Qiao Wu's cards have been frozen.
The house she lives in belongs to her company, the car she drives is registered in her father's name, and she's in a hurry to sell off the luxury goods filling her closets, even if she has to discount them.
After all these years of being envied, all she can actually take with her is 230,000 yuan.
And in eighteen months, the hotel brand her mother left behind, Qiyuan, will be sold for a fraction of its value. The blame for the Qiao family's downfall will fall on her, too.
That day, she sees a "Price List."
It doesn't tell her who loves her. It only records what someone has lost for her: money, time, reputation, opportunities, power, and a path they can never return to.
Qiao Wu begins choosing her partners carefully.
When an investment tycoon's acquisition runs into trouble, she brings her analysis into his boardroom. When a racing champion needs a suitable venue, she makes herself the most valuable person to sign. A director investigates the recordings her mother left behind, a tech mogul tries to see through her with an algorithm, and the man who's always stood by another woman finally makes his own choice.
She wants funding, projects, and the right to make her own decisions.
As for whether she has ulterior motives for getting close to these people? Of course she does.
Until a resource matrix bearing five names is exposed, and even the feelings that later arose without being planned become hard to make sense of.
They can be disappointed. They can leave. But she won't give back Qiyuan, which she fought so hard to buy back, and she won't leave the boardroom where she was once forbidden to speak.
The house must be in her own name, and promises must be written into contracts. She's still this greedy, still unwilling to give up her escape route just because someone says they love her.
The list can record the price, but not true feelings.
This time, she sets the price.
