The middle-aged woman known as Auntie Ya was smoking while looking at a photograph in her other hand. When she heard this, she raised her head and looked at Jiang Yonghe. Tossing the photo aside, she walked over and began unwinding the gauze from Jiang Yonghe’s face, layer by layer. Then she gripped her chin and examined her from side to side.
“As expected of Beijing’s No. 1 Talented Socialite. You certainly are quite a beauty.”
Looking at the middle-aged woman in front of her, Jiang Yonghe couldn’t help feeling nauseated.
The woman was dressed in luxurious clothes, yet a long scar ran across her face.
Most striking of all, her two front teeth were made of gleaming gold.
“Smack!”
Before Jiang Yonghe could react, a slap landed across her face.
She stared blankly for a moment before covering her stinging right cheek.
Auntie Ya blew on her reddened palm. “Did you just think I looked disgusting?”
Jiang Yonghe hadn’t expected the other woman to see through her thoughts so easily. Covering her face, she didn’t dare say a word.
“What use is a little beauty for women like you? In the end, you all become playthings for rich men. So stop pretending to be virtuous. If you’re going to work for me, don’t expect to keep any dignity.”
Auntie Ya sat back down on the sofa. Leaning forward slightly, she tapped the ash from her cigarette into the ashtray.
Tears glistening in her eyes, Jiang Yonghe shook her head and explained, “Auntie Ya… I didn’t think you were disgusting. And I’ve never expected to keep any dignity. Right now, all I want is to stay alive and take revenge on my enemies. For that, I’m willing to give up any dignity.”
“At least you know your place.”
Auntie Ya dropped the cigarette from between her fingers. Then she took a file from her female assistant and tossed it onto the coffee table in front of Jiang Yonghe.
“This is your job from now on.”
Jiang Yonghe bent down and picked up the file, carefully reading through the duties listed inside.
Auntie Ya picked up the cup of tea her assistant had poured for her. She took a sip to wash away the taste of smoke in her mouth before continuing.
“As Beijing’s No. 1 Talented Socialite, I’m sure you have plenty of skills. From now on, you’ll be an instructor at my socialite training academy. Recruit women who are vain, ambitious, beautiful, and well-built, but have no background to speak of, and bring them into our program. Tell them we’ll teach them how to marry into Beijing’s wealthy and powerful circles, make the leap between social classes, and rise from the bottom to become members of the elite.”
“You must also tell those girls that our socialite training academy holds a secret party every year at irregular intervals. Big shots from all walks of life and every corner of the country attend. If one of them catches their eye, it will be their chance to rise from a sparrow to a phoenix.”
Jiang Yonghe already understood what Auntie Ya was really doing.
She was recruiting young, beautiful women for certain powerful men to enjoy.
The promise of rising through the social ranks was merely bait dangled in front of those girls.
“I understand, Auntie Ya. I’ll cherish this hard-won job and do it well,” Jiang Yonghe said obediently.
Auntie Ya was pleased by her compliance. “Our recruitment target for next year is at least one hundred women. That means you’ll need to bring in at least ten young, beautiful girls every month. Can you do it?”
Jiang Yonghe nodded. “I can. I definitely won’t let Young Master Long’s opportunity—or your guidance—go to waste, Auntie Ya!”
Auntie Ya waved her hand and instructed her female assistant, “Take her somewhere and get her settled.”
Jiang Yonghe followed the assistant through the academy. Along the way, she saw several attractive women practicing their speech, posture, and mannerisms.
“If you don’t want to spend your whole life working yourself to the bone for someone else and earning only three thousand yuan a month, then your youth and beauty are your capital. If a rich man takes a fancy to you, you’ll become one of the elite…”
As she listened to those words, Jiang Yonghe clenched her fists in unwillingness.
If it weren’t for Jiang Youli, she would already have been one of the elite!
As long as she still had breath in her body, she would find a way to make Jiang Youli die!
…
After Jiang Yonghe was taken away, Auntie Ya dialed Long Yuan’s number. She intended to ask whether he had found the little bastard who had caused her mother’s death all those years ago.
Twenty-one years earlier, her mother had accepted a job.
A mysterious man whose identity was concealed had sold his own son to her mother. He didn’t want a single penny. He had only one condition: the boy had to be sold somewhere as far away from Beijing as possible.
Her mother had therefore taken the man’s son to the south.
Who could have guessed that they would coincidentally run into the boy’s biological mother, who had been searching everywhere for her baby?
Fortunately, her mother had been lucky. While chasing after her, the boy’s mother had gotten into a car accident.
Her mother had thought she had finally escaped the woman. But before dying, the boy’s mother had made one last emergency call.
All Auntie Ya remembered was her mother calling her in a panic that day, her voice trembling as she said, “Daughter, I think I’m about to suffer retribution and go to hell.”
“If I die, don’t avenge me.”
The next day, Auntie Ya learned that her mother had died horribly by the side of the road. Her body had been crushed beneath a vehicle into a mangled mass of flesh, and her head had been severed completely from her torso.
Her mother had died such a gruesome death that there was no way Auntie Ya could refuse to avenge her.
She had spent nearly twenty years investigating, yet she still hadn’t discovered who had caused her mother’s death or rescued that little bastard. By chance, she had uncovered some of the Long family’s secrets. Two years earlier, she had agreed to work for Long Yuan on the condition that he find the person responsible for her mother’s death and uncover the whereabouts of that little bastard.
…
At the Evernight City office, Long Yuan looked at the information in his hands, and the excitement on his face grew stronger and stronger.
He never would have imagined it.
The baby boy Auntie Ya’s mother had tried to sell all those years ago was actually Qi Huan’s biological younger brother!
That meant Qi Yue—the man Qi Huan had personally sent to prison—wasn’t Qi Huan’s real younger brother at all.
How interesting.
This was truly fascinating.
He had actually stumbled upon something so entertaining.
No wonder Qi Huan had been ruthless enough to send Qi Yu, the illegitimate daughter of Qi Huan and his father, Qi Tianxiang, to prison as well. And no wonder he had locked his own biological father away in a sanatorium.
It turned out that everything was because Qi Huan had discovered that Qi Yue wasn’t his real younger brother!
If he had sent someone to investigate this matter for Auntie Ya sooner, he might have found Qi Huan’s biological younger brother long ago.
What a pity!
But it didn’t matter. He still had a chance.
If he found Qi Huan’s biological younger brother first, he wondered what Qi Huan’s reaction would be. To save his own brother, just how far would Qi Huan be willing to go?
Long Yuan couldn’t help looking forward to it.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
The next moment, the door opened, and Yu Linglong walked in carrying a lunch box. She wore a bright smile.
“Ah Yuan, I made you a lunch box again today.”
Noticing the barely concealed excitement on Long Yuan’s face, Yu Linglong paused slightly.
What could have made Long Yuan look so excited?
Since meeting him and becoming engaged to him, Yu Linglong had never seen him like this. She knew that what Long Yuan cared about most was being secretly referred to by the members of Beijing’s elite circles as the “Millennium Runner-Up.”
The only thing that could make him happy was probably the prospect of stepping on Qi Huan beneath his feet.
At that moment, Long Yuan’s phone began to ring.
He answered the call, only to hear the person on the other end ask, “Young Master Long, I’ve worked for you for two years. Have you found out who killed my mother—and where that little bastard who was rescued was taken?”
