“Du Zhaohui, you’d better investigate thoroughly before deciding your next move.”

Yu Shihua’s sudden revelation would certainly affect Du Zhaohui.

If Yu Shihua’s words were true, Du Zhaohui would be even more reluctant to let go. His mother had left 20% of the group’s shares, yet Du Chengrong only offered 5% as a reward, making Du Zhaohui and Du Zhaoqi fight over it, treating his son like a dog—if something like this happened to Xia Xiaolan, she’d probably be furious too.

She deeply disliked Xia Dajun, considering him a foolishly filial idiot who couldn’t protect his wife and daughter, and even abused his wife. For Xia Xiaolan to acknowledge such a man as her father—she’d rather die and be reborn!

But comparatively, Xia Dajun’s incompetence limited his destructive potential. By keeping Liu Fen far away from Xia Dajun, they’d managed to distance themselves from that scoundrel.

Du Chengrong was different.

Xia Dajun’s lack of fatherly love for his daughter, preferring to dote on his nieces and nephews and listen to Grandmother Xia, was mere foolishness.

Du Chengrong listened to no one, and showed no love for Du Zhaohui or any other Du family children—the man was extremely selfish!

Even if the 20% shares story was fabricated by Yu Shihua, she hadn’t lied about another matter.

“I also think Chairman Du is sick—mentally sick. I see that he wants to groom either you or Du Zhaoqi into a qualified heir, but I strongly disagree with and resent this poison-nurturing style of competition… Yu Shihua telling you this now might be under Chairman Du’s instructions, fearing you’d become complacent and stop competing with Du Zhaoqi and Xia Ziyu.”

Did it matter whether the story was true or false?

If Yu Shihua’s words were true, Du Chengrong hadn’t mentioned those 20% shares all these years, clearly intending to withhold them from Du Zhaohui.

Through normal channels, those 20% shares couldn’t be recovered.

They could only force Du Zhaohui to fight and grab, to obtain all shares under Du Chengrong’s name—those 20% shares would naturally be included!

Xia Xiaolan slowly cleared her thoughts. The “20% shares” story was like a noose around Du Zhaohui’s neck, preventing him from jumping ship from the Du family. He could only fight to the end—if he gave up and the Du family was inherited by Du Zhaoqi or someone else, and then the “20% shares” story proved true, how furious would Du Zhaohui be?

He would have given away his mother’s shares to the children of concubines!

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t directly relate to this.

At least not in terms of her relationship with Ji Jiangyuan.

From another perspective, imagine if Old Tang had strayed during his marriage to Liu Fen, had children with another woman, and then wanted that child to inherit Liu Fen’s ‘Blue Phoenix’… Damn, just thinking about it made Xia Xiaolan want to explode!

No, no, no, thinking this way was unfair to Old Tang.

Xia Xiaolan might not care about the few shops under Liu Fen’s name since she had other more profitable businesses, but if something like that happened, she’d rather destroy the shops than let others have them—

Du Zhaohui smiled coldly:

“I’ll fight.”

He looked at Xia Xiaolan, “I’m sorry, I considered your suggestion about abandoning the Du family and developing independently. I know ‘Chengrong Plaza’ has great prospects, but its potential hasn’t been fully realized yet. With it, I could break away from the Du family and establish myself. In ten or twenty years, I might personally be wealthier than the Du family… but I can’t accept that. Having money wouldn’t make me happy!”

So even before Yu Shihua revealed the “20% shares” matter, Du Zhaohui had made his decision. He hadn’t accepted Xia Xiaolan’s suggestion; he chose to fight to the end.

This choice aligned with Du Zhaohui’s character.

Xia Xiaolan had known this all along:

“Investigate the 20% shares matter slowly, try not to alert Chairman Du. I’m not qualified to persuade you to give up fighting for the family business because it’s your interests at stake. We’re talking billions in real assets—I can’t compensate you for that! Moreover, things have changed. Let’s set aside how Xia Ziyu was your bad move; her existence is a problem for me—your position opposes Xia Ziyu’s, and she opposes me, so I can only stand with you.”

She had been too naive before!

Thinking she could withdraw from Du family affairs after finishing her consulting work for Chengrong Plaza.

But many things are interconnected—now she wanted to withdraw, but Xia Ziyu kept buzzing around her like a fly.

Should she turn a blind eye and let Du Zhaohui have someone eliminate Xia Ziyu?

Or continue to underestimate Xia Ziyu, giving her room to grow…

Xia Xiaolan chose a third option.

Ensure Xia Ziyu couldn’t turn things around!

As a reborn person, Xia Ziyu changing her fate was understandable, but what right did she have to arrange “Xia Xiaolan’s” fate?

Very well, she’d let Xia Ziyu experience what it felt like to have others looking down on her, controlling her every move no matter how she struggled.

The gloom on Du Zhaohui’s face dispersed somewhat.

He wasn’t fighting alone after all—Xia Xiaolan stood with him. Being good-looking did have its advantages.

“Alright, I won’t mention the 20% shares matter yet. Yu Shihua’s business in Hong Kong is doing well, even with mainland investment, she didn’t need to rush to acquire Elegance. Someone took the initiative to use Elegance to curry favor with Yu Shihua. Even though I suspect Yu Shihua and that old bastard are involved, Xia Ziyu must think even more… I know Xia Ziyu has angered you, how do you plan to deal with her?”

Du Zhaohui was eager to know.

Xia Xiaolan had said killing Xia Ziyu wasn’t a good idea, and Du Zhaohui saw that too.

He constantly regretted this bad move, which branded three big words on his face: Complete Idiot!

Du Zhaohui didn’t want to be taken for an idiot. Wasn’t the old bastard trying to raise Xia Ziyu to compete with him?

How could he disappoint the old bastard?

Xia Xiaolan spread her hands:

“I have a way to deal with Xia Ziyu. I can’t say if it’ll work, but I need to borrow money from you.”

What?!

Du Zhaohui looked like he’d seen a ghost.

“Xia Xiaolan, you asking to borrow money from me is more shocking than hearing my mother left me 20% of Chengrong Group’s shares!”

Xia Xiaolan rolled her eyes, “Business needs working capital, why can’t I borrow money from you? Don’t worry, this isn’t a free loan. I’m borrowing 50 million this year and will repay you 100 million next year!”

Du Zhaohui swallowed.

“If it’s 50 million US dollars, I can’t provide that either.”

With such high interest, it would be a lie to say Du Zhaohui didn’t want it—who wouldn’t want more money?

However, since the borrower was Xia Xiaolan, Du Zhaohui would have preferred if she didn’t offer interest.

The higher the interest, the clearer the boundaries—Xia Xiaolan didn’t want to take even a penny’s advantage from him.

Du Zhaohui felt a bit dejected.