Shu Yan moved with her child into Shu Jianyang’s house. Shu Jianyang himself went to stay at a friend’s place next door. Though they were cousins, they were both adults now, and living together wasn’t convenient. As for him, he was a man—any rough arrangement would do.

Ye Zhiqiang rushed to the hotel only to find it empty. It took him a long time to track down Shu Jianyang, but by then he had somewhat calmed down.

“Where’s Shu Yan?”

“Why? What do you want with her?” Shu Jianyang raised an eyebrow.

“What’s with these photos?” Honestly, without Shu Jianyang’s help, Shu Yan wouldn’t have pulled this off so easily.

Shu Jianyang tossed a stack of photos at Ye Zhiqiang. “Just a warning. This time it’s killing a chicken to scare the monkey. Next time, we’ll just go straight for the monkey.”

The photos didn’t show his full face. Ye Zhiqiang let out a breath of relief—but anger quickly flared up again.

“What exactly does Shu Yan want?”

“It’s simple. A divorce. And you leave with nothing,” Shu Jianyang leaned back, crossing his legs lazily. “If I were you, I’d just agree. Haven’t you heard that saying—‘even if all the gold is gone, you can earn it back’? With your skills, you’ll be back on your feet in three to five years. But can you wait that long? Can your darling Jiaojiao wait that long?”

Shu Jianyang had only meant it casually, but to his surprise, Ye Zhiqiang actually seemed tempted. Don’t tell him he was actually playing at true love now?

“Where’s Shu Yan? I want her here. I don’t trust you on this,” Ye Zhiqiang insisted.

The three of them sat down at a teahouse. Shu Yan looked at Ye Zhiqiang and thought to herself: This really is a novel world—where even a scumbag is willing to give up everything for true love.

“All the money, the house, the car—they’ll all go to you. I’ll cash out the company’s value too. Basically, I’ll be leaving with nothing.” Back when Shu Yan first got the evidence, Ye Zhiqiang had thought of various countermeasures. But he couldn’t transfer assets—it would be illegal. He’d even consulted a lawyer about it. Getting Shu Yan’s family to intervene wouldn’t work either.

After all, there was a difference between having a rich son-in-law and having a rich daughter. If the Shu family found out that Shu Yan could get all his assets by divorcing him, they’d be eager to see it happen.

Truth was, he didn’t have much cash on hand. Most of it was tied up in projects. The only things of real value were a few apartments and a car. He couldn’t give up the company—it was his livelihood. But he could take loans or borrow money to cash it out for Shu Yan. Once the two ongoing projects were completed, the money would come back.

Shu Yan calculated rapidly in her head. She’d been able to hold the upper hand for two reasons: first, because Ye Zhiqiang hadn’t guarded against her at all, leaving him no time to react; second, because she’d relied on Shu Jianyang’s backing. Asking Shu Jianyang for help once or twice was fine, but too many times and she’d feel embarrassed.

Her original goal had always been simple: get enough money to leave Xicheng far behind and start over with her children. Ye Zhiqiang’s offer wasn’t actually unreasonable.

“Third Brother, can you find someone from an appraisal company?” she asked, implicitly agreeing to Ye Zhiqiang’s terms.

There were four apartments in total. Aside from the one she was living in, the other three were in the bustling city center. One of them could even be used as a storefront. Shu Yan glanced at the addresses. Ye Zhiqiang did have a good eye—the storefront was in an area that would soon become the busiest pedestrian street in town. Just the rent for the first two floors would bring in hundreds of thousands a year. The other two apartments were in zones slated for redevelopment; whether they paid cash or replacement housing, it would be worth a lot.

The car was worth 200,000 yuan. Altogether, those assets added up to over a million. The company had been founded at the end of the previous year and had only 100,000 on the books, because most of the money was tied up in projects. Once the two ongoing projects were completed, they’d net over three million. After doing the math, the company itself was worth around 1.5 million—and Ye Zhiqiang was agreeing to cash all of that out for Shu Yan.

“Wait a second.” Shu Yan suddenly remembered: Ye Zhiqiang had bought an apartment for Li Jiaojiao. “Legally, that’s marital property. The apartment you gave your mistress—can I have it recovered?”

At her words, Ye Zhiqiang’s expression darkened. “Shu Yan, don’t push it.”

“Push it? That was our joint property. You used it to keep a mistress and think that’s fair?” She had agreed to him leaving with nothing—she expected him to actually leave with nothing.

Ye Zhiqiang took a deep breath. That apartment hadn’t cost much to buy, but he’d put a lot of effort into renovating it. Fine—he could just buy another one later.

“Fine.” He gritted his teeth. “About the company’s buyout money—can I pay in installments? 1.5 million is too much to come up with all at once.”

“No.” Shu Yan rejected it immediately. “I don’t trust you.”

She wanted the money upfront so she could get out of Xicheng as soon as possible. Staying there any longer would only make things harder for her.

Ye Zhiqiang’s face turned even darker. He clenched his fists. “I can only scrape together 300,000 right now. You’re a woman with a kid—you won’t spend it all at once. Treat it as a loan to me. I’ll even pay you 2% interest.”

Shu Yan shook her head. “I don’t care how you do it. Within three days, the entire amount has to be in my account. And one more thing: if anything happens to me or the child in those three days, I’m holding you responsible. And don’t expect me to be reasonable about what I’ll do then.”

What a joke, she thought. If I loaned him that money, I’d never see it again. That would be like throwing a meat bun to a dog—gone for good.

To avoid any surprises, they went that very afternoon to handle the transfer paperwork. Shu Jianyang had contacts who smoothed the way, and in just over an hour everything was done. When Ye Zhiqiang stormed off, Shu Yan’s bankbook showed an extra 300,000 yuan.

Shu Yan felt incredibly lucky it was still the 1990s. If it were 2019, there’s no way she could have forced Ye Zhiqiang to leave with nothing. A thicker-skinned man wouldn’t even flinch at threats.

When Ye Zhiqiang went to see Li Jiaojiao, his face was stormy. She shrank back a little and asked timidly, “What’s wrong, honey?”

“Nothing. In a few days I’ll be divorced. Does that make you happy?” Ye Zhiqiang asked with a faint smile, pulling her into his arms.

“She agreed to the divorce?” Li Jiaojiao’s eyes lit up. She unconsciously touched her belly, then asked gently, “She didn’t threaten you?”

Ye Zhiqiang’s face darkened. “She wants all the houses and the car.”

“That’s outrageous!” Li Jiaojiao squeaked in shock.

“Can’t be helped,” Ye Zhiqiang sighed. “If it goes to court, it won’t end well for us.” He left out the real details on purpose.

The next day, another apartment was transferred to Shu Yan’s name. She finally let out a relieved sigh. Ever since she’d been pulled into this book, this was her first real victory.

On the way back, she handed the car registration and keys to Shu Jianyang. During the transfer yesterday, she’d put the car directly in his name, telling him he could just finalize the paperwork later.

“What’s this about?”

“Third Brother, don’t rush to refuse—let me finish.” Shu Yan spoke seriously. “You know what kind of person Ye Zhiqiang is. I’ve forced his hand like this—he’ll want revenge. My family, too—once they know I have money, they won’t let me or my kid have any peace. I plan to sell off everything here and move to another city to start over. I don’t even know how to drive—it would just sit there rusting. Do me a favor, please—drive it and keep it from turning into scrap. If you hadn’t run around helping me, I wouldn’t have gotten anything.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. This car’s in great shape—it could sell for over a hundred thousand. It’s too valuable. I can’t take it.”

“Don’t be silly—it’s Ye Zhiqiang’s. Take it for free!” Shu Yan stuffed the papers and keys into his hands, refusing to take no for an answer.

Shu Yan’s approach was simple: if someone treated her well, she’d return the favor. If they treated her badly, they could forget about getting anything from her—even family. As far as she was concerned, parents just needed to do their duty; going above and beyond was out of the question.

Unable to talk her out of it, Shu Jianyang finally accepted the car.

Honestly, Shu Yan was very tempted by the other apartments. If she left them alone for a few years, their value would multiply many times over—far better than any other investment. But they’d all come from Ye Zhiqiang, which meant endless trouble in the future.

She wanted a clean break. She’d sell everything. Property was cheap everywhere in China in the 90s; no matter what city she moved to, she could buy with her eyes closed and still make money in ten or twenty years.

“Third Brother, I’ll need your help selling these places,” she said after hesitating for a moment. “I don’t know how much you’ve saved up over the years, but if you can, buy one of them. Ye Zhiqiang actually has a good eye—these are all in prime city areas. Especially that storefront—it’s a miracle he managed to buy it. I hear they’re putting in a pedestrian street there now. You couldn’t even buy it now if you tried. If I weren’t worried about him causing trouble, I’d hate to let it go.

“You’ve been good to me, so let me speak from the heart. It’d be best if you didn’t stay in your current line of work forever. Who knows when there’ll be another big crackdown. Look at Ye Zhiqiang—he never even went to school, but he still became a boss. You’re smarter than he is, and you have loyal guys under you. Why not take on construction projects? With money and manpower, you won’t have any trouble making it.”

It was still the 1990s—a time when opportunities were everywhere. Shu Jianyang was clever, and if he turned that to legitimate business, he’d do just fine. Maybe he’d even surpass Ye Zhiqiang one day.

After hearing Shu Yan’s words, Shu Jianyang couldn’t help but be tempted. As he got older, the thought of settling down and starting a family had begun to take root. And once a man starts thinking that way, stability naturally follows. But the line of work he was in was full of danger—he could lose his life at any moment. How could he dare to get married and have children under such circumstances?

But just like his cousin said, he had money, connections, and loyal people under him—so why couldn’t he be like Ye Zhiqiang and start taking on construction projects?

Why not be even bolder and buy land to build property himself?

What Shu Yan didn’t know was that her cousin wasn’t just brave—he was fearless.

“I’ll think about it. As for a house… my dad wants me to go back to our hometown and build one there,” Shu Jianyang said, hesitating.

If he really was going to go into business, he’d need to reserve some capital. After that, he’d only have enough left to buy one house. If he built in his hometown too, the funds wouldn’t be enough.

“You’re barely in your hometown except for Chinese New Year. What’s the point of building a house there now? Of course you should buy one in the city. Good properties in the city are hard to come by. As for the countryside—you can build there anytime.” Shu Yan understood the older generation’s attachment to the idea of ‘returning to one’s roots,’ and back in the ’90s, people weren’t yet thinking of real estate as an investment.

Shu Jianyang was never one to hesitate—he had guts, or he wouldn’t have gotten to where he was. Once he found the idea feasible, he moved immediately. He pulled strings to get a company registered and set it up right above the storefront on the pedestrian street.

Following Shu Yan’s advice, he bought that property—300,000 yuan—and didn’t even blink handing over the money.

Shu Yan was impressed. Clearly, her cousin had earned quite a bit over the years. Dropping 300,000 like that explained why so many people flocked to “that business”—money came fast.

As for the other four apartments, two of Shu Jianyang’s trusted brothers ended up buying them. They’d seen him show off his purchase and couldn’t resist.

Twenty years later, when the group gathered again and reminisced about buying those properties, they couldn’t help but marvel at how sharp and decisive they’d been back then.

Now there was just one apartment left to sell—the one originally lived in by Shu Yan and taken back from Li Jiaojiao. Once that was sold, she’d take her child and her money and leave Xicheng behind for good, ready to start over in a city where no one knew them.

=^_^=