As dusk drifted into the room, Wu Zeyu fumbled with the headphones in his pocket, the broken casing pricking his palm. He finally understood that his mother wasn't an angel who came to his rescue, but an executioner wearing a pearl necklace, watering her rose with the blood of others and consolidating her position with her son's pain.
From downstairs came the mother's call: "Zeyu, it's time for dinner."
He looked at himself in the mirror, the collar of his school uniform still stained with Zhang Lie's blood. He suddenly laughed, his shoulders shaking with laughter. It turned out that in this wealthy world, there were no victims, only executioners and accomplices. And he was both his mother's weakness and her sharp weapon.
During dinner, Chao Nanxing was rarely home. He patted Wu Zeyu on the shoulder, praising him for his "Chao family spirit," but he didn't notice the bandage on the boy's sleeve.
Wu Zeyu bit into the spareribs, the bloody taste mixed with the sweetness of the cream rolls exploding on his tongue. He looked at his mother's smiling face and suddenly noticed that her pearl necklace clasp was crooked, revealing the red mole on the back of her neck.
That was what he thought was his mother's unique mark when he was a child. Now he realized that it was just a coordinate on the chessboard of the rich and powerful, marking her precise position as a "mistress".
As the night deepened, Wu Meng stood in the cloakroom, adjusting her pearl necklace in the mirror. She saw her own eyes in the mirror, brighter than any pearl, sharper than any blade.
His fingertips traced the skin of her neck, where the red marks Chao Nanxing had pinched her the night before were still visible. After finishing a business conversation in the study, he suddenly grabbed her by the neck and said, "Don't think I don't know you touched Zhang Jianguo's tax returns."
But she just smiled and kissed his fingertips: "Nanxing, isn't everything I do for our son?"
Now, looking at herself in the mirror, she finally admitted that the necklace tied the inheritance of the Chao family, the future of Ze Yu, and her counterattack from the lower class to the wife of a wealthy family.
A message from Zhang Lie's father popped up on his phone: "You won, but don't think Chao Nanxing really takes you seriously."
Wu Meng deleted the message and put on her diamond earrings. The sharp edges of the earrings pricked her earlobe, as if reminding her that in this wealthy family, every inch of glory was paid for with blood, and every smile was a hidden ulterior motive.
She turned and walked towards the bedroom, her pearl necklace swaying gracefully behind her.
As I passed by Wu Zeyu's room, I heard the sound of turning pages from "The Old Man and the Sea." The old man said, "Now is not the time to think about what you lack, but to think about what you can do with what you have."
Wu Meng smiled, a silent laugh. She had what she already had: Chao Nanxing's trust, the power of the Chao family, and the fading light in her son's eyes. These were enough to keep her grounded amidst the storm of the wealthy, even if every step meant stepping on the bones of others.
The night was as dark as ink, and the pearl necklace shimmered in the darkness, like a string of wet tears. But Wu Meng knew that tears were useless in this world. Only calculation and scheming could allow her and her son to live a decent life in this jungle of steel and concrete.
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