That settled it.
With everyone around her staring, Jiang Zhixin forced a stiff smile, looking uneasy right up until the auction officially ended.
Jiang Yuchi didn't have the energy to worry about her anymore. By now, she had snapped out of it. No matter how unhinged Jiang Zhixin was, there was no way she would spend such a fortune on a mere ragdoll. Most likely, the person wanting to see her was Jiang Zhixin's husband, Xu Yuan.
Three years ago, the capital chain of the Xu Family's core hotel business had snapped, and Yu Qinghuai had stepped in to save the day. With the backing of the Yu Group, the Xu Family's hotels had shone even brighter than before, though at its core, the business had practically been overhauled and essentially belonged to Yu Qinghuai now.
If he had asked his wife, Jiang Zhixin, to place the winning bid on his behalf, then it wasn't strange at all; and this doll would most likely end up being returned to her by him anyway.
As for what he was after, it was probably some request that had been rejected by Yu Qinghuai, leading him to use this channel to get his plea directly to her.
Having figured this out, when the attendant asked if she would like to meet the buyer directly inside the private box, Jiang Yuchi immediately requested another reception room. She would go meet the buyer alone, while the two children remained in the box to wait for her.
Jiang Yuchi had initially thought—it was one hundred million! Besides, Xu Yuan truly had some genuine ability, otherwise Yu Qinghuai wouldn't have stepped in three years ago. She was still willing to hear what brilliant insights Xu Yuan might have, after all, occasionally lording it over as the person in power at the Yu Group had its own peculiar charm.
Unexpectedly, when the door to the reception room opened, the person inside was neither Xu Yuan nor Jiang Zhixin, but a familiar face.
Compared to seven years ago when they broke up, Jiang Zhiyi had shed his youthful immaturity. His once-amorous peach-blossom eyes now carried a hint of fatigue, with faint dark circles under them. The whole person looked decadent yet could not conceal his handsome and sharp aura.
The moment Jiang Yuchi saw him, she was annoyed. She initially wanted to slam the door and leave, but then she figured that doing so would make it look like she still hadn't gotten over him, which was too humiliating. So within seconds, Jiang Yuchi reined in her impulse to bolt, and walked into the reception room with her head held high, sitting down directly across from Jiang Zhiyi.
The moment Jiang Zhiyi saw her, his whole body radiated awkwardness. His eyes instantly turned red, and his burning gaze made Jiang Yuchi feel entirely ill at ease.
The Jiang Family really was a family of drama queens; all four members loved to put on an act, and Jiang Zhiyi was the worst of them all. Back then, when his childhood sweetheart Ji Siyan returned to China, he was the one in such a frantic rush that he practically wanted to announce to the whole world how deeply in love they were. And right now, the one playing the role of the devoted lover was also him.
Jiang Yuchi wanted to roll her eyes all the way to the heavens. At this moment, she had zero desire to exchange pleasantries with him. She spoke in an unfriendly tone, "Mr. Jiang, I suggest you make it short. I still have two kids waiting for me, and I have no interest in playing out a red rose and white moonlight drama with you."
Upon hearing the words "red rose and white moonlight," a momentary flash of confusion crossed Jiang Zhiyi's face, but he quickly reacted, his expression instantly turning icy. "I never had anything with Ji Siyan."
Without waiting for Jiang Yuchi to react, Jiang Zhiyi gritted his teeth and poured out everything he had kept hidden in his heart for years.
"Ji Siyan and I weren't even close when we were kids. Seven years ago, Yujie laid eyes on you at our engagement banquet. It was all a scheme he orchestrated, using the South District development project as a chip to lure Ji Siyan back to China to act as his 'actress,' and then forcing me to break up with you."
Although Yujie was only six years older than Jiang Zhiyi, back then in their circle—in Jiang Zhiyi's eyes—Yujie had always been the image of a mature and reliable elder. He was good-natured and got along with everyone. Whether among his peers, his elders, or their group of youngsters, he was an existence of immense prestige.
So much that when his parents found various excuses to decline attending the engagement banquet that Jiang Zhiyi had single-handedly planned, Jiang Zhiyi made a decision he would regret for the rest of his life: he went to see Yujie in person and sincerely invited him to attend.
As long as the news of Yujie attending the engagement banquet spread, no one would regard this engagement banquet—which neither of Jiang's parents was attending—as a mere whim of a "role-playing game" by the playboy Jiang Zhiyi. He wanted to use Yujie's reputation to show his resolve to both Jiang Yuchi and the rest of the circle.
Yet Jiang Zhiyi never imagined that the Yujie he held in his heart as noble and untainted by worldly affairs would secretly harbor designs on his fiancée, Jiang Yuchi. So much so that after that disastrous engagement banquet, and after he spent two months in a cold war with Jiang Yuchi for reasons he couldn't speak of, Yujie personally came to the Jiang Family to find him.
"I don't like you maintaining this lingering entanglement with her," Yujie said with an indifferent expression. Just a day earlier, he had successfully bought that pink diamond named the "Goddess of Laurel" at an overseas auction. The very first thing he did after getting off the plane upon returning to China was to kindly notify the "former fiancé" to completely get the hell out of Jiang Yuchi's world.
At that time, Jiang Zhiyi was in an irritable state of mind and had no time to ponder what those words meant. He only felt that Yujie's arrival was as inexplicable as his departure.
It wasn't until the next day that the entire Jing City was buzzing with rumors that Young Master Jiang's childhood sweetheart, the white moonlight Ji Siyan, had returned to China, and that he and Ji Siyan were childhood sweethearts, a match made in heaven destined for a blissful marriage.
God damn it! He couldn't even remember who Ji Siyan was!
And afterwards, Jiang Zhiyi discovered that Jiang Yuchi—who was already in a cold war with him because of the engagement banquet—had blocked all his contact information and openly announced her single status on her WeChat Moments.
Jiang Zhiyi wanted to find her in person to clear things up, only to find that even though they were in the same university, he somehow could never run into Jiang Yuchi. And the force obstructing him wasn't even bothering to hide—it was squarely Yu Qinghuai.
That was just how Yujie operated; even when playing dirty tricks, he would lay his cards out in the open for you to see. Later on, he even blatantly pressured the Jiang Family, completely stripping Jiang Zhiyi of even the qualification to voice his grievances.
As for Ji Siyan, leveraging Yu Qinghuai's power, she stepped over the heads of her three older brothers without a single drop of blood to seize the South District national key development project, completely pulling down her father to take control of the Ji Family. She could be said to have put her absolute all into executing this tiny little task Yujie had ordered.
Before long, in the eyes of outsiders, the relationship between him and Ji Siyan—based on Ji Siyan's unilateral statements and updates—had already progressed to a suspected pregnancy with happy events just around the corner.
Heaven knows he hadn't even seen Ji Siyan a single time since she returned to China!
"I don't want you to keep misunderstanding me even now. Jiang Yuchi, the person I've always liked is you, and only you."
Hearing all this, Jiang Yuchi froze for a moment, and then nonchalantly asked, "What's the point of you telling me this now?"
"The point?" Jiang Yuchi's indifferent attitude deeply stung Jiang Zhiyi. Losing his mind, he stood up, leaned in close to Jiang Yuchi, and blurted out, "The point is to tell you that Yujie is nothing more than a shameless homewrecker! A homewrecker with despicable tricks!"