The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 147 Misunderstood by Xiangying

Chapter 147: Chapter 147 Misunderstood by Xiangying

"Shen Mingzhu, it was you who set me up! That slip of paper was put in my bag by you. Come with me to the academic affairs office and explain yourself!"

Mingzhu was nearly amused to laughter by Sun Feifei’s naivety. "Are you out of your mind? Helping someone who tried to frame me clear their name? Are you eating shit?"

Sun Feifei was so angry her gaze could have devoured her. "Are you admitting that you framed me?"

"I didn’t do it, I didn’t, stop spouting nonsense." After a pause, Mingzhu played her trump card, "You keep saying I framed you; did I hold a knife to your throat and force you to carefully prepare that cheat sheet?"

Feifei was rendered speechless.

"Shen Mingzhu, you won’t be this lucky every time. Let’s wait and see."

"Thanks for the compliment, as long as I don’t run into a shit-stirrer like you, I’ll always have good luck."

Hearing this, Pei Ziheng looked up at his own mother and silently sighed: Silly mom, cursing herself too.

——

"Are you watching that mother and son?"

Yan Yi calmly shifted his gaze, meeting the eyes of Zhong Qing across from him.

Zhong Qing supported her chin elegantly, her light brown pupils sparkling like cat’s eyes, shimmering with lively slyness.

Yet her voice was very intellectual and gentle, "The moment you saw that mother and son, there was amusement in your eyes. Later, when that one in green clothes troubled the two of them, your face showed disgust, although it wasn’t very noticeable if one didn’t look closely."

"You like her."

"Do you want to go over and help her out? It’s no issue for me; I can wait for you to deal with it and then come back to continue matchmaking."

Zhong Qing seemed very understanding.

Yan Yi picked up his teacup and took a sip of tea, replying indifferently, "There’s no need for that."

Zhong Qing’s delicate fingers tapped meaningfully on the table, guessing whether Yan Yi’s ’no need’ meant he didn’t need to help or the mother and son didn’t need his help?

"Before coming here, I asked quite a few people about you, and they all said you’re a gentle and modest person, but I don’t think so."

Zhong Qing’s eyes moved like she was inspecting an interesting object, "A man like you, seemingly gentle, is actually colder and more detached than most people, hard to get close to. Yet, you stared at her intently for two minutes and forty seconds."

Yan Yi spoke, "Miss Zhong..."

"Yan Yi, let’s get engaged."

Even the composed Yan Yi was caught off guard by Zhong Qing’s direct approach, but he quickly responded, "I’m sorry, Miss Zhong, I don’t have those feelings for you."

Far from being angry, Zhong Qing seemed somewhat pleased, "I know. I saw it coming. Conveniently, I don’t like you either. This way, neither of us will be a bother or trouble to the other. What do you think?"

"Your family must be pressuring you a lot; mine is the same. I don’t want to keep meeting some random men, obviously not hitting it off but still having to maintain politeness and upbringing. I’ve had enough."

"Yan Yi, let’s collaborate."

——

Sun Feifei was nearly driven mad with rage.

She could never have imagined that the trap she meticulously prepared for Shen Mingzhu would end up backfiring on her.

Not only were her self-study exam results invalidated, but she also got a stain of cheating on her record and even faced a penalty of a three-year suspension from examinations.

She was already 22 this year. With a three-year suspension, wouldn’t she be an old maid by the time she passed?

——

"Xiangying, fancy meeting you here. I didn’t expect to bump into you."

Upon seeing Sun Feifei, Xiangying was slightly surprised but she didn’t have a good impression of Sun Feifei, so her attitude was quite cold.

Xiangying was busy with work and also had to take care of her family and child, so she didn’t participate in the self-study exam in July and wasn’t aware of the friction between Sun Feifei and Shen Mingzhu during the exam.

After making small talk for a bit, Sun Feifei turned the conversation to the previous investment and networking event.

"... Your husband really has the manners of a gentleman. During the event, he was very attentive to Shen Mingzhu, afraid that she would say something wrong and offend someone. He kept her by his side the whole time, eager to help her make connections."

"But try as he might to prevent it, he still couldn’t stop Shen Mingzhu from causing trouble. She even smashed a wine bottle on Manager Chen’s head. Manager Chen is a major client for our company with an impressive background, and even I wouldn’t dare to offend him."

"I thought that Shen Mingzhu wouldn’t be able to escape this time and it would affect her self-study exams, but surprisingly, she turned up fine to participate just a few days ago. I found it quite unexpected, so I asked around. It seems your husband pulled some strings and spoke to Manager Chen on her behalf, didn’t he, Xiangying?"

"Actually... Xiangying, some of what I’m going to say might sound like I’m stirring up trouble, but Shen Mingzhu, you know, her husband is hardly ever home, and she is quite attractive. Xiangying, you really ought to be more careful."

As for Sun Feifei’s attempt to sow discord, Xiangying kept her composure, but what she truly thought of it, only Xiangying herself knew.

After the self-study exams ended, Shen Mingzhu took a few days to give training sessions at the mooncake factory to the mooncake workers.

The main content of the training involved upgrading and innovating on a few mooncake flavors from last year and introducing two new flavors, rose and ham.

Once she was done with the mooncake factory business, Shen Mingzhu began preparing to start her own business.

Compared to the funding needed for entrepreneurship, what Shen Mingzhu was more uncertain about was the current economic policy.

She didn’t want to end up like Zhou Shuhuan, accidentally getting tagged with the crime of speculation.

In the evening, Shen Mingzhu called Xiangying, wanting to arrange a time to visit and meanwhile consult her husband about matters related to individual business operations.

"Mingzhu, sorry, but my husband’s workplace is doing a tax audit recently. He’s been too busy to touch the ground. Let’s talk sometime later, I’ll contact you then."

Xiangying finished speaking and hung up the phone.

Even if Shen Mingzhu was slow to catch on, she guessed that the other party was making excuses.

She didn’t understand why because this favor wouldn’t pose a problem for either Xiangying or Feng Shaokang, so there was no reason for Xiangying to refuse her.

Could it be because of the conflict with Chen Jianqiang at the event that day?

After much thought, that was the only reason Shen Mingzhu could come up with.

She was introduced to the event by Feng Shaokang, and Chen Jianqiang didn’t trouble her out of respect for Ning Yuan, but that didn’t guarantee he wouldn’t cause trouble for Feng Shaokang.

Therefore, the next day, Shen Mingzhu brought gifts to visit Xiangying, to apologize for the trouble at the event.

"Yingjie, I was impulsive at the event that day. I caused trouble for Feng ge, and I’m really sorry to you both."

At this point, Shen Mingzhu didn’t know that Sun Feifei had already gone to Xiangying previously to stir things up.

And Xiangying, she hadn’t confronted her husband about that night’s incident, afraid it would affect their marital relationship.

But her silence didn’t mean she wasn’t thinking about it.

In fact, she had been tossing and turning over the past few days, wondering if her man had any unspeakable thoughts toward Shen Mingzhu.

Now, Shen Mingzhu was coming forward to apologize, inadvertently matching up with the trouble Sun Feifei had stirred up.

I treated you as a friend, but behind my back, you tried to seduce my man.

It was no wonder Xiangying couldn’t show a good face to Shen Mingzhu, and her words were even less polite, "Knowing you caused trouble for my family’s Shaokang, just try to interact less in the future. If there’s less interaction, there will be no trouble, right?"