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The house belonging to Hu's father was an old building in an old community, its dilapidated appearance mirroring Hu Manli's mood at that moment.

Hu Manli mechanically chewed the braised pork her father had put on her plate, finding it tasteless and bland.

On the dining table was a bottle of tonic wine infused with ginseng and deer antler, which the old man had treasured for ten years, waiting to open it on his son-in-law's birthday.

"Manli, Zhiyuan must be busy lately?" Her father added another spoonful of crab roe tofu to her bowl. "He hasn't come for two weeks."

Hu Manli paused with her chopsticks.

She glanced at the photo album spread out on the coffee table—last year, on her father's 70th birthday, Ding Zhiyuan was holding her as they cut the cake, the curves of their lips looking perfectly measured.

“He took Dahl to a math competition,” she lied, casually slamming her phone face down on the table.

The screen was still showing the deleted image: a secretly taken photo of Qiu Lisu and Xue Xiaozhou struggling, originally intended to be sent to Ding Zhiyuan with the caption: "Your new love has such eclectic tastes."

The father suddenly pushed a bank card towards him: "I heard you quit your job? Here's the money..."

"Hmph! I'm the one who fired the company!" Hu Manli's voice suddenly rose, then softened again.

"Then what will you do next?"

"It's alright! Many people want to hire me; your daughter is a top salesperson."

"Really?"

"Of course it's true! The boss of Taiying International tried to poach me a while ago, and this is the perfect opportunity to join Taiying International."

The old man took the card back with some skepticism.

Hu Manli took the opportunity to get up: "Dad, I have to go. The client has invited me to have a late-night snack to discuss the proposal."

The moment the elevator doors closed, she slumped onto the mirror as if her spine had been ripped away.

There are no clients inviting her out for late-night snacks to discuss insurance plans; what she really wants to do right now is go to a bar and drown her sorrows.

Those were connections she had been building for three years, and bartender Ken hadn't introduced her to a single client yet.

The neon lights of the "Blue Tears" bar were blurred into a hazy mist in the rain.

Hu Manli sat directly at the innermost part of the bar, tapping three long and two short coded notes on the counter with her fingers.

"Sister Hu!" Ken, wiping his wine glass, came over. "That... the critical illness insurance you mentioned last time, my cousin..."

“Tequila, neat.” Hu Manli interrupted him. “Remember! No salt on the rim.”

"..."

Strong liquor feels like a knife cutting into your throat.

During her third drink, she started talking to her phone's lock screen, which displayed a photo of Ding Zhiyuan and his son at Disneyland.

"Zhiyuan, do you know how much Cao Ling's son resembles Da'er when he was little? He's just as quiet as ever..."

Ken watched uneasily as she added ice to her fifth glass of tequila.

This insurance queen, who is always impeccably dressed down to the last hair, now has mascara smudged into dark circles under her eyes, and lipstick stains on the rim of her cup that look like dried blood.

"Sister Hu, do you need me to call a car for you...?"

"Shut up!" Hu Manli suddenly grabbed his tie. "You all think I'm finished, don't you?"

Her Gucci blazer slipped to the floor, revealing a wrinkled silk shirt, which she was wearing when she was kicked out of Blue Ocean Insurance this morning.

At 2 a.m., Ken and the security guards helped the unconscious Hu Manli into a taxi.

"East China Hospital Emergency Room." He slipped two hundred-yuan bills to the driver. "Just say it's alcohol poisoning."

The smell of disinfectant in the corridor of Huadong Hospital made Hu Manli's temples throb.

She vaguely saw a man in a dark gray trench coat standing at the payment counter, his shoulders so straight they looked like they were measured by a tailor with calipers. Who else could it be but Suning?
"Su... Ning? What are you doing here?" She struggled to say something, but then collapsed onto the trash can and began to vomit violently.

Amidst the sour, rotten smell of bile mixed with tequila, she felt someone gently patting her back, the movements as practiced as if they had cared for countless drunkards.

"Breathe, Manager Hu," Su Ning's voice was very close. "Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth."

Hu Manli looked up to thank him, but saw Xue Xiaozhou standing at the corner of the corridor.

The claims adjuster held the hospitalization form in his hand, his gaze sweeping back and forth between her and Suning, before finally walking silently toward the elevator.

“Cao Ling’s son…” Hu Manli suddenly grabbed Su Ning’s wrist, “That autistic child keeps banging his head against the wall… Cao Ling knelt down and begged me…”

Her nails dug into the other person's skin. "Why...why..."

"Try to think positively! This is a trap that Chen Fang deliberately set for you. I'm sure Cao Ling was also intimidated by Chen Fang."

"No! It was Xue Xiaozhou, it was all Xue Xiaozhou who did it."

"Manager Hu, you think too highly of Xue Xiaozhou. He may have found the information for that claim case, but the things that followed are another story."

"This..." Hu Manli also realized something was wrong at this moment.

After all, she had no grudge against Xue Xiaozhou, but the thought of Xue Xiaozhou's relationship with Qiu Lisu made Hu Manli unable to let go of her suspicions about Xue Xiaozhou.

However, Hu Manli did not explain these things to Su Ning, after all, she did not want others to know about her private affairs.

The cold touch of the gastric lavage tube briefly brought her to her senses.

In a daze, she saw Su Ning standing outside the curtain, flipping through the notebook in her bag.

That book, with its black crocodile-skin cover, "The Treasure Trove," records twenty years of accumulated client secrets and experience.

"Give it back to me!" Hu Manli cried weakly.

But then Su Ning carefully dusted off the notebook and wiped the cover with a disinfectant wipe.

When the morning light shone through the blinds onto the hospital bed, Hu Manli's headache had lessened considerably.

She sat up abruptly and found the "treasure bowl" intact on the bedside table, next to a cup of steaming honey water.

"Stir it in hot water and add two slices of lemon." Su Ning came out of the bathroom, holding a freshly wrung-out towel. "The doctor said your stomach lining is damaged, recently..."

"Why are you helping me?" Hu Manli interrupted him directly.

She quickly checked the notebook and relaxed slightly after confirming that no pages were missing.

Su Ning sat in the accompanying chair. "It just so happens that we bumped into each other! We can't just ignore it."

Hu Manli squinted her eyes.

This reason seems plausible, but it's actually not worth considering, since she and Suning don't have much interaction.

But what caught her attention more at that moment was Suning's attire: a seemingly ordinary navy blue sweater with subtle patterns embroidered on the cuffs of a niche Italian brand.

This understated luxury is something even someone of Li Qingqing's social class might not appreciate.

"Su Ning, you and Liu Na..." She paused deliberately, "...the profit sharing from that deal with President Li last time..."

“I take 80% of the commission, and she takes 20%,” Su Ning said with a smile. “It’s not a partnership, it’s a transaction.”

Hu Manli's fingertips unconsciously caressed the gold-plated edge of the notebook.

This answer is clever—it both disclaims any connection and implies that the money can be used to measure the value of the product.

She suddenly remembered how Su Ning looked at Chen Fang like he was a bug at the Nanyang Star Gala.

What are your thoughts on Cao Ling's matter?

"No matter what, you are suspected of insurance fraud. In fact, Cao Ling's testimony is not that important."

“This…” Hu Manli’s breath hitched for a second.

……

The microwave in the break room of Lanyang Insurance's claims department was humming.

Xue Xiaozhou stared at the spinning lunchbox, and heard the team leader's low voice in his ear: "Xue Xiaozhou, you've been used as a pawn! Chen Fang has wanted to take down Hu Manli for a long time, but you're the one who succeeded."

“But President Jin asked me to investigate…” Xue Xiaozhou’s fingertips tapped an uneasy rhythm on his mug. “Silly boy!” Zhao Ming glanced down the corridor. “Hu Manli met with Li Qingqing privately. This is using you to eliminate a competitor! Wasn’t all the evidence Chen Fang has provided by you?”

The microwave oven made a "ding".

Xue Xiaozhou's lunchbox lay overturned on the tray, ketchup splattering like blood onto his white shirt, just like the explosion in his mind at that moment...

"Now you understand why Chen Fang was in such a hurry to send Cao Ling abroad?" The team leader shoved a tissue into his hand. "You've been used as a pawn."

"..."

As Xue Xiaozhou rushed toward the director's office, he passed a brand-new penalty notice on the bulletin board: "Decision on the Handling of Hu Manli for Violating Professional Norms".

Beneath the bright red official seal were two lines of glaring text: "Cancellation of professional qualification, period of 24 months."

Chen Fang's office door was ajar.

Just as Xue Xiaozhou was about to push open the door, she heard Tang Ling's shrill voice from inside: "...The insurance association has been taken care of...she can't turn things around..."

Through the crack in the door, he saw Chen Fang playing with the candidate badge for the Star of the South Seas, the one that should have belonged to Hu Manli.

"What's wrong?" Chen Fang suddenly looked up, his gaze fixed on the doorway like that of a hawk.

Xue Xiaozhou took two steps back, clutching the recording phone, then turned and rushed toward the elevator.

He now has only one thought: to find Jin Zhenhua and explain the truth.

Jin Zhenhua's office was filled with the smell of cigars.

Xue Xiaozhou stood in the center of the carpet, the tomato stains on his white shirt already dried and turned brown.

"So you're saying there are doubts about Cao Ling's case now?" Jin Zhenhua looked at Xue Xiaozhou in front of him dismissively.

Xue Xiaozhou's voice trembled, "I only found out about Cao Ling's case, I didn't provide any other evidence."

"Enough!" Jin Zhenhua slammed his hand on the table and stood up. "You and Hu Manli have been arguing so much about Ai Zhonghua's case that the whole company knows about it. Now what are you pretending to be, playing the righteous hero?"

Xue Xiaozhou was struck dumb.

At this moment, he finally understood that Chen Fang had laid this move, deliberately exaggerating that argument into a "personal grudge," making all his current explanations appear as revenge.

In the HR department corridor, Chen Fang saw Xue Xiaozhou and raised an eyebrow, saying, "Here to process your resignation? A wise move."

Xue Xiaozhou's resignation letter hit Chen Fang in the face: "Chen Fang, you'll get your comeuppance."

"Really?" Chen Fang picked up the envelope and gently dusted it off. "You might not live to see that day."

"Humph!"

The glass door spun out, and in the blinding sunlight, Xue Xiaozhou saw a familiar figure.

Hu Manli strode over, her suit billowing sharply in the wind.

As the two brushed past each other, Hu Manli sneered, "Satisfied now, Investigator Xue?"

"You deserve it," Xue Xiaozhou heard himself say, "but it wasn't me."

Hu Manli paused in her steps.

Hu Manli wanted to come to the company to see Jin Zhenhua, but she couldn't get through to him on the phone.

It's obvious that Jin Zhenhua is using this as an excuse to make a fuss; perhaps President Jin has long been dissatisfied with her.

Then Hu Manli called her assistant Chunlu, since Chunlu was the first business partner she thought of.

He explained that he wanted to introduce all his client resources to her, and then split the profits 20/80 with her, which Chunlu naturally wanted.

However, greed is a common trait among all people, but the 20/80 split feels too low.

They agreed to split the profits 30/70, and Hu Manli thought about it and agreed.

Hu Manli was furious when she never expected that Wang Chunlu would contact clients behind her back.

Hu Manli couldn't swallow this insult, so she went directly to confront Wang Chunlu.

Wang Chunlu made various excuses to defend herself, and she spoke with great conviction. Hu Manli was so angry that she kicked her out, and she was also filled with disappointment.

"Suning, can we come out for a coffee?"

"it is good."

Soon, Su Ning appeared in the coffee shop, and Hu Manli was somewhat dazed when she saw the handsome Su Ning.

"Manager Hu, I didn't expect you to still be in the mood to drink coffee here."

"What can we do? We can't just cry and wail like we're going to die, can we?"

"That's true! What are your plans for the future? Do we really have to wait two years?"

"That's why I asked you out for coffee. I want to collaborate with you. You have the industry qualifications, but I have the resources."

How is the revenue sharing calculated?

"Three times seven! You get three, I get seven."

"That's too little! To establish a long-term partnership, it has to be 50/50."

"No way! It's a 40/60 split at most, you get 40% and I get 60%

"Manager Hu, although I am indeed new to this industry, I am not completely ignorant. Fifty percent is my bottom line for cooperating with you."

"This……"

"Manager Hu, you can go back and think it over carefully! Call me back when you've made up your mind."

"Alright! I agree to a 50/50 split! But you have to agree to one request."

"what?"

"You are going to join Taiying International."

"why?"

"Taiying International's commission is twice that of Lanyang Insurance, and the benefits are much better than Lanyang Insurance. Besides, I won't be able to go back to Lanyang Insurance in two years, so it's better to prepare in advance with a backup company."

“Sure! I’ve made quite a name for myself with the number of orders I’ve closed recently, so I’m sure Taiying International would be happy to take me on.”

"Pleasant to work with."

"Manager Hu, I hope you won't kick me out one day."

"Su Ning, am I really that worthless in your eyes?"

"You have no idea! You are the female devil of Lanyang Insurance Company. There are many people who secretly hate you and are jealous of you. Your Waterloo this time is largely due to your own actions."

"Hmph! Is being powerful now a sin?"

"On the surface, it seems that Xue Xiaozhou is investigating you, but what is his motive? It's a thankless task. Besides, does President Jin really not tolerate these small mistakes of yours? I think President Jin also wants to destroy you, this strongman, deep down."

"No way! You're overthinking it. I was personally trained by President Jin."

"Manager Hu, your unconventional behavior is also embarrassing for General Manager Jin. Because of your presence, it is difficult for him to treat everyone equally. Getting rid of you will make him more authoritative at Lanyang Insurance."

"This……"

"Besides, I think Chen Fang is the key. Manager Hu, do you have a grudge against him?"

"..."

"Alright! It's too late to say anything now. I hope we can cooperate sincerely in the future."

"Don't call me Manager Hu anymore! Call me Sister Manli."

"Okay! Sister Manli, please take care of me in the future." (End of Chapter)