Chapter 337 - 335: Men Are Just Like That

"I wonder, Miss Sterling, do you have someone powerful pulling the strings behind the scenes?"

Director Cross spoke again, the implication in his words even more obvious.

For a young woman to achieve so much, she must have someone—or more specifically, a man—backing her.

Cecilia Sterling didn’t deny it. ’If I absolutely had to name a powerful benefactor,’ she thought, ’it would be—Fate itself!’

It was fate and the heavens that had given her a chance to live a second life, free and unconstrained.

She gently shook her head. "You’re joking, Director Cross. How could something like this be the result of someone’s guidance?"

"Eh? Nothing is ever absolute, is it? Or is it that Miss Sterling is unwilling to say?" Director Cross’s condescending paternalism was starting to show. He immediately put on an I-know-everything expression as he looked at Cecilia Sterling. "Many of the low-key, hidden titans in the investment world are friends of mine. Who knows? Perhaps I know this benefactor of yours?"

"There really is no one. I have no reason to make someone up, do I?"

At this point, Cecilia Sterling’s expression was merely one of exasperation.

’The prejudice in people’s hearts is like a great mountain,’ she mused. ’But the prejudice men hold against successful women? That’s Mount Everest!’

She had no energy to prove anything, and even less desire to do so.

But then, the other men at the table suddenly chimed in, "Oh, if Miss Sterling doesn’t want to say, let’s just drop it. Director Cross, why must you probe so relentlessly?"

"Exactly. It’s not the kind of thing one speaks about openly, is it?"

"Besides, even with Director Cross’s vast network, he might not know *everyone*. It would be awkward if she named someone and you didn’t recognize them, wouldn’t it?"

Hearing this, Director Cross actually nodded with a look that said, "That makes sense."

With just a few words, the men had fabricated a non-existent "secret benefactor" for Cecilia Sterling.

Only James Lockwood sensed that the atmosphere was wrong. He was familiar with Miss Sterling’s temper and feared she would get angry, so he quickly tried to smooth things over. "Miss Sterling, Director Cross is just joking. Please don’t be upset."

It would have been better if he hadn’t said anything. His words only served to fire Director Cross up.

His beady eyes widened as he raised his voice. "Upset? Surely not, Miss Sterling?"

The other men also looked at Cecilia Sterling with chuckles, but their smiles were frivolous, utterly devoid of a single shred of respect.

Cecilia remained seated. At their words, she simply tilted her head to look at James Lockwood, her expression innocent. "I’m not so much upset, but... President Lockwood, it seems you’ve brought me to the wrong place."

James Lockwood froze for a moment, not seeming to grasp her meaning.

But the smile on Cecilia Sterling’s face sent a chill down his spine. He knew that when Miss Sterling smiled like that, things were about to go south. Fast.

Sure enough, under the confused gazes of the others, Cecilia Sterling began to speak in a slow, deliberate manner. "You called this an ’internet industry reception.’ I, however, feel it’s more like a charity gala."

"A ch-charity gala?"

James Lockwood’s mind couldn’t keep up. ’But there’s no auction tonight!’ he thought.

Then, Cecilia Sterling’s bright, starry eyes swept across the idiotic men at the table. "Otherwise," she asked, "why would they invite a bunch of deaf people?"

With that one sentence, she had insulted everyone at the table except James Lockwood.

But why call them "deaf"?

The sickening expression on Director Cross’s face vanished instantly, replaced by the faint anger of a man who had just lost face. "Miss Sterling, what is the meaning of this?"

The other men also wore stern expressions. After all, for these men who had long floated above the clouds, being called "deaf" to their faces by a young woman barely in her twenties was a profound humiliation.

Seeing their expressions, Cecilia Sterling laughed out loud. "Oh, so you *can* hear me? I was starting to think your hearing had gone bad with age. How else could you have failed to hear me when I was so earnestly saying ’no, there isn’t’ just now?"

At her words, the men’s expressions became shockingly uniform, their faces instantly turning as grim as a winter pond.

"Miss Sterling, this..."

James Lockwood tried to speak but was cut off by Cecilia Sterling’s airy tone. "I really don’t understand. In your eyes, can a woman’s success never be pure? Do you have to attach a ’reasonable’ excuse to it, some secret method you can accept?"

"And more often than not, that method happens to be a man?"

"That’s right. You men have always thought of yourselves as the center and masters of the world. You’ve long forgotten that human civilization evolved from matriarchal societies."

"And from ancient times to the present day, the successes and achievements of most women have been erased. And even that isn’t enough—they must also be stigmatized."

Cecilia looked at the faces before her—not handsome to begin with, but made even more nauseating by their overwhelming, condescending paternalism—and let out a cold laugh that welled up from the depths of her soul.

"Do you know why Empress Wright chose to erect a wordless stele after her death?" Cecilia suddenly interjected.

Director Cross’s brows furrowed. He was completely baffled, his heart filled with nothing but rage.

Cecilia didn’t expect these men to offer any unique insights, so she continued on her own. "Because Empress Wright knew that you people would neither dare to write the truth nor could you invent any new insults. Her achievements would not be recorded faithfully. The only way the world could slander her was by fabricating some romantic scandals—things she couldn’t care less about!"

"And things turned out just as she predicted. A thousand years later, people are still debating her wordless stele, while the merit steles of the male emperors next to hers are long overgrown with moss."

"History, that monster-revealing mirror, has always had a double standard. When a man looks into it, it has a beauty filter. When a woman looks, it’s a funhouse mirror. When Nathaniel Lawson killed his brothers at the Black Tortoise Gate, it was ’imperial strategy.’ When Empress Wright deposed a crown prince, it was ’monstrous and inhumane’!"

"When Logan Lawson stole his son’s wife, you men spun it into a grand romance. When Empress Wright kept a few boy toys, it was ’defiling the palace’! To slander her, later generations even fabricated stories about her killing her own daughter. But if that were true, wouldn’t Benjamin Robbins have condemned her for it a thousand times over in his famous declaration?"

"In the end, all the accusations boil down to a woman marrying two husbands or killing relatives. But aren’t those things that male emperors have done time and again?"

"Empress Wright ascended the throne on her own merit, trampling the patriarchy, while the scholars screamed that ’the hen was crowing at dawn’ and the nation was doomed. But what was the result? The legacy of Nathaniel Lawson’s golden age continued, with the peonies of Orilon blooming city-wide. The number of registered households nationwide exploded from 3.8 million to over 6 million. The GDP growth rate crushed that of Lawson’s reign. The acceptance rate for scholars from humble backgrounds into the civil service reached an all-time high. The Celestial Axis, a monument praised by all nations, was erected in the Imperial City of Orilon. She united the myriad states and brought them into harmony. The zenith of power, the very center of the world, was under the command of Empress Wright of the Aethelian Dynasty!"

"But in the end, with a single stroke of the brush, the court historians wrote: ’A woman ruled the court, and the world was turned upside down.’ Empress Wright must have known that later generations would inevitably erase most of her achievements. But one can imagine she would have simply smiled and said..."

At this, Cecilia Sterling looked with contempt at the stunned men before her and gave a slight smile. "Men. That’s just how they are."