Chapter 4: Wen Su, You've Chosen the Wrong Person to Challenge

Wen Su opened the door without the slightest pause, as though she had not heard him.

Back in her office, she leaned against the door and drew a deep breath. Her fingers had gone white around the documents.

More than drifting numbly along accepting lies, she feared the uncertainties she could not see.

She sat at her desk, picked up the landline, and made a call.

“Ms. Zhao, could you please forward me the archived materials for the project on improving Yiqi Anshen Granules and applying sustained-release technology? I have an important announcement to make at the three o’clock meeting.”

She turned on her computer and received a document.

Old Madam Shen had brought the two of them together on this promising project. Publicly, it was presented as a collaboration between sisters-in-law. If it succeeded, it would make a charming story.

The project was nearing its end. Yet in the application materials, the proposed solution was credited to Lu Qingyun’s formulation innovation team. Wen Su’s name appeared only in the list of staff providing pharmacological support.

“Just as I thought. Again.”

She began to type.

At three that afternoon, in the spacious conference room, Shen Fei’an sat at the head of the table, studying the documents before him with a dark, complicated expression.

The meeting was a progress review for the Yiqi Anshen Granules project. Key technical staff from R&D and the other departments were all present.

When her turn came to speak, Wen Su calmly laid out a stack of documents and took her place at the front. The projector displayed the materials she had revised.

“Some of the project’s application materials differ from the original records. I’d like to clarify those discrepancies for everyone.”

The room was stunned.

The application had already been submitted. For Wen Su to announce errors now was startling indeed.

Shen Fei’an watched her with an unreadable look.

Her voice calm and cool, she projected copies of her original experimental notes, bearing her own markings and dates, early sample test data, and emails exchanged between her and Lu Qingyun, displaying them one by one.

Shen Fei’an’s expression grew stern as he watched the screen.

The complete chain of evidence pointed to a single fact: Wen Su had led the work on the core technology and key parameters behind the project’s breakthrough.

Dead silence filled the room.

Then people began murmuring despite themselves.

“Dr. Wen.” Li Jiajia, an assistant on Lu Qingyun’s project team, was the first to speak, with an accusatory tone. “We’re already in the approval process. Is this really the right time to raise this?”

“If outsiders hear we’re changing leaders at the final hurdle, won’t we become a laughingstock?”

A middle-aged researcher agreed. “Credit is hard to divide in a collaborative project anyway. Dr. Lu led the project and coordinated everything. She’s contributed a great deal. Aren’t you being a little too particular about this, Dr. Wen?”

“Exactly. Dr. Lu has just lost her husband. She’s devastated. Can’t you show her some understanding?”

Discontent spread through the room. To them, Wen Su was petty for claiming credit at a time like this, lacking generosity or the slightest kindness.

She had broken an unspoken rule: the leader took the greatest share of the credit, while those who quietly did the work were expected to consider the bigger picture.

They thought she was aggressively seizing power, using her position as Shen Fei’an’s wife to kick Lu Qingyun while she was down.

Wen Su’s expression barely changed.

“I understand your concerns,” she said evenly. “But I believe research must always be grounded in facts and originality. We need to establish where the technology actually came from, rather than focus on personal gains or losses. If the original records are unclear, any dispute over technical details or intellectual property could leave the company at fault and cause losses.”

She paused, letting her gaze rest on several openly displeased faces.

“Given the actual technical contributions, the safest way to ensure the project proceeds smoothly is for me to take charge of its final integration and provide technical support for the subsequent handover to production.”

At the head of the table, Shen Fei’an sat with a still, dark face. Whatever he was thinking, his eyes never left the woman by the projector.

Having said what she intended to say, Wen Su returned to her seat.

“What is Dr. Wen doing? Stealing the credit?”

“I never realized she was the sort of woman who quibbled over every little thing.”

“Will Mr. Shen agree to this?”

“Dr. Lu’s been so close to her for years. Imagine how hurt she’ll be.”

“Quiet.”

A steady, forceful male voice silenced the criticism.

“That concludes the meeting. Everyone may leave.” Shen Fei’an dismissed them without announcing a final decision.

As Wen Su gathered her documents and prepared to leave too, he directed his next words straight at her.

“Wen Su, is this really necessary? Do you have to push her into the abyss?”

She lifted the documents into her arms and looked at him. “I’ll submit a formal report to the R&D leadership and company management.”

“And if I refuse?” Everyone else had left. He reached out and shut the conference room door, then put his hands in his pockets, his displeasure plain. “She’s more than my sister-in-law. She’s my family. Wen Su, you’ve chosen the wrong person to challenge.”

“I’ve simply made the arrangement I believe is best for the company and the project,” she replied calmly, meeting his cold, angry gaze.

“Best?” Anger surged in his eyes, though he forced it down. “Have you considered what Qingyun is going through? She’s lost her husband. She’s being forced abroad. And you choose this moment to take her project away, laying out your so-called evidence of originality in front of everyone, backing her into a corner as if you were forcing her to abdicate. Are you really thinking of the company? Or yourself?”

“Do you want to hear what outsiders will say?”

“That you took advantage of your sister-in-law losing her position to kick her while she was down, steal her credit, and seize power?”

“That you’re cold-blooded, without a shred of sympathy, and utterly lacking in decency?”

He was truly angry. He could not accept her making this decision at such a time.

Coming closer, he placed both hands on her shoulders. As he always did, he gently smoothed the hair beside her ear.

“Wen Su, it’s only a project. It might not even make much money. Is it worth sacrificing your reputation to trample Qingyun underfoot?”

Wen Su lowered her eyes and gently pushed his arms away.

“I’ll wait for management’s decision and arrangements,” she said quietly. “As for whether it’s worth it, I have my own convictions and principles.”

She opened the conference room door and walked out.

Shen Fei’an, you have no right to lecture me about anyone’s circumstances or dignity now.

When you and Lu Qingyun began planning to have a healthy child to secure her place in the Shen family, that dignity had already been destroyed.

Less than three minutes after the meeting ended, Wang Jiajia called Lu Qingyun and told her exactly what had happened in the conference room.

An hour later, a black Bentley stopped outside Villa Six in Songhu Bay.

In the back seat, the cigarette between the man’s fingers was still burning. Once the car stopped, he tossed it onto the floor and ground it out beneath his black leather shoe.

“Mr. Shen.” Auntie Wang hurried forward to take the coat draped over his arm.

“Is she willing to eat yet?” he asked.

“She’s had a little,” Auntie Wang said softly. “Not much.”

Just then, Lu Qingyun appeared at the stairs.

She wore only a thin silk dressing gown with a cardigan loosely thrown over it, plainly too little for the late-autumn weather. Her pale face was bare of makeup, her eyes a little red and swollen.

She bore no resemblance to the polished, impeccably dressed wife of the Shen family’s eldest son she usually was.

She looked like a frightened bird driven into a corner, with nowhere left to go.

“Fei’an…” Her voice was hoarse and broken, threaded with a sob. A moment later, tears spilled down her cheeks.