Zhuang Xiao's lingered at the end of her line of sight.
Sang Lu was chatting with her colleagues.
Someone asked, "Xiao Sang, are you heading straight to Qingmang on Monday? Not coming back to the station first?"
Sang Lu sighed helplessly and nodded, "Yeah."
"Ahh—" Yu Xiaoke suddenly tilted her head back and let out a heartfelt wail, her face filled with sorrow. "Not seeing you for several days, I'll really miss you!"
Another colleague was infected by Xiaoke's dramatic atmosphere.
With a face full of reluctance, they gave Sang Lu a hug.
"Such a shame. My birthday is next Wednesday, and I booked the music bar you recommended to relax with everyone. But now you can't come. Honestly, this is just—"
"Ah…" Sang Lu sighed deeply with regret. "This business trip couldn't have come at a worse time!"
...
Zhuang Xiao wished she could etch Sang Lu's current downcast expression into her memory forever.
Growing up, she had always despised Sang Lu's composed and unruffled demeanor regardless of the circumstances.
So fake.
The last time they'd bumped into each other at a barbecue restaurant, Sang Lu had the same aloof, curt attitude.
Pretentious, wasn't she?
Hmph.
She couldn't keep up the act this time, could she?
A subtle sense of triumph bubbled up inside Zhuang Xiao.
She dialed her phone.
Victory felt sweeter when shared with her mother.
"Hello, Mom? Guess what? I just saw Sang Lu, and the news you got was absolutely right. She really has been fired. Finally, something to celebrate!"
From the other end of the call, Zhuang's Mother laughed out loud.
"Good, good, good." Zhuang’s Mother was walking through the central garden of her neighborhood, her eyes scanning the passersby for someone.
Suddenly—
Her gaze sharpened.
Speaking into the phone, she said:
"Xiao Xiao, I can't chat long now. Something important came up."
Abruptly hanging up, Zhuang's Mother, with an air of smugness, strode toward a middle-aged couple walking arm-in-arm.
"Well, well! Isn't this Sang Lu's mother? Such a big scandal just happened, and here the two of you are, leisurely taking a stroll!"
Her voice was sharp and piercing.
It drew the attention of surrounding neighbors, who all turned their gaze toward the spectacle.
Lin Yueyin turned her head in puzzlement upon hearing the racket.
When she saw her lifelong rival, she instinctively clicked her tongue.
By then, Zhuang's Mother had closed the distance completely.
Her face twitched with excitement, her tone growing even louder as if desperate for everyone nearby to hear.
"You don't know yet, do you? Sang Lu's been fired from the TV station!"
"What did you say?" Sang Changfeng's expression darkened.
Lu-Lu got fired from the TV station?
What happened?
His precious daughter, perfectly fine—why would she get fired?
Was she bullied?
He needed to find out immediately.
Just as Sang Changfeng was about to believe the claim, his arm was tugged gently by his wife.
Lin Yueyin’s gaze flickered with caution, sensing something off.
She knew all too well what kind of people the Zhuang family were—opportunistic troublemakers who couldn't tolerate anyone else's happiness.
They were no strangers to sowing discord and spreading malicious gossip.
Even this current accusation was riddled with holes.
Lin Yueyin calmly questioned:
"And where exactly did you get this information? Why was our Lu-Lu supposedly fired? Give us the full story."
At that, Zhuang's Mother smirked inwardly.
She thought to herself, you asked for this—don’t blame me for being blunt in front of the neighbors.
Feigning exaggerated pity, she furrowed her brows and hesitated theatrically, acting as though finding the words was difficult before saying:
"What else would a TV station fire someone for? It must be some enormous scandal, of course."
She had just started speaking when she noticed the neighbors all beginning to whisper to each other, their attention entirely focused on her.
The weight of everyone’s attention only made her more agitated.
With a voice tinged with excitement, someone said:
“—Hey, did you hear? That Sang Lu, all for the sake of money and trying to make a good impression at the station, cozied up to some rich heir from a prominent family. She got caught violating the station's rules and was fired!”
…
The TV station.
Sang Lu, walking and chatting with her colleagues, was heading out.
They descended the front steps, still a few hundred meters away from the station's main gate.
To their left was a large open space—a parking lot with ample spaces to accommodate employees' vehicles, complete with a covered area for electric scooters to shield them from rain and provide charging facilities.
It was after work, so quite a few people were heading to their vehicles.
Luo Kai and his group, cigarettes dangling from their mouths, were also making their way toward the lot, keeping a distance of five or six meters from Sang Lu and her colleagues.
The sharp smell of smoke wafted over occasionally, making those nearby wrinkle their noses.
Suddenly.
Luo Kai squinted as a bright light hit his eyes.
“Damn,” he muttered, shielding his vision and focusing on the light source.
He froze in place.
The evening was settling in.
A black luxury sedan slowly drove through the gates of the TV station.
The vehicle sliced through the hazy twilight like a blade, its hood ornament—a silver Winged Goddess—gleaming in the fading sunset, casting a fleeting trail of platinum light behind it.
The low rumble of the engine quieted abruptly as the car came to a stop.
The hum of conversations around them ebbed away.
The after-work crowd froze momentarily.
Every gaze was drawn toward that car.
“Holy shit…”
The cigarette Luo Kai had been loosely holding in his mouth dropped, his pupils contracting sharply.
This car—it had to be worth at least eight figures.
Whose car was it?
Yu Xiaoke, immersed in her phone, hadn’t noticed the commotion. She turned her head and casually asked Sang Lu:
“Lu Lu, with this surprise business announcement, did you tell your husband yet?”
Yu Xiaoke knew Sang Lu was newlywed but had never heard her talk about her home life. Out of curiosity, and partially out of concern that her friend might forget amidst the busyness, she added a reminder.
Sang Lu hesitated. “Ah… my husband? He—”
Mid-sentence, her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the black sedan.
It looked so familiar.
Her expression froze briefly.
Isn’t that the car that’s always parked next to Orange in the garage?
It’s Feng Yan’s car.
Feng Yan is here???
A question mark popped into her mind.
What she had originally been about to say—“He doesn’t know yet”—inexplicably turned into:
“—Why is he here?”
“Huh? What? Your husband’s here?” Yu Xiaoke eyes lit up.
Lu Lu’s husband came to pick her up?
Yu Xiaoke could barely contain her curiosity.
She’d been dying to find out who that lucky guy was—what kind of man had the fortune to marry Lu Lu.
Finally, it looked like she’d get the chance to witness the reality for herself.
The surrounding atmosphere had turned notably quiet.
Even Luo Kai and the group nearby had overheard Sang Lu’s words.
They exchanged glances between Sang Lu and the car.
The lackey standing next to Luo Kai narrowed his eyes in disbelief and raised a question:
“Kai bro, did you hear that? Sang Lu said that car belongs to her husband?”
Someone else chimed in immediately, scoffing, “Ha! Who doesn’t know how to brag?”
Luo Kai sneered. “If her husband could afford a car like that, I’d chop my head off and hand it to her to use as a stool. What a joke.”
“Maybe getting fired hit her too hard, and she’s lost her mind?”
Someone exclaimed:
“Ah, could it be that her husband has found out about her getting into the investor's car? And came to the TV station to cause a scene? Oh, this is going to be good.”
Luo Kai and his group chimed in one after another.
At this moment, Sang Lu could no longer hear any of their chatter.
She suddenly realized something incredibly important.
Grabbing hold of Yu Xiaoke’s arm, she asked anxiously:
“Xiaoke, what’s the date today?”
“The fifteenth.”
The fifteenth!!!
She’s doomed.
It’s the day to have dinner at the old house.
And she’d been so busy she completely forgot about it!
Sang Lu: ...
As a wife in a marriage of convenience, forgetting her duties is inexcusable.
Feng Yan showing up at the TV station—there’s a good chance he’s here to catch her in the act.
She was fretting over her terrible memory.
The door of the luxury car opened.
A man stepped out...
