"Fifty million?!" Lin Qinglan nearly jumped out of her skin. "Shu Yan, why don't you just go rob a bank?!"
"Don't want it? Fine then."
Shu Yan rose to her feet. "I'll go sell it to that certain someone. Hmm, let me think—who was it that Mrs. Zhou most favored as her daughter-in-law? Oh right, Miss Zhao. She'd definitely be willing to fork over fifty million without hesitation."
"Wait!" Lin Qinglan gritted her teeth and stood up as well. "Don't leave, Shu Yan. We're practically old acquaintances after all. Can't you cut me a deal, for old times' sake?"
Shu Yan nearly laughed. "Lin Qinglan, you know what I admire most about you? That thick skin of yours."
"Who's an old acquaintance with you? Huh?"
"Since you want to put it that way, considering how you stole my Kappa, took my job, and withheld my mother's keepsake, I'll give you a discount of negative twenty percent. You can pay me sixty million."
"Shu Yan! You—!" Lin Qinglan grew frantic, then suddenly said, "Where would a broke nobody like you get such fine things? Don't tell me you stole them? Or are you trying to scam me?"
"If that's what you want to think, then I'll have no choice but to contact Miss Zhao."
Shu Yan pulled out her phone. "Lin Qinglan, this is already my conscience price. Imperial green jade of this top grade starts at thirty million a piece, and mine is an antique to boot. At sixty million, you should be laughing all the way to the bank."
She'd heard through the grapevine that during those years away from Zhou Chu, Lin Qinglan had charmed quite a few tycoons worth tens or hundreds of billions. If those men had been willing to marry her, she wouldn't have come back.
Getting her to cough up a few tens of millions was well within her means.
Lin Qinglan's face twisted with rage. She stared at the jade, utterly unable to part with it, and finally spoke up just as Shu Yan was about to dial Miss Zhao's number: "Fine, sixty million it is. But I'm calling in an appraiser. If it's genuine, then I'll pay."
"Suit yourself," Shu Yan said coolly. "Sixty million and my mother's Swiss Army knife. Not a single thing missing."
"No way," Lin Qinglan frowned. "Didn't we tell you last time you came asking for your things? That knife has already been thrown away."
Shu Yan let out a light chuckle. "Lin Qinglan, don't take people for fools. Either give me sixty million and the knife, or give me a hundred million. Your choice."
Lin Qinglan's expression shifted again, her face contorted with fury.
You little wretch, asking for a hundred million just like that—does she think the Lin family runs a money-printing factory?!
This bitch is poor, but her appetite sure isn't small!
She ground her teeth, and after a long moment, said, "Wait here. I'll go ask Brother Chu."
This meant she was going to have Zhou Chu produce the knife.
Shu Yan nodded, and Lin Qinglan walked out with her phone.
Ten minutes later, Lin Qinglan returned, but said, "Shu Yan, that knife really was thrown away. It can't be found. Brother Chu agreed to add another twenty million. Eighty million. Deal?"
Shu Yan stared at Lin Qinglan, her gaze as if she were looking at an imbecile.
"Seriously, are you people insane? You'd rather spend an extra twenty million just to keep a knife of mine?"
Lin Qinglan's expression soured as well. She paused, but still insisted, "It really was thrown away, Shu Yan. Isn't an extra twenty million enough?"
Shu Yan: ?
Was Zhou Chu not right in the head?
Why would he want to keep her worthless old knife?
Shu Yan looked at Lin Qinglan, wanting to say, "Stop pretending—I know that knife is in your man's bedroom." But after a moment's thought, she swallowed the words.
If Zhou Chu was some kind of twisted lunatic who simply refused to return it, and she let it slip, he might move the knife somewhere else. That would be bad.
Not giving it to her, was it? Fine, she'd just go get it herself.
"System, is there a remote item retrieval tool?" she thought silently.
[Detected x1, price: 10 Merit Points.]
"Living Person Transformation?"
[Yan Yan, this one's really fun!] the System's excited voice rang out: [You can transform into anyone you want for 6 hours. Original price is 20 Merit Points, but since you're a newbie, it's 50% off.]
"Oho," Shu Yan's old eyes lit up: "So can I turn into Zhou Chu's mom?"
Zhou Chu both respected and feared his mother—if she became her, wouldn't all his stuff be hers for the taking?
She could even give Zhou Chu and Lin Qinglan each a good hard slap across the face.
[Of course you can.]
Shu Yan snickered, then caught Lin Qinglan's bewildered gaze and immediately composed herself, clearing her throat: "Fine, no knife then. One hundred million."
Lin Qinglan: "…"
All the cash she had on hand was only around ten million!
"Shu Yan, leave some room for maneuver, so we can meet again with dignity." She stared hard at Shu Yan.
"Oh? You didn't seem to leave me any room back then." Shu Yan spread her hands.
Lin Qinglan ground her teeth nearly to dust, but in the end, she couldn't resist the allure of the jadeite necklace. Gnashing her teeth, she called Zhou Chu to pool together twenty million as a down payment for Shu Yan, then hurried off in a flurry to find an appraiser and raise more funds.
For the sake of marrying into the Zhou family, she'd endure it!
Once she won over that old hag and became the young Madam Zhou, hah—Shu Yan wouldn't even know what hit her!
Shu Yan took the two ten-million-yuan bank cards Lin Qinglan had given her and first pushed open the door to Diao Si's office.
Diao Si was chewing on a cigar, holding a thick marker pen as she sketched a design.
"Oh!" At the sudden sight of Shu Yan, Diao Si's pen slipped, ruining the drawing.
"Shu Yan, you're compensating me for my design!" Diao Si clutched her chest in anguish: "I spent a full 2 minutes—120 whole seconds—drawing this!"
"…" Shu Yan stepped in for a look. It was just a cylinder drawn on the page.
"Isn't this just a cylinder? I can draw that too—I'll draw it for you right now."
"You're wrong. This isn't a cylinder. This is the ruined walls of the Old Summer Palace, the marble columns of the Parthenon, the candle in Magritte's painting, the severed arm of Venus, the hem of the Luo River Goddess's skirt, the celestial waters of the Milky Way, the long currents of the River of Forgetfulness. Its value is immeasurable!"
Diao Si clutched her chest, her expression one of profound grief.
Shu Yan glanced at her sideways: "One meal of crayfish."
"Deal." Diao Si gave a thumbs up.
"The ten million you asked for—I've brought it." Shu Yan sat down and pressed the bank card onto the desk: "When are you coming with me?"
Diao Si was stunned. Her gaze slowly drifted to the bank card, then she pounced over and hugged it to her chest: "Excellent! As expected of my President Shu! From today on, I, Diao Si, am at your service."
Diao Si immediately submitted her resignation.
She and Shu Yan had known each other well at the company and knew Shu Yan was highly capable, but because of her spending on her relationship with Zhou Chu and her strong moral compass, she was always broke.
If she'd managed to scrape together ten million in such a short time, it meant she either had a new backer or a new path forward—following her was definitely the right call.
Shu Yan left Diao Si to handle her resignation paperwork and went to Wei Min's office.
"Bro, how's your decision coming along?"
Wei Min pulled out a resignation form already filled out.
Shu Yan was moved: "As expected of my big bro—giving up the Zhou Corporation just to support my startup."
He patted her shoulder: "My dear sister, if I don't support you, who will?"
Shu Yan was deeply moved by the two of them, and with a grand wave of his hand, he took Wei Min and Diao Si to a lavish restaurant for lobster.
At the same time, Zhou Chu was not so moved.
"What? Both Wei Min and Diao Si are leaving? What on earth is going on?! Why the sudden departure?!"
Wei Min was the pillar of the company, and Diao Si was its soul. If the two of them left, wouldn't his company come crashing down?!