Ye Xiaoqiong slowly walked out of the hotel.

Was it satisfying?

Extremely!

She wouldn’t even dirty her own hands by taking action herself.

Yuan Han and Zhou Yi, one intentional and one unintentional, but neither was innocent. Watching them perform this scene, seeing them being scolded and beaten, Ye Xiaoqiong felt much of her pent-up anger dissipate. But it wasn’t enough – the punishment for both Zhou Yi and Yuan Han was far from sufficient.

If she had been more ruthless, she could have chosen other methods, like tricking Zhou Yi to return without telling her the truth, waiting until Zhou Yi contracted an incurable disease, then… So really, she had already shown mercy, hadn’t she?

Today was just the beginning; the chain reaction to follow would be even more entertaining.

In the room, He Shiyuan arrogantly picked up her bag:

“Get the money together quickly. I’m returning to Hong Kong. If anyone tries to trick me… hehe, you’ll regret it.”

She left in her high heels, accompanied by her two bodyguards.

Only then did Yuan Han have the chance to get dressed.

He carefully watched Zhou Yi’s expression, then dropped to his knees before her, slapping himself:

“Xiaoyi, it’s all my fault. I was possessed by demons. This woman deceived me; she seduced me with ulterior motives. I dare not ask for your forgiveness, but for the sake of our past relationship, Xiaoyi, please give me one more chance!”

Tall and handsome?

Elegant and graceful?

The man kneeling before her now showed not a trace of masculinity.

How could his backbone be so weak?

Zhou Yi had never seen a man with such weak knees.

She felt waves of nausea and disgust; she wanted to vomit! This was her karma – back then, she had knelt at the door, begging her grandparents to let her marry Yuan Han.

Now Yuan Han knelt before her, saying his affair was a moment of confusion, asking for another chance!

What perfect karmic retribution. Zhou Yi felt heat rise in her throat, coughed twice, and covered her mouth with her hand as warm liquid dripped through her fingers – it was red. Zhou Yi had coughed up blood from anger!

Yuan Han was terrified, holding her and calling “Xiaoyi,” wanting to take her to the hospital.

Zhou Yi’s whole body ached, but she felt this blood wasn’t from He Shiyuan’s beating but from Yuan Han’s betrayal.

She pushed Yuan Han away:

“Don’t talk about this now. How will you gather 150,000 Hong Kong dollars? If you can’t get this money together, He Shiyuan won’t let you off!”

150,000 Hong Kong dollars?

Since transferring to Pengcheng, Yuan Han had plenty of business meals and drinks, but in terms of taking money, he had only taken He Shiyuan’s 50,000 Hong Kong dollars.

He couldn’t possibly gather 150,000 Hong Kong dollars even if it killed him.

At the current exchange rate between Hong Kong and Chinese currency, it would be seventy to eighty thousand Chinese yuan.

Where could he get that much?

Of He Shiyuan’s 50,000, he still had over 40,000 left, but that was far from enough!

Yuan Han had thought Zhou Yi would help him. Setting aside the affair, if this bribery issue wasn’t resolved, the Zhou family would suffer too.

“Xiaoyi, I can’t gather it alone…”

Zhou Yi looked at him seriously, “Then prepare to go to prison. The woman you got involved with, this money – there’s no way our Zhou family will pay it for you.”

150,000 Hong Kong dollars was close to 20,000 US dollars.

Even if Zhou Yi still deeply loved Yuan Han and wanted to fill this hole for him, she couldn’t afford it.

Not just her – her parents couldn’t afford it either.

The family’s savings had mostly gone toward her studying abroad. Unless her second uncle and aunts pitched in… impossible! They might gather money to save a life, but gathering money to pay for Yuan Han’s mistake – Zhou Yi couldn’t even bring herself to ask.

And that was assuming she still deeply loved Yuan Han.

Now that she hated him to death, she definitely wouldn’t ask to borrow money for him!

Yuan Han’s expression changed:

“Xiaoyi, after all we’ve been through as husband and wife, you’ll watch me die? If I get arrested, your father’s side-“

Zhou Yi sneered, her injured face making the expression particularly grotesque and terrifying:

“Don’t threaten me. If I tell my father about this now, we won’t need to wait for He Shiyuan to deal with you. My father can personally send you to prison, believe it or not. He Shiyuan’s report might get you ten years, but if my father sends you to prison, you could get twenty years!”

A light bulb went off in Zhou Yi’s head, and she began to consider the feasibility of this approach.

If her father took the initiative to report it, getting ahead of He Shiyuan’s evidence, wouldn’t that prove her father had nothing to do with it?

Yuan Han understood Zhou Yi well enough; seeing her expression, his face turned pale with fear:

“Xiaoyi, I’ll gather the money, don’t be rash! This is all my fault. Think about our daughter, think about her. If I go to prison, how will Zhou Ke pass future political background checks?”

Criminal records of immediate family members would indeed affect political background checks.

The term “political background check” wasn’t unfamiliar to Zhou Yi.

In ’87, these checks were still very strict.

Zhou Yi hadn’t seen her daughter for almost half a year, though Jiang Hong had sent her photos. Zhou Ke was very cute.

Her tiny hands and feet were like lotus root segments, soft and white.

With grape-black eyes and beautiful hair.

She was especially pretty, nothing like her ugly newborn appearance.

“Then gather the money yourself! 150,000 Hong Kong dollars – if you can’t get it, it will still affect Zhou Ke. Then it won’t just be He Shiyuan reporting you anymore.”

Yuan Han took Zhou Yi’s threat to heart.

The Zhou family might not help him, but if they actively worked against him, he would truly be finished.

How to gather the money?

Yuan Han knew well enough whether the Yuan family had money – they couldn’t produce such a large sum.

Even if they emptied his two sisters’ savings and his mother’s funeral fund, they might barely scrape together twenty or thirty thousand yuan.

What about the remaining gap?

The broken books and pens left by Ye Xiaoqiong had all been sold; what else could be sold?

Wait, not everything was sold – there was still the house!

Yuan Han found a glimmer of hope for himself.

Having discovered this lifeline, he became excited:

“Xiaoyi, I have a way, I know how to gather the money, trust me!”

…

Xia Xiaolan said there wasn’t much more to see.

This was a typical honeytrap technique.

But it was more vicious than usual. In Du Zhaoji’s hands, beating Yuan Han half to death would have been just the beginning – digging deeper would have affected Zhou Wenban.

It might even have implicated Old Tang.

This was probably the source of disagreement between Ye Xiaoqiong and Du Zhaoji.

After falling out with Du Zhaoji, Ye Xiaoqiong’s revenge became a pure honeytrap, removing the more vicious elements.

“He Shiyuan rejected 100,000 Hong Kong dollars but demanded 150,000 – this number is carefully calculated. She previously gave Yuan Han 50,000, and in such a short time he couldn’t have spent it all, so let’s assume he has 40,000 left. That leaves Yuan Han with a 110,000 shortfall. Zhou Yi won’t borrow money for him, so Yuan Han can only turn to his family. The Yuan family’s wealth is what it is, but Yuan Han is their precious son, his two sisters will certainly gather money for him… but what about the remainder? There’s still the ancestral property returned by Ye Xiaoqiong’s family, now in Yuan Han’s mother’s name.”

As Xia Xiaolan analyzed, Zhou Cheng nodded:

“If Yuan Han sells the house, it will return to Ye Xiaoqiong’s name.”

Ye Xiaoqiong didn’t need to ask the Zhou family for help – this was accomplished through her wisdom!