Shencheng Bay No.1, Building T5.
Liu Qingning slowly collapsed onto the sofa, fingers clenching the warm smooth Green Satchel Gourd hanging over her chest, as if every ounce of strength had been drained out of her.
Last night, she barely slept a wink.
She just lay there on the bed, over and over replaying in the dark every detail of her eting with Su Yu.
Su Yu’s face, so perfect it didn’t seem real; her words that sounded gentle but were laced with hidden barbs; and that dazzling photo of Tang Song and Jin ixiao standing together.
Jealousy, fear, and a profound sense of betrayal churned inside her, forming a storm she could barely control.
She knew the predecessor of Smile Holding started in the second half of 2016, the very ti they had just entered their freshman year.
Tang Song and Jin ixiao had actually known each other since then.
And in such a tightly bound way, they had worked together all these years.
She wasn’t unfamiliar with Jin ixiao; she could even say she knew her very well—at first from various financial reports and internal docunts, then in even greater depth after joining Qingning Technology.
Both were so‑called "genius girls", but the other ca from a prestigious family, studied at an Ivy League university, earned dual degrees from Harvard, and stirred up waves in international financial markets before she was even twenty.
And her?
She was just a "test‑taking machine" who had walked out of a small town.
Relying on talent and hard work, she’d gotten into Imperial University, taken part in the entrepreneurship competition, gingerly started her own life path, and clawed her way upward.
From any dinsion, Jin ixiao looked like her "perfectly evolved version".
She... simply had no way to compete.
That was why she had said the words "let’s break up" in that video call at dawn.
It wasn’t a probe, nor a joke.
It was that she truly wanted to test it.
She wanted to forcibly insert herself into that outco and see whether she could bear it or not.
She was soone used to math and programming, extrely decisive, always trying to solve problems in the most rational way possible, even if that way brought searing pain.
Yet when that scene actually unfolded, she realized she couldn’t bear it at all.
Before, the two of them had only been ambiguous friends; that feeling was restrained, buried deep, and she could still stay clear‑headed.
But once they truly beca a couple, once those feelings suppressed for more than ten years erupted like a volcano—
She had already sunk deep, unable to pull herself out.
If this ti she really let go completely, it would an she would lose, utterly, to that inexplicably appearing Jin ixiao, lose to the dazzling Su Yu.
It would also an she would lose him forever.
So she could only, in such a sorry state, use a clumsy joke to cover up this rout of a "stress test".
...
Outside the window, the sky was slowly turning light.
"Miss Qingning, breakfast is ready. Would you like to eat now?"
She didn’t know when the voice of the housekeeper, Aunt i, had sounded, cutting through her thoughts.
Liu Qingning ca back to herself, shook her head blankly, and said hoarsely, "I don’t really have an appetite right now, I don’t want to eat."
"Are you feeling unwell? You look really pale." Aunt i walked over with concern. "Should I contact your private doctor?"
"It’s fine, I just didn’t sleep well last night."
Liu Qingning stood up and headed straight toward the bedroom.
Back in the room.
She didn’t turn on the lights, just walked to the bed and sat down.
After a long ti, she took out her phone and opened QQ Zone.
In the album, photos marked with the imprint of Ti lay quietly there.
Almost all of them had his figure in them.
The track, the classroom, the dormitory building, the little grove, the cafeteria...
She just looked, and looked; her eyes grew wet again, and tears slid down one by one.
Only after a long while did she slowly close her eyes.
As if she had gone back to those carefree teenage years.
She didn’t know how long had passed; when she opened her eyes again, all the fragility and sorrow in them had faded.
What replaced them was a cold kind of fla.
She walked into the bathroom and let the icy water cascade down from the top of her head.
Then she went back to bed and drew the curtains.
She forced herself to sleep.
When she woke again, it was already after ten in the morning.
Sunlight slipped through the gap in the curtains, casting a bright patch of light on the floor.
She walked into the living room and said to Aunt i, who was cleaning, "Aunt i, I’m hungry."
Aunt i froze, then joy of sheer relief blood on her face; she quickly put down what she was doing.
"Oh my, what would you like to eat? I’ll make it right away!"
"No need to go to the trouble, Aunt i. Just reheat the porridge and dim sum from this morning, I’m very hungry."
"Okay, just a mont." Aunt i nodded imdiately and turned into the kitchen, bustling around deftly.
Very soon, plates of delicate and plentiful breakfast dishes were brought back onto the table.
After quickly finishing breakfast,
Liu Qingning went to the study and sat down at the desk.
First she turned on the computer and calmly typed into the search bar the keywords "Smile Holding", "Jin ixiao", "TY Precision", "Tang Jin Family Office".
She went through all the public information she could find, reorganizing it from scratch.
Then she picked up her phone and slid her fingertips across the screen.
She found a contact and dialed directly.
The call was quickly picked up.
"Hello! President Liu!"
"Lili, is now a good ti to talk?"
"Hang on a sec..." From the receiver ca hurried footsteps and suppressed breathing; over ten seconds later, Huo Lili finally asked in a low, uneasy voice, "President Liu, is there sothing you need from ?"
"Lili, are you still thinking about changing jobs?"
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