The Guide to Rising to Power: The Ultimate Schemes of a Green Tea Beauty

After moving out of the school, Shen Yao moved into the international apartment that Xiang Yuchuan had renovated for her.

The house is spacious and bright with a great view, a living environment she never dared to dream of before.

During the day, she shuttles between beauty salons, gyms, and driving schools, adding bricks and tiles to her "value-added" plan.

In the evenings or on weekends, when Xiang Yuchuan would enthusiastically drag her to various upscale restaurants, private clubs, or simply noisy gatherings with a group of cronies, a growing sense of impatience would well up within her.

Watching Xiang Yuchuan and his friends squander money, talk about trivial matters, and enjoy an easy and extravagant lifestyle, Shen Yao felt utterly bored.

She was like a delicate doll, taken to various occasions. All she had to do was keep smiling and say a few flattering words to receive praise and gifts.

But that's far from enough.

She was like a greedy vine, after receiving the initial water and sunlight, she began to crave more fertile soil and a wider sky.

The small amount of "charity" that Xiang Yuchuan gave her could no longer satisfy her rapidly expanding ambition and appetite.

In those social gatherings, when she looked at her handsome but simple-minded boyfriend beside her, a calculating and cruel glint would flash in her eyes.

I need to make him like me more and become more dependent on me.

She calmly plotted to extract more resources from him, paving the way for her next move.

Even in certain dark moments, she would indulge in a kind of almost morbidly imaginative fascination.

What would it be like if one day this arrogant and self-important young master, who always gets whatever he wants, were to weep and beg humbly because of me? This thought gave her a twisted sense of pleasure.

Driven by these complex emotions, she became even more demanding of herself regarding her plans.

She must find a talent that can make up for her lack of temperament as soon as possible.

After more than ten days of deliberation and trial classes, she finally made her decision—dance.

She carefully selected an expensive private dance studio and hired the best teachers for one-on-one instruction. Her main focus was ballet and classical Chinese dance.

She made these two dance choices after careful consideration.

Ballet can sculpt the body to the extreme, enhancing the nobility and elegance of one's temperament. The uprightness and lightness that are etched into one's bones are unmatched by other dances.

Chinese classical dance can cultivate charm and expressiveness. Its subtle and restrained yet charming beauty can better showcase the unique charm of Eastern women.

She knew that learning to dance would be very painful, especially for someone like her who was already an adult and not very flexible. But Shen Yao was not afraid of hardship.

So, in addition to her usual beauty treatments, fitness activities, and driving lessons, she added another activity to her winter break.

Every day, I spend hours in the dance studio, sweating profusely, enduring muscle soreness and the pain of stretching, practicing the most basic hand positions, foot positions, and dance postures over and over again.

That afternoon, Shen Yao had just finished an exhausting basic ballet training session, her muscles aching all over as if they were falling apart, when she received a call from Xiang Yuchuan.

The background noise on the other end of the phone was loud, mixed with the clatter of shuffling cards and laughter.

"Yaoyao, where are you? Come to the 'Ink Color' club, we're one short for mahjong, play a few rounds with us." Xiang Yuchuan's voice carried his usual casualness.

Shen Yao held her phone; it was another card game.

All she wanted to do was go back to her apartment, take a hot bath, and then fall into a deep sleep to conserve her energy for tomorrow's dance class. But she couldn't refuse.

"Okay, I'll be right there," she heard herself reply in a meek voice.

Half an hour later, Shen Yao appeared in a luxurious private room at the "Ink Color" club.

The air was thick with smoke, a mixture of the smells of tobacco, alcohol, perfume, and expensive cigars.

Xiang Yuchuan and his friends were sitting around a mahjong table, each with a stylish young girl clinging to them in intimate and ambiguous poses.

Shen Yao's arrival was like a breath of fresh air entering this murky place.

She was dressed simply today, in a fitted black dress, but the excellent tailoring and her increasingly upright posture, honed by her dance classes, made her stand out among the group of heavily made-up girls.

With a flawless, slightly shy smile on her face, she walked over and sat down next to Xiang Yuchuan.

Immediately, several pairs of eyes, filled with scrutiny, amazement, and even naked desire, shot towards them from across the card table.

While his cronies joked with Xiang Yuchuan, their eyes lingered on her face and body like sticky tentacles.

Shen Yao remained gentle on the surface, but leaned slightly closer to Xiang Yuchuan, adopting a dependent posture.

The game was long and boring. Shen Yao had little interest in mahjong, but her skills were surprisingly good.

This is one of the survival skills she secretly learned from watching adults play cards when she was a child.

She subtly fed Xiang Yuchuan cards, allowing him to win easily and enjoyably.

But inside, she felt as if a fire was burning within her.

Looking at the group of men and women in a drunken stupor, and at Xiang Yuchuan's indulgence in low-level pleasures, she felt that her time had been wasted and that it went against her plans.

If she hadn't yet found a suitable opportunity like the last "slapping incident" that could greatly evoke his guilt and possessiveness, she would have liked to immediately slam down the cards and turn around and leave.

She couldn't delay any longer; she stared at the cards with icy eyes.

We must break the deadlock as soon as possible and take the relationship to the next level.

Only a closer relationship can give her more "freedom," allow her to demand resources more justifiably, and increase her leverage for possible withdrawal in the future.

The card game finally ended late at night.

Xiang Yuchuan won quite a bit and was in a great mood. He put his arm around Shen Yao and said he would take her out for a late-night snack.

When having a late-night snack, Shen Yao broke with her usual restraint. She poured herself a drink and drank with Xiang Yuchuan.

She actually has a good alcohol tolerance, but tonight, she deliberately got herself slightly tipsy and then started to perform "drunkenness".

Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were dreamy, and her voice was soft and nasal. She would lean against Xiang Yuchuan from time to time, like a clingy kitten.

Xiang Yuchuan found her behavior novel and interesting, so he didn't stop her.

After finishing their late-night snack, Xiang Yuchuan offered to take her back to her apartment.

Shen Yao, however, started throwing a tantrum. She clung to Xiang Yuchuan's arm, swaying and refusing to leave, muttering incoherently:

"No, I'm not going back there. It's so empty and desolate. I want to go to your place; your house is big and warm."

She tilted her head back, her face still slightly swollen from drinking, her eyes glistening with tears, a childlike stubbornness and dependence in them: "Yuchuan, take me to your house, okay...?"

Xiang Yuchuan looked at her charming and innocent appearance, which was so different from her usual self, and his heart softened, but he also felt a little hot.

He figured Shen Yao was his official girlfriend now, so sleeping at his place wouldn't be a problem, and it would save him the trouble of going back and forth.

"Alright, alright, whatever you say, you little drunkard." He smiled helplessly but with a hint of indulgence, and half-carried, half-supported the "drunk" Shen Yao, who was unsteady on her feet, into the car.

The car drove towards the villa where Xiang Yuchuan lived alone.