440
Huo Tingzhen chickened out.
Be good, and stop talking back.
After Huo Qizhen had walked away, she stood up and said, "See? A man's heart can change in an instant. He would never have laid a hand on me before."
Jian Yu blinked. "Your brother didn't even use any force just now."
Huo Tingzhen: "Every bit of effort counts."
Jian Yu smiled. "What do you want?"
Huo Tingzhen: "It's Lin Ningning. She invited us to eat hot pot."
Jian Yu raised an eyebrow. "Just eating hot pot?"
Huo Tingzhen shook his head. "Definitely not."
Jian Yu was taken aback, not expecting him to guess correctly. "You want me to treat you to a meal at the entertainment center?"
Huo Tingzhen nodded, "I think so, because she asked me if I was going to the amusement park again recently, and if so, if I could ask her to come along? So, I promised her that I would go after we finished eating hot pot."
Jian Yu: "Does she really like going there to play?"
Huo Tingzhen: "The manager told me that Lin Ningning went there with her classmates a couple of days ago. Maybe because they were on a tight budget, they only hired two handsome guys to sing with them for a while. They stayed for less than two hours in total, and when they paid the bill, they maxed out their credit cards."
Jianyu, “…”
Jian Yu knew that the entertainment center was particularly expensive, but he didn't expect it to be so expensive that Lin Ningning maxed out her credit card.
Jian Yu frowned, and Huo Tingzhen guessed what she was thinking.
"Don't overthink it. The restaurant didn't rip them off. It was Lin Ningning's classmate who ordered a bottle of wine worth 60,000 yuan, which maxed out her card."
Jian Yu was speechless. Why treat someone who has no money to entertain guests? Why act like a sucker?
"Lin Ningning's spending habits are wrong. Don't be her biggest victim. Let's cancel the hot pot dinner!"
"Are you sure? Aren't you afraid Lin Beichen will be unhappy?"
"What does Guan Linbeichen want?"
"Aren't you and Lin Beichen good friends? Lin Ningning is his cousin. You're just going to the amusement park for fun. Consider it giving Lin Beichen face."
Jian Yu put down what he was holding and said to Huo Tingzhen very seriously, "No matter who it is, no one can treat another person like an ATM. We are not that close to Lin Ningning."
Huo Tingzhen thinks it's alright!
"She didn't ask me to invite her; she just wanted to tag along."
Perhaps it's a difference in personality, but Jian Yu doesn't like to freeload off anything.
"Fine, take her if you want!"
Huo Tingzhen smiled and took Jian Yu to the hot pot restaurant.
When the two arrived at the private room, they found Lin Beichen inside.
If Lin Beichen were here, Lin Ningning would never go to the amusement park.
Jian Yu felt a little embarrassed; she shouldn't have thought that way about Lin Ningning.
Unexpectedly, the two had just sat down when they heard Lin Beichen say, "Is she up to something naughty? Or is she pestering you to go play something interesting?"
Jian Yu, "Huh?"
Lin Beichen glanced at Lin Ningning. "I'm her brother, how could I not know her? I saw she'd been staying home for two days and was getting bored, so I asked her to go to the karaoke bar downstairs. Surprisingly, she refused. When I asked her why, she said she wanted to stay home and rest. But then, just before dinner time, she said she had plans to go out for hot pot. Haha... Knowing her usual behavior, she'll definitely ask me to go to the karaoke bar with her after the hot pot, so I can pay the bill for them."
Huo Tingzhen: "Just because of this, you suspect something's wrong with her? What if her friend has money to treat her?"
Lin Beichen said, "If she had a friend like that, she would have been bragging about it to the heavens. Before, when she went out with you guys, she would come back grinning like an idiot, and she would even call out 'Sister Tingzhen' in her sleep."
"......"
Lin Beichen continued, "After I pressed her repeatedly, she finally admitted that she had eaten hot pot with the two of you. That makes it even more suspicious. It's not like I don't know you two. Why would she hide it from me? If she didn't have anything to hide, why wouldn't she dare to tell the truth?"
Jian Yu and Huo Tingzhen didn't know how to respond.
Lin Ningning said with a fawning expression, "Brother, isn't it because we're all girls? It's so inconvenient to talk to a grown man like you?"
Lin Beichen grabbed her head and pressed it down. "Say it again? Who was it that invited five or six female classmates to karaoke before, and then asked me to pay the bill afterwards?"
Lin Ningning: "Aren't we short of pocket money? We're broke!"
Lin Beichen: "So, tell me honestly, where are you guys planning to go?"
Lin Ningning's gaze darted around. "We didn't go anywhere! We just ate hot pot."
Lin Beichen sneered, "Keep making this up?"
Lin Ningning immediately fell silent.
Lin Beichen shifted his gaze to Jian Yu, "Where are you going later?"
Jian Yu replied seriously, "I didn't hear Ningning say where else she wanted to go. I just came here to have hot pot."
Lin Beichen narrowed his eyes, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't.
Huo Tingzhen lowered her head, hiding the smile on her lips. Lin Ningning was having a blast when she was playing, but when her family questioned her, she was incredibly timid.
Lin Beichen: "Then let's have a nice hot pot meal. It's on me today."
Jian Yu nodded, "Okay. We won't stand on ceremony."
After finishing the hotpot, Lin Ningning was taken away by Lin Beichen.
When she left, everyone could see that she was unwilling.
However, no one dared to speak up for her.
She herself was too timid to even look up.
Huo Tingzhen watched Lin Ningning get into the car and leave like a quail, and covered her mouth, laughing happily. "When I was her age, my brother didn't control me like this."
Jian Yu said, "Lin Ningning is still quite inexperienced, so it's normal for her family to be worried."
After the two women got into their car and left, Bao Yanbai came out of the shop behind them.
Jian Yu turned her head unintentionally and saw him staring intently at their car.
Huo Tingzhen was replying to messages with her head down and didn't notice. Jian Yu thought for a moment and didn't remind her.
He only told Huo Qizhen that night.
Jian Yu hadn't heard anything about Bao Yanbai's engagement for a while and was curious about the current situation. "How's the marriage between Bao Yanbai and Xuri Group going?"
Huo Qizhen kept track of the progress, "It had already been abandoned some time ago."
After going through so much trouble, would Mrs. Bao easily agree?
"It was Bao Yanbai who gave away the land that Xuri Group had its eye on to someone else at a price slightly below market value. In a fit of anger, Xuri Group cut off all contact with the Bao family and smeared them with a lot of accusations."
Jian Yu was very surprised; she had no idea that Bao Yanbai now had the authority to make all the company's decisions.
"The wife of the Sunrise Group was furious. She found an opportunity to tell Bao Yanbai's maternal grandmother about it. When she learned that Mrs. Bao had forced Bao Yanbai and Tingzhen to break up in order to fulfill her wish of having a great-grandson, she was so angry that she scolded Mrs. Bao. Bao's maternal grandmother also wanted to meet with Tingzhen, but Tingzhen refused."
Jian Yu asked, "What was Bao Yanbai's reaction?"
Seeing Tingzhen's resolute attitude, Grandma Bao decided to help Bao Yanbai organize a blind date banquet.
"A blind date banquet?" Jian Yu laughed instantly. "Is this their family's attitude?"
Huo Qizhen nodded, "So, Bao Yanbai made up an excuse to go on a business trip abroad. It's been a month, and he probably just got back today."
In Huo Qizhen's view, the Bao family did not take Huo Tingzhen seriously, and Huo Tingzhen's choice to avoid seeing them was the right one.
Two days later, Jian Yu heard that Qi Yuezhen's family company had filed for bankruptcy.
Shen Qianyuan could never have imagined that even though he helped Yu Yao vent her anger, Yu Yao wouldn't see the final outcome.
I wonder if Qi Yuexi will tell Yu Yao this news at her grave?
I guess you can't remember!
Jian Yu was wondering whether he should tell Qi Yuexi and ask her to go to the grave and deliver a message.
"What are you thinking about?"
Huo Qizhen walked in with a stack of documents and handed them to Jian Yu, saying, "Take a look."
Qi Yuezhen also reached a cooperation agreement with Yu Cheng through her newly established company. Although it was only worth five or six hundred thousand yuan, Qi Yuezhen signed several contracts for this small-scale project.
Jian Yu flipped through the organized information, praising her, "In such a short period of time, Qi Yuezhen secured a total of 30 million yuan in cooperative projects for the new company, and these projects were completely independent of her own company. Now that the company is undergoing bankruptcy liquidation, she is not affected at all. I have to say, Qi Yuezhen's shrewdness is far superior to Qi Yuexi's. Including the jewelry she transferred out in advance, her net worth must be several hundred million!"
“These jewels are kept in other people’s names. She did it very secretly, and even her husband and daughter don’t know about them. If you want to make them public, I can help you.”
Jian Yu shook his head. "Not for now."
According to Jianyu's understanding, bankruptcy liquidation takes a certain amount of time.
I don't know what happened to Qi Yuezhen. Not long after, she announced the end of the liquidation and the company officially went bankrupt.
The day after the official bankruptcy, Jian Yu saw Qi Yuezhen again in his office.
The assistant was somewhat at a loss, and Qi Yuezhen barged in, completely unstoppable.
Jian Yu waved to his assistant, "Go get some water!"
The assistant breathed a sigh of relief.
I rushed out to pour water.
Qi Yuezhen walked over and sat down opposite Jian Yu. "How about we have a casual dinner together tonight?"
Jian Yu shook his head. "There's no need."
Qi Yuezhen nodded. "Then please contact Huo Qizhen for me. I'd like to meet with him."
Jian Yu found it hilarious. "Why would you think I'd help you arrange a date with him?"
Qi Yuezhen said, "I did it for your cousin."
Jian Yu, "My cousin whom I've never even met?"
Qi Yuezhen touched her nose. "Your mother didn't bring you to meet us. Your cousin is busy with her studies, so naturally you two can't meet."
Jian Yu was curious, "Why do you think I'd be willing to help you?"
Qi Yuezhen was very confident, "We are relatives, helping us is helping yourself. Huo Qizhen is a man after all. There are many temptations in this world. You can't keep him for long just by being young and pretty. Only mutual benefit can bind your relationship together firmly."
Jian Yu curled her lips into a smile. "You mean you and your husband have maintained your marriage for twenty years not because of feelings, but because of interests?"
"......"
Although she didn't want to admit it, Qi Yuezhen nodded.
Jian Yu feigned ignorance, "But your family is bankrupt. Where did you get the assets to negotiate a contract with the Huo family conglomerate and help me? Moreover, your mother-in-law has her eye on the independent company you founded in your daughter's name. She's now obsessed with taking over the company and giving it to her beloved youngest son's family."
When Qi Yuezhen mentioned her mother-in-law, her heart ached. "They can't take her away. I'd rather sell myself than give her to them."
"With such a large family dragging you down, how can your daughter's company develop properly?"
"You don't need to worry about that. In short, the project won't be small."
"The Huo family conglomerate doesn't even look at your so-called big projects, so don't waste your energy."
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