Wu Chiren's plan had been pretty clever. He made a high-profile reappearance, then explained that his disappearance had been caused by problems with an upstream supplier—he had gone off to chase down the goods.

As for the contract losses incurred here, he would compensate for them one by one. Since Wu Chiren had declared he would shoulder the responsibility, the companies that had been preparing to sue the salespeople temporarily abandoned their plans to do so.

After all, someone had stepped forward to answer for the matter—so why should they keep hounding those lowly salespeople? Those people were victims too, and there was no way they had the money to cover the losses.

And Wu Chiren's move also caused the police to abandon their pursuit of him. After all, the man had made it perfectly clear: he hadn't vanished after pulling a fraud—he had gone to secure the goods.

Everyone had their own calculations in mind, but the matter had developed to this point, and there was no direct evidence proving Wu Chiren had been running a scam—one could only say he had gone into hiding to dodge his debts.

Yet although they no longer intended to arrest him, there were still people watching him—they could not possibly let him get away.

Later on, Yang Ce saw the relevant reports, but he couldn't be bothered to meddle in the affair anymore. Previously, he had hated Wu Chiren to the bone, yet after seeing him, that hatred somehow could not be vented.

So what if he really gave him a beating? Would that settle the score? Not necessarily. Was he supposed to find some chance to do him in? Yang Ce shook his head. His own state of mind—he didn't know when it had begun, but Yang Ce had come to regard these lingering old grudges with far more equanimity.

Take Zhou Yanning, for instance. When Yang Ce saw her now, it could hardly be called hatred—there was merely a bit of awkwardness in his heart. What was more, Yang Ce had come to regard her as a good friend. So when Yang Ce had first laid eyes on Wu Chiren today, anger had indeed surged to his head—but after Wu Chiren told him the letters could not be found, Yang Ce, apart from feeling some regret, couldn't even be bothered to teach him a lesson.

Returning to the plaza, he retrieved Sun Jie's car, and Yang Ce headed back to the Dafa Inn.

"It's settled." Yang Ce pushed open the door to Lin Changqing's room and said with a smile.

"Settled?" Lin Changqing was taken aback. "You paid them the money?"

No wonder Lin Changqing thought so—how long had it been? Yang Ce had gone out and come right back. If he had gone to find Mei Renyi, that should have been impossible. So there was only one possibility: Yang Ce had paid the money to the two companies that had filed suit.

"Compensation is a given—but it wasn't me who paid." Yang Ce shrugged indifferently and sat down beside Lin Yanhe. "Naturally, whoever took the money is the one returning it."

"You mean Mei Renyi?" Lin Changqing was startled. "How is that possible? Didn't he disappear? Is he stupid enough to come back?"

"Whether he's stupid or not, I don't know—but if he doesn't pay up, he'll be facing even bigger trouble." Yang Ce smiled and said no more.

Lin Changqing was somewhat bewildered, but upon hearing that Mei Renyi was coming back, he relaxed and became quite happy. Lin Changqing didn't understand what was going on, but that didn't mean Lin Yanhe didn't. She had known Yang Ce for so long, and she was well aware of his forceful methods. She guessed Yang Ce had used some extraordinary means again.

Just like Bi Hai and Ge Xinyao last time. Lin Yanhe gave Yang Ce a deep look. Yang Ce felt Lin Yanhe's gaze and winked at her.

Lin Yanhe's face flushed at once. She hurriedly turned her head away, not daring to look at him again. Whether it was because of the awkwardness of the previous night, or because Lin Yanhe hadn't seen her father in so long, in any case, during the whole afternoon after Yang Ce returned, Lin Yanhe stayed in Lin Changqing's room. Watching the father and daughter whisper to each other, Yang Ce didn't want to intrude, so he got up and went to Hou Lin's room.

As for Hou Lin, Yang Ce had already ordered him to withdraw the men who had been keeping watch. Yang Ce was confident Wu Chiren would not be able to slip away—because even without Yang Ce watching him, Snake would be watching him too.

First, Snake, in order to protect himself, definitely could not let Wu Chiren get away. Second, if Wu Chiren really did run, would Yang Ce ever let him off? So Snake would never give Wu Chiren the chance to escape—he would watch him extremely closely.

And it was precisely because Yang Ce had figured this out that he felt at ease leaving Snake entirely alone.

He hadn't expected the matter to be resolved so smoothly, beyond all expectation—the people he had brought along, Hou Lin and the others, hadn't even been needed.

"Da Hou, you head back first. Oh, and leave your Jetta here—you can ride back with your men in the Jinbei van," Yang Ce said.

"Brother Yang, aren't you leaving?" Hou Lin asked.

"I'll wait a bit longer. Uncle Lin still doesn't quite believe it. I expect the evening news will report this—I'll head back once the news comes out. You go take care of your business first. I'm a little worried about Sun Jie—go keep an eye on things for me," Yang Ce instructed.

"Alright, I'll head back then. Brother Yang, call me anytime if anything comes up." With that, Hou Lin got up, packed his things, and prepared to leave.

Yang Ce took Hou Lin's car keys, returned to his room, and idly turned on the TV.

Ha—this place can actually pick up Phoenix TV! Yang Ce wasn't much for these entertainment programs, but at this moment his gaze stopped on the television screen.

Because on the screen, large characters spelled out a few words: New Year's Day Special—An Exclusive Interview with Shuya. The program was a rerun, not a live broadcast—New Year's Day had already passed. But Yang Ce didn't care; he wasn't one of those star-chasers who had to watch only timely programs.

Shuya. Yang Ce set down the remote and stared at the screen with interest. He paid this star a fair amount of attention—not for any other reason than that he had foolishly spent a fortune buying one of her rings. And as it happened, that ring was the very one he had once given to Su Ya.

So Yang Ce couldn't help but pay a little more attention to this star whose name was so similar to Su Ya's.

Yang Ce had never imagined that this Shuya was the Su Ya of those years—but the difference in their looks was simply too great. Though both were sweet and lovely, they were fundamentally two different people.

A girl changes beyond recognition as she grows up, but at the very least her basic features wouldn't change. This Shuya on TV bore no trace of the Su Ya from back then. So Yang Ce had no choice but to abandon that conjecture.

Yet even though this Shuya was not the Su Ya of those years, judging simply from the fact that she had the ring he had given to Su Ya, there might well be some connection between this Shuya and Su Ya.

So Yang Ce had begun to pay attention to this person called Shuya.

"And now, please welcome our big star, Shuya!" This program was a highly rated variety show from Hong Kong, and the host was extremely popular as well.

"Hello, everyone." Shuya walked gracefully onto the stage, then sat down with poise beside the host.

"Welcome, Miss Shuya, and thank you for joining our XXXX program." The host shook hands with Shuya, then launched into a round of empty, pointless banter—mostly the latest news about Shuya and the like. After rambling on for quite a while, the host changed tack and asked: "Miss Shuya, I hear that in your upcoming new album, one of the title tracks is called Our Memorial, and it was written about that ring you auctioned off a while ago—is that right?"

Shuya was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, I wrote the lyrics for this song myself."