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

In Shen Yao's view, although she suffered some physical pain and fright during her brief but thrilling confrontation with Lu Xiuting at the airport, the outcome was more beneficial than harmful.

After all, a high-potential stepping stone was "unexpectedly" delivered to her.

Thinking about it that way, that little bit of unpleasantness doesn't seem like a big deal anymore.

Putting this minor incident behind her, Shen Yao quickly immersed herself in the novelty and excitement of her trip to the United States.

Xiang Yuchuan arranged a typical itinerary for the wealthy.

Stay in New York's most luxurious hotels, dine at upscale restaurants and boutiques, watch popular Broadway shows, and enjoy a helicopter tour overlooking the Manhattan skyline at night...

Shen Yao gazed greedily at everything in this bustling metropolis.

She was not content to be just a "pretty accessory" that Xiang Yuchuan led around; instead, she began to boldly try to communicate with the locals using her half-baked English, which she could barely manage in daily conversations after intensive training.

In luxury stores on Fifth Avenue, she would use simple vocabulary to ask the staff about the design concepts behind the products; in Central Park, she would smile and greet the elderly walking their dogs; in museums, she would listen attentively to the explanations and try to understand the culture behind the art.

Beauty knows no borders.

Even though she couldn't speak the language, her outstanding looks, her diligently practiced elegant and poised demeanor, and her confidence in expressing herself still made her the center of attention.

Wherever she goes, she always receives amazed and admiring glances from people of different skin colors and ages, accompanied by "Beautiful!" and "So pretty!" in various accents.

This pure aesthetic recognition from a wider world greatly satisfied Shen Yao and made her even more convinced that the path she had chosen was the right one.

Continuously enhancing one's own value is the true currency for reaching higher levels.

Xiang Yuchuan looked at Shen Yao, seeing how dazzling she was even in a foreign land, and felt both proud and envious.

He was proud because he liked Shen Yao, so he was happy for her excellence; he was also annoyed by the way those foreigners looked at her!

Especially at night, they return to their luxury suites that overlook the entire Central Park.

As Xiang Yuchuan watched Shen Yao standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, her slender figure outlined by the neon lights, he couldn't help but feel a surge of anger mixed with possessiveness and jealousy.

He would walk over, hug her tightly from behind, and whisper a half-joking complaint in her ear:

"Are you having a great time attracting attention outside?"

Shen Yao had already figured out his temper and knew that she couldn't confront him directly at this time.

She would turn around, lean softly against him, and look at him with her eyes, which were even more captivating under the foreign lights:

"No, I only have eyes for you. They're just being too polite."

As she spoke, she tiptoed to kiss him, using passionate body language to soothe his restless emotions.

As night deepened, the lights of New York City shone like a galaxy at my feet.

On the soft, large bed in the hotel, Xiang Yuchuan would always torment her more vigorously than usual.

It was as if he wanted to confirm his absolute ownership of her through this most primal method, and drive away all the irrelevant gazes from the daytime.

Shen Yao was happy to cooperate.

She knew this was the "price" she had to pay to maintain the relationship and acquire more resources.

Moreover, indulging in such an extremely luxurious environment is itself an unprecedented experience.

After a passionate encounter, the jealousy dissipates, and Xiang Yuchuan returns to being the devoted boyfriend who always grants her every wish, embracing her and planning the next day's itinerary.

After spending a week or two in the United States, Shen Yao's spoken English skills have indeed made visible progress.

Immersed in a purely English-speaking environment, she was forced to listen and speak. From initially stumbling and struggling to express herself, she was eventually able to have some simple daily conversations and even understand most restaurant menus and road signs.

This made her realize how important the language environment is for learning a language.

Amid the bustling crowds of Times Square, Shen Yao inadvertently caught sight of a ragged, disheveled Asian homeless man squatting on a street corner.

That profile, that slightly hunched posture, was just like her father, Shen Daqiang, in her memory.

In an instant, her heart stopped, her whole body trembled reflexively, and she instinctively grabbed Xiang Yuchuan's arm tightly beside her.

"What's wrong?"

Xiang Yuchuan winced in pain and looked in the direction of her gaze with suspicion. "He's just a homeless man, Yao Yao. Are you so easily frightened? Were you scared?"

Shen Yao snapped back to reality, realizing her lapse in composure. She quickly released her grip and forced a pale smile.

"N-nothing, I think I just saw a really big rat run by."

She quickly pulled Xiang Yuchuan away in the opposite direction, not daring to look a second time, but the image was already etched into her mind like a ghost.

During the day, she enjoys the exotic atmosphere and experiences the impact and praise from different cultures. She is a confident, beautiful, and knowledgeable young woman.

When night falls, especially when I occasionally wake up from a bizarre dream in the dead of night, the fear and unease that I have deliberately suppressed deep in my heart will surge up uncontrollably.

She often dreams of the past that she desperately wants to escape, yet is etched into her very bones like a brand.

She dreamt that her alcoholic and short-tempered father, Shen Daqiang, suddenly appeared at the gate of Shanghai University, dressed in shabby old clothes, his face flushed, pointing at her nose and cursing loudly.

He would shout at all the well-dressed students and teachers passing by in the most vulgar language:

"Look at this! This brat! I raised her! Now she's all grown up and comes to the big city to act like a rich girl!"

"Let me tell you, I sold you to Liu Laowu at the village entrance a long time ago! I took the bride price! You can't escape!"

Sometimes, in her dreams, Shen Daqiang would suddenly transform into the face of the homeless man she had seen in Times Square that day, his turbid eyes staring intently at her, his mouth gaping open in a sinister smile.

She dreamt of her childhood, of that man getting drunk and raining punches on her and her mother.

He reeked of alcohol and cursed them as "money-losers" and "jinxes."

The excruciating pain and the deep-seated fear were vividly clear even in my dreams.

She even dreamt that Xiang Yuchuan looked at her with a gaze she had never seen before, filled with contempt and disgust, and sneered as he said:

"So you're just a piece of trash who crawled out of a mountain village! What are you pretending to be so high and mighty for? Go back to your poor mountain village!"

Every time Shen Yao wakes up from such a nightmare, she is covered in cold sweat, trembles uncontrollably, and her heart races.

It was as if she had truly been stripped of all pretense and exposed to the public eye.

Whenever this happens, Xiang Yuchuan, who sleeps next to her, will be awakened by her movements, no matter how soundly he is sleeping.

He would unconsciously feel a bit sleepy and irritable, but more than that, he would hold her close in his arms with concern.

"What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?"

He would awkwardly pat her back, soothing her in a low voice like he was comforting a child: "It's okay, dreams are just dreams, I'm here for you."

At that moment, Shen Yao could feel the gentleness of this usually arrogant and domineering young master, who had put aside all his airs.

This warmth made her crave it, but it also made her more resistant and disgusted.

If he knew her past, her true self beneath all the pretense, would he still treat her this way?

So when Xiang Yuchuan pressed her to tell him what she dreamed about, she would always keep her mouth tightly shut, shake her head, or give a vague answer and then quickly change the subject.

Just like when Yu Chuan casually asked her during the winter break why she didn't go home for the New Year, she simply brushed it off by saying, "I had a fight with my family and didn't want to go back."

Xiang Yuchuan didn't think much of it.

After all, it's not uncommon for him to have conflicts with his family; he himself hadn't been home for three or four years.

After Shen Yao was awakened by nightmares for two consecutive nights, Xiang Yuchuan, half-asleep, held her close, his body trembling with drowsiness and an instinctive curiosity, and for some reason mumbled something indistinctly:

"Why do you keep having nightmares, Yao Yao? What kind of life did you live before?"

These words instantly dispelled all of Shen Yao's sleepiness and drowsiness.

Her body stiffened, her heart pounded so hard it felt like it would burst out of her chest, and all her senses became incredibly sharp in that instant.

Did he notice? Did he suspect something?

Fortunately, Xiang Yuchuan seemed to be just talking in his sleep unconsciously. After saying this, his breathing quickly became even and long again, and he lay down with her in his arms and fell into a deep sleep.

Subconsciously, Shen Yao sealed all her memories and experiences before the age of eighteen deep in the darkest corner of her heart.

That was her shame, a mark she desperately wanted to erase, a forbidden place she would never allow anyone to intrude upon.

She had to make sure that the Shen Yao she presented to Xiang Yuchuan, Fang Yunci, Xie Yunzhou, and everyone else was a "clean," "potential," and "worth investing in" person.

Instead of Shen Yao, who came from a mountain village, had a gambling and alcoholic father, was almost sold off for a dowry, and was covered in mud.