Chapter 8: The Real Heiress Returns

After Chu Zhiyi finished getting ready, her grandparents also arrived.

Grandma loved her, and upon seeing Chu Zhiyi, she couldn't stop praising how pretty she looked.

Before long, guests began to arrive from outside.

Chu Zhiyi, with a smile convincing enough to deceive on her face, followed her parents and greeted Father Chu's business partners, thanking them for their arrival.

Soon, three young women entered into the grand house.

Chu Zhiyi's eyes lit up instantly when she saw them.

"Dad, Mom, my friends are here," she said.

Father Chu looked over.

Among them was the daughter of Wu's Pharmaceutical, whom he had met before.

Father Chu nodded, reminding her, "Don't stay too long, or I'll hold you accountable for neglecting the other guests."

"I know," she responded.

Chu Zhiyi took a step back and then walked toward the three of them.

"Yangyang, Jinjin, Youyou, you're here," she greeted them.

The smile on Chu Zhiyi's face grew more genuine.

Wu Yang gave her a big hug, "Zhizhi, happy birthday!"

"Thank you!" she replied.

Chu Zhiyi then hugged Jinjin and Wang Youyou separately, accepting the birthday gifts they brought her.

Wu Yang and Wang Youyou had been Chu Zhiyi's close friends since childhood.

Jinjin was Chu Zhiyi's college roommate, and the two got along extremely well; being from Jiang City, the group of four naturally ended up hanging out together.

Touching her pure white off-shoulder dress, Wu Yang smiled, "Our star journalist is radiating beauty today!"

"This is a Yixian dress, if you ruin it, you'll have to compensate me," Chu Zhiyi told her.

Wang Youyou glanced at Mother Zhou, who wasn't far away, "Their family is really willing to spend on you, I bet they already see you as their future daughter-in-law."

At this thought, the smile at the corners of Chu Zhiyi's lips faded a bit.

Seeing the change in Chu Zhiyi's expression, Jinjin couldn't help but pat her on the shoulder.

"Let's not talk about that, after the party I'll treat you guys to dinner," Chu Zhiyi quickly brushed aside the matters troubling her and put on a smile again.

Jinjin took out her phone, starting to look for a restaurant, "We're going to make sure to have a costly meal at your expense."

Wu Yang immediately agreed, "If it's a restaurant where the bill is less than five thousand, don't let me see it!"

Chu Zhiyi: "..."

They were really out to fleece her for all she's worth.

The four of them stood talking together, unaware that another woman had walked in through the door.

She was dressed in a shirt and trousers that stood out oddly in this place, her gaze effortlessly falling upon the group of four vibrant young figures.

Chu Zhiyi was very pretty, a standout alone like a clear and pure handful of snow, her fairness captivating.

Not to mention when there were four girls together.

The woman's eyes showed an increasingly intense resentment as she looked at Chu Zhiyi's parents next.

They were tall and graceful, standing with their prospective in-laws, mingling and laughing with other notable guests, carrying an indescribable charm about them.

Her eyes growing redder, she clenched her fist tight, feeling the pain of her nails digging into her flesh, with only one thought in mind.

All this should have been hers.

The person who ought to have been the center of everyone's attention should have been her.

And Chu Zhiyi...

She was the impostor who had stolen everything from her!

Just wait, she would make everyone know that Chu Zhiyi was nothing but a fake not worth a fig, a piece of trash who had stolen her place to get everything she had now!

Suppressing her grievance, the woman blended herself into the crowd, unnoticed.

Chu Zhiyi did not notice that woman.

She had only spoken a few words with her friends when Father Chu and Mother Chu called her over to join Chu Zuo in greeting others.

Not until nightfall, just before Chu Zhiyi was about to announce the major news of the evening, did someone arrive from outside.

He held a beautiful bunch of Gypsophila in his hands, presenting it in front of Chu Zhiyi.

"Miss Chu, this is the bouquet our sir prepared for you, wishing you a happy birthday."

Before Chu Zhiyi could speak, Mother Zhou smiled and said, "It must be Ah Hen who had it prepared. Though he can't return, he always keeps Zhizhi on his mind."

Chu Zhiyi smiled and did not argue with her words but embraced the flowers, telling the man, "Thank him for me."

"I wish you a pleasant evening."

The man bowed and then left.

Father Chu was very pleased. He had someone get a microphone to gather all the guests around.

"Thank you, all friends, for attending my daughter's birthday party. Today is my daughter's twenty-first birthday. Besides celebrating her birthday, there is another happy announcement I want to share with all of you."

Father Chu's eyes shone with affection as he looked at Chu Zhiyi, "I think this happy occasion should be announced by my daughter herself, to fully signify the joy."

"Come on, Miss Chu, stop holding us in suspense, just tell us."

"Yes, indeed."

"I guess it must be that Chu Zhiyi is getting married to Zhou Hen, they have been engaged for so many years, and Chu Zhiyi has also reached the age to get married."

"I think so too."

The guests were talking back and forth, guessing the announcement that Chu Zhiyi was about to make.

Chu Zhiyi picked up the microphone, looking at the smiling faces around her.

Truth and lies, hard to distinguish.

She took a deep breath, put on a smile, and was just about to speak when a voice suddenly came through the crowd.

"The Chu family's true heiress wanders outside, suffering persecution, while the false heiress dresses in silk and satin, blessed by everyone, contentedly enjoying what she has stolen."

"Chu Zhiyi, you really have no shame."

True heiress? False heiress?

The voice, neither light nor heavy, instantly captured everyone's attention.

Father Chu frowned, his first thought was that it was fabricated.

Then he looked at Mother Chu, suspecting she might have been pregnant with someone else's child before their marriage, and pulled off a baby swap.

Mother Chu's thoughts about Father Chu were similar.

Their gazes met, both filled with dissatisfaction.

Mother Zhou was the first to express her displeasure with the commotion, standing in the crowd and speaking in an indifferent tone, "Chu Heng, what kind of riff-raff does your family let in?"

As if a woman had the right to pick and choose at his family's party.

Disgust flashed in Father Chu's eyes, quickly replaced by a smile, "You're right, in-law."

With that, he turned his eyes sharply and said, "Who is talking nonsense at my daughter's birthday party?"

All the guests looked toward the one who had just spoken.

She was a simply dressed woman who appeared to be in her twenties.

Chu Zhiyi also followed the crowd's gaze.

This woman was, astonishingly, the same woman she had seen outside the Chu family's front door a few nights before.

Li Hui did not show any fear. She stood out, pointed at Chu Zhiyi, her eyes brimming with resentment, "I am the child of the Chu family. Twenty-one years ago, I was intentionally switched with her at the hospital! She became the heiress of the Chu family, and I turned into an orphan no one wanted!"

"The daughter you dote on is not your biological child at all!"

The Chu family's child... switched at birth?!

The room erupted in shock.

What did Jiang City look like twenty-one years ago?

The streets were dirty and disordered, full of thieves with nobody to curb them.

Stealing children, abandoning children were countless, and hospitals were even more so a hotbed for abandoned infants.

Chu Zhiyi's mind buzzed for a moment, but she quickly regained her composure.

She looked carefully at Li Hui's features, which did seem to bear some resemblance to Chu Zuo's.

Chu Zuo didn't resemble his parents but looked more like his grandparents, which could be said to be a case of skipping a generation.

While Chu Zhiyi was still thinking about the image of this woman carrying a light-luxury bag that day, Li Hui had already started to cry.