Chapter 24.1: “Thank you, boss!”

“But she never told us!”

Cheng Yao was utterly shocked. However, she noticed that Qian Heng, sitting beside her, remained completely calm.

“To be precise, Xu Jun’s depression was caused by Bai Xingmeng,” Gu Beiqing said, lowering his head. “In this marriage, he was deceived and suffered tremendously. He had to endure Bai Xingmeng’s ridicule and verbal abuse while also dealing with immense work pressure. With no outlet for his emotions, it eventually developed into depression.”

“But… but Bai Xingmeng claims that she was the one deceived in this marriage! That she was the one subjected to Xu Jun’s mockery, verbal abuse, and even domestic violence!”

Gu Beiqing scoffed, clearly outraged. “She really is a top-tier actress. What an incredible performance. She actually has the audacity to paint herself as the victim? Did she ever show you any evidence? I bet she didn’t—because she doesn’t have any. Meanwhile, I have records of Xu Jun’s depression diagnosis, testimony from his psychologist, and even chat logs between him and Bai Xingmeng. If you read them, you’ll see that she’s far from innocent. Her words were vicious—filled with insults. She constantly called him a coward, a worthless failure, and repeatedly told him to just go die.”

Cheng Yao was genuinely stunned. The Bai Xingmeng that Gu Beiqing described—was she really the same person Cheng Yao had met?

Qian Heng, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke up. He turned to Cheng Yao and asked, “When did Bai Xingmeng say she was the victim in this marriage? I don’t recall hearing that at all.”

Cheng Yao hesitated. “When it was just the two of us. After one of our meetings, she stayed behind with me in the conference room to go over evidence for the lawsuit. It was then.”

Gu Beiqing immediately pinpointed the issue. “So, all this time, you’ve believed that Bai Xingmeng was the victim in this marriage?”

Although ashamed, Cheng Yao nodded. “That’s why I agreed to help Bai Xingmeng and tried to stop Xu Jun from harassing her.”

“That’s completely false. The final post Xu Jun made before his death was real—it wasn’t some fabricated, spiteful smear against his ex-wife, as Bai Xingmeng claimed.”

Gu Beiqing sighed. “From the beginning, Bai Xingmeng approached Xu Jun while pretending to be gentle, kind, and virtuous. Xu Jun, a STEM guy who had never been in a relationship before, fell head over heels for her, convinced she was his destined soulmate. But later, he realized Bai Xingmeng wasn’t interested in him—she was interested in his company. At the time, industry predictions suggested TuanTuan Online would eventually go public, making it a highly promising investment. Over time, Xu Jun discovered that Bai Xingmeng was far more invested in his company’s future than in him as a person.”

“But after they got married, reality hit hard. First, Xu Jun wasn’t the sole shareholder of TuanTuan Online—he wasn’t as rich as Bai Xingmeng had imagined. Second, at that point, the company’s IPO was still a distant dream. As the CEO of a startup with tight finances, Xu Jun actually lived a frugal life and couldn’t provide the lavish lifestyle Bai Xingmeng wanted. When she realized this, her true colors showed. She quickly changed her attitude toward Xu Jun and couldn’t wait to divorce him.”

Qian Heng swirled the wine in his glass. “Is that so?”

Gu Beiqing was surprised. He nodded. What Qian Heng described was spot on.

“You investigated this too?”

Qian Heng gave him a look that said, Did this even need investigating? “There was no need to investigate. Same old story. It’s such a cliché. I’ve handled at least five similar cases before—there’s not even a shred of originality.”

“…”

“So, Bai Xingmeng’s claim that Xu Jun used her to generate scandalous gossip and boost TuanTuan Online’s visibility—was that a lie too?”

Gu Beiqing nodded at Cheng Yao. “That was all Bai Xingmeng’s own idea and execution. Xu Jun was a tech entrepreneur, not someone with entertainment industry connections for marketing. At first, even after realizing Xu Jun wasn’t as wealthy as she expected, Bai Xingmeng still hoped to use him and push for TuanTuan Online’s IPO. She even orchestrated those gossip-fueled publicity stunts to try to boost the company’s valuation. But when it became clear that her tactics weren’t making any significant impact, she lost patience. She wasn’t willing to waste her youth waiting for Xu Jun’s company to succeed—so she quickly asked for a divorce.”

Despite these shocking revelations, Qian Heng’s expression remained indifferent, as if everything was simply unfolding as expected.

Gu Beiqing let out another sigh. “If there was one mistake Xu Jun made in this marriage, it was concealing his assets during the divorce. As the victim, he didn’t want to hand over his hard-earned money to a woman who had tormented and humiliated him. His feelings were understandable—but the law doesn’t care about emotions.”

At this point, Cheng Yao had no idea how to process her emotions.

She had assumed that Bai Xingmeng’s public statement blaming her was just a desperate move to escape the negative fallout from Xu Jun’s death—an attempt to protect her career and popularity. It was despicable, but still somewhat understandable. She had believed that, despite everything, Bai Xingmeng had still been a victim in this marriage.

But now, she realized—everything Bai Xingmeng had told her was a lie.

Bai Xingmeng was far from innocent. She had been scheming from the start, using her sob story to manipulate Cheng Yao into trusting her.

She had known about Xu Jun’s depression. She had known how much the IPO meant to him. She had never actually wanted a peaceful settlement, yet she still instructed her lawyers to give Xu Jun false hope—tricking him into revising the settlement terms over and over again, prolonging his suffering, dangling a resolution in front of him only to repeatedly take it away.

A marriage that lasted less than a year should not have been enough time to truly know a person—but perhaps, from the very beginning, Bai Xingmeng had anticipated that Xu Jun might emotionally collapse. And in the end, she had used Cheng Yao as a scapegoat to wash her hands of any responsibility.

But… had she expected him to take his own life?

Cheng Yao didn’t know.

And she didn’t dare to guess.

The only thing she was certain of was that Bai Xingmeng had never been a victim of this marriage—she was the perpetrator.

Her mistake was assuming, from the very beginning, that women were always the weaker, more vulnerable party in a marriage.

Gu Beiqing sighed. “Xu Jun was too naïve when it came to relationships.”

“It wasn’t naivety—it was arrogance.” Qian Heng glanced at Gu Beiqing. “You can’t say he was a complete victim either. He was a wealthy man with resources—do you think all his business experience was for nothing? Did he really not understand that there’s no such thing as a free lunch? A glamorous actress suddenly ‘falls in love at first sight’ with him—do you really think he didn’t have an inkling of what was going on?”

“Of course he knew Bai Xingmeng had her own agenda. Of course he knew what she was after. But what about him? Do you think he wasn’t after something as well?” Qian Heng let out a short laugh. “He overestimated himself—was too confident. He thought he could have it all: Bai Xingmeng’s beauty and body, while also leveraging her influence to push TuanTuan Online to an IPO.”

“When he first started dating Bai Xingmeng, he spent extravagantly. He was throwing money around, even though he wasn’t actually wealthy enough to sustain that lifestyle. But to hook Bai Xingmeng, he went all in—borrowing money left and right just to impress her. Unfortunately for him, he miscalculated his own abilities. Bai Xingmeng, on the other hand, wasn’t some naive girl—she knew when to cut her losses. In the end, he couldn’t keep up with the game.”

Qian Heng lifted his gaze slightly. “This whole ‘fake rich guy trying to woo a woman with money’ thing? Bai Xingmeng laid it all out when she first filed for divorce—it even made it into entertainment gossip columns. But most people interpreted it as Xu Jun being madly in love, willing to spend a fortune to win her over. If you really think about it, though—doesn’t that make Bai Xingmeng a victim too?”

Gu Beiqing frowned. “She’s so materialistic—how does that make her a victim? Even if Xu Jun tricked her, she only fell for it because she wanted to take a shortcut and marry rich. She brought it upon herself. I don’t see her as innocent at all.”

Qian Heng, however, disagreed. He shot Gu Beiqing a glance. “I don’t think it’s ‘bringing it upon herself.’ Everyone has their own values and criteria when choosing a partner. Bai Xingmeng didn’t steal, didn’t commit crimes—she just wanted to marry a wealthy man. What’s so wrong about that? Tell me, would you marry an ugly, out-of-shape, and dim-witted woman?”

“…”