At the Gu family’s family acknowledgment banquet, the series of absurd actions by Yan Fei and Xu Yini had been witnessed by many of the people who were present.

Yan Fei had been overestimating herself. As a guest, she had been outspoken enough to “welcome” Shen Li to the Gu family’s territory, thus making a big fool of herself.

Not to mention that all the well-known people present at the banquet were people of great importance. It was not the place for a junior like her to interrupt. Even if she wanted to speak up, there were already quite a number of legitimate young masters’ daughters present. It really was not her place to say anything.

Although the Yan family was one of the three great aristocratic families in Hong Kong City, Yan Fei’s status was special. Even though her academic qualifications, abilities, and temperament over the years had all improved her standing in the eyes of others, the identity of an illegitimate daughter was like a brand. This brand was something that she could not shake off, no matter how hard she tried.

There were already many people who looked down on her level of status. That, in addition to what had happened that night, directly exposed her high estimation of herself. Everyone’s evaluation of her had immediately plummeted after.

Even Yan Baocheng and the entire Yan family’s reputation had been affected.

Many people secretly sneered. Yan Baocheng had two daughters. Yan Zhen was famous for being arrogant and willful. All she knew was to entangle herself with Zhong Haoqi and jealously compete with different women. People had thought that Yan Fei was a good person, but who would have guessed that she would be so careless?

What’s more, this time, Yan Fei’s situation was even more serious. Of all people, why did she offend Shen Li?

Everyone could see how much the Gu family doted on this one and only young miss. Wasn’t she overstepping the line with the Gu Family by offending her in this way?

How could there be anything good for her from now on?

As for Xu Yini… that had been even more exciting.

In front of everyone, the third master of the Gu family had forced her hand and made her apologize to Shen Li. She had admitted that she was the one behind all the scandals about Shen Li on the Internet.

This was like slapping herself on the face.

What could be more interesting than this?

That night, before Xu Yini had even flown back to the Capital, the news of the banquet had already spread rapidly.

Even the people in the Capital had heard about it.

Many people had ridiculed her in private. They were thankful that even though Miss Xu was no longer in the entertainment industry, she was still able to devote herself to entertaining everyone by putting on such a good show. She added enough fodder for them to gossip and joke about to liven up their boring lives.

Such selflessness was really rare.

…

As for Shen Li, as the absolute focus of this family acknowledgment dinner that had shocked the whole of Hong Kong City, she was actually very calm. It did not seem as if she had been affected in any way by the slightest bit of the excitement.

After returning to the Gu family mansion, she had a very good night’s sleep.

She woke up at around six in the morning, sat up, and rubbed her temples.

Recalling what she had said to Professor Carroll yesterday, she lifted the quilt to get out of bed. Then, she pulled the chair over and sat down in front of the desk. She then turned on the computer before sending out an email.

Since she did not bother turning on the lights and the curtains were closed, the room was very dimly lit.

Only the bright blue light from the computer screen reflected onto her face, making her skin appear porcelain white and her eyes dark.

After sending the email, she leaned back in her chair, her slender white fingers tapping on the table as she waited lazily and patiently.

Seven minutes later, she received a reply through the email.

[ You should not step foot in Lelang again. ]

Shen Li calmly typed a sentence.

[ I’m just checking something. I don’t intend on going back. ]

The other party seemed to be relieved and quickly replied.

[ Okay, then just leave it to me. ]

Seeing the other party’s affirmative reply, she did not send back another reply. She cleared up all the emails and related traces.

After confirming that everything had been erased, she looked at the time again and went back to bed to catch up on her sleep.

…

At eight o’clock, Yan Qiu sent a group of data packets to her.

[ Junior Sister, this is the data that was just released from Fino’s laboratory. Please take a look. ]

Since they were in the same research group, the overall direction of their work was the same even though everyone’s experiments were different.

Since Shen Li was not in the Capital, Yan Qiu had helped to forward the data over.

“Okay, thank you, Senior Brother.”

Shen Li took the whole morning to process the data, so it was only after eleven o’clock when she finished analyzing all the data.

Right now, it could be considered that a big step forward had been taken in the progress of the thesis.

She stretched before turning off the computer.

Her phone suddenly rang.

She casually took it and looked at it. It was a promotional message.

[ Good news! “Hibiscus” has broken the one billion mark at the box office! ]

Her eyebrows raised slightly before she clicked on it. She discovered that just an hour ago, the national box office of “Hibiscus” had officially broken the one billion mark. The official Weibo account had even specially posted a congratulatory poster.

From the time of the official release of “Hibiscus” at Christmas until now, “Hibiscus” had gone from being underrated at the beginning to eventually turning the tables just through word of mouth. Later on, “Hibiscus” became the box office champion of this New Year’s holiday season.

Until now, the popularity of the other films had already been exhausted. Only the single-day box office earnings for “Hibiscus” were still rising steadily.

The final box office earnings had definitely reached more than one billion.

She casually scrolled through the comments. Most of them were fans of “Hibiscus” who were celebrating together.

Some people had said that Ge had finally proven his talent again. Some people commented on how well domestic love films could actually be shot. Some people were even thinking that the investors of “Hibiscus” must have been really discerning this time. Surely, they must have made a fortune.

In short, it was a joyful atmosphere.

Shen Li observed this for a while before she logged out of Weibo.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Cousin, are you there?”

Gu Siqi’s excited voice came from outside the door.

Shen Li put away her phone and stood up to open the door. She saw that the two brothers had come.

“Cousin, Grandma asked us to come over to ask you to eat with us!”

Shen Li knocked on his forehead.

“Did you guys come over today just for a meal?”

“Hehe.”

The two brothers smiled in tacit understanding.

“Cousin, Uncle said that there’s a new batch of horses coming to Dutian Racecourse. Can you come with us to take a look?”

As expected, they wanted to go and have fun.

Shen Li closed the door and followed the two of them to the dining room.

When Old Madam Gu heard the two brothers’ words, she could not help but laugh.

“You two don’t want to see the horses. It’s obvious that you both want to go horse racing with your cousin.”

Shen Li smiled.

“Grandma, it just so happens that I don’t have anything to do today. I can take them there.”

The brothers cheered in unison.

Old Madam Gu scolded, “You shouldn’t spoil them.”

Gu Sicheng asked curiously, “Cousin, you seem to be in a good mood today!”

Shen Li’s lips curved in a slight smile.

“Yes.”