My Online Girlfriend Has a Twin Sister

Having always lived a life of comfort and ease, Jiangg Ruzheng had a full face with few wrinkles. He looked to be in his thirties at most, though in reality, he was only a year younger than Jiangg Ruxue.

Men really did seem to have some natural resistance to aging.

It wasn’t that cold in the middle of the day, so Jiangg Ruzheng was only wearing a dark blue jacket over a dress shirt. He had one hand in the pocket of his trousers and was on the phone with the other. Upon seeing Jiangg Ning approach, he quickly hung up and hurried over to greet her.

Jiangg Ning’s uncle was not a pot-bellied, sleazy man. Judging by his clothes, he looked more like a small business owner from a well-to-do family.

The saying "clothes make the man" was absolutely true.

Only those who knew him well were aware of what a spineless person Jiangg Ruzheng truly was.

This was the first time Chen Yuan was meeting her family as Jiangg Ning’s partner. No matter what the man was like, Chen Yuan felt a little nervous. He was mentally rehearsing the right things to say, waiting for the perfect moment to introduce himself to this uncle of hers.

Unexpectedly, Jiangg Ning saved him the trouble.

"Uncle, I just rushed over from Lanjing..." She turned to Chen Yuan and said, "This is my uncle."

"Hello."

"And this is?" The uncle looked at Chen Yuan, startled.

"My boyfriend."

"What?! Since when do you have a boyfriend?" Jiangg Ruzheng’s eyes widened even more. He grabbed Jiangg Ning’s arm, pulled her aside, and whispered urgently, "Just the other day, your mom was telling me to set you up on a blind date. How could you get a boyfriend and not even tell me..."

"Now is not the time for that. Just tell me what’s going on with Mom."

"But..." Jiangg Ruzheng glanced at Chen Yuan.

"It’s fine, just talk. He’s not an outsider."

"We shouldn’t air our dirty laundry in public... Ningning, why don’t you have this young man find a place to rest for a bit?"

"Tsk, just say it." Jiangg Ning’s brow furrowed in an instant.

This was no way to treat an elder. After all, Jiangg Ruzheng was her biological uncle. Chen Yuan took it all in, saying nothing, but his eyes flickered a few times.

What was even more unexpected was that the moment Jiangg Ning frowned, Jiangg Ruzheng instantly became compliant. He didn’t seem to feel offended or embarrassed in the slightest.

"Okay, okay, I’ll talk, I’ll talk."

He then recounted, from beginning to end, everything Jiangg Ruxue had told him about the true situation over the past two days.

Jiangg Ning and Chen Yuan listened as they walked, their hearts growing heavier with every word.

Before long, they arrived at a cafe where they could rest. Sitting at a four-person table by the street-facing window, Jiangg Ruzheng began to pour out all his grievances.

"Your mom never let me handle anything before, so how was I supposed to know all the ins and outs? I don’t get any of it! Whenever I called her to ask about something, she’d just chew me out... And then I have to go suck up to President Qi. I’m getting it from both sides. You think this is easy for me?" Jiangg Ruzheng was like a wilted plant, his head bowed and face sullen. He even turned to Chen Yuan and said, "Young man, you be the judge. That big boss President Qi knows you’re in a tough spot. Isn’t this the perfect time for him to take advantage of the situation? How am I supposed to negotiate with him calmly?"

"You have a point, Uncle," Chen Yuan agreed.

"See?" Jiangg Ruzheng pointed at Chen Yuan and said to Jiangg Ning, "Everyone understands the logic here."

"So what?" Jiangg Ning couldn’t help but say. "It’s precisely because this is a crisis that you have to stay calm and not panic."

"But, Ningning... what kind of situation is your mother in right now? The shareholders are furious that she embezzled company funds and have filed a lawsuit along with the finance department and the investors. The issues with the complaining customers haven’t been resolved. Hundreds of people are surrounding the company demanding their wages... Even the online public opinion is against her. Everyone’s out for her blood. She’s completely surrounded by enemies!"

Even though Chen Yuan already knew the inside story, hearing Jiangg Ruzheng describe it in person still left him secretly dumbfounded.

This was, in essence, a death trap set for Jiangg Ruxue.

There was almost no room for a comeback.

Business competition was all about plots and schemes; people would stop at nothing. Chen Yuan had never realized how terrifying these tactics could be, but with her own assistant leaking *that kind* of video online to completely destroy her reputation... what wouldn’t these people do?

The cutthroat world of business in reality was no joke.

One could only imagine how many ups and downs today’s most prestigious entrepreneurs had gone through to get to where they were.

Chen Yuan suddenly recalled that time at the Bauhinia Company in Lanjing, when Jiang Zhengfeng had casually revealed Chen Yuan’s identity to Pei Youwen, whom Chen Yuan had just met, saying there was no longer a need for secrecy.

’Perhaps when a man reached Jiang Zhengfeng’s current status, there was no one left who could threaten him.’

’How many hidden stories lay behind that casual demeanor...?’

’Did my biological mother really leave with me just because she fought with and betrayed Jiang Zhengfeng? Then why was her signature on my adoption papers? If the adoption process was legitimate and legal, how could Jiang Zhengfeng not have known? Why did it take him so many years to find me?’

’Chen Yuan had never allowed himself to think about these questions before. Delving into the reasons wouldn’t lead to a happy conclusion. He just assumed the adults had handled everything, his life was good now, and the past was in the past.’

’Thinking about it now, there must have been much deeper reasons at play.’

"So what’s your plan to handle this?" Chen Yuan, snapping out of his thoughts, suddenly blurted out the question.

Hearing this, both Ningning and Jiangg Ruzheng froze.

"I mean... since it’s already happened, you have to find a way to solve it, right?"

"Right. Uncle, what did Mom arrange with you?"

"Sigh," Jiangg Ruzheng sighed. "What else can we do? There’s no way to smooth things over with the shareholders anymore. The priority now is to settle the lawsuit with the investors. We’ll figure out the other things one by one after that."

Chen Yuan glanced at Jiangg Ruzheng, and when he turned his gaze to Jiangg Ning, he found her looking at him at the same time.

Their eyes met.

He could clearly see a trace of helplessness in Ningning’s eyes.

’To be honest, people should have some bottom line. They say you can’t be a businessman without being crooked, but this attitude was just too blatant, and he said it all so brazenly.’

’As for the shareholders, they had all gone through thick and thin to start the business together, forming a community of shared interests. But Jiangg Ruxue was the first to betray that community. It was disloyal and unjust.’

’As a business owner, to withhold wages and gamble with so many people’s hard-earned money—and most importantly, to lose the gamble—that was something that deserved to be condemned.’

’Now, on the brink of disaster, the boss wasn’t thinking about the shareholders who’d been through it all with her, nor about the long-suffering corporate drones. Instead, her first priority was to get out of the lawsuit.’

’Because the lawsuit from the investors was a different matter entirely from the unpaid wages and the shareholder lawsuit.’

’If Jiangg Ruxue settled the compensation with the investors, she could just wash her hands of the employees and delay things indefinitely. If she was determined to evade legal repercussions, there were plenty of ways to do it.’

Jiangg Ning had long suspected Jiangg Ruxue would do this, but in front of Chen Yuan, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything.

The world was never black and white. The idea that things could be neatly divided into right and wrong was just a beautiful dream for idealists. In most cases, the world was a murky brown, because mixed in between right and wrong were kinship, friendship, love—as well as hatred, jealousy, and desire. They all blended together.

"Can she come up with that much money?" Jiangg Ning asked in a low voice.

Jiangg Ruzheng shook his head dejectedly.

He knew the company had been struggling for years. Jiangg Ruxue had explicitly told him that it had reached a point where every move was a struggle, and that she’d been pouring her own money in just to keep projects running. She had even sold off many of the properties she had acquired in Mingzhu City more than ten years ago.

That was real, tangible capital.

Jiangg Ruxue wouldn’t have done that unless she had her back against the wall.

"The penalty for breach of contract is ten times the investor’s project funding, minus a certain percentage of... what was it again?"

"Return on invested capital," Chen Yuan supplied.

"Right, that’s the stuff. So she’ll have to pay back about 322 million..."

When that number entered Chen Yuan and Jiangg Ning’s ears, they both felt their vision go dark and their ears start to ring.

For a long while, no one spoke.

And their reaction was considered a good one.

"Sigh. When I first heard that number, don’t laugh, but my legs went weak... It took me over an hour before I could even support myself on the car door to get out. That’s not asking for money, is it? That’s asking for someone’s life!"

"That’s how breach of contract penalties work."

"So your mother plans to sell this building—the most valuable asset of the entire Meiruxue Company," Jiangg Ruzheng said, turning his head to look at the building, which was surrounded so tightly by people that it was impassable. "I contacted President Qi. His offer... is too low."

Hundreds of millions was no small sum.

If it were all converted to cash, it would weigh several tons and require a large truck to haul.

It was enough for hundreds of families to live a life free of worries about food and clothing.

"To take a step back, the best course of action is to resolve the dispute with the investors first, and then negotiate with the shareholders. At worst, we can discuss other terms. As long as the company can be successfully liquidated, the situation won’t be too terrible."

"And what about the wages owed to the employees?" Jiangg Ning asked in a low voice, her hands clenched.

"Ningning, I know you and Yaoyao have been kind-hearted since you were little, but the bandit king has already been routed and is fleeing for his life. What time does he have to care about the little goblins in the mountains? If they want to sue, let them sue. We need to solve our family’s problems first."

Jiangg Ning didn’t reply, her gaze fixed on the view outside the window, her expression complex.

Chen Yuan watched as Jiangg Ruzheng hesitated, looking like he had more to say, and couldn’t help but feel bad for Jiangg Ning.

’All she wanted was a quiet life, but fate just wouldn’t let her have it.’

’Her own mother had dug such a massive hole. As her biological daughters, how could Ningning and Yaoyao not be dragged into it?’

"Ningning," Jiangg Ruzheng smacked his lips a few times, unable to hold back. "I have to go home for a couple of days. There’s a lot going on at my place, and your aunt is calling me twenty times a day. Now that you’re back, why don’t you go talk to President Qi? I really can’t handle this kind of thing."

At these words, Chen Yuan was flabbergasted.

’Wait... what did he mean, go home for a couple of days? Did that just mean he was refusing to deal with this mess anymore?’

’But he’s the elder!’

’And Jiangg Ruxue’s own brother.’

’Logically, when something like this happened, he should be the one running around trying to fix things. Wasn’t he the one going on and on about ’family’ just a moment ago...?’

"I get it. Send me his contact information later."

What surprised Chen Yuan even more was that Jiangg Ning had no reaction. It was as if she were used to her uncle’s behavior, and she accepted his request with cold indifference.

"Oh, that’s great. It’s not just me saying it, that President Qi is a real piece of work..." Jiangg Ruzheng shot to his feet and started putting on his jacket. After a moment of rustling, he didn’t forget to grab his coffee and take a big gulp. "You have to remember to keep your cool. If anything comes up, contact your uncle... What the hell, this coffee is so bitter. I’m outta here."

He hurried out of the cafe, crossed the street, and disappeared into the entrance of the parking garage.