Chapter 1
My father was a nouveau riche upstart.
Between an early demolition payout and dumb luck in business, he made a fortune worth tens of millions.
My mother was his first wife. When she caught him cheating, she dumped him, took a hefty settlement, and moved abroad.
She gave up custody of me, but before she left, she sat me down for a little heart-to-heart—or rather, a thorough brainwashing.
“It’s not that I don’t want to take you with me. You’ll live in comfort with your father. With me, you’d only suffer.
“Zhen Wanwan, remember this! In ancient times, you would have been your father’s eldest legitimate daughter. Guard what belongs to you. Don’t let those little vixens out there and their bastard children squander your father’s fortune.”
I was eight that year.
She planted the seed of a warrior in my heart, then swept off without a backward glance.
My father soon married a second wife, then a third. After the third divorce, he finally realized that marriage did nothing except cost him a share of his assets.
So he stopped marrying, though he always had a steady girlfriend.
As for his children, there were hordes of them—some whose names I knew and plenty whose names I didn’t.
Growing up in such a complicated family,
I honed the art of tearing people apart to perfection.
Two-faced seductresses, innocent little flowers, scheming divas, pick-me girls—whatever the breed, if one was foolish enough to cross me, I would skin her alive.
Every stepmother, mistress, half brother, and half sister trembled in my presence.
My father even declared with pride, “Wanwan really is my daughter. A tiger father breeds no cowardly daughter! When you marry, you’ll be the one child I never have to worry about. No one in your husband’s family will dare bully you.”
But against all expectations, I married far too well.
All my hard-earned combat skills had nowhere to go.
My husband, Pei Ci, and I had been college classmates. We went straight from campus sweethearts to husband and wife.
The Peis were an old, cultured family. My father-in-law, Pei Fuli, chaired a pharmaceutical group, while my mother-in-law, Su Jiaoyue, supervised graduate students at a medical school.
In both pedigree and wealth, the Pei family stood far above mine.
My mother-in-law wasn’t thrilled with my family background, but Pei Ci was so hopelessly in love with me that there was nothing she could do.
We married without a hitch.
Worried that his mother might make things difficult for me, Pei Ci suggested we move out and live on our own. I refused.
Please. I was a veteran of a hundred battles. Why would I be afraid of that?
Su Jiaoyue was the quintessential intellectual: principled and proper. She may have disliked my background, but she never found fault with me. After several months under the same roof, we had somehow managed to coexist in peace.
Just as I was growing bored with the life of a wealthy wife and itching for something to do, my father-in-law’s stepsister, Pei Yingying, returned from abroad.
My father-in-law personally went to the airport to pick her up.
At the welcome-home banquet held in her honor, I understood exactly what this so-called aunt was the moment I laid eyes on her.
Ah. The unforgettable first love, back from overseas.
Her face was both innocent and alluring, her liquid gaze mesmerizing. A white designer dress hugged her curves. Though she was already forty-four, she was so well preserved that she looked barely over thirty.
Most of the guests were my father-in-law’s childhood friends. These men were titans in their respective industries, yet they all clustered around Pei Yingying as though she were the center of the universe.
She smiled among them, radiant and seductive as a goddess.
Then my mother-in-law, Su Jiaoyue, appeared on Pei Fuli’s arm.
Pei Yingying’s smile faltered, then slowly vanished.
She immediately bowed and respectfully raised a toast to Su Jiaoyue. “Sister-in-law, this is for you. I’ve been abroad all these years, and I’m so grateful that you took care of my brother.”
Her posture was meek, her lovely face pitiful enough to melt a heart.
Su Jiaoyue looked uncomfortable, but she could hardly leave the woman hanging, so she reached for the glass.
Pei Fuli stepped forward and snatched it away. Frowning, he said, “Yingying, what are you doing? You’re in poor health. Don’t drink so much. We’re family—a greeting is enough.”
Overcome with emotion, Pei Yingying gazed up at him, tears instantly glazing her eyes.
They shimmered there, heartbreakingly bright.
Su Jiaoyue’s face went deathly pale, though she still struggled to maintain a dignified smile.
I watched from the side, thoroughly entertained.
That familiar scent of manipulation, that familiar recipe—it was exactly the same routine used by my father’s third, fourth, fifth, and sixth mistresses.
This stepsister-aunt had come ready for war.
I wondered whether my proper, respectable mother-in-law could withstand her assault.
It was a middle-aged romance, wealthy-family edition, with a hint of forbidden sibling drama thrown in.
Now this was going to be a show.