Chapter 18: Scumbag Ex‑Boyfriend

"Oh, congratulations," Ning Jinli said perfunctorily.

This guy lives off a sugar daddy and still gets a sense of superiority; she doesn't even have the luxury to mock him.

And that villa, she's too lazy to expose him about it.

Seeing her cold reaction, Zhao Bin snorted:

"Ha, if I had known you wouldn't inherit your grandfather's estate and were also saddled with a near‑bankrupt factory owing tens of millions, I'd damn well not have wasted four years on you."

"Fine, got it, go have fun," Ning Jinli stretched lazily and said nonchalantly.

At that moment, the salesperson who had previously attended to Ning Jinli returned to the lounge, smiling: "Hello, your paperwork is complete; once you sign, you can drive the car away. Here is the key."

Ning Jinli was about to ask how it was done so quickly when she glanced at the wall clock and realized she had actually slept for several hours.

"Oh, okay, thank you." She reached out to take it.

"You really don't treat yourself as an outsider—if it's yours, you just take it?" Zhao Bin sneered, snatching the car key from the salesperson.

The salesperson looked utterly bewildered.

Holding the key, Zhao Bin realized something was off: "Huh? You must have made a mistake; this isn't the car my girlfriend asked me to pick up."

The salesperson was about to explain, "Actually, this is—"

Zhao Bin suddenly shouted:

"I get it, this is her surprise!"

"Hahaha! She told me on the surface it was a one‑million car, but secretly she got me this two‑million‑plus Mercedes G‑Class!"

He was so excited his face flushed red, dancing with his hands and feet.

Ning Jinli just watched quietly.

The salesperson, helpless, said, "Mr. Zhao, please calm down; this isn't yours."

"Huh?" Zhao Bin was stunned.

The salesperson pulled the paperwork from a folder, placed it before Ning Jinli, and handed over a pen, "Miss Ning, please sign."

"Hm?" Zhao Bin's eyes widened gradually.

After signing, Ning Jinli smiled, held out her hand palm‑up, and said, "May I have my car key back, Mr. Zhao?"

Zhao Bin stammered, "You... the car you bought? Mercedes G‑Class?"

"Yes." Ning Jinli hooked her finger, "If it's yours, you just take it?"

She returned Zhao Bin's previous sentence verbatim.

Zhao Bin felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck him from head to toe, his mind a blank.

Not wanting to waste time, Ning Jinli snatched the key back and slipped into the new car she had bought.

Zhao Bin followed.

He stood beside the car, staring blankly, as if his soul had been lost.

"Take care, Miss Ning," the salesperson smiled and bowed.

The car roared to life, its powerful engine sounding like a beast's low growl.

Ning Jinli drove the car away right before Zhao Bin's eyes.

Even as the car vanished around the street corner, Zhao Bin kept staring in that direction, his pupils flickering, his mind endlessly questioning his life.

"Hallucination... this must be a hallucination."

Zhao Bin muttered, then suddenly slapped himself hard.

Slap!

The sound was crisp.

The salesperson had intended to tell him to return to the lounge and wait, but seeing him suddenly go berserk, hurried away to call a colleague.

"Ugh..." Zhao Bin covered his face, tears streaming from the pain.

He could only painfully accept reality, yet he couldn't fathom it.

Isn't Ning Jinli a broke nobody?

Didn't she have a factory loan of tens of millions hanging over her?

Where did the money to buy a two‑million‑plus car come from!?

Zhao Bin racked his brain, then, with a sudden epiphany, thumped his thigh hard.

She must have hooked up with a rich guy!

Right!

It has to be that!

Zhao Bin's face clouded with angry resentment, his eyes reddening, gritting his teeth as he muttered to himself:

"Well, you Ning Jinli..."

"We dated for four years, you wouldn't let me touch you; I thought you were so pure! Turns out... you ran off to mess around in a rich old man's bed!"

"Ha! Trash... slut! Surely you've already been taken by that old man! You messed up!"

"Fine, just wait. I'll definitely find proof later, post it in the university class group, and let those who once praised you see what kind of person you are! If I don't ruin your reputation, I won't be Zhao!"

"Damn!"

……

That evening, Ning Jinli met Zheng Houcheng as scheduled.

She took him to a restaurant to eat and chat, and settled everything over one meal.

After Zheng Houcheng finished the construction work already scheduled for the next few days, he went straight back to the factory to work.

Ning Jinli cleared the hundreds‑of‑millions loan that he had personally shouldered for the factory.

Then she gave him a generous package with an annual salary of one million.

The salary is more than double the original, and they even paid him two years' wages in advance; this counts as compensation for the injustices he had endured, even though those injustices were not caused by Ning Jinli.

Zheng Houcheng, a man in his forties, cried miserably in front of her and swore he would make the factory bigger and stronger!

The two days passed in a flash.

It was again the day Ning Jinli delivered food to Lin Xian Village.

The suppliers previously arranged for cooperation, just like last time, hauled truckloads of drinking water, compressed biscuits, meat cans, vegetables, and fodder to her factory.

She notified the Cave Guard via Walkie-Talkie, then transmitted them over.

One drop was enough to feed tens of thousands of people and thousands of warhorses for two days.

Because the quantity was large, after Ning Jinli teleported everything to an open area outside the cave, Xiao Qidi personally led the soldiers to receive them.

With last time's experience, the soldiers and civilians this time were even more orderly.

The soldiers handled distribution, and the civilians lined up to collect.

Ning Jinli stood at the cave entrance, absentmindedly watching the bustling crowd.

"Miss Ning," Xiao Qidi walked up to her and performed a clasped‑fist salute.

Ning Jinli snapped back to herself and gave a sweet smile.

The setting sun spilled onto her face, casting a layer of golden soft light, making Xiao Qidi find it hard to look away.

"Is there something on my face?" she lifted her hand to touch her cheek and asked.

"No," Xiao Qidi looked elsewhere, "Miss Ning, the food and water you delivered last time actually left a lot, enough for us to eat another two or three days."

Ning Jinli was surprised, "How could there be so much left? I calculated that one delivery only lasts two or three days. Could it be… not tasty?"

She pondered as she asked, noting that the compressed biscuits indeed tasted mediocre and the texture was poor.

Modern people normally wouldn't eat that stuff.

As for the meat cans, they were certainly far inferior to freshly cooked dishes, and the flavor was very bland.

And the vegetables—here we currently lack the conditions to light fires for seventy thousand people to cook, so the soldiers and civilians eat them raw.

It seems the taste is also not great…

Ning Jinli at that moment thought that the priority was to keep these people alive, so she could only…

"How about this," she said while pondering, "I'll later bring you food with better taste, and—"

"No," Xiao Qidi quickly explained, "Those biscuits and meat are delicious, the vegetables and fruits are fresh and sweet; I've never eaten anything that tasty, and the soldiers and civilians all love them."

Ning Jinli looked bewildered, "Then why don't they finish it?"