Du Chengrong didn’t spend the night at his residence tonight.

He came, and then he left.

Xia Ziyu stroked her belly and laughed out loud.

She had made another right move!

Yes, this was how she needed to proceed, continuing to make the right choices.

Du Zhaohui and Du Zhaoqi both had to listen to Du Chengrong. She didn’t need to choose sides between them – in the Du family, the best move was to ally herself with Du Chengrong.

Du Chengrong had known all along that she was sent by Du Zhaohui.

But Du Chengrong didn’t mind.

Perhaps because he felt he could control everything, he didn’t bother to expose her.

He kept her by his side because she could make him happy. Du Chengrong was willing to make her his Fifth Concubine and let her bear children because even though she was sent by Du Zhaohui, she had only disrupted the alliance between the second and fourth branches without ever attempting to harm Du Chengrong or threatening his interests!

Indeed, for Du Chengrong, whoever won would still be his son.

This man was too confident.

If he weren’t older than her father, Xia Ziyu thought she might have truly admired Du Chengrong, and even fallen in love with him.

Compared to Du Chengrong, Wang Jianhua seemed so immature. Du Chengrong had money and power, able to manipulate everyone in the Du family. Wang Jianhua couldn’t even handle his parents while dating her – it was laughable.

She had wasted time treating Wang Jianhua as someone precious to fight for.

Xia Ziyu wished she could turn back time by a few years and slap some sense into her younger self!

She had wasted so much time and energy on Wang Jianhua.

“If Du Chengrong doesn’t care, what do I have to fear? Du Zhaohui can’t threaten me anymore.”

The heavy burden that had been weighing on her was finally lifted, and Xia Ziyu felt relieved!

But she still couldn’t reveal her true intentions.

Du Chengrong might not care who sent her, but he wouldn’t allow her to go after Liu Fen and Xia Xiaolan, bringing enemies to the Du family.

Xia Ziyu wasn’t in a hurry anymore. She decided to stay by Du Chengrong’s side and follow his instructions to take good care of her pregnancy.

If Du Zhaohui knew the truth, his expression would certainly be fascinating, haha.

Five percent of the shares – winning was winning. As long as Du Chengrong was alive, the Du family would have to listen to him, and she would be safe!

[Section continues with Xia Xiaolan’s perspective…]

Xia Xiaolan didn’t know why Xia Ziyu was investigating her mother.

The investigation results had probably been sent to Hong Kong by now.

Xia Xiaolan had maintained her connection with Xia Hongxia, having a gut feeling that Xia Hongxia would still be useful.

Xia Hongxia had received one thousand Hong Kong dollars as payment for being a double agent, and with her savings, she barely managed to secure a small storefront in the People’s Bridge Small Commodities Market.

The space was tiny, only two meters wide, though it extended quite far back.

Even such a modest shop had people fighting over it – after all, even street vendors were making good money in the small commodities market these days.

If it weren’t for Xia Xiaolan having someone arrange it, Xia Hongxia would never have gotten the shop.

Xia Xiaolan hadn’t specifically gone to see Xia Hongxia again – she couldn’t risk alerting anyone. She had to wait for Xia Ziyu to contact Xia Hongxia again.

Initially, Xia Xiaolan hadn’t noticed Ye Xiaoqiong’s disappearance. It was normal for Ye Xiaoqiong to return to Hong Kong from Pengcheng – once the investigation was complete, she naturally had to report back to Du Zhaoqi.

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t say she was disappointed in Ye Xiaoqiong’s actions – after all, they now stood on different sides. Ye Xiaoqiong earned her salary from Du Zhaoqi, so of course she would work for him.

However, when they first reunited in Hong Kong last year, Xia Xiaolan had genuinely been happy for Ye Xiaoqiong.

Wasn’t it inspiring that a girl who had nearly been trafficked could secure a good job in Hong Kong?

Later, discovered that Ye Xiaoqiong was Yuan Han’s ex-wife, and after Xia Xiaolan had accepted Du Zhaohui’s consulting fee, they found themselves in different camps, gradually growing apart.

Xia Xiaolan hadn’t immediately noticed Ye Xiaoqiong’s “disappearance” because she was preoccupied with the customer flow issues at Chengrong Plaza.

The first step was to attract merchants and get them to rent spaces; the second was to draw in consumers to shop.

At this time, Pan Yijun brought Xia Xiaolan another piece of news:

“Sheng Xuan couldn’t hold on anymore and actively requested a transfer from Pengcheng. I heard she’s going to work in South Henan.”

Pan Yijun thought this was good news.

It didn’t particularly surprise Xia Xiaolan either.

Sheng Xuan had been constantly pressured by Pan Yijun. If she still wanted to pursue her career, she couldn’t spend her whole life fighting with Pan Yijun.

Everyone only has a few golden years for career advancement. Sheng Xuan was currently a young cadre with the advantage of age, but if she wasted a few more years, she would just become one of the crowd.

“It’s fine if she wants to leave, but what about the loans she approved – have they been collected?”

Xia Xiaolan had been waiting for this.

To transfer jobs, one first needed to properly hand over their current work responsibilities.

One of the loans Sheng Xuan had personally approved was the several million given to Ji Ya!

After returning to China, Xia Xiaolan had been busy with her affairs and hadn’t pursued Ji Ya… because there was no need – the one with a headache would be Ji Ya, not Xia Xiaolan.

Did Ji Ya have the money to repay the bank now?

Not.

All the money was tied up in brand development.

Luna was pursuing a franchise development strategy, but Ji Ya had funded all the branch stores herself. While it looked like comprehensive expansion and rapid progress, how could she possibly have several million in liquid funds?

Perhaps Ji Ya couldn’t even come up with one or two million.

Would George help Ji Ya with this money?

Most likely not – George could barely help himself. Harold had already pushed old Mr. and Mrs. Ivan into a corner. Though it wasn’t clear what Mrs. Wilson planned to do in China, it was related to Harold.

George’s family was besieged on all sides.

When George was wealthy, he could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on Ji Ya’s wedding, but now asking him to help Ji Ya repay loans would probably be difficult.

Pan Yijun thought the same: “The job transfer isn’t a problem, but without resolving the loans Director Sheng approved, it’s difficult for our branch to proceed.”

For job transfers, one first needed an accepting unit, then see if the current unit would let them go.

Usually, the current unit wouldn’t make things too difficult.

But now, Pan Yijun was going to create an unusual situation!

Banks often had bad debts – not every loan could be collected, but usually, no one would pursue it. If they really wanted to investigate, how Sheng Xuan had pressured Pan Yijun, wanting Qihang to repay early, Pan Yijun was now simply returning Sheng Xuan’s own methods back to her.

He firmly refused to process Sheng Xuan’s transfer, insisting she collect the loans first – no one could say he was wrong!

Sheng Xuan must have been furious.

According to old Pan, Sheng Xuan had called Ji Ya to the bank, but they presumably couldn’t reach an agreement and parted on bad terms.

Then something even more interesting happened – Zhu Suizhou personally came to see Xia Xiaolan.

“Director Xia, January 28th is my wedding with Comrade Sheng Xuan. You must attend!”