Chapter 82: Jian Yining Learns Yingzi's True Identity

She was lively and active on various top-tier international financial forums, possessing a sharp eye and speaking with the seasoned sophistication of a veteran scholar who had spent decades in finance.

So, for a very long time, Jian Yining assumed that Yingzi was a world-weary, sophisticated middle-aged man!

Jian Yining asked, and Shi Youxuan did not hide anything, laying everything out for him.

From the death of her parents when she was a child, to being adopted by Shi Yucheng, and her foster mother embezzling her inheritance while also trying to take her life.

Her foster sister was even more jealous of her intelligence and tried to harm her time and again, which was why she had no choice but to feign stupidity; at first, it was to escape disaster, but later, she simply got used to it.

Because she was a "fool," her foster mother was much more lenient with her, and although her sister often took pleasure in teasing her, in reality, she never actually suffered any losses...

What should have been a tragic story in Jian Yining's eyes was told by Shi Youxuan in a bantering tone; even the humiliating incident of being a substitute bride was recounted by her in a fascinating way!

Jian Yining now understood why the location Yingzi had set was the Sheng Hanyu Villa.

He had always thought Yingzi had nowhere else to go and was disguising her identity inside the Sheng Hanyu Villa, but it turned out she was the foolish wife Sheng Hanyu had married; no wonder she lived in the villa.

He had always thought that when Yingzi chatted with him, she was sitting in a spacious and bright office, but she was actually hiding behind pillars or in closets!

Recovering from the initial shock, Jian Yining began to feel filled with heartache for Yingzi.

He suddenly grabbed her hand: "Yingzi, from now on, let me..."

The words "take care of you" were not yet out when the phone rang—it rang at a very bad time, and when Jian Yining looked at the caller ID, he wanted to answer it even less!

"Sheng Hanyu?"

Shi Youxuan had sharp eyes and saw it.

"Yeah."

He was about to cut the call, but was stopped: "Answer it, see what he wants. Sheng Hanyu trusts you very much; if there's any news, tell me."

Since she said so, Jian Yining answered: "What is it?"

Sheng Hanyu: "Have you seen Shi Youxuan?" He was so startled he almost dropped his phone on the floor.

Steadying himself, Jian Yining said: "Are you obsessed with looking for people? Isn't it enough that you've posted missing person notices all over the country? You're actually looking for her through me? I haven't seen her."

Sheng Hanyu: "I'm not talking about now, I'm talking about before."

"Even less so before." Jian Yining hung up the phone.

"Ring-ring—"

The ringtone started again; he didn't want to answer, so it just kept ringing endlessly.

"Answer it, Sheng Hanyu wouldn't call you for no reason; he must have discovered something. Ask him what he wants?"

Shi Youxuan blinked her big eyes pitifully; he could ignore Sheng Hanyu's call, but he could not refuse her request.

So he answered, and Sheng Hanyu said: "More than a month ago, what were you doing at Binjiang Road in the morning?"

Binjiang Road was the place where Jian Yining had gone to pick up Shi Youxuan that time, and it was also the morning he first saw Yingzi's true appearance.

"Taking a walk, looking at the scenery, couldn't sleep at night so I went for a drive in the morning—what, are you not allowing that?" Jian Yining made up his mind not to tell him about Shi Youxuan, even if he found evidence, he wouldn't say.

"Beep, beep, beep—"

Sheng Hanyu said nothing and hung up the phone.

Shi Youxuan felt uneasy and restless, so she said goodbye: "I'm going back to see what the situation is."

"Go back, go back where?" Jian Yining realized something was wrong.

"Back to your Villa."

Shi Youxuan paused, then told the truth: "Sheng Hanyu is living in your Villa now, and during the days you were abroad, he was there too."

Jian Yining blocked her path and wouldn't let her leave: "Wait a minute, explain yourself clearly. What do you mean he's been living in my Villa the whole time I was abroad? With you?"

Yingzi had never told him; he had thought the two of them were just strangers who didn't know each other, minding their own business.

It turned out Sheng Hanyu had been living with Yingzi all these days, and right in his own Villa!

Jian Yining's heart felt as if it had been stabbed by a knife; it was bleeding, so painful.

"Oh, you're overthinking it..." Shi Youxuan stomped her foot: "He insisted on moving in, for your sister's sake, and he even mistook my suitcase for your sister's. Didn't I call you and ask you to lure Sheng Hanyu away? Have you forgotten?"

Jian Yining remembered; there was indeed such an incident at the time.

Yingzi had been very urgent in asking for his help, so he lied and said the Sheng Family Old Master was hospitalized... He had originally thought Sheng Hanyu was going to the Villa to pick a fight, but it turned out he had been living there all along!

His heart felt as if it had been soaked in a vat of vinegar; it was incredibly sour.

Seeing that it couldn't be explained clearly, Shi Youxuan simply stopped explaining; whatever, let it be.

"I'm going back." She pulled the door open to leave.

Jian Yining grabbed his coat and followed: "I'll take you back."

No matter how unhappy he was, he couldn't be angry with Shi Youxuan, and he certainly couldn't leave her alone in danger.

That's right, in Jian Yining's view, Sheng Hanyu was a danger to Yingzi.

On the way, the two reached a consensus: put on a show, play dumb, do whatever it takes; in any case, there was only one goal—Sheng Hanyu must not discover that Yingzi was Shi Youxuan!

Seeing Yingzi and Jian Yining return together, Sheng Hanyu felt a bit uncomfortable; he couldn't say why he was uncomfortable, and he didn't want to look into it.

Sheng Hanyu grabbed Jian Yining: "You've come at the right time, I have something to ask you."

"Why are you pulling me? Let go!"

Jian Yining was cold as ice, and Sheng Hanyu wasn't quite used to it.

Jian Yining had never been this cold to him before; even when he made the excessive request to open the coffin, Jian Yining hadn't been this dissatisfied with him.

What was wrong now?

He only assumed that his searching the world for Shi Youxuan had caused Jian Yining's dissatisfaction; after all, Jian Yining had always treated him as a brother-in-law, and now that he was making such a big fuss over another woman, it was normal for him to be unhappy.

Sheng Hanyu didn't hold it against him and still held his sleeve: "I have something to ask you, let's talk privately in my room."

Jian Yining shook him off: "Sheng Hanyu, can you be more self-aware? What do you mean 'your room'? This is my Villa, your room is across the lake, please."

As he spoke, he made a gesture of showing him out, refusing to see him off.

"Stop acting crazy, I really have something to discuss with you."

Sheng Hanyu did not take offense; if he didn't want to go, then so be it. Perhaps he didn't want to talk in private, so saying it in front of Yingzi would be the same.

He opened his phone, pulled up the photo his subordinate had sent him, and let the two of them look: "Look, over a month ago, Shi Youxuan appeared here."

The background shown in the photo was an intersection, and the camera that captured it was used to record traffic violations; it was surprisingly hundred-fold high-definition, capturing Shi Youxuan's movements and even the tear stains on her face with perfect clarity!

She did not show it on her face, but inside, she was in a state of turmoil.

Shi Youxuan had paid a high price to bribe people to delete any footage of her that might have been on the Apartment elevator or hallway surveillance.

But she had not expected that despite all her precautions, she would still be caught in such a clear photo at an intersection.

Jian Yining pretended not to know: "Oh, so this is Shi Youxuan? The young lady is quite pretty, why don't you cherish someone so good-looking? Why is it that every time you only regret it after you've lost them?"

Sheng Hanyu glared at him; he was doing this on purpose!

He was deliberately twisting the knife in his heart.

"Even if you glare at me, I have to say it. Am I wrong? My sister has been dead for five years and you didn't look for her, but as soon as you finished marrying a wife, you remembered to look for my sister, and then your wife went missing..."

"Stop talking." Sheng Hanyu growled, as if he had forgotten something.

"You tell me to stop and I stop? On what grounds?"