The Heiress's Game

Evening at Qingshui Bay is Ning Limei's favorite time of day.

The villa's south-facing floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the bay, and the setting sun slowly sinks below the upper left corner of the window frame, turning the entire water surface into a sheet of molten gold.

She sat in a wicker chair by the window, wearing a moon-white linen cardigan, holding a cup of Pu'er tea with goji berries in her hands, the tea soup shimmering with an amber light in the cup.

Ningweier sometimes felt that her mother's best work in life was not winning over Gu Zhenxing, but living her life as a work of art.

"Mom, you took new photos again?"

Ningweier plopped down on the sofa next to him and waved his phone in front of Ning Limei's eyes.

The screen displays a recently released photo: a celadon Ru ware cup resting on a windowsill.

The background is a sunset over the sea blurred into a patchwork of golden light, and the caption reads, "My 51st birthday wish—peace and contentment."

Ning Limei glanced at it from the side, a slight smile playing on her lips, and reached out to push her daughter's phone away.

"It was just for fun, what were those people saying down there?"

"What else can be said? It's all the same: 'Madam, you have such refined taste.' 'This is real life.'"

Ningville curled his legs up and his fingers flew across the screen.

"Someone commented that you are the most insightful woman she has ever met, and that looking at your account can calm people down. This post has over a thousand likes."

Ning Limei didn't reply. She picked up her teacup, took a sip, and then looked back at the sea outside the window.

I'm fifty-one years old.

This number has been popping into her mind a lot lately, not with a sentimental sigh, but with a sense of alarm.

"Gu Yunjin is back, you know that, right?" Ningweier suddenly said.

Ning Limei paused for a moment.

"I know. Wang Manyun took her to an art exhibition; it was quite a grand affair." She paused for a moment.

"I heard that Gu Mingyue arranged a blind date for her with the second son of the Chen family."

Ningweier snorted and tossed his phone onto the sofa.

"Even if she comes back, so what? The second young lady of the Gu family. It sounds nice to outsiders, but who in the Gu family takes her seriously?"

Her tone carried a deep-seated contempt, not something she deliberately feigned, but rather the confidence she had cultivated over the years in Clearwater Bay under Gu Zhenxing's patronage.

"Back then, Mrs. Bell—her own grandmother—didn't even give her a second glance."

Ning Limei's fingers paused for a moment on the rim of the teacup.

Mrs. Bell.

The name is like a pebble that has been submerged for many years, suddenly stirred up and brought back to the surface with its silt and sand.

"The mindset of the older generation,"

Ning Limei said that her voice was unhurried, as if she were talking about a very old story.

"Celebrities are just actors, they're low-class and can't be considered respectable."

"Even though Su Wanning was incredibly famous back then, in Mrs. Bei's eyes she was just a performer who showed her face in public. When Gu Zhenxing wanted to marry her, the old lady smashed her teacup."

Ningweier had heard her mother tell this story more than once, but each time she heard it, she felt a sense of schadenfreude, as if watching a fire from across the river.

The teacup that was smashed in the Gu family's old house was a famille rose porcelain from the Qianlong era. Mrs. Bei smashed it on the ground without even blinking, saying, "The door of the Gu family is not for actors."

The door eventually opened.

It wasn't Mrs. Bei who compromised; it was Gu Zhen who acted first and asked Su Wanning for permission before bringing her back to the old house.

Mrs. Bei sat in the main room, holding a newly replaced teacup, without even lifting her eyelids.

Su Wanning knelt on the ground to offer tea and called out "Mom." The old lady took a full ten seconds before reaching out to take the tea, took a sip, and put it down.

"Once you've entered the Gu family, you've forgotten what you used to do. A Gu family daughter-in-law doesn't stand on a pedestal for others to see."

Su Wanning retired from acting completely, and then she began to learn how to be a good wife who takes care of her family.

There are many rules in wealthy families, or rather, many rules were set for Su Wanning. Gu Zhenxing's first and third wives, whose families were powerful, did not have as many rules.

Su Wanning had been a powerful figure on film sets for so many years, but when she arrived at the Gu family's old mansion's dining room, she couldn't even decide where she sat.

"She thought that if she did all that, Mrs. Bei would accept her." Ning Limei's voice was not sarcastic, but even pitying.

She didn't understand that what Mrs. Bei disliked wasn't what she did, but rather who she was.

She is Su Wanning, and that background cannot be changed. Even if she takes off her Best Actress crown, in Mrs. Bei's eyes she's nothing more than an actress without her crown.

Ningville rested his chin on the sofa armrest and listened with great interest.

"When Gu Yunjin was born, Mrs. Bei stood outside the delivery room for less than three minutes before leaving. When the nurse brought her out to see her, she glanced at her, said, 'She looks like her mother,' and then turned and left."

What was the scene like when Gu Mingcheng and Gu Mingyue were born?

Ning Limei put down her teacup and looked out the window at the increasingly dark sea.

"So during the ten years Su Wanning spent in the Gu family, although she was called Mrs. Gu, only she knew the true nature of her life."

"She has a mother-in-law who looks down on her, a husband whose heart is no longer with her, and a daughter who is not favored by her grandmother."

"The Gu family's old house is so big, there's not even a place for her to speak loudly."

Ningweier did the math. The year after Su Wanning married Gu Zhenxing, her mother introduced her to Gu Zhenxing.

In other words, Su Wanning spent nine years of that marriage knowing that Ning Limei existed.

Nine years. She suddenly felt that there was something about that woman she had never met—the movie star whose posters were plastered all over the streets—that made her uncomfortable.

It wasn't hatred, nor was it pity; it was an indescribable feeling.

"If she can think things through," Ning Limei's voice became very calm.

"She can just take a sum of money and leave after the divorce. With her fame and ability, what kind of life can't she live after her comeback?"

"She refused. She insisted on maintaining appearances, on having a formal title, on being 'Mrs. Gu.' And what was the result?"

What did her official title bring her? Her mother-in-law's coldness, her husband's betrayal, and the outward respect but inward gossip of everyone in the Gu family.

If she had left when she found out about me, she would have been in her early thirties, the prime of an actress's life. But she stubbornly held on, holding on until she was thirty-eight, until she was completely worn out before leaving.

Her tone was sarcastic.

"What's most ridiculous? After her divorce, Mrs. Bei applied the same treatment she used on her daughter."

"Gu Yunjin has been practically invisible in the Gu family ever since Su Wanning got divorced."

Mrs. Bei wouldn't let her sit at the head table for dinner, saying that she "had Su Wanning's shadow in her eyes and brows" and that it bothered her.

Gu Mingcheng and Gu Mingyue were born to the first wife, and the old lady was still willing to give them a smile;

Gu Yunjin was born to Su Wanning, so there's no need for a smile.

Later, when Su Wanning died, the old lady's exact words at the dinner table were—"The mother couldn't think straight, and the daughter was also gloomy. This child's eyes had no light; they were chilling to look at."

"Although Wang Manyun later married Gu Zhenxing, she brought Gu Yunjin to live with her in order to maintain a good reputation as a stepmother."

"But Mrs. Bei always said the same thing to Gu Zhenxing - it's not good for anyone to keep this child at home. Manyun's child was just born, what if she has bad intentions?"

"After saying so much, Gu Zhenxing had his study abroad application processed."

Ningville imagined the scene.

Fourteen-year-old Gu Yunjin's mother had been buried less than a year ago, and her father, following his grandmother's advice, sent her away.

When I was dragging two suitcases through customs, I wasn't accompanied by family members, but by an aunt who cooked for me and a caregiver who took care of my daily needs.

She suddenly felt like laughing—not out of schadenfreude, but because she genuinely found the whole thing absurd and somewhat funny.

All those rules, all that decorum, all those decisions made "for your own good" in the Gu family's old house ultimately left a fourteen-year-old girl to face the winter 8,000 kilometers away alone.

Gu Yunjin might receive an overseas phone call every year on her birthday, while Ningweier would have Gu Zhenxing sitting in the living room of Qingshui Bay every year on her birthday, personally cutting the cake for her.

This comparison gave Ningville a secret sense of satisfaction.

"So you're telling me, what's the use of a title?" Ning Limei's voice returned to its usual calm and undisturbed tone.

"Su Wanning has a title; she is Mrs. Gu. But what did that title bring her? Humiliation from her mother-in-law, indifference from her husband, ten years of endurance, and in the end, three years of loneliness and a rope."

"I have nothing, no title, no paper, no title of Mrs. Gu."

But Gu Zhenxing spends countless days with me every year. You've called him "Dad" since you were little, not "Uncle," and he's never said no to anything you've wanted.

As she said this, the corners of her mouth curved slightly.

"One cannot have everything. Su Wanning wanted everything, and in the end, she couldn't keep anything."

If she had been more open-minded, and had never entered the Gu family's home in the first place—or if she had entered and realized something was wrong, she would have left immediately—her life would have been completely different.

She was too strong-willed, so strong-willed that she got herself into trouble.

"That's why I never compete. Those who compete do so in the open, while those who don't compete remain in the shadows. How many people have competed against Gu Zhenxing in his life?"

There are too many to count. But I, from day one, have never asked him for anything.

So he felt indebted to me. That indebtedness was more valuable than any marriage certificate.

Ningville sat up from the sofa, picked up a strawberry from the fruit bowl on the coffee table, took a bite, and the juice stained his fingertips red.

"Mom, you mentioned wanting to buy a courtyard house last time, have you decided on one?"

Ning Limei turned her gaze from the sea to her daughter's face.

"I've looked at a few places. There's one in Qianhai, a two-courtyard house, the owner is in a hurry to sell, and the price is 20% lower than the market price."

"Will Dad be unhappy?"

Ning Limei pulled her hand back from the window frame and placed her fingers interlaced in front of her.

At 51, her hands are well-maintained, with her skin still retaining a delicate texture, but the bony structure of her joints is no longer concealed.

"I've never asked your father for anything in all these years."

He insisted on giving me the villa, he voluntarily paid for my education, and he even offered to buy me the apartment and car after graduation. I never had to ask for anything.

Ningville didn't reply. She knew it was true.

"So this time I spoke up. I told him, 'Old Gu, I'm fifty-one, and I've followed you for twenty-three years. I've never asked you for anything.'"

Now I want to buy my own place in the city. It doesn't have to be too big, just a yard where I can plant two pomegranate trees.

He was silent for a moment, then said, "Okay, let me choose for myself, and I'll pay when I've chosen."

"Mom, have you ever regretted it?"

"I don't regret it," Ning Limei said.

Ningville looked at her.

"I'm telling the truth. Your father and I have had everything we could possibly need in these twenty-three years. Gu Zhenxing has had countless women come and go in his life."

I have no official title, but I am also free from shackles.

Su Wanning was worn down by the Gu family, while Wang Manyun, sitting in the position of Mrs. Gu, schemed every day, plotting against her stepchildren, other women, and even her son's future.

"I don't need to calculate anything; Gu Zhenxing will bring the things over himself."

Ning Limei walked back to the rattan chair, bent down and picked up the cup of Pu'er tea that had gone cold. A thin layer of tea oil had condensed on the surface of the tea soup, which shimmered with a dim iridescence under the light.

"But I'm fifty-one. Will, Mom's fifty-one."

"You know better than I how much I've gained by maintaining this 'I don't care about money' persona over the years. But all of that—the villa in Clearwater Bay, your car, your bags, your tuition fees—is just a sandcastle."

When the tide recedes, nothing is left. Your surname is Ning, not Gu.

If your father passes away one day, the people who care about the family won't let us continue living in this villa.

Gu Mingcheng wouldn't, and Wang Manyun certainly wouldn't.

She placed the teacup on the coffee table, sat down next to her daughter, and reached out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind Ningville's ear.

"So I want to seize everything I can while I can still speak. The courtyard house is the first thing, but it won't be the last."