261 Qin Chu 2 in 1 (1/2)

”If we really have to say it, this young lady of the Yan family sure is spoiled. Look at this birthday party; it is held every year, and every year it is different. Children from other families would not have done something as complicated and as big as this. The last time that I had a birthday celebration of this scale was when I reached the age of twenty and became an adult. For other birthdays, at most, I only have close friends and family over,” one of the socialites said as she raised the glass to cover her lips and smiled. On the surface, it sounded like she was merely talking about the scale of the host's party, but upon a closer inspection, there were many meanings that were left unsaid.

This so-called 'children from other families' naturally referred to the peers from the same circle. Others did not treat such events so seriously, so with this comparison, was it because everyone's family was too stingy or because this family was too generous?

The young lady of Yan family did not appear like she was that popular because once the socialite finished giving her observation, everyone else nodded in apparent agreement. Another socialite also took a sip of the wine and continued in a mocking tone. ”Comparison will only lead to nasty things. Furthermore, not only can we not compare to her, even her own biological big brother is unable to survive the comparison. Just think about it, when was the last time that the young master from Yan family had a birthday celebrity? I think it was almost three years ago since I last saw the Yan young master at a public function.”

”Oh…” The group of socialites shared a look and smiled to themselves. Some of them shook their heads slightly while others clinked their glasses and winked at each other, like they were connected by a public secret that they would not name out loud. ”You said that it was three years ago? That is understandable…”

Only Ye Shuang had no idea what they were talking about.

Her arms leaning against the stage behind her, Ye Shuang twirled the glass of wine lightly and scanned the crowd. ”That sounds interesting. Everybody else is seen to value their son, but this Yan family appears to focus on cultivating their daughter to inherit the family business, huh?”

”Ye Shuang sure is right about that,” someone in the group agreed. ”But this actually is to be expected because…”

Before she could finish, a female company that she had brought along nudged her arm light.

”Oh, by the way, have you seen the latest model of this year's golden Cardia Trinity?” The girl who was nudged changed the topic forcefully, and the other members of the group also helped her smooth out the transition.

Ye Shuang smiled and listened to their conversation for a while before chiming in after taking a sip of the wine. ”The rings and earrings are not bad. I remember at Jing Hu City's Li family's private party, I saw quite a number of socialites wearing them. But the trend in Shanghai seems to be different. Actually, the design concept of this year's jewelry is different compared to the set from 2010…”

Most of the young socialites at this party actually were not familiar with Ye Shuang. Even though they had been chatting with each other for about half an hour already, until now, most of them still did not know much about Ye Shuang's identity. They only knew her name.

Her family background? Her identity? Her societal status? Her education background?

These details about Ye Shuang were a mystery to the rest. But then again, that was basically how communication at a formal event was. If the person did not actively introduce themselves or have someone make the introduction, during normal conversation, people would not be so rude as to directly ask for someone's personal information.

People's assessment of a newbie was from the person's mannerisms, way of speech, and how they carried themselves in a public setting. After a while, Ye Shuang noticed Su Zheng had already returned, and she was waving at her from the corner. Therefore, Ye Shuang bade her farewell with a smile and retreated gracefully.

Su Zheng's ability to analyze gossip was not as powerful as Ye Shuang's, but she was far more experienced at doing these types of illicit activities. When the guests of the party talked about the house, they were speaking about the family affairs of the Yan family as well, and this was not only limited to the group that Ye Shuang had infiltrated earlier. Places like the toilet, powder room, the breakroom, or even the balcony… there would be small groups who separated from the rest. They thought that no one was around, so they started to gossip among themselves.

After all, people would be mindful of their image at public locations, and they had to be careful of saying the wrong words and thus making enemies. However, if only familiar people were present, those topics that were hard to discuss in public would be brought up to the surface.

Therefore, because of this, Su Zheng, who was an expert at hiding her presence, managed to collect quite a lot of firsthand gossip.

”Sister Shuang, you have no idea how complicated this family's member relationship is.” Su Zheng sighed and shared the gossip that she had collected and heard over the course of the party. Even though she had the appearance of justice and vindication like she could not believe the things that she had heard, it did nothing to cover up the excitement that was shining in her eyes, the excitement from gathering and sharing such juicy gossip. ”The man of this family has four women in his life. One was the first wife, who has already passed away; then there are two mistresses who are outside and his current wife…

”The male host could be said to have depended on his first wife's family to get a head start in his business. In fact, even today, there are many deals that are still going on between the man's family and his first wife's family. In other words, the first wife has a powerful presence in this family. Unfortunately, the first wife had a bad physical condition, and she passed away before she was able to give the family a child…”

Su Zheng's saliva flew all over the place as she revealed the gossip. She swiped the glass of wine from Ye Shuang and tossed it down with one gulp. Then, she wiped her lips, lost the glass, grabbed Ye Shuang by her arm, and continued. ”Then the man focused his attention on building up his career. In a way, he was showing respect to his first wife's family. Even though he had two mistresses, he did not marry again.

”In the following three years, the two mistresses got pregnant one after another, and the children who were born are the Yan family's current young master and young lady. The young master's mother thought that it was finally her time. She would be able to gain an official name through the advent of her son.

”Unfortunately, the man had a business marriage with the youngest daughter of a small company, and that woman became his current wife instead. The current wife also suffers from the same condition of the first wife in the sense that her body is too weak to get pregnant. I heard they have tried for a long time, but there's no news. In the end, the two b*stard children were taken into the family, and the group of them formed this unique family structure.”

At this point, the development was still to be expected. At most, people would comment and say how ridiculous the happenings in a rich family was. However, the real events that turned this family drama into a palatial drama had yet to come.

The young master's mother thought that she could finally get some recognition, but later, the position was usurped by someone else instead. She thought that she had wasted her time with the man, but then the situation had a sudden turn once more. The current wife was checked and diagnosed that she had birthing problem. It had something to do with the eggs and the tube… in any case, she was unable to get pregnant.

This meant that the two b*stard children regained the chance to inherit the company; the mother of the son had her hope reignited. She directly given up the fight for the queen slot but planned to use her son to help her cut her way into the family. Originally, she had the most upper hand. After all, in the traditional mindset, the family would first consider the son to have him take over the family business.

Even though the young mistress was praised by people around her to be clever and business-savvy, and the Yan family's young master would often pale in comparison, the master of the Yan family had already silently confirmed that the first inheritor was still the son. He valued her daughter, but ultimately, the daughter was someone who was to be married out of the family.

Unfortunately, the mother of the son had underestimated the enemy. She forgot that current society was not as traditional as the years she was born, and the society did not value the son over the daughter as obviously anymore. The young master was spoiled by his mother, and he became quite a horrendous character. Perhaps he did this accidentally, or maybe he was plotted against by some other party, but he finally committed a big mistake three years ago. Then, it was a trip to the court, being interviewed, being exposed online, and so on. The information of his whole family was revealed on the internet, and even when he went out, he would enjoy no less infamy than what was accorded an A-list celebrity.

After the master of the house spent some money to hire a lawyer, to fight the case at court, to have a proposition of silencing the event out of court, to prevent the incident from having any continuing effect, the young master was forcibly sent overseas by his father. Even though his mother was unwilling, there was nothing else that she could do. She could only console herself that once the things settled down, her son had the chance to return and start again.

However, in these three years, the situation within the Yan family had a tectonic change again—the mother of the Yan family daughter reached out to the current wife, who had decided to stay out of the war. She promised to marry her daughter to the wife's nephew, and with that, she managed to persuade the current wife to join the war. The original war between two families became a three-sided war. Even though the mother of the daughter and the current wife were using each other, at least on the surface, they were standing on the same side, similar to how Wu and Su had cooperated to defeat Chao in the Romance of Three Kingdoms.

Ye Shuang was also impressed by the exciting fight for the inheritance in the Yan family. Even the palatial dramas on TV were not as exciting as this.

During the break in the story, she wandered over to the buffet table to grab a plate of snacks. Ye Shuang chewed on them before saying, ”Originally, the mistress who gave birth to the son had the most advantages. Of her two enemies, one could not give birth to a child, and the other only had a daughter. However, she did not expect the two to work together, and with that, the situation completely changed.

”From the perspective of the current wife, she cannot give birth on her own, but if her original family's nephew gets married with her husband's family's daughter, when the young couple inherits the company, technically, it will still be within her family. The two needed what the other had. One had a good daughter, and the other had the legality and support from her original family.

”In the future, as long as, they come up with an agreement like having one of the Yan family's young lady's son follow the name of the mother, then this would continue the lineage of the Yan name. If he depended on the son, he would be worried about the useless son ruining the family name.”

”In other words, the inside war in the Yan family is actually quite serious.” Su Zheng grinned and held her chin. ”To let the son inherit the family is to follow the tradition; to let the daughter inherit the family will be handing the company over to capable hands, but it is rather unconventional. Based on how much the Yan family values the young lady, the chance of her getting the inheritance is still bigger, but this does not mean that the young master has no chance at all. After all, he has the natural advantage of being a man.”

Ye Shuang lowered her head to think, and suddenly, the topic jumped. ”Then, based on your observation, the most possible candidate who went after the safe is who?”

”This is really hard to say.” Su Zheng blinked. ”Theoretically speaking, both sides have an equal chance of doing that. After all, the current master of the Yan family has not decided who will be inheriting the family business. If it is the daughter, he needs to wait until she's married and ensure that her son has the surname Yan first, right? Therefore, this will take quite some time to be fulfilled. Perhaps some people want to rush that process.”

However, viewed from the current situation, the camp of the young master was the weaker party. It was quite reasonable if they wanted to do something to usurp the spot. In any case, neither of the son nor the daughter was a harmless individual. The fight for the inheritance was reaching its height, and no matter whom the culprit was revealed to be, it would not have been weird or out of place.

…

The two women gossiped for a while, and then they analyzed the possibility of Yan family becoming a potential customer. Unfortunately, the Yan family's people all had some secrets to hide. If they really needed special talent, it would be for something that was illegal and under the table… Ye Shuang could just imagine the mess that she would be getting into if she accepted a case from the Yan family, so after some time, Ye Shuang thought about it and decided to stay away from this family.

”Xiao Shuang.” Sister Yu walked toward them holding the arm of a gentleman. She smiled brightly and reminded her, ”The birthday girl is going to arrive in a minute—have you found your dance partner yet?”

”Most of the men at the party has already been taken. I definitely won't be able to steal someone for the first dance, so I think I shall just dance with Xiao Su.” Then, Ye Shuang turned around to ask Su Zheng with a smile, ”You know how to do the male-side of the dance, right?”

”Cough! Cough! Cough!” The cake that Su Zheng was munching on went down the wrong pipe. Her large pair of eyes quickly watered. ”You want me to be the male with my height and size?”

Su Zheng was of average female build. She was about 162 centimeters tall, and standing next to Ye Shuang, she was about half a head too short. Ye Shuang looked at her down gown and the suit that Su Zheng was wearing. ”Well, you can't expect me to lead the dance in the dress that I'm wearing.”