“Is it snowing?”

Rong Qian walked up to the largest Christmas tree standing in the center of the square. She looked up — and sure enough, white flakes were drifting slowly down from the night sky. She held out her hand, and a snowflake fell onto her palm, met the warmth there, and melted.

“Yes, it’s snowing.” Shen Yi stood beside her. His hands were tucked into his coat pockets. He tilted his head back, and from beneath his jaw to his throat, a perfectly curved arc of his neckline was visible.

The couples around them began embracing and kissing. The two of them found themselves surrounded, and Rong Qian felt a wave of awkwardness — there was a minor in their midst!

“Ahem, let’s go, let’s get something to eat.” She cleared her throat to cover her embarrassment, and dragged Shen Yi away from the scene.

In the end, they wound up at a KFC.

The place was lively — full of small children running back and forth. Everyone who came in received a cute headband shaped like deer antlers, with little lights that blinked and glowed.

And then Rong Qian found herself looking at Shen Yi, who was wearing the most adorably blinking deer-antler headband while maintaining the straightest possible face — and she burst out laughing.

Shen Yi looked at her with cool indifference. “Is it that funny?”

“Ha ha ha ha! It’s not funny at all — it’s just very cute.” Rong Qian laughed freely and openly, and when she looked over at Fu Bozhong and the two bodyguards, who had been pressed into wearing the headbands as well and looked thoroughly put-upon, she laughed even harder.

Shen Yi propped his chin in his hand and watched her, unable to look away.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

Rong Qian laughed herself out and only then noticed Shen Yi had been watching her the whole time.

Shen Yi looked away. “No reason,” he said lightly.

“Oh.” Rong Qian focused on her burger without paying it much mind.

Just then, a little boy in a small suit and leather shoes came bounding happily into the restaurant, a middle-aged man in a suit trailing close behind him.

“Driver! I want to eat this!”

“Young Master, the Madam said no unhealthy food. We really should go.”

“No! I want to eat it!”

The little boy began to throw a tantrum. Rong Qian was the first to look over — and upon seeing the middle-aged man, her expression shifted into something peculiar.

Shen Yi hadn’t been watching those two, but he noticed the change in Rong Qian’s expression. He asked: “What’s wrong?”

“That person—” she began — and at that moment the little boy suddenly spotted Shen Yi, and his face lit up. He scrambled up from the floor and ran straight over: “Big brother! You’re here too? That’s great — you can buy it for me!”

Shen Yi ignored him and gestured to Fu Bozhong.

Fu Bozhong immediately stepped forward and guided Shen Feng Ran back toward the middle-aged man. When the middle-aged man saw Shen Yi and Rong Qian sitting together, he froze.

That woman — wasn’t she the same one he had seen in the Young Master Shen Yi’s apartment when he had escorted the Madam to Number 17, Sheng Luo Street that time?

So the wrong-address story was a lie — this woman was clearly living with Young Master Shen Yi. He had to hurry back and tell the Madam.

And so he hastily bought Shen Feng Ran a children’s meal and hustled him out the door.

As he was being led away, Shen Feng Ran looked back once more at the woman sitting with Shen Yi.

He tilted his head with a puzzled, curious expression — but said nothing.

Rong Qian asked Shen Yi: “Who’s that child?”

Shen Yi said nothing. Fu Bozhong quietly cleared his throat, gave Rong Qian a meaningful glance, and said: “That child’s name is Shen Feng Ran.”

Rong Qian caught his hint, understood that the little boy she had just seen was Shen Chi and Meng Yuxin’s illegitimate son, and smoothly carried on as if nothing had happened, turning back to enjoy the meal with Shen Yi.

But the two of them hadn’t eaten for long when Fu Bozhong came over again.

He leaned down and murmured a few words in Shen Yi’s ear. Shen Yi turned and looked toward the road outside — a car was parked there, window rolled down, and through it appeared a face he knew all too well.

Shen Yi’s brow furrowed slightly. He glanced at Rong Qian, who was still contentedly dipping her fries into ketchup, then stood and said to her: “When you’re done eating, Fu Bo will drive you home. I have something to take care of — I may not be back early. Get some rest.”

“Where are you going?”

Shen Yi looked out through the glass. Rong Qian followed his gaze — and understood. “Alright, go on then,” she said.

“Even if he has seen you, I won’t let him touch a hair on your head.”

Before he left, Shen Yi said this to her. Rong Qian stopped. Then she couldn’t help but smile.

You sweet fool — he still didn’t know she had already met Shen Chi.

“I know. I trust you.” Rong Qian gave him an encouraging thumbs up.

Before getting into the black car, Shen Yi turned and looked back at Rong Qian through the glass window. She was waving at him with both hands raised, making a few gestures he only half-understood, her smile brilliant and wide — not a trace of the composure one might expect from an adult. Often, she was more childlike than he was.

In that moment, she looked to him like a little girl.

The corner of Shen Yi’s mouth curved involuntarily. He gazed at her with eyes full of warmth and tender indulgence, as though she were the most precious thing in the world.

From inside the car, Shen Chi was watching Shen Yi’s every move. He recognized that look all too well — it was the look a man wore when gazing at the woman he loved.

When Meng Yuxin heard that Shen Chi had returned only to go straight to Shen Yi, her carefully laid candlelit dinner was swept off the table in a fit of temper. She raged, then shut herself in her room.

She had no illusions that Shen Chi would come to placate her. Truth be told, from the day she had married into this household, Shen Chi had never once touched her.

Meng Yuxin had already steeled herself for future battles with whatever mistress or other woman he kept on the side. She was certain of it — Shen Chi must have someone else. It was the only explanation for how he could hold himself back from her all this time.

Hmph. No matter what kind of woman he eventually brought home, she was the mistress of this household. That would never change.

“Madam!”

Meng Yuxin, drinking alone in her room, heard someone calling her. She didn’t feel like responding. She didn’t feel like opening the door either.

But the person outside had no intention of stopping, knocking and calling all the while: “Madam! I have something important to tell you — please open the door!”

The incessant noise wore her down, and she finally got up to answer. At the door stood the middle-aged man; the moment Meng Yuxin appeared, he told her everything about seeing Shen Yi and Rong Qian together.

“You’re saying that woman was with Shen Yi?” Meng Yuxin’s eyes narrowed with a calculating glint.

The middle-aged man nodded. “Yes. Fu Bozhong was there too, and from the look of things, they’ve all become quite familiar with each other.”

“Who on earth is that woman?” Meng Yuxin couldn’t make sense of it. If that woman and Shen Yi were genuinely involved in the way she was imagining, Fu Bozhong would never simply stand by without saying or doing anything about it.

“Mummy! I saw her!”

Shen Feng Ran came running over excitedly at that very moment, gesturing with animated delight. Meng Yuxin couldn’t help but ask: “You saw what?”

“The angel sister from the painting!” His eyes were absolutely shining.

Meng Yuxin frowned. “What angel sister from the painting?”

She had heard that Shen Chi kept a certain painting he treasured deeply — no one was permitted to see it, not even her.

She had later found out that the scar on Shen Chi’s face had been given to him by the woman in the painting. Some said the woman in the painting was his former wife, Yan Qingyao.

If it was Yan Qingyao, Meng Yuxin had no particular curiosity about it. And so she had never bothered to go sneak a look.

“The sister who was sitting with big brother! She looks exactly like the angel sister in Daddy’s painting — I saw her!” Shen Feng Ran could barely contain himself; he wanted to share his discovery with everyone.

The color drained from Meng Yuxin’s face.

The woman in the painting wasn’t Yan Qingyao — she was the woman living with Shen Yi?

Then, like a sudden flash of clarity striking her all at once, Meng Yuxin gasped: “I understand now. That woman — she’s Shen Chi’s mistress!”

Everything fell into place. No wonder Shen Chi had been so willing to let Shen Yi come back — because they had been in contact all along. And that woman was the new stepmother Shen Chi had arranged for Shen Yi.

Meng Yuxin was beside herself with fury. She absolutely would not allow this to happen.

The middle-aged man thought it strange. “But Madam, Shen Chi’s face was injured by that woman — could she really be his mistress?”

“What do you know! Men like that — the more they can’t have something, the more they want it. That woman must have been playing hard to get, deliberately hurting his face to keep him thinking about her.” The more Meng Yuxin spoke, the angrier she became — especially when she thought about how Rong Qian had treated her.

No wonder she had been so brazen. She was a home-wrecker all along.

“That wretched woman — when I saw her that time, I should have slashed that face of hers right then and there!”

The middle-aged man cautioned her: “Madam, please calm yourself first. Shall we verify the painting?”

That reminded Meng Yuxin. She made up her mind on the spot: “Go look right now. If the woman in that painting truly looks identical to her — I will not let her off.”