Chapter 3: Retaliation Without Mercy

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Sitting in the dressing room while waiting for Lin Shanni to fetch her clothes, Deling finally noticed the increasing pain on the top of her foot. It turned out that when the cup shattered earlier, the fragments had splashed onto her foot, leaving a cut.

Lin Shanni entered carrying her clothes and immediately spotted the injury on Deling’s foot. She sighed, “You didn’t even close the deal and now you’ve gotten hurt. What’s the point of all this?”

Deling asked herself the same question—what exactly was she hoping to gain? Simply to secure a good project quickly and earn more money.

Before coming, she had thought that even though their breakup had been messy, he was a businessman after all and surely understood the importance of separating business from personal matters better than she did.

But she had forgotten that Ye Hongxiao never let go of a grudge.

Deling unzipped and quickly changed back into her own clothes—a style completely unlike the borrowed outfit she had taken from Lin Shanni at the last minute.

Lin Shanni sighed again and handed her a card from the drawer. “I can’t help you with work, but take this money for now. The password is your birthday.”

Deling wanted to refuse, but after a moment of hesitation, she accepted it. Her financial situation could not afford any pride; she simply thanked her and slipped the card into her pocket.

...

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Dragging her exhausted body home, Deling noticed a white paper stuck on her door as she left the elevator. She tore it off and quickly skimmed it—it was a bank overdue notice.

A prickling anxiety rose in her chest.

She crumpled the paper and tossed it in the trash before entering.

As she bent down to change her shoes, a shoe print on the pale carpet caught her attention and jolted her. She stopped mid-action and strode into the bedroom.

Sure enough, the room had been ransacked, a complete mess.

Her jewelry box was overturned and in chaos. She counted each piece carefully. Aside from the gold jewelry she had long ago taken and stored at Lin Shanni’s, a Van Cleef & Arpels necklace was missing.

The door lock wasn’t broken. Who else but her boyfriend, Wang Siyang, could so precisely find the most valuable piece in her jewelry box?

She pulled out her phone and hesitated for a long moment before dialing that familiar number.

The call connected.

“Where are you?”

“Deling... just one more time. Trust me, this time I’m absolutely sure. I’ll win it back for sure...” Wang Siyang’s voice came from the other end, but Deling no longer wanted to listen. She pressed the hang-up button.

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As she ended the call, Ye Hongxiao’s light, careless words from the club echoed suddenly in her mind.

“I’m really curious… what charm does your boyfriend have that makes you humble yourself, begging me, your ex, for a project to make money, while he—a mere employee—is out enjoying himself at the best hotel in Haizhou?”

Her chest tightened with frustration. She sat down despondently on the bed.

Time passed without her noticing until her phone rang. Seeing the caller ID, her chest clenched and her breath grew tense. “Doctor Xu…”

Before she could finish speaking, the voice on the other end interrupted, “Deling, your mother’s condition has worsened. Please come as soon as you can!”

“I’m coming right away!”

Grabbing her car keys, she went downstairs, but no matter how she tried, the car wouldn’t start. She suddenly remembered that the fuel tank had been nearly empty when she returned the car in the afternoon.

She ran out of the residential complex, but couldn’t spot a single empty taxi. She pulled out her phone and tried to hail a ride, but after trying for a long time, no one accepted the request.

Pacing anxiously along the roadside, she was completely unaware of the black sedan parked across the street.