After more than two hours of back-and-forth, it was all just brainstorming.
Jiang Yihua was exhausted, his head throbbing. "Let's leave it here for now. Assistant Qian and Secretary Wang, you two don't need to run errands—stay on standby. Three days from now, no matter how this ends, I'll give each of you a bonus of two hundred thousand."
"Thank you, President Jiang!"
"Everyone, dismissed."
After the meeting broke up, the secretaries and assistants each hurried off to their tasks, and Qiuyun followed them out.
She didn't take the company shuttle. Instead, she walked along the roadside under the moonlight, mulling over who the mastermind behind all this could be. Sometimes solving a problem doesn't require going step by step.
If you already know the answer in advance, working backward is much faster.
So, was it the second branch of the family, the third branch, or Mrs. Ge? Or perhaps Jiang Yifeng—the one who seemed detached from everyone else, looking indifferent on the surface but lurking in the shadows?
Who could it be?
She let the cool night breeze wash over her for a while, cooling down the CPU of her brain.
Tonight's video conference for the dream-hunting project hadn't taken place, and going back now just to catch the tail end of it wasn't worth the hassle. Qiuyun decided to simply take leave for the next three days.
Time to focus on the matter at hand.
When she returned to Mingyue Tower, she could see through the lights outside that the young lady's room had already gone dark.
Qiuyun let out a sigh and opened the door to enter.
The main lights in the living room were off.
Warm, pale-yellow spotlights cast their glow on the oil paintings on the walls, throwing a dark, hazy shadow across the sofa.
"Madam?" Qiuyun stepped forward. "You're still awake?"
Yu Xiang sat with her arms crossed on the sofa, glancing back. "Didn't the master come back with you?"
Judging by her expression, she probably already knew everything.
Qiuyun answered cautiously, "The master and the secretaries and assistants were busy all night. He probably still has other matters to attend to now."
"Oh." Yu Xiang was silent for a moment, then said gently, "You've worked hard all night. Go rest. I'll head upstairs to sleep in a bit."
Since the matter wasn't resolved yet, Qiuyun couldn't exactly say anything good on the master's behalf, so she simply followed the instruction and returned to her room.
A quarter of an hour later.
Yu Xiang looked at the pitch-black window, took a deep breath, and went to the entryway to change her shoes.
No sooner had she put them on than the heavy sound of Jiang Yihua's footsteps came from outside the door. Startled, Yu Xiang quickly kicked off her shoes, took two steps back, and grabbed a water glass from the side table.
"Xiang'er?" Jiang Yihua said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
Yu Xiang put on a calm facade, raising the glass to indicate. "Came down to get some water."
Looking at the messy entryway, Jiang Yihua found it amusing. "And the shoes? Forgot to wear them?"
"..."
She really wasn't good at lying.
"Don't move." Jiang Yihua came over in a few quick steps and pulled his wife into his arms. "Let me hold you for a bit."
Yu Xiang set down the glass and, in the dim light, gently patted his back to soothe him.
He buried his face in the crook of her neck. "Do you believe me?"
Yu Xiang gave a light snort. "I believe in a hundred million."
If he had really done something like that and still dared to use the group's reputation to cover up his shame, the Old Master would sooner hand the company to an outsider than to him.
And for a man whose lifelong wish was to inherit the family business, that would be worse than death.
"Thank you, Xiang'er." He held her tighter. "I'm just sad—wondering who in this family would want to harm me."
If it were Mrs. Ge, that would be one thing.
But if it were one of his three blood-related younger brothers resorting to such ruthlessness...
He asked himself: when it came to inheriting the family business, it was always the most capable who took the seat. Even if there were occasional rivalries, they were fought out in the open, on business matters, with real swords and real spears.
But now, this method—a year-long secret scheme, meticulously laid out, aimed solely at destroying his reputation and dragging him down—truly chilled his heart.
It was like a venomous snake lurking in the dark, baring its snow-white fangs at any moment, ready to strike.
Yu Xiang didn't press for details. She simply stood there, letting him hold her.
Through this ordeal, contrary to what the mastermind had predicted—that the two of them would fall apart again—their relationship had actually grown closer.
The next day.
The atmosphere at home was noticeably tense.
Apart from Jiang Chuling, whose phone was set to kid mode, who didn't know how big this was all over the internet!
Not only that, but their relatives and friends who knew they worked in the Jiang household were calling one after another, asking if it was true, whether there were photos, and whether they could claim the reward.
A hundred million!
It pushed this gossip story to a whole new level of buzz. In the two days before the National Day holiday, people at work weren't even discussing where to go on vacation—they were all discussing the scandal!
And once the stock market opened, the market performance was far better than previously expected.
After all, the group's official account had issued such a strong clarifying statement. All the major capital players and retail investors assumed the board was standing firmly behind the decision. Little did they know, it was purely Jiang Yihua using his authority as president, bypassing the board to issue it directly.
And with a group this large, they couldn't do something as reckless as posting and then retracting, or changing their stance overnight—so they had no choice but to grit their teeth and accept it.
That was why the Old Master was so furious, coming all the way in his wheelchair just to throw a fit and issue a warning.
But Qiuyun and Jiang Yihua both knew that only this way could he protect his position before the truth came to light. Otherwise, the group could distance itself from the crisis, but all that awaited him was being gradually marginalized from the board's power.
"Sister Xiaoqiu." Jiang Chuling was a smart kid—everyone's odd behavior was so obvious that of course she noticed. "What happened last night?"
Qiuyun peeled a pigeon egg for her. "After breakfast, we'll go back to your room and carve wood."
"Don't I have school today?"
"Already requested leave for you."
Right now, they were in the eye of the storm, and since her classmates' families were all within the same circles, they were bound to know about it. After all, it was a scandal about her father. Better to keep the young lady away from all the nasty gossip.
To make a long story short.
Qiuyun quickly explained what had happened last night and the plan to resolve it.
After hearing it, Jiang Chuling was shocked, furious, heartbroken, and deeply sad. "How can there be such awful people! Which one of our family could it be?"
Qiuyun had two guesses in mind, and now she needed to rule one out.
"Young lady, there's something you can help with."
"What is it!" Jiang Chuling straightened her back in an instant, her expression one of resolute determination.
Ten minutes later.
Jiang Chuling ran out of Mingyue Tower in tears, heading to Xilou Tower—where Jiang Chuyun and Jiang Yifeng lived.
Dodging the people who tried to stop her downstairs, she burst straight into the bedroom, where she ran into Jiang Chuyun refusing to carry her backpack and go to school.
"Seventh sister?"
Jiang Chuling walked over, sulking. "Do you have any water here? I need a drink."
The nanny nearby quickly poured a cup for the seventh young lady. "Drink slowly now, don't choke."
Jiang Chuling said with tears in her eyes, "Thank you."
Xilou Tower was bigger than Mingyue Tower, and since Jiang Yifeng rarely came home, she had no idea what exactly Jiang Chuyun was supposed to be so miserable about.
"Seventh sister, what's wrong?" Jiang Chuyun asked, puzzled.
Jiang Chuling spoke with a nasally tone. "Don't pretend. You must know—this is all over the place, you have to know!"
"Is it about Uncle Da looking for a side piece?" she asked.
"Pfft—cough, cough, cough!" The nanny quietly held up three fingers as a reminder.
"A third party in the marriage?"
Jiang Chuling shrieked. "Don't say nonsense! My dad didn't! He didn't!"
The nanny jumped in fright, thinking to herself, "Sure, he didn't—then why are you crying all the way over to our Xilou Tower?"
