Chapter 2140: Chapter 2141: The First Wife Who Left with Nothing 60

So just because of all that, she’s suddenly famous now? Zhang Yu really felt a bit dizzy. "I, I..."

"Forget it, let them talk. I can’t explain it anyway." She really had no idea how to explain.

"At least they’re not saying there’s some emotional entanglement between me and Xie Zhen." Zhang Yu could only joke about it like that.

"So now they’re not going to say, in front of you two, that your daughter is a loser anymore, right?" Zhang Yu could totally picture the old couple being all high‑profile in the family group chat. After all, who would willingly let others look down on them when their daughter is clearly doing well.

"Mom, let me tell you, if everything goes smoothly, your daughter here is going to be even more promising." Just thinking about the phone call she got right before boarding the plane put Zhang Yu in a really good mood.

Seeing how excited their daughter looked, Zhang Qiang casually asked, "Got some big project coming in?"

Otherwise he really couldn’t think of any reason why his daughter would be this happy. This totally looked like the rhythm of "something great happened at home."

"Feng Lina is coming over to help me." Zhang Yu said, very pleased.

Hearing that name, Zhang Qiang and Han Yu were both stunned. They’d heard her mention once before that she was meeting up with Feng Lina in the Capital City. They’d just thought, as college classmates, roommates, and good friends, meeting up in the Capital City was nothing strange at all.

They just hadn’t expected their daughter to actually rope Feng Lina onto the boat. Zhang Qiang really didn’t get it. "I remember after she graduated from college she went over there for grad school, and after graduating she stayed there to work."

"Yeah, she works at an investment bank, and her position is pretty decent." Zhang Yu casually mentioned Feng Lina’s employer and job title.

After hearing the employer and position, the couple both gasped. "Her annual salary must be quite high."

Zhang Yu grunted in agreement. "Has to be really high."

"She’s already bought an apartment and a car in New York. The apartment’s pretty nice, you can see Central Park from it."

Although it sounded a bit cliché, "It’s a new condo, not one of those old‑money buildings."

Those historic buildings where the old money are clustered—one look and you can tell they’re old properties, and they just scream wealth. But if you want to buy in there, having money isn’t enough; you also need most of the residents to agree before you can buy.

Anyway, the conditions are pretty harsh. As it happens, Feng Lina isn’t that into moving into the kind of place old money like. So she just bought a newly built condo instead. The elevators are fast, the facilities inside are new; basically you can move in with your suitcase, no need to renovate.

"That’s great, she’s clearly living pretty well over there." Just based on that condo, you could tell Feng Lina was doing fine abroad.

"She’s doing perfectly well abroad, so why would she follow you?" Zhang Qiang really didn’t understand. "Daughter, I know you’ve made quite a bit of money these days, but that’s not exactly enough for you to be showing off."

Even though Zhang Qiang didn’t know the exact figure of Feng Lina’s annual salary, once you converted the currency, "That’s several hundred thousand, close to tens of millions."

Zhang Qiang voiced the question from the depths of his soul. "Daughter, do you yourself even have an income that high?"

Han Yu also looked over at Zhang Yu, wanting to see how she was going to answer this.

Lin Zixuan already knew that Zhang Yu had gone to the Capital City to see her best friend, Aunt Feng. Before this, since both of them were busy, they basically only video‑chatted online and didn’t meet in person very often.

He hadn’t expected that old friends catching up would lead to such explosive news. "Mom, you’re awesome. How did you talk Aunt Feng into this?"

Talk her into it? Zhang Qiang and Han Yu exchanged a look, then both nodded abruptly. They really felt their grandson had hit the nail on the head—wasn’t this basically talking someone into something?

Calling it "talking her into it"? Zhang Yu was really a bit unhappy. "Do I look like I need to con people?"

"Yes, her annual salary is high, that’s a fact. But over there, the taxes really are sky‑high. If she can bring home sixty percent, that’s already pretty good."

"And she’s busy every day. When it’s really hectic, she flies to three cities in one day, and if she can sleep four hours a night, that’s already not bad."

"Even when she’s not feeling well, she has to tough it out if she can. And if it’s really impossible to endure and she has to go to the hospital, she still has to be on call at all times to pick up calls from clients, bosses, and subordinates."

"Mom, Dad, you really haven’t seen her. I used to be so jealous of her—her skin was in great shape. But after this half year of rest, my skin has gotten a lot better."

"And once you have a bit of money, people start scheming against you in all sorts of ways."

"Especially because she’s not married and doesn’t have kids." Some things didn’t need to be spelled out, but Zhang Qiang and the others would definitely understand.

They really did. "What’s her parents’ deal?"

"Helping out their own siblings and relatives. And now, whenever she spends a bit of money, like buying a designer bag or something, some relative will jump out, saying she’s spending money like water and all that." See? Everyone knew where the key problem lay.

"How can parents be like that?" Han Yu looked completely incredulous. "That’s just bullying."

"Sometimes people really can be that terrible." Zhang Yu spread her hands helplessly. "So I told her, since her parents don’t help her and won’t stand up for her, she all the more needs to take care of her health."

"We studied finance; if we don’t work in investment banking, does that mean we can’t make money? We can trade stocks and stuff. Maybe the income won’t be as high as in IB, but it’s not like we’ll starve."

"And I worked at an investment bank in China before. I’ve got a bit of a name now. When deals come in, I can act as a consultant for firms and small investment banks."

"Xiao Na is even more impressive. She’s never worked in China, but she’s spent all these years working abroad, so she’s built up a network there. And plenty of companies here want to list overseas now—she can do consulting for them."

"The work won’t be that busy, people won’t be pushed to the limit, and the money’s still good. What’s not to like?" Zhang Yu summarized how she’d "painted the big picture" for Feng Lina back then. "Of course, I wasn’t just blowing smoke. If you think about it seriously, it’s actually doable."

Zhang Qiang thought about it and grunted. "It really is doable."

"But her parents don’t object?" Zhang Qiang was worried that Feng Lina’s parents would kick up a fuss. Being able to side with their siblings and squeeze their own daughter like that showed they weren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed.

"What’s there to object to? Xiao Na said from now on she’ll still give them money every month. But if they start making a scene, she’ll just vanish and let them figure it out on their own." You should be filial to your parents, but if they insist on acting like that, then you don’t have to be polite.

"Anyway, they have their pensions. Xiao Na also bought them an apartment and commercial insurance. Even if they get seriously ill, it won’t be a big problem."

"And she’ll give them ten thousand a month on top of that. They won’t be living badly." As far as Zhang Yu was concerned, what Feng Lina was doing was already more than enough.

"Some things you just have to make up your mind about. If you keep dragging it out, you’ll only make their appetite bigger and bigger."

What Zhang Yu didn’t say out loud was that this way, they’d also get a nice, clear look at the ugly faces of those siblings they kept defending.