Thinking up to this point, Xiang Qing dug her fingernails tightly into her palms, her face contorting step by step into a twisted grimace.
All of this must be related to Su Mu.
No—so what if it’s related to her?! She would definitely force everything back onto its proper track!
Now, since Heaven had arranged for her and Su Chen to be in the very same hospital, she was going to make damn sure Su Chen returned to the path he was meant to walk!
Su Mu didn’t bother reaching out to Su Chen. Hurrying to the hospital, she used her fluent English to inquire at the nurses’ station about Su Chen’s room location before rushing over.
Yet before she could even reach the ward, she caught sight of a man’s silhouette standing in the distance.
Dressed in casual wear, the man was waiting in line before a window.
His sharply chiseled, angular side profile was absurdly handsome even here in Country M, drawing frequent glances from quite a few local beauties passing by.
Just then, a petite, heavily pregnant woman behind him patted his shoulder, allowing Su Mu to clearly discern her face in that exact moment.
Xiang Qing.
Xiang Qing wore a bright, radiant smile on her face as she said something to Su Chen. Su Chen took a step back, yielding his spot in line to her, before turning his face away to the side.
Yet Xiang Qing continued to lean toward him every now and then to whisper a few words, her face dripping with bashfulness—they clearly knew each other.
To any bystander looking on, Xiang Qing and Su Chen definitely appeared acquainted; some might even assume Su Chen was accompanying Xiang Qing for a prenatal checkup.
Pressing her lips into a thin line, Su Mu took out her phone and dialed a WeChat voice call to Su Chen.
The call connected. Not far away, the man turned his head, staring at his phone screen in a daze for a moment. Knitting his brows slightly, he hesitated for a long while without answering.
Seeing this, Su Mu let out a cold, mocking laugh and disconnected the call, turning on her heel to leave without a second thought.
“Little cutie, look—this is the male side character you were talking about. A dog can never change its habit of eating filth.”
Su Mu’s voice held neither grief nor joy, yet system w-444 felt its heart tremble in terror.
w-444: Waaah…
What kind of death wish was this male lead seeking?! Just a few days ago, he was still whispering sweet nothings to its dear Mumu—how did he change his heart so quickly now?! Scumbag!
w-444: “Mumu, don’t be sad over this scumbag! You still have little cutie me! Mumu, in my heart, you are a shining entity draped in stars and the moon; you are the highest peak on my electrocardiogram! Let’s throw this scumbag away, okay?!”
System w-444 pulled out every trick in the book to flatter her shamelessness.
Su Mu raised an eyebrow faintly, her mood instantly brightening a fraction.
She hadn’t harbored much affection for Su Chen in the first place, so her heart didn’t feel much pain right now—she just felt immensely disgusted.
After all, he had still been whispering sweet love stories to her just a few days ago. Heh~
“If I remember correctly, even if the favorability score is maxed out, system points can still be added, right?”
w-444: “Yes, yes! After favorability hits maximum, heart-flutter values can be calculated! As long as the fluctuation exceeds a certain threshold, bonus points will be awarded!”
System w-444 suddenly grew excited.
Judging by its host’s attitude… was she planning to farm Bai Xiu’s heart-flutter values?!
That was so thrilling to think about!
There was hope for its new system skin again!
“Alright, I got it.”
Su Mu pulled up Bai Xiu’s WeChat, finding the message he had sent her yesterday—it was about a Truth-or-Dare live reality show.
Every celebrity guest was allowed to invite one non-celebrity participant…
After sending a message to Bai Xiu, Su Mu immediately canceled her hotel room and headed straight for the airport.
The moment Su Chen picked up his phone, the call was abruptly disconnected. Looking at the WeChat note labeled “Little Girl” for his sister, Su Chen’s lips pressed into a tight, hard line.
He remembered that after returning to the country, he hadn’t had much interaction with this sister of his—why would he set such a nickname for her?
What on earth had he forgotten?
“What’s wrong? You seem a bit unhappy?” Xiang Qing asked, still wearing that bright, pleasant smile.
Yet the icy aura radiating off Su Chen grew even more oppressive as his frigid eyes landed squarely on Xiang Qing.
“Miss Xiang, we are not acquainted. I only yielded my spot in line to you out of courtesy for your status as a pregnant woman. Could you please stop talking to me?”
Su Chen kept his face taut with an icy, stoic coldness. Feeling an intense wave of humiliation, Xiang Qing turned her head away in sheer fluster, her eyes welling red with tears as her fingernails bit deeply into her palms.
Yet inside Su Chen’s heart, an inexplicable restlessness churned. The data from his old phone hadn’t been transferred over yet, leaving him unable to look up much on his new phone.
Just then, he instinctively turned his head toward the entrance of the hospital—as if the hem of a familiar outfit had just turned the corner and departed without a moment’s pause.
Seeing this, Su Chen immediately gave chase. The panic in his heart amplified infinitely in that exact second, as though something precious had just slipped away from his grip.
Yet by the time he rushed to the hospital gates, there was nothing to be seen—only endless crowds of unfamiliar faces surrounding him.
“Su Chen, what’s wrong?”
Rong Qi was accompanying her wife when she caught sight of her boss looking thoroughly frantic. Unable to curb her curiosity, she stepped forward to inquire.
This man almost never wore such a flustered expression.
Su Chen scanned his surroundings once more. Finding no familiar shadow in sight, he knit his brows and shook his head.
“It’s nothing. Go handle your payment. I still have matters to attend to, so I’ll be leaving first.”
Saying so, Su Chen departed straight from the hospital.
Rong Qi scratched her head, completely baffled as to what Su Chen was playing at now.
“A-Qi, what happened?”
Qi Jinge shuffled over at that moment, cradling her swollen belly. Rong Qi hastily stepped forward to support her, the two of them chatting, laughing, and showing effortless intimacy with one another.
Neither of them paid the slightest mind to the gazes of the onlookers around them.
Although they couldn’t legally marry in this country, there were always nations that recognized their union. Coupled with the unwavering support of their parents and friends, none of this was too difficult to endure.
“Tell me, do you think this baby will look more like me or like you when he’s born?” Rong Qi stroked Qi Jinge’s belly, her face radiating utter fulfillment.
“You silly girl, the chances of him looking like me aren’t high. What if he ends up looking like the child’s father?”
Qi Jinge felt a slight trace of worry. This child was created using sperm from a bank combined with Rong Qi’s egg before being placed inside her body, so the likelihood of the baby looking like her wasn’t high.
“Regardless of who he resembles, he’s still our baby.” Rong Qi kissed the corner of Qi Jinge’s lips, comforting her in a soft, gentle voice.
Without lingering in Country M for a moment longer, Su Mu flew straight back to A City that very day.
Due to the time difference, it happened to be morning by the time Su Mu arrived back in A City.
Having flipped her sleep schedule back-to-back twice in a row, Su Mu felt rather miserable. She slept at home for a while before finally heading over to the company.
The company operated smoothly in an orderly fashion. During this time, Su Mu made no further contact with Su Chen, and Su Chen likewise initiated zero contact with her—all business matters were handled directly through Yin Wenbo.
A week later, Su Mu received news that Xiang Qing had given birth to twins in Country M, and Shen Yeyi had already rushed over to Country M in a hurry.
Su Mu immediately had the photos of Xiang Qing’s newborn babies secretly forwarded to Zhao Shanshan.
Furious beyond measure, Zhao Shanshan instantly threatened Shen Yeyi with company affairs to force him back.
Yet what the Zhao family never expected was that Shen Yeyi had long since utilized the Zhao family’s investments to pull the Shen Corporation out of its dire plight.
Afterward, he didn’t hesitate to tear down his own defense walls—turning over all the evidence he had gathered over the past six months regarding the Zhao family’s tax evasion, as well as their abuse of power for private gain that had driven employees to suicide.
Behind the scenes, Shen Yeyi had also quietly transferred a vast portion of the Zhao family’s assets away.
Due to the overwhelming pile of criminal evidence, numerous high-ranking members of the Zhao family were taken away for investigation.
It was at this precise moment that Shen Yeyi served Zhao Shanshan with divorce papers, causing the Zhao Corporation’s stock prices to plunge lower and lower.
In the shadows, Shen Yeyi used ridiculously low prices to sweep up the Zhao Corporation’s stocks.
In just a single week, new scandals erupted claiming that the Zhao Corporation’s newly acquired land plot had major issues—everything seemed to follow the exact same disastrous trajectory the Shen Corporation had previously walked.
Overnight, the Zhao Corporation crumbled to pieces. By securing the highest stake of shares in the Zhao Corporation, Shen Yeyi successfully installed himself as the Zhao Corporation’s new President.
For a time, the Shen Corporation’s momentum was second to none.
Although Su Mu took advantage of the chaos to snatch up quite a few retail shares, her haul naturally couldn’t compare to Shen Yeyi’s massive takeover.
Yet just as the Shen Corporation grew increasingly formidable, Su Mu suddenly spotted a golden opportunity.
In the previous life, the Su Corporation had suffered severe financial strain under Shen Yeyi’s scheming; their liquid capital had been trapped, allowing Shen Yeyi to seize the vulnerability and destroy them in one fell swoop.
Now, having heavily bought out the Zhao Corporation’s shares, the Shen Corporation had very little liquid capital remaining in hand. Yet the moment a whisper of rumor was leaked by the government, Shen Yeyi immediately began aggressively bidding for a piece of land in the southern district of the city.
That land was a complete death trap for anyone who touched it.
Originally, the government indeed had intentions to develop the southern district and auction off the plot at a high price.
Yet no one expected that beneath that very land lay a massive ancient tomb complex—immensely precious and historical. The government would never allow anyone to develop over it; taking that land into one’s hands was a colossal nightmare. Not only would it remain undeveloped for years, but one would also have to continuously pour money into it to maintain it.
Su Mu merely went through the motions at the auction, watching with her own eyes as Shen Yeyi triumphantly won the bid for that plot of land before she turned on her heel and returned to her office.