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

Seeing her completely trusting expression, Xiang Yuchuan temporarily suppressed his doubts.

He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her smooth forehead, his voice tender:

"It's only right that I'm good to you. I have some things to do later, so I'll have to go now. Focus on your studies, and let me know if you need more money, okay?"

"Okay, go ahead and get busy." Shen Yao nodded obediently and watched him turn and leave.

The smile on Shen Yao's face slowly faded only after Xiang Yuchuan's figure disappeared around the corner of the teaching building.

She frowned slightly; Xiang Yuchuan had acted a little strangely just now.

Although he concealed it well, she knew him too well. That momentary lapse in concentration and the traces of his deliberate attempt to change the subject did not escape her notice.

Did something happen at the coffee shop while you were buying coffee?

On the other side, Xiang Yuchuan got into the driver's seat, closed the car door, and the composure he had been putting on instantly crumbled.

Frustrated, he slammed his fist on the steering wheel, and the horn emitted a short, piercing blast.

The engine is started, and the sports car weaves dangerously through traffic.

He needed speed, he needed a cold wind, to blow away the increasingly uncontrollable doubts and fears in his mind.

With his background, he grew up surrounded by fame, fortune, and scheming, and had seen too many people approach him with various motives.

Shen Yao, who is eighteen years old, what are you hiding from me?

He remembered how she often woke up in the middle of the night, crying out incoherently in her sleep. At the time, he just assumed she was having a nightmare and comforted her with a tender embrace.

But now, recalling those moments sends chills down his spine.

If, if she only lied about her family background, he wouldn't really care.

He has plenty of money, and he likes her as a person. As long as she has a clean background and they get along well, what does it matter if she comes from a poor family?

He could easily support her for the rest of her life and give her the best life.

but……

Xiang Yuchuan closed his eyes in pain, letting the cold wind rush into the carriage.

"Let him go! Xiang Yuchuan, you can leave, but you'll come back sooner or later, back to this home."

On the day I left home, my grandfather's affirmative words echoed in my ears once again.

He hated the admonitions his family had instilled in him since childhood, such as "human nature is unpredictable" and "always leave room for maneuver."

These ideas made him unable to control his suspicions once he had even the slightest doubt, questioning whether every seemingly simple action of Shen Yao was actually a carefully calculated scheme.

He forced himself to calm down and, just as his grandfather had taught him since childhood, carefully recalled every moment he had spent with Shen Yao.

She was gentle and considerate towards him, occasionally showing affection and jealousy, but always maintaining the perfect balance.

She studies hard, is proactive and ambitious, and never asks for excessive things.

She was polite and considerate to his friends, and knew how to maintain a proper distance.

Aside from the occasional display of maturity beyond his years, there doesn't seem to be any major problem.

Everything seemed so normal, so perfect.

but……

It was this perfection that caused his damned intuition, honed in complex environments, to frantically sound the alarm.

Something is wrong!

Something's definitely not right!

The coffee shop manager's words were like a thorn piercing his heart.

Xiang Yuchuan abruptly stopped the car by the river. Looking at the rolling river outside the window, he unconsciously fumbled for his ring.

Shen Yao... I hope my intuition is wrong.

The cold wind blew for a long time before Xiang Yuchuan could barely suppress the turmoil and doubts surging in his heart.

He stared at his phone screen, hesitated for a long time, and finally dialed a number he hadn't contacted in almost four years.

Once this call is made, it means that he is sending a signal of reconciliation to the world he was trying to escape.

He risked his most cherished freedom to gamble on an answer about sincerity.

The phone rang for a long time before being answered. A deep, slightly authoritative middle-aged male voice came from the other end: "Feed?"

Xiang Yuchuan took a deep breath, his tone stiff and resigned: "Dad, it's me."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, as if someone was somewhat surprised:

"Yuchuan? What made you think of calling me?"

"I need your help with something," Xiang Yuchuan said, getting straight to the point without any pleasantries. "Investigate someone, especially whether she has deliberately investigated or approached me."

He paused, then added, with a hint of a trade-off, "Once I've found out, I'll go back."

The man on the other end of the phone didn't answer immediately, seemingly weighing his options.

A moment later, a voice came through, devoid of emotion: "Understood."

"Okay." Xiang Yuchuan responded and hung up the phone.

He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples wearily.

The fact that he so easily suspected the person he liked and used his family's influence to investigate her made him feel a deep sense of powerlessness and self-loathing, but that uneasy intuition forced him to do so.

After leaving school, Shen Yao did not go straight home, but took a taxi to that coffee shop again.

She ordered a drink and casually chatted with Chen Yuan, the store manager she knew, as if it were nothing more than an accident.

"Manager, I'm here for coffee. I overheard some girls talking about a handsome guy who came in today?" Shen Yao asked with a smile, her tone natural.

Chen Yuan replied with a smile, "Yes, a handsome guy did come, and he even bought the one you usually drink. But there was a little accident in the middle; he accidentally spilled the coffee, so we made a new one."

Shen Yao's heart skipped a beat, and her face showed surprise and concern:

"Huh? It spilled? Is the person alright?"

"No, not really, I was just startled." The shop manager waved his hand, then casually said, as if remembering something, "I thought of you. He seemed quite interested in your previous part-time job here, and even asked about you."

Shen Yao felt relieved, and her doubts were dispelled.

Sure enough.

She was almost certain that Xiang Yuchuan's unusual behavior was because the store manager had mentioned her past, which made him suspicious of her simple past.

They probably suspect she's hiding something.

She managed to get information from the store manager about Xiang Yuchuan's reaction and conversation at the time, thanked the manager, and left by taxi.

In the following days, life seemed to return to normal.

Shen Yao secretly observed Xiang Yuchuan and noticed that he would occasionally stare at her in a daze, his eyes filled with indescribable complex emotions, but he never questioned her further or made any unusual moves.

After a moment's thought, she decided to make thorough preparations.

So she found a thick notebook and buried herself in writing whenever she had free time, her expression focused.

On one occasion, she deliberately waved the notebook lightly in front of Xiang Yuchuan.

He will surely see that unique notebook, and the photo of the two of them tucked inside the title page.

"Yaoyao, are you writing something?" Xiang Yuchuan noticed as expected.

Shen Yao closed the notebook at the right moment, a relaxed smile curving her lips: "Hmm, just making some journal entries, recording some trivial things."

Having achieved her goal, she carefully put away the meticulously written notebook, waiting for the day when it might come in handy.

Summer vacation is approaching, and my freshman year is coming to an end.

Just as Shen Yao was planning how to further improve herself during the summer vacation, a piece of good news came out of nowhere and made her very excited.

The school has established an exchange student program with Yenching University, a top-tier institution!

The School of Journalism and Communication will select two outstanding students to participate in a two-year exchange program at Yenching University next semester.

Yenching University!

This news was a godsend for Shen Yao.

This means she can legitimately go to the center of power and resources, gain access to a wider world and more elite connections.

This was more direct and effective than any of her previous plans.

She applied for an exchange program and had the highest GPA in the entire college; her transcript was flawless.

However, the competition is bound to be fierce. In addition to academic performance, candidates also need substantial practical project experience and at least one convincing letter of recommendation from a professor.

Shen Yao instantly entered battle mode.

She began frantically collecting information, contacting her advisor, and looking for suitable project opportunities, spending almost all her spare time in the library and her advisor's office.

She was so busy, she barely had time to breathe, and even her dates with Xiang Yuchuan were greatly reduced.

They didn't even have time to carefully notice the increasingly undisguised gloom on Xiang Yuchuan's face and his several hesitant expressions.

In her view, Xiang Yuchuan was nothing compared to this excellent opportunity to reach the capital.

You can find another man like that; who will give her the Yenching University acceptance letter she missed?