“6:30pm, let’s meet up at the cafe nearby. Manager Zhou.”

Li Xia did not agree to meet Manager Zhou after seeing the message.

Firstly, this matter was simple and there was nothing to discuss, she would pay Manager Zhou to fire those people. All he had to do was to fulfill her request. Secondly, An’an would end school at 4:30pm and she did not want to bring a child to discuss such matters.

She directly replied with a short message to Manager Zhou and straightforwardly asked if he was willing to carry out her request.

Li Xia was familiar with how Manager Zhou was a money lover, she quickly received a reply and the answer was as she had expected.

Manager Zhou replied that he could fire the two male colleagues that had harassed her within a week. As for Cai Fuqiang, it was not that simple as they were both department managers. It would not be that easy for him to get rid of a person with equal status so he needed more time.

Li Xia agreed to give Manager Zhou time.

After she finished replying, Li Xia curved her lips into a smile as she held the bank card in her hand.

Those three people that had bullied Xu Zhiyu would definitely need to be punished, but she could not give the 5 million she promised to the manager.

She could not do something like bribing others.

Manager Zhou was not a good person and he most likely would have been bribed numerous times before. When the time came, she just needed to expose the news that Manager Zhou was trying to deal with Cai Fuqiang. Then, they would naturally fight amongst themselves and this would serve as retribution for both sides.

Actually, Li Xia had also imagined countless possibilities after she knew that the system had given her a bank card with a limitless amount of money. 

Such as directly buying the company she disliked, or making anyone who offended her disappear from her line of sight. However, reality proved to her that she not only needed money, but also power.

She knew how greedy Manager Zhou was so she could spend money to make Manager Zhou work for her. However, if she were to bring along a few hundred million to find the president of the company and say, “I’ll give you a sum of money, fire XXX.”

He would most likely treat her like she was crazy and directly send her to the mental hospital.

Li Xia finally understood that with money, she could do many things but there were more things that could not be done with money, so those rich people were even more hardworking than normal people.

She had to use this sum of money to turn herself into an influential person step-by-step.

Li Xia sighed and exclaimed that life was not easy.

However, once she thought of the remaining balance in her card, she was once again in a pleasant mood.

No matter what, living a rich life was better than being poor.

She caught a taxi to the preschool to fetch An’an and on the way there, Li Xia remembered that incident in the morning at the restaurant with Zhang Xinru. She had most likely made Zhang Xinru furious so Zhang Xinru would definitely make a move after she returned.

In the original plot, the He Family had directly arranged for people to kill Xu Zhiyu after they forcibly snatched the child. After killing her, they even disguised the scene as a suicide.

Besides Xu Zhiyu’s son, Xu Zhiyu did not have any other relatives so no one looked into her death. Therefore, after a few days of perfunctory investigation, they closed the case with her suicide.

Li Xia unconsciously touched her neck.

Currently, An’an was the only child of the He Family so the He Family would not harm him, but that might not be the same for her, who was the bothersome “mother”.

Li Xia realized that she could not sit still and wait for her death, she had to ensure their safety immediately.

Firstly, the He Family already knew Xu Zhiyu’s address so they could not stay in the current house anymore. Also, An’an’s preschool was only a normal public kindergarten so in regards to the safety aspect, it might not be thorough enough. An’an had to transfer to another preschool.

While Li Xia was thinking of her future safety plan, the taxi driver reminded her that she had reached her destination.

Li Xia hurriedly paid the driver and got down the car. After waiting for a while in front of the kindergarten, she saw a teacher bringing a group of children out. Just as she widened her eyes to search for An’an in that group of children, she suddenly felt a force that pounced on her leg.

An’an hugged her and shouted loudly, “Mummy!”

“An’an, just where did you appear from? Mummy didn’t even see you.” Li Xia pinched An’an’s cheeks lightly.

An’an used his tiny hands to point in a direction and replied, “An’an saw mummy instantly, that’s because An’an’s mummy is the prettiest among everyone’s mummy.”

“Oh my, An’an, did you wipe honey on your mouth? How could you be so sweet!” Even at such a young age, he’s so good with his words it’s amazing. “Such a good boy, mummy will reward you, what do you want?”

An’an blinked his eyes. “Then I want to eat a hamburger!”

Li Xia wanted to give him her consent but on second thought, hamburgers were junk food and he was already slightly fat. Not to mention, eating foods like hamburgers would make it easier to gain weight. “How about we eat hamburgers on another day? Mummy bought you some new toys today and it’s at home. Let’s return home to see those new toys, how about that?”

An’an’s eyes lit up once he heard that he had new toys. He immediately gave up on hamburgers and dragged Li Xia’s hand in a hurry, making a fuss about wanting to go home more quickly.

There was no homework for preschool so An’an immediately started playing with the remote-controlled car that Li Xia had bought in the afternoon happily. Meanwhile, Li Xia started to worry about that night’s dinner.

There were quite an amount of ingredients in the fridge but the number of dishes she could cook was really limited. In the past when she lived alone, she would just eat outside when she was at work during the day, then just make do with eating noodles at night after she returned to her rented room. She was truly not skilled in cooking.

There was no other choice besides ordering a takeaway.

It was good that there were all kinds of choices in the takeaway apps nowadays, such as fitness meals, weight loss meals, and kid’s meals. However, she could not just order takeaway forever as the food from outside was, in the end, unhealthy.

Therefore, Li Xia added another note to her memo pad—hire a housemaid that was good at cooking kid’s meals.

After dinner, An’an watched cartoons in the living room while Li Xia sat beside him and started sorting out her memo pad.

Change a house, hire a housemaid for An’an, change to a kindergarten with better security measures.

Oh right, there were bodyguards too!

Not only must there be bodyguards at home, but there must also be some to accompany them.

However, personal bodyguards seemed to be too conspicuous, it was better to buy a car and hire the bodyguard as a driver. It would make more sense and be more convenient to travel by car.

Just as Li Xia was concentrated on planning how to secure their safety, Zhang Xinru and He Yanxi started arguing in the He Mansion.

“The result for the paternity test has come out, how long is your son going to be with that woman?” Zhang Xinru demanded.

“I know, I’ve already sent people to persuade Xu Zhiyu, this matter cannot be rushed.” As He Yanxi spoke, he took off his suit coat and placed it on the back of a chair before loosening his tie.

“I think that woman is determined in not letting your son return to the He Family, why should we continue playing along with her.”

After the past few days, she had already hated Xu Zhiyu to her bones, but because she was infertile, she still had to listen to her husband regarding this matter.

“In the end, she’s the biological mother of that child. I don’t want to make things too awkward and cause mental trauma for the child.” He Yanxi pulled out the office chair and continued, “Xinru, I’ll deal with this matter properly so you don’t need to care about it.” 

As he spoke, he turned on his laptop and started to have a headache as he recalled the contents of the last meeting. Currently, he only wanted to solve the matters on hand quietly.

He Yanxi was fully concentrated on solving his troublesome work so he seemed half-hearted when speaking to Zhang Xinru. From Zhang Xinru’s point of view, it turned into He Yanxi being indifferent to her because of Xu Zhiyu, it was obvious he still had feelings for Xu Zhiyu.

Once she thought that, she felt wronged and questioned He Yanxi, “What do you mean the child’s biological mother? He Yanxi, do you still have feelings for that woman? Are you going to get together with her again using the child as a bridge?”

“How is that possible? Xinru, don’t think of such nonsense and go rest. I still have a tough project to deal with.”

He Yanxi could not understand Zhang Xinru’s train of thought. How could she relate what he had said to him still having feelings for Xu Zhiyu?

If not for the fact that he went to the school’s anniversary as a notable alumnus and heard of Xu Zhiyu and her son from his old classmates, he would not have remembered such a person at all. Not to mention knowing that Xu Zhiyu was pregnant when they had broken up back then.

Zhang Xinru was then sent out of the study room. Recalling Xu Zhiyu conceitedness in the past few days and He Yanxi’s attitude towards her, she felt as if there was a crisis in her marriage.

Not to mention, He Yanxi and her were in a business marriage without much feelings involved. Meanwhile, Xu Zhiyu was He Yanxi’s girlfriend for two years back then.

In addition, being infertile in a rich and influential family equaled to having no guarantee of one’s status. If one thought carefully, there were countless cases of the mistress successfully kicking out the original wife and taking the seat for herself.

Zhang Xinru thought that she had to nip the possibility in the bud.

She immediately called her parents once she thought so.

Her mother, Li Shulan, who loved her deeply, was infuriated once she heard what her daughter had experienced.

After the mother and daughter had a heart-to-heart talk, Li Shulan comforted Zhang Xinru through the phone. “Ruru, you’re the most suitable wife for Yanxi in terms of your status, it won’t be so easy for others to separate the both of you. You should just be at ease and continue to be Mdm He, the both of you will be an affectionate couple. With mum here, there’s nothing else you need to worry about.”

Hearing her mother’s words, Zhang Xinru’s worries were eased and she answered sweetly, “Thank you mum, I’ll go back and visit the both of you soon.”

The Zhang conglomerate and He conglomerate were almost on par, the two families had respectively dominated their fields and there was no overlap. However, after the two families were united by marriage, they both invested in a new emerging industry which was developing quite well the past two years.

Thereafter, the marriage union of the Zhang and He Family became an example for others in the same social circle, resulting in many conglomerates also following suit.

It would be a piece of cake for such an influential enterprise to deal with Xu Zhiyu, who had no power.

Zhang Xinru thought through such logic on the sofa and her frustration turned into enlightenment. Disputing with Xu Zhiyu was simply lowering herself and not worth it at all.

However, she had never expected that the current Xu Zhiyu was already not the Xu Zhiyu of the past.

    ——

After she put the little fatty An’an to sleep, Li Xia started to examine the mission of this world again while lying on the bed.

After going through the original plot again, Li Xia noticed a key point—Zhang Xinru’s pregnancy.

In the original plot, Zhang Xinru was pregnant with her own child two years after the He Family had snatched An’an away from her. Naturally, the child from the womb of the real wife was more likable than An’an, thus everyone started to ignore and give An’an the cold shoulder.

That’s why she only had to last two years until Zhang Xinru becomes pregnant, then the He Family would not demand An’an to return to the He Family anymore.

Two years were not short, but it was much better than the dozens of years that Li Xia had assumed previously.

She was delighted, then countless different ideas started to appear in her head.

How about I just run away with little fatty? Anyways, I have the money so I could live well no matter where I go.

Just at that moment, a cold voice could be heard in her head. “Please forget such a thought, Ms. Koi Fish. If you stray away from the original world’s map, the system shall automatically judge this mission as a failure.”

Li Xia. “…”

System-kun. “A friendly reminder: it is inadvisable for you to take such a shortcut. Also, your qualifications to be reborn shall be taken back as punishment from the system if you fail your mission.”

Li Xia. “…”

System-kun. “That’s right, a friendly reminder for the side mission, you must ‘flaunt’ to increase your Wealth Flaunting Bar, spending your money normally would not increase it.”

The method of completing this side mission was really… ordinary, but once she recalled the feeling of flaunting her wealth, Li Xia could not help but exclaim, it really feels too good to show off my wealth.

System-kun disappeared again after his friendly reminders.

Li Xia then continued pondering about the main mission.

Since she could not break away from the original plot’s map, then it definitely would not be an easy two years for her.

Li Xia felt that if she wanted to completely solve the problem, she had to settle it from the roots.

Naturally, the He Family was this “root”.

 

    

Author notes:

System-kun. “You must ‘flaunt’ to increase your Wealth Flaunting Bar.”

Li Xia. “It’s not that I want to purposely flaunt my wealth but the system won’t let me keep a low profile!”