In an upscale restaurant in Uptown, after Schiller gave his name, the waiter led him to a table. Sitting across from him was a somewhat nervous-looking white woman.
She held a glass of red wine, pressing its rim tightly against her lips. It looked as though she was drinking, but none of the wine entered her mouth. She seemed to be merely grinding her teeth against the glass.
"How are you feeling, Ms. Zhalabang?" Schiller sat down and asked with an expression of concern.
"I don't know. I feel like everything is a dream." The woman shook her head, looked away, and kept scrolling through her phone.
But soon, she turned anxiously to Schiller and asked, "Did you speak to Commissioner Gordon? What did he say? Did he accept the price we offered?"
"Relax, ma'am." Schiller smiled at her and soothed her for a while. She finally relaxed. Although the muscles in her face still twitched slightly, she was at least able to speak calmly.
Schiller looked at the enormous Gem Ring on her hand, which lacked even the slightest sense of design, and recalled Ms. Zhalabang's life story.
She was actually the half-sister of the current head of the Zhalabang family. Her mother had died after giving birth to her, and she had grown up with her father, though he had never liked her.
Her mother and father had entered into a family-arranged marriage. They had no emotional foundation, and their life together had been dull. On top of that, Miss Zhalabang had been spoiled as a child, taking drugs, drinking heavily, and getting into fights. After her mother died and Old Mr. Zhalabang remarried, she became invisible.
After Old Mr. Zhalabang died, her younger brother—the current inheritor of the Zhalabang family—gave her only a small sum of money