After Ye Junjin left Ye Shaohua’s side, Ye Junwan—who was always surrounded by admirers—came over to see her as well.
She wanted to give Ye Shaohua the photos she’d taken that night, and said that in a few days, she’d go take photos of the Tang family’s second young master to show her too.
To her surprise, Ye Shaohua didn’t want them, saying she simply didn’t care for black-and-white photographs.
Ye Junwan felt that Ye Shaohua was being rather provincial, and on top of that, she felt wronged—she’d only been trying to broaden her sister’s horizons with good intentions. She never expected Ye Shaohua to not only fail to appreciate her kindness but also to say such things in front of her friends.
Tang Qihang, who was quite fond of her, frowned and asked, “How could she be like that?”
“Who knows?” At that, Ye Junwan remembered something else. “Today she wouldn’t even let Aunt Hong leave the house. When I asked why, guess what the maid said?”
Tang Qihang looked at her, curious.
“She said she’d done some fortune-telling for Aunt Hong, and that today wasn’t a good day for her to go out—it would bring bad luck,” Ye Junwan said, her voice filled with distress. “I’ve always stood firm against superstition and feudal thinking. I never thought my own biological sister would be that kind of person.”
Ye Junwan considered herself well-educated abroad and harbored a deep distaste for the remnants of feudal superstition in her home country—let’s just say she had zero patience for it. Whenever she came across fortune-tellers or so-called mystics, she’d use science to debunk their claims.
She saw herself as a champion of truth, never realizing that some of these tricks were really just basic parlor science.
Even “ghost fires” could be explained scientifically. Those people simply had no idea how vast the world truly was, or how boundless the realm of science could be. Most of those legends about ghosts and spirits were really just about magnetic fields.
When Ye Junwan returned to China, she made a point of preaching all of this loudly.
And since many people had also studied abroad during that same period, and the government was actively supporting returnees, her views won over a large portion of the public.
Tang Qihang was among them.
Hearing the hurt in her voice, he casually asked, “You don’t like her?”
Ye Junwan shook her head. “It’s not that. She is my sister, after all. But if she keeps this up…”
As long as she kept her superstitious nonsense away from their parents, that was fine.
Otherwise—
Ye Junwan wouldn’t mind teaching her a lesson and showing her what science really meant.
A few days later, Aunt Hong noticed that Ye Shaohua had become rather elusive.
Sometimes she’d knock on the door for ages with no answer, only to open it and find the room empty. Other times, Ye Shaohua would suddenly reappear out of nowhere. The guards Ye Shaohua’s father had posted seemed utterly useless when it came to keeping track of her.
The first few times, Aunt Hong was terrified. But after it happened repeatedly, she got used to it and remained perfectly calm.
Still, she had no idea what Ye Shaohua was actually up to.
She could only tell that Ye Shaohua’s mood was improving day by day—something evident from the subtle upturn at the corners of her lips.
Ye Shaohua’s current identity was classified; very few people actually knew who she really was.
That said, most people involved in politics knew of her now, because she was on the country’s highest-level protection list.
Even Tang Feng couldn’t get his name on that list.
She barely left her room, and the guards watching her door had practically forgotten their duties—or perhaps they were starting to question Ye Shaohua’s father’s judgment. Did this second young miss really need watching?
Still, when they saw that Ye Shaohua was finally going out today, they both breathed a sigh of relief.
“You came just in time,” Ye Shaohua’s father said from his seat in the front hall. A large clock stood behind him, giving him an imposing presence. “The Tang family will be here any minute.”
“I know. I’m the one who invited them,” Ye Shaohua said calmly.
“You?” Her father was taken aback for a moment.
But he didn’t dwell on it. It didn’t even occur to him to wonder how someone in Ye Shaohua’s position could have gotten in touch with the Tang family, or how she’d even sent word to them.
She hadn’t even left the house—how could she have delivered a message?
And that was to say nothing of the fact that even he, Ye Shaohua’s father, couldn’t simply say the word and have the Tang family show up on a whim.
Right now, though, all he could see was her rather unassuming outfit, and he frowned. “Go change into something else right now. If you don’t have anything, go borrow a set from Wan’er—her clothes should fit you well enough. Don’t go out looking like that and embarrass your sister and your fourth sister for no reason.”
The fashion in Shanghai at the time was a bit peculiar—most people wore puffy, frilly Western dresses.
While they were modern in a sense, they were worlds apart from contemporary clothing. In short, they were just too over-the-top. Sometimes Ye Shaohua couldn’t help but wonder why people would give up the more elegant and beautiful qipao for these bulky, exaggerated dresses of the era.
In her memory of that period in the Republic, the socialites all wore exquisite qipao.
“No need to change. I’m going to tell the Tang family that I’m calling off the engagement,” Ye Shaohua said flatly.
At that, her father slammed the table. “You unfilial girl! What nonsense are you spouting?! Do you think Commander Tang is someone you can just refuse?”
He hadn’t dared—or hadn’t been willing—to turn them down himself, which was why he’d substituted his second daughter instead. He never expected that the daughter who’d seemed so easy to control would pull something like this.
Tang Feng had a notoriously short temper. If he saw that Ye Shaohua’s daughter was looking down on his son, even if Ye Shaohua’s father was one of his most capable men, he might still cold-shoulder the Ye family. Just thinking about it made cold sweat trickle down his back.
Ye Junwan, who had come along with her mother to watch the scene unfold, looked at Ye Shaohua with a hint of surprise. So her second sister wasn’t quite as useless as she’d imagined.
Then again, that second young master of the Tang family really wasn’t much to look at—nothing like Tang Qihang. At the thought of him, Ye Junwan drifted off into a daze.
Just then, an officer’s voice rang out from outside.
“Master Ye, the Second Young Master is here!”
