Chapter 35: A Role Model

By the time she returned to her apartment, it was already the early hours of the morning. To ensure her safety, Ye Zhao and four bodyguards stayed downstairs in her building.

Qiao Weiwei’s offhand remark—“The Shen family plays dirty”—had been careless, but it served as a warning to Song Mi.

She was, after all, an orphan with not a single legal relative. If she were to die in a car accident, lying cold on the street, it would be a clean and easy solution for many.

And this sort of thing was hardly complicated.

Perhaps she had grown too accustomed to the light of morning these past years and had all but forgotten the blood-soaked dealings that thrived in the shadows.

It wouldn’t be Shen Yanfeng. Among the four brothers, he was the proudest and the best educated. He was certainly ruthless, but judging from the way he had dealt with Lu Zhiyuan, he seemed more intent on making her struggle in the business world, trapping her with meticulous schemes. Hiring a killer did not fit his style.

Nor would it be Shen Yanan.

He was the classic example of someone who talked big but achieved little—a blusterer whose bark was far worse than his bite. The louder he shouted, the less real threat he posed. All bluff and bravado.

As for Shen Yanlie, the twelfth Shen, still in high school, she dismissed him entirely.

Yet, Shen Yanlie did share a cousinly tie with the twin heiresses of the Shen family, Shen Wu and Shen Liu. Which brought to mind the woman behind all three siblings—Tang Lishi, the last companion of Old Master Shen, still only forty years old.

Shen Yanye, Shen Ruwei, Tang Lishi… Song Mi mentally reviewed the list of those in the Shen family most likely to make a move against her, then decisively cleared her mind and turned over to sleep.

...

The next day was the weekend, and Song Mi slept until noon.

The wound on her head could be concealed by pulling her hat low; the injuries to her arm were hidden by long sleeves; as for her foot, that was even less noticeable.

At a quarter past two in the afternoon, ready and composed, she left for her tea appointment with Sister Tan. The meeting was at Yunshang, room 606—a familiar setting.

Shen Ruming had tried to arrange a meeting with her once before, but she had ignored it. This time, it was business, and she left nothing to chance. Just before leaving, Sister Tan leaned in and whispered meaningfully, “The higher-ups are watching out for you.”

With those words, most of Song Mi’s lingering worries melted away. “I’ll be counting on your continued guidance, Sister Tan.”

“Think nothing of it.”

After seeing Sister Tan downstairs and returning to her room, she had barely sat down when voices drifted in from the hallway.

Song Mi listened for a moment and quickly guessed who was outside. Too lazy to get up, she called Ye Zhao directly. “Let her in.”

Shen Ruming entered soon after. “Song Mi, let’s not beat around the bush. Something for something. From now on, we’ll stay out of each other’s way. Agreed?”

Their eyes met across the room. Song Mi slowly lowered her long lashes, then lifted them again, letting out a soft, derisive laugh. “Not agreed.”

Jiaxing Media was Shen Ruming’s creation. Though it could not compare to Sihai Entertainment, which was backed by the Sihai Group, it had become one of the top three new media companies in the industry. In the past two years, riding the wave of IP dramas, several of its popular artists had earned her a tidy fortune.

Anyone in the world of fame and fortune understood when to yield under another’s roof. Shen Ruming had always been quick to adapt. “So what do you want?”

“Whatever I want, Seventh Miss will oblige?” Song Mi leaned back comfortably in her chair, her lips curled in a faint, ambiguous smile. A lazy ease softened her features. “Then I’ll trouble you, Seventh Miss, to set an example for the others—be a good role model for the rest of your esteemed brothers and sisters.”

Shen Ruming stood two meters away, gazing down imperiously at the woman before her.

Just a moment ago, she’d seemed like a languid cat basking in the sun—docile and harmless. But now, her words were as merciless as a predator’s: “Leave Jinzhou. Don’t let me see you again.”