In the last few days Yu Yan had transferred her schools and had started attending the new one. It was a place which was exclusive to the rich children. Unlike other schools, it didn't have a provision to accept students with excellent grades but were unfortunately improvised financially. She loved the school as it was completely different from the one she attended prior to this. After the banquet at home almost everyone knew she was Yu Jian's daughter so it gave her a strong backing. She felt as if she could spread her wings and soar into the sky. She knew that some people grumbled about her behind her back but n.o.body pointed her less than desirable origin to her face which showed that it wasn't important where one came from. People recognised her worth and she made a few friends. Life outside the residence was wonderful. The only thing she was dissatisfied with was that the other day she again failed to get a rise out of her sister and then the next day father informed her that the twins - Zixi and Mei were placed under her charge. When she tried to probe him about Yu Yue's reaction he simply told her not to worry about it and that other arrangements would be made for her.

She couldn't fathom the reason behind his decision. If it was said that he placed more importance upon on her or was trying to compensate her out of guilt, she wouldn't believe it since this went beyond it as they had been trained for his legal heir and she didn't believe she had that much weight inside his heart. On the other hand, if it was that Yu Yue had showed her dissatisfaction to him in private and he took the decision in a pique of anger, there had been no movements from either side to reconcile or agitate each other. This left her with a feeling that she couldn't grasp either of their thought process which was not in her interest.

She had asked Zixi to inquire about all things related to Yu Yue from her daily routine to all the people she was close to. The results were less than desirable. Yu Yue wasn't excessively close to any of her male friends so nothing on that front would work and all her female friends were people Yu Yan couldn't go against right now. Therefore, she couldn't work from the inside to use someone already close to Yu Yue to give that ent.i.tled girl a new emotional blow.

The next few weeks pa.s.sed uneventfully. It was as if everyone was waiting for some sort of signal to start making their moves either overtly or covertly. Meal times were spent with Yu Jian trying to break the ice that had frosted over the relations.h.i.+p between his two daughters but to no avail. It wasn't as if Yu Yan hadn't tried to cajole her elder sister. Even Yu Yue herself hadn't said or done anything to warrant his displeasure rather she was quite cordial with her younger sister. However, this polite behaviour had a sense of alienation to it. Even to himself she was deferential and compliant to all his words the way she had been before a new member had entered their family but he could see that their father daughter relation wasn't comparable to what it used to be. Since that day she had never entered his study of her own accord whereas before she would always come to him for even inconsequential matters. He had made up his mind to let the situation be until Yu Yan's birthday but if there were no changes after that then he'll sit them both down for a family meeting and try to clear the air.

Yu Yan's eighteenth birthday was here. Since the day she had entered the doors of this place she had been looking forward to it. She had antic.i.p.ated that her eighteenth was to eclipse all other eighteenth's. She had dropped enough hints to sink a s.h.i.+p to her father infront of Yu Yue. Though it wouldn't be as extravagant an affair as that of Yu Yue's, still close family friends would be invited. The celebration would be held at the main residence as opposed to Yu Yue's initial advice of holding it at a hotel. It was her birth right to use the residence to entertain her guests. Father hadn't said anything for a few minutes after that talk but then had no objections and thus she recieved his tacit approval. She had even called some of the more useful people from her orphanage and the school she had attended while staying there. She had made some plans that would only come to fruition with their help.

Father's gift to her was three percent shares of the company with an increase of .5 percent for every year she would work at the company with the upper limit being set at twenty percent. She was also informed that after working for half a decade she could either keep on climbing up the ladder or she could venture out and do her own things. This didn't please her at all. She had seen him transferring eighteen percent of the shares to Yu Yue on her birthday whereas her upper limit was already set at a meager few points more than that.

Yu Yue's birthday present for her younger sister was a complete traditional stationary set. Expensively treated paper bound in the form of eighteen diaries. It had Yu Yan's name monogrammed in the paper which she herself thought was a nice personal touch but it looked as if her gift fell short of the expectations Yu Yan had held out for her observing her cordial behaviour towards her. Anyways she herself had done her part to not give anyone a chance to find faults with her or say that she was stingy.