"I don't like that color cabinet. Get it out of here!" Wen Xuyu rolled her eyes, pointing at the food cart. "Use this thing to wheel it out."
The maid didn't hesitate for a second. Butler Du had given orders that as long as Wen Xuyu didn't leave the premises, she was free to do whatever she wanted.
"Please wait a moment, Miss. I'll get someone to help."
"Hmph." Wen Xuyu gave a haughty nod. Her persona here was that of a spoiled brat.
The maid fetched another maid, and together the two of them managed to hoist the cabinet onto the upper tier of the food cart.
While continuing to eat her meal, Wen Xuyu added, "I want to take a bath. The two of you go pick some flower petals for me and just leave them outside my bedroom door!"
"Very well, Miss."
Taking advantage of the brief window while the two maids left, Wen Xuyu dashed quickly into the bathroom and turned on the shower, creating the illusion that she was bathing.
With that done, she crawled into the bottom tier of the food cart and waited quietly for her chance to escape.
She had noticed on her very first day that the villa was so massive it was even equipped with an elevator. The maids routinely used the elevator to deliver meals upstairs, which was why she had resorted to this desperate measure.
Sure enough, a short while later, the maids caught sight of the steam-wreathed bathroom and confidently pushed the food cart away.
As luck would have it, the moment they wheeled the cart downstairs, Bian Xunzhou and Lu Zhao were walking in through the front entrance.
...
"How has she been these past two days?" The man loosened his tie with one hand, his gaze drifting toward a certain room upstairs as he asked offhandedly.
Bian Xunzhou was back?
Wen Xuyu slowed her breathing. The two men were barely three meters away from her.
"The young lady's foot is almost completely healed. The only incident was yesterday when she forcibly tried to leave and the bodyguards stopped her, causing a slight scuffle. Otherwise, everything is fine."
The maid lowered her gaze and gave a concise report.
"Hmph." Bian Xunzhou's dark eyes flashed. Of course he knew Wen Xuyu wouldn't be so easily tamed.
The man glanced sideways, seeming only just to notice the bulky object on the food cart. "What's this?"
"Miss Wen asked us to move it out. She doesn't like this color cabinet."
Hiding in the bottom tier of the food cart, Wen Xuyu didn't dare make a single sound. She waited quietly for her sentence, maintaining a steady, even breath out of fear that the man might sense something.
After half a minute, the man finally waved his hand dismissively. "Fine, if she doesn't want it, throw it out!"
As Bian Xunzhou's footsteps gradually faded away, Wen Xuyu's heart eased slightly, though she still didn't dare to move too much.
The maids pushed the food cart to the kitchen, unloaded the cabinet together, and hauled it off to the disposal area.
Seizing the opportunity, Wen Xuyu scrambled out from beneath the food cart. Under the cover of moonlight, dodging and hiding the entire way, she finally scaled the villa's perimeter wall and escaped.
With no time to lose, Wen Xuyu hailed a taxi and headed toward the Wen family estate.
While she was still at Bian Xunzhou's villa, she had already mapped out her next steps for after a successful escape, so she had prepared small change in advance.
Standing before the Wen Family Old Residence, she looked up at the familiar architecture, forced to reach out and press the doorbell.
"Second Miss, the master is waiting for you."
The butler walked over, his tone dripping with contempt.
This was how the Wen family treated her—even a servant could bully her at will.
Wen Xuyu took a deep breath and followed the butler into the living room.
Everyone in the Wen family was present, including Xu Zeyan, Wen Qianxue's fiancé.
In truth, this engagement had been arranged by the Wen and Xu families before the children were even born, until that accident happened later.
Wen's father sat on the sofa with a pale complexion. It was easy to see that these past few days of stressing over the marriage alliance between the Wen and Lu families had taken a severe toll on him, yet his gaze remained sharp.
"So you still know how to come back?" Wen Yuqin snapped coldly, slamming his hand down on the table so hard that tea splashed everywhere. "You ran away on your wedding night! Where do you expect to put the Wen family's face?!"
Beside him, Jiang Lihua furrowed her brow tightly, utterly unable to understand why she had given birth to such a rebellious child.
Wen Qianxue sat next to Jiang Lihua, dressed in a pure white dress adorned with delicate lace at the hem, which made her look all the more innocent and charming.
The corners of her mouth curved into a just-so smile, her eyes innocent and clear as if they could drip water, and the long hair cascading over her chest curled slightly at the ends, emitting a faint fragrance.
Watching the scene unfold, a surge of intense pleasure welled up inside her, yet outwardly she had to put on an anxious facade.
"Little sister, you're finally back! Where have you been all these days? We've all been so worried about you!"
Wen Qianxue stepped forward. With her back to the others, she grabbed Wen Xuyu's hand tightly, her long, delicate artificial nails digging straight into the flesh and instantly leaving two bloody scratches.
Stung by the pain, Wen Xuyu instinctively shook her off.
From everyone else's perspective, this looked like a deliberate shove.
"Ah—!" Wen Qianxue gasped, tumbling heavily to the floor.
The family scrambled to their feet in a panic.
Jiang Lihua rushed to help Wen Qianxue up, her face a mask of distress. "Qianxue, are you alright? Is anything hurting? Tell Mom!"
"I'm fine, Mom, I'm really fine. Little sister certainly didn't mean it; she was just playing around with me. Please don't blame her..."
With a gentle, understanding air, Wen Qianxue began to cry as she spoke, looking as though she had suffered a terrible grievance.
Wen Qianyu stood up to shield Wen Qianxue, shoving hard against Wen Xuyu's shoulder. Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, the man's eyes were filled with utter disgust and a hard-to-ignore sense of haughty superiority.
As the eldest son of the Wen family, he doted fiercely on Wen Qianxue, his sickly younger sister, granting her almost every request—even after learning she wasn't truly his sister.
"You still have the nerve to come back? Who was that man, and why was he helping you?"
He was still harboring resentment over what had happened a few nights ago.
"You really haven't changed at all. Even after all this time, you can't shake that crude, rustic air about you!"
Xu Zeyan also wore an unfriendly expression as he stood nearby, gently comforting Wen Qianxue.
Staggering from the push, Wen Xuyu looked around at this entire family, and a past memory suddenly surfaced in her mind.
Back then, she had just been brought back to the Wen family. Jiang Lihua had treated her fairly well at the time; wanting to help her quickly assimilate into high-society life, she had specially hired an etiquette teacher to tutor her, with Wen Qianxue coming along to accompany her under the guise of looking after her.
The night before the lessons were to begin, Wen Qianxue had suddenly told her that the teacher had an emergency and would be an hour late, and the foolish girl had believed her.
The next morning, she had been woken up by Jiang Lihua's cold glare, with Wen Qianxue standing right beside her.
Faced with Jiang Lihua's reproaches, she had looked at Wen Qianxue in utter bewilderment. Unfortunately, the latter had acted as if she had total amnesia, joining forces with Jiang Lihua against her.
In the end, she never got to take lessons from that teacher simply because the instructor detested anyone lacking punctuality and hated latecomers.
At the time, she hadn't realized that she was already in Wen Qianxue's crosshairs.
The most severe incident had occurred during her very first birthday party after coming to the Wen family, when she had knocked over a towering twenty-tier birthday cake and become the laughingstock of Kyoto's high-society circle.
Back then, every single member of the Wen family had pointed fingers at her while comforting Wen Qianxue, solely because Wen Qianxue had suffered a heart attack while she, the "chief culprit," had ruined the entire birthday celebration.
She had wanted to explain, but no one believed her, nor did anyone remember that today was her birthday as well.
Though she had already encountered unfair treatment countless times, she still couldn't mask the bitterness welling up in her heart.
It seemed they were completely blind to her injured hand, capable only of seeing Wen Qianxue's grievances and tears. In their eyes, she was nothing more than an expendable nobody.
If that was the case, why bother bringing her back in the first place? Just for the sake of appearances?
"Xuyu, your reputation in elite circles is already in tatters. The Lu family's third young master is currently your best option. Why won't you understand our good intentions?"
If not for that face which was almost an exact replica of her own youth, Jiang Lihua genuinely would have doubted how she could have given birth to such an ungrateful, trouble-making daughter as Wen Xuyu.
Birth could never rival upbringing; her heart still clung to the impoverished couple who had raised her. Perhaps the two of them were simply never meant to be mother and daughter in this lifetime!
Good intentions?
Wen Xuyu raised her head to look at the face before her—the one that shared an eight-tenths resemblance to her own—and couldn't help but feel a grim sense of amusement.
People often said that parental love for a child was deep-seated and far-reaching.
Too bad their "good intentions" amounted to squeezing out her very last drop of value.
Suppressing the burning sting in her eyes, Wen Xuyu pointed directly at Wen Qianxue, who was still sobbing nearby, a sarcastic smile curling her lips.
"If it's such a wonderful match, why don't you let Wen Qianxue go?"
"Wen Xuyu, is that any way to speak to Mom? Apologize at once!"
Before anyone else could speak, Wen Qianxue's brother Wen Qianyu immediately rebuked her.
Meeting his gaze directly, Wen Xuyu's eyes flickered with overt defiance. "What? Can't keep up the act anymore?"
"You—!" Wen Qianxue's brother gasped in fury, his eyes darting away in momentary panic.
Pressing her advantage, Wen Xuyu pushed on, "Come on, the Xu family engagement rightfully belongs to me. If we really need to give the Lu family an explanation, Wen Qianxue should be the one going!"
Hearing this, Wen Qianxue—who was currently being swarmed and comforted by several people—bitten her lip in secret.
In the past, Wen Xuyu would never have used the engagement as leverage. Could it be that she genuinely intended to fight her for the Xu family match and use it as a way to dodge the Lu family?
That would never do. She was determined to marry into the Xu family and become the envied young mistress of the Xus, rather than marrying someone like the Lu family's third young master—a despised illegitimate son looked down upon for a lifetime!
At that thought, Wen Qianxue abruptly stood up. Unsteady on her feet, she stumbled and collapsed back to the ground, a look of profound sorrow on her face.