Chapter Five: Innocence

Pei Susu tensed as she listened, ready for battle at any moment, her dewy eyes blinking in confusion. Wait, this wasn’t part of my plan, was it? But she had to admit, it was brilliantly executed.

Liang Wenru stared in disbelief at his assistant, who had betrayed him at the last moment. Suddenly, realization dawned, and he stormed furiously toward Pei Susu. “You set me up, didn’t you? You schemed against me. You deliberately assigned him as my lawyer—he’s the pretty boy you keep, isn’t he? You two are working together to ruin me!”

“Order!” The judge slammed the gavel forcefully. “Bang! Bang!” The heavy sound echoed through the courtroom. “This is not a place for brawling and intimidation. Defendant, do you have anything else to say?”

Liang Wenru clenched his fists, grinding his teeth as he returned to his original seat. “Your Honor, this man is not my lawyer. He’s been bribed by Pei Susu to frame me.”

The judge leafed through the documents in hand and asked again, “Does the defendant have any further evidence to submit in response to the plaintiff’s claims?”

“I—no.” Everything he had collected had been handed over to his assistant. There was nothing left. Liang Wenru glared at Pei Susu with hate-filled eyes, as if wishing to tear her apart.

Pei Susu glanced aside, ignoring his gaze, when she suddenly noticed a familiar figure in the corner of the gallery. The man wore a black baseball cap and a mask, but she could just make out his pale neck and a pair of bright, obsidian eyes.

Fu Zhichen?

Almost unconsciously, Pei Susu took a step toward the gallery, trying to see more clearly, but the judge’s sharp gavel brought her attention swiftly back.

“Bang!”

“In light of the defendant’s failure to provide reliable counter-evidence to the plaintiff’s submissions, the court hereby rules as follows: The plaintiff prevails. The defendant is found to have committed adultery and transferred marital assets. The transferred assets, including any not yet transferred, must be returned to the plaintiff...”

When the verdict was read, Pei Susu finally felt her heart settle. She was free of this wretched marriage at last. She wondered how Fu Zhichen was doing.

She instinctively searched the gallery again for that familiar figure, but it was already gone.

...

After her sweeping victory, on the fifteenth floor of Xingye Group’s office building, in the general manager’s office.

Pei Susu was packing her small belongings, arranging them neatly into a cardboard box. Outside the glass walls, one head after another poked out of the cubicles, craning their necks to watch her. Assistant Lin, under the eager gaze of the others, knocked on her office door with a large paper bag in her arms.

“Susu, are you really leaving? Will we ever see you again? Or... why not take me with you?” Her eyes brimmed with tears as she looked at the cool, beautiful woman before her, knowing that beneath that frosty exterior was a warm heart. Pei Susu had devoted five years of her life to Xingye; there was no way she could be leaving without feeling a thing.

Pei Susu lifted her gaze to meet hers, then glanced through the glass wall at the worried, affectionate eyes watching her. A ripple of emotion stirred in her heart.

“Don’t be silly, I’m just leaving Xingye, not the world. When I’m free, I’ll invite everyone out for a meal.” She held up her black-and-gold card with a generous smile. “Your big sister has money. I’ll treat you all to something delicious.”

Lin wiped her tears, and finally, unable to contain themselves, a dozen or so colleagues left their desks to give her a group hug.

“Liang Wenru was too much. How could he treat you like this? You built half of Xingye’s empire with your own hands.”

“He got what he deserved! The divorce case is trending third online, and Xingye’s stock started falling yesterday. Many people are selling off their shares. The price has dropped by half. If it weren’t for everyone’s faith in Old Liang, who knows how much lower it could go.”

“Mistress or not, as soon as news spread that you were leaving, Chu Qingzhu came to ask me for project files. She couldn’t wait to meet with our partners to discuss replacing you.”

...

Pei Susu rapped the heads of the three loudest with her knuckles, admonishing quietly, “Didn’t I teach you to be careful? There are many eyes and ears in this company. If someone with an agenda overhears, you’ll be in trouble.”

“If this big project succeeds, you’ll get a share of the bonus. Get back to work now. Don’t waste the benefits I fought for you.”

Reluctantly, her subordinates returned to their workspaces. “Susu, our gifts and cards are all in the bag. You must read them. If you ever need help, please contact us.”

Chu Qingzhu watched all this from the break room, her nails digging into her palms until they nearly drew blood.

That wretched Pei Susu—even as she’s leaving, she won’t let anyone have peace!

Want to follow Pei Susu out, do you? Just wait until I bring in my friends who studied abroad to replace you. Then you can all leave in disgrace with her!

She turned on her heel, high heels clicking, to find Liang Wenru.

Liang Wenru was already troubled by the plummeting stock price, but when he saw Chu Qingzhu enter, he still welcomed her with a gentle smile.

Chu Qingzhu inwardly exulted as she approached him with a display of composure. Mistress? Only the unloved are called mistresses!

Her slender fingers gently massaged his temples, her every gesture tender and caring, greatly satisfying the man’s vanity.

“Wenru, aren’t there some vacancies at the company? I’d like to contact my friends who have returned from working at Fortune 500 companies. They aren’t satisfied with their current salaries—we could offer them more to lure them here.”

With Pei Susu’s departure, the stock price crash, and several key executives handing in resignations, Liang Wenru was swamped with trouble. Chu Qingzhu’s suggestion was a godsend.

He pulled her into his arms affectionately. “That’s wonderful, Qingzhu. You’ve solved my biggest headache. No matter the cost, bring them in.”

Chu Qingzhu’s words gave Liang Wenru an idea—he began calling headhunters, offering nearly double the industry standard to poach top talent from major companies.

Hmph. So what if Pei Susu’s gone? He would still keep Xingye afloat. He’d show all those who looked down on him that he could do a hundred times better than Pei Susu ever did!

The headhunters, well paid, soon sent out messages to high-level executives at major firms. News of Liang Wenru’s extravagant poaching spread swiftly through the business world. Several leading companies in the city, caught off guard, suddenly lost key personnel and had to halt projects midway. Their goodwill toward Xingye plummeted.

On the fifteenth floor, Pei Susu’s former core project team members heard about Liang Wenru’s reckless headhunting and shivered with dread.

“President Liang is maliciously offering outrageous salaries to poach talent from big firms—it’s disrupting the job market and will ruin Xingye. Each executive has their own critical projects. If they leave midstream to join us, the companies they leave will never swallow that insult.”

“Just now, our three biggest partners all called to ask what’s happening at Xingye. They want to meet and renegotiate our contracts. Those three control two-thirds of our company’s revenue.”

“Let’s go. Let’s all leave. I overheard Chu Qingzhu calling someone to replace us—she clearly wants to reshuffle the team and install her own people.”

“And working under a mistress, under a leader with such a bad reputation... I can’t even imagine how chaotic it’s going to get in the future.”