The library’s huge domed chandelier cast a warm yellow light onto the dusty bookshelves, making even the air seem to solidify into amber.
Yu Jiuyuan sat by the window, a silver bookmark between her fingers, casually tracing the gold-embossed title between the pages.
The shadows of the camphor trees outside the window swayed, falling on her drooping eyelashes like tiny butterfly wings.
She only slowly raised her eyes when a cool shadow loomed over her.
Su Jingshu stood by the table, her school uniform skirt covered in bits of grass, clearly indicating that she had come from the garden.
She wasn't as aggressive as she had been in the student council office yesterday; she simply placed the brown paper bag she was holding lightly on the table, making a dull thud.
"This contains the Su family's itinerary for the charity gala, as well as a structural diagram of the western suburbs factory."
Su Jingshu pulled out the chair opposite her and sat down, her movements as light as if afraid of disturbing the sleeping time. "My father plans to leave the banquet midway through to meet an 'important client' at the factory. Actually, he's going to collect the final payment for a gray income."
Yu Jiuyuan didn't touch the paper bag. Instead, she tucked the bookmark into the pages and closed the book.
The book is titled "The Compendium of Poisonous Herbs," and the cover features a picture of a datura tree in full bloom.
"Are you so sure I'll help you?"
Her voice was soft, mingling with the occasional birdsong from outside the window, making her sound exceptionally innocent. "After all, the downfall of the Su family doesn't seem to benefit me directly."
"How could there not be?" Su Jingshu smiled, a smile that concealed an almost cruel clarity.
"Rong Shenghan is staying in your villa precisely to investigate the power behind the Su family, isn't he? If I help you uproot the Su family, that hidden force will naturally surface. Then, wouldn't it be much easier for you to do whatever you want?"
Her fingertips traced circles on the table, her gaze falling on Yu Jiuyuan's sapphire-encrusted watch, a gift from Xie Zhecheng last month, which was said to be one of only three in the world.
“Moreover,” Su Jingshu paused, her tone carrying a subtle hint of probing.
"Those two from the Ji family seem to be keeping a close eye on you lately. The Su family has some dirt on the Ji Group from its early years. If you could get your hands on it, wouldn't that make them more 'obedient'?"
Yu Jiuyuan's eyelashes trembled.
She recalled the white breath Ji Nianqin exhaled on her car window last night, saying, "Jiu Yuan always smiles so sweetly at others, I get jealous."
I also recalled the anger and obsession surging in Ji Luoqin's bloodshot eyes when she was tormented by aphrodisiacs.
That's really interesting.
She thought about it casually, but her face showed just the right amount of hesitation: "But what about Lin Yanran..."
"I've already thought of something for you."
Su Jingshu immediately responded, taking out a gold-embossed invitation from her pocket.
"The Lin family will receive a special invitation to the banquet, and Lin Yanran must accompany his father. There will be an antique auction at the banquet. He has recently become fascinated with Song Dynasty official kiln porcelain, so I had someone spread the word that a celadon plate will be the grand finale."
She pushed the invitation over, her fingertips almost touching Yu Jiuyuan's hand.
“Once he enters the auction house, he will never leave halfway through. By the time he realizes what's happening, the Su family's affairs will have already been settled.”
Yu Jiuyuan picked up the invitation and ran her fingertips along the raised patterns on it.
Sunlight streamed through the glass window, gilding the edges of the invitation and illuminating the fleeting shadow in Su Jingshu's eyes.
“You seem to know everyone’s weaknesses like the back of your hand,” Yu Jiuyuan suddenly said, her tone as calm as if she were talking about the weather.
Su Jingshu's smile froze for a moment, then relaxed again: "Growing up in a place like the Su family, if you didn't even have this much skill, you would have died eight hundred times over."
She paused, then suddenly lowered her voice, "Just like you, Yu Jiuyuan, do you think you've hidden it well?"
Yu Jiuyuan looked up at her.
“Your ‘special’ relationship with Rong Shenghan, your ‘dependence’ on Xie Zhecheng, and your ‘aloofness’ towards the Ji brothers…” Su Jingshu’s voice was like a thread, entwined with a dangerous undertone.
"You manipulate them all just to make them completely devoted to you, don't you?"
The air seemed to stand still.
The soft rustling of pages turning from deep within the bookshelf made the silence all the more eerie.
Yu Jiuyuan suddenly smiled, a smile as innocent as that of a child unaware of the ways of the world: "Miss Su is overthinking it. I just... am quite popular."
"Really?" Su Jingshu raised an eyebrow. "What about Yuan Xu? I heard he recently cultivated a new variety of rose in the lab and used your name as a code name."
Yu Jiuyuan's smile remained unchanged, but a chill crept into her heart.
Yuan Xu's laboratory has always been a forbidden area, so Su Jing Shu's knowledge of this must have involved a lot of behind-the-scenes maneuvering.
"It seems that Miss Su has indeed put in a lot of effort to persuade me."
Yu Jiuyuan picked up the brown paper bag, stood up, and said, "I'll consider it. But before that, you'd better make sure these things are genuine."
As she turned to leave, Su Jingshu suddenly said from behind, "Yu Jiuyuan, we are actually the same."
Yu Jiuyuan did not stop walking.
"We are all using other people's feelings to achieve our own goals."
Su Jingshu's voice had an almost bewitching penetrating power.
"You're just luckier than me, born to stand at a high place. But remember, the higher you stand, the more painful it will be when you fall."
As Yu Jiuyuan walked out of the library, she bumped into Xie Zhecheng coming out of the teaching building across the street.
He was wearing a well-tailored dark suit, holding a thick foreign language journal in his hand. His gaze, behind his gold-rimmed glasses, fell on the brown paper bag in her hand, and he paused slightly.
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