With Leng Yanmi taking charge, the design competition would likely be set up soon. However, Shi Yue had no time to think about it for now—she had a bigger problem at hand.
Shi Wen had gone to her mother to cause trouble.
His anger was understandable. Shi Nuo had always been firmly under their Shi family's control. Regardless of the family's internal squabbles, at least the company bore the Shi name. They could disagree among themselves, but Shi Yue had drawn in an outsider to remove him, her elder, from the CEO position. Yet, Shi Yue held a significant amount of shares, and Shin Wen was not someone easy to deal with. Seeing no immediate hope of turning the situation around, he resorted to underhanded tactics.
Unfortunately, Shi Yue's mother didn't understand anything about company power struggles. When Shi Wen showed up at her door for several days, arguing and causing a scene, she could only silently cry and endure it.
And out of concern for her daughter, she never mentioned any of it to Shi Yue.
It wasn't until Shi Nan, Shi Yue's little brother from high school who was close to her, secretly told on him that Shi Yue learned about the situation.
When she received the message that afternoon, Shi Yue was still in class. She immediately stood up, her face darkening, apologized to the teacher, and left the classroom. She headed straight for the school gate, and on her way out, she ran into Shi Fang.
Wearing a pale yellow dress, Shi Fang deliberately blocked Shi Yue's path, seemingly wanting to say something.
However, Shi Yue had no mood to waste words with her. She brushed past her without stopping, knocking Shi Fang into the bushes.
"Shi Yue—are you crazy?!" Shi Fang yelled angrily, struggling to sit up.
Shi Yue didn't even spare her a glance. "Next time we meet, I won't be this polite."
"Polite?!" Shi Fang ruffled her hair in frustration. "You call this being polite?!"
Shi Yue was already striding away, leaving only a blurry figure in the distance.
When she arrived at her mother's house, the situation was far worse than Shi Yue had imagined—
Shi Wen hadn't come alone. After several days of causing a scene without getting results, he had brought along a slew of relatives. Most of these familiar faces also bore the surname Shi. They were all gathered there, loudly accusing Jiang Fu of not raising her daughter properly.
"Breaking and entering! I've already called the police!" Shi Yue shouted as she stormed into the crowd.
The group jumped in shock. An old man, around fifty or sixty but still sharp and energetic, pointed at her. "Oh, you're finally back, young lady? Colluding with outsiders to bully your own family, something must be wrong with your head."
"Yeah, something's wrong with my head!" Shi Yue sneered at him, lifting a shovel she had grabbed from the yard. "Mentally ill people aren't held legally responsible for murder. Want to give it a try?"
She swung her arm, the shovel's wind brushing the old man's face.
"Oh dear, oh dear—" the old man, valuing his life, cowered behind the crowd, causing the previously arrogant relatives to quiet down and no longer shout loudly.
Shi Yue went straight to the source of the trouble. "Shi Wen, do you have any shame left? Can't beat a young girl, so you come to bully my mom instead?"
Jiang Fu saw her daughter.
Her face was streaked with tears. She approached Shi Yue, "Xiao Yue, why are you holding something so dangerous? Put it down, quickly."
"It's okay, Mom." Shi Yue shielded her.
Shi Wen puffed out his chest, shouting back at her, "I bullied her? Why don't you talk about what you did?! You and your mother are about to ruin the company!"
"How the company is doing, the financial report at the end of the year will make that clear," Shi Yue said, glancing around at the relatives. "You, on the other hand, should save your strength for later."
She pointed at the camera in the living room corner. "I've already called the police. With video evidence and all of you troublemakers here, none of you are getting away. Each one of you will be detained for a few days, and once you've had time to think about your illegal actions, you can be released."
"Oh dear, you actually called the police?"
"Who's making trouble? You can't just say that, Shi Yue."
"I was just here for the excitement. I didn't bully anyone."
"…"
That was enough to cause a commotion. The Shi family relatives in the living room buzzed like a beehive, defending themselves while making their way out. In less than two minutes, everyone but Shi Wen had left.
Shi Wen took a deep breath, "You little wretch. Do you want the Shi family to collapse before you realize how foolish you've been?"
Shi Yue smiled coldly, "Uncle, the surveillance cameras caught everything. I'll upload the footage of the past few days online later. Let the netizens decide if someone like you should continue as Shi Nuo's CEO. How about that?"
Shi Wen's face turned red instantly. "You wouldn't dare!"
He knew that he must have looked utterly disgraceful while bullying Jiang Fu these past few days and was finally starting to feel afraid.
"Why don't you try me?" Shi Yue narrowed her eyes menacingly. "When you were forcing me into a marriage alliance with the Leng family, where was all this familial sentiment?"
Seeing he had no chance, Shi Wen muttered some profanities and fled the scene.
The house finally quieted down. Shi Yue looked at her mother, whose eyes were swollen. She couldn't bring herself to blame her for not telling her what had happened. She simply patted her shoulder to comfort her, "Mom, it's okay now. Don't worry, I'm here."
Jiang Fu held her and cried softly until she was so exhausted that she fell asleep in Shi Yue's arms.
Shi Yue helped her back to bed. As she was leaving the room, she received a call from Leng Yanmi. She paused, then answered, "Hello? Auntie?"
"Done with class?" Leng Yanmi's voice was as reassuring as ever. "I'm running some errands near your school. Want to have dinner together?"
"I'm not at school."
"Hmm?" Leng Yanmi double-checked her schedule, "Don't you have classes today?"
"I took the day off," Shi Yue said as she walked into the yard.
The outdoor air, mixed with the fragrance of flowers and plants, made the congestion in her chest ease slightly. She carefully chose her words and explained, "Something came up at home."
Leng Yanmi was silent for a couple of seconds. "…Did Shi Wen come to your door?"
"Pfft, who is he to me?" Shi Yue couldn't hold back the sniffle. The fact that Leng Yanmi could immediately sense her trouble gave her a feeling that she was being watched over and cherished.
She sniffled again, "I'm not even considering him."
Leng Yanmi asked, "Then what's going on?"
"Well…" Shi Yue slowly exhaled, "Auntie, I want to take my mom for a full check-up this weekend.
"Do you have any hospital recommendations?"
"Yes." Leng Yanmi responded almost instantly, "There's a private sanatorium in the suburbs. Grandpa has been getting his check-ups there.
"I'll take you both there this weekend."
Shi Yue, feeling a bit vulnerable at this moment, couldn't refuse her blatant offer of help.
She nodded, then realized Leng Yanmi couldn't see her nodding over the phone, so she spoke up.
"Alright."