Page 381

"Stop going crazy!" Qu Yongquan slapped his mother across the face. "Aren't you crazy enough? You're just an ordinary old lady, and you're trying to learn how to transfer assets? Do you even know what asset transfer is? You just followed others and played along! Now look what happened, you've been played! All the money in the family has been squandered by you! And you're going to look for them? Do you think you can find them? They're not stupid, they've already run away."

Qu's mother fell to the ground, but seemed not to feel any pain; her eyes were blank.

"How could this happen... how could this happen..."

"This is utterly shameful! How could I have been so blind as to marry such a piece of trash!"

Qu Yongquan glared at his mother angrily, then turned to leave.

"Dad, what about Lianjie's ransom?"

Seeing that Qu Yongquan was about to leave, Qu Xiaoxiao didn't even bother to help Qu's mother up and asked reflexively.

“He sold his own house and car. Although the company was emptied out, it still has some assets. In addition…” Qu Yongquan looked around and said, “This villa, and some of my own assets, if we piece together the money, we should be able to redeem him. However… our family may not have a good life from now on.”

Qu Yongquan took a deep breath and started to walk out, but when he reached the door, his eyes were red, and he stopped in his tracks:

“Xiaoxiao, don’t blame your father. If you were the one who was kidnapped, your father would definitely do everything in his power to save you! Whether you believe it or not, in your father’s heart, you and Lianjie are exactly the same. I have always been trying to treat you equally.”

After saying that, Qu Yongquan strode out of his house to raise funds.

Left alone in the empty villa, with her mother sitting on the ground muttering to herself, Qu Xiaoxiao felt a wave of weakness wash over her.

Why did things turn out this way?

I knew earlier...

In fact, if she and her mother had been more ruthless from the beginning, they could have made her mother divorce Qu Yongquan and thus openly and legitimately receive a share of the Qu family's assets.

But if we do that, almost all of Qu Yongquan's remaining half of his assets will go to Qu Lianjie. How can that be acceptable?

In Qu Xiaoxiao's and her mother's view, the money in the family should generally belong to her mother, and even if it is Qu Yongquan's money, half of it should be inherited by Qu Xiaoxiao.

Therefore, Qu Xiaoxiao should inherit three-quarters of the family fortune, while Qu Lianjie can only inherit one-quarter.

However, many things are difficult to handle and can easily lead to a breakdown in relations.

And so.

Through the mother and daughter's ingenious manipulation, and by sheer coincidence, they encountered Qu Lianjie, a formidable opponent, and now everything has fallen apart.

The Qu family's bankruptcy is already on its last legs.

From being a rich and beautiful woman in the past, Qu Xiaoxiao will probably only be beautiful in the future.

In Shanghai's circle of wealthy second-generation individuals, someone like Bai Mei is at best qualified to be used as a roulette wheel player; she has no right to be considered highbrow.

"That's impossible... How could this happen?"

Qu's mother was still sitting on the ground, muttering to herself.

Qu Xiaoxiao sighed and went to help her mother up.

No matter how difficult things get, life still goes on.

……

"What's going on? Why can't I get through to that guy on the phone?"

Fan Shengmei stared at her phone in frustration.

On the very day Bai Ye and Andy met Bao Yifan, they saw Fan Shengmei and Qu Lianjie together at the party.

The two of them are definitely hooking up.

I've even been on the boat many times.

Qu Lianjie was quite generous, giving Fan Shengmei many expensive gifts, such as handbags and cosmetics.

Fan Shengmei was still thinking about how she could take the next step and become Mrs. Qu.

Unexpectedly, Fan Shengmei couldn't get through to Qu Lianjie when she tried to call him these past few days. She began to suspect that Qu Lianjie might have run away with her pants down.

The Great Luo of All Worlds

"Sister Fan, did the rich guy you hooked run away?"

Qiu Yingying asked curiously as she ate potato chips.

"Yes!" Fan Shengmei sighed and said, "I guess we can't get in touch with them!"

"Sister Fan, I told you this from the beginning," Qiu Yingying said. "The reason why rich people are rich is because they are smarter than us and less bound by morality. So it's incredibly difficult for people like us to take advantage of rich people! If a rich person is someone who lets us take advantage of them, can they still be considered rich?"

Guan Juer also said, "That's right, Sister Fan. What Yingying said may be simple, but the logic is very correct. How could we possibly outmaneuver those who have made huge fortunes? Most rich people will still marry other rich people, forming a powerful alliance. The only thing they're afraid of is being taken advantage of by ordinary people like us. Even if some rich people show us goodwill, they're just trying to manipulate us."

"Sister Fan, don't be too picky," Qiu Yingying said. "I think that local civil servant you went on a blind date with last time was pretty good. He already bought a house and is just paying off the mortgage. How could we ordinary people possibly have a chance with rich people?"

"Alright, maybe I really should lower my standards a bit, after all, I'm getting old and can't keep up."

Fan Shengmei said helplessly.

Finding a rich man to help her rise in social class is Fan Shengmei's biggest dream, but she also has to consider reality. She is already over thirty years old, and her beauty is gradually diminishing. If she continues to be picky, she will become a haggard old woman and lose her last bit of value.

Qu Lianjie and those rich people are despicable. Almost every one of them just wants to play around with her; none of them are sincere towards her.

If it weren't for the fact that Qu Lianjie had given her gifts worth fifty or sixty thousand yuan these past few days, Fan Shengmei would feel like she had been taken advantage of by Qu Lianjie for nothing.

"Perhaps... we should give Wang Baichuan another chance?"

After learning that Wang Baichuan's car was rented, Fan Shengmei rarely contacted him anymore. And after getting together with Qu Lianjie, she was only thinking about climbing the social ladder and never thought about Wang Baichuan, that simp.

Even if Gao Zhi is gone, Fan Shengmei isn't too worried, since she still has a loyal simp as a backup.

Even if she had slept with Qu Lianjie, as long as she was willing to lower herself and throw Wang Baichuan a bone, that sycophant would definitely come running to her.

"Guan Guan, tell me, these past few days, Brother Bai has disappeared without a trace, Sister Andy has vanished, and even Qu Xiaoxiao is nowhere to be found." Qiu Yingying asked, puzzled, "Did they plan this together? Did they all disappear?"

Well, these past few days, Bai Ye has been hanging out with Liang Shuang, Andy is still working on the Bao Group, preparing to reorganize it into the Lily Group, and as for Qu Xiaoxiao…

As they were talking, Qiu Yingying, Guan Juer, and Fan Shengmei heard a commotion coming from outside the door.

They looked through the peephole.

Qu Xiaoxiao is back.

but……

Why are so many people from the moving company following Qu Xiaoxiao?

"Xiao Qu, what's wrong with you again?" Fan Shengmei greeted Qu Xiaoxiao as she opened the door.

"My mother also moved in with me."

Qu Xiaoxiao forced a smile and said.

In Fan Shengmei's opinion, that smile was even uglier than crying.

"Living in a place like this..." Mrs. Qu said with a hint of disdain, "Xiaoxiao..."

"Mom!" Qu Xiaoxiao was exhausted. "Can you please stop making a scene? Don't you think things have gotten bigger enough?"

During this period, Qu Yongquan sold the company. The buyer was the reorganized Lily Group. In addition, all of Qu Lianjie's assets, as well as the villa where Qu Yongquan and his mother lived, were sold to pay off Qu Lianjie's debts.

With the house gone, Qu's mother naturally had nowhere to live and could only stay with her daughter, Qu Xiaoxiao.

"I'm sorry, my mother just moved and she has a lot of things to take care of at home, so I won't bother her any longer."

Qu Xiaoxiao forced a smile at Fan Shengmei, then took her mother's hand and went into her apartment 2203, where she and the movers helped put their belongings inside.

"What...what happened?"

Qiu Yingying asked, puzzled:

"Why did Qu Xiaoxiao's mother move here to live with her? Doesn't the Qu family have many big houses?"

“I’m puzzled too.” Guan Juer pushed up her glasses and said, “Looking at Qu Xiaoxiao’s mother’s mother, it doesn’t seem like a simple move; it’s more like they’re fleeing a disaster.”

Chapter 287 The End of Ode to Joy

2203.

Looking at the cramped two-bedroom apartment, Mrs. Qu couldn't help but shed tears again:

"I'm so sorry, Xiaoxiao, it's all my fault! If I hadn't done those things... the family wouldn't be in this mess now."

"Mom, what's the point of saying those things now that things have come to this?"

Qu Xiaoxiao said:

"Don't worry, you can live here from now on. I'll work to support you. Even without all that family wealth, my daughter and I can still live a good life."

Now, Qu Yongquan and his mother are divorced, and they have no property to divide. Qu Yongquan took Qu Lianjie back to the countryside, where there is still the villa he built for his elderly mother and some money.

And Qu's mother went along with Qu Xiaoxiao.

The two-bedroom apartment in Ode to Joy that Qu Xiaoxiao lives in cost several million yuan when she bought it. Now, Qu Xiaoxiao can no longer be considered a rich and beautiful woman, but she is still considered to be well-off.

Qu Xiaoxiao was comforting her mother when her phone rang. She took it out and saw it was Yao Bin.

This made Qu Xiaoxiao secretly delighted. Although she had lost her family, she still had Yao Bin, her devoted admirer. If she was willing to give Yao Bin a chance and marry him, then she could still live the life of a rich and beautiful woman. And that spoiled Zhao had dumped her because he listened to the slander of villains, so she wouldn't have any psychological burden.

"Hey, Yao Bin, when did you come out?" Qu Xiaoxiao said in surprise, "I'm sorry, something big happened in my family these past few days, so I didn't notice you came out and didn't come to pick you up."

Yao Bin: "I'm downstairs at your place right now, could you come down here?"

"no problem!"

Qu Xiaoxiao readily agreed.

However, she didn't notice that Yao Bin's tone no longer had that fawning, obsequious quality he used to have.

Qu Xiaoxiao put on makeup and dressed herself up beautifully in her room before heading downstairs.

Now, without her father's protection and her own company which she ran for fun, she is all alone, and it is quite difficult for her to survive in the metropolis of Shanghai.

However, there's nothing to worry about. As long as Yao Bin remains her devoted admirer, he will surely help her solve all her problems.

Qu Xiaoxiao arrived at the bottom of the Joyful Song residential complex and casually glanced around before spotting Yao Bin's car.

She walked up to Yao Bin's car, glanced at him, and said with a smile:

"I'm relieved to see you're alright. I'm sorry about what happened last time; I didn't expect that person to make such a big deal out of it."

"That's all in the past," Yao Bin said casually, then added, "Get in the car, I have something to tell you."

"Ok."