No sooner said than done. Early the next morning, no sooner had Qi Xi’s father left for the airport than Xi Wen sent over the suspicious receipt photos she’d sorted through, along with the suspicious locations she’d filtered out from the dashcam footage.
That Qi Ruiming wasn’t just having an affair but actually had a ten-year-old son had felt like the sky collapsing—Qi Xi had genuinely lain awake in agony all night over it. But beyond the pain, seeking justice for her mother and making sure the person who’d violated the marriage contract paid the price had become the force keeping her going.
Even after a sleepless night, she felt wired, her mind sharp and active.
Gu Yan stayed by her side the whole time, naturally joining in to sift through the receipt information with her. Both of them threw themselves fully into it, working with remarkable efficiency. They soon pinned down the suspicious commercial district—over the past six months, despite it being far from both home and his firm, Qi Ruiming had regularly gone to dine in the CBD area of the city’s southern district two days a week.
“So the apartment my dad bought or rented for his mistress is probably around here.” Qi Xi circled the southern district on the map of Rong City. “The mistress’s child is about ten. She also abruptly left the firm about ten years ago—I’m guessing she was already pregnant then, and quit in a hurry to carry the pregnancy in secret, since it would’ve been hard to hide once she started showing. She probably found out through some connection that it was a boy. Someone like my dad, who favors sons over daughters, would’ve been thrilled to hear it was a son—that’s probably the only reason he let Wang Juan keep the child. If it had turned out to be a girl, knowing my dad, he’d have paid to have it aborted without a second thought.”
Gu Yan nodded. “The mistress probably used the leverage of carrying a son to negotiate terms with your dad. If it involves property and a car, that was likely settled before the child was even born—since your dad was so desperate for a son, all she had to do was threaten to abort if he didn’t meet her demands.”
That matched Qi Xi’s own thinking. Wang Juan was clearly someone looking for a shortcut through improper means—there was no way she’d claim to be with Qi Xi’s father for love. She simply didn’t want to put in the effort and wanted the lifestyle of a “rich, beautiful woman” handed to her. Clearly a woman with strong motives, she was unlikely to settle for a rental—she’d almost certainly have demanded Qi Ruiming buy property outright.
So then…
“Could we look at which were the better residential compounds in that area ten years ago?”
With that goal in mind, Qi Xi narrowed down the surrounding compounds, circling a handful of specific ones.
Though Xi Wen had also sent Qi Ruiming’s navigation history and dashcam footage, Qi Ruiming, being a lawyer himself, had clearly developed the habit of regularly clearing his records over the years, leaving no obvious trail. But fortunately, no matter how small an action, it always left some trace behind.
By narrowing down the residential area using the restaurant addresses from the receipts, then cross-referencing with the scattered remnants of dashcam and navigation data, Qi Xi quickly narrowed it down to a single compound that fit all the criteria.
On a second-hand property website, Qi Xi found that this compound had been considered fairly upscale ten years ago, made up of small villas priced at over a million yuan at the time. With the explosive rise in property prices over the past decade, a single unit there now averaged around six million.
While the WeChat transfers alone would be more than enough grounds to demand Wang Juan return the money, the real prize was the property. But suing for the return of marital assets would require knowing the exact address of Wang Juan’s property, as well as proof that the funds for it had come from Qi Ruiming—or proof that Wang Juan had no legitimate income, making it highly likely the purchase money had come from him. That would establish that Qi Ruiming had likely used this property to conceal marital income, which in turn would allow them to petition the court to investigate his bank accounts and asset flows during property division, on the grounds of concealed marital assets.
So at this point, Qi Xi had only completed the first step of a long journey.
But hard work pays off. Although Qi Ruiming had been careful, ten years of concealment without a single slip-up had made him complacent, and Qi Xi found a school listed in his navigation search history.
Fengling International School, Rong City.
Gu Yan saw the same entry and frowned. “I’ve heard of that school. It’s a very expensive private international school, a joint Canadian-Chinese program, bilingual instruction, with classes from kindergarten through high school.”
He glanced at Qi Xi, a look of sympathy in his eyes, hesitating before he spoke. “That school is for the wealthy and well-connected in Rong City—tuition alone runs around 200,000 yuan a year. A friend of my sister’s has a kid there, and she said the actual cost is way more than that, because international schools run all kinds of programs, like overseas study trips during winter and summer breaks, and those all cost extra. Basically all the kids there participate, otherwise they’d have nothing in common with their classmates after the holidays. Since it’s a Sino-Canadian joint venture using the North American curriculum, most of the kids end up studying in Canada or the US after graduation. And you know how expensive studying in North America is…”
Gu Yan was clearly mindful of Qi Xi’s feelings and left it there, but Qi Xi understood immediately what he hadn’t said.
Her father’s illegitimate son was very likely attending this school, enjoying a carefree, privileged education worth over two hundred thousand a year—while Wang Juan, riding on her son’s coattails, had gained a house and a lifestyle she could never have earned on her own.
Qi Xi suddenly felt a wave of bitterness. She looked at Gu Yan and gave a self-deprecating laugh. “You know, the reason I gave up on going to the US was because my dad wouldn’t give me a single cent. He said he had no money, and that tuition in America was too expensive.”
Ever since this had all started, Qi Xi had thought she was strong enough to handle it. But she’d forgotten that no matter how strong she was, she’d still held onto some hope where Qi Ruiming was concerned—and that meant she could still be hurt.
So it wasn’t that he had no money to support her studying abroad—it was that he’d planned to save every cent for his son. Because to Qi Ruiming, his son was the person who mattered most, and a daughter like Qi Xi, no matter how hard she worked or how outstanding she was, didn’t deserve to have his money spent on her.
Qi Xi’s heart was full of fury and despair.
Just because she was a girl, was it acceptable for her father to commit such an immoral act just to get a son?
Just because she was a girl, no matter how hard she worked, would she always be considered inferior?
Why should that be?
“Qi Xi, calm down. Don’t be angry—it’s not worth it.”
As Qi Xi’s emotions teetered on the edge of collapse, Gu Yan pulled her into a hug. He patted her back gently, comforting her clumsily but earnestly, the way one might comfort a child. “I know you’re furious and in a lot of pain, but those feelings, besides hurting you, won’t help anything.”
“You don’t need to prove anything to earn his approval. Your excellence and effort don’t need validation from anyone else, because you’re already excellent. As long as you can approve of yourself, as long as you firmly believe in what you’re doing, that’s more than enough strength.”
That was true—why chase anyone else’s approval? Becoming excellent shouldn’t be the goal itself; what mattered was the process, and cherishing it. As long as she grew through the pursuit of excellence, why should the final outcome matter so much? Whether she came in first or not wasn’t the point—what mattered was becoming better than she used to be along the way. Wasn’t that enough?
After all, truly excellent people never needed a report card, a certificate, or a ranking to prove anything. To become an excellent person, the first thing required was confidence in oneself!
Maybe what Qi Xi had been chasing all along had been the wrong thing.
She didn’t need Qi Ruiming’s approval at all.
She was simply herself.
Someone who was occasionally vulnerable, sometimes emotional, easily moved—but also someone who could commit fully to a goal and refuse to let go once she’d set her mind to it.
Being a woman didn’t make her lesser than a man—but a woman shouldn’t have to fight to the death just to prove that.
Gu Yan’s words felt like rain after a long drought; Qi Xi felt the cracked, parched parts of her heart soften again. Seeing her mood lift, Gu Yan let go of the hand that had been patting her back. “So, stepping back from being personally involved lets us analyze this more objectively. Why don’t we treat this like a case you’re handling—your mother is your client, and your father is representing Wang Juan and her son, the opposing side. I’ll be right here with you, and together, on a purely professional level, we’ll beat your father.”
“From now on, he’s not your father anymore—he’s just another lawyer going up against you in the courtroom. You can use every ounce of your professional skill to crush him, to defeat him and his clients, and make them lose as thoroughly and shamefully as possible.”
As he spoke, Gu Yan held out his pinky finger. “Let’s shake on it.”
Qi Xi looked at Gu Yan. His expression was earnest and serious; he hadn’t said anything particularly sentimental, and yet her heart raced—partly from something like affection, and partly from the fighting spirit and competitiveness igniting inside her.
Qi Xi gazed into Gu Yan’s eyes and solemnly held out her own finger. “Deal.”
This battle, she would win.