Chapter 8

Chapter 8

It was still early, so Wen Mochuan went upstairs to take a shower first.

Jiang Yiyan's offer to help Feng Ma in the kitchen was just an excuse. Once Wen Mochuan left the living room and headed upstairs, Jiang Yiyan emerged from the kitchen again.

Her daughter, Meimei, had stopped playing with her Lego set and instead picked up a drawing board. She sat quietly on the side, immersed in her world of painting. Jiang Yiyan stood behind her silently for a moment, watching her daughter concentrate. Not wanting to disturb her, she slipped away quietly.

She returned to her cozy spot and curled up on the sofa to continue reading her unfinished novel.

When Wen Mochuan came downstairs after his shower, he had changed into a different outfit.

He wore a simple white T-shirt and a pair of khaki-colored casual shorts. His hair, half-dried after the shower, fell loosely over his forehead, the ends just brushing above his eyes.

Paired with his handsome and refined face, he looked like a friendly older brother standing right there.

The couple, one descending from upstairs and the other sitting on the sofa downstairs, both happened to look at each other at the same time, their gazes meeting.

However, the eye contact lasted only for a brief second before they both slowly averted their eyes, looking elsewhere.

Jiang Yiyan resumed reading her novel, while Wen Mochuan sat down in the resting area next to his daughter.

Wen Meimei was completely absorbed in her own world. Even as her father approached, she remained focused without breaking her concentration.

After she finished her painting meticulously, she put down her brush and excitedly held up her artwork, asking her father, "Daddy, how is my painting?"

Wen Meimei's painting was simple: a depiction of a family of three holding hands on a lawn, with a large sun overhead. The figures were abstract, and one could only distinguish between male and female through their hairstyles.

Of course, the figure being held by two hands was clearly her.

"Beautiful," Wen Mochuan said, giving his approval after a quick glance.

Even though the painting was simple and its meaning clear at a glance, Wen Meimei feared that her father might not have understood it fully. She pointed to each figure with her little finger, introducing them to him.

"This is Daddy, this is Mommy, and this is Meimei." She introduced them solemnly, pointing to each figure with her fair finger.

Looking at the nearly identical faces and expressions on the paper, Wen Mochuan smiled.

After showing off her work to her father, Wen Meimei turned around and spotted her mother sitting nearby. She immediately ran over to her mother with her painting.

"Mommy, look at the painting I just did." She snuggled into her mother's arms and introduced the figures once more. "This is Daddy, this is Mommy, and the one in the middle is Meimei."

Unlike Wen Mochuan, Jiang Yiyan was less accommodating. Upon seeing the painting, she blurted out, "Am I that ugly?"

Wen Meimei immediately replied, "My mommy is not ugly at all. My mommy is the most beautiful woman in the world!" Her tone was earnest, as if these words were not just to make her mother happy but truly reflected her thoughts.

Jiang Yiyan was confident in her current appearance, so she didn't think her daughter's praise was exaggerated or excessive.

After happily accepting the compliment, she took her daughter's painting to examine it more closely.

After a moment, she asked Meimei, "Do you like painting?"

"Yes," Meimei replied without hesitation.

Jiang Yiyan continued, "How about Mommy teaches you how to paint when she has free time?"

Wen Meimei's eyes lit up, and she nodded eagerly. "Promise?" Then, fearing her mother might change her mind, she quickly hooked her little finger with her mother's. "We made a promise, so Mommy can't go back on it."

At twenty-seven years old, Jiang Yiyan didn't have any great talents, but she did have some minor skills.

She started learning to paint since childhood and persisted for ten years. During her college entrance exams, she even considered taking the art exam to attend an art academy. However, knowing that studying art would require a lot of money, she ultimately decided against it to avoid burdening her parents.

Her academic performance was average, and her college entrance exam results were just satisfactory, leading her to enroll in an ordinary undergraduate program.

After graduating from a regular major, she never considered pursuing further studies and simply found a job.

Her job at the mall was initially taken because she couldn't find something related to her field, but she ended up sticking with it for several years.

Now, living in a new place, her daughter's painting stirred a certain passion within her.

If she couldn't pursue her dreams due to financial constraints before, could she now?

Jiang Yiyan smiled genuinely, her eyes shining. "Mommy promised, and she won't go back on it."

Overjoyed, Wen Meimei immediately began circling around the sofa and her mother.

.

After dinner, Wen Meimei went for a walk around the neighborhood with Feng Ma to aid digestion.

Jiang Yiyan was too lazy to move and used fatigue as an excuse to decline her little girl's enthusiastic invitation.

Wen Mochuan had some work to handle and went straight to his study after dinner.

Fang Fang was washing dishes and cleaning up in the kitchen, while Jiang Yiyan continued to lounge on the sofa, reading her novel leisurely.

Suddenly, her phone beeped, indicating someone had added her as a friend on WeChat.

Upon checking, she discovered it was none other than Wu Jingmeng, whom she had just had a run-in with earlier that day.

Wu Jingmeng's WeChat nickname was her real name, and her profile picture was a photo of her and her son, making her easily identifiable.

Jiang Yiyan casually checked and found that Wu Jingmeng had added her through a group. Further investigation revealed that there was indeed a class group for their kindergarten.

The original owner of the account had set the group to "do not disturb," which was why Jiang Yiyan hadn't noticed it before.

The original owner was part of many groups, mostly related to beauty and skincare. These groups were also set to "do not disturb," so when she scanned through them, there were red dots indicating unread messages, but she didn't pay much attention.

Upon seeing this group, Jiang Yiyan casually clicked in to take a look. The recent messages were uninteresting, so she quickly exited.

Then, she addressed Wu Jingmeng's friend request.

She didn't reply immediately but sent a message asking, "What do you want?"

On the other side, Wu Jingmeng seemed to be holding her phone, waiting for her reply, and almost instantly responded, "Our kids have been in the same class for so long, yet we still haven't added each other as friends~ How about accepting my request?"

Actually, Jiang Yiyan didn't mind whether or not she added Wu Jingmeng as a friend. But because of her hostility towards the original body and today's active attempts to make things difficult for her, Jiang Yiyan didn't want to simply go along with whatever Wu Jingmeng said.

Did she have to accept her friend request just because she wanted to add her?

Absolutely not.

So, Jiang Yiyan didn't plan to continue engaging with her and simply replied evasively: "There's nothing important, so it's better to keep our distance ~ smiling face.jpg."

Then, she planned to exit WeChat and continue reading her novel.

However, Wu Jingmeng was not willing to let it go.

Wu Jingmeng: "What? You don't dare to add me?" She added a smiling face emoji, which was quite provocative.

Before Jiang Yiyan could respond, another message came through: "Ruyaoyao hasn't even come back yet, and you're already thinking about how to bully her? Let me tell you, I'm Ruyaoyao's protector. As long as I'm around, you won't be able to lay a finger on her."

Jiang Yiyan felt utterly confused.

She bullying Shu Yao? When did she ever plan to bully Shu Yao?

Then she suddenly remembered that when she was scrolling through her WeChat Moments earlier in the evening, she had liked one of Shu Yao's new posts.

Could it be... because of that?

Was this the reason why Wu Jingmeng assumed she had ill intentions?

But wait, she and Wu Jingmeng weren't even WeChat friends. How could Wu Jingmeng know that she had liked Shu Yao's post?

Did Shu Yao tell her?

After some thought, Jiang Yiyan sent a probing message: "Haha~ Good friends are indeed good friends. I just casually liked a post, and Shu Yao tells you about it?"

Wu Jingmeng: "The friendship between Ruyaoyao and me is something you, with your hypocrisy and malice, can never understand. I'm warning you again: Don't bully Ruyaoyao."

She didn't deny the fact that she had seen the like, nor did she express any surprise about it, which meant she must have known about it already.

Her probe had been successful.

Jiang Yiyan: "Oh."

A simple "oh" didn't seem to quench her anger or sufficiently irritate Wu Jingmeng. So, Jiang Yiyan deliberately sent another provocative message:

"So what if I do bully her? Everything you have now is thanks to Shu Yao. What abilities do you have to stand up for her? And everything Shu Yao has is given by my Jiang family. Who do you think you're relying on? Also, when did it become your place, an outsider, to meddle in our Jiang family's affairs? Even Shu Yao, telling everyone about such trivial matters, as if she's been wronged. Tsk tsk~"

After her rant, Jiang Yiyan immediately blocked Wu Jingmeng.

Wu Jingmeng, seeing that her carefully crafted message was rejected, stomped her foot in frustration.

Unable to contain herself, she immediately called Shu Yao via video chat.

They had already talked via video call earlier, as Shu Yao didn't know who else to tell about Jiang Yiyan liking her post, so she reached out to her best friend.

But she hadn't expected Wu Jingmeng to confront Jiang Yiyan over it.

It was early June, and the temperature in the United Kingdom was mild. Around eleven o'clock, Shu Yao was leaving the library.

Listening to her best friend's tirade, Shu Yao calmly said, "You shouldn't have provoked her."

Wu Jingmeng: "She was the one who started it. Was I supposed to just watch you get bullied? Besides, you'll be returning home soon. If I didn't give her a taste of her own medicine now, she'd continue to bully you."

Shu Yao remained silent but smiled warmly, genuinely grateful. "Mengmeng, it's great having you."

Wu Jingmeng proudly raised her chin and puffed out her chest in assurance. "Don't worry! As long as I'm here, no one will be able to bully you."

Wu Jingmeng understood Shu Yao's situation. After remarrying with her mother, Shu Yao became a wealthy girl and gained more opportunities. However, living under someone else's roof wasn't easy.

If there were better options, who would choose to live at the mercy of others?

Although both father and son from the Jiang family treated Ruyaoyao well, they didn't share blood ties. How much of the Jiang family's assets would they actually pass down to Ruyaoyao in the future?

Thinking about this, Wu Jingmeng found Jiang Yiyan, who had taken Wen Family's Third Young Master away, even more despicable!

The Wen family was immensely wealthy in Shenzhen. Even if Wen Mochuan didn't have much chance of inheriting the family business, the shares he held and the wealth he accumulated through his own talents and abilities were enough to support his family for generations.

And all of this should have belonged to Ruyaoyao.