“Yes, I attended the wedding banquet. Zhou Cheng came suddenly, so I’ll eat a bit more with him.”

Xia Xiaolan showed no sign of anything unusual.

Ji Jiangyuan suppressed his doubts.

Something might have happened at today’s wedding banquet. Just now, Xia Xiaolan had been quite agreeable, approving of the stocks he recommended, as if the previous operations that lost several million weren’t ordered by her at all.

Ji Jiangyuan wanted to ask Zhou Cheng, but couldn’t find the chance – the couple was inseparable. While Xia Xiaolan worked, Zhou Cheng read books in her office.

Her office had a bookshelf filled with finance publications.

“I’m just getting into this field too.”

Zhou Cheng took a book from the shelf, “Let’s learn together. I want to understand the industry you’re working in.”

In the evening, Zhou Cheng accompanied Xia Xiaolan to the hotel.

He had Yu Li book a separate room.

“I need to go out tonight, I might return tomorrow, or the day after. It’s your birthday the day after tomorrow, and I’ll definitely have dinner with you then.”

Xia Xiaolan stood on her tiptoes to kiss him:

“I won’t ask what you’re doing, but I must see you the day after tomorrow evening. Also, this is Hong Kong – be careful!”

Zhou Cheng kept his word – he didn’t return that night and wasn’t seen on the 23rd either.

On the morning of the 24th, Xia Xiaolan received a call from Du Zhaohui:

“Qiu Jiaming was tied up and hung from the rooftop of the Lixin Building all night. He was only found by the cleaning lady this morning. I heard he was barely alive when they got him down. Lucky it’s summer – Qiu Jiaming was hanging there completely naked, tsk!”

“Lixin Building?”

“It’s built by the Qiu family. They rely on that building for rental income. Qiu Jiaming’s hanging there has given the Qiu family quite the advertisement.”

Du Zhaohui was gloating.

Xia Xiaolan thought Qiu Jiaming deserved it. She had looked into him yesterday – calling him a sexual predator wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

He liked playing with women, similar to Fan Zhenchuan before.

The difference was that Fan Zhenchuan, as a government official, could be imprisoned when his illegal acts were exposed.

But Qiu Jiaming settled his affairs with money. Hong Kong’s laws followed foreign practices – once money was paid and settlement agreements signed, Qiu Jiaming couldn’t be sued again. The student who sued him last year was only 15 years old – this pervert dared to do such things!

“That’s truly heaven’s justice!”

“Within an hour, more than half of Hong Kong’s newspapers will report this. I don’t know who did it, but I admire them – heroes appreciate heroes.”

On the other end of the line, Du Zhaohui was smirking, though with a hint of suppressed anger.

Xia Xiaolan spoke honestly, “I thought it was you…”

Hmph, he wished it was. He had just arranged it with A-Hua.

He hadn’t expected someone to move faster than him.

Du Zhaohui suspected it was the dark-faced man.

Who knew the dark face could move so quickly? This was Hong Kong – Qiu Jiaming had offended many people and always traveled with bodyguards. How could Zhou the dark face manage to hang Qiu Jiaming on the Lixin Building rooftop alone?

Xia Xiaolan stopped mid-sentence.

If it wasn’t Du Zhaohui, then it must be Zhou Cheng.

Did Zhou Cheng just happen to hang up Qiu Jiaming, or was this what he’d been busy with these past two days?

Xia Xiaolan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry – she would have preferred Zhou Cheng to stay with her.

Stripping and hanging up that pervert Qiu Jiaming put her dear Chengzi at a disadvantage.

Du Zhaohui had wanted to invite Xia Xiaolan to dinner, but thinking it through, Zhou’s dark face probably wouldn’t give him the chance, so he reluctantly held back. After hanging up, he felt frustrated and blamed A-Hua for being too slow:

“If you had broken Qiu Jiaming’s legs sooner, it could have been my birthday gift. Now Zhou beat us to it. Qiu Jiaming is such a coward, he’ll be in the hospital for a long time. We can’t even break his legs now.”

A-Hua thought about it and didn’t believe he could match Zhou Cheng.

Zhou Cheng wasn’t developing a business in Hong Kong, so he didn’t care who he offended. The Qiu family couldn’t find any evidence and could only accept their bad luck.

Young Master Du was different – to break Qiu Jiaming’s legs, A-Hua also hoped to handle it more naturally, without making the Qiu family suspect Young Master Du.

A-Hua seriously reflected: “Young Master, should we still break his legs when Qiu Jiaming starts moving around again? Left leg or right leg – I definitely won’t mess it up this time!”

Du Zhaohui spoke coldly:

“I don’t want either leg. He can still harm women even in a wheelchair. Break his middle leg – without that root of evil, I’ll have saved countless Hong Kong girls.”

A-Hua drew in a sharp breath.

He felt an inexplicable sensation below his waist…

Better not think about it – he had a wife back home, and he needed all his legs.

Du Zhaohui was right.

After just over an hour, photos of naked Qiu Jiaming hanging on the Lixin Building made the papers.

The Qiu family tried to suppress it but couldn’t control all the newspapers – how could they not report it?

The most sensational entertainment papers described the scene vividly, saying how the cleaning lady was shocked, peeking through her fingers at the bird… Well, Qiu Jiaming had no shame anyway, being seen by the cleaning lady wasn’t his loss. No Hong Kong women wanted to see his nude photos – they read the gossip while calling the newspaper to protest!

This incident had an indirect effect.

Lu Yunshi came to Qihang Capital to “apologize” to Xia Xiaolan.

Lu Yunshi was pale, clearly terrified by Qiu Jiaming’s fate.

She looked at Xia Xiaolan with fear, worried she might be next. No matter how liberal-minded a young lady was, nobody wanted to be stripped and hung on a building for all Hong Kong citizens to see their private parts! Qiu Jiaming was hung outside the Lixin Building – would she be hung outside the Lu family newspaper building?

Xia Xiaolan’s methods were too vicious!

Xia Xiaolan shook her head inwardly – even if Zhou Cheng had done this to Qiu Jiaming, he would never have done such a thing to Lu Yunshi.

Lu Yunshi wasn’t sincerely apologizing – she was just afraid. Now she knew fear? If Xia Xiaolan hadn’t had the electric shock device when Qiu Jiaming and his thugs harassed her in the restroom with vulgar words and attempted to take photos while molesting her, was that supposed to be something Xia Xiaolan deserved to endure?

In this world, sometimes those who harbor the greatest malice towards women are women themselves!

As women, they know what other women fear and inflict such harm on those they dislike – what kind of skill is that? Better to roll up your sleeves and have a real fight, as Zhou Cheng said.

Even when Ye Xiaoqiong took revenge on Zhou Yi, at a crucial moment she saved Zhou Yi from two thugs, preventing her from being violated.

Lu Yunshi kept probing in her words, but Xia Xiaolan had little patience:

“Miss Lu, you’re overthinking. I only learned about Young Master Qiu’s incident this morning. I see that Young Master Qiu acts recklessly and has offended many people in Hong Kong. Why do you assume I did it? You can eat carelessly, but you can’t speak carelessly. If the Qiu family comes to me, I won’t be able to explain… Sigh, what’s wrong with this society when victims have to carefully explain themselves to the perpetrator’s family!”

Lu Yunshi’s face turned ashen.

If not Xia Xiaolan, then who?

Lu Yunshi suspected Du Zhaohui had arranged it.

The Qiu family suspected the same.

They didn’t confront him because there was no evidence!

The Qiu family was too embarrassed to confront anyone – they knew exactly what kind of person Qiu Jiaming was.

Lu Yunshi angrily said, “Xia Xiaolan, even execution only requires one strike to the head. I’ve already apologized, why are you being like this?”

Xia Xiaolan stood up.

“Alright, Miss Lu, I’ve received your apology. May I get back to work now? If you’re going to visit Young Master Qiu, please convey my regards.”

Lu Yunshi felt Xia Xiaolan was ungrateful and left angrily.

After she left, Xia Xiaolan called Zhang Bailun, who best understood Hong Kong’s situation:

“You said yesterday the Lu family newspaper business is worth 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars?”

Newspaper companies going public had been a trend since the 1970s, and the Lu family was no exception. In four years, the Ming Pao founded by the famous martial arts novelist Mr. Zha would also be listed in Hong Kong. When Mr. Zha founded Ming Pao in 1959, he only had 100,000 dollars in startup capital. By its 1991 listing, Ming Pao would be worth 870 million, with Mr. Zha holding a 60% stake.

The Lu family’s newspaper business wasn’t small, but it wasn’t top-tier either.

Currently, in Hong Kong’s newspaper industry, there was Ms. Wen owns seven newspapers and has expanded into real estate. At her peak, her group was worth over 8 billion – she could completely dominate the Lu family’s business. Unfortunately, Xia Xiaolan had no connection to Ms. Wen, otherwise, she would have liked to ask if Ms. Wen wanted to buy two more papers.

Not knowing Ms. Wen, Xia Xiaolan decided to try herself.

Zhang Bailun sensed something unusual and felt uneasy:

“Director Xia, the Lu family newspaper business is worth 2.1 billion, with the Lu family holding over half the shares…”

With Qihang Capital’s hundred million or so in funds, how could they touch the Lu family’s newspaper business?

The valuable part of the Lu family’s business was the Star Herald. Though it sounded like an entertainment paper, it was a comprehensive newspaper with high circulation in Hong Kong. The South Hong Kong Financial Report was a financial paper established just a few years ago. The Star-Herald was the Lu family’s cash cow – of the newspaper business’s 2.1 billion value, the Star Herald alone was worth at least 1.5 billion!