Zhu Ning is known throughout the industry as "One-Cut Zhu." Her due diligence reports are merciless, and she never hesitates to axe a project.
But after three years as a consultant at the Xie Group, there was one thing she could never cut off: her decade-long secret love for Xie Heng.
Ten years ago, at a reservoir in the western suburbs of Linchuan, eighteen-year-old Zhu Ning dragged Xie Heng out of the water and walked away. Song Man watched the whole thing from the sidelines, then claimed the credit afterward. The Xie family took her for their "benefactor's daughter," and she used that identity to secure a commercial marriage pact.
Zhu Ning knew the whole truth, but never tried to claim credit. Say it, and it sounds like bragging. So she stayed silent.
At the celebration banquet, Xie Heng gave her seat to Song Man in front of everyone. She smiled and agreed, then returned to her little windowless office. On the last page of the softcover notebook she'd used for ten years, she wrote four words: Expired. Not renewing.
A resignation letter, an offer from Hengyu Capital, and veto power. She left with grace, and for good.
The risk warning she'd left at the Xie Group was buried beneath a stack of reimbursement forms, unopened.
Three months later, an acquisition blew up, and the third item in her report was unearthed, every word exactly as written.
Only then did Xie Heng begin to ask who she really was.
By then, she was seated at the negotiating table in the building across the street, watching him investigate the summer of 2016, step by step.
