Chapter 18: Who Is Yun Manxia's Husband

"Auntie Lian?" Yun Manxia prompted, unhurried.

Xia Lian hastily squeezed out a smile, looking somewhat wounded. "Manxia, did someone say something to you? How I've

treated you all these years is plain for everyone to see. That you'd distrust me like this... I'm truly a little hurt."

"No one said anything to me." Yun Manxia gave a faint smile. "I just feel that since I'm nineteen now, those shares

should come back to me. If they stay with you, Auntie Lian, people might get the wrong idea-like thinking you want to

keep my things for yourself."

Xia Lian's grip tightened. She nearly snapped the pen in half.

"How can you speak to your Auntie Lian that way?" Yun Hong thundered. "Your Auntie Lian has been so good to you. She's

poured so much effort into you over the years, and this is how you repay her-with these accusations?"

Yun Manxia scoffed inwardly.

Good to her? Poured effort into her?

Oh yes, she'd been so good to her. She'd poured so much effort into her!

If not for all that painstaking effort, her reputation wouldn't be in tatters. She wouldn't have been ostracized by

everyone her age, a laughingstock whenever her name came up!

She wouldn't have been completely friendless, and she certainly wouldn't have become estranged from her maternal

grandfather's family as if they were enemies!

She twitched her lips. "I don't want to think of Auntie Lian that way. But if Auntie Lian doesn't sign, a lot of people

are going to start thinking it."

Instantly, every gaze in the room locked onto the hand gripping the pen.

Feeling the weight of all those stares pressing in from every direction, Yun Hong-even more than Xia Lian herself-found

it unbearable. He couldn't tolerate anyone suggesting that the wife he'd married after his first wife's death was

coveting the inheritance his late wife had left to their daughter!
"Xiao Lian, sign!" he ordered, his face dark. "You kindly kept them safe for her, but clearly not everyone appreciates

it. Listen to how ugly that sounds!"

Xia Lian clutched the pen, her smile strained to the breaking point. She wanted to scream.

Something she'd worked so hard to get her hands on-something she'd long since come to regard as her own-how could she

just let it go?

But with Yun Hong putting it that way, if she truly refused to sign, would her reputation survive?

She suspected this wretched girl had done it on purpose-deliberately choosing this public setting to back her into a

corner where she had no choice but to give it back!

Yun Manxia had a fairly good idea what was running through her mind. She sneered inwardly. Obviously! A woman who could

carry on with her best friend's husband and scheme for the dead woman's inheritance-did she look like someone with any

sense of shame? Without being forced, would she ever have willingly let go?

In the end, Xia Lian picked up the pen with tremendous difficulty and scrawled her name on the document. Then,

swallowing her fury, she put on a helpless expression.

"How could I covet your things? Since you don't trust me, fine. Take them back."

When she handed the document to Yun Manxia, her heart bled with every fiber of her being.

But on her face, she wore the look of a woman who had given her stepdaughter nothing but sincere devotion-only to be

wrongfully accused in return.

Xia Lian was skilled at curating her public image. The moment she displayed that wounded expression, people immediately

sympathized, thinking she couldn't possibly be that kind of person. They began muttering about Yun Manxia

instead-calling her ungrateful, saying she was slandering her loving stepmother, that she was being pushy and

unreasonable.

The reborn Yun Manxia had seen through Xia Lian long ago. She certainly wasn't about to miss this little performance.
She curved her lips, her eyes brimming with filial adoration. "I know Auntie Lian isn't that kind of person. I can see

everything you've done for me, Auntie Lian. All these years, you've attended to everything personally-even the dresses I

wear to banquets, you carefully prepare them for me. Even though I don't particularly like them..."

"But how could Auntie Lian be scheming against me? I'd never believe that. It's just that outsiders will jump to

conclusions, so I thought I'd take the shares back first. They were going to be returned to me sooner or later anyway.

Isn't that right, Auntie Lian?"

Xia Lian felt like she was having a heart attack. Yet she couldn't refute a single word. Was she going to admit that

yes, she had been scheming, that she did want her fortune?!

She could only force out a smile. "...As long as you still trust me, Manxia."

Among the guests, when Xia Lian had played the victim moments ago, they'd thought Yun Manxia was being pushy. Now, with

Yun Manxia casually bringing up the dress incident again and then acting as though she completely trusted her

stepmother, some couldn't stomach it.

"Is this girl an idiot? That stepmother of hers is obviously up to no good! If those dresses looked so great, why

doesn't her own daughter wear them? Why doesn't she wear them herself? Tsk tsk. This is what you call a clueless

sweetheart, right? Gets sold by someone and still helps count the money. She actually thinks her stepmother is a

saint..."

Catching fragments of this, Yun Manxia's lips curved, almost imperceptibly.

Xia Lian had heard too. Her chest seized, a rush of hot frustration nearly choking her.

Was that person blind? Yun Manxia, a clueless sweetheart? That wretched girl's tone just now hadn't been trust-it was

pure, weaponized passive-aggression!

Mission accomplished, Yun Manxia was in excellent spirits. She placed the thick stack of documents back into the box,

intending to take them home.
As for a birthday gift for Xia Lian? If Xia Lian hadn't returned the shares, think of how ugly the gossip would have

gotten! By taking them back publicly, she'd actually preserved the woman's reputation. Didn't that thoughtfulness count

as a grand gift in itself?

"Alright, the banquet is about to begin!" Yun Hong shot her a look and spoke curtly, displeasure evident.

Yun Manxia didn't say anything more. Clutching the box to her chest, she walked away, thoroughly satisfied.

No rush. This was only the beginning. She had plenty of time. Everyone who had wronged her in her last life would pay

the price they deserved!

Throughout the hall, more than a few eyes tracked her movement. Beautiful things had a way of drawing the gaze, whether

one willed it or not.

Seeing this, Yun Yiyi's mood soured even further.

She had dressed with meticulous care tonight. Before Yun Manxia's arrival, she'd been the center of attention, with

plenty of admiring looks coming her way. But now, every one of those captivated gazes had migrated to Yun Manxia!

Snapping out of her daze, she suddenly noticed several of the socialites beside her studying her with probing eyes.

Yun Yiyi's heart tightened. She forced a strained smile. "Xiaoxiao, why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Yun Manxia just said that her previous appearance was all your doing and your mother's?" They weren't fools. The

implication was perfectly clear.

If what Yun Manxia said was true...

Yun Yiyi hurried to explain. "I thought she liked it! I was just trying to help. I had no idea she didn't like it-she

never said a word..."

She bit her lip, her tone wounded. "We've known each other for so long. You all know what kind of person I am, don't

you?"

For Yun Yiyi to navigate this social circle so successfully as a mere stepdaughter, she was naturally a master of

deception.

Seeing her performance, the girls hesitated, then chose to believe her.
Then someone spoke up: "Wait-Yun Manxia just mentioned her husband? She's married?"

They all turned in unison to look at Yun Yiyi. "Who did she marry?"

Thinking of that exalted, devastatingly handsome man, jealousy surged through Yun Yiyi. She put on an apologetic smile

and said vaguely, "I'm sorry, it's not really my place to tell..."

Her tone carried just enough subtle weight to lead everyone's imagination astray.

Not her place to tell? What could be so inconvenient? Unless Yun Manxia had married someone embarrassing-someone the Yun

family was ashamed to acknowledge publicly!

Hearing people speculate in that direction and turn to her for confirmation, Yun Yiyi wore a conflicted expression of

awkwardness and reluctance. "I'm sorry, I really can't say..."

But she didn't deny their guess.

Instantly, the gazes directed at Yun Manxia across the room turned contemptuous. Low murmurs of derision rippled through

the group.

"Listen to the way she was talking earlier-you'd think she'd married someone important!"

Having chosen to side with Yun Yiyi, they naturally had no goodwill toward Yun Manxia.

"Exactly! Did you know? I heard someone say Yun Manxia actually took a taxi here!"

"What? No way? Her husband's family doesn't even own a car?"

"Tsk, tsk..."

They laughed freely, glancing over at Yun Manxia from time to time.

When the banquet had run its course and Yun Manxia was preparing to leave, the group exchanged glances. Malicious smiles

spread across their faces as they followed after her.

Yun Manxia checked the time and decided it was about right to head home.

She'd been driven here by an Imperial Garden Villa chauffeur, but halfway there, the driver's elderly mother had taken a

fall and been hospitalized. Seeing his urgency, Yun Manxia had told him to go ahead and taken a taxi the rest of the way

herself.

The driver's situation probably still wasn't sorted out yet, so she planned to just grab another cab back.
But suddenly, Yun Yiyi's group marched toward her.