The Vanishing Beauty - Chapter 8 - 2

Chapter 8 - 2

For a long time, Weng Yue and Yu Meng maintained a strict policy of "neither queen shall ever meet the other."

Following her defeat at the Association election, Yu Meng broke things off with Liang Cai, completely losing any motivation to attend their gatherings. Over at the Women Entrepreneurs Association, Yu Meng rallied several members who had potential for collaboration, forming a separate faction to rival Weng Yue. However, on the occasion of Mrs. Xin's son's birthday, Mrs. Xin—intent on fostering universal harmony—took it upon herself to invite them both.

Unable to disrespect Mrs. Xin, Yu Meng bit the bullet and went.

Upon arriving at the venue, seeing Weng Yue already there was fully expected. But upon closer inspection, Yu Rui was trailing right behind her. Talk about dropping your jaw in absolute shock!

Weng Yue was truly vicious! Bringing Yu Rui along carried a deeply layered subtext—it wasn't about introducing Yu Rui to Mrs. Xin, but rather about flexing on Yu Meng! The message was clear: Your little sidekick is now serving as my lackey anyway?! Yu Meng was so furious her teeth itched; she had racked her brain a thousand times over but never anticipated this ruthless move.

It was obvious that Weng Yue was immensely pleased with herself. She paraded Yu Rui around, greeting people everywhere as if she were the senior concubine (unworthy of being the true wife) and Yu Rui was her personal maidservant.

Such despicable behavior!

Ignoring her entirely, Yu Meng walked straight over to speak with Mrs. Xin.

Mrs. Xin called out to Weng Yue. Weng Yue hurried over, with Yu Rui trailing in tow.

Mrs. Xin looked at Yu Meng, then at Weng Yue, and smiled. "What kind of times are we living in? No industry or sector is having an easy time right now—you've heard about Old Zhu, right?" Old Zhu was an acquaintance of theirs, a female entrepreneur older than Mrs. Xin who had just gone bankrupt.

Yu Meng let out a faint smile and glanced sideways at Yu Rui.

Weng Yue smiled back, her facial muscles remaining completely rigid.

Mrs. Xin continued, "There are only so many of us left. When opportunities arise, we need to work together. This isn't the time for 'pacifying the interior before resisting external threats'! We have to present a united front against outsiders."

Both Yu Meng and Weng Yue offered agreeable, playful smiles.

Yu Meng took the initiative to speak. "I'm just too down-to-earth, I don't know the first thing about leveraging outside strength. I only ever do real, substantive work, nothing flashy."

Weng Yue refused to back down, smiling as she retorted, "I live by only two principles: one is being yielding, and the other is playing the fool."

Too weary to listen to her spout empty literary clichés, Yu Meng muttered an excuse and walked away.

Naturally, the center of attention at the gathering was Mrs. Xin's son. However, the young man had zero interest in socializing with a room full of ladies; the moment the cake was cut and the candles blown out, he escaped to chat with his father and the other uncles. The ladies poured their own drinks, raising their red wine glasses to toast one another in an endless cycle of flattery and cheer.

Weng Yue sauntered over with Yu Rui in tow, making a leisurely circle around the room.

They eventually stopped right in front of Yu Meng. Weng Yue smiled warmly, "We're out of wine," before turning to Yu Rui. "Pour Sister Meng a glass."

Yu Rui could practically smell the gunpowder in the air. Since Sister Wen had given the order, she had no choice but to steady her glass. "I'll down this, please feel free to drink at your own pace." She kept her tone polite toward Yu Meng as well.

Eyebrows furrowed. Pure discomfort.

Yu Meng didn't waste any breath. The second Yu Rui raised her head to drink, Yu Meng immediately polished off her own glass. She then picked up the wine bottle and topped off both Yu Rui and Weng Yue's glasses.

"Xiao Rui," Yu Meng said, her tone turning ice-cold and haughty, "Show some respect and pour Sister Wen a drink."

Caught right in the middle, Yu Rui was placed in an impossible bind.

Weng Yue glared at her in a silent warning. Terrified, Yu Rui didn't dare move a muscle. Sister Wen signed her paycheck, so she had to obey.

"Xiao Rui!" Yu Meng raised her voice by a full octave, sounding like a magistrate holding court.

Trapped between opposing forces, Yu Rui had nowhere to turn and no way out.

Both of them were ferocious tigers capable of devouring people alive.

"I pay your salary!" Yu Meng snapped, as if she could read the exact thoughts running through the girl's head.

Yu Rui stood frozen with her wine glass raised. Weng Yue's eyes bulged as if they might pop out of her skull; judging by the look on her face, had she been holding a gun, she would have blown Yu Meng away on the spot.

Observing from a distance and sensing something was terribly wrong, Mrs. Xin hurried over to investigate.

"What is going on here?" Mrs. Xin's expression darkened.

Yu Rui was momentarily struck dumb, unable to find her voice.

Turning to Yu Rui, Mrs. Xin commanded, "Pour your Sister Wen a drink." Accepting the directive, Yu Rui poured the glass. Weng Yue gave her the courtesy of drinking it. Mrs. Xin then added, "Now pour another one for your Sister Meng."

Yu Rui had no choice but to repeat the entire process, feeling utterly exhausted.

Mrs. Xin laid down the law. "I'm in a great mood today, and whoever tries to ruin it for others is ruining it for me!"

Her words carried absolute weight.

With Mrs. Xin having spoken, they had no choice but to keep the peace. For the remainder of the gathering, Weng Yue stayed anchored on the eastern side of the room while Yu Meng kept to the west, with Yu Rui dutifully glued to Weng Yue's heels the entire time.

The longer Yu Meng watched, the angrier she grew.

Three days after the gathering ended, Yu Meng still hadn't vented her frustration. She tracked down Yu Jia and launched into a lengthy rant. "All that talk about sisterhood and closeness is utter bullshit! Nowadays, people only recognize money!"

Yu Jia tried to soothe her. "She was just doing her job."

Yu Meng arched her eyebrows indignantly. "Does doing your job mean abandoning sisterhood? Does it mean losing your moral compass and forgetting whose side you're on? What kind of pathetic excuse for a job is that?! How much stinky loose change do they pay you a month? Is it really worth debasing yourself like a dog?!"

Hearing the conversation veer into increasingly harsh territory, Yu Jia stepped in to offer a different perspective. "If you ask me, we shouldn't blame Xiao Rui for this. She's just playing the hand she's dealt based on her position, completely helpless against the circumstances. It's that Weng woman who's truly at fault; she knew you were going to be there, so she deliberately dragged Xiao Rui along just to piss you off. If you let yourself get genuinely mad, you're walking right into her trap."

Hearing it put that way, Yu Meng's anger instantly leveled out a bit. "That's true... I mustn't fall for her trap... I mustn't fall for it... I need to launch a counterattack." When Yu Jia asked how she planned to retaliate, Yu Meng kept her lips sealed, but her mind was already hard at work.

In the blink of an eye, autumn gave way to winter. Right before New Year's Day, the four beauties of the Yu family each ushered in major turning points in their lives. Yu Jia's younger brother, Yu Yi, officially married his female doctoral candidate girlfriend. The girlfriend had graduated in the fall and was now working as an assistant researcher at a research institution. With Yu Yi still pursuing his doctorate, they formed an absolute powerhouse couple—their academic qualifications were more than sufficient, though they were facing a bit of a headache when it came to housing. The Yu family couldn't scrape together the funds to subsidize their son, but fortunately, the bride-to-be didn't care.

The family's private explanation was: she isn't blessed in the looks department, which is why she compromised on the housing issue. Only Yu Jia understood that her new sister-in-law was simply sensible and planned to build a life through hard work alongside her husband.

Thanks to Luan Chengyun's help, Yu Jia successfully secured her catering license. Not daring to mention it to Yu Meng out of fear that her sister would accuse her of lacking loyalty and firm principles, Yu Jia resigned from her job, busied herself viewing properties, and prepared to launch her fast-food establishment. She planned to hire a chef from her hometown, while she handled the menu development, controlled the flavor profiles, and let her staff manage the routine operational workflows.

The official approvals for the postpartum care center—jointly invested in by Yu Meng, Mrs. Xin, Han Guang, and others—finally came through. Naturally, it was Mrs. Xin who had pulled the right strings, and the next step was to pour hard cash into its construction and development.

Yu Meng also caught wind of some news: during the recent round of government restructuring, Zu Liang才 successfully retained his position, remaining a core figure within the institutional leadership team. Across the city's seven districts, the district managed by Zu was performing the best, immediately sparking rumors that he was lined up for yet another promotion.

His momentum was soaring.

However, Yu Meng no longer had any intention of entangling herself with him. It was meaningless. They weren't youngsters anymore; she valued official titles and concrete commitments far more now.

After a long period of diligent effort, Yu Shuang and Kang Long finally hit the jackpot—she was pregnant. For the time being, Yu Shuang kept the news from Chairman Kang and her sisters. Chun'er had been transferred back home to attend school over the past six months. Focusing entirely on nurturing her pregnancy, Yu Shuang dedicated herself to safely making it through the high-risk window.

Over on Yu Rui's end, there were no particularly joyous developments to speak of. Her only solace was that Yu Xi was maturing; she had learned a great deal at Yuan Kai's company and grown significantly more confident. Yet her "romance" with Yuan Kai seemed to show no breakthrough progress whatsoever. Bai Yuan Kai remained an enigma. He was neither proactive nor passive, always cultivating an ambiguous atmosphere that felt akin to a sibling dynamic—shrouded in haze and mystery.

Fortunately, Yu Rui was still young and could afford to take risks; she figured even a bit of lingering attrition was worth it. As for herself, however, everything she did felt utterly devoid of enthusiasm. While she had opportunities to interact with Han Guang, the two of them could no longer recapture the spark they had shared back when she was interviewing him. Just in time for New Year's, Han Guang's memoir hit the shelves under the title There Is No Such Thing as Impossible. Every employee in the company received a copy. Yu Rui bought one too.

Ye Cha led a group of employees holding books to request Chairman Han's signature. Han Guang specifically penned four characters for Yu Rui: Gathering Momentum for the Leap. Holding the book in her hands, Yu Rui had no idea what it meant. Gather momentum for what, and leap toward where?

Since Yu Shuang hadn't cleared the high-risk period yet, Kang Long treated her with extreme protectiveness. The moment she stayed a little late at work, Kang Long would start protesting. Yu Shuang argued back, "Can't a pregnant woman work anymore? Back in the old days, women used to work the fields with huge bellies. I'm not that fragile!" Kang Long wanted to argue, but the words caught in his throat. What could he possibly say? Should he point out how modern physical constitutions couldn't compare to the past? Should he mention that she was already of advanced maternal age? Being fiercely competitive, Yu Shuang detested hearing things like that the most.

Kang Long had no choice but to change tactics. He warned her that the embryo was still only the size of a chestnut and shaking things up too much might cause it to implant crookedly, making the baby ugly when it was born.

That argument actually worked on Yu Shuang. Following negotiations, Yu Shuang agreed to "work overtime" right from the comfort of her bed. Coincidentally, Chairman Kang had been contacting Yu Shuang quite frequently lately, calling her twice and dropping subtle hints about marriage through roundabout questions.

It amounted to a soft-pressure marriage proposal.

Yu Shuang asked Kang Long if he had leaked any news about the pregnancy to Chairman Kang. Kang Long swore to the heavens that he hadn't.

"Then why is he calling me out of the blue?"

"He probably just remembered how wonderful you are," Kang Long replied. Yu Shuang was simply allergic to hassle; she hadn't even officially acknowledged her husband yet, let alone ready herself to deal with a father-in-law. Their arrangement was strictly about collaborating to produce a child, and marriage hadn't even entered the planning stages yet. She had no desire to alarm the old man. As for dealing with things once her belly started showing, she planned to fake a series of business trips to pull off the ultimate deception. She would cross that bridge after giving birth.

However, before Yu Shuang could properly arrange all these details, Chairman Kang showed up uninvited to check in on her, bringing along groceries and a bottle of fine wine. Judging by the look of it, he had bypassed Kang Long and come completely on his own accord.

Once the prepared dishes were laid out, Chairman Kang insisted on frying up a plate of eggs himself. Yu Shuang couldn't stand the smell, but since the old man was stubborn, she had to let him be. Once everything was set, Chairman Kang poured the drinks and sighed, "Look at this, Chun'er has gone back too. People come and go—it's all so meaningless, you can never really make sense of it!"

The atmosphere turned somewhat melancholy.

"Chairman, are you alright?"

Without answering, Chairman Kang raised his glass directly. "Come on, girl, let's have a drink!"

This was entirely out of character. Yu Shuang had always possessed a legendary tolerance for alcohol.

"Are you looking down on an old man like me?" Chairman Kang feigned annoyance.

"No... Chairman... well... you see... I have... gastritis..."

With a grand wave of his hand, Chairman Kang dismissed it. "What's a little gastritis? Drink up, and if worst comes to worst, you just take some medicine." Yu Shuang tried to block him again, but Chairman Kang simply poured a cup for himself and drank it down, lamenting, "Life is truly meaningless. You hustle your whole life, and at the end of the day, isn't everyone entirely alone?"

For some reason, Yu Shuang felt her heart skip a beat.

Isn't everyone entirely alone?

It was the mournful cry of an aging father. After all, he had a son, and he had been through two marriages, yet he still felt profoundly isolated. Human beings were born solitary creatures by nature. Because of this realization, Yu Shuang grew even more steadfast in her own choices: no matter who someone was, they could only ever accompany you for a stretch of the road.

Once they opened the floodgates to heavy drinking, Chairman Kang couldn't stop. Amidst the haze of alcohol, Yu Shuang vaguely gathered that the Chairman had recently tried his hand at another romance, which had inevitably fallen through. Given his poor health, constant reliance on medication, and lack of astronomical wealth, he naturally wasn't a hot commodity in the senior matchmaking market.

With half a catty of liquor down his throat, Yu Shuang tried every trick in the book to stop him from drinking more, but fueled by his high spirits, Chairman Kang burst into full-throated song, belting out the theme song from Romance of the Three Kingdoms: "The rolling Yangtze River flows eastward, its waves washing away all heroes. Right and wrong, success and failure, all turn to nothingness; the green mountains remain the same, through how many crimson sunsets..."

He was completely drunk.

Yu Shuang helped support the old man, guiding him over to lie down on the sofa. Through his drunken stupor, Chairman Kang suddenly reached out, seized Yu Shuang by the wrist, and began muttering incoherently, repeating himself endlessly. Yu Shuang managed to piece together the core message: he was urging her to treat Kang Long well in the future and take good care of him.

Yu Shuang sighed inwardly, thinking to herself that he truly was a doting biological father.