That night, a sudden heavy rain washed away all the dirt and dust in the city.
The end seemed like something unnecessary to mention further.
Si Nian quickly packed up and moved out of Mingjing Mansion.
Lu Shuyan had not returned here for several days, and Si Nian’s moving was supervised by the butler.
The middle-aged butler, who always appeared courteous and meticulous, was a completely different person in this situation. Si Nian finally understood what it meant to face someone who could turn their back on you without a second thought.
Don’t even think about taking anything valuable.
Bags, jewelry, clothes.
Si Nian had no idea what kind of deep hatred she could have with the butler.
They were both working for capitalists, so why make things so difficult for each other? Then, seeing the butler’s fake smile and the contemptuous look in his eyes, she realized that the courtesy she once thought he had was likely just her illusion.
Jiang Yihan specially rented a van to pick up Si Nian for the move. When she saw only a single suitcase beside Si Nian, she was shocked.
“Is this all?”
“Mm.”
Si Nian answered weakly.
Jiang Yihan: “Damn.”
Si Nian: “Let’s go.”
Jiang Yihan had finally finished living with roommates in Beijing and rented a small one-bedroom apartment on the outskirts.
Though the location was a bit remote, it was her own cozy space.
Si Nian had nowhere else to go, so she had to crash at Jiang Yihan’s place for the time being.
Dinner was takeaway stir-fried dishes.
Jiang Yihan had ordered several dishes to welcome her friend, but clearly, when the food was opened, neither of them had the appetite to eat.
Jiang Yihan poked at her rice with chopsticks: “When it comes down to it… this is still partly my responsibility.”
If she hadn’t been so eager to know the outcome that night, constantly texting Si Nian about whether Lu Shuyan had broken up with her, then Lu Shuyan wouldn’t have seen the messages, wouldn’t have clicked on his name, and those chat records and the online diary would not have been discovered.
Si Nian didn’t think this was related to Jiang Yihan at all.
After everything she had been through, it seemed like she suddenly saw reality clearly and felt like this was just fate.
That night, Lu Shuyan should have indeed wanted to break up with her, to part on good terms.
But it seemed like the heavens couldn’t bear to let a man who was already very rich lose even a little, so they arranged for Lu Shuyan, who never checked her phone, to happen to look at it in the final moment.
Why was it always that the one who had been favored since birth, even in such moments, was still the one favored by the heavens?
Fate was unfair.
“You can stay here as long as you want,” Jiang Yihan looked at Si Nian, whose face seemed dead inside, “But what are you planning to do next?”
After so many years, and with all they’d been through, Si Nian had at least thought she would become a wealthy woman, but instead, she was the one being taken care of by her friend.
So, without any income, she could only stay at Jiang Yihan’s place, doing housework and cooking, fully embracing the role of being taken care of.
Jiang Yihan hadn’t had much feeling about taking care of her friend, but when she came home after working late and found her normally chaotic house cleaned spotless, with fresh flowers on the table and soup simmering in the kitchen, Si Nian wearing an apron with her hair tied up, cooking for her, Jiang Yihan’s heart skipped a beat.
Then she realized why some men would do anything to marry a wife.
Who wouldn’t want this?
In the day, she cleaned your house, washed your clothes, and cooked; at night, you could hold her soft, sweet-smelling body to sleep.
It was the dream life.
The thought that Lu Shuyan had enjoyed this for five years and still wasn’t satisfied made Jiang Yihan angry.
Si Nian made Jiang Yihan some dumplings that she had wrapped earlier in the day.
Then she served herself some too, and they ate together at a small table.
Si Nian noticed Jiang Yihan was staring at her with an ambiguous expression.
Si Nian wrinkled her nose: “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Jiang Yihan, holding her bowl, said seriously: “Nian Nian, how about you don’t look for a job?”
“I’ll support you for the rest of your life.”
“I’ll work myself to death, get yelled at by the editor, and be driven crazy by the clients, but I’ll do it.”
Si Nian: “…”
“Eat up,” she said, shoving a dumpling into Jiang Yihan’s mouth.
Though Si Nian said she would look for a job, it wasn’t easy to find one.
Especially since her major was already one that made job hunting difficult.
She sent out resumes for over half a month without success.
As good friends, it felt awkward to always be living at Jiang Yihan’s place.
So, Si Nian sighed, opened her laptop, and eventually logged into a website.
It was an internal site.
Five years had passed, and the main page had changed a lot.
The app and mini-program had been upgraded, but the core content was still the same.
It provided a third-party communication platform for models and businesses.
Only verified models, agents, photographers, etc., could log into the site.
Models could post their information, schedules, and photos to take orders, while businesses and photographers could post their requirements to find models that met their needs.
Si Nian logged into her old account via phone verification.
After five years, her old account was still there, and the ID in the top right corner was “murmuring.”
The photos on her profile were still from five years ago.
Si Nian never thought that after all this, she would end up back in her old line of work.
She started part-time modeling when she was in university, although it was a competitive industry, good-looking girls with great figures had an advantage.
Back then, she took photos for online stores, earning around 300 yuan per order, and if luck was on her side, a photographer or business would hire her for a whole day, paying her 800 to 1,000 yuan.
Even as a student, she could make 10,000 a month with part-time work, and occasionally, with good luck, it could reach 20,000.
For most people, it was a pretty good income.
If they stuck with it and were lucky enough to become famous, they would probably make even more.
Si Nian couldn’t help but smile bitterly as she stared at the outdated backend interface.
Indeed, when someone seeks shortcuts, the result often ends up being not worth it.
However, Si Nian knew that she couldn’t beautify the path she didn’t take just because she missed it.
This industry wasn’t that easy.
The circle that gathers beautiful girls is often full of mixed characters, and swindlers thrive.
If one lowers their guard, they can easily fall victim to financial and sexual scams.
Even if one is lucky enough to discern the deceit, there are often rude and exploitative business clients, and harassment is a common occurrence.
Si Nian remembered when she approached Lu Shuyan.
Aside from being drawn to the eight-figure breakup fee, she also had another reason: a bald-headed man who ran a small company had been harassing her.
After she exposed him, he offered her 150,000 a month and insisted on supporting her.
In the past, that bald-headed man offered 150,000 a month…
Si Nian recalled when she proposed five million, and Lu Shuyan told her it was “a dream.”
The cost of taking shortcuts was probably that, after failure, there was not even labor law to protect her.
Mutual destruction could only exist in fantasies.
The reality was that she could barely get through the door of Rongsheng, let alone the Lu family’s door, which she had never entered even when she was his girlfriend…
Si Nian quickly shook her head, telling herself not to think about it anymore.
The more one thinks about it, the more it can lead to heart problems.
She used to feel sorry for those girls who trusted others and got scammed by swindlers.
She thought she was smart, that she wouldn’t be deceived.
Who could have thought, in the end, she would be the biggest victim?
This is something that would be laughed at if told, a classic example of a cautionary tale.
The only thing that could somewhat comfort her now was that at least her face and body were still intact, she didn’t smoke or drink, her lifestyle and temperament were still good, and she hadn’t lost her ability to make a living.
Returning to her old profession was still not hard.
Jiang Yihan had cameras and tripods at home.
Si Nian took some new modeling photos for herself, from front and side views to half-body and full-body shots, then added two of her previous lifestyle photos for reference.
She also included her height, measurements, and shoe size in the caption.
After preparing her personal information and lightly editing the photos, Si Nian noticed that five years ago the pay was 300 yuan per job.
However, due to the market downturn and increased competition, the going rate had dropped to 280 yuan.
She uploaded her profile.
Rongsheng Building.
Zhao Chao stood at the door of the CEO’s office.
Now, the man who was the CEO of Rongsheng seemed to have buried himself in work these days, either staying overnight at the company or living in another private apartment on the opposite side of Mingjing Mansion.
The first few days, some executives went to report but failed, even running into some resistance.
However, Zhao Chao knew that this was less about being too busy with work and more about some issues in other areas, trying to numb himself with high-intensity work.
He had originally prepared everything in sequence, but never expected that the transferees all had the same name.
All the notarized agreements and huge transfer checks, which only needed a signature to take effect, were suddenly put on hold.
And then, all of it went straight to the shredder.
Zhao Chao knew that there had been some issues between Mr. Lu and Miss Si Nian.
At least, their breakup was not exactly pleasant.
Zhao Chao straightened his clothes and knocked lightly on the CEO’s office door.
The person inside: “Come in.”
Lu Shuyan looked up when he saw Zhao Chao enter.
Half a month had passed.
Compared to the shock and anger he felt the night he discovered that his only girlfriend had been pretending to be nice to him and had other motives, the long hours of work and the passage of time had gradually calmed his emotions.
He knew that Si Nian had already moved out of Mingjing Mansion some days ago, but there were some other things that Lu Shuyan wanted to know, or rather, wanted to completely clarify.
Why, in Si Nian’s chat records with her friends, whenever he was mentioned, there were frequent references to “three months,” “ex-girlfriend,” and “eight-figure.”
His intuition told him that this was likely the origin of this whole absurd situation.
Lu Shuyan asked Zhao Chao to investigate thoroughly.
Zhao Chao, facing the young, poised man in the office chair, lowered his head respectfully.
“Have you figured it out?” Lu Shuyan asked.
Zhao Chao looked down at the floor, his expression rare with a touch of complexity: “It should be figured out.”
There wasn’t just one Lu family in B City.
However, compared to the Lu family that controlled Rongsheng, the other Lu family, in terms of both status and wealth, was on a completely different level.
The younger son of that Lu family had studied in the US and was a standard playboy, frequently changing girlfriends.
It was heard that he had once gotten a small model pregnant.
At the time, when the young model insisted on keeping the child, the family intervened, paid her a large sum, and then broke up and had an abortion.
The young model took the money and left the industry.
Within the same circle, it became widely known that the young master of the Lu family changed girlfriends like clothes.
The time between breakups got shorter, and the breakup fees were sky-high.
According to the timeline, the incident where the young master of the Lu family had a small model pregnant and paid for an abortion overlapped with when Lu Shuyan was still an exchange student at C University, about five years ago…
Zhao Chao touched his nose.
He had said everything he needed to say.
It was at this moment that Lu Shuyan finally understood why.
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