"Let me make one thing clear first: my name is not Xue Wanyan. It is Xiu Mumo—*xiu* as in repair, *mumo* as in silence and the end of days."
She glanced sideways at the two of them and picked up the microphone from the stand. "I will not change my surname, nor will I change my name. Xue Wanyan is simply a name from my past. Furthermore, I have zero interest in the Xue family. I came here purely to lay eyes on my so-called biological parents, and now that I've seen them, this is the end of it."
"One last thing: I have no interest whatsoever in the Xue family, I will not participate in any Xue family affairs, and I reject any and all advice or assistance from my so-called biological parents. I don't need it.
And another thing—I despise family melodrama and vying for favor. I have no desire to get tangled up in your boring affairs. The only thing here that even remotely catches my interest is that man down there. Would someone care to tell me who he is?"
Her tone was lazy, tinged with a hint of nonchalance. Her gaze finally locked onto Quan Xijuan's face, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
Xue Yihai's face turned dark with fury. He took a deep breath, his hands trembling. If he hadn't been standing up on stage right then, he might have slapped her across the face. He had imagined what the daughter who grew up away from him might be like, but he certainly hadn't envisioned this!
Making a public mockery of the Xue family like this!
Everyone here knew the score—the only reason they had found Xue Wanyan and brought her back was to arrange a marriage alliance. But now...
He forced his anger down and looked sidelong at Xiu Mumo.
Liang Tong was so furious she felt dizzy. A debt collector! She had actually given birth to a living debt collector! She fought hard to keep her emotions in check so she didn't blow a fuse right then and there.
From the moment Xiu Mumo made her announcement, an uproar swept through the audience. A good number of men were now looking at Xiu Mumo with a gleam of interest in their eyes.
Publicly refusing to return to the Xue family, and on top of that, openly flirting with Quan Xijuan?
Badass. That was truly badass.
Some of the young women looked at Xiu Mumo with faces full of shock.
"She actually doesn't want to go back to the Xue family? A starving camel is still bigger than a horse. No matter what, she'd be better off than some third-rate family, wouldn't she?"
"Playing hard to get? Or is she holding out for more? I'd jump at the chance to be Xue Wanyan of the Xue family. Even if it's a marriage alliance, it's not like the guy is an illiterate loser."
"True. Who knows what's going on in her head? I bet she's just putting on a tough front, or else she has no idea what the Shangjing Xue family actually represents!"
Page 12: *Oh, so do you prefer to be called... Xijuan?*
"I think so too. She's from the countryside, after all, so ignorance is to be expected. Figures she was raised in some backwater—zero long-term vision."
"You said it! They brought her back for a marriage alliance, and look what happened—they're the laughingstock of the town. And she dares flirt with the Quan family's young master? What is she thinking? Can't keep her eyes off a pretty face?"
The murmurs swelled. They clearly held Xiu Mumo in utter contempt and didn't even bother lowering their voices, assuming the Xue family wouldn't hold a grudge against them over it. Besides, since she had been tracked down purely for a marriage alliance, there clearly wasn't any real family affection to begin with—just look at how furious the Xues were. Naturally, nobody felt any need to filter themselves.
Xiu Mumo stood on stage, her gaze shifting to zero in on the girls who were speaking the loudest. She clutched the microphone and gave a perfunctory, "Uh-huh, you're all totally right. So, can someone tell me now? What's his name?"
Seriously, everyone kept shouting "Young Master of the Quan family" without actually dropping his name. She genuinely hadn't bothered to look him up beforehand. Elder Xue had told her to come meet her so-called parents, and she still had no clue what the old man's real game was; she was just playing along for now. At least there was one man here who caught her eye.
The girls: "......"
It felt like punching a pile of cotton—impossible to describe, but their expressions were definitely not pretty. They never expected that this Xue Wanyan—no, *Xiu Mumo*—would still have her sights locked on the Beijing circle's young master. There was simply no saving her; she was practically losing her mind to lust.
Ming Luoxing gripped her fingers tightly, lifting her eyes to stare at Xiu Mumo on the stage, feeling an inexplicable sting of irritation.
It was a crushing sense of dominance, pressing down on her from head to toe—in looks, in aura, in total poise, and in the sheer indifference Xiu Mumo showed toward her. It pissed her off intensely. It felt like she had finally met her match. In this social circle, who didn't greet her as "Miss Ming," shower praise on everything she did, and fall head over heels for her looks? Yet this woman was trampling all over the very things that gave Ming Luoxing her sense of superiority.
She fancied herself a favored daughter of the heavens, yet she had just been slapped in the face by some dirt-poor woman from the sticks. The feeling was indescribable.
The sting of it made her want to tear Xiu Mumo to pieces, to watch her pay for her own ignorance and stupidity.
Quan Xijuan's expression darkened slightly. Having unexpectedly become the center of attention, he looked thoroughly displeased.
Down in the crowd, Bie Yuan covered his eyes, not even daring to lift his head.
*Bold.* The Boss was truly, undeniably bold! This was the Xue family's annual gala, and she was openly slapping her own biological parents across the face. Truly deserving of being the Boss.
Still, things were at a total stalemate up there, and she really wanted to know that guy's name.
Stealthily, he fished out his phone, did a quick search, and called out from the cover of the crowd: "Quan Xijuan! His name is Quan Xijuan!"
He bolted the second the words left his mouth, weaving rapidly through the crowd. Everyone was still too stunned for more than a few people to notice who had spoken.
Up on stage, Xiu Mumo's lips curved into a smile, her eyes locked onto Quan Xijuan with a playful yet lazy glint. Even though she wasn't wearing a dress, her entire being radiated a seductive allure.
"Quan... Xi... juan?" she murmured.
Her voice carried through the microphone, and a gasp rippled across the room. As the young master of both the Quan family and the Beijing circle, very few people had the nerve to address Quan Xijuan directly by his given name. Had this newly recovered eldest daughter of the Xue family lost her mind?
Quan Xijuan had never liked being the center of attention, yet by simply attending a banquet tonight, he had drawn every eye in the room. Annoyance flickered in the depths of his gaze. He looked at the woman on stage and said flatly, "Pardon me, but we don't know each other. Don't use my first name."
"Oh. So do you prefer to be called... Xijuan?"
Page 13: *No, are you completely incapable of understanding human speech?*
Xiu Mumo raised an eyebrow, putting on an exaggerated look of sudden realization.
For some reason, this man had a certain undeniable vibe to him. She just wondered what he'd look like tied to a bed. Would he still carry that same high-and-mighty, aristocratic air, or would it make her want to strip him bare and break him in?
She decided her little nephew was right: you couldn't just spoil men. If you didn't train them right, all they'd do in the end was piss you off.
Quan Xijuan's face froze for a second as his gaze crashed straight into Xiu Mumo's eyes. "Let me repeat myself: you and I are strangers."
He noticed the playful amusement swimming in the woman's eyes, alongside a hint of mockery directed at his reaction. Disgust flared in his chest, and he frowned.
"Fine. Strangers it is."
Xiu Mumo had achieved her goal. Knowing Quan Xijuan's name was enough. Her gaze instantly shifted to the man standing next to him. "And you? What's your name? You and Quan Xijuan must be friends, right?"
He had a gentle face with wire-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, exuding an air of aloof detachment mixed with a very particular temperament.
"Are you a doctor?" She pondered for a few seconds, offering an answer that wasn't exact, yet her tone carried certainty.
"Yes." Zhuang Minwei paused, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Good eye."
"Thanks for the compliment." Xiu Mumo narrowed her eyes. Pity about his looks compared to Quan Xijuan's—otherwise, she might have seriously considered dragging him home.
She began chatting as casually as if no one else were in the room, turning a massive corporate gala into her personal selection process for a harem.
The entire audience looked at her in absolute shock, utterly stunned. *Is... is she insane?*
Quan Xijuan glanced at Xiu Mumo in surprise, keeping the emotions in his eyes strictly under wraps.
This woman... seemed rather different from what he had imagined.
Ming Luoxing had always been an eye-catching presence in any room, but being sidelined like this had nearly shattered her composure. If not for the decades of ingrained elegance she wore like armor, she wouldn't even have been able to keep her facial expressions in check.
Where on earth did the Xue family dredge up a daughter this intent on stirring up trouble?
Hatred flashed in her eyes. For some reason, a deep sense of crisis welled up inside her.
Seeing the atmosphere of the entire venue shift completely, Xue Yihai felt like he was losing his mind. He gritted his teeth and forced out a few words through clenched jaws: "Wanyan, have you made enough of a scene?"
They hadn't looked for her all these years, and they had adopted another daughter in the meantime—it was natural for her to hold a grudge, but dragging this on was completely out of hand!
"No, are you completely incapable of understanding human speech?"
Irritation darkened Xiu Mumo's eyes. She whipped her head around to glare at him and let out a cold laugh. "My name is Xiu Mumo, not Xue Wanyan. What? You didn't bother looking for your own daughter for over twenty years, and now you run over here shouting 'Wanyan' this and 'Wanyan' that like we're best friends? Did I give you permission to change my name?"
Damn it, did these Xue family members speak any human language at all?
"You!" Xue Yihai's face cycled through shades of green and white as he thrust a finger at Xiu Mumo.
"Get that claw out of my face. So rude." Xiu Mumo detested that gesture above all else. If she hadn't kept a sliver of her self-control, she would have snapped his finger right off.
"Is that any way to talk to your father?!" Liang Tong clutched her chest, swaying as if she were about to collapse the next second.
"Stop! Back up, don't try to pull that porcelain-smashing scam on me!"
Xiu Mumo clutched the microphone and retreated a few paces to the side, offering a faint smile. "Quit calling yourself my dad. You didn't raise me for more than a few days, but you sure are quick to slap the label of 'daughter' on me. What's the angle? Figure that slapping this label on makes you my elder? Everything I wanted to say, I already said. Stop hiding behind the title of my so-called parents to pull stunts under the banner of 'what's best for me.' Ask yourselves honestly—do you even deserve it?"
Page 14: *Elder Xue and Xue Yizheng*
Since Elder Xue had brought her here, she wasn't about to swallow this kind of treatment. Her temper was what it was—nobody was going to take advantage of her.
The high society circle was usually a place of subtle, bloodless daggers, and this was the first time anyone had ever witnessed a public, mask-off tearing of the skin. It left people feeling both fascinated and thoroughly shocked.
Mainly, how could a girl raised in the countryside possess such overwhelming backbone?
Some people were already starting to piece together a few clues.
"Xijuan, does she look like she was raised in the countryside to you?" Zhuang Minwei drifted quietly over to Quan Xijuan's side, lifting an eyebrow.
"What do you think?" Quan Xijuan shot him a look that was half-smile, half-glare.
Zhuang Minwei chuckled softly. "Don't you already have your answer?"
The two of them exchanged an amused glance, then looked back at Xiu Mumo up on the stage, turning her name over in their minds.
*Xiu Mumo.* That name actually sounded a lot better than Xue Wanyan.
Standing off to the side, Xue Anyan almost lost her grip on her composure. She rushed straight up onto the stage, biting her lip. "Xiu Mumo, they are your biological parents! Don't you think you're going too far?"
Her eyes blinked rapidly, tears threatening to spill over her lids. "I know you're feeling unbalanced because they adopted me! If you're unhappy, just say so—I can leave! They searched for you for so long, they missed you so much! How can you say things like that and break their hearts?!"
Xiu Mumo's eyelid twitched. *What is this, a community theater audition?* Seeing that Xue Anyan was still gearing up to speak, she immediately waved a hand.
"Hold on! This 'missing me' you're talking about—is that code for adopting a little white lotus flower like you and naming her Xue Anyan? If they missed me so damn much, why didn't they give *you* the name Xue Wanyan? You'd be happy, I'd be happy, you'd be the eldest young lady of the Xue family, and everyone wins."
Her lips curved with open sarcasm. Someone who had reaped all the benefits—where did she get the nerve to talk like that?
Xiu Mumo's complete refusal to play along seemed to catch Xue Anyan off guard. She clenched her hands into fists, lowered her head, and let her tears fall in earnest.
"She is your sister!" Liang Tong clutched her chest, her face pale.
"Cut the crap with these fake family ties. I don't have any little white lotus sisters. If I *did* have a sister like this, I'd shove her right back into her mother's stomach to be remade from scratch."
Xiu Mumo let out a light scoff. "What? Haven't you finished your little performance yet? And you two down in the audience—haven't you seen enough of the show?"
She was ready to keel over from a single sentence; if Xiu Mumo hadn't already read the dossier on her, she might have actually believed Liang Tong had a heart condition.
Compared to these clowns, the person in the audience caught her attention far more.
Her gaze locked onto a single figure.
It was an old man in his sixties leaning heavily on a cane, dressed in a Zhongshan suit. His spine was ramrod straight, his features still quite handsome, and he was remarkably well-preserved.
Xue Yihai bore a slight resemblance to him, but lacked the old man's restrained, deep-seated aura.
Standing right beside him was a young man who shared a slight family resemblance—he looked to be just barely past twenty.
Even a glance made it clear: one of them was Elder Xue, and the other was the Xue family's heir-apparent, Xue Yizheng.
Compared to the bunch making a circus of themselves on stage, these two were the actual brains of the Xue family. Elder Xue, in particular, had propped up the Xue clan for decades; even now, he hadn't fully relinquished power. He was a master of deep schemes and kept his emotions entirely hidden.
"As expected of my granddaughter. Quite the sharp senses." Elder Xue laughed heartily, pulling Xue Yizheng up onto the stage with him.
Xiu Mumo gave him a silent look. *Not a single person in this entire Xue family speaks human language.*
"I said everything I needed to say just now. Does Elder Xue have some advice for me?"
"Come back to the Xue family. The status of eldest young lady will be returned to you, plus an additional five percent of the Xue Group's shares. How does that sound?"
Sharp, penetrating light flashed in Elder Xue's eyes. He could see it now: this granddaughter was far from ordinary.
Her heart was cold and hard; trying to appeal to family sentiment was a waste of time. But what about talking in terms of interests?
As long as she wasn't a fool, she had to take this deal.
Five percent of the Xue Group's shares—the annual dividends alone amounted to a staggering sum. Even if the Xue Group was currently facing financial turbulence and cash-flow issues, it was still leagues ahead of any ordinary firm. If someone truly wanted to crash the Xue Group, doing it overnight was impossible. That was precisely why so many people had still shown up to the annual gala.
A starving camel is still bigger than a horse; adding flowers to a brocade doesn't compare to sending charcoal in a snowstorm. Even if people thought the Xue Group might not last a few more years, nobody was going to completely burn bridges just yet.
What if they managed to secure outside investment?
"Sorry, not interested. I know what kind of game you're playing."
Xiu Mumo lifted her eyelids to give him a sideways glance, stepped a little closer, and lowered her voice to murmur right beside his ear: "If you want to drag me back here for a marriage alliance, it better be Quan Xijuan, otherwise don't bother."
"Well, it's getting late. You all carry on with your party—I'm heading out."
She flashed a faint smile, tossed the conversation back to them, and vaulted straight off the stage. Shoving one hand into her pocket, she waved toward a spot in the distance. "Bie Yuan, let's move."
"Coming!" Bie Yuan let out a soft hiss and immediately trotted over to catch up.
The crowd instinctively parted for Xiu Mumo, watching her go before their eyes shifted to Bie Yuan. Who on earth was this man who had come with her?
Elder Xue never imagined that Xiu Mumo would completely refuse to give him even a shred of face. His expression turned grim, his gaze piercing into her receding back.
"Grandfather, what do we do now?" Xue Yizheng muttered under his breath, a streak of viciousness flashing in the look he cast at Xiu Mumo.
Xue Anyan wasn't qualified for a marriage alliance since she wasn't actually of Xue blood. As for him, his age made marriage a complicated issue for the moment, and besides, he had zero desire to marry some nouveau-riche woman just to bail them out. That left him no choice but to target his missing older sister—find some upstart family to marry her off to and secure the investment that way.
Instead, they had hit a dead end. This Xue Wanyan was entirely unlike anything they had anticipated.
"Have people keep a close eye on her. This is Shangjing—there are always ways to force her to fall in line."
A ruthless smile curled the corners of Elder Xue's mouth.
*Want to marry Quan Xijuan?*
If it were possible to reel the Quan family in, they would have done it long ago; why would they need a marriage alliance? She wasn't old, but her ambitions were certainly sky-high. Among the Four Nobles of Shangjing, the only person even remotely qualified to match Quan Xijuan was Ming Luoxing.
If she really tried to force a marriage alliance with Quan Xijuan, Ming Luoxing's methods alone would be enough to give the Xue family a severe headache. They were already in the middle of a crisis; they couldn't afford enemies on all sides.
"Grandfather is right." Xue Yizheng relaxed.
That's right—this was Shangjing, not some godforsaken mountain village.
* * *
Down in the audience, Ming Luoxing stared unblinkingly at that carefree figure receding into the distance. "Xiu Mumo, is it?"
A smile touched the corner of her lips.
The woman standing next to her shivered involuntarily, feeling a sudden chill sweep through her bones.
Not far away, Zhuang Minwei nudged Quan Xijuan with his shoulder, teasing in a low laugh: "So? Did you read her lips?"
Page 16: *She'll probably be tucked into bed with the Boss tonight, right?*
Quan Xijuan shot him an icy glare. "You still think this circus isn't big enough."
"I was just teasing you, don't get so uptight."
Zhuang Minwei patted his shoulder. "Honestly, I think this girl's great. Fits your temperament to a T."
For all these years, this was the first time he'd ever seen a woman back Quan Xijuan into a corner, leaving him speechless within two or three sentences. Impressive!
"We still don't know why this girl came to claim her relatives, so jumping to conclusions is premature. Besides, I think she was just messing with me."
Remembering the look in Xiu Mumo's eyes, Quan Xijuan felt a strange sense of familiarity wash over him. Had he seen her somewhere before?
"You noticed that too?" Zhuang Minwei clicked his tongue. "And here I thought you'd been single so long your emotional intelligence had rotted away!"
"I'm not an idiot. She might have been interested in me at first glance, but I refuse to believe she's stupid enough to make enemies with half the room while openly flirting with me and demanding a marriage alliance on her own terms. She's clearly using me as a human shield."
Quan Minwei glanced back at Elder Xue up on the stage and chuckled softly, "I think they just discarded the smartest person in the entire Xue family."
"Smart or not, I can't say, but that girl is definitely not reckless. Turning down five percent of the Xue Group's shares like that—she's no ordinary person."
Zhuang Minwei took a sip of his drink. "Well, the show's over. Shall we make our exit?"
"Let's go."
Hiding within the cover of the crowd, Quan Xijuan and Zhuang Minwei slipped away before anyone else noticed, evacuating the hall together.
It took a full half-minute for anyone else in the room to fully process what exactly Xiu Mumo had just turned down.
Five percent of the Xue Group's shares!
"Is she out of her mind, or just pretending? That's five percent of the shares! Do you have any idea how much that's worth? The annual dividends alone start at ten million minimum."
"Whether she's clueless or just genuinely contemptuous is hard to say, but she certainly doesn't act like someone raised in the country."
"You said it! The countryside probably couldn't produce a kid like that. Such incredible backbone. But turning it down... when you get right down to it, she effectively refused to let the Xue family control her."
Groups of people murmured among themselves, every single one of them stunned by Xiu Mumo's choice.