knows how to take advantage of a situation, claiming another's daughter born after ten months of pregnancy," Jiang Muwan interrupted Yang Shan's words midway, not sparing any courtesy in her speech.
Stealing a husband was bad enough, now trying to take someone else's daughter too? Even a notorious bandit couldn't match your skills.
In the past, the old master would have given them a bit of face, but now, with just the three of them in the room, why bother with pretense?
"Whether you like it or not, I still am your stepmother. As long as you share a blood relationship with your father, you'll have to acknowledge my position in this family," Yang Shan is not some brainless beauty, is she?
No, she isn't.
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Her tactics are truly top-notch, otherwise, how could she steal someone else's husband?
She has truly mastered the art of being one person in public and another behind closed doors.
Hearing this, Jiang Muwan sneered coldly, and as she lowered her gaze, she saw an uncollected coffee cup on the coffee table. Her almond eyes shifted to Yang Shan, and with a faint smile, she said, "Madam Yang's status in this household, to put it nicely, is that of a second wife, to put it plainly, a concubine. Whether you admit it or not, it doesn't make much difference to me."
Do you think that by having afternoon tea every day with these wealthy socialites and carrying a Hermes or Prada, your own value has increased?
Let's face it, those who laugh at you are just not brazen about it.
Do you really think living in Mengxi Garden makes you a top-tier elite?
Without Jiang Lin, what are you anyway?
Without Jiang Sinan, you couldn't even step foot inside the doors of Mengxi Garden.
But could Jiang Muwan say that?
Not yet.
The situation between her and Yang Shan hadn't reached that point yet.
"How dare you," Jiang Muwan had barely finished speaking when Yang Hu roared in fury and came forward, pushing Jiang Muwan several meters away, even stretching out his index finger to point at her, his face ferocious as he warned, "Say that one more time."
Jiang Muwan, pushed by him, staggered slightly, taking several steps back,
She wasn't annoyed, instead, she looked at Yang Hu, pressed her lips together, and then her voice, cool and thin, began to rise: "When you're under someone else's roof, you have to bow your head, and yet you dare to strike your master?"
"A person who follows their mother, what kind of master are you? If we're talking about the master here, it's not your place to speak."
Everyone in Mengxi Garden knows that when Song Rong divorced Jiang Lin, Jiang Muwan followed Song Rong, she was just a girl who had gone far away. Do you really think you have boundless abilities?
"I'm not, but you are?"
"At the very least, my surname is Jiang, what's yours?" As she said this, Jiang Muwan moved her gaze from Yang Hu slowly to Yang Shan, speaking with an icy tone, "When the cat's away, the mice will play? With the old man gone, you dare to show up at the door and hit people?"
"You speak insolently; what's wrong with me hitting you?" After speaking, Yang Hu moved to go forward again.
He took three steps as if he were two, as though today he was determined to end Jiang Muwan's life.
His enraged and bulging eyes, looking fierce and vicious, were particularly frightening to see.
And Yang Shan, standing to the side without making a move, was essentially giving silent consent to Yang Hu's actions.
She, more than anyone else, wished for Jiang Muwan's death. Only if Jiang Muwan died could she reign supreme alone. As long as Jiang Muwan lived, she would share half of everything the Jiang Family had.
In the face of money and interests, no one is a philanthropist.
When Jiang Muwan first entered Mengxi Garden wanting to kill Jiang Sinan, even though the patriarch favored her, she had no power to retort, but now, things were different.
During the decades she was absent, Mengxi Garden had always been Yang Shan's domain.
Now that she returned, what difference did it make?
Who ends up the victor is not certain.
Slap!
"Who gave you the courage?"
A crisp sound echoed in the Jiang Family's living room.
It was followed by a furious voice filled with indignation.
Everything happened so quickly that Yang Hu didn't have time to think.
Turning, he saw the patriarch standing behind him, furious, his face a mix of pale and livid with age lines.
Looking again at Muwan, she was looking to the side, head bowed, not saying a word.
But in the place hidden from onlookers, the triumph in her eyes was as clear as day.