“President Lou, saying you’ll withdraw your investment is too serious—I…I will definitely
investigate this thoroughly! Please don’t worry! I’ll give you a proper explanation!”
The person in charge anxiously hurried after Lou Fan, speaking as he walked. But Lou Fan
didn’t even lift his eyelids—he simply held Chu Xia’s hand and left without a word.
As they passed the doorway, Chu Xia glanced at the stunned Wu Jingzhong and made an elegant
gesture of covering her nose.
“Supervisor Wu,” she said lightly, “you smell.”
Wu Jingzhong was so furious she nearly crushed her teeth from clenching, but all she could do
was stand there with reddened eyes, her face shifting between pale and flushed. She glared
unwillingly at Chu Xia, yet didn’t dare to lash out.
With Lou Fan’s arm wrapped around her waist, the colleagues who once excluded her now
instinctively stepped aside, clearing a path for her.
As she brushed past Qiao Nian, the two didn’t exchange a glance, but with perfect tacit
understanding, they quietly gave each other a quick clap of hands.
After taking her to get something to eat, Lou Fan sent her home to rest. Along the way, he
suggested she go to the hospital for a check-up—but had no intention of accompanying her.
Chu Xia understood that Lou Fan had already been quite gentlemanly to this extent. After all, the
child wasn’t his—no man with self-respect would willingly rush to become a “free” father.
So she simply agreed obediently, and when he politely offered to accompany her to the hospital,
she tactfully declined.
Afterward, Qiao Nian livestreamed the entire aftermath for her. Wu Jingzhong had been fired by
the person in charge, and the well-known painters she managed were snapped up by colleagues
like loot drops, each scrambling to take them. Qiao Nian also took the opportunity to secure one.
She asked Chu Xia, “Do you want one? I can introduce this painter to you.”
Chu Xia didn’t refuse and thanked her sincerely.
But what she didn’t expect was that the very next day, Lou Fan called to tell her he had actually
withdrawn his investment.
She had thought it was just a warning. After all, her goal of getting Wu Jingzhong removed had
already been achieved. If Lou Fan truly pulled out his investment, the gallery’s operations would
inevitably tighten, making things harder for everyone—and she would surely be blamed by the
person in charge and her colleagues, since it all started because of her.
Yet Chu Xia didn’t panic, nor did she question his decision. Instead, she asked with an innocent
expression,
“Will this affect you? Will it be a waste of your money?”
Lou Fan smiled, unconcerned.
“Money spent on you is never a waste.”
He felt that explaining too much about investments would go over her head, so he simply said,
“Since it’s all investment anyway, I might as well invest in you directly. The person in charge
told me—you closed a big order right after joining, and you work seriously. Why not go
independent and become an art agent yourself?”
Chu Xia’s eyes lit up. She was indeed tempted by his proposal—but what she wanted was far
more than just that.
“I’ll provide the startup funds. We’ll split profits according to a standard commercial contract.
As for initial clients and artists, Old Tang can connect you with a few.”
Chu Xia quickly caught a key detail—Old Tang was the gallery’s manager. If Lou Fan was
withdrawing his investment, why would he still be willing to help her connect with resources?
So she said,
“If I’m going to do this, I’ll definitely do it well. I don’t want your money to go to waste.”
Her words pleased Lou Fan. After exchanging a few more ambiguous remarks, Chu Xia waited
for him to hang up—then immediately called Old Tang.
To Chu Xia’s surprise, Old Tang didn’t hold any grudge against her over the withdrawal of
investment. On the contrary, he spoke enthusiastically about various clients and artists, and even
promised to have Qiao Nian handle the coordination with her.
After thinking for a few seconds, Chu Xia probed,
“You’re being so responsible—it really makes me feel ashamed. After all, I bear some
responsibility for the gallery losing its investment.”
“Not at all, Miss Li,” Old Tang replied. “I failed to manage my staff properly. Besides, President
Lou isn’t heartless. Although he withdrew his investment, he introduced another investor to me.
We’ve already come to an agreement, so please don’t take it to heart.”
Hearing this, Chu Xia immediately understood.
Lou Fan had probably wanted to withdraw his investment for a long time. The gallery hadn’t
caused him losses, but it hadn’t made him any profits either—so he’d never brought it up. This
incident just happened to give him the perfect excuse to pull out.
He hadn’t truly made things difficult for Old Tang. Instead, he smoothly connected him with
another investor—preserving their relationship while freeing himself from the situation, and at
the same time doing Chu Xia a huge favor.
Killing three birds with one stone.
After hanging up, Chu Xia sat alone in a daze for a while.
For a brief moment just now, she had genuinely felt a little moved by what Lou Fan had done for
her.
But after speaking with Old Tang, she snapped back to reality.
Men never seem to tire of playing a game called conquest. They’re willing to pay a certain cost
for it—but every time they place a bet, they calculate their gains with perfect clarity.
The difference lies in this: some men accept both victory and defeat; some don’t care about the
cost and only enjoy the process; and some have such poor sportsmanship that the moment they
lose even a little, they flip the table.
Chu Xia casually picked up a chip from the table, recalling something from over a year ago.
When Jiang Suizhou had taken her to Las Vegas, he insisted on bringing her into a casino “to
broaden her horizons.”
That night, Chu Xia experienced for the first time what it meant to go from heaven to hell in a
single thought.
At the card table, in just one night, some people became rich overnight, some squandered
everything, and some broke down to the point of taking their own lives.
As they were leaving, Jiang Suizhou gave her that very chip as a keepsake. He had said:
“Remember this—anything that can addict people is just amplifying the desires in human nature.
It makes them believe they have a chance to obtain it… but in the end, they never will.”
At that time, Chu Xia had treated those words as absolute truth.
Now, her expression was blank as she lowered her gaze to the chip in her hand. With a light flick,
she set it spinning on the table like a top.
Whether it was Jiang Suizhou, Lou Fan, or the men who were drawn to her because of desire—in
their eyes, she was just like this chip. Because they couldn’t have her, they kept wanting to raise
the stakes.
Clack—
Chu Xia’s hand suddenly pressed down on the table, trapping the spinning chip firmly in her
palm.
In the dim room, her eyes shone with startling brightness. In that moment, there was no trace of
feigned shyness, no usual innocence, no softness or hesitation—only unwavering ambition.
“Since I’m already at the table… why should I be the chip?”
She stood up, tossed the chip into the trash, and looked down at it without expression,
murmuring to herself:
“If I’m going to be anything… I’ll be the conqueror.”
The next day, Chu Xia went to see Lou Fan.
He was practicing golf in his office when he heard her outrageous demand and froze for a
moment.
“How much did you say you wanted?”
“One million.”
Lou Fan had only planned to give her a hundred thousand to “play around,” so he chuckled
lightly.
“Babe, no family background can withstand you spending like that.”
His tone was indulgent, but the underlying condescension was obvious.
Chu Xia knew he hadn’t taken her plan to start a gallery seriously, so she placed a business
proposal in front of him.
“It includes the target market, budget, projected revenue, long-term strategy, as well as my
research on the local art market and competitors.”
Lou Fan hesitated, then picked it up and flipped through a couple of pages. But after just a
glance, his gaze froze—because the proposal was highly professional, clearly structured, and
even more reliable than those founders who pitched to him over drinks.
He looked up at Chu Xia, genuinely surprised.
“…You’re serious?”