chapter 5 : Think about it for ten minutes

"My drinking capacity, do you really not know it?" Ava An countered.

Emily Song raised her hand and said, "Alright, it's just half a bottle of wine, you can't possibly get drunk on that. Is Ethan Ye crazy? Hasn't he forgotten who Ava An is before today? Marrying a stranger, isn't that the real joke here?"

"Um..." Ava An pondered for a moment. "Based on my observations of mental patients over the years, Ethan Ye doesn't seem like someone with a mental illness. And it seems like he genuinely considered it before proposing to marry me. Let me think, he was silent for about ten minutes."

Ten minutes?

Emily Song rolled her eyes. "Well, for a multimillionaire CEO who deals with hundreds of millions at any given moment, spending ten minutes to consider marriage is indeed quite prudent."

Ava An thought the same way. Otherwise, she wouldn't have used the word "prudent" to describe those ten minutes of silence.

"And what about you? Did you agree?" Emily Song asked calmly, taking another sip of her drink.

"I don't know if I should agree. From a practical perspective, marrying him would maximize my interests," Ava An replied.

As friends for over twenty years, the unspoken words in that sentence were clear to Emily Song. As a witness to the hardships and tribulations Ava An had endured in the past five years, Emily Song knew that marrying Ethan Ye was the best choice for her.

"No matter what choice you make, I'll support you," Emily Song said, embracing her friend's shoulder and saying seriously, "Ava, this time, I'll help you clear your name. I'll wash away all the dirt they've thrown on you."

Ava An's eyelashes trembled slightly, but she quickly regained her composure. In that brief moment, it seemed like she had firmly made up her mind. She downed the remaining contents of her glass, her voice tinged with the scent of alcohol, "Emily, prepare two more contracts for me."

The next day, after sleeping until late morning, Ava An tidied herself up and, armed with the contracts that Emily Song had rushed to prepare the previous night, took a taxi to the famous East Lake Villa District in S City.

Although Ava An hadn't been here for five years, she had lived here for a decade and couldn't help but marvel at how vivid her memories still were when she reached a villa she knew so well.

She rang the doorbell, and a maid quickly opened the door. The maid seemed unfamiliar and hadn't seen Ava An before. She scrutinized Ava An from head to toe, as if trying to judge her identity based on her clothing.

However, Ava An disappointed her. Today, she was only wearing clothes she had made for herself five years ago, a style that was miles apart from the fashion of socialites.

"May I ask who you're looking for?" The maid inquired with unexpected surprise.
" Alex An," Ava An stated her name, "I'm looking for Alex An."
"Are you looking for our master? Do you have an appointment? Our master doesn't see just anyone."

Ava An sneered. She had no patience for this and simply pushed past the maid, heading towards the villa.

The maid was taken aback but quickly realized what had happened. She shouted, "Hey, how can you be so rude? Don't you know our master is in a video conference right now? If you don't leave, I'll call the bodyguards to throw you out."

The maid's shouting alerted other maids in the house and the security guards responsible for safety. Almost as soon as her words fell, several black-clad bodyguards blocked Ava An.

"Miss, please leave," one of the bodyguards said relatively politely but with a warning tone.

Ava An looked at the maids and bodyguards who had been disturbed and couldn't find a single familiar face among them. It seemed that over the past five years, all the old employees of the An family had been replaced. Now, in this house, no one knew that she was the rightful young lady of the An family.

"What's all this noise about? Don't you know my husband is in a video conference?" Amidst the standoff, a reproachful female voice came from the direction of the staircase.
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