A Beijing socialite stole my boyfriend; she went crazy after I got married.

Hearing this generous praise, Jiang Chu's eyes immediately lit up.

She casually wrapped her arms around the man's neck. "Do you have any recommended reading lists? Just tell me one, I'll brush up on my basic knowledge in private."

Xie Jing couldn't help but chuckle as he looked at her eager-to-learn expression.

He quickly scanned through those obscure and difficult professional books in his mind, pondered for a moment, and then spoke:

"If reading just one book isn't enough, I recommend two. Mankiw's *Principles of Economics* is easy to understand and will help you build the underlying logic of macro and micro markets. After that, read Howard's *The Most Important Thing* to develop your sense for cycles and risks."

He reached out and brushed a stray hair behind her ear, his tone gentle: "Read these two books first, and feel free to ask me anytime you encounter any concepts you don't understand."

Jiang Chu silently repeated it twice, memorizing it firmly in her mind.

As Xie Jing returned to her work, she casually picked up the tray, which was already more than half empty, and slipped out of the study like a light butterfly.

Jiang Chu only has one elective class today, and she plans to skip it.

After handing the tray to the maid, she went back to her room to change clothes and then went to the basement gym to start exercising.

-

At the same time, Assistant Wang, who was busy in the office, received a phone call.

"Old Wang, sorry to bother you. The backend just triggered a red alert. Someone is using the municipal system to reverse-track Chairman Xie's car—"

"Did they intercept it?" Assistant Wang frowned. "Who?"

"We've located the vehicle and started blocking it. The other party initially obtained half of the license plate, and now they're trying to infiltrate the insurance company. I'll send you the information."

Assistant Wang quickly obtained the information.

A hacker named Qian Wei.

"...The employer is a college student named Wei Jing. Old Wang, what do you think? Should we send both of them in?"

"Let's put Wei Jing aside for now," Assistant Wang said calmly. "This person has other instructions. As for Qian Wei, he's overstepping his bounds. I remember General Manager Zhou from Hongsheng Construction has been looking for him?"

-

In the western part of Beijing, in an old mixed-use commercial and residential building, a motley crew of people.

The room was shrouded in heavy blackout curtains, preventing any sunlight from entering. The air was thick with the smells of cheap takeout, leftover tobacco, and the stale, musty odors from the long hours of electronic devices running.

A dozen computer screens emitted a faint blue light. Qian Wei lay slumped over the table, his sallow face with deep eye bags looking like a ghost under the light.

As a well-known information broker in the industry, Qian Wei is also very busy.

He is currently handling the deal that Wei Jing commissioned.

That Aston Martin Lagonda Taraf, a globally limited edition model, is indeed a rare and enormous vehicle.

The number of such top-secret assets in the country can be counted on one hand, but precisely because of this, the ownership of such top-secret assets cannot be found in the ordinary vehicle management system.

They were all completely concealed by layers of offshore trusts and shell companies.

However, Qian Wei's ability to survive in this borderline industry until now naturally stems from his unconventional skills.

"Pat-pat, pat..."

The crisp sound of keyboard typing echoed in the room.

On the screen, after high-tech AI pixel restoration and multiple light filtering processes, the originally blurry photo finally revealed its true appearance.

Qian Wei used his illegally built backdoor protocol to accurately pinpoint the timestamp of the photo and retrieved the surveillance streams from the three intersections before and after that section of road for cross-comparison.

Finally, a complete license plate number was revealed.

Once you have this confirmed license plate number, and you manage to pry open the mouths of a few familiar insurance company executives in the black market, the real owner of the car will have nowhere to hide.

But looking at the license plate number, he couldn't help but frown.

...It always feels a bit troublesome.

Qian Wei instinctively wanted to back out.

but--

They were just trying to find out who owned the car.

I've done countless illegal and disorderly things, so this is nothing compared to them.

It's a waste not to make money off rich kids.

That guy surnamed Wei usually puts on airs, and supposedly he has a girlfriend who's as beautiful as an angel. How come he gets all the good things?

This time, we must make him bleed profusely!

However, Qian Wei also knew that although Wei Jing's family was wealthy, they were not a top-tier wealthy family. The price he was asking this time was already putting a strain on Wei Jing's finances.

If they really don't pay enough money by then...

If you can get to play around with the other person's girlfriend, that would be a huge win.

Qian Wei was happily calculating, his right hand gripping the mouse, preparing to further open the database to check the car owner's identity, when he found that he had been blocked.

His face darkened, and he dragged the keyboard over.

Qian Wei gritted his teeth and struggled for a long time without making any progress, and a bad premonition rose in his heart.

Suddenly, an alarm went off in the room.

Qian Wei's expression changed drastically.

He installed an infrared motion sensor on the security chain outside the gate, so that the alarm would be triggered if more than two unidentified people lingered at the gate for an extended period of time.

"Damn it! The cybersecurity team has closed in? No way, I was using an overseas proxy IP..."

He muttered curses in a panic, managing only to pull out a hard drive before rushing towards the hidden door at the back of the study that connected to the old fire escape.

However, before he could even step out of the study, he was still inside.

A loud explosion occurred.

The front door, as if made of paper, was violently smashed open and slammed heavily onto the shoe cabinet in the entryway, stirring up dust all over the room.

"You bastard surnamed Qian! If you manage to escape from here today, I'll take your surname!"

With a violent roar, four or five burly men with menacing faces filed in, instantly filling the narrow room to the brim.

The leader was a middle-aged man in a dark suit with a sinister look in his eyes.

Upon seeing the other person's face, Qian Wei's panicked gaze instantly turned into extreme terror, and even his voice changed tone.

"...Mr. Zhou?! What are you doing here?!"

Six months ago, Qian Wei, coveting a high commission of one million yuan, partnered with outsiders to carry out a business espionage operation.

He used a Trojan program to hack into Hongsheng Construction's core server and stole their bid data for a prime piece of land in Beijing worth tens of billions of yuan.

Then they sold it to their arch-rival.

This battle resulted in Hung Sheng Construction losing the prime land, and all the funds invested in the initial phase went down the drain.

The stock even experienced consecutive limit-down days, wiping out nearly a billion yuan in market value and almost leading to immediate bankruptcy.

now--

How did they find him?

Qian Wei thought in shock.

That's impossible!

"Why can't it be us?"

President Zhou sneered, his eyes flashing with hatred.

He waved his hand and said, "Beat them! Just leave them alive!"

"Mr. Zhou! Mr. Zhou, let's talk this over! I can pay back that money... Ah—!!"

Qian Wei's pleas for mercy were instantly replaced by a pitiful howl.

Two burly men rushed up without saying a word and kicked Qian Wei to the ground.

Immediately afterwards, a barrage of punches and kicks rained down on him.

Soon, the room echoed with the sounds of flesh being struck and bones being dislocated.

Qian Wei huddled tightly on the dirty carpet like a dying shrimp, his hands clutching his head.

He was beaten black and blue, his head was covered in blood, and the excruciating pain in his ribs made it difficult for him to even breathe.

Qian Wei could only grit his teeth and endure it.

After all, even if the beating is settled privately, as long as they don't call the police, he can always make a comeback with the dirty money in his overseas account sooner or later.

Thinking of this, Qian Wei gritted his teeth and endured the beating, barely even groaning anymore, hoping that the beating would end soon.

Ten minutes later.

President Zhou raised his hand, signaling everyone to stop.

Qian Wei lay paralyzed in the ruins, spitting out a mouthful of blood and gasping for breath weakly.

President Zhou looked down at him, took out a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his hands, then turned to his assistant and calmly gave instructions.

"Alright. Let's call the police."

"What?!" Qian Wei convulsed violently. "No...don't call the police! Zhou Dahai! Are you crazy?!"

He suddenly felt a surge of strength coming from somewhere, and he sat up halfway up.

"This is intentional assault! You trespassed on my property and started a brawl! You've beaten me up like this; it's enough to convict you of intentional assault! If you call the police, none of us will get away with this! We'll fight to the death!"

Mr. Zhou looked at him expressionlessly. "The owner of this house is long dead. You illegally occupied it."

"Well, you can't hit people!" Qian Wei opened his mouth, "And let me tell you, I have backers too, and my clients are all sorts of people—"

"It's alright," Boss Zhou sneered, "These brothers don't mind spending a few months in jail, after all, I'll pay them. But what about you? The things you illegally obtained, and the money that caused us losses, are enough to keep you in jail for the rest of your life!"

He spat out a mouthful of bloody foam, "Even if you knew the King of Heaven himself, you wouldn't walk out of here unscathed today."