A True Heroine Needs No Man - Chapter 2

Six months after I left, Shang Luzhou finally stopped his frantic act.

He got a new girlfriend.

She was the polar opposite of me in every way.

Looks, demeanor, background, personality-everything.

I was assertive and decisive; she was timid and gentle.

I came from a happy, prosperous family; she was an orphan, raised by a widowed old woman in her village.

My friend was indignant when she told me about the girl.

“Su Wanyin is nothing compared to you. It’s like Shang Luzhou got tired of feasting on delicacies and decided he needed a palate cleanser.”

I replied: “Shen Fu is Shen Fu, and Su Wanyin is Su Wanyin. I don’t appreciate the comparison.”

“I don’t want to be compared to a dish. I want to be a person.”

Objectifying women is fundamentally about diminishing their humanity. The way one treats a person is entirely different from the way one treats an object.

My friend quickly apologized, and I changed the subject.

A few days later, I started receiving photos of Shang Luzhou and Su Wanyin.

At first, they were just pictures of the two of them alone.

The photography was clearly professional, with beautiful lighting and composition.

They weren’t even looking at each other, yet the photos radiated a hazy, dreamlike sense of budding romance.

My friend explained, “He was paying way too much. It was free money. If I didn’t take it, he’d just find someone else.”

“Babe, I’ll split it with you.”

I was about to say I had my own money and could pay her double.

But then I saw the amount on the screen-five hundred thousand yuan-and quietly deleted the words I’d typed.

I might be rich, but I wasn’t stupid.

Shang Luzhou hadn’t just hired her; he’d hired a small army of people to send me photos.

I negotiated an 80-20 split with all of them. I got eighty percent; they could send whatever they wanted.

Even for a wealthy family, this was a ridiculous way to burn money.

I imagined the Shang family elders waking up each morning and seeing no future for their lineage.

But then, the photos I received became increasingly risqué, the content more and more provocative.

From gazing into each other’s eyes and smiling, to holding hands with fingers intertwined.

From Shang Luzhou holding Su Wanyin in a tight embrace, to kisses that were almost too intimate.

From him lifting her to sit on his shoulders, to the two of them lying in bed, bare-shouldered, leaving little doubt about what had just happened.