Xiao Qing left, and Xu Mengyao was heartbroken for many days. Her etiquette, fashion sense, and many other things that one should pay attention to in high society were all taught by Xiao Qing. She had long regarded Xiao Qing as her teacher, and the sudden separation was really hard for her to get used to.
Of course, in her opinion, Xiao Qing was exceptionally talented, and being a maid was a waste of her abilities. She knew that Xiao Qing's departure was to seek better opportunities, and she sincerely wished her well. The two also agreed to remain friends and keep in touch.
Xiao Qing's full name is Lu Keqing. After resigning, she cut her long hair, which she always tied back, into a neat short haircut. She also got bangs, dyed her hair, and wore non-prescription glasses, making her look like a completely different person.
Most importantly, she changed her persona to that of a sunny, cheerful, and lively young woman. Even the servants in the Xu family might not recognize her if they met her face to face; her demeanor has changed so drastically.
Before she took action, she met with Xu Zifan at a coffee shop.
Xu Zifan praised her new look, saying, "A young girl should be more energetic; you're much better than before. But you really love cosplay, don't you? What are you going to cosplay this time?"
Lu Keqing rested her chin on her hand, watching him smile. "Me? I'm going to be an auditor at a university. It starts tomorrow, so I'm here to say goodbye for now."
Xu Zifan understood what she meant, took a sip of coffee and smiled, "Do you remember that time I caught you at the Imperial Garden?"
"I remember." Lu Keqing's eyebrows twitched slightly. She felt a little embarrassed that time and wondered why he brought it up.
Xu Zifan crossed his hands under his chin and said mysteriously, "Actually, I'm a hacker."
Lu Keqing looked surprised. How could a hacker's identity be related to the young master?
Xu Zifan smiled and said, "Otherwise, how do you think I knew everything that day? Afterwards, I even pinned the IP address of the video on Wang Yalin."
"I thought you had someone else do it." Lu Keqing couldn't help but look him over again, leaning closer. "Are you really a hacker?"
Xu Zifan nodded. "So you don't need to say goodbye. I guarantee that you won't be discovered no matter how you contact me. There won't be any surveillance footage of our meeting. If you need any hacking assistance, I can help you."
Lu Keqing's eyes lit up. She raised her coffee cup, looked at him, and smiled, "Then let's celebrate that we don't have to say goodbye."
Xu Zifan raised his glass and gently clinked it against hers, "Celebrating your success in advance."
Lu Keqing especially liked his trust and affirmation. Knowing that she could keep in touch with someone without fear of being discovered was a wonderful thing. It was as if she had regained a connection with the world, no longer feeling so adrift.
The two would send WeChat voice messages every night. Lu Keqing didn't mention who she was dealing with, and Xu Zifan didn't ask either. Instead, he privately asked Shaohua to pull up the information on the teachers and students of that school and selected a few suspicious individuals to focus on.
Occasionally, Lu Keqing would ask him questions she couldn't understand, hoping he would have a good solution or a different perspective. Xu Zifan would listen attentively and then share his thoughts with her.
A month later, Lu Keqing said she was going to experience wilderness survival with her classmates and wouldn't be able to contact him for three days, so he shouldn't worry.
Xu Zifan immediately knew she might make a move. Accidents are common in wilderness survival, but he knew that making a move in this situation could also put him in danger.
After considering it for a moment, he checked their itinerary and followed them, keeping about 500 meters away from Lu Keqing so that Shaohua could scan her situation and protect her in case of emergency.
Then he saw her loosen the soil on the hillside and, while everyone was together, subtly lead one of them there, causing that person to accidentally roll down the slope.
The screams terrified some of the girls, and Lu Keqing cried along with them. The man had broken his leg and his ankle was caught in a trap on the hillside, leaving it bloody and mangled.
Everyone panicked, and it took them a while to carry the person away in the chaos. After they left, Xu Zifan wanted to help clean up the mess, only to find that Lu Keqing had already cleaned it up during the chaos.
[Shaohua: Host, it seems you don't need to worry about Xiaoqing.]
[Xu Zifan: That's right, she's even more meticulous and thorough than I knew.]
[Shaohua: So, host, do you still intend to participate in this revenge?]
[Xu Zifan: If she doesn't ask for help, then I'll just keep an eye on her. Remember to keep a close eye on her and don't neglect her.]
[Shaohua: Don't worry.]
The person who broke their leg this time became lame after treatment. Her classmates who had gone on the wilderness survival trip with her were terrified, and many of them asked for leave from class. Lu Keqing also didn't go.
She was originally an auditor, just an ordinary member in the class and in field activities, and so she left the university naturally.
The man played a trick on her brother by betting against him, publicly humiliating him, and maliciously forcing him to drink alcohol until he died of alcohol poisoning. Because the man didn't know what happened afterward, she spared his life, only taking one of his legs—it was fair.
She took a few days off and treated Xu Zifan to dinner. She succeeded! Xu Zifan knew the truth, so she could share her joy with him; it felt so good to have a partner!
During their meal, Lu Keqing had a smile on her face the whole time, and her tone was cheerful. Xu Zifan finally saw this side of her that was truly happy.
He poured her a glass of red wine and sincerely congratulated her, "At this rate, you'll be done with everything very soon. Congratulations!"
Lu Keqing happily took a sip of wine and looked at him with a smile, "If I hadn't spent these three years in the Xu family, I wouldn't be who I am today, and things wouldn't have gone so smoothly. I secretly learned a lot from your family."
Xu Zifan chuckled twice, put down his wine glass, and served her some food. "Looks like I need to tighten my management to prevent more little spies like you from infiltrating. So, where are you planning to go next?"
Lu Keqing smiled slightly and said, "Let's go to Myanmar."
"Will the person we're looking for participate in the Myanmar jade auction?" Xu Zifan calculated the dates; the auction wasn't far off.
Lu Keqing nodded. "She's going to join the fun with her family. I'll go in a couple of days to make some arrangements. You'll be going too, right?"
"Okay, I'll take Yao Yao with me, and we'll come back together afterwards."
"OK."
Xu Zifan is now the general manager of Xu's Group and has a lot to do every day, but the Myanmar jade auction is also a big event for the company. He made a special effort to take Xu Mengyao, Secretary Zhang, and six bodyguards with him.
While waiting at the airport, Liang Liwei, with his arm around Wang Yalin, feigned surprise at their "chance encounter," his eyes brazenly sweeping over Xu Mengyao. "Young Master Xu, what a coincidence! This must be your precious little sister, right? It's the first time I've met her. Little sister, want to get to know her?"
Xu Zifan took off his sunglasses, bent down to wipe them, and suddenly snapped the lenses in two with force. The two halves flew into Liang Liwei's face instantly. One piece cut his eye, and the other cut his lip, both drawing blood.
Xu Zifan looked up in surprise, "Oh, your hand slipped! Why didn't you dodge?"
When Liang Liwei saw the blood dripping on the ground, his face turned ashen! Wang Yalin hurriedly rummaged through her bag for a mirror and showed it to him. He saw that the wound was right next to his eye, and while he was still terrified, he was also furious. "Xu Zifan, you did this on purpose!"
Xu Zifan stood up, put his hands in his pockets, and laughed as if he had heard something funny. "Young Master Liang, do you want to do one for me on purpose? Do you think this is a movie? But maybe God thinks that Young Master Liang's eyes and tongue are not very good and wants to give him a heads-up."
Even the bodyguards in the Liang family team didn't know whether they should step forward. Xu Mengyao is the eldest daughter of the Xu family. Liang Liwei looked at her so much and said those kinds of things. Even if he was taught a lesson, he couldn't retaliate, right?
Liang Liwei took the tissue from Wang Yalin and pressed it against his wound, glaring angrily at Xu Zifan. Before he could speak, Xu Zifan shook his head, "Tsk, bloodshed, bad luck. Young Master Liang, you're so unlucky, you might as well go home and not go to the Myanmar jade auction. What if you spread your bad luck to a few experts? Anyway, you wouldn't understand."
Liang Liwei strode up to Xu Zifan, narrowed his eyes, and said angrily, "You know what you're talking about? I bet those few stones were picked out by a bunch of experts just to create hype for you, right? You're quite the actor, but you've always been an ignorant fool. What do you know?!"
Xu Zifan chuckled again, "He's not a celebrity in the entertainment industry, why create a stir? Young Master Liang probably hangs out with too many minor stars and doesn't quite understand the business world. If he were like you, he wouldn't have been able to snag so many good projects lately. Speaking of which, you're the one leading the Liang Group? Chairman Liang really trusts you quite a bit."
Wang Yalin stepped forward, glanced at their team, and said disdainfully, "Young Master Xu, excellent leaders never have to do everything themselves. Young Master Liang has the most professional experts and the most outstanding assistants. Your worries are unnecessary. You should spend more time studying and not end up like you were in school, getting last place again."
Xu Zifan didn't even glance at her, picked his ear and said to Liang Liwei, "Did you hear the dog barking? Why are you bringing such a little thing on your business trip? Aren't you ashamed? By the way, I heard that Young Master Liang has recently developed a hobby of picking up trash, and he's quite proud of it. You really make me look at you in a new light."
Wang Yalin's face immediately turned ashen, and Liang Liwei wasn't much better off. Feeling humiliated, he realized he couldn't gain anything from Xu Zifan and didn't want to stay any longer. He sneered, "I'll see what real skills you have. Don't embarrass yourself in Myanmar, and I hope you don't lose everything gambling."
Liang Liwei turned and left. Wang Yalin gave Xu Zifan a vicious look and hurriedly chased after him. Liang's team of more than a dozen people followed behind, and their expressions were not very good.
Xu Zifan returned to his seat, just as Xu Mengyao came back with a bodyguard. She smiled and handed him a pair of sunglasses, saying, "Brother, I just bought these for you. Try them on and see if you look handsome."
"You went to buy sunglasses?" Xu Zifan reached out and put them on. "Do they look good?"
"So handsome! You were even more handsome when you defended me just now, absolutely stunning!" Xu Mengyao sat down next to him, pulled his hand over to look at it, "But why were you so strong? Did you touch my hand?"
"No, I've practiced self-defense, this is nothing." Xu Zifan spread his hands to show her, and indeed, it was nothing serious.
Xu Mengyao thought for a moment and said, "Winter vacation is coming soon, and I want to learn self-defense so I can protect myself and you in the future, okay?"
"Okay, learn whatever you want, I'll teach you myself." Xu Zifan patted her head and smiled. He knew plenty of kung fu; he could just pick the one most suitable for Xu Mengyao and teach it to her. It would be safer to have someone behind him.
Secretary Zhang, standing nearby, seemed a little worried. "President Xu, should we investigate Wang Yalin? She's been to the company before, and back then no one was wary of her. We don't know how much she knows about the company."
Xu Zifan waved his hand. "I've made a lot of changes since I joined the company. Even if she knows something, it's useless to her. She couldn't possibly know the core information. Just ignore her. She's just one of Liang Liwei's many mistresses now."
"Understood." Secretary Zhang sent a message in the WeChat group, conveying Xu Zifan's message to Assistant Zhou and the others. After all, Wang Yalin had been an adopted daughter of the Xu family, so he had to be on guard to prevent her from using that identity to take advantage of them.
After getting off the plane, Liang Liwei asked someone to change the hotel.
The most expensive option was Wang Yalin's idea. They didn't believe Xu Zifan could make a big profit this time, so they wanted to outshine him in every aspect and steal the spotlight.
To everyone's surprise, Xu Zifan booked a single room for 9999 yuan a night. While that kind of room is nice, can it compare to a presidential suite? Xu Zifan actually stayed in such a low-end room?
Liang Liwei felt no sense of victory at all. Instead, he felt like an idiot and took his anger out on Wang Yalin. He also felt that it was stupid of him to use Wang Yalin to anger Xu Zifan. Xu Zifan only regarded Wang Yalin as trash!
They were quite angry. Xu Zifan and Xu Mengyao had already started enjoying the food. Xu Zifan had also privately practiced with Lu Keqing, knowing that Lu Keqing was in an important stage of her plan and couldn't be distracted, so they didn't meet for the time being.
The next day, everyone got up early and prepared to attend this stone feast. This time, the scale was indeed several times larger than the last time. At a glance, there wasn't a single stone with a poor appearance; the only difference was between stones with good appearance and stones with even better appearance.
The venue offers a wide selection of raw jade stones for free selection, as well as "fine" items that require bidding. There are also private collections that collectors are transferring, providing everything imaginable. As long as you have money, you can gamble to your heart's content here. Of course, every time there is such a grand event, some people gamble until they go bankrupt and jump off buildings. In this environment, maintaining one's integrity is the most difficult and the most important thing.
Just as Xu Zifan was about to go inside, he saw Wang Yalin. She was standing beside several experts from the Liang family, attentively listening to their conversation as they examined the raw jade, occasionally asking a question. Was she finally going to strive for success? She was indeed talented, but her status as a mistress meant she had few opportunities, and given the current situation and her personality, she was destined for utter failure!