You got your marriage certificate and then abandoned me? I'll feed the richest woman in the wor

A sharp cry for help echoed in the lounge area of ​​the upscale yoga studio.

A pool of murky water quickly spread across the expensive, high-end cushion.

The wealthy women around them covered their mouths and noses and retreated as if avoiding a plague.

No one was willing to step forward and lend a helping hand.

The scene abruptly ends amidst this chaotic and comical spectacle.

Time is like sand slipping through your fingers.

A few weeks passed in the blink of an eye.

The first snow of early winter fell gently on the streets of Jianghai City.

The entire city seemed to be shrouded under a huge white dome.

But the sudden drop in temperature failed to extinguish the boiling fervor in the heart of the city.

The most bustling intersection in the city center's CBD.

All the giant LED screens no longer display advertisements for international luxury brands.

The backgrounds were all changed to a festive dark red.

The words, written in large, gold-embossed regular script, are:

Congratulations to Chairman Chen of Xingchen Venture Capital and Chairman Shen of the Shen Family Conglomerate on their marriage and the upcoming arrival of their twins!

"Starting today, all shopping malls, supermarkets, and cinemas under Xingchen and Shen's Group will offer free admission for three days!"

They are wealthy and powerful.

This is an irrational act of throwing money around.

This sparked a buying frenzy among the residents of Jianghai City.

The long queue at the mall entrance stretched for several street corners and seemed to have no end in sight.

And in the urban villages of the old city, 30 kilometers away from the city center.

The atmosphere here is completely different from the bustling world outside.

The low, dilapidated tenement buildings are crammed together.

Even the early winter sun struggles to penetrate this narrow alley.

At the entrance of the alley, in a dilapidated mahjong parlor where half of the words on the signboard had fallen off.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of cheap cigarettes.

The smell of sweat from the lack of ventilation year-round makes one's eyes irritate.

A group of neighbors from the urban village sat around several mahjong tables with peeling paint.

Aunt Zhang was wearing a pilling floral cotton-padded jacket.

There were still mud splatters on his cuffs from when he bought vegetables at the market that morning.

Her rough fingers rubbed together on the green mahjong mat.

"Eighty thousand!"

Snapped.

She slammed a mahjong tile heavily onto the table.

"Oh dear, Aunt Zhang, your luck isn't good today."

Grandpa Li across from me tapped his cigarette ash and casually made a joke.

"Don't even mention it. I was planning to go to that big shopping mall in the city center this morning to join the crowds."

"I heard that the wife of the big boss at Star Ventures is pregnant, so the whole city is getting free food."

Aunt Zhang pursed her lips, looking annoyed.

"There were so many people that I couldn't even squeeze through the main entrance, and I almost lost one of my shoes in the process."

"You know, rich people really know how to spend money."

"It's just a pregnancy, is it really worth throwing away hundreds of millions?"

While complaining, she grabbed some sunflower seeds from the table and started cracking them open.

He casually spat the sunflower seed shells onto the ground, which was covered in cigarette ash.

On the wall directly in front of the mahjong parlor hangs an old, secondhand color television.

There were also several horizontal snowflake-like stripes on the screen.

now.

The midday news on TV happened to be reporting on the origin of this city-wide celebration in Jianghai City.

"Breaking news from our station: Ms. Shen Wanzhou, wife of Mr. Chen of Star Venture Capital and chairwoman of the Shen Conglomerate, has been confirmed to be pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl."

"To celebrate this good news, Chairman Chen not only booked all the GG seats in the city."

"Furthermore, he privately invested one billion yuan to establish a special maternal and infant charity fund..."

The news anchor's passionate voice sounded distorted amidst the noisy shuffling of mahjong tiles in the mahjong parlor.

However, a high-definition profile photo of Chen Yuan at a charity gala was displayed on the television screen.

The man in that photo.

Wearing a perfectly tailored, pure black haute couture suit.

Deep-set, sharp brow bones, and a prominent nose.

There's also that commanding aura that can make you feel suffocated even through a screen.

Aunt Zhang had just grabbed a handful of mahjong tiles, and hadn't even had time to see what suits they were.

My gaze inadvertently swept over the broken television overhead.

The moment my gaze fell on Chen Yuan's face.

The fat on her face jiggled suddenly.

The shell of a sunflower seed that I had only cracked halfway through got stuck in my throat.

"Cough! Cough cough cough!"

She coughed violently, her face turning bright red.

His hands gripped the edge of the mahjong table tightly, his fingernails scraping against the green velvet cloth with a harsh sound.

"Look...you all!"

Her fingers trembled as she pointed at the television screen, her voice rising an octave, even carrying a sharp, cracking quality.

"Isn't that...that poor kid who used to rent my basement apartment?!"

Her neighbors at the table were startled by her sudden action.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and followed her finger to look at the television.

At first, everyone felt that the powerful man on the screen was too far removed from their lives at the bottom of society.

But upon closer inspection, the outline of that face...

The cigarette that Grandpa Li was holding between his fingers fell onto his trouser leg with a thud.

He was completely unaware that a black hole had been burned into his skin.

"This...this is impossible!"

Grandpa Li stared wide-eyed at his eyes, which were cloudy from years of staying up late playing cards.

"Isn't that Chen Yuan, the son-in-law of the Lin family who married into the family?"

"Back then, in order to buy stomach medicine for that girl from the Lin family, he even went to repair her computer and install the operating system on a snowy day."

"I can't even afford a decent pair of cotton shoes, and my hands are covered in chilblains."

"How...how did he suddenly become the trillion-dollar boss of Star Venture Capital?!"

This group of neighbors who had stood by and even mocked Chen Yuan when he was at his lowest point.

At that moment, I felt as if my brain had been struck hard by a heavy hammer.

It was buzzing.

five years ago.

Chen Yuan lived in Aunt Zhang's basement room, which had no windows and leaked water all year round.

Every month, I try to squeeze out that meager rent.

You have to watch your stepmother's expression and listen to her barbed and sarcastic remarks.

"A grown man who spends all his time chasing after a woman is utterly hopeless."

"He's even three days behind on his 200 yuan rent; he'll be destined to be a beggar from now on!"

The things Aunt Zhang said to Chen Yuan back then.

It feels like countless invisible slaps.

With the force of a thunderbolt, it slapped her own old face hard.

The slaps made her eardrums ring and her vision went black.

The man she pointed her finger at and called poor and useless.

Now, he's a commercial god who can buy half of Jianghai City just by nodding his head!

Even to celebrate his wife's pregnancy.

The money that can be casually thrown out could pave this urban village ten times over!

And she.

He even lost his shoe in front of the supermarket while trying to grab free eggs.

"This...this is really the same person?"

A plump aunt next to him rubbed her eyes in disbelief, her voice dry.

"I remember he even fixed my water pipes once, and I didn't even offer him a sip of water back then..."

Huge class disparity.

And the extreme regret of missing the chance to cling to the coattails of a super-rich person.

It turned into a bucket of ice water, poured over my head and down to my feet.

Aunt Zhang's legs were as limp as two cooked noodles.

It simply couldn't support the weight of the body.

With a thud.

She slumped heavily onto the plastic stool behind her.

The stool legs creaked under the weight.

She looked at the man on the television screen, a man who seemed radiant and unapproachable.

Then look at my hands, which are covered in chilblains and dirt.

It felt as if a piece of my heart had been brutally ripped out with a knife.

That kind of regret is more painful than losing a hundred games of mahjong.

Aunt Zhang, who had once cursed Chen Yuan, dropped her mahjong tiles with a thud, her eyes red with envy as she pounded her chest: "What a tragedy! If I had lent him two hundred yuan back then, I'd be the benefactor of a billionaire now!"