Chapter 97: The Love and Hatred Between the Bo and Shen Families

The very next second, Jiang Ciyou was yanked straight into someone’s arms.

“Hey, Xiaoyou, I missed you.”

“Hey, Xiaonuo, I missed you too.”

The two of them held each other tightly, heedless of the strange looks from the people around them.

After a brief embrace, Shen Nuo let go of Jiang Ciyou.

“Come with me.”

Jiang Ciyou followed Shen Nuo all the way into the Shen family’s grand villa, then upstairs.

Five minutes later, Jiang Ciyou was sitting on the sofa in Shen Nuo’s room.

Once the door was shut, all the noise and liveliness outside were cut off.

Shen Nuo was still not quite over her surprise.

“You came to the capital, and you didn’t tell me? If I’d known, I would have gone to the airport to meet you.”

Jiang Ciyou smiled. “I’m here on a business trip this time. I only ended up here by accident.”

Shen Nuo noticed the lilies beside her.

She walked over and gathered them into her arms. “For me?”

Jiang Ciyou snatched the flowers back. “No. I was asked to deliver them to a lady of the Shen family. Don’t you dare ruin them.”

Then Jiang Ciyou asked, “By the way, whose birthday is it in the Shen family today?”

Shen Nuo’s brows suddenly drew together, her expression turning serious.

“Asked by whom? Who asked you to do this?”

Jiang Ciyou also sensed that something was off.

“Bo Wanhua, chairwoman of Jinghua Media Group.”

Shen Nuo stood up at once and casually tossed the flowers straight into the trash.

“What are you doing? Why did you throw them away?”

Shen Nuo turned back and poured two glasses of red wine.

Her pajamas were men’s style, silk, black with white trim, a little loose on her frame.

But they did not look bad at all. If anything, they gave her a faintly roguish, carefree air.

With her neat short hair slicked back, there was a natural boldness in her brows and eyes.

Though it was obvious at a glance that she was a girl, every gesture she made was strikingly dashing.

Shen Nuo handed one glass of red wine to Jiang Ciyou, then leaned against her side.

“If you hadn’t run into me today, something big would have happened.”

Jiang Ciyou frowned. “What exactly is going on?”

Shen Nuo took a slow sip of wine and said, “Today is my cousin Shen Qingqing’s birthday, but she’s allergic to lilies. If you really had delivered lilies, they could have triggered her asthma. If something happened, who would have taken responsibility?”

Shen Nuo looked at her. “Dummy, someone used you as a blade.”

Jiang Ciyou’s expression grew grave as well.

A flood of information rushed through her mind.

Shen Qingqing?

Involuntarily, the words “Qingqing” on Bo Jinxiu’s phone surfaced in her thoughts.

Could it really be such a coincidence?

Jiang Ciyou continued, “Why would Bo Wanhua do this? Why would an elder do something like this to a junior? That’s disgraceful.”

Shen Nuo sighed. “It’s complicated. You wouldn’t understand all the love and hate tangled up in it.”

After Shen Nuo explained at length, Jiang Ciyou finally sorted out the relationships.

It turned out that the Bo family and the Shen family had originally been joined by marriage.

Bo Wanhua’s ex-husband had been Shen Zishan, the second branch of the Shen family.

The two of them had even had a son named Shen Yibai.

But not long after Shen Yibai was born, Bo Wanhua and Shen Zishan divorced.

After the divorce, Shen Zishan remarried his current wife, Su Yan, only three months later. At the time of the wedding, Su Yan was already five months pregnant.

In other words, while he was still married to Bo Wanhua, Shen Zishan had already been cheating on her with Su Yan.

Even after the divorce, Bo Wanhua had pursued this mother and daughter pair with ruthless ferocity.

Su Yan had no backing. When she was young, she had only been a third-rate actress.

If not for Shen Zishan’s desperate efforts to protect them over the years, this mother and daughter would probably be dead by now, and no one would even know where their bones had rotted away.

A chill of sweat prickled Jiang Ciyou’s back as she listened.

The waters in these wealthy families truly were deeper than anyone could imagine.

Shen Nuo had already finished one glass of wine, but the story was still not over.

“Just yesterday, my cousin was in a car accident too. More than likely, that was also the handiwork of the Bo family’s eldest daughter.”

Something flashed through Jiang Ciyou’s mind.

“How is she?”

“She’s definitely fine. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be holding a birthday banquet today.”

Seeing Jiang Ciyou’s serious expression, Shen Nuo smiled and said, “You don’t need to worry too much about my cousin. Her backing is solid. Who knows, maybe in the not-so-distant future she’ll even marry into the Bo family and stand on equal footing with Bo Wanhua. By then, Bo Wanhua will probably be furious enough to die.”

Jiang Ciyou’s thoughts had already begun to take shape.

“Is her backing Bo Jinxiu?”

Shen Nuo was very surprised.

“You even know the name of the capital’s young heir?”

The heavy knot in Jiang Ciyou’s heart finally seemed to sink into a deep lake, dropping lower and lower.

Her face darkened as well.

Shen Nuo noticed her change in expression.

Turning slightly, she asked, “You know the young heir?”

Jiang Ciyou did not answer. Instead, she pressed, “What is the relationship between Bo Jinxiu and Shen Qingqing?”

“What else could it be? The kind of relationship between a man and a woman.”

Shen Nuo went on, “You should have heard that the Bo family’s eldest daughter and that young heir have a terribly bad relationship. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them enemies.”

“There are rumors that during his upbringing, Bo Wanhua tried several times to kill him, but never succeeded.”

Jiang Ciyou’s heart thudded violently.

She had heard that their relationship was poor, but she had never imagined it was this bad.

“Why?”

“Who knows why? Maybe because the young heir was a child born late in life to the old master and old madam. Bo Jinxiu and that elder sister are nineteen years apart in age. If Bo Jinxiu had never been born, then the Bo family’s business empire would certainly have been inherited by that highly capable eldest daughter. With a sudden upstart cutting in halfway, it’s no wonder the eldest daughter hates him.”

“Even if she hates him, she shouldn’t want to kill him. After all, he’s her own younger brother.”

Shen Nuo also shook her head. “That I don’t know. Maybe there are other reasons. Ciyou, in the wealthy circles of the capital, family affection is paper-thin. Everyone puts profit first, because the stakes are too high and the temptation is too great. The Bo family is the foremost of the four great families in the capital. The Xiao family has already faded from public view and moved abroad with the whole clan. As for the Xue family and our Shen family combined, our wealth still doesn’t amount to even a fraction of the Bo family’s.”

Shen Nuo let out a sigh. “The Bo family’s waters are simply too deep.”

Jiang Ciyou listened, her brows knitted tightly.

Shen Nuo seemed to sense that something was off too.

“You’re not usually one for gossip. Why are you suddenly so invested in the Bo family’s affairs today?”

Before Jiang Ciyou could answer, brilliant fireworks suddenly burst outside.

Flame-red blossoms seemed to burn wildly across the sky like fire, then fall away.

Without thinking, Jiang Ciyou murmured, “It’s rose searing the heart.”

After saying that, she stood and walked to the window.

Shen Nuo’s room happened to have a floor-to-ceiling glass window.

Outside, the festivities were in full swing.

Fireworks bloomed across the night sky, turning the dark into daylight.

Shen Nuo watched Jiang Ciyou in a daze, thinking she liked the fireworks.

So she grabbed her arm. “What’s the point of looking through glass? Come on, let’s go outside and join the fun.”