Marrying the Ugly Woman of a Rich and Powerful Family - Chapter 15

Cang Yan, of course, wouldn’t so carelessly believe Shen Qingyuan’s words. She searched for a picture of a handsome man and asked, “Do you think this one looks good?”

This was a famously handsome man, with a body fat percentage of less than 10%. His entire body was composed of tight muscles, which looked very secure.

Shen Qingyuan glanced at the boxer-like man. The muscle mass was too high. It seemed every muscle contained immense power. She shook her head without hesitation and said, “Too muscular. I’m afraid I’ll be domestically abused.”

Cang Yan secretly gritted her teeth: “…”

This person doesn’t have an aesthetic problem at all. It’s a generation gap between them!

“What about this one? And these?” Cang Yan showed Shen Qingyuan almost every man and woman recognized as conventionally attractive online.

Shen Qingyuan shook her head without exception.

“Too dark. I’m afraid I won’t be able to find him if I wake up at night.”

“Too fierce. I’m a little scared.”

“Too bright. Don’t you think this face looks like a coffin lid? So dark it’s reflective.”

Cang Yan snapped, “That’s a tan! Are you even from this world?”

Shen Qingyuan slightly paused. She wanted to say she really wasn’t. She said seriously, “Anyway, I don’t like any of them.”

The people in the photos Cang Yan showed her weren’t that dark in person, but the photos used for the camera were heavily edited. The effect was very obvious, and none of them suited her taste.

Cang Yan was on the verge of frustration. She could see that Shen Qingyuan wasn’t lying. Her aesthetics genuinely seemed to be the opposite of the mainstream. An unbelievable answer suddenly came to her mind. She locked her gaze on Shen Qingyuan vigilantly and said, “You said you wrote that I was an S to get my attention. Do you… like me?”

The thought of Shen Qingyuan liking her made her frown deeply.

She married Shen Qingyuan for revenge and to appease her parents. Could it have turned into falling into Shen Qingyuan’s trap?

How could that be?

Does Shen Qingyuan actually have the intelligence to play a double agent with her?

Cang Yan started to doubt herself.

Shen Qingyuan was stunned for a moment, then said, “Yes, I like you.”

As a connoisseur of beauty, she had no resistance to Cang Yan’s face. This kind of liking was pure appreciation.

She wasn’t really twenty years old, nor was she an old stick in the mud. If Cang Yan wanted to do something with her, as long as it wasn’t particularly bizarre, she probably wouldn’t have any objections.

Cang Yan suddenly felt completely uncomfortable, as if she were being targeted by a venomous snake, with a chilling sensation running down her back.

She slowly recalled. Shen Qingyuan never showed a look of disgust when looking at her face; she genuinely seemed to find her very attractive.

Cang Yan scrutinized Shen Qingyuan from head to toe.

She seemed to be slightly fairer, either because Shen Qingyuan had been using whitening products recently or because she had just woken up.

But even so, what difference did it make?

No matter how high-sounding Shen Qingyuan’s words were, the fact that Shen Qingyuan had maliciously slandered her was undeniable. Perhaps she was only giving this absurd reason to flatter her after being exposed.

Cang Yan narrowed her eyes. Although Shen Qingyuan’s face was full of sincerity, she always felt that Shen Qingyuan did not seem like an ordinary university student. She just couldn’t find any flaws immediately.

With a cold face, she said quite domineeringly, “I don’t allow you to like me. A transaction is a transaction.”

Don’t insult the transaction.

“Okay then, my dear,” Shen Qingyuan said with some regret.

Cang Yan: “…” Can you just speak normally!

The two remained in a standoff, one sitting and one standing, in silence.

Shen Qingyuan quietly pulled out her phone. She thought that video had gone viral like in her dream, but she couldn’t find anything when she searched. So how did Cang Yan see it?

She looked at Cang Yan.

Cang Yan explained, “Reporters entering the school and forcibly conducting interviews are a violation in the first place. I have already contacted the school administration. This behavior seriously threatens the personal safety of students, so the video was naturally destroyed.”

Shen Qingyuan was puzzled. If Cang Yan was so capable, why did she let all sorts of malicious slander continue to ferment online?

Cang Yan added, “Don’t worry, it wasn’t for you. I don’t want to get involved with you outside of our agreement.”

Although the “Ugliest Contest” was aimed at her, it wasn’t called “Cang Yan’s Ugliest Contest,” so she had no right to interfere. However, other trending topics related to her were immediately suppressed after they went up. Unfortunately, her discussion volume was high, so suppressing it was almost as useless as not suppressing it, and there were even dedicated super topics.

Shen Qingyuan was originally unknown. How could these small media succeed in trying to bind her to create trouble?

“Oh,” Shen Qingyuan felt she had been talking too much nonsense today. She herself could barely remember what she had said.

Afraid that the more she said, the more mistakes she would make, and that Cang Yan would notice the huge difference between her and the original owner and then discover that she wasn’t the real Shen Qingyuan, she simply shut her mouth and stopped talking.

But Cang Yan did not seem to be planning to leave her room.

But today was Saturday!

She hadn’t slept enough yet.

Cang Yan watched Shen Qingyuan’s face change constantly—a raised eyebrow one moment, a slight frown the next—as if performing a Sichuan opera face-changing spectacle. Then she quickly climbed onto the bed, pulled the quilt over her head, and stopped moving.

Cang Yan: “…”

She stepped forward and lightly punched the quilt twice, saying, “Aren’t you going to continue explaining the whole story, the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’?”

Since she claimed to have written the S-themed fan fiction to get her attention, according to the normal script, shouldn’t she be expressing her deepest feelings now, instead of just going to sleep?

Shen Qingyuan’s muffled voice came from under the quilt: “I’ve already explained. You can think whatever you want. I’m very sleepy right now. Don’t disturb my chess game with the Duke of Zhou.”

“If you don’t get up, I’m going to pull the quilt off,” Cang Yan threatened.

Shen Qingyuan had already used her body to weigh down the quilt. Cang Yan made a gesture to pull it off, but her strength was too little, and the quilt was immovable.

“Better be suffocated,” Cang Yan left with this final remark.

Shen Qingyuan, muffled under the quilt, actually caught up on her sleep. When she woke up, her hair was a mess, completely a bird’s nest. Before she could check the time, her phone rang again.

The original owner was really busy.

It was Shen Tongtao.

“What do you want?” Shen Qingyuan’s tone was poor.

“The company’s problem has been resolved. This time, it’s thanks to you. Your mother said she misses you. Bring Cang Yan home for dinner.” Shen Tongtao’s official tone was anything but fatherly.

Shen Qingyuan shook her head and said firmly, “I’m not going.”

The key point was “Bring Cang Yan,” right?

Cang Yan wasn’t someone she could just bring.

She wasn’t someone Shen Tongtao could just summon home either.

She remembered that when she ran away, it was Shen Tongtao who discovered her first and even tied her up.

Shen Tongtao said sternly, “Shen Qingyuan, you’re an adult now. Don’t be willful.”

“Mr. Shen, you’re a middle-aged man now. Don’t force others.” Shen Qingyuan seemed to hear a hint of angry inhalation on the other end of the phone. Without waiting for Shen Tongtao to speak, she abruptly hung up, yet she felt a slight urge to go back.

She wanted to retrieve some things, like her ID card. She was practically penniless now, and the balance on her phone wasn’t much. She felt running away would be inconvenient.

Most importantly, she had taken over someone else’s identity. Not going home even on a weekend made her feel like an ungrateful jerk.

While Shen Qingyuan was criticizing herself for being so moralistic, she climbed up to wash up. She then realized how bad she looked when arguing with Cang Yan. Not only was her hair messy, but her nose was oily, and she had a pimple on her chin.

Shen Qingyuan was immersed in skincare when her phone rang again. It was Yin Ruyun. Thinking of how she would nag relentlessly, Shen Qingyuan didn’t plan to answer. She hung up and sent a message saying she would go back.

Cang Yan was watching the stock market fluctuations, torn between niche aesthetics and Shen Qingyuan liking her.

If Shen Qingyuan truly had niche aesthetics, wouldn’t that contradict the mainstream, making it exactly the “love of ugliness”?

In other words, even though Shen Qingyuan might think she was beautiful, the fact that she was still ugly remained.

So she couldn’t be happy at all.

Although she sometimes had a fleeting thought: aesthetics vary from person to person, and the niche aesthetic Shen Qingyuan spoke of coincidentally aligned with her own thoughts, it was ultimately just a niche aesthetic. Moreover, why should a little kid like Shen Qingyuan determine whether she was beautiful or not?

She wouldn’t like a person like that anyway.

Cang Yan cleared her mind and stopped thinking about Shen Qingyuan.

Her weekends were always boring. In the past, her parents would urge her to go on vacation, but unfortunately, she always got sick from the change of environment and had to be hospitalized upon return. So now, she either stayed at home or went back to her parents’ place. Physical activities like golf or skiing were not for her.

Cang Yan had considered gradually adapting to exercise and strengthening her body, but it always ended in failure. So now, she had given up on exercising and only went to the gym when she was in a bad mood.

Shen Qingyuan finished getting ready. It was already lunchtime. She noticed that the way Cang Yan looked at her had changed. Could she really think I like her?

Shen Qingyuan was very self-aware. After learning that this marriage was an agreement and being waxed by Cang Yan, she didn’t dare to harbor any improper thoughts about Cang Yan anymore.

After lunch, she cautiously said, “I have to go home later. Could I trouble you to take me back?”

“No,” Cang Yan refused without thinking.

She rarely visited other people’s homes. Apart from visiting relatives during holidays and attending some social gatherings, she had only been to Lin You’s house.

Lin You’s family members were all darker than the last. She felt particularly conspicuous there and never went a second time.

Could Shen Qingyuan genuinely like her? She’s already finding excuses to take her home. Cang Yan secretly guessed, directly ignoring the fact that she and Shen Qingyuan were already married.

“Actually, my father wants to thank you in person for helping our family. If you don’t come back with me, I’m afraid he’ll physically abuse me,” Shen Qingyuan said earnestly. “He’s not my biological father, and he doesn’t hold back when he hits.”

Cang Yan lazily lifted her eyelids and said, “It has nothing to do with me. Shen Tongtao is not your biological father, and I am not your biological wife. Why do you think I would hold back?”

She found arguing with Shen Qingyuan quite amusing. Initially, she thought their married life would consist of her tormenting Shen Qingyuan, Shen Qingyuan begging for mercy, and then her increasing the torment.

She hadn’t expected it to be quite harmonious.

But the thought of the fan fiction still made her bl00d boil.

And the thought of Shen Qingyuan liking her made her feel complicated.

Shen Qingyuan had experienced Cang Yan’s cruel and ruthless wax dripping and knew she wouldn’t hold back. She pouted and said, “Fine, if you don’t want to go.”

She hadn’t expected Cang Yan to agree anyway.

She still needed to study and wanted to go to the study room first.

“Stop right there,” Cang Yan said in an irritated voice.

Shen Qingyuan’s footsteps halted immediately.

“Beg me, and I might go with you,” Cang Yan still leaned towards the idea that Shen Qingyuan was instigated by her parents and was trying to please her, which was why she said that. This trip would be a good chance to see if Shen Qingyuan truly had a niche aesthetic.

One’s nature is easiest to understand at home.

Besides, Shen Tongtao and she were acquaintances. She was never afraid of business matters. Although she cared about other people’s opinions, money could arm her. In the face of profit, Shen Tongtao was the one who was beneath her.

If Shen Qingyuan truly liked her, she wouldn’t have to wait a year; she could kick Shen Qingyuan out immediately.

“I beg you,” Shen Qingyuan saw a turning point. If Cang Yan wanted her to beg, she would. The main thing was that with Cang Yan coming along, the situation would definitely be different. At least she wouldn’t have to put up with Shen Tongtao’s attitude. Otherwise, it would be difficult to pretend to be the original owner in front of her biological mother, Yin Ruyun.

After all, she didn’t even know the original owner’s personality well.

Cang Yan smiled faintly and said, “That’s not enough.”

Shen Qingyuan felt a chill down her spine. Her eyes widened, and she said, “You wouldn’t be that perverse, would you?”

“I am that perverse,” Cang Yan’s thoughts quickly spun. She immediately began to recite from the fan fiction: “She held a small black leather whip, and with a psshh sound, struck Shen Qingyuan’s delicate skin. A red mark instantly appeared, causing Shen Qingyuan to hurt so much…”

She even directly replaced the name of the character being abused with Shen Qingyuan to make Shen Qingyuan feel more involved.

“…” Shen Qingyuan’s back began to ache. “Stop, stop.”

Cang Yan raised an eyebrow, signaling her to continue begging.

“Sister, please, I beg you, please come home with me. Otherwise, I’ll offer myself to you?” Shen Qingyuan cupped her face with both hands, her clear eyes wide and pitiful, and her tone was incredibly affected. It made her own skin crawl to hear it.

“Shut up!” Cang Yan got goosebumps all over and couldn’t stand it anymore. Shen Qingyuan immediately shut up, her expression returning to normal, clearly showing the attitude of “you wanted me to beg, so I begged.”

Cang Yan felt that if she stayed with Shen Qingyuan for another second, her body would not be able to bear it. She said, “Come call me again at four.”

Shen Qingyuan smiled in triumph.

The last time Shen Qingyuan went home was when her escape failed and she was dragged back. This time, with Cang Yan beside her, she felt a slight difference.

Cang Yan sat upright in the back seat. Her face was expressionless. Her beige knit top and light brown trousers softened her body’s stiffness a lot, adding a touch of tenderness.

Shen Qingyuan was dressed like a student. When the two arrived at the Shen family house, Shen Tongtao and Yin Ruyun were extremely flattering.

Adults only see exchanges of benefits. The people shouting online were not qualified to trade with Cang Yan, so they didn’t need to flatter her on the surface and instead resorted to extreme insults.

Shen Tongtao, who needed to rely on Cang Yan for protection and resources, naturally couldn’t skimp on flattery. Shen Tongtao spoke to people as people and to ghosts as ghosts. The flattery was so intense that even Shen Qingyuan secretly admired it.

“I don’t know what President Cang likes about my Qingyuan. If she has offended you in any way, please feel free to discipline her.”

Shen Qingyuan secretly cursed him for selling his daughter so smoothly.

Cang Yan glanced sideways at Shen Qingyuan and said nonchalantly, “I don’t need a reason to like her.”

It sounded quite like a forced love.

Shen Tongtao and Yin Ruyun originally didn’t know why Cang Yan wanted to marry Shen Qingyuan. Their daughter had a terrible temper and an ordinary appearance. The only thing they could boast about was that she had been healthy since childhood and had never been sick. Yet, Cang Yan had somehow set her sights on her.

At the time, the company’s capital chain had issues, and cash flow was difficult. They sought help everywhere, and only Cang Yan agreed to offer assistance, explicitly requesting Shen Qingyuan to marry her.

They knew Cang Yan had a bad reputation and rumors of various methods. Although they had asked on the phone, seeing Shen Qingyuan safe and sound now made them feel much more at ease.

Yin Ruyun said, “Yuanyuan, come over with me for a moment.”

Shen Qingyuan knew Yin Ruyun wanted to separate them. Shen Songsong was also nearby, and the three of them went over together.

Yin Ruyun was a typical housewife. She cooked the meal herself today. Now that the kitchen door was closed, it was just the mother and two daughters.

Yin Ruyun said, “I see that Cang Yan treats you quite well. If you feel wronged, remember to tell your mother.”

Shen Qingyuan didn’t say anything.

Shen Songsong interjected, “What’s the use of telling you, Mom? Can you even manage their bedroom matters? I really didn’t expect Cang Yan to be so skinny, even thinner than she looks in pictures. Her strength shouldn’t be very great, right?”

Cang Yan rarely had videos circulating online, only some photos from public appearances.

“How can you speak so carelessly at such a young age?” Yin Ruyun lectured. “Your sister is right here.”

The two daughters had been at odds since childhood, which gave Yin Ruyun a headache. However, she was accustomed to favoring her younger daughter and was inevitably indulgent toward Shen Songsong.

Shen Songsong chuckled and said, “I know more than you.”

“You’re a junior high student. Focus on your studies.”

“But I read it in a book.”

The two started bickering after just a couple of sentences.

Shen Songsong was spoiled and bickered without any restraint.

Shen Qingyuan couldn’t get a word in and sighed. Shen Tongtao and Cang Yan were chatting animatedly in the tearoom. She quietly returned to the original owner’s room for some peace and quiet.

The clothes she was wearing were uncomfortable, so she wanted to change. Just as she was halfway through undressing, Shen Songsong suddenly appeared, her face full of curiosity, saying, “Shen Qingyuan, have you been dominated by Cang Yan?”

Although her cheap sister and she didn’t have a good relationship, as a sister, she was still concerned about Shen Qingyuan.

Shen Qingyuan quickly pulled her clothes back on, raised an eyebrow, and said, “What the hell is it to you?”

Shen Songsong understood: “Oh, you have been dominated.”

Shen Qingyuan: “…”

Can this sister not understand human language?

She kicked Shen Songsong out of the room. During dinner, although everyone wore masks of fake smiles, the conversation was relatively harmonious. Yin Ruyun’s home-cooked dishes were colorful, fragrant, and flavorful, and Cang Yan’s appetite was slightly better.

Shen Qingyuan was focused on eating. Maybe because this body was young and had a high daily consumption, she always felt she couldn’t eat enough. Seeing Cang Yan put down her chopsticks early again, Shen Qingyuan secretly sighed. She’s not even full in the face of delicious food.

The world doesn’t even like skinny people.

Could Cang Yan have other illnesses?

After dinner, the mutual flattery began again. Shen Tongtao said he had long admired Chairman Cang but hadn’t had the chance to meet him… A round of compliments followed, and Cang Yan smiled faintly and nodded, agreeing with his flattery of her father.

Shen Songsong was sitting on the side doing her homework when she suddenly spoke up, stirring up trouble: “I just saw a pink little heart on my sister’s back. It looks like it was dripped with wax.”

Her words created a huge stir. Shen Tongtao and Yin Ruyun’s gazes immediately shifted to Shen Qingyuan and Cang Yan.

Cang Yan remained silent, offering no explanation.

She made no secret of the wax dripping incident.

Shen Qingyuan, seeing Shen Tongtao and his wife staring at her, glared fiercely at Shen Songsong. What pink little heart? That was clearly a burn!

She awkwardly clutched her hands and said, “We were just playing around.”

Yin Ruyun realized what was going on, and the atmosphere became very awkward.

Shen Songsong, the culprit, was still giggling to herself.

Shen Tongtao dragged Shen Songsong into the study, took off his glasses, and scolded, “What the hell do you know about adult matters!”

Shen Songsong recoiled, weakly saying, “I know a lot. I even know the word that comes after ‘hell.'”

Shen Tongtao: “…”