Shi Li maintained her habit of early to bed and early to rise, even when she didn't have classes.
Her life followed a regular routine. She would have breakfast with her parents in the morning, and afterward, if her parents were free, they would take a walk together in their home garden. If not, Shi Li would return upstairs to lie down and read books or watch TV series.
She wanted to go out and have fun, but her classmates and friends were all busy with classes. Shi Ruan would only have time during summer vacation, and Huang Jie was also quite busy during this period, unable to spare a long stretch of time to travel with her daughter.
Huang Jie suggested letting a bodyguard accompany Shi Li outside, but Shi Li felt it would be awkward going out with a stranger. She decided to wait until Huang Jie was less busy, and her father could use his annual leave to accompany both mother and daughter on a long trip.
When she went downstairs and didn't see her father, Shi Li casually asked, "Where's Dad? Isn't it the weekend? Does he have to work overtime on a project?"
Huang Jie had nothing to hide from Shi Li, so she directly explained, "During that banquet we attended recently, Mrs. Sheng introduced your father to a young man with some interesting ideas. They didn't get to talk much that day as they were interrupted, so your father went to play golf with him today."
Mrs. Sheng?
Shi Li's brows furrowed.
Isn't that Liang Rongrong's birth mother? Who could she possibly introduce?
Besides, this hadn't happened in her previous life.
Anything involving Liang Rongrong's mother, especially events that hadn't occurred in her previous life, made Shi Li extremely vigilant.
When her father returned home in the afternoon, she followed him around, asking about what they had discussed and how it went.
Her father was puzzled, as Shi Li had never shown much interest in his business affairs before, and wondered why she was suddenly so enthusiastic today.
Though he found it unusual, he had no reservations about sharing with Shi Li and briefly explained the project they had discussed.
"This?"
Just as Shi Li began to question, her father continued unprompted, "However, I think this project seems too far-fetched, and the initial capital requirements are quite high. It's not very suitable."
Shi Li raised an eyebrow, "So was it a wasted trip?"
Her father's face beamed with pride, "Not at all, I got a hole-in-one today."
No wonder he came back at this time without closing the deal but still looked excited.
Compared to discussing the project, the hole-in-one clearly made her father more thrilled.
Amidst the praise from his wife and daughter, her father gradually became lost in self-satisfaction.
Though he had received many compliments today, he still found the praise from his wife and child more heartwarming.
With her father clearly in high spirits, Shi Li didn't comment much on the preliminary project.
Back in her room, Shi Li's expression gradually turned cold.
The project her father had just described shouldn't have appeared until several years later, and the main proposer was different from her previous life.
In the original story, the Shi family chose to invest in this promising future project, but the large capital investment led to a break in the group's internal capital chain. Additionally, "Shi Li" had offended many people in her love-crazed state. Between industry targeting and internal problems, the company went bankrupt suddenly.
In her previous life, regarding the bankruptcy that killed her entire family, Shi Li had always been on high alert. She hadn't gone crazy persecuting the female protagonist or offending the big shots, and she had been extremely vigilant about the project that would lead her family to invest. She finally encountered this project in her sophomore year. With Shi Li around, there was no way this project would materialize.
So why had a project that shouldn't appear for two years suddenly emerged now?
Shi Li suddenly realized that many timeline reversals had occurred recently.
However, precisely because the timeline had moved forward, even without Shi Li's intervention, her father wouldn't choose to invest in this project.
The project would still be considered quite ahead of its time two years later, let alone now.
Although her father currently had no plans to invest in this project, Shi Li still needed to investigate who this person was who had suddenly appeared, and what connection they had with Liang Rongrong's birth mother.
As usual, Shi Li called her private investigator. She had dealt with this investigator privately many times before, so this time was familiar territory.
As the days grew warmer, since Liang Rongrong's mother had been abroad for several years, investigating her social connections required going overseas, which was more complicated.
While the private investigator was conducting investigations abroad, summer vacation arrived.
Huang Jie still hadn't found time for travel, so Shi Li planned to spend a month in Europe during Shi Ruan's vacation.
However, Shi Ruan was busy with various school work, meetings, and external studies, causing their travel plans to be repeatedly delayed.
Before she could go on the trip with Shi Ruan, Shi Li received an invitation from Xi Jingshu to attend her sister's divorce party.
Previously, Shi Li's relationship with Xi Jingshu had been merely ordinary. They had been elementary school classmates, but Shi Li was a top student while Xi Jingshu belonged to the group whose parents were frequently called by teachers. Even as classmates, they had little interaction.
Receiving Xi Jingshu's sudden invitation surprised Shi Li. She wondered if there was a favor to ask that couldn't be brought up directly, hence using this as an excuse.
Otherwise, it would be hard to explain why someone she barely had contact with would suddenly invite her, especially to such an unusual event as a divorce party.
Hosting a divorce party wasn't the issue; the problem was that Shi Li didn't know the person getting divorced.
If it wasn't about collecting gifts, what reason could there be to specifically invite her?
Xi Jingshu: You've guessed right, but not entirely.
