21. Snow in a silver bowl
◎So this is what they call a "wife-chasing-after-the-cremation" scenario? ◎
Li Xiran took out the pink gemstone, placed it in his palm, and personally held it up for Shang Xinuan to admire.
The young lady merely frowned, her expression towards the pink gemstone somewhat indifferent, yet wary of Li Xiran.
"Nuan Nuan, I think you'll like it."
He truly understood her well, and the gifts he gave her were exactly what the young lady liked.
But at this moment, she couldn't accept the gift without any reservations or reservations.
"Li Xiran, thank you for your thoughtfulness. But you should probably take this pink diamond back, or perhaps give it to your fiancée instead."
Shang Xinuan lazily sat down on the soft couch, her eyes filled with indifferent coldness.
Li Xiran sighed softly, then moved to stand in front of the young lady. "Regarding the statement about my fiancée, the Li Group has already issued a clarification."
Shang Xinuan remembered that she saw the news about Li Xiran being critically ill and his mother and fiancée going to visit him, and only a dozen minutes later, he suddenly appeared at the Shang family home.
Therefore, she was unaware of any further clarification statements issued by the Li Group.
However, although the young lady was curious, she wasn't very curious.
Seeing that Li Xiran's complexion was getting worse and worse, she just wanted to send him back to the hospital.
"Li Xiran, whether the Li family issues a clarification statement or not, and how you explain your relationship with Miss Bai, is none of my business." She stood up agitatedly, shoving Li Xiran out of the bedroom. Even the velvet gift box containing pink rubies was thrown out through the crack in the door.
Hearing the dull thud of the 400 million yuan gift box hitting the ground, the young lady couldn't help but tremble slightly.
"Warm and cozy?"
"Li Xiran, my fence will be reinforced with a protective electric fence tomorrow. If you're not afraid of dying, then keep climbing."
After saying that, Shang Xinuan immediately drew the curtains shut.
He didn't even spare Li Xiran a glance.
After this, her garden finally found peace and quiet.
After a long while, the young lady slowly got up and tentatively pulled back a corner of the curtain.
In the vast garden, apart from the climbing roses swaying in the wind, there was nothing else to be seen.
Strangely enough, although the young lady was clearly annoyed when she asked him to leave, she felt a sudden emptiness in her heart after he was sure he was really gone.
She didn't like having the curtains closed during the day, so she angrily pulled the entire curtain open by hand, and because she was venting her anger, she almost tore off a corner of the curtain.
Then her gaze fell on the velvet gift box that Li Xiran had left behind in front of the one-way glass.
"Unreasonable." Shang Xinuan glanced at her coldly, then turned around and reached for her phone to call Aunt Hui. "Find any driver and have him deliver something back to the Li family."
She was Shang Xinuan, and she liked that pink gemstone.
But there isn't only one pink gem in this world.
-
After resolving the gift issue, the young lady collapsed onto the bed again, feeling utterly dejected.
She stared up at the ceiling, looking somewhat bored.
As if he had thought of something else, he hesitated for a long time before finally taking out his phone and opening the Shanghai Entertainment News.
As expected, the news that "[Li Xiran, Chairman of the Li Group, fell from a building and is in critical condition! His mother and fiancée visited him at the hospital, shedding tears at the scene.]" was followed by a clarification statement from the Li Group.
The entire event took only five minutes, but the online buzz and attention it garnered were five times that of entertainment news reports.
Shang Xin's fingertips tapped and swiped across the phone screen for a long time before finally giving in to her heart and clicking into the official website of the Li Group.
The first thing you see is a prominent legal statement from the Li family: 【Clarification: Our Chairman, Li Xiran, is single. Please be careful with your words and do not affect our brotherly relationship.】
Although it was a very simple clarification letter, it seemed to contain a lot of information.
The last sentence, "Do not affect the brotherly relationship," refers to the fact that Li Xiran and Li Xiran are of the same generation. The only person who can be called a brother to him is Qiao Xi's maternal uncle, Li Yuzhan.
Shang Xinuan only considered this guess for a moment before finding it utterly absurd.
However, the comments section seemed to offer a different perspective.
[It is also unknown that the Li family has two branches, with the eldest branch's entire family living in seclusion. Li Xiran's cousin, Li Yuzhan, is a judge at the Shanghai Supreme People's Court.]
[Don't affect the brotherhood, which means don't affect the relationship between Li Xiran and Li Yuzhan. Because of Bai Quesi?]
[So Bai Quesi is Li Yuzhan's girlfriend, but because she's always with Li Xiran's mother, she's mistaken for the second wife's daughter-in-law?]
[The person upstairs is really clever. No wonder they only referred to her as the Li family's daughter-in-law when speaking to the media, instead of saying she was Li Xiran's wife.]
[Here's a secret from your social circle. Bai Quesi is the illegitimate daughter of the Bai family. The Bai family wants to use her for a marriage alliance in Shanghai; they'll marry her off to whoever has power or influence.]
[The Bai family initially chose Shang Dan, but the Shang family was unwilling to get involved with the Bai family, which is why they contacted Chen Shaoyi.]
Shang Xin Nuan Du laughed speechlessly.
The young lady had roughly figured out the cause and effect.
The Bai family has taken a liking to her brother, but the Shang family has no desire to associate with the Bai family, who operate in the gray market.
They then turned their attention to the Li family, and taking advantage of the power struggle between Chen Shaoyi and Li Xiran, they wanted to marry Bai Quesi to Li Xiran.
Unfortunately, Bai Quesi and the Bai family are not on the same page.
She was willing to marry into the Li family, but she didn't want to be a puppet. Somehow, she ended up getting involved with Li Yuzhan, who worked in the legal system.
Therefore, this is also the reason why Bai Quesi and Li Xiran formed an alliance.
They all wanted to break free from the control of their families, so they used media trends to temporarily deceive Chen Shaoyi and the Bai family.
We should wait until they have enough time to fight back, and then take advantage of a stronger public opinion to set things right.
Am I the only one who finds this relationship compelling? One is a Supreme Court judge, deciding sentences with a single gavel; the other is an auctioneer, worth millions with a single gavel. One decides a person's fate; the other decides their fortune.
[I was suddenly tagged by someone upstairs!]
Shang Xinuan recalled the first time she met Bai Quesi. At the time, she only felt that Bai Quesi had a refined temperament, but she did not notice that there was a slightly bitter look in her eyes.
Therefore, the reason she chose Li Yuzhan, who was slightly inferior to Li Xiran in both appearance and wealth, was because of his profession.
However, she rarely saw Li Yuzhan; she only heard Qiao Xi mention him a few times in a huff.
He was described as a rigid and serious scholar, and after studying law, he lost even the last bit of human kindness towards his niece.
But in Shang Xinuan's few memories, Li Yuzhan had played basketball with Shang Dan. His personality didn't seem to be as dull as Qiao Xi described; on the contrary, he was cheerful and outgoing, and could make the girls watching around him laugh with just a few words.
The only thing that made her hesitate slightly was that Bai Quesi was the same age as Li Xiran, which meant she was three years older than Li Yuzhan.
Before the young lady could recover from her chaotic thoughts, she saw the replies that followed.
If Li Yuzhan and Bai Quesi are a couple, then I'll definitely ship the famous couple, Li Xiran and Shang Xinuan.
[A gentle older man versus a spoiled heiress—I know the answer to this one!]
My friend who works at the Li Corporation said that half of Li Xiran's office is his daughter's study—he's incredibly spoiled. He rarely appears at the company, except for the few months when Shang Xinuan was there; he showed up every day.
According to incomplete statistics, Li Xiran has publicly participated in 30 auctions, all of which were for the young lady.
[If you don't understand, why didn't anyone come out to clarify when Bai Quesi was rumored to be his fiancée?]
This touched on a blind spot for almost everyone, and the question went unanswered.
Amidst the continuous comments and questions, the official account of the Li Group directly responded: "Because the chairman was attacked in Zurich at that time, the company was unable to confirm the authenticity of the statement."
Why did it take so long to clarify this?
Li Group: [Because the chairman went to the desert to pursue the young lady, it's inconvenient for company personnel to disturb him.]
[Pursuing the young lady? Is that what I mean?]
[Is Li Xiran pursuing Shang Xinuan? Didn't Shang Xinuan have a crush on Li Xiran for years, and even fall off a horse because she was heartbroken over his engagement?]
The Li Group: [This is not a one-sided love affair; the chairman has been in love with Ms. Shang for many years. No further details can be disclosed.]
[That made everyone in Shanghai think the young lady had a crush on him. I heard she angrily shut down her study and went to the desert to clear her head. The Shang family and the Li family still haven't reached an agreement on the third-quarter contract.]
[So this is what they call a "wife-chasing-after-the-cremation" scenario?]
Shang Xinuan's brow twitched; her phone had become a hot potato.
She never expected that this whole affair would eventually come back to haunt her.
Furthermore, after her fall from a horse, numerous online posts appeared on Shanghai forums criticizing the Shang family for producing women with a "love-obsessed" mentality.
The young lady was still shaken and dared not continue watching, fearing that the next topic would become the Shang family.
At that moment, Qiao Xi called her.
"How did Bai Quesi become my aunt?" As soon as she answered the phone, Qiao Xi's excited voice came through the receiver, "I can't accept it!"
This is a family matter for the Li family, and Shang Xinuan has no right to judge it.
"My uncle has such a solid revolutionary background!"
"Never mind, I'm going back to Shanghai tomorrow. I'm the first to reject this marriage!"
After saying that, she seemed not to care what Shang Xinuan thought, and hurriedly hung up the phone.
Finally, I sent her a message: "Please pick me up from the airport tomorrow afternoon, my darling."
The young lady's vision went black, and she suffered from insomnia all night again.
The more she tried not to recall those past events about her and Li Xiran, the more the memories clung to her.
Finally, she swallowed two melatonin pills and drifted off to sleep at dawn.
When she woke up the next day, there was only one hour left before the time she and Qiao Xi had agreed to meet at the airport.
Shang Xinuan didn't have time to put on makeup; she just washed her face and did some skincare before changing her clothes and running outside.
"The family doesn't even have a driver anymore?" The young lady stood at the security booth, hands on her hips, looking disheveled.
"Yes." Because she only woke up in the afternoon, and the drivers had all gone out on business with others in the morning, no one knew that Shang Xinuan still needed anything.
After thinking it over, Shang Xinuan said, "Just give me any car key, and I'll drive myself."
"Chairman Shang has instructed that you are not allowed to drive recently."
Shang Xinuan is a spendthrift princess; every car she drives out never comes back unscathed.
It's either scratched paint, or the car door and bumper are damaged.
She used to have a personal driver, but when Li Xiran became her driver, Shang Dan took him away.
The young lady glanced at the time. "Never mind, I'll take a taxi!"
Shang Xinuan, carrying a small bag, walked out of the villa area and stood at the intersection for a long time but no taxis passed by.
She doesn't usually use ride-hailing apps, so she didn't think of it for a moment.
Adding to her recent relationship troubles, she felt even more frustrated.
Helpless, the young lady left Qiao Xi a message: 【I can't get a taxi. Wait for me a bit after you land.】
On a June afternoon, the perceived temperature was nearly 35°C.
While waiting for the bus, she glanced at herself on her phone.
Even though the screen was black, it was still easy to see that her face was pale and her lips were bloodless.
Because she was standing in the wind, her hair was disheveled and she was sweating a lot, which was a stark contrast to her usual glamorous image as a young lady.
Shang Xinuan looked around, picked a car from the roadside, and walked over.
Black car windows are perfect mirrors for applying lipstick; light pink lipstick can give a natural, healthy glow to bare skin.
Just as she was halfway through applying the paint, the black car window suddenly rolled down, revealing a face she knew all too well.
Li Xiran, unusually, took the initiative to drive, with one hand lazily resting on the steering wheel as he watched her apply lipstick.
The young lady was slightly embarrassed, but her anger only intensified. She said to him irritably, "Can't you see I'm putting on lipstick? Roll up the car window!"
Li Xiran was only slightly taken aback, then obediently rolled up the passenger window.
Before Shang Xin could even reapply her lipstick, he got out of the car.
He grabbed the young lady's wrist and carried her into the passenger seat.
He bent down and blocked the doorway, not giving Shang Xinuan a chance to leave.
He then pulled down the sun visor on the passenger side, carefully opened the rearview mirror, and said, "It's so hot outside, sit here and apply it."
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