Ye Changmin, who usually loved to talk and share her opinions, had been quietly brewing and serving tea for everyone this whole time, barely saying a word.
Her gaze kept drifting to Lin Wanqiu, and the more she looked, the more envy gnawed at her.
Seeing Lin Wanqiu’s appearance, skin, aura, and that healthy, collagen-rich glow, she felt like an ugly duckling, at one point too ashamed to even lift her head.
When she glanced at her own hands while pouring tea, she noticed the faint signs of ageing. Though she took good care of herself, skin couldn’t defy the march of time forever. Even if she never lifted a finger for chores, nearing fifty, Ye Changmin’s hands still showed dryness and wrinkles.
Then she saw Lin Wanqiu pick up her cup, those tender, youthful hands like a少女’s, and Ye Changmin felt even more inferior.
Lin Wanqiu had been curious all along. In her memory, Ye Changmin was always brimming with a need to perform, fiercely self-centred, the fieriest young lady in all of Yanjing back in the day. Yet now, she was voluntarily serving tea for everyone, silent in a way that felt almost eerie.
Lin Wanqiu didn’t have a mirror in front of her, so unlike Ye Changmin, she couldn’t constantly see her own face, now twenty years younger.
Because of that, she had no idea why Ye Changmin was so quiet.
While the men discussed business, she didn’t want to interrupt, so she quietly began observing Ye Changmin out of curiosity.
At one moment, their eyes met. Realising they’d both been sneaking glances, they shared a brief awkwardness.
For Ye Changmin especially, that eye contact was telling. She noticed Lin Wanqiu’s eye corners, the area women dread most, where wrinkles first appear.
But Lin Wanqiu’s were as smooth as silken tofu, plump and flawless, not a crease or blemish in sight.
Ye Changmin’s envy surged, the gap between them feeling insurmountable. She lowered her head unnaturally, a flicker of inferiority in her final glance.
Only then did Lin Wanqiu understand why Ye Changmin kept stealing looks at her.
It was all because of Ye Chen’s Rejuvenation Pill drawing this attention.
As a woman, she knew full well the allure of a Rejuvenation Pill to someone at fifty.
Ye Changmin’s envy was only human.
But knowing Ye Changmin was Ye Chen’s aunt made Lin Wanqiu shift uncomfortably.
For Ye Changmin not to have access to a pill, while she’d just taken a whole one, felt a bit embarrassing.
Still, this wasn’t something she could control, so she could only awkwardly pretend not to notice.
Ye Changmin wasn’t daft. Seeing Lin Wanqiu’s faintly awkward expression twisted her insides, a pang of grievance nearly bringing her to tears.
Ye Chen was her own nephew—how had things gotten so strained between them?
She recalled being stuck in that Jinling rental during the New Year, full of resentment, crying to the old man over video. If she’d known her nephew was this capable, even if he’d made her stay in Jinling and play nanny to that shrew Ma Lan, she’d have done it willingly, no questions asked.
But regrets were useless now. She’d missed her chance to invest in Ye Chen’s “original stock,” unlike the Gu family, who’d bet on him over twenty years ago and held firm through thick and thin. No wonder Ye Chen treated them so well now.
By comparison, she, his own aunt, had become the unwelcome outsider.
At that thought, Ye Changmin rare reflection on her life crept in.
