A few minutes later, Li Qiao left the police station with Li Shaoquan.
Once they got into Liu Yun's car, Li Qiao gazed at the dazzling nightscape outside the window. After a brief silence, she asked in a calm voice,
"Does Guan Mingyu live near Jiangjing Haoting too?"
Guan Mingyu had once mentioned that she and Li Shaoquan had met through people in the neighborhood.
Slouched and dispirited in the back seat, Li Shaoquan answered weakly,
"Maybe. I didn't ask… I was too focused on her face."
Jiangjing Haoting.
As soon as Li Shaoquan got out of the car, he started looking around warily, as if terrified that the siblings might jump out and force him into marriage again.
Li Qiao rolled down the window in the back seat, her gaze cool as she looked at him.
"Be careful for the next few days. Don't go out unnecessarily."
Even though Guan Mingyu had agreed to break up, her brother Guan Mingchen's little-sister obsession meant he might not let things go so easily.
Li Shaoquan, looking like he'd just been lectured, stood nervously by the car and glanced around again. Then he asked cautiously,
"Do you think they'll come back? Am I in danger?"
All from an online relationship—and he'd almost lost half his life.
Li Qiao shot him a frosty glance and rolled up the window with a cold and ruthless final remark:
"You brought this on yourself."
As he watched the Bentley slowly drive away, Li Shaoquan clutched his chest in mock heartbreak.
His golden backer was so cold, so heartless.
——
By 8:30 PM, the night was deep. The Bentley pulled into the Li family's villa complex.
Li Qiao thanked Liu Yun, then dragged her tired self into the house.
Once upstairs in her third-floor bedroom, she tossed her jacket onto the back of a chair and walked straight to the balcony to sit down.
The evening breeze rustled gently, blowing stray strands of hair across her face.
She rubbed her brow and let down her hair from its bun, the smooth strands spilling across her shoulders.
After a few quiet seconds, she got up and returned to the room to retrieve her laptop.
With a few practiced clicks, she pulled up some information on the screen. Her expression was unreadable.
Guan Mingyu did indeed live near Jiangjing Haoting—but it was in the basement of an old walk-up building across the street.
——
The next morning, 7:00 AM.
The sun was shining brightly—a rare clear day in the middle of the rainy season.
Dressed in a sky-blue women's casual suit, Li Qiao drove out of the house. Today was her first day reporting in at the Yanhuang Group.
As always, the Monday morning traffic was a nightmare. She arrived at the Yanhuang headquarters with fifteen minutes to spare before 8:00.
After registering at the front desk, she received a temporary employee badge and passed through the security gates into the elevator lobby.
Rush hour meant the elevators were packed.
Men and women clutched breakfast or briefcases, all eyes fixed on the numbers climbing above the elevator doors.
Li Qiao stood at the very back of the cabin, overhearing snippets of work conversations all around—an atmosphere of intense professionalism.
Five minutes later, she reached the top floor—Level 101.
In stark contrast to the noisy lower levels, the floor housing the Board of Directors was solemn and quiet.
At the front desk of the board's office area, the secretary was touching up her makeup in a compact mirror. Spotting Li Qiao, she quickly stood up and, after confirming her identity, guided her through the intern onboarding process.
When that was done, they arrived at a single-person workstation just outside the chairman's office.
The secretary glanced at the documents in her hand and explained patiently,
"Your internship role is Special Assistant to the Chairman. All your tasks will be assigned directly by him. Here's the employee handbook—take a look first. If anything's unclear, just ask me."
Li Qiao flipped through the handbook and gave the secretary a relaxed smile.
"Alright. Thank you."
The secretary waved it off casually but kept glancing back at her while walking away.
She had been at Yanhuang for six months, and this was the first time she'd ever heard that the chairman had personally approved a special intern assistant.
And it was a young girl.
More importantly—drop-dead gorgeous.
Now she was feeling a real sense of crisis.
Back at her own reception desk, she didn't even bother with her makeup anymore—just opened the company group chat, ready to gossip.
But before she could say anything, she saw over 200 unread messages.
The main topic?
"Who's the girl in the blue suit in the elevator this morning?"
"Which department is she in?"
"Name, age, photo, contact info—please, I'm begging here…"