After five bigwigs in Beijing's elite circle fell into their trap, I fled.

Chapter 146: United Against External Oppression

Jiang Shu suddenly felt that the cake in her hand didn't taste so good anymore!

She observed Xia Ruo's expression: "You... don't seem sad at all?"

Xia Ruo sighed softly: "I had already sensed it, and the sadness had been worn away by time. My appearance tonight is only to confirm the fact that he cheated on me!"

Jiang Shu felt a little uncomfortable: "As the only divine medicine master in the world, I can't believe I've fallen into such a vulgar vortex as cheating."

Xia Ruo smiled and said, "The title of Divine Pharmacist is just Jiang Ye's favor! Without Jiang Ye's thing, I would never have been able to reach the level ten threshold. In this world, without Jiang Ye, there would be no Divine Pharmacist."

“It’s just what each of us needs.”

“I clearly owe Master Jiang a lot.” Xia Ruo said seriously, “I was hunted down by the Medicine Association a few years ago and dropped from level nine to level eight. No matter how hard I tried after that, I could not enter the level nine threshold. If I hadn’t met Master Jiang in a human trafficker’s den ten months ago, and had not been helped by Master Jiang to enter level nine, and had not been given a spirit-raising item by Master Jiang to enter the Divine Medicine Master realm in one fell swoop, I would have just given up in this life.”

"You send me elixirs every few days, you really don't owe me anything." Jiang Shu said a little embarrassed, "On the contrary, you give me too much, all five men in my family are jealous..."

Xia Ruo was taken aback: "Five? They all belong to Master Jiang..."

"A kept canary," Jiang Shu mumbled, "the pure kind."

Xia Ruo smiled and didn't ask any more questions. She just thoughtfully gave Jiang Shu another pastry.

Seeing that she was truly calm, Jiang Shu couldn't help but ask curiously, "Your husband, doesn't he react at all when he sees you?"

“He didn’t recognize me.” Xia Ruo said “Oh”. “When I was with him, I never wore makeup or decent clothes. I relied on him to give me a thousand yuan for living expenses every month. Sometimes he wouldn’t even give me a thousand, and would make up all sorts of excuses to get rid of me with a hundred or two… How could someone as pathetic as me appear in an event that even he wouldn’t be qualified to attend?”

Jiang Shu focused on the key point: "In Shanghai, a monthly allowance of... 1,000?"

Even in a small place like Jiangcheng, there are more than a thousand!

For someone like her who also pampers several pets, the expenses are astronomical! Not to mention anything else, just the tie clips, belts, and shirts she's bought in the last two days cost over ten million! She's still extremely distressed about it!
"Hmph, it's a thousand." Xia Ruo scoffed, "And she also demands three dishes and a soup for every meal, and that the water, electricity, gas, and her daughter's living expenses also come from this."

Jiang Shu gasped: "You can tolerate this?"

“Actually, I don’t care about these things, and I’m not short of money. I can just throw an eighth or ninth-grade medicine on the black market and earn more than he has in his entire life…” Xia Ruo played with the small spoon in the cake, a half-smile on her face. “As long as it’s not cheating, everything else is nothing to me.”

Jiang Shu shook her head: "How could such an outstanding girl like you meet such a scumbag..."

"It was a tragic fate, I suppose. I was assassinated by that old pervert Sachi from the Medicine Association and ended up in the slums of the capital; while he was expelled from the Li family because of his hidden illness and lack of ambition. We were both down on our luck, and since he was good-looking, we got married."

"...That was really convenient."

"Then I secretly put some magic medicine into his food and cured his infertility in a year, and also gave birth to a daughter for him; later, thinking that pretending to be poor and miserable would easily lead to malnutrition, I also set up a company and hired him as a middle manager, making him 30,000 to 50,000 a month... Oh, his mistress is the daughter of a boss in the company I registered."

Jiang Shu was speechless: "You're holding a royal flush, but you're playing it like a pair of 3s..."

“There’s nothing I can do. There are too many people in this world who want to kill me. I have to keep a low profile…” Xia Ruo smiled. “I should be glad that he doesn’t know my identity as a divine medicine master. Otherwise, given his fickle and opportunistic nature, he might have sold me for a good price.”

Jiang Shu decisively said, "Go back and get a divorce immediately! Stay away from that scumbag from now on!"

“Okay.” Xia Ruo remained noncommittal. “Watching the cheating drama today was just a side thing; the main reason was to see Master Jiang.”

"Did you bring the medicine cauldron?" "Yes." Xia Ruo took out a small medicine cauldron from her bag, her usually calm and gentle tone now tinged with a hint of fervor, "Master Jiang, thank you for your trouble!"

"There's a coffee shop near the Li Group tomorrow afternoon. Wait for me there." Jiang Shu took the medicine cauldron and casually put it into the loose pocket of her sportswear.

Xia Ruo brought her some juice: "Then I'll have dinner with Master Jiang tonight before I leave."

In the distance, Li Yubai, having finished dealing with his interpersonal relationships, was about to look for Jiang Shu when he saw a woman being overly attentive to her. He paused, choosing not to disturb her, and had his bodyguard clear out a relatively quiet space for him, patiently waiting for his patron to finish his social engagement.

Half an hour later, Jiang Shu and Xia Ruo walked out of the hotel one after the other.

When Li Yubai followed her out, Jiang Shu stood with her hands in her pockets, gazing absently at the moonlight.

"What are you thinking about?" Li Yubai patted her head, his tone affectionate. "You seem to have something on your mind."

“Li Yubai, the things you said at the banquet today…” Jiang Shu paused for a moment, “made me, your sugar daddy, feel a lot of pressure.”

Li Yubai chuckled: "Pressure?"

“If you keep doing this, since you’re already taken, and you won’t let me do this or that…” Jiang Shu was a little embarrassed. “If I don’t renew the contract when it expires, I’ll feel really guilty.”

A fleeting pang of sadness swept through Li Yubai's heart.

He quickly composed himself and casually said, "My patron, there's no need to feel guilty. I was just using 'already taken' as a shield to clear my head!"

"Really?"

"real."

Jiang Shu breathed a slight sigh of relief. Seeing Li Yubai's inscrutable expression, she couldn't help but reassure him, "You're so kind! You'll renew the contract, don't worry!"

Li Yubai hummed in agreement and put his arm around her: "Let's go home. If we stand here for a few more minutes, everyone inside will come out, and tomorrow Mrs. Li Yubai's photo will be on the front page!"

Jiang Shu shuddered as she imagined herself being relentlessly besieged and attacked by those whiny socialites in the capital.

In the car, Li Yubai asked about Xia Ruo.

"I just saw the patron chatting happily with a woman. Is she a friend of the patron?"

Jiang Shu hesitated for a moment: "The one in Shanghai, the one who delivers medicine."

Li Yubai: "...She wouldn't want to join us too, would she? No way."

"You're overthinking it. Don't get jealous of women."

Even so, Li Yubai still decided to go back and remind the others about the Divine Pharmacist's visit in the private chat window.

Although they are usually fiercely competitive internally, they will inevitably unite against external threats at this critical moment.

That one is not gender-specific.

(End of this chapter)