“Young Master, those photos—”
Weren’t they agreed not to be leaked?
Hua hesitated.
He didn’t know that Du Zhaohui’s mindset had changed after learning his mother might have left him 20% of the shares, only to have them swallowed by the old man. Du Zhaohui wanted the Du family’s money more than ever but was no longer willing to follow the old man’s pace.
Yu Shihua said the old man had become paranoid.
But that paranoia wasn’t just directed at his son—wouldn’t he be suspicious of the woman sleeping beside him too?
The old guy was over sixty, while Xia Ziyu was only 24!
Du Zhaohui thought maliciously that since meeting Xia Ziyu, the old man had been living wildly, and his body must have been nearly exhausted by now.
He’d heard the old man hadn’t visited Xia Ziyu’s residence for several days.
Du Zhaohui initially wanted to release all those photos at once, but suddenly remembered something:
“Wait, didn’t Xia Ziyu have a boyfriend back in mainland China? What was his name?”
“His surname is Wang, Wang Jianhua. He was a student at Beijing Normal College and should have graduated this year.”
Hua’s high salary was well-earned.
Du Zhaohui nodded approvingly, “Don’t release the photos yet. The old man has been cold toward Xia Ziyu these days. If I make this move now, he might become sympathetic to her again. First love is always unforgettable for women. Check how this Wang fellow is doing now. See if we can quietly arrange for him to come to Hong Kong, or at least get him to Shenzhen.”
This would be more effective than simply exposing Xia Ziyu’s photos.
This was the young master Hua knew well.
The young master was never a good person, and he was quite skilled at underhanded schemes.
He could arrange mistresses for Chairman Du, then turn around and arrange men for those same mistresses.
But would this Wang Jianhua still appeal to the Fifth Madam?
“Young Master, should we arrange for a professional seducer—”
The “professional seducers” were young men who specialized in conning wealthy women in Shanghai during the 1920s-1940s.
These men could play different roles—some acted as smooth operators, others posed as scholars—whatever type women preferred. Their gang members would gather intelligence, investigating wealthy women’s preferences before making targeted approaches… They’d seduce these women into falling in love, and then extract money from them.
When it came to deceiving women, while Yuan Han was a natural scoundrel, these professional seducers were professionally trained.
Du Zhaohui was momentarily tempted but then shook his head:
“Xia Ziyu would be wary of strange men approaching her. Don’t use professional seducers!”
Those worked better on naive wealthy women. For someone like Xia Ziyu who desperately wanted to climb higher, only looking to benefit from men, professional seducers wouldn’t easily succeed.
…
Du Zhaohui was planning to arrange a reunion between Xia Ziyu and her old flame.
Xia Xiaolan learned about this quickly.
This time, Xia Xiaolan didn’t object.
Those messy reports were Xia Ziyu’s handiwork. What use was spreading rumors about “one woman serving two men” except to disgust people?
Xia Xiaolan waited for Xia Ziyu to take a big fall, happy to let her become overconfident first.
She ignored the reports and deliberately misguided Ji Jiangyuan, causing Qihang Capital to lose several million Hong Kong dollars in the stock market. While this information should have stayed within Qihang Capital, Xia Xiaolan had it leaked to ensure Xia Ziyu would know…
Of course, they could easily earn back these millions, but Xia Ziyu would surely doubt Xia Xiaolan’s stock trading abilities now.
Xia Ziyu was probably secretly delighting in this.
Xia Xiaolan temporarily chose not to expose Xia Ziyu’s secret pleasure but was angry about her spreading rumors.
When Du Zhaohui had Hua look for Wang Jianhua’s whereabouts, Xia Xiaolan turned a blind eye.
She hadn’t thought about Wang Jianhua for a long time.
It was hard to say how much genuine affection Xia Ziyu had for Wang Jianhua.
But after her rebirth, Xia Ziyu had been obsessed with taking Wang Jianhua away, so he must hold some special meaning in her heart.
What now? Xia Ziyu could spread rumors about her serving two men, but couldn’t taste the power of rumors herself.
Perhaps they weren’t just rumors? Let’s see if Xia Ziyu dared to stray under Du Chengrong’s nose.
Xia Xiaolan was even willing to help Hua investigate Wang Jianhua’s current situation.
Wang Jianhua wasn’t doing as poorly as Xia Xiaolan had imagined.
He’d entered Beijing Normal College in 1983, a year before Xia Xiaolan entered university. His four-year program meant he’d officially graduated this July.
Though graduation was in July, Wang Jianhua had started interning a year ago and officially reported to Fujian Province a month ago—he was 25 when he entered university, making him 29 at graduation.
At 29, he was several years older than his classmates.
However, with his decent academic record and someone helping behind the scenes, his job placement wasn’t bad.
Instead of staying in Beijing, he worked at a county-level investment promotion bureau in Fujian Province, clearly taking the path of accumulating grassroots experience!
In 1987, a bachelor’s degree was valuable. Fresh graduates willing to work within the system and at the grassroots level could easily achieve results if they weren’t completely incompetent, leading to steady promotions.
Of course, some bookworms maintained their college graduate airs at the county level government, ending up as mere section chiefs by retirement.
Xia Xiaolan couldn’t judge which type Wang Jianhua would be.
Without Xia Ziyu’s influence, perhaps Wang Jianhua could correct his deviated fate and become as successful as in his previous life?
—Dream on.
—Would the ‘Xia Xiaolan’ who died by hitting the wall have died in vain?
‘Xia Xiaolan’s’ suicide was mainly Xia Ziyu’s doing, but Wang Jianhua was an accomplice.
Stupidity was no excuse for avoiding responsibility.
Looking at Wang Jianhua’s recent situation, Xia Xiaolan really “admired” Comrade Wang Jianhua.
“He and Xia Ziyu are truly a perfect match. Such people shouldn’t be apart!”
While Xia Ziyu climbed up by being a young mistress to an old man, Wang Jianhua was no better. After Wang Guangping’s downfall, Wang Jianhua’s relationship with Director Zhang’s daughter rapidly developed. When his father couldn’t help, his father-in-law could—Wang Jianhua’s job placement was arranged by Director Zhang—Comrade Wang Jianhua had officially married Director Zhang’s daughter a month ago, becoming the Zhang family’s son-in-law.
If this were all, Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t have found it so disgusting. Wang Jianhua had merely traded marriage for career advancement, and there were plenty of such pragmatic men!
What disgusted Xia Xiaolan was that Wang Jianhua did the same thing as Yuan Han.
While relying on his wife’s connections, he betrayed her trust, maintaining an ongoing relationship with a woman named Liu Shan, a Beijing Normal College graduate who now also worked in Fujian Province. Their relationship continued even after his marriage.
Wang Jianhua’s reasons probably stemmed from looking down on his wife?
Records showed Director Zhang’s daughter had been a sent-down youth in the countryside, had a child there, and returned to the city alone, abandoning the child.
Having had a de facto marriage, bearing a child, being slightly overweight… none of these justified being cheated on. Information Xia Xiaolan could easily find, Wang Jianhua surely knew before marriage.
If he minded these things, he shouldn’t have married her.
Marrying this woman for the benefit while betraying her—Wang Jianhua was quite the scoundrel himself.
Who knew if Director Zhang was aware?
…Perhaps he turned a blind eye. Some people just wanted to marry off their daughters, considering an unmarried daughter shameful, not caring about their happiness after marriage, as long as the family’s face was saved!