Chapter 1. A man of exceptional taste and great wealth. ...
On Friday, during the lunch break, at Balthazar restaurant next to Central Park, an aroma composed of freshly ground coffee, toasted bread, expensive perfume, and burgeoning desire permeated the high ceilings, crystal chandeliers, and deep red velvet benches.
The restaurant was bustling with activity, the luxurious light of the crystal chandeliers flowing quietly. Yuan Ning and several of her well-off classmates from Parsons College had made it a daily habit to have lunch here.
Emily dragged her over as soon as Professor Miller's dry management course ended this morning.
She wore a black velvet dress of unknown brand, and her necklace looked like a modified antique beaded chain. From afar and up close, she was a lady of impeccable taste.
“Wynne, when did you start liking vintage?” Emily, with her keen eye, immediately noticed that Yuan Ning’s dress wasn’t a new seasonal piece from any brand.
Wearing old-fashioned clothes is not Yuan Ning's style. As for those vintage dresses from years ago, they naturally represent a different kind of sophisticated taste.
Of course, in the past, Yuan Ning and Emily were always very knowledgeable about the latest seasonal styles of various brands and could chat about them endlessly.
Yuan Ning, with an elegant posture, gently tapped her chin twice: "Yes, to pay tribute to Audrey Hepburn."
After smiling, she continued to flip through the menu in her hand. When it was her turn to order, she quickly glanced at the expensive main courses on the right and calmly looked at the reasonably priced soup of the day and appetizer salad on the left.
After selecting her desired dishes, she looked up, her long neck slender, her chin slightly raised, and gazed in the direction of the waiter: "Excuse me, I'd like a chicory salad with roasted pears and a serving of goose and zucchini cheese. Please serve the dressing separately, thank you."
Closing the menu and handing it back to the waiter, Yuan Ning turned to face her three friends, revealing a flawless, slightly arrogant smile: "I've been controlling my carbs lately; Professor Miller's final project has made me so anxious that I have no appetite."
Emily blinked. "That's why you didn't order your favorite black cod with lime juice."
Amanda's family owns a bank. She had been hesitating for a while about whether to order sea bass or black cod when she heard this. She looked up and said, "Wynne, you're really something. You already have such a great figure, do you want people to live?"
Yuan Ning picked up her black coffee, took a sip, and masked all her emotions with a smile.
“Mr. Elias van der Berg, your recent financial tactics against traditional industries have been extremely egregious. As the legal heir to Viscount van der Berg, please do not emulate those barbaric nouveau riche!”
The four girls exchanged glances. Balthazar restaurant serves all sorts of people, from socialites and white-collar workers to wealthy college students like themselves. Without exception, they all belong to the upper class, and their meals, often costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars, keep out anyone who doesn't belong to that class.
Three men in suits sat at the next table. One of them, an older man, spoke with a very strong British accent, an accent rarely heard in New York City these days. The four girls were all curious about him and couldn't help but strain their ears to listen.
The man being accused was facing away from Yuan Ning, and Yuan Ning could turn slightly to face his back and admire him directly.
He was wearing a perfectly tailored charcoal gray three-piece suit. Even just his back view was enough for Yuan Ning to focus her gaze on him, giving him a very casual, sweeping look.
Yuan Ning was very studious, and her textile science classes taught her a lot about how to judge the upper class.
His suit was made of a blend of rare 150-count vicuña wool and ZT wool, which gave it a deep, subtly velvety sheen under the crystal chandelier, a quality that industrial production could never match.
He unbuttoned his suit jacket, revealing a glimpse of a platinum pocket watch chain peeking out from the edge of the left pocket of his waistcoat. A very old-fashioned gentleman's outfit.
He held a cigar between his fingers, resting it on the arm of his chair, looking relaxed. A Patek Philippe watch was visible through his sleeve.
He is a man of great taste and great wealth.
Despite the rebuke from the old English gentleman, the young viscount heir named Elias remained unperturbed.
With his exceptionally neatly trimmed hand, revealing blue veins and holding a cigar, he gently swirled the single malt whisky in front of him, still without ice. Yuan Ning had always considered blue an extremely noble color, and blue gemstones the most expensive.
“Viscount Montfort, you should know that I am not the kind of spoiled brat who can live off a family trust fund.”
Viscount Montfort's expression changed; his son was exactly the "spoiled brat" Elias had mentioned.
Hearing this, Amanda turned her ear back, shrugged, and whispered, "Honestly, I don't know what those nobles who came to New York City from England hundreds of years ago are still so arrogant about? Old money represents lineage and heritage, but now New York City is the domain of the nouveau riche. I heard that Eleanor's tech company president boyfriend gave her a Christmas present last year by depositing two million dollars into a Chanel store."
Emily covered her mouth in surprise: "My God, tech companies make so much money?"
Yuan Ning sighed inwardly, realizing that she and Emily could only afford a dozen or so Chanel pieces a year; the freedom of owning a Chanel was every girl's dream.
Aside from Yuan Ning, the three girls at the table started chatting about the new season's clothes. They talked about how Eleanor could get the store to deliver the entire new season's clothes to her home, and she only needed to pick out the ones she didn't want to return, and the store would then deduct the money from the account her boyfriend had saved for her.
Yuan Ning rarely remained silent. The more they talked about these things, the more it felt like knives stabbing her in the heart, reminding her that she could no longer afford a Chanel. She was already putting on a show by sitting here in this restaurant. A salad worth $45 was not enough to fill her stomach. They also had no idea that she didn't own a single Chanel item anymore.
The three girls became more and more excited as they talked, their voices rising like champagne bubbles.
"Two million US dollars!" Emily exclaimed excitedly. "That's enough for me to bring home every season's Chanel ready-to-wear collection!"
Amanda rolled her eyes, her voice sweet and cloying: "Darling, ready-to-wear? Eleanor only wears haute couture now."
Stella, standing nearby, chimed in: "If you ask me, the real upper class is the one who can make you bring the entire Chanel boutique home, not the old money or the new rich."
A young girl with some financial resources would inevitably be extremely superficial in her comments on this matter.
As soon as she finished speaking, the two elderly gentlemen at the next table, who were fluent in grammar and spoke eloquently, suddenly stopped talking and looked towards their table.
*
Three days ago, on an ordinary Tuesday morning, Yuan Ning enjoyed the daily English breakfast delivered by the hotel in her penthouse apartment on Garden Avenue. She then planned to drive her pink BMW convertible to Parsons School of Design to see her professor. Professor Miller had mentioned a few days ago that he would introduce her to an internship at a brand house, where she would provide styling guidance to VIP clients, but Yuan Ning was still hesitant.
She doesn't need to earn extra money through internships. Rather than serving the wealthy clients of brand houses, she would prefer an internship at a fashion magazine, if she could get one.
Just as she was standing in the dressing room choosing what to wear that day, the doorbell rang.
She opened the door, and standing outside were a well-dressed but expressionless middle-aged Asian man carrying a briefcase, a blonde middle-aged woman in a custom-made suit with impeccable manners, and two property security guards wearing walkie-talkies.
"Good morning, Ms. Meng Yuanning. I am Ms. Wang Xiulin's lawyer. Ms. Wang is your father's legal wife." The man handed over a document with a pure white cover. "Based on the evidence Ms. Wang possesses, all your expenses, including this apartment and, of course, the beautiful BMW downstairs, are derived from Ms. Wang's marital property, and Ms. Wang has the right to recover them. This is a temporary freeze and asset return order issued by the New York City Supreme Court."
Just as the man was babbling a bunch of things Yuan Ning couldn't understand, the blonde middle-aged woman stepped into Yuan Ning's apartment in high heels.
Yuan Ning wore a pink fluffy hair tie to hold back her stray hairs. Her well-maintained face was porcelain white and smooth, with a round forehead and full cheeks. Her skin shone with a glossy sheen after applying a morning mask. Her carefully maintained black curly hair was loosely gathered behind her shoulders, making her look expensive and refined. She wore a pink flannel loungewear set with the Barbie logo, making her look like a porcelain doll.
The woman went straight in, without touching Yuan Ning's body at all.
Everything happened so compliantly, rigorously, and flawlessly.
Yuan Ning was still confused about the current situation and did not know how someone would strike her hard and send her crashing down to the bottom.
"Hey! Stop right there!"
She waved her phone in her hand: "If you take another step, I will call the police, and you will be arrested for trespassing."
The man, who claimed to be her lawyer, approached her and said, "I think you haven't grasped the situation yet. If you don't voluntarily hand over all the property belonging to Ms. Wang, also known as Mrs. Meng, during her marriage, we will ask the court to arrest you for 'misappropriation of other people's property'."
Yuan Ning didn't open the document stamped with the court's seal, but instead looked at the blonde woman.
She maintained a professional smile throughout, even nodding slightly at the apartment's decor, and was seen making notes on a document with a pen, inspecting the property belonging to her client.
"Madam, please be aware that all our operations are legal and compliant."
The male lawyer gestured to two property staff members, who then made a move to ask Yuan Ning to leave.
With trembling hands, Yuan Ning opened her phone, wanting to make an overseas call to her father.
The blonde woman surveyed the entire apartment building, making a general record of Yuan Ning's assets.
"Ms. Meng, your taste in home decor is quite good, but to own three Birkin bags while still in university, tsk, don't you think you have absolutely no use for them?"
"Don't touch it!" Yuan Ning shouted, frantically dialing the phone with one hand.
The male lawyer gently reminded her: "Ms. Meng, any luxury goods with significant investment and value preservation characteristics fall under the category of assets that can be seized. Just a reminder, the international long-distance call you're making to your father in China right now is extremely expensive, costing approximately three US dollars per minute. Are you sure you'll have enough assets to top up the call credit after this call?"
Yuan Ning, clutching her phone, was stunned by these words. Three dollars a minute? No money to top up her phone credit? Could this really happen to her? Good heavens, where did this homeless person come from! Just last week, she had spent an hour on the phone with her father back in China while lying on the sofa!
What happened next was extremely chaotic. Yuan Ning had no room to resist until she confirmed that all her bank cards were indeed frozen and she couldn't withdraw a single US dollar. Only then did she get the result of what had happened.
"Ms. Meng, considering that you are indeed related to Mr. Meng by blood, and that Mr. Meng's legal wife, Ms. Wang, has a duty to support you, Ms. Wang is willing to cover part of your living expenses during your university years. Five hundred US dollars will be deposited into your account on time each month."
Five hundred dollars? That's not even enough for one dinner!
Yuan Ning was about to cause trouble when, just then, the blonde woman's phone rang. She turned around, answered the phone, and after exchanging a few words with the person on the other end, handed the phone to Yuan Ning.
"Ms. Meng, Mrs. Meng has a few words she would like to say to you."
Yuan Ning didn't know any Mrs. Meng or Ms. Wang at all. Her mother was Mrs. Meng, and her mother's surname was Qiao. She had always been very close to her father, and they lived together. Her parents had an excellent relationship. Her father was busy with work and didn't come home often, but whenever he was home, he would spend all his time with her and her mother. In her parents' bedroom hung their wedding photos taken in Hawaii when they were young; everything looked so happy and perfect.
However, after searching through her memory, she realized that she had never seen her parents' marriage certificate.
"Meng Yuanning".
The voice on the phone was completely unfamiliar, calling out her full name and not ignoring her surname "Meng".
This voice was different from that of her stunningly beautiful mother, who, even in her forties, retained a youthful charm.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Please don't criticize the female lead; her birth was innocent. If you want to criticize, criticize the men instead.
The female lead did not return to China to fight for the inheritance; she had her own world and career.
This article advocates common prosperity and opposes capitalism.
Happy reading! Let's spend a warm winter together! This will be a very delicious story!
*This is a fictional world with varying laws, technology, and place names. It is based on the story and is not modern. It is based on the year 2000.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com