Pretty Wife Insists I Live Off Her - Chapter 17
Chapter 17: Then I’ll Sponsor You.
If she hadn’t had the experiences of her previous life, Yue Lei would have felt some pity for Zhao Zicheng upon hearing this laundry list of misfortunes.
But after everything that had happened, she now only wanted to get away as quickly as possible.
The reason was simple: Zhao Zicheng was a crazy woman. Anyone who got involved with her would be doomed.
Zhao Zicheng was the most profitable and popular streamer in her company, a master at coaxing money out of rich women, but she was also a greedy person who bit off more than she could chew.
She went around her operators and moderators, frequently interacting with countless “big brothers” and “big sisters.”
She would first gain their trust with small, quick-return projects.
A few months later, she would start scamming them, saying she was going to start a big resort project, illegally raising tens of billions of yuan in a single year.
When Zhao Zicheng did these things, she used the name of the Chunlei Internet Celebrity Incubation Company.
At its peak, Yue Lei’s company had over a hundred streamers who earned 100,000 yuan a day, and it was common for their monthly revenue to exceed 100 million yuan.
Those rich people were fooled by the promises she made.
If it weren’t for someone who had seen government documents and found out that the location of the resort Zhao Zicheng had announced was just a bunch of reefs and mudflats with no development value, this would have continued to snowball.
As the legal representative of Chunlei Company, with an 80% stake, Yue Lei was devastated by Zhao Zicheng.
Everyone refused to believe that she was kept in the dark. Both the police and the judge thought that Yue Lei had instructed Zhao Zicheng to do all these things.
When they couldn’t find any chat records online, they assumed the two must have had private communications and set up a surveillance network to investigate any signs of their paths overlapping.
Yue Lei was a generous boss. She would occasionally take her female streamers on trips all over the country to help them relax from the mental and physical toll of live streaming.
So, from the time Zhao Zicheng signed the contract, the investigation turned up several thick volumes of records of their paths overlapping…
No one believed she was innocent, except for Lin Zhixi.
Even Yue Lei’s own defense lawyer would subtly ask her if she had done these things, suggesting that if she confessed, she might get a lighter sentence.
Before Yue Lei’s transmigration, she was basically in a situation where she couldn’t prove her innocence.
She had struggled for half a year to no avail, so she just gave up and divorced her wife.
Zhao Zicheng, on the other hand, was carefree. She had run away abroad with the money and was living a free and easy life.
Everyone was watching Yue Lei to see if she would follow her.
Yue Lei didn’t care about taking the blame. She was sometimes very extreme.
She felt that she was going to die sooner or later anyway, and that the only difference between people was who died first and who died later.
But when she was questioned about abandoning her wife to run away with a female streamer, Yue Lei had the urge to kill herself to prove her innocence.
At this moment, looking at Zhao Zicheng lying on the hospital bed on an IV drip, so skinny that she was just a bag of bones, her heart was filled with mixed emotions.
The main reason why Yue Lei didn’t want to continue running a live streaming company in this life was because of the PTSD this person had given her.
So, no matter how likable or profitable Zhao Zicheng was before she started scamming people, Yue Lei didn’t want to have any contact with her.
But the thought that this woman had the ability to scam tens of billions of yuan with her bare hands in the future sent a chill down her spine.
An urge to eliminate this threat for the good of the people lingered in Yue Lei’s heart.
She couldn’t help but wonder if Zhao Zicheng’s desires would be limited if her life hadn’t been so miserable.
When Yue Lei had tens of millions in her account in her previous life, money was just a number to her.
People who started from scratch are practical. They’re content with enough money to live comfortably.
So she couldn’t understand why Zhao Zicheng’s greed was so vast.
She had scammed tens of billions of yuan, but that void still couldn’t be filled.
“Cough, cough… Where is this?”
While her mind was wandering, Zhao Zicheng seemed to wake up.
Even though she hated her to the core, Yue Lei resignedly brought her a cup of hot water.
Now, none of that had happened yet. The grudges and resentments were left in the previous life.
The current Zhao Zicheng was just a sick, weak girl with burn marks from cigarettes and scars from knives on her arms.
Her only grandfather probably didn’t care much for her either.
Yue Lei didn’t want to be known for abusing a minor patient.
“Who are you?” The girl looked at her with a vigilant gaze.
Yue Lei: “I’m a senior who graduated a few years ago. I happened to be back at school to visit my teachers today and saw you faint, so I gave you a hand. Teacher Bai went back to class. She asked me to take care of you for a while.”
Zhao Zicheng’s eyes rolled, and she was half-believing, half-doubting.
Yue Lei was not in the mood to comfort her enemy from a previous life.
She said very coolly, “If you need anything, just call me. I’m going to record a video for Teacher Bai to let her know.”
It was still class time, so it wasn’t convenient for Teacher Bai to take a call.
Yue Lei didn’t beat around the bush. She directly opened the rear camera and pointed it at Zhao Zicheng. “Teacher Bai, as you can see, she’s awake. She has half a bottle of IV left. I’ll take her home after it’s done.”
Before she even finished, Zhao Zicheng turned her face away rebelliously. “You don’t have to take me. I’ll go back by myself.”
“I just saved your life today. I don’t want you to die on the street,” Yue Lei said, giving Zhao Zicheng a real eye-roll.
Remembering what the doctor had said, she crossed her arms and sneered, “Honestly, what’s wrong with you? The medical report says you’ve been malnourished for a long time, and you have a duodenal ulcer at such a young age.”
These words clearly hit Zhao Zicheng’s sore spot. Her face flushed and then turned pale.
Finally, she spoke with a hint of hatred: “…I don’t have money to eat.”
On the way here, Teacher Bai had told her about her family situation.
That was a far cry from the persona she had created during her interview in her previous life, where she was the daughter of a senior executive and a pianist.
So Yue Lei asked on purpose.
In other words, she was venting her anger by rubbing salt in Zhao Zicheng’s wounds.
But she didn’t expect her answer to be so open.
Yue Lei looked at Zhao Zicheng’s very pale cheeks and her stubborn eyes.
She sighed in her heart, secretly scolding herself for being too kind.
In her previous life, she didn’t know what Zhao Zicheng had been through or what kind of people she had met after she entered society, which led her to come up with that life-destroying money-making scheme.
If she made her life easier in this life, would she not end up harming millions of people?
Yue Lei bowed her head and thought for a while, biting the soft flesh on the inside of her lip, and tutted.
Before Zhao Zicheng could go into her defensive mode again, she said, “Then I’ll sponsor you. Is 800 yuan a month enough for a high school student to eat?”
“What did you say?” Zhao Zicheng couldn’t believe her ears.
They were strangers. Why would she be willing to give her money?
Yue Lei: “Teacher Bai briefly told me about your family situation. I thought your grandpa was still taking care of you, but it seems he’s not very reliable either.”
She scratched her head awkwardly. “I won’t bring up anything else. First, tell me about your academic performance.
If you can get into college, I’ll sponsor you until you graduate. But it’s not a free gift. When you make money in the future, you’ll pay me back with interest. I don’t raise ungrateful people.”
A hint of contempt flashed in Zhao Zicheng’s eyes. She didn’t expect her to so easily believe her story about “not having money.”
She pretended to be innocent and replied with a “let’s see what happens” attitude, “I’m consistently in the top twenty of my grade. If I perform normally, I should be able to get into a first-tier university.”
“Then you’re a very good student!” Yue Lei didn’t doubt her.
North City Second High School was a public key school.
There were two or three thousand people in a grade. Being consistently in the top twenty meant she could basically pick and choose between 985 and 211 universities.
Yue Lei’s parents had passed away early, and she had to struggle for a living since she was a child.
Her college entrance exam score was just enough to get her into a first-tier university, but there were no good schools or majors for her to choose from, so she chose to drop out and make a living.
Lin Zhixi’s grades were better than hers. She was usually in the top hundred of her grade.
She performed exceptionally well in the college entrance exam and got into Fencheng University, the best university in their neighboring province.
Next year, Zhao Zicheng would probably be classmates with Lin Zhixi.
Seeing the girl sitting on the hospital bed, with her head bowed, lost in thought, looking very secretive.
Yue Lei: “You don’t have to worry too much. I’m just a very spontaneous person. Since we met today, it’s fate.
Twelfth-graders have a tight schedule, so we don’t need to be in contact for now. I’ll talk to Teacher Bai and have the sponsorship money go through her until you get into college.”
“What about after I get into college?” Zhao Zicheng asked.
Yue Lei gave her a strange look. “By then, no one will care if you play on your phone. You can just contact me directly.”
As they were talking, her phone rang. She picked it up and saw—”Xue”