Chapter 9 Investigating my wife is not as important as working overtime
Bai Zhenzhen reluctantly accepted the pearl jewelry, and seeing Li Zhenzhu's aggrieved expression, she finally felt relieved.
"Alright, I'll forgive her this time for Grandma and Uncle and Aunt's sake," Bai Zhenzhen said, admiring her freshly painted nails with a light laugh. "Cousin, remember to watch your hands next time. Don't covet things that aren't your business, understand?"
Her words were very impolite, and Li Zhenzhu's face turned red with anger, but she could only hold it in. "I'm sorry, cousin, I will never do it again."
After saying this, she couldn't help but stand up indignantly and retreat back to her room.
Liu Lihua and Zhao Xiuying gave her a few more symbolic scoldings, and Liu Lihua quickly changed the subject, feeling a pang of regret, and invited Bai Zhenzhen over for dinner.
When it was time to eat, Li Zhenzhu didn't come out. Liu Lihua said, "Never mind her. She'll come out to eat when she's hungry. Zhenzhen, come and try this new dish I learned."
Zhao Xiuying and Liu Lihua were so busy serving her food and soup that they took meticulous care of her. It wasn't until they were almost finished eating that Liu Lihua tentatively mentioned her son.
“Your cousin has been working on construction sites since graduating from university. He's a college graduate, out in the wind and rain every day, and he's gotten all rough from the sun. Your uncle and I have been thinking that since he's of age, he should be looking for a partner and getting married. We're thinking of getting him a more respectable office job so that it'll look better when we introduce him to potential girlfriends…”
“Aunt, I don’t care about company matters. You can let Uncle talk to Dad,” Bai Zhenzhen said with a hint of impatience. She never liked to get involved in these things. She waved her hand, stood up, and prepared to leave. “I have an appointment to go shopping with a friend this afternoon. I’m leaving now.”
Zhao Xiuying was reluctant to let her stay, saying, "Are you leaving so soon? Zhenzhen, would you like to sit a little longer?"
My maternal grandmother is almost eighty years old this year. She looks like a kind old lady, and she always dotes on Bai Zhenzhen the most.
But as Bai Zhenzhen looked at her, she couldn't help but recall what she had said in her dream when she learned that her uncle and cousin were plotting to take over the company: "Zhenzhen is a girl, she can't support such a big company. Let Zhiqiang manage it. Find her a good family to marry into, and that will be fair to her parents."
Bai Zhenzhen's heart grew colder and colder. She forced a smile and refused, "I've already made an appointment with someone. I'll come and talk to Grandma next time."
Liu Lihua could tell that she was still angry, so she didn't linger. She took a bunch of things and carried them downstairs with a smile. Only after watching Uncle Liu take her away did she stop smiling and go upstairs.
Li Zhenzhu, who had been hiding inside, finally came out. Zhao Xiuying was scolding her, saying that she was petty and only saw those little things.
"Alright, Grandma, everyone's gone, so please stop scolding me." Li Zhenzhu retorted angrily, even though she was hungry and still had to endure the scolding.
"What did your grandma say wrong? I think you just never learn!" Liu Lihua entered the room just in time to hear this, and couldn't help but join in the lecture with a long face. "You shallow-minded brat, do you know how much trouble you've caused me? Just wait for your dad to come home and scold you!"
Bai Zhenzhen paid no attention to the upstairs family's farce and took out her phone to make a call as soon as she got in the car.
The call connected quickly, and Bai Zhenzhen didn't waste any words before giving her orders, "Investigate the construction sites that Li Zhiqiang is in charge of. I need you to find all the evidence of his violations and mistakes as soon as possible and kick him out of the company. Start by investigating the building materials."
"Okay, I'll go right now." The person on the other end of the phone didn't hesitate and immediately went to investigate after hanging up.
The person Bai Zhenzhen contacted was introduced to her by Bai Chuxiong. He was a trusted assistant specially assigned to her to help her take over the company.
She can't touch the others right now, for fear of alerting them, but she can't tolerate Li Zhiqiang, this cancer, for even a day longer. She should get rid of him as soon as possible.
In her dream, Li Zhiqiang was the fuse that would lead to the company's complete downfall. Next month, Jinxiu Jiayuan, a high-end residential community newly developed by Zhenrong Real Estate Company, was to open for sale. However, not long after, a scandal broke out that the building materials used in the community were substandard, and that a worker was killed during the inspection and the incident was suppressed. Li Zhiqiang was the main person in charge of the construction site during the construction of the community.
Because he had become addicted to gambling and owed nearly a million yuan, and his uncle Li Tiejun had been working honestly at the company all these years in order to gain Bai Chuxiong's trust, he simply couldn't raise that much money to help him pay off his debts in a short time. So the father and son conspired to embezzle the project funds while Bai Chuxiong was away from the company.
The company invested heavily in the Jinxiu Jiayuan real estate project. Li Tiejun helped his son cover up the wrongdoing at the company, while Li Zhiqiang bribed other managers on the construction site to collude with him. They used inferior building materials to pass off as high-quality ones, and part of the embezzled project funds was used to pay off gambling debts, while the rest became his gambling capital.
Having tasted success in this matter, the father and son were determined to make money in the project department. Li Tiejun even planned to give gifts to the partners. However, before they could make plans for the next time, an accident occurred at the construction site. They hurriedly found someone to cover it up, unaware that their rivals had also set their sights on the matter and planned to make a fuss about it.
Then came the scandal, and the investment in the Jinxiu Jiayuan real estate project was a complete failure. In an era where the average salary is only a few hundred or a couple thousand yuan, buying a house costs more than 100,000 yuan. Except for the truly wealthy, which family doesn't save their hard-earned money? Who would be willing to spend money to buy a house that collapses before they even move in?
Because of this incident, Zhenrong Real Estate's reputation was damaged, and its other properties were also questioned, resulting in significant losses for the company.
If Bai Chuxiong had stepped forward to take charge at the critical moment, he might have had a chance to turn things around. But then news of his death broke, and the company completely fell apart, with no chance of recovery.
The scandal broke and spread so quickly, there must have been someone else involved, but without the seeds sown by Li Tiejun and Li Zhiqiang, this would never have happened.
Later, her father passed away, and the company ran into trouble. Bai Zhenzhen, who was completely lost, was tricked by her former trusted relatives into handing over her remaining money under the pretext of saving the company. In the end, they only told her that they had lost everything and that was the end of it. She didn't believe it, but she had no way to verify it, because Bai Zhenzhen was no longer the wealthy heiress who could command respect in Pengcheng. No one wanted to help her; there were only people who wanted to kick her while she was down and laugh at her. She had no choice but to accept it, even if she didn't want to.
In her dream, Bai Zhenzhen was completely fooled by them, but in her waking state, Bai Zhenzhen only wished she could tear these ungrateful bastards to pieces to vent her anger.
As Uncle Liu drove, he noticed in the rearview mirror that his young mistress's face was growing increasingly grim, and her aura was chillingly cold. He couldn't help but shiver when he saw this, wondering what had happened during her visit to her maternal grandparents' home to make her so angry.
"Miss Zhenzhen, I've already sent the things you bought this morning back to your current residence. Would you like to go back and take a look now?" Uncle Liu had watched her grow up and couldn't bear to see her getting angry and harming her health, so he found an excuse to distract her.
Bai Zhenzhen took a deep breath and closed her eyes again, trying to calm herself down. She told herself again to take it one step at a time and not to rush. She would make those people pay the price sooner or later. She couldn't afford to provoke them now, or they might do something rash and disturb her father.
"No, Uncle Liu will take me to the newly opened Fuxing Shopping Mall first. I have an appointment to get a massage."
Bai Zhenzhen didn't know if her investigation into Li Zhiqiang would be discovered, so to be on the safe side, she still had to pretend to be the same as before, just a wealthy young lady indulging in eating, drinking, and having fun.
After wandering around outside for half the afternoon, Bai Zhenzhen called over two of her usual friends and asked them to accompany her to the mall to pick out some clothes suitable for Shen Qing. They didn't return home until almost dinnertime, laden with their purchases.
Uncle Liu continued driving Bai Zhenzhen back to her family compound, carrying large and small shopping bags as he escorted her inside before driving away.
After a long day, Bai Zhenzhen kicked off her high heels at the door, walked barefoot into the living room, and lay down on the sofa, lost in thought. She didn't take out her phone again until she saw the clock on the wall and called her usual restaurant to order dinner.
Shen Huai'an was still out of the question, and Bai Zhenzhen couldn't cook, so she was too lazy to bother Aunt Wang anymore and simply ordered food over the phone.
In the 1990s, most shops did not offer delivery services, but some people were willing to pay more, so the restaurant owner directly sent one of his waiters to drive over and deliver her order quickly.
One after the other, a driver picked them up and dropped them off, and then waiters dressed in high-end restaurant uniforms delivered the food. This gave the neighbors in the residential compound new gossip to talk about during their leisure time.
Shen Huai'an was still working overtime tonight. When he returned to the family compound around 9 p.m., he didn't encounter any neighbors giving him strange looks on the way back.
The procuratorate is not far from the family compound, and he always walks to and from get off work. When he got close to his door, he saw that the lights were still on inside.
The young lady hadn't left yet, and Shen Huai'an only paused for a moment before entering as usual.
The moment the cold air hit him, Shen Huai'an looked up and saw Bai Zhenzhen on the sofa, looking impatient.
Sure enough, the next moment she questioned, "Shen Huai'an, did you do this on purpose?"
"I just moved in two days ago, and you're coming home this late every day. Are you deliberately avoiding me?"
“No,” Shen Huai’an said calmly, changing his shoes, putting down his bag, and walking as he told her, “When there are cases, I work overtime every day.”
So it has nothing to do with whether she lives here or not.
Bai Zhenzhen understood, but became even angrier. "What do you mean? It's not that you're avoiding me, but you don't care when your wife comes, and you still have to work overtime every day?"
She didn't care about her marriage to Shen Huai'an, but seeing his indifferent attitude made her angry.
Bai Zhenzhen, who was always the one being fawned over, was already in a bad mood today and stood up to settle scores with him.
At this moment, Shen Huai'an had already entered the living room and was standing two meters away from her. Bai Zhenzhen stood up and realized that she still had to look up at him. She felt that she lacked confidence, so she lifted her foot and stood on the sofa.
A note from the author:
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Now: My wife is less important than my job.
Later: Why did he have so much work? He had to go shopping with his wife.
[Dog head carrying a rose][Dog head carrying a rose]
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