A few minutes later, Su Yuhan was squatting next to the money tree, her eyes filled with tears and her face a mask of reluctance.
"Ah Cai, my dear Ah Cai, I won't be here anymore starting today. No one will come chat with you after work to keep you company. You have to be a good tree all by yourself, and don't miss me too much."
Sister Zhang and the other woman: "..."
The scene was so dramatic that for a moment, neither of them knew what to say.
Because of this, when they saw Su Yuhan pull a bottle of unidentified liquid from her bag and pour it all into the tree's pot, neither of them managed to stop her in time.
By the time they reacted, the bottle of unidentified liquid was already empty.
"Xiao Liu, what did you just pour...?"
"Plant food," Su Yuhan said without batting an eye as she put the bottle away. "A couple of days ago, I noticed this money tree's leaves were a little yellow. I figured it might be lacking nutrients. I happen to have a money tree at home, so I always keep some suitable plant food on hand and brought some over. I was originally planning to give it to the tree some other time, but now that I'm leaving, I'm afraid I won't get another chance to see it..."
As she spoke, Su Yuhan squeezed out a few more crocodile tears, prematurely mourning the money tree that had just been doused with a large, undiluted dose of weed killer and was not long for this world.
The two women, not suspecting a thing, sighed once more at the unpredictability of life and let Su Yuhan go.
The moment she stepped out of Shenghong Real Estate's main entrance, the look of regret and reluctance on Su Yuhan's face vanished. She pulled out her phone to message her behind-the-scenes boss.
[Mission complete. Awaiting enemy's money tree to wither. Results guaranteed within three days. Await confirmation.]
Her boss immediately sent back an "OK" sticker and said that his scout on the inside would keep a close watch on the money tree's condition. As soon as there were results, he would send her the final payment.
With that, the matter was settled, but the turmoil within Shenghong Real Estate was just beginning.
First, the money tree at the entrance of the finance department inexplicably withered overnight. It was seen as an ominous, almost supernatural, sign, and it sent a wave of panic through the company.
Not long after, the company's boss was "taken away for tea," which threw the company into chaos and caused its stock to drop by several points.
Just as everyone was on edge, thinking they were about to lose their jobs, the boss's son—their general manager, Lin Haoyang—suddenly submitted a trove of evidence. It detailed how the purchasing department manager and the head of finance had colluded over the past few years to falsify accounts and use substandard materials, turning several of the company's buildings into dangerously shoddy "tofu-dreg" structures. This proof of their illegal activities and of them swindling their own employer was enough to successfully get his father released.
The moment Boss Lin got out, he grabbed his son and demanded to know what was going on, especially where he had gotten that crucial evidence.
"I already had someone look into it. The emails were all sent from a computer belonging to a company employee. To be specific, they came from a new hire the finance department recruited a few days ago."
Boss Lin was stunned. "You mean to tell me the finance department hired a newbie who, in just a few days, managed to dig up all these problematic old accounts and send them to you?"
"...To be precise, she was only on the job for three days." 'And on the fourth day, she was driven out by someone with connections.'
"The ancestors are watching over us! Heaven has not forsaken the Lin Family! This person saved me and the company—he's a benefactor to our family! And we absolutely cannot afford to neglect such a talented individual. You're coming with me to the finance department to find him right now. We'll thank him personally, father and son."
Lin Haoyang rubbed his nose, looking guilty. "It's already too late."
"What do you mean?"
"She was fired. The same day the emails were sent."
"What?!"
——————
"Achoo!"
Su Yuhan, the subject of the father and son's discussion, had no idea that her tiny, insignificant pang of conscience just before she left had allowed the Lin Family to escape their predetermined fate of bankruptcy. Nor did she know that they were now searching for her everywhere like headless chickens, hoping to invite her back.
'Who's talking about me behind my back? Don't tell me they already found out I'm the one who killed their company's money tree?'
Su Yuhan muttered to herself as she executed a stock trade on her phone.
The next second, a notification of a deposit came through on her phone.
[8,000 yuan has been deposited into your XX account.]
As it turned out, after leaving the company that day, Su Yuhan had predicted that the issues at Shenghong Real Estate couldn't be kept under wraps for long. The matter of those hazardous buildings was bound to blow up in the next few days.
Seizing the opportunity, she had preemptively shorted the company's stock.
Since she knew in advance how the stock would fluctuate, it was a guaranteed, no-lose bet.
Unfortunately, her account level was too low, limiting the number of shares she could short. After a few days of effort, she had only managed to earn twenty to thirty thousand yuan.
However, thanks to this trading history, Su Yuhan's account permissions had been upgraded, giving her more room to operate.
But her real target for this phase was the Feng Group, the company of her number one Sugar Daddy. According to the intel she had gathered over the past two days, the Feng Group's current helmsman, Feng Lv, had been in a car accident the night before last while on a business trip out of town and was rushed to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.
Feng Lv's confidants had suppressed the news, but you can't wrap fire in paper. The story was bound to break in the next day or two.
When it did, the Feng Group's stock price would definitely take a hit.
Su Yuhan planned to use the same method to short the Feng Group's stock. Besides, as the most popular original male lead in the novel, Feng Lv's plot armor was very reassuring.
The car accident was, nine times out of ten, a close call with no real harm done. When the Feng Group's stock plummeted, she would buy up a batch at a low price. Then, after Feng Lv made an appearance to stabilize the stock price, she would sell it off and should be able to make another tidy profit.
As the gears in Su Yuhan's head turned with her clever calculations, her phone suddenly rang cheerfully.
"Speak of the devil."
The person calling Su Yuhan was Feng Lv's chief secretary and assistant, Xiao Shun'an. The purpose of the call was to schedule a dinner meeting for Su Yuhan with Feng Lv that evening.
This was the first time Su Yuhan would be performing her duties as a stand-in since she'd transmigrated. Plus, this man was crucial to her future get-rich-quick schemes, so she took this meeting very seriously.
That evening, as the appointed time drew near, Su Yuhan followed the persona her client had created for her. She put on light makeup, chose a simple, knee-length white dress, and gracefully made her way to the entrance of a Chinese restaurant with a plain and simple exterior.
When she arrived, her client was already seated in the reserved private room, browsing the menu. His posture was elegant, his movements refined. One look was all it took to see that this was a man accustomed to a life of luxury—the type who would drop a shower of gold coins if you whacked him!
Su Yuhan glanced around as if she'd noticed something, a glint in her eyes.
This man had just been in a car accident the night before last, yet here he was, sitting and having a dinner meeting as if nothing had happened.
The restaurant he'd chosen was busy, but the private rooms offered a high degree of seclusion. Not being disturbed was one thing; more importantly, it was the best way to hide his whereabouts.
This made it hard for Su Yuhan not to suspect that he was planning to use that car accident to do something—like bait a trap.
"Mr. Feng, my apologies. The traffic was bad, so I'm a little late."
"There are still three minutes and fifty-eight seconds until our appointed time. You're not late; you're just cutting it close. I don't like to wait, and Qianqian is never late either."
"..."
'Seriously? What kind of normal person times a dinner meeting down to the second? And what kind of normal person considers arriving a few minutes early to be 'cutting it close'?!'