Xia Ziyu had been pondering a troubling question about Du Chengrong, which left her feeling unsettled. For a man over 60 years old, it was natural that without external assistance…
Xia Ziyu knew that one of the main reasons for her favored position was her ability to keep Du Chengrong content. If Du Chengrong lost interest in women, or specifically in her, what would she do? Unlike Second Aunt and the others who could at least chat with Du Chengrong about family matters and children, she didn’t have such options available to her.
Over the next few days, Xia Ziyu tried to entice Du Chengrong back, but the results were unsatisfactory. Du Chengrong used work as an excuse to avoid her—and Xia Ziyu was genuinely starting to panic. She couldn’t show this anxiety though. If she lost favor, or if people merely thought she had lost favor, she would be torn to pieces!
Xia Ziyu didn’t dare make any bold moves. She maintained an appearance of normalcy, continuing her usual social activities. Perhaps Du Chengrong’s cold shoulder was punishment because she had crossed one of his bottom lines? But which bottom line was it—Du Zhaohui or Yu Shihua?
This made Xia Ziyu hate Yu Shihua even more. That shameless old woman, hanging around Du Chengrong under the guise of being a ‘close female friend’!
Facing her first setback with Du Chengrong, Xia Ziyu needed to shift her attention elsewhere. She monitored the movements of ‘Qihang Capital’, but nothing special occurred—there were no impressive operations where stocks would skyrocket the day after purchase.
“It seems Liu Fen doesn’t understand this field.”
Good, that meant she and Xia Xiaolan were still competing on equal footing. Even so, Xia Ziyu was displeased with Xia Xiaolan, particularly about her spending 26 million on office space.
These feelings reached their peak when she happened to encounter Xia Xiaolan. The Chengrong Group and Qihang Capital’s office buildings were diagonal to each other, making it easy to ‘accidentally’ run into Xia Xiaolan. However, Xia Xiaolan hurriedly got into her car without noticing her.
Watching Xia Xiaolan’s car disappear around the corner, Xia Ziyu smirked and gave instructions to her assistant.
The next day, Hong Kong tabloids thoroughly investigated ‘Qihang Capital’s’ background, even implying scandalous relationships without naming names, though using code names that made it obvious who they were referring to.
What kind of beautiful female boss could make two Hong Kong tycoons’ sons spend tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars?
Du Zhaohui’s reputation as a playboy was already well-established—this was just another example of his philandering ways.
As for Tang Yuanyue… He had been in an on-again-off-again relationship with the He family’s daughter, reaching a breaking point before reconciliation. Just as they were heading toward marriage, this kind of news broke out.
Unlike Du Zhaohui’s image, Tang Yuanyue had just taken over Yuhua, with a temporarily defeated but still ambitious brother watching from the sidelines. With the wedding approaching, such a scandal was terrible for his public image!
Being the Tang family’s eldest son was different from being Yuhua’s chairman. The former could afford to be frivolous, with Tang Jinyun’s support. The latter needed to appear mature and stable. Marriage was a good choice, especially a match of equal social standing—it represented a man’s maturity.
Tang Yuanyue needed this image to reassure both shareholders and investors. Therefore, such a scandal before the wedding was extremely malicious toward him.
Consider how humiliating this must be for He Zhitong, the other woman in the scandal. If it were any other rumor, He Zhitong would have laughed it off—she knew better than anyone how solid her marriage to Tang Yuanyue would be!
But it had to be Qihang’s boss… Xia Xiaolan, the woman who had once caused her engagement to Tang Yuanyue to be broken off.
She wanted to have a proper discussion with Tang Yuanyue, but he wasn’t in Hong Kong. With the wedding approaching, Tang Yuanyue wanted to handle business matters first and wouldn’t return for a few days.
He Zhitong felt like she was punching cotton. Her good friend Lu Yunshi already had issues with Xia Xiaolan, and after investigating these mysterious reports, Lu Yunshi discovered they were anonymous tips sent to the newspaper. Lu Yunshi suspected Xia Xiaolan’s malicious intentions:
“She’s not satisfied with Tang Yuanyue lending her money? Is she trying to intimidate you or force your hand?”
“You’re overthinking it. She and Yuanyue never dated. If they had anything going on, during our breakup period…”
Lu Yunshi disagreed, “Zhitong, you’re too naive! Some women are just like that—they act pure and untouchable, refusing all men’s pursuits while enjoying their attention. They want all men chasing after them, and if any man shifts his attention elsewhere, they’ll do anything to draw it back—they might never accept a man’s pursuit, but the man absolutely cannot find someone new!”
Lu Yunshi felt Xia Xiaolan was too calculating.
He Zhitong couldn’t argue against this.
Logic told her that Xia Xiaolan had nothing to gain from doing this.
But Tang Yuanyue had indeed lent out millions. Though the money was officially lent to Du Zhaohui, who could be certain Du Zhaohui wasn’t just a front?
Lu Yunshi’s eyes gleamed, “Just act like the magnanimous main wife. Don’t argue with Tang Yuanyue about this—leave it to me. When she comes to your wedding, I’ll make sure to give her such embarrassment that she won’t dare show her face in Hong Kong for quite a while!”
Still dreaming of breaking into Hong Kong’s social circle?
Dream on.
Lu Yunshi had seen plenty of such calculating, thick-skinned vixens and had extensive experience dealing with them.
He Zhitong said nothing, clearly giving tacit approval to Lu Yunshi’s plan.
Unfortunately, their conversation was overheard by He Zhitong’s brother, He Shi’en.
He Shi’en didn’t quite believe it.
Would Xia Xiaolan do something like that?
Impossible, surely.
That beautiful woman didn’t seem like someone easy to mess with.
She was different from his sister and Lu Yunshi. At the golf club’s opening ceremony, despite being surrounded by wealthy people, that woman hadn’t gone around trying to charm everyone!
Should he warn her to be careful at the wedding? Lu Yunshi’s planned embarrassment would surely cause her to lose face completely.
“Even if I warned her, she wouldn’t appreciate it. She’s too proud!”
The young man was quite troubled.
…
Du Zhaohui also discovered this report.
While He Zhitong and Lu Yunshi suspected Xia Xiaolan had leaked it herself, Du Zhaohui didn’t think so.
If Xia Xiaolan had wanted something with Tang Yuanyue, He Zhitong would never have had a chance.
If Xia Xiaolan had wanted to completely win over Tang Yuanyue, she only needed to eagerly offer advice and help during the Tang family’s crisis. The return would have been far more than just a loan of a few million—becoming Yuhua’s mistress, combined with Xia Xiaolan’s abilities, would have been an unstoppable rise to the top!
But Xia Xiaolan wasn’t interested in that at all.
Du Zhaohui looked at himself in the mirror. Though he might not be as handsome as that pretty boy Zhou Cheng, he was surely more attractive than Tang Yuanyue.
Passing up a young and handsome master like himself, Xia Xiaolan definitely wouldn’t choose that old Tang Yuanyue.
This wasn’t leaked by Xia Xiaolan herself.
That only left—
“It was Xia Ziyu.”
Du Zhaohui said with certainty, “Xia Ziyu has been acting up recently. Hua, leak some juicy news about the Fifth Madam, let her make some headlines too!”