Financial Crisis

"I'm full..."

"Me too..."

Women had small stomachs and were better suited to eating little and often. Zhang Yang's performance just now had been enough to count as a satisfying meal, enough to fill her stomach.

"Zhang Yang, how did you do it?"

They sat down by the tea table, where Su Xiner took charge of demonstrating the art of tea-making. The first to voice her curiosity was Zhang Yang's wife, Cheng Dongxue. Though she had been married to Zhang Yang for years, she had never known he had such formidable fighting skills—able to take on ten men without suffering so much as a scratch.

All three wanted to know the answer. Three pairs of eyes fixed on Zhang Yang, waiting for an explanation.

At that moment, only one person besides Zhang Yang knew his secret: he had been trapped in the same day for a thousand years. That person was Lin Xiaofei, whom he had slept with that day.

Lin Xiaofei was quite the actress. She widened her eyes and looked to Zhang Yang for an explanation too.

Zhang Yang grinned and actually told them the truth. "What if I told you that I'd actually lived for a thousand years? I've learned a lot in all that time, including martial arts."

"Oh, please... If you don't want to tell us, don't make up some ridiculous story to brush us off. We're not three-year-olds, and you're not some thousand-year-old monster."

The first to question him and refuse to believe him was, surprisingly, Cheng Dongxue.

Lin Xiaofei smiled knowingly. Zhang Yang had been bold enough to tell the truth, but no one believed him.

"Mr. Zhang, that would make you a god!"

Su Xiner didn't believe him either. If that were true, then gods existed—and Zhang Yang himself was one.

"Zhang Yang, stop lying and tell us the truth!"

"Oh, I'm actually a lay disciple of Shaolin Temple. I came down the mountain to settle my worldly ties."

They would not believe the truth, so he might as well make something up. They would not believe that either.

"Then I married a monk? Amitabha, what a sin..."

"Hahaha..."

The three beauties laughed so hard their bodies swayed, their chests rising and falling. Zhang Yang watched, swallowing hard again and again.

At any rate, Zhang Yang had finally shown what he was capable of today, making Cheng Dongxue feel safer by his side.

The four of them drank tea together. No one came to bother Su Xiner. As for her job, things seemed to be just as Zhang Yang had said: she wouldn't be punished and would even receive credit.

Time was impossible to pin down. In the blink of an eye, several more days passed.

The Cheng Family still treated Zhang Yang with disdain. After he had overturned a table at his mother-in-law Yang Su's birthday banquet, she mocked, belittled, and sneered at him even more. She felt no gratitude for the White Jade Hairpin Zhang Yang had given her.

Apart from Cheng Dongxue, only Lin Xiaofei knew what Zhang Yang had been doing outside the Cheng household.

The Cheng Family's treatment of him left Zhang Yang silent; he told no one about it.

As the Cheng Family's ridicule of Zhang Yang grew worse, Yang Su and Cheng Hai were also arguing. The cause was the Sapphire Necklace Yang Su had bought without consulting him.

It was already ten in the morning when Zhang Yang got up, having been woken by the argument in the living room. Cheng Hai and Yang Su were still arguing over the Sapphire Necklace.

The moment Zhang Yang came out of the bedroom, Yang Su naturally turned her anger on him.

"You good-for-nothing! All you do is sleep, sleep, sleep. Have you seen what time it is? Do you think groceries buy themselves and meals cook themselves? Get out and buy the groceries!"

Yang Su's words were harsh, but Zhang Yang was used to them. He let them go in one ear and out the other, as if she were talking about someone else.

"Useless!" Cheng Hai cursed too. He was clearly worn out after arguing for most of the morning.

Lin Xiaofei had no classes that morning and had hoped to sleep in, but the argument had woken her too. She got up and happened to run into Zhang Yang.

"Auntie, there's no need to be so harsh. Zhang Yang isn't that bad. At least..."

Lin Xiaofei nearly blurted out that Zhang Yang was good in bed, but caught herself just in time.

"What is he good at? He's useless, he won't get a proper job, and he calls himself a man? What has he ever done for the Cheng Family all these years? He hasn't contributed a thing."

Yang Su would not listen. Lin Xiaofei had tried to reason with her countless times, always without success. This time was no different.

Holding a glass of water, Zhang Yang walked slowly toward Yang Su. His gaze dipped below her pale neck to the Sapphire Necklace pendant resting against her skin.

A sly smile tugged at his lips. "The necklace is fake!"

"What did you say?" Yang Su flared up.

Zhang Yang did not answer. He headed straight for the door; he had groceries to buy.

"Fake?" Cheng Hai's anger erupted too. Their argument had started because Yang Su had spent more than three million on the necklace. If it was fake on top of that, how could he not be furious?

Zhang Yang left, but Lin Xiaofei remained. The war he had sparked with a single sentence—a war without weapons—only grew fiercer.

Lin Xiaofei stared, her mouth open, unable to speak. What kind of son-in-law did that? Instead of making peace, he had poured fuel on the fire.

An ordinary necklace might not have caused an argument in the Cheng Family. One costing more than three million could—but even that was not the real reason.

"Take off the necklace!" Cheng Hai was usually somewhat henpecked, but this was different. It could drag the Cheng Family into a bottomless pit.

"Why should I? I bought it as a birthday present for myself!" Yang Su had lost all reason.

Cheng Hai remembered the birthday banquet not long ago and the White Jade Hairpin Zhang Yang had given her. Both Chu Yaotian and Ling Junsheng had said it was valuable, and both had praised Zhang Yang's eye for such things.

So if Zhang Yang said the Sapphire Necklace Yang Su had bought was fake, the claim was worth checking. Cheng Hai had to have it examined, especially when the Cheng Family needed money.

"Do you know what the Cheng Family is facing right now? The company has a financial problem. We need money!" Cheng Hai was thoroughly enraged.

"What financial problem?" Yang Su raised her voice. She did not believe Cheng Hai, thinking it was just an excuse to take her Sapphire Necklace.

"You're too vain, always trying to keep up with others. The company has a five-million financial shortfall. If we don't cover it in time, it'll go bankrupt." Cheng Hai's voice suddenly dropped.

Hearing Cheng Hai speak like that, Yang Su fell silent. She immediately called the company's finance department.

"Finance department? Is the company having money problems?"

"Yes, Mrs. Cheng."

"How much?"

"Five million!"

Yang Su lowered her phone, her face stricken. Her life as a wealthy wife might be coming to an end. If the company went bankrupt, she would lose everything.

"How did this happen?" Yang Su murmured, lowering her head.

"When you run a company and do business, there are ups and downs. Sometimes you make money, sometimes you lose it. That's normal. I'd set aside five million for emergencies, but you used more than four million of it. Some went on your birthday, and now there's practically nothing left in the accounts."

Cheng Hai had no strength left to argue. He dropped into a chair, looking as though the life had been drained out of him. For the moment, he had no idea where he could raise five million.