Chapter 335: Men, that

"I wonder if Miss Shen has any experts to guide her behind her back?"

Chairman Qu spoke again, and the meaning of this sentence was even more obvious.

A young girl can have such achievements, there must be a person or even a man's help behind her.

Shen Ci didn't deny this. If she must say there is an expert to help, that one is—"God"!

It was fate and God who gave her an opportunity to live a free and easy life again.

She shook her head lightly: "Chairman Qu is joking, how could this kind of thing be guided by others?"

"Eh? How can there be absolutes in everything? Or is Miss Shen unwilling to say?" Chairman Qu's "daddy flavor" was gradually revealed, and he immediately put on a look of "I know everything" and looked at Shen Ci: "Many low-key invisible big shots in the investment world are my friends. Maybe the friends behind Miss Shen are also known to me?"

"Really not, I don't need to create something out of nothing, right?"

Shen Ci's expression at this time was just a bit helpless.

Prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain, and men's prejudice against successful women is Mount Everest!

She was powerless to prove anything, and didn't want to prove it even more!

And the others at the table suddenly echoed: "Oh, it doesn't matter if Miss Shen is unwilling to say, why does Chairman Qu have to get to the bottom of it?"

"That's right, how can such things be put on the table?"

"And even if Chairman Qu's connections are wide, he may not necessarily know them all. If he doesn't know them after saying it, wouldn't it be embarrassing?"

Chairman Qu actually showed a look of "it makes sense" and nodded.

In just a few words, several men had inexplicably shaped a "behind-the-

Only Lu Jinzhao knew the atmosphere was wrong. He understood Miss Shen's temper and was terrified she would get angry, so he hurriedly tried to smooth things over, saying, "Miss Shen, Chairman Qu is just joking. Please don't be angry."

It would have been better if he hadn't said that; once he did, Chairman Qu became even more energized.

His mung-bean-sized eyes widened into perfect circles, and he raised his voice, saying, "Angry? That wouldn't be necessary, would it, Miss Shen?"

The others also looked at Shen Ci with chuckles, but those smiles were truly frivolous, lacking even the slightest bit of respect for her.

Shen Ci sat in her chair, merely tilting her head slightly to look at Lu Jinzhao, and said with an innocent expression, "Anger isn't necessary, but it seems Mr. Lu has brought me to the wrong place."

Lu Jinzhao was slightly stunned, as if he didn't understand the meaning behind Shen Ci's words.

But the expression and smile on Shen Ci's face sent a chill down his spine, because he knew that when Miss Shen smiled like this, something terrible was bound to happen!

Sure enough, under the confused gazes of the crowd, Shen Ci spoke unhurriedly: "You said it was an 'Internet cocktail party,' but I think it feels more like a charity gala."

"A, a charity gala?"

Lu Jinzhao's brain couldn't keep up, thinking there wasn't even an auction segment today!

Shen Ci stared with her bright, starry eyes, scanning the "idiot men" at the table, and said, "Otherwise, why would you have invited a bunch of deaf people?"

With one sentence, she insulted everyone at the table except for Lu Jinzhao.

But where did this "deaf" remark come from?

The nauseating expression on Chairman Qu's face vanished instantly, replaced by a thin anger because he couldn't save face: "What does Miss Shen mean by that?"

The others also wore serious expressions; after all, being called "deaf" to their faces by a girl in her early twenties was, for these men who had long been floating in the clouds, nothing short of a great humiliation.

Watching their expressions, Shen Ci laughed out loud: "Oh my, so you can hear what I'm saying after all? I thought you all were getting on in years and your ears weren't working well. Why was it that when I said 'no, no' so earnestly just now, you simply couldn't hear me?"

Upon hearing this, the crowd's expressions were surprisingly uniform, all instantly sinking like a cold pool.

"Miss Shen, this..."

Lu Jinzhao wanted to speak, but was lightly interrupted by Shen Ci: "I really cannot understand, in your eyes, is a woman's success necessarily impure? Must you assign a reason you deem reasonable and some unknown, shady method to her success?"

"And this method often, and with high probability, involves a man?"

"That's right, you men have always felt that you are the center and masters of this world, even forgetting that humanity evolved from a matriarchal society long ago."

"And from ancient times to the present, most women's successes and achievements are erased, and if that's not enough, they are further stigmatized."

Shen Ci looked at the faces before her—faces that were already not good-looking enough, and now even more nauseating due to their overbearing 'dad-splaining'—and let out a cold laugh that welled up from the bottom of her heart.

"Do you know why Wu Zetian chose to erect an unmarked stele after her death?" Shen Ci suddenly threw out a question halfway through.

Chairman Qu frowned, completely confused, his heart filled only with anger.

Shen Ci didn't expect these men to offer any unique insights, so she continued on her own: "Because Empress Wu knew that in her lifetime, you wouldn't dare write the truth, nor could you invent any new insults. Her achievements would not be recorded truthfully, and all the world could do to slander her was to fabricate some romantic affairs—and she wouldn't care at all!"

"And the facts were just as she expected. A thousand years later, people are still holding debates over her unmarked stele, while the achievement steles of the male emperors next door have long been covered in moss."

"History, this mirror that reveals monsters, has always been double-standard. When men look into it, they see beauty filters; when women look into it, they see a funhouse mirror. Li Shimin killing his brothers at the Xuanwu Gate is 'imperial strategy,' while Empress Wu deposing the crown prince is 'inhumane'!"

"Li Longji snatching his daughter-in-law is considered a romantic tale by you men, while Empress Wu keeping a few young lovers is 'corrupting the palace'! To slander her, later generations even fabricated that she killed her own daughter with her own hands. But if that were true, wouldn't Luo Binwang have cursed her a hundred and eighty times already?"

"When it comes down to it, all that's left is 'marrying two husbands' or 'killing relatives,' but haven't those emperors done all those things too?"

"Empress Wu relied on her own abilities to step over patriarchy and ascend the throne. Confucian scholars cursed her for 'the hen crowing at dawn' and claimed the country was doomed, but what was the result? Look up and you'll see the legacy of the Zhenguan era blowing through Luoyang, with peonies blooming all over the city. The national household registration surged from 3.8 million to over 6 million, the GDP growth rate crushed the Zhenguan era, the admission rate for commoners in the imperial examinations hit a historical high, and the Heavenly Axis of Ten Thousand Nations stood in the Luoyang imperial city, ruling over all nations and harmonizing all states. The pinnacle of power and the center of the world were all under the command of the Empress of the Great Tang!"

"But in the end, the historian's brush swept across: 'a woman ruling the court, yin and yang inverted.' I suspect Empress Wu must have known that later generations would inevitably erase most of her achievements, but I imagine she would just smile slightly and say..."

At this point, Shen Ci looked with contempt at the now-stunned crowd and smiled slightly: "Men, they're just like that!"

?? Everyone, cast your monthly votes for A-Ci!

? (End of this chapter)