84: Chapter 84 Qian Li and Wang Hao's Dog-Beat-Dog Squad

Jiangcheng, Milan Second-hand Luxury Consignment Shop.

The sky was overcast and drizzling, and the air carried a musty smell.

Qian Li was wearing that Chanel jacket she had washed many times; her hair was a bit messy, and her face was covered in a thick layer of powder, yet it still couldn't hide the dark circles under her eyes.

She slammed a Hermès Birkin bag onto the glass counter with a "bang" and said urgently:

"Boss, I need to sell this bag urgently. It was a gift from Young Master Wang, a limited edition with a retail price of 180,000. I'm tight on money right now, so... 50,000... no, 30,000, just take it!"

The bald boss behind the counter, wearing white gloves, picked up the bag and looked it over, not even bothering with a magnifying glass before tossing it back with a look of disgust.

"Miss, take it away. We only accept authentic items here."

"What do you mean?" Qian Li shrieked, her nails scraping against the glass. "This was given to me by Young Master Wang, the Young Master of Tiansheng Group! Would someone of his status give a fake? Are you blind?"

"Tiansheng Group?" The boss scoffed, looking at her as if she were a joke. "Have you been cut off from the internet, or did you just come out of the mountains? Tiansheng Group changed ownership yesterday! That Wang Tiansheng is already in jail, and you're still talking about some Young Master? Besides, this bag smells like glue; it wouldn't cost more than 200 yuan at the Guangzhou Baiyun Leather Goods City. Get out, get out, don't waste my time."

"You..." Qian Li was trembling with rage, grabbing the bag and preparing to curse him out.

Just then, the shop door was pushed open violently.

A gust of cold wind and rain swept in. A man stumbled inside, wearing a crumpled Armani shirt, his chest wrapped in thick bandages stained with blood. His hair was as messy as a bird's nest, his face stubbly and half-swollen, yet the familiar contours were still recognizable.

It was Wang Hao.

He limped to the counter and rudely unbuckled the Vacheron Constantin watch from his wrist, slamming it onto the table.

"Damn baldy! Give me an appraisal for this watch! Hurry up! I want cash!" Wang Hao panted, his facial muscles twitching with every word due to his broken ribs.

The boss picked up the watch and examined it: "The watch is authentic. But this condition... there are scratches on the surface, and there's no warranty card. I can give you 50,000 at most."

"50,000?! It cost me 800,000 when I bought it!" Wang Hao's eyes were bloodshot, and he reached out to grab the boss by the collar. "Are you robbing me? Do you believe I'll have someone smash your shop?"

"Smash my shop?" The boss pulled a baseball bat from under the counter and looked at him coldly. "Young Master Wang, wake up. You're just the son of a wanted criminal now, so stop acting like a big shot. 50,000, take it or leave it."

Wang Hao's hand froze in mid-air, his arrogance instantly extinguished. He gritted his teeth and squeezed a single word from his throat: "Sell."

"W... Wang Hao?"

A voice filled with disbelief came from the side.

Wang Hao turned his head and saw Qian Li standing in the corner. Their eyes met, and the air was filled with awkwardness and embarrassment.

"Is it really you?" Qian Li looked at the man in front of her, who looked like a beggar, then looked at the bag in her hand that had been identified as a fake, and a surge of blind rage rushed to her head. She rushed forward and slammed the fake bag hard into Wang Hao's face.

"Wang Hao! You liar! Didn't you say this bag cost 180,000? The boss said it's fake! You used a 200-yuan piece of junk to play with my feelings? Pay me back! Pay me back for the youth I wasted on you!"

Wang Hao stumbled from the impact, his chest throbbing with excruciating pain. He shoved Qian Li away, his expression as ferocious as a mad dog:

"Get lost! If it weren't for you, you jinx, would I have ended up like this? If it weren't to show off in front of you, why would I have provoked Su Muyang? This is all your fault, you bitch!"

"My fault? It's because you're incompetent!" Qian Li screamed, her hair disheveled. "Even though Su Muyang was poor, he at least spent all his scholarship money on me! What about you? Besides bragging, what can you do? I can't even pay my rent now!"

"Su Muyang was poor?"

Hearing these three words, Wang Hao suddenly laughed instead of getting angry.

He laughed until his whole body shook, which made his wounds ache and caused him to grimace, but he couldn't stop. There was a desperate madness in his laughter that made one's scalp tingle.

"Hahahaha... Qian Li, oh Qian Li, you really are blind." Wang Hao leaned against the counter and pointed at Qian Li's nose. "Why do you think I had to sell my watch? Why do you think my dad is in jail? It's all because of that Su Muyang, the one you dumped like trash!"

"What do you mean?" Qian Li's heart sank.

"See for yourself!"

Wang Hao took out his phone with the cracked screen, played a video, and shoved it right in front of Qian Li's face.

It was a replay of Jiangcheng TV's financial news.

On the screen was the signing ceremony for Huihuang Group's acquisition of Tiansheng Group. Under countless spotlights, a young man in a dark gray haute couture suit was sitting in the main seat, signing the documents.

The man had sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, a cold and noble temperament, and an air of authority in every gesture, as if he controlled everything. A row of bodyguards in black stood behind him, and even Zhang Feng, who used to be so arrogant, was bending over like an old servant to hand him a pen.

A ticker tape scrolled across the screen with large characters: [Mysterious capital devours Tiansheng; Chen Muyang, the Young Master of Huihuang Group, officially takes over the multi-billion empire.]

"This... this is..." Qian Li stared fixedly at the screen, her breathing coming to a halt.

She knew this face all too well.

That was Su Muyang, who used to deliver food in the sweltering heat, getting sunburned just to buy her a new phone.

That was Su Muyang, who used to wait for her in the pouring rain for three hours just to bring her an umbrella, only to be scolded by her as looking "poor and pathetic."

But now, the man on the screen looked like a god sitting on the clouds. The fabric of that suit, that gaze, that aura—it was simply incomparable to a second-generation rich kid like Wang Hao.

"See it clearly now?" Wang Hao's voice was like a demon's whisper. "He changed his surname back to Chen. He is the heir to a trillion-dollar financial group! Do you know how rich that Huihuang Group is? A single strand of hair from them is thicker than my entire Wang family! If you hadn't broken up with him back then, the billionaire wife standing by his side right now would be you!"

Boom!

Qian Li felt as if a thunderbolt had exploded in her brain.

Trillion-dollar heir...

Young Master of Huihuang Group...

She remembered what she had said to Su Muyang while pointing at his nose downstairs at the dormitory on the day they broke up: "A poor ghost like you is only fit to deliver food for the rest of your life! I'd rather date a dog than you!"

It turned out she had personally thrown a priceless diamond into the sewer, thinking it was just a worthless rock.

"No... this isn't true... this is impossible..." Qian Li's legs gave way, and she collapsed onto the dirty floor. She tremblingly took out her phone, wanting to dial that familiar number.

The number that used to answer on the first ring, no matter how much she acted out.

"Sorry, the user you are calling has enabled stranger blocking..."

The cold, mechanical voice completely shattered her last illusion.

"Don't dream anymore." Wang Hao took the 50,000 yuan the boss counted out, stuffed it into his pocket, and looked at Qian Li on the floor with eyes full of vengeful pleasure. "Whatever leaks through his fingers now would be enough to buy a city; would he ever look at a piece of trash like you? Qian Li, you'll rot in the mud for the rest of your life!"

Wang Hao limped into the rain, leaving behind his manic laughter.

Qian Li sat on the floor, looking at the radiant man on her phone screen, her tears washing away her makeup until she looked like a clown. She opened her mouth, wanting to cry but unable to, her guts twisting with regret at this moment; it felt as if a piece of her heart had been gouged out, causing her to gasp in pain.

If... if only she had been a little more patient back then...

If only she hadn't gotten into that broken bmw of Wang Hao's...

Unfortunately, there are no "ifs" in life.

She could only watch helplessly as the boy who once had eyes only for her stood at a peak she could never reach, with no interest in even looking back at her.

The rain fell harder and harder, chilling this city filled with desire and regret to the bone.