Xia Zhi had completely misunderstood Wen Shihan earlier. She thought he wanted to settle accounts with her, but it turned out they had not even been talking about the same thing.
Still, who would have thought that in the face of such an absurd and chaotic situation twenty years later, Wen Shihan could still focus on listening to her report about someone else?
She did not know whether to call him a dedicated capitalist or an unfeeling one.
“Continue.” Wen Shihan tapped his fingers lightly on the table, signaling her to get back on track and name the person who had embezzled company funds.
Xia Zhi straightened her posture, pressed her hands on her knees, and spoke with the seriousness of a whistleblower, “I want to report Zheng Wei, the manager of the Brand Department.”
“Go on.”
“Every year, the company allocates funds to the Brand Department for promotional purposes. Manager Zheng has been embezzling part of that budget.”
“How exactly did he do it?”
“When the company promotes products, we collaborate with external influencers. Manager Zheng colluded with an MCN agency that manages many influencers. He had them inflate the quoted prices of those influencers to deceive the company, even though their actual fees were much lower, and he pocketed the difference.”
“Also, when the Brand Department organizes campaigns, we purchase gifts for winning fans. Manager Zheng worked with a supplier to mark up the prices of those gifts, earning profit from the price difference. On top of that, he manipulated the winner lists behind the scenes, replacing legitimate winners with himself and taking the prizes meant for fans. Over the past two years, he has siphoned off roughly over a million from the company’s promotional funds.”
“How did you discover this?”
“With my intelligence.”
Wen Shihan: “……”
Seeing his calm gaze shift toward her again, Xia Zhi quickly suppressed her smile and explained, “Manager Zheng is usually very cautious, otherwise he wouldn’t have fooled everyone in the company. But nothing escapes justice. One time he went to the restroom and left his phone on the desk. I happened to pass by, and his phone lit up with a message from the MCN agency. That’s when I started secretly investigating.”
Afraid he might think she was scheming, she hurriedly added, “Since Manager Zheng became manager, he’s treated the staff terribly. He’s driven away many employees, and the ones left are just like him, full of tricks and constantly bullying me. He was unjust first, so I had no choice but to fight back.”
“So you have evidence?”
“Yes.” Xia Zhi nodded.
There was no way she would report such a cunning person without evidence.
But the moment she said “yes,” her expression dimmed.
“What is it?” Wen Shihan asked.
“All my evidence is stored on a hard drive in my home… twenty years ago.”
Wen Shihan: “……”
No one knew where that hard drive might be now.
A lot could change in twenty years.
Xia Zhi looked dejected. “I don’t even know if Manager Zheng is still working at the company.”
“If he is, that would be even better,” Wen Shihan said.
“How so?”
“In twenty years, he would have embezzled a significant amount. Once investigated, it would be enough to put him behind bars for life.”
Although his tone was calm, it sent a chill through Xia Zhi’s heart.
This was the real version of her boss, the one she feared.
Knock knock.
A nurse tapped on the door gently and reminded them, “Mrs. Wen, Mr. Wen, it’s getting late. Please get some rest.”
“Alright, I understand,” Xia Zhi replied.
“Would you like me to dim the lights?”
“Yes,” Wen Shihan said.
The nurse dimmed the lights in the room and left to continue her rounds.
Xia Zhi lay down and wrapped herself tightly in the blanket, as if that could give her a sense of security.
From the next bed came the sound of steady breathing.
She did not know whether Wen Shihan had fallen asleep.
Thinking about his earlier cold words, she suppressed her fear and cautiously asked, “Will you investigate me too?”
The hospital room was quiet, and for a long time there was no reply from Wen Shihan.
He must have fallen asleep.
Xia Zhi closed her eyes, planning to get some rest first. Maybe when she woke up, she would have returned to twenty years ago.
However, in the silent room, Wen Shihan’s voice suddenly sounded, “What did you do that would make me investigate you? Did you embezzle company funds as well?”
Xia Zhi, “……”
She immediately sat up from the bed. “Of course not.”
She looked toward Wen Shihan, who was lying sideways facing away from her. “It’s because twenty years later, I married you and even had four children with you.”
Wasn’t that enough of an offense, overstepping boundaries like that?
“Oh?”
“What do you think I would do to you?” Wen Shihan slowly turned back to face her.
When his back was to her, she still had the courage to speak, but the moment his eyes, which seemed to see through everything, turned toward her, she deflated like a punctured balloon.
She lowered her head, as if awaiting judgment, and said softly, “I don’t know.”
If she knew, she would not have asked him.
“We’ll talk about it later.”
After saying that vague sentence, Wen Shihan did not speak again.
Perhaps he was just like her, unsure how to face this situation, choosing to delay it for as long as possible.
Xia Zhi completely gave up resisting.
Whatever happens, happens. When Wen Shihan decides to deal with it, she will face it then. At worst, they would get a divorce, split the children two each, and maybe he would feel generous enough to give her some support.
It was just a pity that her twenty years of youth had vanished in a single moment.
With a trace of resentment, Xia Zhi fell asleep.
Almost as soon as she drifted off, Wen Shihan opened his eyes. He stared at her back for a long time in silence.
He had always liked having everything under control, yet everything that happened today was completely beyond his grasp, and it seemed to be spiraling further out of control.
Wen Shihan let out a sigh. His gaze fell on the marriage certificate and family album on the table beside him, his eyes shifting with uncertainty.
When Xia Zhi woke up groggily the next morning, she thought she was still in her cramped rental room from twenty years ago. She closed her eyes again and muttered, “I don’t want to go to work. Whoever wants this lousy job can take it.”
“Is that so?”
A man’s voice suddenly sounded beside her.
Wait.
A man’s voice.
Xia Zhi jolted awake. She glanced over cautiously and met eyes with her boss, Wen Shihan.
Almost instantly, she looked away and pulled the blanket over her head, wishing she could disappear on the spot.
She had just complained about her job being “lousy” right in front of her boss.
After a while, feeling suffocated, she threw off the blanket, got out of bed with her head lowered, not daring to look at him, and hurried toward the bathroom.
As she pushed the door open, she unexpectedly saw her forty-five-year-old face.
Above the sink was a wall-sized mirror. The moment she stepped in, she saw her current appearance.
She covered her open mouth in shock, her eyes wide.
So young?
She did not look like a forty-five-year-old woman at all.
To be honest, she looked even more beautiful than she did at twenty-five.
At twenty-five, she had been struggling to survive in the city. From Monday to Friday, she often stayed up late working overtime, and on weekends she set up a stall at the night market. All three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, she barely rested. Her face had been pale and lifeless, with heavy dark circles and constant breakouts. It even caused menstrual irregularities. There was a time she skipped two months, and when it came, it lasted half a month.
Living had already taken all her strength, how could she have cared about her appearance?
But the face before her now was clearly that of someone well cared for. Her skin was smooth and delicate, free of acne and dark circles. Her crescent-shaped eyes were bright and lively, untouched by the wear and tear of life. Her long hair was dyed a soft chestnut color and styled in loose waves, full of feminine charm.
For the first time, Xia Zhi realized she could be this beautiful, and truly understood the saying that money can make you beautiful.
There had once been a famous female tycoon who was not particularly pretty when she worked as an entertainment reporter, but after becoming wealthy, her beauty reached a whole new level. In her forties, she looked more than ten times more beautiful than before, a perfect example of transformation through wealth.
She never expected something like that to happen to her.
Holding her face in her hands, she exclaimed in disbelief, “I’m actually this beautiful?”
Was this the power of money?
“Heh.”
A man’s voice pulled her out of her admiration. She turned and saw Wen Shihan standing at the bathroom door.
Her face flushed and paled in turns as she stammered, “Boss, why are you standing there?”
“You screamed just now. I thought something had happened to you.” Wen Shihan paused, as if deliberately giving her time to recall, then added, “Turns out you were just captivated by your own beauty.”
His tone carried a hint of disdain.
Xia Zhi, “……”
After saying that, Wen Shihan turned and walked away, leaving Xia Zhi standing there in a daze.
She thought back.
Did she scream just now?
Probably.
After all, seeing that her forty-five-year-old self was even prettier than at twenty-five had startled her.
But that was not entirely her fault, was it? Who would not be shocked to see themselves looking better at forty-five than at twenty-five?