Return to 88: Starting from Marrying My Sister-in-law

The skies over Shanghai and Shenzhen seem to be shrouded in the same dark cloud called "best friends turning against each other."

Sifei Media and Mingzhu Media, two rising stars in the domestic media industry, have too many striking similarities: young, sharp, and led by women who are both beautiful and talented. Coincidentally, both female leaders graduated from the ivory tower of Beijing University and were classmates and best friends who spent every day together and talked about everything.

Now, these two former "twin flowers" have suddenly started tearing each other apart, igniting the entire entertainment and financial circles.

From the heated exchanges in court to the verbal battles in the media, labels such as "plagiarism scandal," "feud between best friends," and "decline in business ethics" were spread wildly, and the huge dramatic conflict excited and delighted countless onlookers.

This business battle has long transcended a simple commercial dispute, evolving into a public break involving complex past grievances and grudges.

Lu Yang stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window on the top floor of the Pengcheng Century Group headquarters, overlooking the pulse of the city below, the technological empire he had built single-handedly.

On the huge LCD screen in the office, the latest financial news and online public opinion summaries about the lawsuit in Shanghai are scrolling silently.

"Oh…"

A low, ambiguous chuckle escaped from his throat.

He shook his head slightly, a wry smile of helplessness appearing on his face.

"I never imagined that such a good hand could be played so badly." He muttered to himself, his tone carrying a hint of scrutiny towards his "cheap mother-in-law," Du Yuanyuan.

This former deputy director, who once wielded considerable influence at the television station, could have used his connections to defeat the other party fairly and squarely in this lawsuit. However, he acted cleverly and tried to manipulate the court, which allowed Yin Mingzhu to seize the opportunity and launch a fatal countersuit. Not only did he lose the plagiarism lawsuit, but he also ended up in the defendant's seat, and the reputation of Sifei Media suffered a significant blow.

In Lu Yang's eyes, this move was hardly clever.

"Chairman." A gentle voice sounded from behind.

Secretary Lu Nini stood respectfully with her eyes lowered, her hands clasped in front of her, trying to suppress the barely suppressed curiosity in her eyes.

She dared not let Brother Lu Yang discover her inquisitive thoughts.

After all, the two female protagonists at the center of this storm have very special identities.

One is Miss Xu, the boss's new favorite.

The other is the boss's secretive yet complicated past love.

The two had a huge public dispute over the plagiarism lawsuit, with the media making all sorts of unfounded speculations and sensationalist reports.

She was very curious about what Lu Yang was thinking as he watched all this. Did he hate the media's noise and want to take action to suppress it? Or did he coldly watch them fight it out? Or perhaps... he was secretly biased towards one side?
She carefully chose her words and asked cautiously, "There are a lot of newspapers on the market right now that are spreading nonsense, fabricating news, making unfounded accusations, and stirring up emotions about this matter. Should we... find someone to suppress this? Clean up the atmosphere?"

Lu Yang did not answer immediately.

The sunlight outside the window outlined his tall, slightly aloof figure.

The silence lasted for a few seconds, and Lu Nini's heart also jumped.

Finally, he slowly turned around, his gaze calmly landing on Lu Nini.

That gaze seemed to pierce through people's hearts, making Lu Nini's heart skip a beat, and she quickly lowered her head even further.

"No need." Lu Yang's voice was calm, but it contained an undeniable decision. "Let them fight it out."

After a moment's hesitation, he spoke again, his tone tinged with undeniable concern: "Tell your brother to send a few men to Shanghai. Their mission is to protect Miss Xu and her daughter; absolute certainty is essential. Also,"

His eyes turned slightly cold. "And let's also give a 'warning' to those buzzing flies and paparazzi around her, so they know what boundaries are."

He can let these former best friends compete in the business world; it's the path they chose themselves.

But Xu Siqi is his woman, and also the mother of his infant daughter.

Their safety is his inescapable bottom line as a man and a father.

Anyone who tries to cross this line and harass them must pay the price.

"Yes, Chairman." Lu Nini understood and quickly agreed, memorizing the instructions.

She secretly raised her head and quickly glanced at Lu Yang's back. Seeing that he had no intention of turning around, she pursed her lips almost imperceptibly and quietly left the oppressive office.

The heavy doors were closed, shutting out all outside noise.

Lu Yang was the only one left in the huge office.

He walked back to the window, his deep gaze fixed on the churning sea of ​​clouds on the distant horizon.

Suddenly, a very complex smile appeared on his lips, as if he had seen something, or as if he had a helpless self-mockery, and he chuckled softly.

"Perhaps... this is the ending you two hoped for?" He seemed to be speaking to the void, or perhaps whispering to the two women far away in Shanghai.

“This stalemate… is actually good for both of you, isn’t it?” His eyes were sharp, as if they could pierce through the distance and see the cold, hard figure in the top-floor office of Pearl Media.

"Yin Mingzhu, are you putting this on for me... using this lawsuit, using your current 'troubles' to prove your existence, your predicament, or rather... your damned, unyielding pride?"

His gaze seemed to shift again to a luxurious hotel suite somewhere in Shanghai.

"Siqi, you little rascal..." His tone carried a hint of barely perceptible doting and understanding, "Now you have a legitimate reason to stay in the country, right?"

She spent nearly a year alone in a foreign country, experiencing the hardships of pregnancy and childbirth, and raising her young daughter alone until she was almost a year old.

Over the past year, he has been preoccupied with various complicated matters and has only flown to Singapore a handful of times to be with his wife and daughter.

He was not entirely unaware of that loneliness and longing for his homeland.

Now, thanks to this lawsuit with her former best friend, and the need to establish a branch in Shanghai and personally oversee the countersuit, Xu Siqi can finally stay in China, a land she is more familiar with and fond of, for an extended period. From the very beginning of Sifei Media's establishment, Du Yuanyuan and her daughter have focused almost entirely on the domestic market, with over 80% of their projects located in mainland China.

From that moment on, Lu Yang understood that their hearts ultimately wanted to return.

He let out a long, almost inaudible sigh, tinged with a sense of resignation and exhaustion.

“Never mind…” he murmured, “As long as I don’t stay in Pengcheng and get in Mingyue’s way… I’m sure Mingyue won’t bother with this little girl anymore.”

Ultimately, deep down, did he really want his woman and young daughter to continue wandering in the distant South Seas? Shanghai, prosperous and inclusive, is a good distance from Shenzhen, perhaps a place that all parties could temporarily accept.

Luxury hotel suite in Shanghai.

Under the warm light, Xu Siqi had just carefully coaxed her tired daughter to sleep and gently handed her to her assistant to take her to the next suite.

The air still retained the unique milky scent of a baby.

She turned around and looked at her mother, Du Yuanyuan, who was sitting on the large sofa and looked a little uneasy.

Xu Siqi's gaze was calm, yet it possessed a penetrating power that seemed to see through everything.

"Mom," her voice, though soft, echoed clearly in the quiet living room, "Are you hiding something from me?"

Du Yuanyuan's hand holding the teacup trembled almost imperceptibly, a trace of panic flashing across her carefully maintained face. She put down the teacup, forcing a smile and feigning composure: "Daughter, what are you saying... What could Mom possibly be hiding from you? The lawsuit's all over the news, isn't it..."

“The news reports the result.” Xu Siqi walked to the sofa opposite her mother and sat down, her gaze fixed on her. “But what about the process and the inside story? For example, why were we countersued? And why is the core charge of the countersuit ‘malicious litigation and defamation’?”

Du Yuanyuan's smile froze.

Faced with her daughter's clear and determined gaze, her carefully constructed defenses crumbled instantly.

The truth will eventually come out.

She sighed heavily, her shoulders slumped, and she looked several years older in an instant, her face a mixture of frustration, anger, and embarrassment.

She spoke rapidly, recounting in a few words how she judged the other party's guilty conscience and their eagerness to use media resources to put pressure on Mingzhu Media and "coerce" the judicial decision, but the result backfired, and Yin Mingzhu seized the opportunity to turn against her.

His tone was full of accusations of Yin Mingzhu's "insidious and cunning" behavior and resentment towards the "xenophobic" behavior of local forces in Shanghai.

"...Mom really messed things up this time, and lost face!" Du Yuanyuan's voice was choked with a barely perceptible sob. She looked up at her daughter, her eyes filled with regret and unease at the fear of being blamed. "Daughter, you won't blame Mom, will you?"

Xu Siqi listened quietly, her face showing little emotion.

She picked up a soft cloth doll that her daughter had just dropped and unconsciously stroked the doll's cheek with her fingers.

After a long pause, she finally raised her head, revealing a gentle yet slightly weary smile, her tone unusually calm: "Mom, how could that be? I've said it before, since I've entrusted you with the full management of the company's affairs, I will never go back on my word. Win or lose, we'll bear it together."

"That's good! That's good!" Du Yuanyuan breathed a sigh of relief, patted her chest a few times, and let out a long sigh of relief, as if a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders.

She stood up from the sofa, paced back and forth on the luxurious carpet, her fighting spirit rekindled, and her eyes turned fierce. "But don't worry! I've learned my lesson! This time I was careless and fell for that brat's trick! Next time! Next time I'll definitely teach her a lesson! I'll show her that experience counts!"

However, Xu Siqi slowly shook her head.

Her gaze fell on the dazzling lights of Shanghai outside the window, her eyes somewhat unfocused.

“Mom,” her voice was soft, but carried an undeniable clarity, “since she wants to sue, then we’ll sue her fair and square. We’ll go through the legal process and let the evidence speak for itself. There’s no need to rush into revenge, and we certainly can’t resort to those…illegal means again.”

She turned her head, her gaze refocusing on her mother's face, with a hint of worry and admonition: "You must understand, this is Shanghai. Mingzhu Media is a leading local taxpayer with a deep-rooted influence, while our Xu family and Du family... ultimately have no sphere of influence here, so we probably can't affect this area, right?"

"So what if that's the case?!" Du Yuanyuan was enraged by her daughter's almost "weak" attitude. She suddenly stopped and raised her voice, "Are we just going to let this go? Just swallow our anger? Let Yin Mingzhu shit and piss on our heads?!"

Her meticulously planned media campaign backfired, she suffered a setback in court, and was ignored by reporters. She simply couldn't swallow this insult.

“Of course we can’t forget about it.” Xu Siqi’s tone remained calm, but contained a firm strength. “But we can’t rush it. Let me think about it first.”

She furrowed her brows slightly, as if trying to sort out her chaotic thoughts.

After a moment of silence, Xu Siqi seemed to have made up her mind. She looked up at her mother and said the idea she had been holding back for a long time: "By the way, Mom, I want to officially move Sifei Media's mainland branch to Shanghai. From now on, I will work here. What do you think?"

“This…” Du Yuanyuan was clearly stunned; this decision came somewhat suddenly.

She subconsciously thought of that young man far away in Shenzhen who controlled everything, "Such a big matter...did you ask your partner first? Does Lu Yang...agree?"

She didn't want to lose this billionaire son-in-law; it would be a huge loss if she upset him over something trivial.

Xu Siqi's eyes flickered, avoiding her mother's probing gaze.

She lowered her head, looking at her fingers fidgeting restlessly, and lowered her voice even further, with a hint of stubbornness and concealment: "It's just a branch office, it's not like we're moving the headquarters back... For now, we don't need to ask him for permission, right?"

She paused, looked up, and gazed once more at the bustling yet unfamiliar cityscape outside the window. Her tone carried an unwavering resolve: "Moreover, I'm not only going to set up a branch here, I'm also going to buy a house here. Consider it... an investment. In short, even if I have to leave tomorrow after the lawsuit ends, I want to have a 'home' here."

A haven for her and her daughter, a place where they could briefly rest and find peace.

Looking at the unwavering determination in her daughter's eyes, Du Yuanyuan knew that any further persuasion would be futile.

She understood her daughter's inherent resilience, especially after experiencing the hardships of giving birth and raising children alone overseas. Her longing for "home" far exceeded her imagination.

She could only sigh deeply, and with worry and a hint of helplessness, she nodded: "Well... okay, let's do it for now."

After making up their minds, both mother and daughter breathed a sigh of relief. (End of Chapter)