Ji Lin was utterly—

Speechless.

How could anyone say Ji Ya wasn’t making money?

Making several hundred thousand yuan a year was an amount unimaginable to ordinary urban workers!

Even if the entire Ji family emptied their savings, they couldn’t gather several hundred thousand yuan. Earlier, to appease Grandmother Feng Yu, each branch of the Ji family had to contribute twenty thousand yuan.

That too was cleaning up after Ji Ya’s mess.

Making several hundred thousand was considerable, but compared to the bank loan of ten million yuan, it was merely a drop in the bucket.

Just enough to cover the interest?

Ji Lin couldn’t hold back: “How can it be so little!”

Ji Ya had finished smoking her entire cigarette.

Even her smoking posture was elegant, though her expression wasn’t particularly beautiful at the moment.

“I don’t know either.”

She truly didn’t know!

Watching Luna expand, she expanded too, opening dozens of stores almost simultaneously. With today’s transportation and communication methods, there were some stores Ji Ya hadn’t even visited personally.

If it weren’t for George helping her hire professional managers from Hong Kong, she couldn’t have even recruited enough staff for these dozens of stores.

Store sales and clothing factory production had thrown Ji Ya into complete chaos.

After much contemplation, Ji Ya felt that the professional managers hired from Hong Kong weren’t competent enough. After the New Year, she would need to replace them!

No, that wasn’t the main point now—the priority was repaying the bank loan.

“Brother, that ten million was approved by Sheng Xuan. If it were someone else, letting it drag on would be one thing, but Sheng Xuan…”

Sheng Xuan was different.

She had family connections with the Song family.

The Song family maintained a very low profile under Old Master Song’s constraints.

But Ji Lin didn’t want to test personally whether the Song family was really that easy to deal with.

No matter how you looked at it, Ji Ya was in the wrong. Debts must be repaid. Privately, they had to consider Sheng Xuan’s influence; publicly, Sheng Xuan was representing the bank in pursuing the debt!

But ten million yuan—how could Ji Lin possibly help?

He looked at Ji Ya, his mouth bitter, feeling that what he was about to say would throw away all of the Ji family’s dignity:

“Why don’t you ask George to lend you a few million to tide you over? With that money paid to the bank, Sheng Xuan might back off a bit. You can repay the rest gradually. Just get through this difficult period—things are bound to get better.”

Ji Ya remained silent.

Although George had returned to Beijing with her this time, he hadn’t come to Ji Lin’s home.

She couldn’t ask George for help again. Before taking the bank loan, she had already used a lot of George’s money to establish the brand, starting from setting up the studio.

At that time, she had taken the bank loan directly without consulting George.

They had argued about it then, with Ji Ya firmly promising that she would bear the loan personally and wouldn’t let George repay it.

Of course, when Sheng Xuan started demanding repayment, George didn’t remain indifferent. He had tried to help her, but the Wilsons had run into trouble in America, and George’s money had gone to help them… The only ways George could now raise a large sum would be to borrow from others or mortgage his Hong Kong renovation company.

That wouldn’t be worth much either.

It certainly wouldn’t be worth ten million yuan—a renovation company doesn’t have many fixed assets, and even the office space was rented. What could be mortgaged?

As for borrowing from others, even Xu Chang Le had refused George!

George had some properties in America, but unless he mortgaged those houses—and the Wilsons would absolutely not agree to that.

The more Ji Ya analyzed her situation, the more troubled she became.

It was like rain pouring through a leaky roof—if only George’s family troubles and Sheng Xuan’s payment demands hadn’t coincided. If these two issues had been spread out, she wouldn’t be in such a difficult position now!

Ji Ya could only respond vaguely:

“George needs money right now too. If he were in a position to help, I wouldn’t be so worried.”

Unless she swallowed her pride and fought with George, forcing him to provide the money.

But… if Ji Ya could lower herself to that extent, she wouldn’t be Ji Ya anymore. She hadn’t repaid the previous money to George; she couldn’t do this.

If this wouldn’t work and that wouldn’t work, if George wasn’t in a position to help, was he, as the elder brother, in any better position?

Ji Lin thought of his wife’s ultimatum and had to harden his heart:

“You’re going to Sheng Xuan’s wedding today. Go attend it first. Sheng Xuan is pressing you for repayment because she’s eager to transfer to a new position. You shouldn’t be on opposing sides—you should work together to get through this… If she could introduce you to other loan sources, your problem would be solved, and she would free herself from her constraints too!”

Ji Lin suggested robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Ji Ya knew this.

She had wanted Ji Lin to help with exactly this—regardless of the procedures, to get a new loan from a different bank than Sheng Xuan’s workplace. This would definitely be against regulations, otherwise, why would Ji Ya be so worried?

But Ji Lin’s suggestion was to have her ask Sheng Xuan to make connections.

Previously, she and Sheng Xuan had parted on bad terms. Would Sheng Xuan help her—wait, if Sheng Xuan didn’t help her, she would also be stuck with Manager Pan, who wouldn’t allow her transfer.

Sheng Xuan herself couldn’t bear staying in Pengcheng anymore, otherwise she wouldn’t have thought of leaving.

Why should she fear Sheng Xuan?

Ji Ya regained some confidence.

She checked her watch—it was about time. She should go to Sheng Xuan’s wedding. Hopefully, she would find an opportunity to speak with the bride.

…

Sheng Xuan’s wedding was held at the Beijing Hotel.

The venue was quite upscale.

However, the Song family usually had low-key weddings. Sheng Xuan’s grand celebration… well, precisely because she wasn’t from the Song family, and Zhu Sui Zhou had resigned to enter the business, they could be unrestricted.

When Xia Xiao Lan and Xu Chang Le arrived, they met Song Ming Lan at the entrance.

Song Ming Lan had also returned from New York. Her studies weren’t finished—Xia Xiao Lan didn’t know how long New York University’s winter break was, but Song Ming Lan and Sheng Xuan were close friends, so she would have come back for Sheng Xuan’s wedding even if she had to take leave.

“Miss Song.”

Song Ming Lan was somewhat afraid of Xia Xiao Lan. Coming to her aunt’s wedding—surely she wasn’t here to cause trouble?

Then she noticed Xia Xiao Lan walking with an unfamiliar young man.

Tsk, she wasn’t coming with that Young Master Zhou?

Could it be that Xia Xiao Lan had changed boyfriends…

Despite her many thoughts, Song Ming Lan’s face remained neutral. As one of the bride’s attendants responsible for receiving guests, she was very enthusiastic when she saw Xia Xiao Lan:

“Why so formal with ‘Miss Song’? Just call me by my name. I’ll call you Xiao Lan. And this is—”

Xu Chang Le shook hands with Song Ming Lan, handing her the invitation: “Hello, I’m Xiao Lan’s friend, and I also happen to know Boss Zhu. Today I’m here at Boss Zhu’s invitation to offer my congratulations on his wedding.”

The invitation had the name on it.

So this person was called Xu Chang Le.

It turned out he was a guest of her aunt’s husband-to-be, Zhu Sui Zhou.

Song Ming Lan didn’t know why she felt disappointed.

Just as she was about to say something, another car stopped at the hotel entrance. A foreigner got out first, opened the other door, and then a woman in a coat, with distinguished bearing, also stepped out.