Li Qiao and Tang Yiting made a quick stop at their four-person dorm to grab a laptop before leaving campus.
Tang Yiting followed her closely across the street, eyeing the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon parked on the other side. Still unwilling to give up, she pressed on, "We're about to graduate, and you really don't plan to teach Jiang Yi a lesson? She's been bad-mouthing you behind your back for years."
Li Qiao held the slim laptop under her arm, lips curling into a faint, indifferent smile. "Not interested."
Petty drama among classmates had never mattered to her.
After all, it just wasn't important.
Tang Yiting muttered a curse under her breath. "You might as well just admit you're lazy!"
She wasn't wrong—Li Qiao was lazy.
Not just in personality, but even in the way she dealt with people. There was an unmistakable nonchalance to her.
It wasn't intentional—just the result of being spoiled at home.
In Tang Yiting's memory, the favoritism Li Qiao enjoyed in the Li family was borderline outrageous.
She'd heard that before Li Qiao turned five, she didn't even need to walk when she went out—her brothers carried her everywhere.
If she wanted food or water, she didn't even have to lift a finger—her brothers raced to serve her.
Li Qiao's childhood was a textbook example of what it meant to be doted on by an entire family.
The more Tang Yiting thought about it, the more she felt like her own twenty-two years of life had been lived in vain. She was a young heiress of one of the five major families in Nanyang—the Tang family—yet compared to Li Qiao, she might as well have been picked up from a sewer.
Moments later, Li Qiao reached the G-Wagon, opened the trunk, and pulled out a Chanel shopping bag.
Tang Yiting grinned, hugging the bag to her chest and taking a big whiff near its opening. It smelled like money.
"I'm heading off," Li Qiao said, shutting the trunk and turning to Tang Yiting.
Tang Yiting blinked, eyeing her suspiciously. "Where are you going? We're almost done with school, and somehow you're even busier than when we had classes."
Li Qiao walked around to the driver's side. As she opened the door, she replied lazily, "I'm going job hunting."
Tang Yiting: "???"
Wasn't she already guaranteed a spot at a research institute? What job was she even talking about?
Before Tang Yiting could collect her thoughts, the sleek car had already pulled away and disappeared from sight.
…
Of course, Li Qiao wasn't actually going job hunting.
Instead, she took the G-Wagon on a leisurely drive around the outskirts of Nanyang, only heading back to the Li residence near noon.
Carrying her laptop in one hand, she stepped into the entryway. Before she could even set foot in the living room, the sharp tone of an argument reached her ears.
"Dad, the more you talk, the more confused I get. So after all that discussion, what you're really saying is—you never planned to break off Qiao Qiao's engagement in the first place?"
The speaker was her second brother, Li Yan.
Li Qiao froze mid-step. Without a word, she leaned casually against the marble wall by the hallway, openly eavesdropping on the family drama.
At that moment, dong—Li Guangming slammed his teacup onto the table, his tone harsh. "What do you know?! Even if this engagement is to be called off, it has to be with Old Master Shang's approval. What right does Shang Lu have to make that decision?"
"Then Shang Shaoyan doesn't have a say either?" Eldest brother Li Jun spoke in a low, displeased voice. "Dad, after all these years, you've never told us the origin of this engagement. Now that Qiao Qiao is being treated so coldly by Shang Lu, don't you think it's time we got the truth?"
Third brother Li Cheng took a drag of his cigarette. "Dad, you saw Shang Lu's attitude today yourself. I don't care what secret you've been hiding all these years, but if you're still insisting on marrying Qiao Qiao off to him…"
Li Cheng exhaled a cloud of smoke, his voice steely and resolute: "Then I won't hesitate to recall all our forces from the border and go head-to-head with the Shang family. That's my stance. Do what you will."
Li Guangming, left to "do what he will": "…"