Chapter 25: Shenhao System in the City (25)

A few days later, the mother of Zhou's cousin-in-law was prosecuted by the Procuratorate for multiple crimes including "bribery and accepting bribes" and "involvement in prostitution and gambling"; their accounts were frozen, and their residence was sealed.

The cousin-in-law of Zhou's mother was also implicated in a school bullying case from several decades ago.

The couple each had their own crimes, and neither could blame the other.

It truly fulfilled the old saying, "Husband and wife are but birds from the same forest; when disaster strikes, they fly their separate ways"—

In order to reduce their sentences and earn merit, the couple exposed each other, biting like dogs and pulling out other clues to cases the police had not yet grasped.

In the end, what awaited them were endless tears behind iron bars.

All of this was followed up by bodyguards sent by Xie Yang; no one else in the Xie Family was aware of it.

Once Rong Yue thought it through, she rested at the hotel to recover from her miscarriage.

Whenever she had time, Xie Yang would accompany her family to look around, buying many local specialties to take back and distribute to relatives who hadn't come.

As for the 180 properties rewarded by the Shenhao System, Xie Yang thought for a moment and contacted Fang Huai in Nancheng to ask if he had any intention of changing jobs.

The assets under her name were increasing, and she urgently needed a reliable manager to handle them for her.

Fang Huai pledged his loyalty without hesitation: "Miss Xie, from now on, you are my boss!"

Xie Yang couldn't help but laugh: "We haven't even discussed the compensation yet, and you've already agreed? Aren't you afraid I'll cheat you?"

Fang Huai found it amusing himself, but he felt that being able to work for Xie Yang made the compensation secondary; being able to access levels he couldn't reach before was enough to benefit him greatly.

In fact, after he started working for Xie Yang, he gained far more than he had imagined—annual salary, commissions, various benefits during holidays, and even... a gentle and beautiful wife.

That's right, after Fang Huai arrived, he brought along Rong Yue, who had a background in management science and engineering, to manage the assets under Xie Yang's name.

One was responsible for external negotiations, the other for organizing accounts; as they spent time together, they developed feelings, though that is a story for another time.

For now, Xie Yang received a phone call that caught her quite by surprise—an invitation to her junior high school graduation eight-year reunion, which was also a wedding for an old classmate.

"Yang Yang, I finally got in touch with you! Let's count how many years it's been since we last met? You can skip the old classmate reunion, but you have to show up for my wedding, right? No matter how busy you are, I don't believe you aren't on holiday on May 1st."

"Yang Yang, we were so close in junior high! I even wanted you to be my bridesmaid! You might not have time to be a bridesmaid, but you have to come drink a toast at my wedding. If you don't show up, won't everyone who knows us think we've had a falling out?"

"That's right, Xie Yang, you aren't coming to Mao Mao's wedding? You're going too far!"

Xie Yang was bewildered: Who is Mao Mao?

Main System: 【...】

Host, if you had paid even the slightest bit of attention, it would be impossible not to know this person.

It had imported all of the original owner's memories into the Host's sea of consciousness.

Xie Yang: "..."

Oh, she had been too lazy to receive them at the time and had only picked out a portion of the memories useful for the present.

Fine then!

She rummaged through a pile of memories on the spot and finally unearthed that particular recollection:

Mao Mao, legal name Mao Sitong, the original owner's desk mate for all three years of junior high.

Once, when the original owner was at a loss after getting her first period, she had lent her two sanitary pads and taught her how to use them; from then on, the original owner considered her her best friend, telling her everything, including the secret of her crush on the class heartthrob.

It wasn't until the second semester of the third year that Mao Sitong and the boy the original owner had a crush on secretly started dating; by the time the original owner found out, the two had already been together for a while.

Upon learning this, she was heartbroken, to the point that she bombed her high school entrance exams and ended up licking her wounds alone at a vocational school.

Meanwhile, Mao Sitong and her boyfriend went to a private high school.

After that, the two drifted apart.

She hadn't expected that, eight years later, Mao Sitong—whom the original owner had categorized as a "betrayer"—would throw a wedding bomb at her.

Xie Yang highly suspected that the other party was doing it on purpose—purposely letting the original owner see how the man she once had a crush on had been captured by her.

"Xie Yang, are you unwilling to come to Mao Mao's wedding because of Lu Kai?"

"Haha! We all know about your crush on Lu Kai back then; if you say it's to avoid suspicion, we won't make things difficult for you."

On the other end of the phone, the frivolous teasing of several other girls could be heard; it seemed Mao Sitong had the speakerphone on.

Xie Yang raised an eyebrow: "Who is Lu Kai?"

"Ooh—"

There was jeering on the other end.

Judging by the voices, there were not only female classmates but also male classmates.

"Kai, someone is asking who you are; do you want to introduce yourself to her?"

A boy leaned toward the speakerphone and laughed playfully: "Hey, Xie Yang, back then you said Kai was the most handsome boy in our grade, and you even brought him drinks at the sports meet; have you forgotten all that?"

Xie Yang chuckled: "My biggest flaw is that I'm forgetful, and my second is that I like to compliment people. As long as they look decent, I'll compliment them regardless of gender. After all these years, I can't even count how many handsome men and beautiful women I've complimented. Which one are you asking about? Give me a clue so I can guess."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Was this a collective silence?

Xie Yang felt it was boring: "Forget about the wedding; I can go to the old classmate reunion. The teachers were quite good to me back then, and I was just looking for a chance to thank them in person."

After hanging up, she dialed Xie Xufang: "Little brother, help me out—what kind of gift is appropriate for junior high teachers?"

Xie Xufang asked: "How old are the teachers?"

Xie Yang recalled carefully: "The homeroom teacher had only graduated a few years prior at the time, so she's at most thirty-five now. The English teacher was an old teacher with at least twenty years of experience; I don't know if she's retired now. There was also a math teacher; we were her first class, and she was very good to us and very warm-hearted. When I slept during morning reading and class and didn't want to study, she would earnestly try to persuade me and talk to me, and before the entrance exams, she repeatedly called us laggards to the office to give us extra tutoring..."

"..."

Xie Xufang finally understood why this cousin's entrance exam scores had been so poor back then, even hitting rock bottom at a vocational school; it turned out she was sleeping during morning reading and class...

He cleared his throat and summarized:

"So that's two younger ones and one older one who might already be retired, right? Younger teachers prefer tech products; how about the latest model phone? Older ones focus more on wellness; health pots are popular now, and a recently released massage device has also had great feedback... No, wait, younger teachers also have more or less issues with their lumbar or cervical spines; why not give everyone a massage device, paired with a health pot..."

Before Xie Xufang could finish, he heard Xie Yang say: "All these bits and pieces are too much trouble; let's just give them each a house!"

Xie Xufang: "!!!"

In the end, it was my perspective that was too narrow!