Yu Jiuqi walked into Wendu Water Resort under the first ray of winter morning sunlight. As soon as she entered, the young receptionist working the night shift waved her over and mysteriously said that the guest room department had been quite lively last night—apparently a celebrity who had acted in period dramas came to visit, though no one knew who it was.

Yu Jiuqi’s eyes lit up as she asked, didn’t you go up to look? She said she did, but didn’t recognize them. Xiao Jiu pursed her lips, saying then they weren’t any big celebrity. You’re about to change shifts, right? Go to the second floor for some breakfast before going home to catch up on sleep.

The young girl nodded, then asked: “Why did you come so early today, Xiao Jiu?”

“Couldn’t sleep, came to do some work.”

She blinked: “Aunt Hong is going to kiss your face full of lipstick marks again.”

Xiao Jiu smiled, waved goodbye to her and went straight upstairs. She first went to Yu Kaixuan’s office on the second floor, threw her down jacket and bag on the sofa, found the procurement list that had just arrived yesterday from the desk drawer, then returned to the first floor to inventory items one by one in the storage room with an employee responsible for procurement.

The list contained Wendu Water Resort’s consumable supplies besides food service, including towels, slippers, sauna uniforms, and disposable underwear that needed updating daily; bathing products and scrubbing tools that were periodically replenished; aromatherapy essential oils and foot bath packets for the massage center; bedding for the guest rooms; and sometimes decorative items and small furniture or appliances procured as needed. Food service, due to high demand and fixed suppliers, was handled independently by the food service department.

After verifying today’s list, Yu Jiuqi categorized and annotated everything properly, printed two copies—one to keep in Yu Kaixuan’s office for filing, one to give to finance after employees came to work, for checking payment amounts with corresponding suppliers.

Then after the cleaning staff finished cleaning the entire bathing center, she led two employees to distribute the freshly procured supplies to each department as needed, tidying everything up to greet today’s guests with a neat and fresh appearance.

For a large-scale entertainment and bathing center like Wendu Water Resort, the seemingly cold and quiet inventory and cleaning work each morning was actually the most important. Only with sufficient and rigorous preparation could they ensure this steaming hot day would run without errors.

This kind of work requiring patience and care was something the rough-and-ready Brother Erkai had never been good at. Although Yu Jiuqi could do it, she couldn’t come every day, and besides, she had little experience and was helpless when encountering tricky problems. Usually the person responsible for this work was Meng Huihong.

Today Xiao Jiu had specifically gotten up early to help Aunt Hong quickly finish the most important work of the day. By the time Meng Huihong arrived at Wendu Water Resort, she found everything inside and out had already been tidied to look brand new.

She even inspected from upstairs to downstairs, from the storage room to each department area, not even sparing the men’s changing room, before being completely reassured. One could say she was very satisfied, and the time had just passed nine o’clock.

“Where’s Xiao Jiu? Where’s my beautiful, kind, impeccable snail girl Xiao Jiu?”

Meng Huihong sang out loudly in her signature melodious tone with improvised lyrics. The people around her had long grown accustomed to her sing-whenever-she-wants, say-whatever-comes style of expression. They calmly replied that she was on the third floor.

At this moment, Yu Jiuqi, who had been busy all morning, had just caught her breath. She brewed a cup of strong coffee at the third-floor water bar, sat on a bar stool with her thin spine straight, rotated her slender neck, took a small sip of coffee, then casually unlocked her phone to look.

She hadn’t specifically paid attention, nor could it be called anticipation, but she still couldn’t help calculating the time.

It had been a full twelve hours already, and he hadn’t replied at all.

Xiao Jiu quickly scanned the chat records with him from these past few days—two awkward phone calls, several extortion-like pictures and texts, and a few transfer records reflecting different states of mind. Smelling the rich bitter aroma from the coffee cup, she suddenly felt somewhat relieved.

She had once thought it was that phone call on the snowy night that summoned Sun Xi back, thought it was trouble she had caused, thought his saying there were family matters was an excuse, thought borrowing money was naked debt collection. Perhaps she had overthought it.

That’s right—so many years of sneaking around and breaking up and getting back together had long exhausted all anticipation. Even if there were wrongs and debts, there was no extra energy to collect them.

She even felt somewhat inappropriately relieved, relieved that he really had returned to help his family solve problems.

If only this problem wasn’t what she imagined it to be.

“Here you are!”

Yu Jiuqi hurriedly turned off her phone screen. Before she could speak, Aunt Hong strode directly over, suddenly cupped Xiao Jiu’s face, and caught off guard, fiercely kissed her hard on the face.

When Xiao Jiu pulled back slightly to look, sure enough a large patch had lightened on Aunt Hong’s fresh cherry-colored red lips. She knew that as the receptionist had predicted, her face had been stamped with lipstick marks again.

Meng Huihong’s way of expressing emotions had always been direct—sing when happy, curse when unhappy, and if she liked someone she would openly and generously hug and kiss them.

Moreover, she was never moody—her love and hate all had solid logical support.

She tilted her neck to look at Xiao Jiu again, smiling and saying: “Look at you, child. You’ve done all the work, what am I supposed to do today?”

Xiao Jiu said: “Play mahjong.”

Meng Huihong was delighted, smiling even more happily: “That wouldn’t be right, it’s the weekend.”

“Weekends are exactly when you should play mahjong!”

“You have a point!”

Meng Huihong didn’t wait a moment. She immediately notified everyone in the group chat that she had time today. Before long, responses came one after another, and soon they confirmed meeting at Wendu Water Resort’s card room in half an hour. Her mahjong partners were all a group of middle-aged women who valued wellness—games started in the morning and ended promptly at eight in the evening when they went home to sleep.

Among this group of partners, Yu Jiuqi was particularly concerned about one person. She asked: “Is Aunt Feixia coming?”

“She is,” Meng Huihong looked at Xiao Jiu, “If you feel awkward, go shopping.”

“No, I’ll play with you all.”

Xiao Jiu smiled—a frank and sincere smile that, upon closer inspection, even held some anticipation.

Feixia was Wang Feixia, Wang Heyuan’s biological sister, Little Boss Fu’s biological mother, Shicheng’s most gossip-loving, loose-tongued, carefree wealthy lady. Moreover, she didn’t just gossip about others—she never hid or concealed her own family matters either, her personality completely opposite from her cautious only son. Xiao Jiu had played two rounds of mahjong with them before. Taking advantage of Aunt Feixia’s good luck and good mood, in just two or three rounds, she had figured out Little Boss Fu’s entire life story.

In short, if she wanted to find out about Little Boss Fu and Fu’an Mall, nothing was more efficient than playing a lively round of mahjong with Wang Feixia.

This was also why Yu Jiuqi had gotten up early today to help Aunt Hong with work—she wanted to make this game happen, wanted to understand more, wanted to verify whether that problem was what she imagined.

As soon as the mahjong machine buzzed open and the four wellness women in matching sauna uniforms sat down, Yu Jiuqi made trip after trip bringing tea, fruit plates, peanuts and melon seeds from the outside dining area, dividing them into small dishes and placing them beside each person. She even specifically got two scoops of Häagen-Dazs ice cream that Wang Feixia loved to eat.

Wang Feixia took the ice cream, patted Xiao Jiu’s back with a hand wearing two heavy gold rings side by side, her round and prosperous face full of regret, mumbling: “That son of mine must be blind.”

Then she snorted, took a bite of ice cream, reached out to draw tiles: “Never mind him, let him play around. When he’s had enough, he’ll be fine.”

Yu Jiuqi sat on the chair beside Aunt Hong, smiling awkwardly, but for a moment, she felt uncomfortable inside.

Of course she could tell what Wang Feixia meant. Everyone present, even most of Shicheng now knew that Little Boss Fu was together with Wen Wen. This cross-generational old-young pairing had long been a hot topic for everyone’s after-meal chats and even at mahjong tables. As Little Boss Fu’s mother, she naturally couldn’t avoid it, so she might as well face it directly, first throwing out her attitude from a high position.

When he’s had enough, he’ll be fine—translated, that meant: we’re not taking it seriously.

But in Wendu Water Resort’s card room, making sarcastic remarks in front of Wen Wen’s daughter was somewhat harsh.

Before Xiao Jiu could say anything, Meng Huihong played a tile, forcefully knocking it on the table with a dull thud: “I’m about to win—be careful not to feed me!”

That round, Meng Huihong indeed won big, with Wang Feixia feeding her the tile. Xiao Jiu didn’t feel the satisfaction of getting even. If anything felt satisfying, she was more looking forward to the scene when Little Boss Fu notified Wang Feixia about marrying Wen Wen.

She pursed her lips in another smile, then stood to refill each aunt’s tea. After sitting back down, she naturally asked: “Aunt Feixia, why is that Fu’an Mall in the development zone closing? I still have quite a few recharge cards there.”

Wang Feixia looked down at her tiles, saying dully: “Wasn’t the first floor collapsed a while ago?”

“Just the first floor collapsed—why close the whole mall?”

“Fixing the electrical system, major renovation.”

“Oh… why?”

Wang Feixia knocked out a tile. Before she could answer, Meng Huihong sitting across from her pushed her tiles forward—she’d won again. Wang Feixia gave a cry of dismay, regretting carelessly playing that dangerous tile, annoyed as she said it seemed she couldn’t be distracted. Xiao Jiu, don’t pester me with chatter anymore.

Even as the city’s most pampered wealthy lady who lacked for nothing, losing several rounds at the mahjong table made her heated. Having already fed tiles for several consecutive rounds, Wang Feixia went silent, not saying a word, burying her head to study her tiles and carefully research strategy.

But after more than an hour passed, she still hadn’t won a single hand.

Continuing to drag this out wasn’t a solution. Yu Jiuqi furrowed her brows pondering for a long time, finally deciding she’d have to sacrifice Aunt Hong a little. Xiao Jiu secretly went out once to deliver the morning’s procurement list to the finance office, but before sending it she did a little trick, erasing a zero from one item’s quantity.

Sure enough, half an hour later, Finance Sister Qin came knocking on the card room door, telling Meng Huihong with difficulty that the quantity of disposable underwear they ordered didn’t match up, the supplier was making a fuss over there, how should they pay this money?

Meng Huihong said I know, I’ll go look. Then she turned to glance at the beautiful all-one-suit tiles in her hand, muttering regretfully: “But I haven’t finished this mahjong game yet…”

At this moment, Xiao Jiu stood up: “It’s fine, Auntie, you go handle it. I’ll play for you!”

That round, Wang Feixia fed Xiao Jiu tiles twice, but Xiao Jiu didn’t win either time. Instead, she broke up her own tiles to feed her, ultimately racking her brains to let Wang Feixia win big in reverse.

From then on, Wang Feixia’s luck improved—of course, most of it was Yu Jiuqi’s contribution.

Calculating that Aunt Hong would return soon and her money was almost gone, taking advantage of Wang Feixia’s good mood after winning, Yu Jiuqi quickly steered the conversation skillfully back to the earlier topic.

So she seized the opportunity to bring up again: “If the mall needs major electrical renovation, that must cost quite a bit, right, Aunt Feixia? If you need a loan, find me—I could boost my performance.”

Wang Feixia smiled: “We don’t need to pay the money.”

Xiao Jiu asked: “Then who pays?”

“The project contractor, of course. The collapse was his doing, the evidence is solid—he can’t deny it even if he wanted to.”

Xiao Jiu was about to continue asking, but the two aunts on either side, equally well-versed in Shicheng’s big and small gossip, picked up the conversation, chattering back and forth on this topic, actually saving Xiao Jiu considerable effort.

The aunt on the left brought it up first: “Isn’t the project contractor the Sun family from Xifeng Street? With their conditions, how could they afford to pay this money?”

The aunt on the right added: “I heard their family is in total chaos now.”

“What happened?”

“The old lady’s hospitalized, the child has college entrance exams next year. With this happening, seems like the couple is fighting for divorce and dividing assets again.”

“Then they definitely can’t come up with the money.”

“Certainly can’t.”

Yu Jiuqi’s eyes darted back and forth, her brain spinning rapidly, half hoping they’d speak slower, half hoping they’d say more. After a brief pause, she noticed Aunt Feixia across from her giving a slight smirk.

Wang Feixia played a tile: “They don’t have money, but their nephew does.”

“Who?”

“Sun Yuwen’s son?”

“Sun Yuwen’s son came back?!”

Under their surprised gazes, Wang Feixia calmly drew a tile: “Mm, heard he’s been mixing it up pretty well in Beijing these years, all dressed up fancy.”

Yu Jiuqi was distracted. When her turn came, she randomly drew a tile, played it without even looking, and the aunt on the left picked it up.

She thanked Xiao Jiu for feeding her a good tile, played another, and at the same time gave a cold snort, continuing to comment on the person at the center of the topic just discussed: “Really unlucky, why did he come back?”

The aunt on the right chimed in, her tone even harsher: “If you ask me, your Fu’an Mall should teach them a lesson.”

Wang Feixia smiled without saying anything.

The left side asked again: “What if they’re determined to just default on it?”

“Heard my son mention hiring a lawyer or something.” Wang Feixia drew a tile and satisfactorily tucked it in the middle.

“Right, sue them.”

“Against murderers, their family doesn’t need to show mercy!”

Yu Jiuqi’s brain went numb with a buzz, the colorful mahjong tiles before her eyes instantly blurred into a mass, then twisted and folded, reflecting a wave of dizziness in her eyes.

Just then, her phone beside her buzzed once—the brief alert tone like a warning bell, reminding her not to lose composure.

Xiao Jiu steadied herself, picked up her phone to look, and the numbness surged over her again, swimming toward her limbs. Her somewhat stiff fingers clicked open the dialogue box to see that the unwelcome person the aunts were discussing had replied to her with one word.

**[Okay.]**

She clumsily scanned the context up and down, taking some time to understand the meaning of this word. After a full fifteen hours, for some reason he had suddenly replied.

What happened?

Yu Jiuqi stared blankly at that word, suddenly seeing him send another message: **[Do you have time tonight?]**

“Xiao Jiu, it’s your turn.”

She looked up dazedly, only then realizing it was her turn to draw tiles. Yu Jiuqi hurriedly put away her phone, explaining in a fluster that a colleague had just messaged her about work matters, but when she reached out, she even got confused about where to draw tiles from.

The aunts naturally noticed Yu Jiuqi’s abnormality. They seemed to suddenly remember they shouldn’t be chatting about the murderer’s family here. After a wave of regret and exchanging glances with each other, they put a stop to this topic.

But the atmosphere had clearly stiffened. Fortunately, Aunt Hong returned to the card room at just the right moment like a life-saving bodhisattva. As soon as she entered, she said to Yu Jiuqi: “Xiao Jiu, your dad is looking for you.”

“Okay, I’ll go right away.” She hurried off.

Yu Jiuqi thought her tampering with the procurement list had been exposed, but at most she’d just get scolded. Compared to the matter making her anxious and uneasy at this moment, it was nothing at all—she didn’t take it to heart at all.

But upon walking into Yu Kaixuan’s office, she found him sitting in the corner of the sofa, hunched over, clutching his phone, looking unusually awkward overall.

Yu Jiuqi stood before her father, looking down at the white hair on his head and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. Suddenly she had an extremely strong premonition. She held her breath, telling herself not to panic.

So Yu Kaixuan’s next words weren’t that surprising to Xiao Jiu. She just heard him getting straight to the point as always: “Little Fu is suing the Sun family. Did you know?”

Yu Jiuqi couldn’t deny everything she’d just heard in the card room. She nodded.

Yu Kaixuan frowned, saying cautiously: “Don’t go out much recently. Even if someone approaches you about this matter, don’t get involved, understand?”

Xiao Jiu blinked, asking in a very small voice: “Why?”

Yu Kaixuan struggled for a while before answering: “Because this is your mother’s idea. Your mother told Little Fu to sue them.”

Xiao Jiu asked again: “Why would Mom suddenly…”

Yu Kaixuan interrupted her, looking at her sternly: “Isn’t it because Sun Xi came back?”