“Lu Zhou, no matter what, you would never tear the roof off Lin Qing’s apartment, right?” Liang Meng asked.

“Would I do something like that?” Lu Zhou was genuinely at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

“Then just sign it,” Liang Meng suggested. “Either way, the outcome aligns with your original intention. It’s just going through the motions.”

“I just want to know why,” Lu Zhou said quietly.

“In this world, there are many things where knowing the ‘why’ won’t change the outcome one bit.” Liang Meng sucked up a pearl from her bubble tea. “The more you know, the more it eats at you. Stop digging to the bottom of everything.”

Lu Zhou found himself in complete agreement with Liang Meng’s words.

He smiled and said, “Alright. I’ll listen to you.”

Liang Meng looked at Lu Zhou — bright and clear as the wind and moon — and truly thought Lin Qing was foolish. Such a good man, and she hadn’t managed to win him over completely.

She thought again about Lin Qing’s mother’s scheming and unconsciously shook her head.

“By the way, is Lin Qing still charging you rent every day?” Lu Zhou asked.

Liang Meng replied, “She is! Of course she is! Daily rent, on the dot, more punctual than the evening news.”

Lu Zhou had never agreed with Lin Qing’s approach to this. He had simply assumed Lin Qing was desperately short on cash because she was buying an apartment.

But it was Liang Meng who truly understood her. She explained to Lu Zhou, “About the rent — don’t go thinking there’s something wrong with how Lin Qing handles it. Actually, I understand it quite clearly. Lin Qing isn’t doing it for the money.”

“Oh?” Lu Zhou looked at Liang Meng with a probing gaze.

“Nominally, I’m Lin Qing’s boss. I’m living in a place she found, but then she became the landlady. The hierarchy becomes blurry.” Liang Meng said calmly. “As they say, if the name is not right, the words won’t ring true. If she didn’t collect rent, our relationship would be difficult to navigate. The way Lin Qing does it is nothing more than a way to simplify things between us. I pay rent, I owe her nothing, and I can still be her high-and-mighty boss.”

Lu Zhou hadn’t thought that deeply about it.

“Oh. That makes sense.”

Liang Meng’s words opened his eyes completely.

“So — now that Lin Qing wants to buy a place, if she moves out, what will you do?” Lu Zhou asked, thinking of Liang Meng’s situation.

Liang Meng smiled. “Back then I moved out of home on impulse, but I’ve slowly gotten used to life on the outside. If Lin Qing moves away, I’ll just find another place on my own. The world is vast — there’ll always be a little ‘thatched cottage’ for me somewhere.”

Lu Zhou admired Liang Meng’s bright and generous spirit, and asked further, “Haven’t you thought about moving back?”

Liang Meng’s gaze dropped. She thought of Jiang Han, and a wave of loss washed through her heart.

She quietly set down her bubble tea, picked up her bag, and said goodbye as she headed for the door.

Lu Zhou tightened his grip on the towel over his shoulder and ran back into the night…

The apartment.

“Little Meng, you’re back! Come in, come in, quick — take your shoes off! Tonight I made your favourite — stir-fried shrimp with egg! Wash your hands, wash your hands.”

Coming home, Lin Qing’s mother was as warm and enthusiastic as ever.

In the moment she bent down to take Liang Meng’s shoes for her, Liang Meng recalled what Lu Zhou had said earlier, and suddenly felt a sense of wariness toward this woman.

A person skilled at scheming doesn’t only scheme against one person — she schemes against everyone around her.

Liang Meng suddenly had a vague feeling that perhaps Lin Qing’s mother’s “kindness” and excessive warmth toward her were not entirely without purpose.

Ever since returning from abroad, Liang Xing had frequently reminded Liang Meng: “Having money is an original sin. In this world, apart from me, you can’t trust anyone.”

At the time, the rebellious Liang Meng had only thought her sister was being extreme.

But thinking about those words now, Liang Meng felt they weren’t entirely without merit.

Having money is an original sin; being poor is one too.

Lu Zhou cared so much for Lin Qing — he was willing to lend her both money and a place to live — yet even so, Lin Qing’s mother guarded against him like a thief.

Let alone herself, who had given nothing at all.

Smack!

Just as Liang Meng was changing her shoes, a dark blue canvas document bag slid out of the shoe cabinet and dropped at her feet.

With just a glance, Liang Meng felt the outer packaging of that canvas bag looked incredibly familiar.

Liang Meng bent down to pick it up, but before she could, Lin Qing’s mother snatched it away with lightning speed!

“Oh my! That Lin Qing! She’s always leaving things lying around!” Lin Qing’s mother hurried to explain. “Did it startle you, Little Meng?”

“Not at all.” Liang Meng cast another puzzled glance at the document bag and asked curiously, “Auntie, what is that?”

Lin Qing’s mother clearly did not want Liang Meng to know, and tucked the document bag behind her back, smiling. “Nothing. Just some papers from back home.”

With that, Lin Qing’s mother used the excuse that the induction cooker still had soup simmering, and vanished from Liang Meng’s sight in an instant — bag and all.

Liang Meng turned it over in her mind, feeling that the dark blue document bag really was familiar. She must have seen it somewhere quite often before.

That document bag was ordinary enough, but the texture of its material was clearly high quality at a glance, and the shape of it and the English logo seemed to be something specific to a particular institution.

She ate dinner distractedly. Lin Qing wasn’t home, and Lin Qing’s mother kept piling food into Liang Meng’s bowl.

Hard to refuse such hospitality, and yet something felt like a fish bone stuck in her throat.

Thinking it over, Liang Meng decided to probe Lin Qing’s mother, so she said: “Auntie, guess who I ran into just now downstairs when I got off work?”

“Who?”

Lin Qing’s mother loved gossip most of all.

“Your future son-in-law,” Liang Meng said with a wink.

Lin Qing’s mother laughed with delight: “Isn’t he particularly energetic?! I tell you, I’ve thought it over and over, and even in my dreams I never imagined having an athlete for a son-in-law! If Lin Qing really does marry him in the future, their children will definitely have outstanding physiques!”

“Are you really so certain those two will get married?”

Liang Meng chewed the rice grains off her chopsticks, continuing to probe.

“But of course!” Lin Qing’s mother patted her chest proudly. “Lu Zhou lent Lin Qing an apartment and comes to find her every other day — auntie has been around long enough to know! He clearly likes our Lin Qing.”

Liang Meng understood — Lin Qing’s ability to have Lu Zhou wrapped around her finger was something Lin Qing’s mother was completely aware of.

“Then why haven’t they made it official and gotten together properly?” Liang Meng casually added another comment, feigning nonchalance.

Lin Qing’s mother’s expression grew serious, and she let out a sigh. “That’s just it. A mother knows her daughter — Lin Qing actually does like Lu Zhou. But every time I bring it up with her, she’s always very evasive. Perfect timing, then! Liang Meng, you have a good relationship with Lin Qing, and you’re the same generation — when you get a chance, help me ask her! What exactly is she thinking?”

“Okay, sure.” Liang Meng agreed.

Since the topic had been brought up, Lin Qing’s mother still couldn’t put her mind at ease and continued to speculate wildly. “Liang Meng, you know, don’t you? When Lin Qing was in university, she dated a very wealthy young man from a rich family. I honestly can’t tell what’s going on in her head — is it because she’s experienced life with a rich man that she can no longer live an ordinary life? Actually, someone like Lu Zhou — for our social class, he’s already extraordinarily good! He’s the ceiling! I’m afraid Lin Qing has her sights set too high and is still fantasizing about finding someone with assets worth hundreds of millions.”

Liang Meng listened, scooped a spoonful of soup, and came to Lin Qing’s defense. “She probably wouldn’t. I’ve known Lin Qing this long, and she’s not that kind of person.”

“Little Meng, you don’t understand. I’m genuinely afraid she’ll do something foolish for my sake — latch onto some rich man and sacrifice her own happiness. Wouldn’t that make me a mother who sold her daughter?” Lin Qing’s mother wore an expression of worry.

“For your sake?” Liang Meng hesitated a moment. “Sell her daughter?”

“Oh. It’s nothing.” Lin Qing’s mother had said too much, and hurried to cover it up. “I was just talking off the top of my head.”

That evening.

Liang Meng lay alone on her bed, head resting on her folded arms, staring up at the ceiling.

Suddenly, a scene flashed through her mind.

That blue document bag — she remembered now where she had seen it!

Jiang Han and her sister Liang Xing got a high-end medical check-up once a year. They had asked Liang Meng to go along, but she had declined.

Liang Meng had said she wanted to book the same check-up as the Longquan employees, so she could assess whether the supplier the logistics department had found was reliable.

So she had always gone for her check-ups separately.

That blue document bag — every time Jiang Han and her sister came back from their check-ups, the secretary would bring one for each of them.

She had seen it several times; because the bag’s material was so distinctive, it had stayed in her memory.

And the logo emblem in the lower right corner was identical to the one on the bag Lin Qing’s mother had picked up from the shoe cabinet just now…

Thinking of Jiang Han, Liang Meng suddenly realized that he seemed to have been out of contact with her for a very long time.

Ever since that night a little over a month ago when he had come to take her home, and she had refused, there had been nothing but silence from him ever since.

Weighed down by restlessness, Liang Meng drifted off into an unsettled sleep.

It wasn’t until the middle of the night that Lin Qing came home, and the moment she was through the door she went straight to the bathroom to shower, splashing loudly for a long time.

Half asleep, half awake, Liang Meng recalled Lin Qing’s mother’s words: I’m genuinely afraid she’ll do something foolish for my sake, and latch onto some rich man…

…

In the days that followed, Longquan’s business went smoothly and its share price rose steadily.

Before long, the day arrived for the handover of Ling Xue SOHO.

First Financial and several financial media influencers covered this significant financial event in its entirety: Sansheng Group’s acquisition of Ling Xue SOHO; simultaneously, Wanheng Group spending one billion to purchase in a single transaction 35% of the shares belonging to Liang Xing, the largest shareholder of Longquan Group; and added to that, the transfer of Sansheng’s 30% stake — Wang Xiancheng in one leap became the largest shareholder of Longquan Group…

Liang Meng, riding on the wave of her company’s recent momentum, had grown somewhat inflated with confidence.

When she saw this news in her office, she was completely dumbfounded! Struck speechless!

Jiang Han…

Jiang Han?!

Liang Meng could never have imagined that Jiang Han would so suddenly and so effortlessly hand over his shares to Wang Xiancheng as well.

During these months she had been away from home, what exactly had Jiang Han and Liang Xing been plotting together?

Why had Jiang Han bought that failed project Ling Xue?!

But time was pressing — there was no room for Liang Meng to dwell on these matters that seemed unrelated to her, as a massive boulder was now bearing down heavily between her eyes.

It was obvious: though Liang Meng was still the CEO of Longquan, she held only 15% of its shares.

To put it plainly, Jiang Han and Liang Xing’s inside-outside coordinated manoeuvre had turned her from “the one running the house” to “a hired hand”!

Longquan would no longer bear the Liang name from this day forward!!

Such a monumental thing!!!

And they had completed it all without Liang Meng knowing a single thing about it!

Liang Meng nearly spat blood in fury.

She truly was a naive little rabbit with no experience of the world.

Stupidly oblivious.

Jiang Han sat in the cold, quiet study of the Tanshan villa, staring blankly at the ultra-wide LCD television on the wall, unable to calm himself for a long time.

He had already lost money selling Longquan’s shares at a loss of 400 million — enough to make him furious.

But he also hadn’t expected that right under his nose, his “companion” Liang Xing had moved so swiftly to conspire with Wang Xiancheng.

How could Liang Xing sell Longquan?

Jiang Han was caught off guard, completely blindsided.

He had absolutely no idea when Liang Xing had decided to sell her shares!

But he was now very certain of one thing: Wang Xiancheng’s scheme wasn’t simply about using Ling Xue to set him up.

“Jiang Han! Jiang Han!”

Liang Meng stormed up to the villa, demanding an explanation!

“Miss Liang, you can’t go in! President Jiang has instructed that he is not seeing anyone today.” The secretary did her best to block the way.

“Out of my way!”

With fury clouding her mind, Liang Meng kicked off a broken heel and charged forward anyway!

Her bearing said: kill whoever stands in her way, cut down whoever blocks her path.

Today, even if the Heavenly Emperor himself stood in her way, she would get Jiang Han to explain why he had sold Longquan and bought Ling Xue!!