You couldn't even handle a college student?

Jin Xia thought she had been frank enough. Surely the bank couldn't keep pestering her to deposit money now?

Little did she expect that, in Lin Yi's eyes, her frankness meant something else entirely!

Lin Yi hurried toward Jin Xia in a panic and raised his glass of liquor again. "Xia, has our bank done something you're unhappy with? Just tell me whatever conditions or requirements you have. I'll do everything in my power to meet them!"

As he spoke, he kept shooting meaningful looks at Zhang Yu.

Looking rather troubled, Zhang Yu also raised her glass. "Please forgive us if our hospitality fell short today."

At the sight, Jin Xia couldn't help freezing.

Had she still not made herself clear enough?

She had already been perfectly clear. She had no money!

Lin Yi took several sheets of paper out of his bag and handed them over. "These are our best wealth management plans this year. I can raise your interest rate by another three percentage points, as long as you put your money in a three-year fixed-term deposit with our bank..."

"I really don't have any money."

Jin Xia spoke up once again.

Her face cold and unsmiling, she rose and walked straight toward the door, regardless of how embarrassed Zhang Yu and Lin Yi looked. "I'll pay for this meal. Don't bother An He again if you need anything."

Watching Jin Xia walk away without hesitation, Lin Yi clenched one hand into a fist in anger.

He turned and glared fiercely at Zhang Yu. "Useless trash. You can't even land one client!"

Zhang Yu was full of grievances, but she had to swallow the words on the tip of her tongue.

If a client didn't want to make a deposit, she couldn't force her, could she?

Lin Yi cursed the whole way out. "Don't you know to sweet-talk her a little more? She's a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old girl who just started college. Someone like that should be easy to handle, and you couldn't even manage that!"

Zhang Yu hung her head like a child who had done something wrong, not daring to breathe loudly the entire time.

Jin Xia, who was standing outside the door, happened to hear it all.

She had just settled the bill and was about to leave. Before she could go, she heard a familiar voice behind her and merely glanced back.

Just one glance...

And a deep crease formed between Jin Xia's delicate brows.

The adult world was full of hardship and struggles, and women had an even harder time in the workplace.

"You don't need to come in tomorrow. I just received a notice from head office about transferring a few employees to rural towns. I'm planning to send you to work in Anziying Town."

With a sweep of his hand, Lin Yi strode briskly ahead.

Zhang Yu panicked at once. "Bank President Lin, please give me another chance. I'll find a way to meet my targets for the second half of the year. I..."

Lin Yi cut her off before she could finish.

Standing where he was, Lin Yi pointed at Zhang Yu without sparing her any dignity. "We don't keep dead weight here. Besides, you lost a major client today. I don't think you're capable of fulfilling a manager's duties at all!"

"Bank President Lin, isn't this just because I refused to drink on your behalf when I went out entertaining clients with you before, so you've held a grudge ever since? You came along to meet the client with me today. What makes you think she'd be willing to put two hundred million in our bank after meeting us just once?"

Wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes, Zhang Yu said resentfully, "So it's a transfer to a rural town, isn't it? I'd rather go there than have to see someone like you again or work with you!"

Standing to one side, Jin Xia quietly took out her phone and recorded the scene.

An He drove up to the clubhouse, and Jin Xia put her phone away and walked straight out through the doors.

On the way back, An He was very uneasy. "Xia, how did your talk go?"

"Not well. You don't have to answer any more calls from the bank."

Jin Xia spoke flatly.

She narrowed her eyes, feeling the dazzling sunlight outside the car window, and couldn't help feeling another wave of melancholy.

Although she had more money on hand now, she still had to persuade Academician Wang if she wanted to help Mengmeng.

She didn't know what research project Wang Jian had been busy with lately. Half a month had gone by in a flash without her seeing her.

Jin Xia scrolled through her messages with the doctor. Mengmeng could hold on for only another three months at most.

If they couldn't find a donor kidney and perform the surgery within three months, she would very likely be on the brink of death.

Before she knew it, she drifted off into a groggy sleep.

When she opened her eyes again, it was already evening.

An He had parked beneath the shade of a tree outside the university. Seeing her wake up, she quickly explained, "I saw you were asleep, so I didn't disturb your rest."

"Mm."

Jin Xia answered, picked up her backpack, and got out.

As she walked onto campus, she suddenly noticed quite a few people looking her way.

Some were even pointing at her behind her back.

"Look, isn't that Jin Xia?"

"Yes, yes! That's her!"

"I heard she's being kept by some old man. He even sent a driver to pick her up at the university gates today, in a luxury van!"

"..."

Men and women alike were gossiping.

Jin Xia glanced at the girl in front of her and met her eyes. The next second, the girl hurriedly looked away as though she had a guilty conscience.

"Were you talking about me?"

Jin Xia confronted her head-on, asking outright without any regard for all the people coming and going on campus.

The girl turned around, glanced at Jin Xia, and stammered, "What did we say about you? I don't even know you."

"If you don't know me, why did you sound so convincing just now?"

Jin Xia walked straight toward the group, step by step. "You were judging me by name, and now that I've caught you, you're denying it. You think you can just casually say you don't know me and leave it at that?"

"What's wrong with you? What does our conversation have to do with you?"

The girl lost her composure, frowning as she argued hysterically with Jin Xia.

The boy with her went even further, pointing right at Jin Xia's nose as he berated her. "We were talking about you. So what? People like you are a disgrace to Haida University! Our university's reputation has been tainted by people like you!"

"What kind of person am I? Since you know so much about my private life, why don't you tell everyone exactly what I've done to taint Haida University's reputation?"

Jin Xia spoke methodically, her tone so calm that it held not the slightest ripple.

The boy rushed forward, red-faced as he pulled out his phone and shouted at her. "You're being kept by an old man, and he even had his luxury van driven to the university gates! It's bad enough that you have no shame, but you had him pick you up at Haida University's gates to prove your status so you could fetch a better price, didn't you?"

Everyone stared at Jin Xia, afraid of missing any of the spectacle.

Arguments and ugly confrontations were common on campus, but this was truly the first case of a "female college student being kept by an old man and publicly condemned by fellow students."

Everyone thought that, now that Jin Xia had been "exposed," she would be too ashamed to show her face, or would turn and leave in humiliated anger. At the very least, she would say a few words in her own defense.

Yet she offered no explanation at all, merely curling her lips into a smile. "I have just one question. You keep insisting that I'm being kept by an old man. What evidence do you have for any of this?"