Xia Ziyu was somewhat surprised by Xiao Yan’s desperate pleading.

This Xiao Yan was only 13!

She thought about what she would have been doing at 13 without her rebirth—she wouldn’t have dared leave her rural hometown alone, let alone show such courage and audacity.

Xia Ziyu asked Xia Hongxia and Xia Junbao to leave first, wanting to speak with Xiao Yan alone.

“Director Xia—”

“All of you, leave too.”

Xia Ziyu waved, dismissing her bodyguards and assistants.

Only Xiao Yan and Xia Ziyu remained in the room. Xia Ziyu didn’t ask her to stand—if someone’s knees were weak enough to kneel, let them kneel.

“Xiao Yan, right? There’s an opportunity before you. Seize it, and you can rise above others. Miss it, and you can crawl back to wherever you came from. Don’t try that crying and pitiful act with me—I don’t fall for that.”

Xiao Yan might be clever, but she was still just a 13-year-old girl. Xia Ziyu wasn’t as easily fooled as Xia Junbao.

Xiao Yan stole glances at Xia Ziyu, knowing such opportunities were rare.

Her heart was almost jumping out of her throat.

“I want to seize it, please… I want to take this chance. I don’t want to live like before…”

Crying and begging had no effect, and Xiao Yan didn’t know what else could move Xia Ziyu.

“Tell me your real name. Drop the ‘Xia Xiaoyan’—I hate lies most! And what are your intentions with Xia Junbao? You deliberately approached him, didn’t you? You have one chance to explain. Don’t think you can deceive me; my power extends further than you imagine.”

Should she tell?

Maybe she could.

If this woman was truly Xia Junbao’s sister, then she must be an enemy of “that person”—thinking of “that person,” Xiao Yan didn’t want to recall their name, her heart stinging with resentment and grievance!

“My name is Tian Xiaoyan.”

Tian Xiaoyan looked up at Xia Ziyu, tears still wet in her eyes but no longer crying:

“I’m from Qijing Village in Anqing County.”

Qijing Village?

Wasn’t that Liu Fen’s hometown?

Xia Ziyu’s interest was piqued. “Very good. Honesty is a good start. Continue.”

Tian Xiaoyan revealed everything about her “grievances” with Xia Xiaolan.

She had secretly fled Qijing Village because she didn’t want to live like before. She just wanted a better life—why couldn’t she have one? Xia Xiaolan and Liu Fen could have helped her with just a gesture, yet their hearts were so hard!

Tian Xiaoyan stole money from home to leave the village.

The villagers couldn’t find her because she met a kind driver who took her to the provincial capital.

Unlike the Special Economic Zone, Yunan Province wasn’t greatly affected by the Reform and Opening Up. While there were bad people, most were simple folks.

Who would be wary of a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl?

Tian Xiaoyan quickly discovered these city people were easily fooled.

They believed whatever she said.

When she claimed to be an orphan whose uncle wanted to marry her off to an old cripple, people became angry and wanted to help, some suggesting reporting to the police, and one old auntie even wanted to adopt her.

The auntie’s husband was a cadre, and Tian Xiaoyan desperately wanted to be a cadre’s daughter, just like Xia Xiaolan…

But cadres weren’t easily fooled. The condition for adopting her was verifying her story. One night, when Tian Xiaoyan got up to use the bathroom, she overheard the cadre and his wife discussing plans to investigate her background. Frightened, she couldn’t sleep all night and secretly ran away the next day.

Afterward, Tian Xiaoyan wandered around Shangdu, waiting for suitable opportunities.

The couple at the bun shop was her fourth landing spot. She hadn’t planned to stay long at the bun shop—she looked down on self-employed people earning hard money.

One day, she saw Xia Dajun and recognized him from his previous visits to Qijing Village!

What followed came naturally—Tian Xiaoyan deliberately approached Xia Junbao, and befriended him, hoping to integrate into the Xia family. Unfortunately, Xia Dajun was often away driving, rarely home, leaving Tian Xiaoyan few chances—

“I never meant to deceive Junbao, I have no ill intentions toward him, I swear!”

Xia Ziyu wanted to laugh.

In this vast sea of people, to encounter someone who harbored resentment against Xia Xiaolan and her mother—what fate.

She could understand Liu Fen’s psychology. Having been reborn, why not find someone better? Why marry a rural idler when you could marry a mayor? Better than continuing with Xia Dajun, even if they were originally husband and wife.

But outwardly, she had to validate and encourage Tian Xiaoyan:

“Whether you deceived Xia Junbao doesn’t matter. I’m pleased you told the truth. You have ambition, just limited experience… Not your fault, growing up in that environment at such a young age, you couldn’t have much experience. You wanted Liu Fen as your stepmother, but she looked down on you. She’s now remarried to a high official, the mayor of Pengcheng.”

Between Tang Hongen and Tian Laosan, only a fool would choose Tian Laosan.

Normal people wouldn’t resent this, they’d look for reasons within themselves.

But Tian Xiaoyan wasn’t normal, and Xia Ziyu didn’t want her to be normal.

Xia Ziyu felt somewhat regretful—Tian Xiaoyan was only 13, too young. If she were a few years older, seventeen or eighteen, she could be put to use immediately.

Tian Xiaoyan mumbled “Pengcheng Mayor,” momentarily dazed.

A mayor outranked a county chief, right?

And county chiefs outranked township heads, whose words Chen Wangda had to obey.

Such a high official could naturally imprison her father at will. The villagers all feared angering high officials, mocking her father as a toad trying to eat swan meat—Tian Xiaoyan never saw Liu Fen as swan meat, what was a divorced rural woman worth? She just got lucky marrying a mayor, otherwise Liu Fen would surely have become her stepmother.

Her father would have taken her and her brother to live in Liu Fen’s big house in the countryside, with a college entrance exam champion as a sister.

Thinking of such a life, Tian Xiaoyan couldn’t help smiling through tears.

Xia Ziyu sneered:

“Crying? Crying is useless. A woman’s tears are precious, to be used at crucial moments. You’re wasting them! Now you know Liu Fen married the Pengcheng mayor. Do you have the courage to cry at the city government building? With your quick tongue, you could tell everyone about how Liu Fen married up… Tian Xiaoyan, do you have that courage?”

Cry at the city government?

Tian Xiaoyan was instinctively afraid.

But if she refused, Xia Ziyu certainly wouldn’t take her to Hong Kong.

Tian Xiaoyan shrank her neck, curling up like a turtle, her voice trembling:

“…I dare! I want to rise above others. Following your words is the only way. Whatever you tell me to say, I’ll do exactly that!”