Thrilled, Ye Qing turned her head to look. The door to the dressing room was opened.

Lu Beichuan walked into the room. He was followed by several makeup artists that surrounded Ye Zhen like she was the moon and they were stars. The makeup artists pulled her towards the dressing table.

Ye Qing and Father Ye were completely ignored.

Ye Qing naturally saw Ye Zhen, but she lifted up her skirt and walked straight past her and towards Lu Beichuan. Her eyes and nose were red, and she looked at him with aggrieved gaze. Most people's hearts would have softened at this sight.

In a choked voice, she said, "Beichuan, you..."

However, Lu Beichuan had a heart of stone. He glanced at her from top to bottom. It looked as if he was very annoyed by the sight of this wedding dress. "Take off the wedding dress."

Ye Qing incredulously looked at him. In a quivering voice, she asked, "What... What did you say?"

"It's not your wedding. Why are you wearing a wedding dress?" Lu Beichuan didn't bother being polite. His calm voice spread through the room.

The makeup artists that were applying makeup on Ye Zhen lowered their heads and focused on their task.

Seeing that the situation wasn't good, Father Ye immediately went forward to stop Ye Qing from getting any closer to Lu Beichuan. He glanced at his younger daughter, then he put on a smile on his face as he asked, "What... What's going on? Mr. Lu, you should give Qingqing... Ah, no, you should give us an explanation, right? After all, there were so many people that saw what happened."

"An explanation?" Lu Beichuan looked Father Ye and coldly said, "Is there a need for that?"

Father Ye caught a glimpse of the coldness in Lu Beichuan's eyes and immediately shook his head. "No, no need."

"Dad!" Ye Qing incredulously looked at her father.

There was nothing that Father Ye could do. He hadn't had any business dealings with Lu Beichuan before, but he had heard of his reputation in the business world and felt very scared of him. He pulled Ye Qing to the side and hissed out, "Enough, stop talking!"

"Stop talking?" Ye Qing came to a sudden realization. Her father didn't genuinely care about either of his daughters. His favorite daughter was simple whichever one that was most useful to him.

She nodded. Then, grasping the wedding dress with both hands, she yanked the dress apart and tore the right side of the skirt.

But that wasn't enough. Ye Qing vented all of her resentment on this gorgeous and beautiful wedding dress. As soon as she thought of that day when Ye Zhen was trying out this wedding dress in the Lu family's villa, she lost her rationality to fury.

In every aspect, Ye Zhen had been her inferior since they were children. What right did Ye Zhen have to be loved and treasured?

All of this should belong to her!

Just like that, the beautiful wedding dress was destroyed.

She had completely lost her mind to jealousy. She thought of that heartwarming scene of Ye Zhen with her husband and son in the car in her previous life as well as Lin Zhan's disconnected call. She resentfully looked at Lu Beichuan. "If I can't wear it, Ye Zhen can't wear it either!"

However, Lu Beichuan remained indifferent. "I told you to take off this wedding dress because it's not yours. You don't have the right to wear it, but that doesn't mean my fiancee is going to wear a wedding dress that's been worn by someone else."

There was a knock at the door.

"CEO Lu, the new wedding dress and accessories have been delivered."

Ye Zhen was also flabbergasted by Ye Qing's crazed appearance.

Pretending to be pitiful, saying sharp words, ripping up a wedding dress in outrage, and finally falling apart after coming to a dead end. Wasn't this supposed to be the path of a villainess supporting female character?

Ye Qing was the female lead. Why had her image fallen to this point?

In the novel, Ye Qing was clever, capable, and magnanimous. She had demonstrated her extraordinary skills at a party and caught Lu Beichuan's attention. He had fallen in love with her at first sight. It was because of Ye Qing that he had gone against Lin Zhan, which in turn led to his family's business going bankrupt and his family's ruin.

It would be a cold day in hell if Lu Beichuan could still fall in love with Ye Qing after witnessing her resentful and crazed state.

What Ye Zhen didn't know was that Ye Qing and Lin Zhan had mutually tormented each other for over 20 years in Ye Qing's past life.

Although the two of them had set up a household as an ordinary couple, Ye Qing was used to living a lavish lifestyle because of her parents. Living a commoner's lifestyle for a few days was a novel experience for her, but as each day passed by, there was no way she could get used to this working-class life.

Lin Zhan needed money in the initial period of his entrepreneurship, so he couldn't afford to buy the high-end skin care products and expensive brand-name clothing and bags that Ye Qing wanted. What was even worse for Ye Qing was that her maiden family had gone bankrupt and couldn't afford to subsidize her anymore.

Even now, Ye Qing was haunted by those days of waking up and worrying if they would be able to pay this month's rent and utilities and afford the daily necessities.

Still, those days hadn't been intolerable either. She had a husband that worked hard to improve their life. Although their home was small, they owed it. She stumbled and jostled through those cosy days.

But then, one day, she saw Ye Zhen sitting in the backseat of a Bentley. Ye Zhen looked as if she hadn't aged past 18.

Her skin looked as white and tender as a freshly peeled hard boiled egg. She didn't look as if she could be the mother of a five-year-old.

At that moment, Ye Qing felt as if she was looking at her younger self. Falling into a trance, she thought she should be the one sitting in the Bentley. How did she get switched with Ye Zhen?

This thought tormented her day and night. Whether she opened her eyes or kept them closed, she only saw the image of that joyous and harmonious family.

During those occasional times that she put on makeup, she would see wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. And then, the image of Ye Zhen's clear and bright smiling eyes would suddenly appear. Ye Zhen looked as if she was in the prime of her youth.

And, all of this had only happened because she had surrendered her spot to Ye Zhen!

Day and night, this boundless remorse heavily weighted down on her heart. It was like a nightmare that surrounded her and wouldn't allow her any respite.

Her temper gradually became abnormally irritable. When she compared Lin Zhan to Lu Beichuan, Lin Zhan's failures was magnified to countless degree.

In the same way, her jealousy grew without limits. It constantly twisted her heart until she grew to loathe herself.

She had originally thought she and Lin Zhan would spend the rest of their lives mutually tormenting each other, but then she was given another chance.

She was given a chance to take back what she had once lost.

Racking her brains, she wasn't willing to take another step down her past life. She didn't dare to take the wrong step either. Success had been in sight, but in the moment before the sun rose, she had plunged back into darkness forever.

Ye Qing had ripped off pieces of the wedding dress starting from the thigh area and tossed these strips of the dress to the side. The once beautiful wedding dress had become worthless trash.

Father Ye had never seen this resentful and crazed look on Ye Qing before.

While his heart was beating madly, he pulled his older daughter to the side. He didn't want Lu Beichuan to see Ye Qing's expression.

"Have you gone mad?!" Father Ye lowered his voice and sharply said, "Are you trying to ruin our family?"

Right now, the Ye family's business was dependent on the Lu family's financial support. It would collapse at the first blow without their assistance. If the Lu family ever decided to remove their capital, the Ye family's business would come to a dead end.

Ye Qing didn't say anything. Her gaze was focused on the new wedding dress that was being brought into the dressing room.

When the selection of wedding dresses had been brought to the Lu family's villa that day, Ye Zhen had tried on the best-looking one. This was why she had been willing to wear a wedding dress that Ye Zhen had worn. She even felt a bit pleased with herself. So what if Ye Zhen had worn this dress? Hadn't it still become her wedding dress in the end?

She was shocked that Lu Beichuan wouldn't be willing for Ye Zhen to wear a used wedding dress!

Was Ye Zhen that precious?!

Underneath the light, the dazzling inlaid diamonds on the long wedding dress was resplendent. It sparkled like clear and crystalline water underneath sunlight.

Ye Qing sneered, "Dad, let's go!"

"Go?" Lu Beichuan turned and coldly stared at Ye Qing. "Change your clothes, clean up your face, and continue to attend the wedding. I'll give you a pass on your poor behavior today since you're Ye Zhen's older sister."

Ye Qing grinded her teeth and spat out, "Dream on!"

"Mr. Ye, today is you daughter's wedding. I hope that you and your family can attend the wedding and wish us luck." Lu Beichuan looked at Ye Qing and continued, "That includes you."

Ye Zhen, who was getting her makeup done, was speechless after hearing Lu Beichuan's words.

He clearly knew what Ye Qing had wanted, and he was forcing her to witness as everything that she had racked her brains to get was given to someone else. He was smashing her hopes into pieces.

This was quite harsh of him.

Sure enough, after Ye Qing heard these words, her entire body trembled. She hatefully looked at Ye Zhen and said, "She stole what's mine. There's no way I'll give her my blessings!"

"You don't want to?" Lu Beichuan looked at Father Ye and said, "Mr. Ye, your daughter said she's not willing."

Sweat was dripping down Father Ye's face. He grabbed Ye Qing's hand and repeatedly shook his head. "No, she's willing. She definitely willing! I'll talk to her!"

After saying this, he pulled Ye Qing out of the dressing room.

"What's wrong with you? Do you want our family to become homeless?"

Ye Qing incredulously looked at her father. His attitude had completely changed. "Dad?"

"Dad? You still know that I'm your dad? Take a hard look at yourself. Since you were a child, if your younger sister had the slightest good thing, you would want to take it from her. And now, you're after her husband too? Is that something you can covet? Her husband is Lu Beichuan!"

"I... I'm coveting something of hers?" Ye Qing hysterically laughed. "I was the one engaged to Lu Beichuan!"

Father Ye sharply said, "You were the one that was hell-bent on running away with Lin Zhan. If you had listened to me and your mother back then, things wouldn't have become like this!"

Ye Qing grinded her teeth and turned her head. Tears of humiliation fell from her eyes.

Seeing Ye Qing's stubborn look, Father Ye sighed. "Why are you being so bullheaded? Why do you insist on marrying Lu Beichuan? The world is so vast. Lu Beichuan isn't the only marriable person in the world."

Of course, Father Ye was aware of his daughter's thoughts. He earnestly gave her well-meaning advice. "Stop thinking that Lu Beichuan belongs to you. You were the one rejected him initially. How can you blame your younger sister for your choice? It's already been determined that your sister will be his wife. How can you continue feuding with your sister? Why can't you calm down and get along with her?"

Ye Qing remained silent with her head turned away.

Father Ye looked at her in disappointment. "What do you have to say for yourself? Why have you become more obstinate as you've grown older?! Even though Lu Beichuan has become your brother-in-law, the people that he knows are people of his level. As long as you have a good relationship with Zhenzhen, it won't be difficult for you to meet people from the Lu family's level. When that time comes, with your appearance, won't it be easy for you to find a man that's even better than Lu Beichuan?"

In her previous life, Lu Beichuan had practically become her obsession. After she had been given a second chance, he remained her target. It had never occurred to her that she could also...

Father Ye's words brought her to her senses.

Lu Beichuan and Ye Zhen's wedding was an unchangeable fact. She couldn't continue to fixate on Lu Beichuan. In order to have the chance to climb up, she had to tightly grasp onto Ye Zhen as her springboard. Using Ye Zhen, she would find a man with a family background that was superior to Lu Beichuan's and free herself from her fate!

Thinking of it like that, Ye Qing immediately panicked again. Lowering her head, she looked at the torn wedding dress she was wearing. In the next moment, she thought of her recent words and actions. Why had she done and said all those unnecessary things?!

"Dad..." Ye Qing's voice was trembling as she said, "Dad, my recent actions... I didn't mean to do that. I just misunderstood Zhenzhen. I... What should I do? Do you think she'll misunderstand me?"

Father Ye comforted her, "It'll be fine. Just go back there and properly apologize to Zhenzhen and Beichuan."

Apologize...

Ye Qing was utterly unwilling to do that. It would be less painful to die than lower her head in front of Ye Zhen.

Seeing Ye Qing's hesitance, Father Ye's expression turned unpleasant. "Ye Qing!"

"I know!" Ye Qing looked extremely uncomfortable as she wiped away her tears. "I'll go change into other clothes first."

"Right, quickly, go change out of that dress. You tore apart this perfectly nice wedding! It was very thoughtless of you!"

Listening to Father Ye's scolding, Ye Qing went to another dressing room and changed out of the wedding dress. She changed into a white evening gown. Then, with her eyes still slightly red and her head lowered, she pushed open the door to Ye Zhen's dressing room and walked inside.

At this point in time, Ye Zhen had finished changing into the wedding dress. She was standing next to Lu Beichuan, who had changed into a new suit. These two looked like a well-matched and an ideal couple. They would definitely draw envy from others.

Ye Qing endured the hate and resentment in her heart. Under Father Ye's meaningful gaze, she walked to Ye Zhen and forced herself to slightly smile. "My words earlier... It was just nonsense. Zhenzhen, don't... Don't misunderstand me. I didn't mean it."

Ye Zhen looked at her in utter shock.

"Zhenzhen, I'm sorry. Forgive me. I lost my conscience temporarily, and my thoughts went to the wrong place. Still, you have to believe me. I didn't mean those words. We grew up together. Shouldn't you know what kind of person I am?"

Putting on this act of enduring humiliation in order to accomplish her goal. Ye Zhen inwardly gave Ye Qing a loud round of applause!

Just a short while ago, she had been shouting and screaming. But now, she could adapt to a different situation and lower her head to submit. Sure enough, Ye Qing was the female lead!

In the past, Ye Zhen hadn't been willing to offend Ye Qing because she wanted her help in fleeing. She had exercised patience and yielded to Ye Qing in every way for the sake of securing a safe future for herself.

Seeing as how she no way of escaping from Lu Beichuan's "evil clutches", there was no reason to allow herself to be wronged again and again like before. She didn't have to put up with Ye Qing anymore.

"Older sister, I really liked that wedding dress, but you ruined it. I hope that you compensate me for that loss."

Ye Qing's smile stiffened. Father Ye quickly went over to help his older daughter out. "Qingqing, go outside to check on your mom."

Ye Qing took the opportunity he gave her to leave. She obediently allowed Father Ye to lead her away.

Looking at Ye Qing's figure as she walked away, Ye Zhen wondered about Ye Qing's mesmerising performance at that party in the novel. Her performance had left Lu Beichuan unable to forget her for over twenty years.

Lu Beichuan came over and wrapped his arm around her slender waist. "What are you thinking about?"

Ye Zhen looked at him. She wasn't willing to believe that she was feeling a somewhat sour sensation. This feeling had come out of nowhere. "Just thinking of how you would look when you're infatuated and head over heels in love with Ye Qing."

Lu Beichuan: "?"

Most of the guests invited to the Lu family's wedding were prestigious figures. Each and everyone of them was refined and courteous. No matter how impatient they were feeling, they would put on a pleasant demeanor and cheerfully chat and wittily joke around.

As for the Ye family's relatives, they didn't hide their impatience.

As the saying goes, even the emperor had poor relatives. So, of course, a nouveau riche family like the Ye's definitely wouldn't be lacking in less well-off relatives

Plenty of relatives had attached themselves to the Ye family for a long time, especially because Father Ye cared a lot about his reputation and enjoyed showing off. He liked to take care of his poorer relatives' problems in order to brag about his generosity and receive their gratitude. This gave him an ample sense of superiority.

Although the Ye family's relatives had obtained many benefits from Father Ye, they didn't exactly feel good about this. Even though they would thank Father Ye many times, when they returned to their own small one-bedroom or two-bedroom homes after visiting the Ye family's dazzling villa, they would ridicule the Ye's for being upstarts and hope to see the day when the Ye's would fail.

This was probably reverse snobbery at work. They were a bunch of ingrates.

Today, the Ye family's older daughter, Ye Qing, was marrying Lu Beichuan. This was a major event. Who didn't know about the Lu family and the Lu family's successor, Lu Beichuan? The Ye family's relatives were feeling sour that such a great thing had fallen into Ye Qing's lap. Regardless of those feelings, each and everyone of these relatives had congratulated Father Ye and Mother Ye in high spirits as if it was their own daughter that was getting married. They had said heaps of pleasant-sounding words and congratulations in order to get a wedding invitation.

They absolutely couldn't afford to ridicule the Lu family's wedding. The Lu family's relatives as well as their acquaintances were people that the average person normally wouldn't have a chance to see.

The Ye family's relatives had come to the wedding with their invitations and brought along their gorgeously dressed daughters. They exchanged civilities about the beautiful wedding and congratulated Father Ye and Mother Ye, and they tried to worm their way into becoming friends with the other wedding guests that they would otherwise never have a chance to meet.

This lasted up to the point when Lu Beichuan had left Ye Qing at the altar.

Right before everyone's eyes, Lu Beichuan had left his bride behind without caring about giving anyone face. After he left, pandemonium broke out.

The guests loudly discussed amongst themselves what was going on.

"What's going on? How could the groom just leave the bride on the stage like that?