“Great — my own mother is crying on the phone.”

Lin Qing held up her phone helplessly as she spoke to Jiang Han.

“Going on about how Liang Meng was rude to her, then about how Wang Zaiwu was disrespectful to her, and now she’s saying she wants to move out of Lu Zhou’s apartment…”

“Find a way to calm her down and ask her to bear with it for a bit. If it really doesn’t work, let the old lady go stay in a hotel — pick any hotel in this city.”

Jiang Han was in his study, buried in the reports Lin Qing had brought over, replying without looking up.

Lin Qing walked over and snatched the papers out of his hands, in utter displeasure, and warned him: “President Jiang, you understand my limits.”

When her mother was unhappy, she was unhappy.

And if she was unhappy, she couldn’t get things done.

Jiang Han was baffled. He paused, then pulled his papers back from Lin Qing’s hands.

“Alright then. The old lady’s in a bad mood — that’s not good for her recovery. I’ll go with you.”

“Go with me? Where?” Lin Qing didn’t follow.

“To the apartment. I’ll go with you and tell your mother that you and I are in a relationship. Won’t that turn her worry into joy?”

“Jiang Han!” Lin Qing was about to kick off. “Don’t you think things are chaotic enough already?! All we’re doing is a bit of business and putting on a show — do you have to stir everyone’s lives into a complete mess? Don’t go frightening my mother.”

Jiang Han’s eyes were cold as he raised them to look at her. “Business is a life-or-death game from the start. If even your mother doesn’t believe it, how is Liang Meng going to? Wang Xiancheng came at us like a thunderstorm — Liang Meng lost control of Longquan overnight. And you people still haven’t thought about where you went wrong. You and Liang Meng — first you wore yourselves out over a brand ambassador, then you wore yourselves out over livestreaming — exhausted to the bone, and what did you end up with? Someone came along and took the whole nest. That’s why — win through strategy, not through toil.”

“Strategy? Toil?”

“Are you coming or not?”

Jiang Han had no interest in going back and forth with Lin Qing over this. He crooked his arm, gesturing for her to set off.

Lin Qing thought about it, and with resigned frustration, shoved her arm into the crook of his!

Right now she was a marionette — however Jiang Han said, however he positioned her, she would go along with it.

Passing through the villa courtyard, Lin Qing threaded through the lush greenery and caught a glimpse of Liang Xing, dressed in white, admiring the flowers.

Liang Xing looked up, and the two of them happened to lock eyes.

Lin Qing’s heart lurched with guilt, and she immediately averted her gaze.

Liang Xing, however, didn’t mind in the slightest — she even let a faint smile show at the corner of her lips.

The smile was cool, but it was a smile nonetheless.

Jiang Han reminded Lin Qing: “Since we’ve decided to play this game, we need to play it properly.”

Lin Qing turned back, and in a very low voice reminded Jiang Han in return: “The elder President Liang is smiling — and there’s no hostility in that smile. I’ll say something you may not want to hear: she probably doesn’t love you. So her selling Longquan’s shares to Wang Xiancheng — it definitely wasn’t out of revenge toward you. Rule that one out.”

In the light breeze, Jiang Han gave a gentle nod, and held open the door of the Rolls-Royce for Lin Qing, saying quietly, “You’re absolutely right!”

“Do you think Wang Xiancheng’s next target is Sansheng?”

The moment she was in the car, Lin Qing couldn’t wait to ask.

Jiang Han nodded. “Old Wang has a big appetite. Swallowing Longquan is only his first step. That loss-making Ling Xue deal has taken the wind out of Sansheng’s sails. Old Wang has recently been competing with me for a loan as well. If it doesn’t come through, Sansheng will genuinely find itself in a tight spot. An overnight winter — it’s not impossible.”

“So — the reason you want to make a clean break from Liang Meng is because you’re afraid others will think you and Liang Meng are a united front, and you don’t want to drag her down?”

“Very perceptive.”

Jiang Han looked at Lin Qing with satisfaction.

After getting in the car, Lin Qing gazed out the window and silently sighed to herself: This job — I’ve gone and played an undercover role in my own life.

Money is hard to earn, bad food is hard to swallow, nowhere is easy to get by.

“President Jiang, this… doesn’t look like the road to the apartment?”

After turning through two city blocks, watching the streets grow increasingly busy, Lin Qing grew alert.

Jiang Han said nothing, his eyes fixed on the iPad in his hand, continuing to work.

“First visit to ‘Auntie,’ and we’re showing up empty-handed?” he said. “First we go to Henglong — I’ll buy you a few outfits. A woman who follows Jiang Han can’t afford to look too shabby.”

“Henglong?”

Lin Qing’s eyes went wide.

Understood. They were going to buy “props.”

“I think a couple of bags of tangerines would actually suit you better.”

Right now Lin Qing’s only concern was that Jiang Han would frighten her mother.

Being a “kept bird” isn’t exactly something to be proud of, after all.

“Ugh! This bag has such an unbelievably long wait. I’ve spent over two million in configurations and still haven’t received it.”

The wife of Wang Xiancheng, carrying a crocodile-skin bag, moved with a coy sway of her hips, walking into the orange-branded boutique with two good friends.

“Jiang Han?”

She looked over with surprise at Jiang Han, seated at ease on one of the sofas, hesitated a moment, then came over to greet him.

“Mrs. Wang.”

Jiang Han looked up — he hadn’t expected such a coincidence either.

“What, coming to shop in broad daylight instead of working? Accompanying Liang Xing out for some retail therapy? That doesn’t sound like ‘Master Jiang’s’ style at all.”

Wang Xiancheng’s wife said this half-teasingly.

Jiang Han pressed his lips together, lowered his head with a faint smile, and said nothing.

“Where’s Liang Xing? How come I don’t see her? Trying on clothes?”

Wang Xiancheng’s wife looked left and right but found no trace of Liang Xing.

Jiang Han remained his usual calm self, smile on his face, smiling but silent.

It was one of the friends Wang Xiancheng’s wife had brought along who nudged her arm and reminded her: “Maybe President Jiang didn’t come with Madam Liang.”

“He didn’t come with Liang Xing?” Wang Xiancheng’s wife’s expression shifted with surprise.

Following Jiang Han’s gaze, she caught sight of Lin Qing.

“Such a young girl,” Wang Xiancheng’s wife murmured under her breath.

The old friends with her were all sharp women. Knowing, ambiguous expressions crossed all their faces.

In their circle, this kind of thing was commonplace.

Many powerful men — at home, spending lavishly to keep the main flame burning; outside, spending little to let the colourful flags flutter freely.

“Oh, well — we won’t disturb you, then.”

Wang Xiancheng’s wife awkwardly said her goodbyes to Jiang Han.

She twirled around and hurried out a few steps, still puzzled, so flustered she even forgot to ask the sales associate to bring out her bag.

“Jiang Han — how is he that kind of person too?”

Only after she had walked several dozen metres from the store did she dare mutter under her breath.

Her friends, however, treated it as a juicy piece of gossip and all spoke at once.

“Men are all the same. Jiang Han is a man too, after all.”

“That girl looks so young! She seems like a whole generation apart from Jiang Han!”

“I wonder if Liang Xing knows about this?”

“Hey — Jiang Han and Liang Xing have known each other so many years, only married last year. Obviously not a love match.”

“Oh right — Mrs. Wang, I heard Old Wang smoothly swallowed up Longquan. Do you think Liang Xing’s rush to cash out — is it because things between her and Jiang Han have gone wrong?”

“How would I know about that.” Wang Xiancheng’s wife remained puzzled. “Jiang Han… how could Jiang Han…?”

She had known this rising star for more than a day or two.

“Aiyah! Let’s stop talking about it! Quick — what do you think of this outfit?”

“It looks nice. The waist is cut beautifully!”

“The colour’s a bit dull though — not right for our age. Let’s swap it out.”

For the rest of the shopping trip, Wang Xiancheng’s wife had no heart in it at all.

The more she turned it over, the more she felt this matter was worth reporting to her husband.

“I saw Jiang Han at Henglong with a young girl, shopping.”

Wang Xiancheng’s wife’s news sank like a stone into water — no ripple. No reply.

Wang Xiancheng couldn’t care less about such trivial things!

In this colourful world, three wives and four concubines — who counts that as news?

Foolish woman!

“Have you decided?”

Jiang Han asked.

Lin Qing had been fussing and deliberating for a long time, and in the end selected only a small printed silk scarf.

Jiang Han looked at it and furrowed his brow.

“Just this then.”

Lin Qing thought to herself — it was only four thousand or so.

Choosing this, she wouldn’t be taking undue advantage and squeezing Jiang Han, would she?

Jiang Han immediately tossed the scarf back at Lin Qing’s face. “Are you playing games?”

“I was trying to save you some money!” Lin Qing protested indignantly.

“My biggest cost right now is time!”

Jiang Han growled at her from inside the fitting area.

Jiang Han didn’t care in the slightest how many bags Lin Qing took from this store, how many purchases she configured.

He just needed Lin Qing to look right now — to look like Jiang Han’s woman.

This girl — she was good-natured, but she could be so amusingly clueless sometimes.

“Fine, you buy then! I can’t bring myself to do it.”

Lin Qing said, blushing and sulking.

She was trying to save him money and got told off for it?

Jiang Han had bitten the hand that fed him — couldn’t recognize a good thing.

Jiang Han swept through efficiently and put together a full wardrobe for Lin Qing, including a Linda bag.

Sales associates bowed and scraped as they carried out more than a dozen bags, seeing them to the door.

“Lin Qing?!”

The moment they stepped out, it was like running into a ghost.

There was Zeng Rui, arm in arm with a captivating young woman, strolling by.

He was clearly startled to see Lin Qing. And then immediately, disdain set in.

From the way he looked at her, Lin Qing read it clearly: Zeng Rui had just mentally stamped her with the label of “slag.”

His eyes held contempt, condescension, and even a certain relief.

“I was wondering why I hadn’t heard a thing from you lately — thought you were doing an internship at some big company. Turns out…”

Zeng Rui scanned Jiang Han — the man did look genuinely impressive. Draped in Loro Piana, brilliant as the stars, composed and distinguished.

Looked like Lin Qing had hooked herself a big fish this time.

Lin Qing had no way to defend herself. The dignity she had clawed back at the Four Seasons Hotel that time — all of it was now undone, right here in front of the facts.

“You know each other?”

Jiang Han sensed the hostility of the newcomer and casually put the question out there.

“Ex-boyfriend.”

Before Lin Qing could even answer, Zeng Rui extended a hand provocatively toward Jiang Han.

Jiang Han glanced at his hand, his expression cold and utterly indifferent.

Zeng Rui’s hand hung in mid-air, slightly awkward. But he quickly found another angle to needle Lin Qing with.

He looked at the dozen-odd orange-yellow bags behind Lin Qing and gave a cold laugh. “Well, Lin Qing — I thought you were different from other girls. I thought you left me because you had some backbone. You were so convincing that day at the Four Seasons Hotel — I almost believed you. Turns out — you’re just following the same old path. You just found a higher stepping stone.”

“You…!!”

Lin Qing knew perfectly well she wasn’t that kind of person. But right at this moment she couldn’t explain it, and could only simmer with rage and suffer internally.

The pretty young woman at Zeng Rui’s side had by now pieced together the “story” before her, and decided to chime in to humiliate Lin Qing further. “What’s wrong, babe? Did you used to take this older sister shopping here all the time? Surely you didn’t buy everything she wears? Babe, you’re so bad — I’m ignoring you.”

Lin Qing was no pushover. Putting on this act for Jiang Han had already cost her enough frustration!

Why on earth should she have to put up with this kind of nonsense too?

So she decided to use it to her advantage and turned the words right back: “Oh! Little sister, you look like a lovely girl — clearly devoted to Zeng Rui, true love and all. Let me, as your senior, give you a word of advice: Zeng Rui, yes, he has money — but his money is for looking at, not for spending! I was with him for four years and received exactly one Pandora bracelet — and even that hasn’t tarnished. Sweetheart, look at those two empty hands of yours — you’d better take care of yourself.”

With that, Lin Qing raised an eyebrow and deliberately hooked her arm through Jiang Han’s, then gestured back at the pile of bags. “As for what I’m wearing and using — as you can see, all of it bought by my dear one here. Without comparison, there’s no contrast. The way I’m living right now? Happy as can be! As for you, little sister — you’re still young. Stay with Master Zeng and take your time enjoying it.”

Having said her piece, she shoulder-checked her way through the gap between Zeng Rui and the young woman, chin high, and walked on.

Call her a gold-digger? Fine — she’d be a gold-digger!

Who but a fool tries to defend themselves?

With “Jiang Han in hand, the world is hers” — why would she waste another thought on Zeng Rui?

Zeng Rui was trembling with fury.

At that moment, Jiang Han — silent until now — seemed to have a sudden stroke of inspiration and spoke up: “Lin Qing, hey! Don’t tell me you’re already in a bad mood? We’ve barely done one boutique — there’s still the other brands, and the designer handbag one, the Italian fashion house, the French one — don’t you want to keep looking?!”

“Don’t want to. Not in the mood.”

Lin Qing walked on without looking back.

Jiang Han didn’t rush to catch up. Instead, he curled the corner of his mouth, jabbed a finger hard at Zeng Rui’s nose, and said in a voice of quiet, effortless authority: “You ruined her mood.”

With that, he stared Zeng Rui down, then shouldered his way through the gap between them with force!

Jiang Han’s solid, hard-muscled arm — whoever it hit, they went stumbling. Zeng Rui lurched backward…