Chapter 111: Extortion

Jian Anan cursed as she walked, completely unaware that she had already wandered deep into the Jin family’s inner grounds.

On the other end, Zhou Xiancheng was still raging. “When are you finally going to transfer the money to me? We agreed from the start that once you got the phone, you’d pay me! I already saw the livestream today. If I hadn’t come looking for you, were you just planning to pretend to be dead and never contact me? Let me tell you, no chance! I have proof of you!”

Jian Anan’s expression stiffened, and alarm flared in her heart.

Every time she went looking for Zhou Xiancheng, she was only thinking about how to scheme against Song Wannning, and always forgot to pay attention to this matter.

But that could not be right.

Every time she used Zhou Xiancheng’s phone, she had secretly checked to see whether it was recording, and there had been nothing at all. So why was he saying he had proof?

Unless the proof was fake?

Was Zhou Xiancheng saying this just to scare her, so he could squeeze even more money out of her?

Zhou Xiancheng knew Jian Anan had gone silent for a long time, and guessed she must be wondering whether the evidence was real or not.

A cold, sinister look crossed his face. With a light press on the recorder in his hand, Jian Anan’s voice came spilling out.

“All right, all right, I know. Since I held you up because of me, I won’t shortchange you on the money. Is a thousand enough?”

That was Jian Anan’s voice.

“A thousand? That’s nowhere near enough!”

That was Zhou Xiancheng’s voice.

“At most two thousand. Don’t push it!”

...

Jian Anan still remembered this. It was the conversation she had with him when she went to look for him on the day of the talent competition performance.

Her face went deathly pale. “How could you secretly record me?!”

“Why not? If I hadn’t recorded proof, wouldn’t you just try to renege on the debt? Let me tell you, I don’t have a job anymore. I don’t mind dragging this out with you slowly!”

Jian Anan clenched her teeth. “If you want money from me, fine. But you have to hand over the evidence.”

She was truly too poor.

She could no longer spend money the way she used to, buying off paparazzi whenever she wanted.

The moment she thought of that, Jian Anan remembered that money-grubbing bastard of a paparazzo—the most dedicated reporter in history.

Dedicated, my foot.

Was his idea of dedication to make money off her?

What should have been settled for fifty thousand had turned into one hundred and twenty thousand, leaving only thirty thousand in her account now.

And she had never intended to repay Zhou Xiancheng in the first place, so she had never bothered calculating exactly how much she owed him.

If he started demanding a fortune too, wouldn’t she be finished?

“At the very least, it has to be one hundred thousand.”

Zhou Xiancheng, as expected, did not let her get away with it. The instant he spoke, Jian Anan wanted to kill him.

“That’s impossible. With the deals between us, how could there possibly be that much money? Stop daydreaming. I’m not giving you a single cent more!”

Zhou Xiancheng was getting anxious too.

“How could there not be? If you hadn’t made me steal the phone, would I have been reassigned and lost such a good job? Do you know how hard I worked to get that position? And then the director just said that there was no need for anyone in that idle post and kicked me out with one sentence!”

“Do you know how unbearable my life is now? I have a home I can’t go back to and don’t dare go back to! Every day they ask me how work is, whether it’s hard, and when I’ll be able to send money home! I don’t even dare reply to their messages. I can only hide out in the cheapest shabby little place outside! All of this is because of you!”

By the end, Zhou Xiancheng’s voice had turned shrill and unhinged. Jian Anan could hear that his mental state seemed off, and she was afraid he might really come looking for her at the Jin family home in the capital city.

She had no choice but to back down for the moment. “I can give you money, but I don’t have that much on hand right now. I can only give you... ten thousand first!”

“No good! That’s far too little!”

“What do you expect me to do? I’ve already agreed to give you money. What more do you want? How am I supposed to produce that much cash in an instant? Am I supposed to go around scraping together money for you?”

Jian Anan’s string of questions left Zhou Xiancheng speechless. After a pause, he only said, “You’re a somewhat famous female celebrity. How could you not even be able to come up with one hundred thousand...”

Jian Anan tightened her grip on the phone, and a mocking smile slowly crept onto her face.

Why couldn’t she come up with it? Hadn’t she been ruined by that whole family of bloodsuckers?

“You—”

Jian Anan was about to answer when she suddenly heard movement in the bushes behind her. She immediately covered the phone with her hand and shouted, “Who’s there?!”

“Well, well. I was planning to take a nap, but I never expected to hear such an exciting little drama. My... future sister-in-law?”

From the empty bushes nearby, a stunningly handsome boy abruptly sat up.

He had white hair and black eyes. Even his eyebrows and eyelashes were white. His thin lips curved slightly, revealing the sharp point of a canine on one side. His lips were pale, his skin was very fair, and under the bright sunlight he almost looked dazzlingly stark.

His hair was also very long.

If he had spoken, Jian Anan would have thought he was a girl.

She paused. Since he had called her sister-in-law, could he be Jin Jianyi’s younger brother?

But why did the two of them not look alike at all?

And with all that white hair and white brows, could he be sick with something serious?

He looked like a feeble little creature.

She had never heard Jin Jianyi mention this before. Could it be that the Jin family disliked this child?

After all, no one wanted to raise a child who cost money like water.

If Song Wannning had been there, she would certainly have recognized that this was the second most formidable supporting character in the book, apart from Wen Jingxing.

He was the Jin family’s second son, Jin Weiyi.

Back when Jin Jianyi was trapped in Jian Anan’s emotionally manipulative love scheme, it was also the most down-and-out period for the Jin family.

Because Jin Zhangdong had only struck it rich by sheer luck, catching the tail end of a rising market. He did not truly have much power to control the market, so he could only be dazzled by all the temptations around him and ended up losing a great deal of money.

Even the company’s employees had already decided to jump ship.

Unexpectedly, it was the much overlooked Jin Weiyi who stepped up and, with a single hand, brought the entire company back to life.

After that, the company only grew larger and larger.

Since this man could thrive so effortlessly in the stock market, it proved that he was not only clever, but also sly and far from harmless.

He did not like this future sister-in-law.

Not in the book’s original plot, and not in this first meeting either.

“You are...?” Jian Anan had barely started to speak when a servant came hurrying over from afar.

“Second Young Master! You scared us to death. How could you hide here? If Madam finds out, she’ll punish us!”

Jin Weiyi stood up a little impatiently. “I know. I’m going back now.”

Before leaving, he gave Jian Anan a meaningful glance.

That stare sent a chill straight down Jian Anan’s spine.

On the other end, Zhou Xiancheng was still none the wiser. “Hello? Hello? Are you even listening to me?”

Covering the phone, Jian Anan said, “I’ll transfer ten thousand to you later. Once I’ve gathered enough money, I’ll pay you the rest back.”

Yesterday I was told to work overtime, so I didn’t have time to write, QAQ

There will still be two updates a day from here on out.