Rachel was alert the entire time, but she didn't answer. She opened the envelope in her hand and read
it word by word, without missing a single dot.
Finally, she couldn't help swearing.
Although Marcus ran a small foreign trade company, his family's influence could never be
underestimated.
His father, Larry Ji, was the current mayor of Ninwell City, while his mother, Connie Chen, was the
chairman of Ninwell City Association. His family had originally planned for Marcus to inherit his parents'
legacy and enter the political field in the future. However, that plan fell by the wayside when he
established his own company during his university years.
On his own, he managed to gather a few laurels in the last few years.
Although his parents had no choice at the moment, they were still hoping for their original plan to
materialize. Thus, they were strongly encouraging Marcus to marry a daughter of a political family.
Now, a certain Celia Xu suddenly appeared in their son's life, and she had single-handedly destroyed
their plans.
Marriage connections were not only popular in business circles, but were also outright welcomed by
political families such as theirs.
The letter in Rachel's hand was written by Larry Ji, who demanded for the Fu family to stay out of the
affair between Marcus and Celia and refrain from doing anything for the Xu family.
After reading the letter, Rachel got the gist of the situation. She folded the letter and placed it back into
the envelope as she waited for Jonathan to speak.
After a moment of silence, Jonathan coughed and cleared his throat. "Rachel, Celia is your friend. I
know that it's a little heartless to tell you to stay away from her at this point, but our hands are tied. The
Fu family has to bow out of this."
Since the ancient times, business families had always been considered to be inferior to political clans.
Rachel pursed her lips and said, "Dad, I know. I'll keep my distance."
Jonathan certainly knew that she gave the expected response without meaning to abide by it, but she
already gave her word. He could not continue to badger her any further. The expression in his eyes
changed, as did their topic. "I heard that Jack has recruited her father. Is that correct?"
Although he was asking Rachel, she knew that Jonathan had already investigated on the matter
beforehand.
She was being completely forthcoming when she said, "Yes, I heard him mention it the other day."
Jonathan sighed. "Jack has always been close to that Ji boy. I'm afraid it was him who asked Jack to
do such a thing."
Rachel simply looked at him and didn't say anything.
Jonathan continued, "If I told him to fire Dylan Xu, he wouldn't agree. On the other hand, your influence
on him is different. He will surely listen to you. Our family cannot afford to offend the Ji family."
He looked straight at Rachel, who couldn't pretend to be silent anymore. She pursed her lips and said
lightly, "Dad, Jack has always been a man who unabashedly does his own thing. How could he listen to
me? But please, rest assured that I will tell him anyway."
Jonathan didn't say anything more.
It never occurred to Rachel that this matter might be much more complicated than she had originally
surmised.
As the night fell, the sky gradually started weeping.
Celia hesitated at the gates of the community for a long time. After taking two steps forward, she turned
around and left. She really didn't want to go back to that house.
But where else could she go?
"Celia? Why don't you come in?" It was an old nanny who live under the Xu family's apartment. In that
neighborhood, she was the only one who would greet Celia.
Celia rubbed her frozen hands together and said with a smile, "I was just about to go back after
finishing up a phone call."
The nanny raised her eyes and said kindly, "Then hurry back in, dear. It's a little cold at night. I went
outside to the supermarket to buy a bottle of soy sauce. I was halfway done with cooking when I found
out that I didn't have any in my pantry."
"Be careful on your way."
Celia sighed and walked towards her home. As soon as she opened the door, even before she could
take off her shoes, she saw two hands outstretched in front of her. Her stepmother, Bertha, shouted at
her in a sharp voice, "Hurry up. Pay for the living expenses today!"
Celia ignored her and put on her slippers. She glanced at her coldly and was about to go to her
bedroom when her stepmother grabbed her arm.
Celia pursed her lips and said, "I forgot to withdraw money from the bank today, so I'll give it to you
tomorrow. Will you die if I'm late for one day?"
"If you can only give me money tomorrow, then you won't eat with us today. Your father has raised you.
You are so ungrateful as you're so reluctant to pay your living expenses even though you have a job
now. Didn't you eat your meals here at home? Do you think those come for free?"
Bertha's words were full of sarcasm and ridicule, but she also brought up Dylan's position in this family
intentionally. She glanced at him sitting in the living room, his face evidently showing dissatisfaction
and his lips slightly curled unpleasantly.
Celia had grown used to listening to the diatribes from Bertha's mouth that she felt relatively calm. She
sneered and shook off Bertha's hand. "I won't starve to death if I don't eat for a day."
Even when she closed the door to her bedroom, she could vaguely hear Bertha complaining to Dylan in
the living room, saying that he had an ungrateful, narrow-minded child who had a rich, powerful
boyfriend and yet was still terribly clueless on how to help her family out.
Celia covered her ears, not wanting to hear such words again.
Her phone suddenly vibrated on the bed, and she picked it up. Lea's voice seemed to be always full of
vitality. "Celia, I went shopping today and found a new wedding dress shop in the south of the city.
When's your off day? Let's go check it out together."
"Lea, I..." Celia thought that Rachel no longer wanted her as a bridesmaid for her wedding.
How could she tell Lea about this?
She edited and rearranged the words in her mind for a long time, but Lea interrupted her before she
could speak. "Forget it. I don't think I have the patience to wait for your next off day. Why don't you take
a taxi to come here after work tomorrow? I'll send you the address. I've asked the owner to keep the
shop open until ten o'clock in the evening."
Then, in keeping with her whirlwind personality, she was suddenly gone.
Celia stared down at her phone. After a short while, she received a text message containing the details
of the wedding dress shop. She had yet to finish reading it when another message popped up. "I called
Rachel just now, but she said she don't have time tomorrow. Please don't stand me up, or I will be
really angry!"
In the end, she sent an angry emoji.
Celia sighed. Maybe she would be able to tell Lea the entire story face to face.
Rachel was out of focus when she received the phone call from Lea. Thinking that she had an
academic meeting in the afternoon, she outright refused Lea's invitation.
On the next morning, however, she found out that the meeting would be held the following Wednesday,
so she called Lea and told her that she could go to the wedding dress shop.
When she arrived at the shop, she saw Lea sitting on a sofa and reading a magazine, while a shop
attendant standing beside her warmly welcomed her. With a smile on her lips, Rachel sat down on the
opposite chair and remarked, "Why aren't you trying on any dresses?"
Lea shook her head. "Someone else is coming. Let's wait for her and try on stuff together." At the sight
of Rachel's confused expression, Lea shot her a look and said, "I'm not your only bridesmaid. You need
to wait until all of the bridesmaids are here, right?"
Rachel's heart skipped a beat. Yesterday, when Lea told her on the phone that she would go to the
wedding dress shop alone on the following day, she had subconsciously thought that Celia would not
be there.
But now...
The wind chime at the door suddenly jangled. Rachel turned her head and saw Celia enter with her
head ducked and fingers fidgeting with the tassels on her bag.
She greeted her in a low voice, "Hello, Celia."
Celia raised her head and said expressionlessly, "I suddenly remember that I have a prior engagement.
I'm leaving now."
It was like she couldn't stand being in the same room as Rachel for even one minute.
Rachel lowered her head to hide her disappointment. When she raised her head again, her face bore
its normally calm expression. She picked up her bag and smiled faintly. "I'm not feeling well. Celia, you
can accompany Lea to try on the dresses. You can pay for it first and then I can wire the money to your
account later."
That last part was addressed to Lea.
Lea frowned slightly, stood up, and asked, "What's wrong with you?"
Rachel waved her hand and said, "It's nothing. My stomach just feels a bit uncomfortable. I'm leaving
now." She exited the shop quickly.
Seeing this, Celia didn't intend to stay. Just as she was about to leave too, Lea grabbed her arm. "Hey,
what's wrong with you two? You just got here, and now you want to leave so soon?"
"I really have something else to do," said Celia with her head lowered.
Lea rolled her eyes and remarked, "Do you think I'm stupid? Don't try to hide it from me. Be honest—
what happened between you and Rachel?"
Just then, the shop attendant walked toward them with another magazine and said excitedly, "Miss,
please look at this magazine. The latest styles in our shop are all here."
The corners of Lea's mouth twitched. "I'm sorry, we have an urgent matter to discuss so we have to go
now. We'll come and look at them next time."
After saying that, she pulled Celia out of the wedding dress shop. She looked around and pointed at a
relatively quiet-looking coffee shop across the road. "We can't talk out here. Let's go to that shop and
sit down. Then, you can tell me what happened!"
Looking at the traffic jam in front of her, Rachel heavily slammed on the horn in frustration.
She knew that her annoyance was not caused by the traffic—it was because of Celia.
Jonathan had told her not to get in touch with Celia and to cut her off completely from her life, but
Rachel promised to do so only for the sake of placating him. In her heart, she promised no such thing.
Emotions were like rebellious teenagers—the more you denied them, the more they would go against
you.
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