"…Do you have chuunibyou or something?"
Gao Liyuan reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, immediately firing off a triple denial. "I don’t, I’m not, don’t talk nonsense."
Her denial only made Yang Jingying more suspicious.
But at this point, it didn’t matter anymore.
"Let’s leave it at that. I’ll wait for your good news."
Yang Jingying offered some encouragement before hanging up the phone.
They added each other on WeChat.
Yang Jingying then called her secretary and transferred a small fortune to Gao Liyuan.
She walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window, where the bustling skyline of Magic City stretched out before her.
"What on earth did Zhou Qiaoqiao do?"
"Me? Lose? Hah… as if that’s possible."
Yang Jingying narrowed her eyes and muttered to herself.
Yang Jingying had provided Gao Liyuan with every possible resource.
Things like Zhou Qiaoqiao’s phone number and social media accounts.
With these tools, Gao Liyuan was unstoppable.
She hacked into Zhou Qiaoqiao’s phone.
It was risky, but the potential payoff was huge!
As the saying goes, fortune favors the bold.
She went all in.
A few hundred billion in liquid assets was no small sum.
Unless it vanished into thin air—
like some kind of system-level cheat ability!
But as long as it was handled by humans,
no matter how careful or meticulous they were,
there would always be some trace left behind.
After some effort,
Gao Liyuan’s eyes were bloodshot, and she was drenched in sweat, but she finally figured out where the money had gone.
Holy cow!
It had all been invested in bonds.
Although most of her own wealth was tied up in the bank,
she occasionally dabbled in stocks and futures.
She wasn’t a professional,
but she had a decent understanding of the market.
The recent uproar over the new oil field was practically common knowledge.
Even if you knew nothing about stocks,
a quick glance at trending topics online would tell you everything.
No need to dig deeper.
"Oh my god!"
"Several hundred billion poured into bonds? That’s an insane amount of money!"
"I’ve never seen that much cash in my entire life!"
"Comparing vaults to vaults, it’s enough to make you die of envy!!!!"
Gao Liyuan’s chest heaved as the news shook her to her core.
You think you’re on the first floor,
you assume they’re on the third floor,
but in reality, they’ve already reached the stratosphere!
One word—unbelievable!
Absolutely unbelievable!
How are the rest of us female leads supposed to compete with that?!
The competition is so cutthroat,
we’re all getting crushed.
How are we supposed to keep up?
Gao Liyuan spent another half an hour processing this bombshell.
Glug, glug, glug—
She downed the remaining half bottle of soda in one go!
"I’ve got to tell Yang Jingying. No way I’m suffering alone—let them share in my misery!"
Once she made up her mind,
Gao Liyuan called Yang Jingying.
A moment later,
the call connected.
Yang Jingying’s voice sounded surprised.
"Oh? That was fast. You’re quite efficient."
Money is good, money is great, money makes everything better!
The right timing is everything.
With the power of money, things move faster than you can imagine.
Gao Liyuan ignored Yang Jingying’s teasing and got straight to the point.
"Sis, I found out where the money went."
"Alright, what did she do with it?"
Yang Jingying picked up her cup, sipping her coffee as she asked.
"Zhou Qiaoqiao invested it all in crude oil bonds—hundreds of billions! My god!"
Gao Liyuan blurted out, completely disregarding her image.
Image? She didn’t have one.
This was already her being restrained.
If it were a stranger,
she would’ve unleashed a torrent of colorful language.
"Hah… hundreds of billions dumped into futures? She’s going to lose it all. Why haven’t I seen her crying yet?"
"No!!! Not futures, bonds!"
"Oh, I see. So it’s crude oil bo—bonds!!!!???"
Crash—
Yang Jingying’s cup slipped from her hand,
shattering into pieces on the floor.
Coffee splattered everywhere,
some of it landing on her nude-colored stockings.
At that moment,
Yang Jingying was too stunned to even feel the pain.
Her mind went blank,
exploding into chaos.
"All… all of it in crude oil bonds?"
"How… how could she dare?"
Yang Jingying’s lips trembled.
The Yang family had that volcanic mud skincare formula,
but to match the profits Zhou Qiaoqiao made from those crude oil bonds,
they’d have to work day and night for decades!
And with the way things were going,
crude oil prices would keep plummeting.
Closing the gap between them would take at least a century!
A hundred years from now,
the world would be a completely different place.
By then, Xu Mo and Zhou Qiaoqiao’s grandchildren—no, great-grandchildren—would already be getting married.
Thinking back to Zhou Qiaoqiao’s smug, confident demeanor,
Yang Jingying couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath, gritting her teeth.
"That b****!!!!!!"
"I never thought you were that kind of woman!"
"You must’ve gotten the intel from eavesdropping on Xu Mo’s thoughts."
"I don't believe a woman like you would go all-in without being absolutely sure!"
"Little Mo is too naive to have been tricked into revealing information."
Yang Jingying muttered to herself.
Anger had completely distorted her face!
What is a surprise?
This is what you call a damn surprise.
She was still grinding away at her 9-to-5 job, working hard to save up for the future—a home for her and Xu Mo, and their future children.
But someone had already snuck in and stolen the crystal.
Not only that.
They even wanted to dive into the fountain for a little fun.
This was simply too much!
Way too much!!!!
On the other side.
Gao Liyuan had just heard some shocking news.
The pieces of the puzzle she couldn’t figure out before suddenly clicked into place.
"Ah---------Zhou Qiaoqiao, you’re actually that kind of woman!"
Gao Liyuan was utterly stunned.
The regret in her heart was overwhelming!!!!
She hated that she hadn’t met Xu Mo first.
She hated that she hadn’t thought of such a cunning move.
Using information gleaned from eavesdropping.
To make even more money.
That way, she could have both a husband and a secret stash of cash.
Yang Jingying took a moment to collect herself, but she still hadn’t fully recovered.
Meanwhile, Gao Liyuan was growing impatient.
"Sister, what should we do now?"
"Avengers, assemble!"
They needed to use the female lead to defeat the female antagonist.
Now, they had only one common enemy.
--------And that was Zhou Qiaoqiao!
If they continued to fight separately.
Then in the end.
The only one laughing would be Zhou Qiaoqiao!
Yang Jingying would never allow such a thing to happen!