Chapter Nine: The Woven Grass Ring

Sang Bai looked uneasily at Jiang Yunzho. “Yunzho, it’s fine if I don’t act in films. Why don’t we try shooting short dramas? If I become the queen of short dramas, it would guarantee viewership and prove I can carry a show!”

Jiang Yunzho shook her head. She had other plans.

After escorting Sang Bai and her companion home, Jiang Yunzho returned to the villa. She found Zhou Qingfei sitting on the sofa, fiddling with something in her hands.

“Why are you here?” she asked.

Zhou Qingfei immediately turned around, looking smug. “Yunzho, from now on we’ll be living under the same roof—aren’t you happy?”

“What do you mean? Where’s my uncle?”

Jiang Yunzho looked around. She didn’t see Shen Ruizhang, and then turned to Zhou Qingfei, who was walking toward her.

Zhou Qingfei deliberately revealed the love bites on her neck and spoke ambiguously, “Your uncle worked hard today. He’s back at the company now. Don’t go looking for him—just do what a junior should, understand?”

After that, she continued to order, “Yunzho, my back aches. Ah Rui said you’re great at massages. Why don’t you give me one too?”

Jiang Yunzho pressed her lips together, standing still for a long time without moving.

Seeing this, Zhou Qingfei sighed, “Ah Rui kept me up all night. Yunzho, do you think he’s never been with other women before?”

Impatience flitted across Jiang Yunzho’s face.

Noticing her unchanged expression, Zhou Qingfei frowned. Then she raised her hand.

On her middle finger was a grass-woven ring, aged and yellowed with time.

Jiang Yunzho’s pupils trembled.

Zhou Qingfei smiled sweetly. “Yunzho, why was the ring Ah Rui gave me in your room?”

A chill flashed in Jiang Yunzho’s eyes.

She clenched her fists and asked in a low voice, “You went through my things?”

“Yes,” came the boastful reply. “Ah Rui said that I’m now the lady of the villa and can go anywhere I like. But if you’re not happy about it, Yunzho, I won’t go in the future.”

“As you please.”

With that, Jiang Yunzho could not be bothered with Zhou Qingfei any longer and strode upstairs.

A flicker of displeasure crossed Zhou Qingfei’s eyes. She called out in a low voice.

“Yunzho.” Zhou Qingfei blocked her path.

“It’s easy to misunderstand when a man gives a woman a ring, but you really misunderstood Ah Rui. He meant the ring for me from the start, but I was busy going abroad, so he gave it to you instead.”

Jiang Yunzho’s impatience was growing palpable.

She looked Zhou Qingfei straight in the eye, her voice growing colder. “Miss Zhou, this is between you and my uncle. He gave me the ring offhandedly. Does that explanation satisfy you?”

Without caring what expression Zhou Qingfei wore, Jiang Yunzho went upstairs and slammed the door behind her.

Zhou Qingfei watched her retreating back, her gaze dark and unreadable.

A moment later, she snorted coldly. Returning to the sofa, she picked up the scissors and, her face clouded, shredded the ring to pieces.

Jiang Yunzho was nothing more than a pitiful girl living under someone else’s roof. What right did she have to compete with her?

Inside her own room, Jiang Yunzho was not idle. She tidied everything, then entered the dressing room and took out all the jewelry she owned.

Everything Shen Ruizhang had given her—she wanted none of it.

When she took out the crystal slipper displayed most prominently in the showcase, she paused.

That crystal slipper had been her coming-of-age gift from Shen Ruizhang when she turned eighteen.

At the time, he’d declared to everyone that she would always be his one and only little princess.

But now…

It was all in the past.

She took a photo and put the crystal slipper in its box.

Then she picked up a pink diamond tiara.

When she was sixteen, Shen Ruizhang had gone to Italy to oversee its design, every line crafted under his watchful eye. He’d personally acquired the diamonds at auction and delivered them to Italy himself.

Back then, he had told her she was the treasure he cherished above all else, and naturally deserved the very best.

Everyone said she was lucky, cherished by someone as remarkable as Shen Ruizhang.

She, too, had believed such happiness would last a lifetime.

But in the end, it was nothing more than a long, lingering dream.

Now the dream was over.

She would no longer let her uncle hold her back.

He was no longer worthy.

She packed up all the jewelry, listed them for sale online. By the time she was done, it was past one in the morning.

Seeing the whole screen filled with “$0.99, free shipping,” Jiang Yunzho let out a self-mocking laugh.

She didn’t even know when she fell asleep in the end. In a daze, she thought she could feel someone watching her from the edge of the bed.