You Look Like You’re Made of Money

Chapter 22: Part 1 — Whether you want to be Mrs. Jiang or Mrs. Shen, I will support you.

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Shen Peiran looked over his address book to see if could find Su Yan through someone else. He wanted to sit down and have a proper discussion with her about his mistake. Due to her nature, Su Yan was not very popular; she has only two or three close friends. Amongst them the two he could talk to were studying abroad, naturally, they couldn’t help him. Finally, his finger stopped at one name— Wan Yi.

Wan Yi was Su Yan’s best friend, but she wasn’t too fond of him.

If it was like in the past, Shen Peiran wouldn’t have contacted her, but he now had no other way. Su Yan didn’t answer when he called her and he couldn’t impulsively go to look for her at the Jiang Household. He was like a headless fly1. After a long period of hesitation, Shen Peiran gritted his teeth and finally called Wan Yi’s number.

It was a long time before the call was picked up. An aloof voice answered, “What’s the matter?”

No greetings but, right now, Shen Peiran couldn’t care enough to be angry. He very carefully asked: “Wan Yi, it’s me. I wanted to ask: Have you contacted Xiao Yan recently?”

Wan Yi was busy with work; hearing those words, she felt annoyed and her voice turned cold, “No.”

Shen Peiran was silent for a while before continuing: “Can you please help me?”

“I’m busy.”

Shen Peiran, however, immediately blocked her with his words: “I had some misunderstanding with Xiao Yan some time ago. I want to find an opportunity to explain things to her. Can you help me talk to her?”

Wan Yi turned over a document, looking downwards at it. After checking it she put it back in the drawer. Her tone remained the same, “Mister Shen, I don’t think that my relationship with you has reached to the extent of passing along a message for you or playing peacemaker for you.”

Now that she had said that, Shen Peiran felt embarrassed to go on even if he was thick-skinned. All he could do was hang up the phone and sit on the sofa alone, fidgeting. Never did he think that he would have difficulty seeing Su Yan one day. He hadn’t had a single good night’s sleep these days. It was unbelievable that his gentle, soft, and considerate Su Yan would one day not acknowledge him. He was beginning to panic because he had a gut feeling that he was losing her.

At this time, Mother Shen opened his door with the key. She became angry looking at her son’s dejected appearance. Putting down the food on the table, she turned around to berate him: “Why do you look like this? Not going to the company, idling away all day at home. You will go to work for me tomorrow!”

Father Shen had intended to hand over a small company to Shen Peiran to gain experience. In the beginning Shen Peiran was eager but with Su Yan’s matter recently, he couldn’t work which made Father Shen extremely displeased.

Only Mother Shen’s words shielded Shen Peiran.

In fact, Mother Shen knew regarding her son and Su Yan’s matter. Looking at his distressed demeanour, Mother Shen sat down and softly explained to him: “Ran Ran2, no matter how good Su Yan is, she is already married. You have been in charge of the company for a while. Don’t you know what kind of people the Jiang Family are? They can’t be provoked at all. Even if Su Yan wasn’t married, you and she aren’t suitable.  Only mom can tell you the truth: You can’t stay with her.”  

Shen Peiran didn’t utter a word. He was very stubborn.

“Now that she is married, you should have a change of heart. Not speaking of others, isn’t Jiaqi3 very good? She was brought up with us since childhood; she is fine in every way. What do you think?” Mother Shen was hoping for a woman to come and grab Shen Peiran’s heart as long as it wasn’t Su Yan.  

Su Yan was beautiful. A beauty liked by her son as well as others. Where can Shen Family compare with Jiang Family? If Jiang Jingchuan got angry one day, the move of one finger would be enough to deal4 just go drinking with Shen Family.

Hearing Mother Shen mention Sun Jiaqi, Shen Peiran stood up in anger. He shouted, “Mom, please don’t talk about Sun Jiaqi anymore. It’s impossible for me and her to be together. If it wasn’t for her, I and Xiao Yan wouldn’t be like this!”

Shen Peiran’s rationality was stretched thin. He blamed himself; he blamed everything that made Su Yan and himself like this. He even thought that if it wasn’t for Sun Jiaqi, he and Su Yan wouldn’t have quarrelled and he wouldn’t be angry now. 

“What does it have to do with Jiaqi?” Mother Shen objected, “I heard from Jiaqi. She had come that day to cook for you. She didn’t know that Su Yan was there. Oh and don’t blame her, I gave Jiaqi the key.”

It would have been better if that matter wasn’t brought up but now that it had been raised, Shen Peiran exploded in minutes, “How can it be so coincidental? Didn’t come in the morning, didn’t come at night but only came at that particular time. Mom, even though I haven’t looked into this matter it doesn’t mean that I don’t know.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t know about Jiaqi’s thoughts, he just didn’t feel like bluntly pointing them out. In addition, he also thought to use her to anger Su Yan. Now that Su Yan was angered and went away, how could he still pretend to be dumb? Someone once said, if a woman decided to hide from a man, it would be a very easy to do so. But it wasn’t necessarily like that, these words only rang true in conjunction with a man’s love for a woman. If they weren’t blinded5 by romantic love, men could easily see through a woman’s lies.  

Mother Shen was very fond of Sun Jiaqi and was partial to her in her heart, so when she heard her son speak such words she couldn’t bear it and refuted: “What do you mean? Even if you don’t like Jiaqi, you grew up together like siblings; how can you say that about her? Just for Su Yan? Why can’t you understand: Su Yan is married!”

According to Mother Shen, the already married Su Yan was no match for Jiaqi.

Shen Peiran didn’t want to argue anymore. Even if he was angry, he didn’t want to quarrel with his mother. Finally, he could only say: “In this life, even if Xiao Yan and I weren’t together, I wouldn’t have gotten together with Jiaqi. Mom, please don’t mention this matter anymore. Anyways, Jiaqi is like my younger sister.”

If he could have been with Jiaqi, they would have already gotten together. 

Mother Shen wanted to say much more but, after seeing her son’s unsightly expression, she endured it. Before leaving she again urged him: “Tomorrow you must go to work. Your father is already discontented. Don’t you know that you aren’t the only one for the position of the Shen Family’s successor? You cannot idle the whole day in romance like a child. You should undertake the family responsibilities.” 

Father Shen had married twice. He had a wife before Mother Shen. After Father Shen gained fame and fortune because his ex-wife was a rural woman, he didn’t look upon his ex-wife very highly, and as a result, he heartlessly divorced her. However, he still had a child with his ex-wife. Although Father Shen mostly preferred Shen Peiran, the son of the ex-wife still had some shares of the family property.  

Shen Peiran was clear about the complex family ties. He nodded at once, indicating that he would certainly go to work tomorrow.

Men were like this. Even if his heart was vexed regarding his relationship with Su Yan, the most important thing for him was his career. 

Seeing her son like that, Mother Shen felt her mind was now free of worries. She decided inwardly to have a little chat with Su Yan afterwards. From a woman’s point of view she felt that Su Yan wouldn’t divorce Jiang Jingchuan. In that case, it was better to not hold up her son for nothing. As long as Su Yan stayed firm then her son would naturally set his thoughts around work. The most pressing matter now was to fight for the right of succession. Everything else was secondary.