After Becoming a Scumbag Alpha, I Protect the Female Lead’s Love - Chapter 10

When the two arrived at the café, Xi Jiahua was already seated in the corner, sipping coffee.

As the light chime of the wind bell rang, Xi Zhou stepped forward to pull the door open for Nan Zhiyi, gesturing for her to enter first. Nan Zhiyi smiled and thanked her softly. Xi Jiahua looked up at the sound and happened to witness this harmonious scene.

Xi Zhou actually learned to open doors for others! Is this the power of love?

“Sister.” Xi Zhou and Nan Zhiyi approached Xi Jiahua, who stood up to greet them. “This is Nan Zhiyi.”

“Hello, I’ve heard much about you.” Xi Jiahua shook hands with Nan Zhiyi and invited them to sit.

Nan Zhiyi smiled and picked up the conversation. “President Xi, you flatter me. I should have been the one to find time to visit you. I’m sorry to trouble you to make a trip for my sake.”

“Nonsense, we’re all family now. Don’t be a stranger. And don’t call me President Xi—it’s too formal. If you’re willing, you can call me ‘Sister’ just like Xiao Zhou does.”

Nan Zhiyi was surprised by how quickly the Xi family had accepted her, realizing they truly acknowledged her status. She shifted her form of address: “Sister.”

Xi Jiahua beckoned a waiter for the menu. “See what you’d like to drink.”

Sitting on the outside, Xi Zhou smilingly handed the menu to Nan Zhiyi first. Nan Zhiyi didn’t stand on ceremony and naturally ordered an Americano.

When Nan Zhiyi pushed the menu back, Xi Zhou handed it directly to the waiter. “I’ll have the same as her.”

Their interaction was natural, yet the smiles on their faces made it seem intimate. Xi Jiahua was beginning to believe that Xi Zhou truly loved Nan Zhiyi and might actually turn over a new leaf under her influence.

In reality, Xi Zhou’s reason for following Nan Zhiyi’s lead was simple: she was afraid of ordering something the original owner hated and raising Jiahua’s suspicions. By ordering the same thing, she could just explain it as wanting to try Nan Zhiyi’s taste.

While the waiter served the coffee, Xi Jiahua added Nan Zhiyi on WeChat and immediately shared a contact with her.

“Xiao Zhou said she wants to sue Zhao Que. This lawyer is the best criminal attorney in Lancheng. I already spoke to him last night. Contact him directly; he’ll handle the lawsuit so you don’t have to worry. You should focus on handling the online public opinion,” Xi Jiahua said. “I looked into that matter as well. Why didn’t you seize the golden window for PR back then?”

Nan Zhiyi frowned slightly. “I had to confirm with the designer first whether there was actually any plagiarism. By the time that was settled, the golden window had passed. I had no choice but to let the PR department handle it with a ‘cold treatment’ approach.”

“I see.” Xi Jiahua nodded thoughtfully. Nan Zhiyi had been somewhat indecisive here; if she didn’t change that trait, she might suffer major losses in the business world later. “What do you plan to do now?”

Nan Zhiyi said firmly, “Find evidence that Zhaoxiang Jewelry framed us.”

The cost of online rumors was far too low, and Nan Zhiyi was disgusted by Zhaoxiang’s petty tricks, but without evidence, she couldn’t hold them accountable.

“And if you can’t find any?” Xi Jiahua pressed.

“Then I’ll have to recall this line before the launch and hire more internet water armies to try and recover some public favor during the subsequent promotion,” Nan Zhiyi said helplessly. She had already ordered the factory to halt production. Regardless of the outcome, sales would be affected; she could only chalk it up to bad luck.

“That seems like the only way.” Xi Jiahua frowned. “Evidence is indeed hard to find. Did you find anything regarding the original poster?”

“Nothing,” Nan Zhiyi said.

“Have you checked the poster’s IP address?” Xi Zhou suddenly asked. She didn’t understand business, so she had been sitting silently like a wooden statue, listening to them talk.

“We checked, but found nothing. The IP address came up as Antarctica—obviously a fake.” Nan Zhiyi shook her head. She had looked into it early on, and once she saw the Antarctic IP, she knew it was a dead end.

“Maybe I can try.” Xi Zhou let out a slight, disdainful smirk. “They knew enough to use a proxy IP. Seems they have a bit of skill, but if they think a fake IP can stop me, they’re mistaken.”

Xi Jiahua stared intensely at Xi Zhou with a frown. Nan Zhiyi, seeing Xi Zhou’s arrogant display, let out a soft cough to remind her to watch her image.

Interrupted by the cough, Xi Zhou caught Jiahua’s gaze and realized her behavior had raised a red flag.

“Sister, don’t look at me like that. I was a Computer Science major after all,” Xi Zhou said, thinking on her feet. She quickly added, “I’ve been slowly polishing my skills lately.”

Xi Jiahua didn’t suspect her; instead, she felt relieved by Xi Zhou’s newfound ambition after marriage. It seemed Xi Zhou truly loved Nan Zhiyi if she was actually studying now.

“It’s good that you’re learning. If your wife has no objections, then give it a try,” Xi Jiahua agreed.

Xi Zhou turned to Nan Zhiyi, her bright eyes fixed on her like a large dog trying to please its owner.

Nan Zhiyi had learned this morning that Xi Zhou’s undergrad was in CS, but she had no idea how good her skills actually were. Since there was nothing to lose by letting her try, she nodded in agreement.

None of them had brought a laptop. Nan Zhiyi felt Xi Jiahua had already helped enough and didn’t want to trouble her further. Thus, they said their goodbyes and headed home. Once back, Xi Zhou remembered the computer in her room and suggested using it.

“Let’s use the one in my room?” Xi Zhou led Nan Zhiyi inside and turned it on.

To her surprise, the computer was password-protected.

“Uh… why is there a password?”

“You’re asking me?”

The two stared at each other.

“Maybe we should just use my laptop,” Nan Zhiyi suggested, seeing that Xi Zhou looked even more confused than she was.

“Let me try something.” Xi Zhou tried a string of numbers, and to her shock, it opened. “It’s the same as the bank card pin.”

Once logged in, Xi Zhou had Nan Zhiyi send her the URL of the original post. In less than ten minutes, Xi Zhou had bypassed the proxies and found the real IP address. She noted the string of numbers, used an IP lookup tool, and identified the poster’s physical address.

“Jinheyuan Residential Complex, Lancheng City…” Xi Zhou read out the address.

Nan Zhiyi was stunned by her speed. “That fast?”

“Well, yeah.” Amused by her reaction, Xi Zhou broke into a brilliant smile. “Come on, let’s go ‘reason’ with them.”

In that moment, Xi Zhou was radiating a youthful, spirited energy. In her area of expertise, she became confident and a bit defiant—completely unlike her previous hesitant self.

It was only now that Nan Zhiyi felt the reality of the unease Xi Zhou must have felt coming to a different world. It seemed Xi Zhou hadn’t been as happy here as she had imagined. After all, she had been here less than two days and already faced a pile of messes, all while forcing herself to blend into a strange world and play a stranger.

“We don’t need to go personally. I’ll have the PR department handle it.” Nan Zhiyi noted the address. Her PR team knew exactly how to deal with people like this to secure evidence. If they went themselves and spooked the target, the evidence might be deleted.

“Fair enough.” Xi Zhou trusted her arrangement. She left the computer on and, under Nan Zhiyi’s watchful eye, began browsing through the folders to see if the original owner had left anything behind. But after a thorough search, she found nothing but a few massive games.

“Did she just buy this computer recently?” Xi Zhou guessed.

“Mhm. She bought it a week after moving in,” Nan Zhiyi recalled. She remembered crossing paths with Xi Zhou while she was hauling the equipment into the house.

“What are you looking for?” Nan Zhiyi asked.

“Just seeing if there’s a diary or something,” Xi Zhou replied.

Suddenly, a sharp ringtone cut through the air. Both looked toward the source: it was Xi Zhou’s phone.

Xi Zhou picked it up, and her face darkened when she saw the contact name: Li Qingyu. She answered with irritable impatience. “Hello?”

Nan Zhiyi had seen the caller ID. She had initially worried Xi Zhou might help Li Qingyu, but that concern now seemed entirely unnecessary. The way Xi Zhou’s face transformed the moment she answered—with her brow furrowed in sheer annoyance—made Nan Zhiyi suppress a smile.

The woman on the other end was clearly startled by the tone. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke: “It’s me, Li Qingyu.”

“I know it’s you. Is there a point to this call?” Xi Zhou mentally kicked herself for not blocking the number last night.

“Can’t I call you if there’s nothing wrong?” Li Qingyu said in a sweet, coquettish voice. She hadn’t expected Xi Zhou to suddenly be so rude. But she believed that as long as Xi Zhou loved her, she had plenty of ways to control her.

“Oh? You actually remember me when nothing’s wrong? Should I be honored?” Xi Zhou’s voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Li Qingyu was stunned into silence by the hostility. Xi Zhou prepared to hang up, but the woman spoke again in her artificial, sing-song tone.

“Zhou, how can you say that?” Li Qingyu dragged out the last syllable, her tone so manufactured that it gave Xi Zhou goosebumps. “Why did you delete me on WeChat?”

“What, you wanted me to keep you around as my personal ATM?” Xi Zhou retorted mercilessly. “Stop harassing me. Or next time, I’ll consider sending a lawyer’s letter to recover my money.”

She hung up and blocked the number immediately. To live a good life here, she had to cut ties with the original owner’s bad crowd—those were the people who eventually goaded the original Xi Zhou into drug use. Fearing the plot might steer her that way, she had to sever those connections early.

“You really dislike Li Qingyu?” Nan Zhiyi asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Xi Zhou shut down the computer and walked out of the room with Nan Zhiyi.

Nan Zhiyi grabbed a Coke from the fridge and asked Xi Zhou, “What do you want to drink? We have orange juice and Coke.”

“Just plain water is fine,” Xi Zhou said.

Nan Zhiyi poured a glass and set it before her. Xi Zhou took it with her left hand. “Thanks.”

“You should practice using your right hand more. You need to change that left-handed habit; the other one wasn’t left-handed,” Nan Zhiyi couldn’t help but remind her.

Xi Zhou gripped the glass and downed half of it in one go. “I can use both, I’m just used to this.”

“By the way, how do you know about Li Qingyu?” Xi Zhou had been too busy to ask earlier, but seeing Nan Zhiyi lazily sipping her Coke, she remembered.

“I investigated her before we got married.” Nan Zhiyi set down her drink and turned on the TV to a documentary she had been watching. Xi Zhou glanced at it: it was about Greek mythology.

Nan Zhiyi would never marry someone she hadn’t thoroughly researched; to her, Xi Zhou had been the most suitable candidate for a marriage of convenience.

Then, Xi Zhou asked the question that had been puzzling her for a long time.

“Then… why did you marry her in the first place?”