The three-way interrogation had started strong but ended gently.

Xia Xiaolan felt that Uncle Tang and her uncle’s firepower was probably being saved for Zhou Cheng, so she secretly gave Zhou Cheng a warning:

“The situation is more serious than I thought. I think only my mom and aunt are on your side. Even Taotao is now wary of you. Zhou Cheng, you’ll need to be careful during your vacation, haha!”

“If I dared to propose, I dare to face their scrutiny. Don’t worry, leave it to me.”

Zhou Cheng seemed full of confidence, making Xia Xiaolan cover her mouth and laugh.

She had no choice but to return to Pengcheng now. The “Cheng Rong Plaza” had released its third batch of storefronts, and needless to say, they were once again fully rented out.

“We need to investigate the backgrounds of the tenants. There’s been no movement from Du Zhaoqi’s side, and I’m worried he’s planning something big. We want to lull him into a false sense of security, but he might be trying to do the same to us… Du Zhaowei, are you even listening to what I’m saying?”

“Yes, yes, I’m listening. Please continue.”

Du Zhaowei wanted to focus. This was about important matters – about his competition with Du Zhaoqi, about who would inherit the Du family business.

But he couldn’t help staring at Xia Xiaolan’s hand.

Xia Xiaolan had slender, well-proportioned fingers.

Beautiful people weren’t just beautiful in face and figure – even their hands were beautiful, down to their fingernails, which were full and lustrous even without nail polish.

But today, that hand wore a small diamond ring.

The diamond wasn’t large – Du Zhaowei wouldn’t even consider giving such a small stone as a gift. Such a tiny diamond probably needed a magnifying glass to see clearly.

But Xia Xiaolan never wore jewelry.

Rings, especially, weren’t something she would wear casually.

Du Zhaowei himself wore rings, but those were decorative, just for fashion.

The way Xia Xiaolan wore this ring was interesting. That hand was…

“Du Zhaowei?!”

“Ah yes, I’m listening!”

You’re not listening at all.

Xia Xiaolan noticed Du Zhaowei staring at her hand with a thoughtful expression. She raised her hand, “Are you looking at this?”

Should he admit it?

Du Zhaowei didn’t want to admit it, but his curiosity was killing him. If he didn’t get this cleared up, he wouldn’t be able to focus on the plaza matters.

He couldn’t help but nod honestly:

“I’m a bit curious. You don’t seem to like these things, and if you were buying one, why not get a bigger diamond…”

A diamond of less than two carats looked so unremarkable.

If he’d known Xia Xiaolan liked diamonds, he could have given her one the size of a pigeon egg!

“This is an engagement ring from Zhou Cheng, so it’s different.”

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t hiding anything. If she wore the ring, she naturally wanted others to know.

To avoid situations like what happened with Tang Yuanyue!

There was a buzzing in Du Zhaowei’s ears.

Xia Xiaolan’s casual words felt like being stabbed, not with a sword, but with a spear – Du Zhaowei was instantly struck dumb.

An engagement ring?!

Xia Xiaolan was engaged to that Zhou fellow?

Knowing they were dating and had a stable relationship was one thing, but hearing Xia Xiaolan say it herself was a completely different shock.

“Du Zhaowei, if you don’t want to discuss the plaza today… are you sick?”

You couldn’t expect people to be in work mode 365 days a year. If Du Zhaowei couldn’t focus, there wasn’t much Xia Xiaolan could do.

Du Zhaowei felt his heart almost stop beating.

Just moments ago it had been pounding so hard he’d worried something was wrong with it, and now it had dropped below normal rhythm. Well, something was wrong.

He listlessly asked, “You’re getting married already? At a time like this—”

Xia Xiaolan smiled, “It’s not that soon. Don’t worry about it affecting your competition with Du Zhaoqi.”

Du Zhaowei perked up slightly.

That’s right, it was just an engagement ring, not an actual marriage.

There was still a long road between engagement and marriage, which was common in Hong Kong.

Just like Tang Yuanyue and He Zhitong, who’d been “engaged” for years before breaking it off. Heh, forget engagement – even married couples could get divorced.

Du Zhaowei regained his spirit:

“I thought you were giving up on business to get married. What’s so great about marriage? Making money is much more fun!”

That was true.

If it weren’t for Zhou Cheng, Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t want to talk about marriage so soon.

The business could be straightforward, but the marriage was complicated.

In her previous life, although Xia Xiaolan hadn’t been pretty, she’d had a career, a car, a house, and savings – it wasn’t that she couldn’t get married. Why had all her blind dates failed? Because managing a marriage was exhausting, and she hadn’t met a man worth marrying, so she naturally chose to stay single.

A man and woman sharing a bed might be deeply in love, or they might be sleeping together while their hearts are apart.

Take the examples around her: Liu Fen and Old Tang were very happy after their second marriage, often displaying their affection openly.

But considering they’d only been remarried for a year and were still in their honeymoon phase, it was too early to conclude.

Then there were her uncle and aunt – were they happy?

They must be very happy.

Yet recently, her aunt had still argued with her uncle over her maiden family’s interests.

Fortunately, her uncle had been decisive and cut off the source of their marital dispute at the root.

Getting married just for the sake of marriage wasn’t as fun as making money.

However, her uncle had made plenty of money but still felt unhappy arguing with her aunt, willing to give away money to maintain their marriage – that must be for love. So perhaps a marriage with love was still worth looking forward to?

Xia Xiaolan didn’t want to discuss this too deeply with Du Zhaowei, so she just nodded in agreement:

“Yes, making money is more fun. So remember what I said – not just about the third batch of tenants, but the previous ones too. Have you considered the possibility that all the tenants might be arranged by Second Young Master Du? He could be keeping out genuine businesses, and when your father comes to check the results, if all the tenants breach their contracts at once, what future would Cheng Rong Plaza have?”

Du Zhaowei’s face turned green.

“You’re right, that’s entirely possible. We need to investigate thoroughly.”

How could Du Zhaoqi admit defeat so easily? Du Zhaowei had learned his lesson from Xia Ziyu’s defection.

The closer they got to the crucial moment, the more vigilant they needed to be.

Du Zhaowei had people investigate the tenants’ backgrounds. After thorough checking, there were indeed a few suspicious cases… but it turned out to be a false alarm. Those few who were hoarding storefronts wanted to wait and see how Cheng Rong Plaza would do after its official opening.

After all, the plaza had released storefronts in three batches, and the rent had been increasing each time.

Maybe after the official opening, the rent would increase even more?

If the plaza didn’t raise the rent, these storefront hoarders would raise it themselves – they were “dealers” buying low and selling high, the scalpers of ’87!

…

The people who went to Yunan had returned.

Previously they had investigated Xia Xiaolan, now they were investigating Liu Fen and Liu Yong.

You could say Ye Xiaoqiong not only understood Xia Xiaolan but also her family. The Hong Kong side was also pressing her for results.