A Favor Done, A Husband Won-Chapter 329 - 324: Turns Out She’s a Hidden Schemer

With Mrs. Jing’s departure, the atmosphere in the front hall finally eased up a bit.

Mr. Jing instructed Hui to serve more dishes to Shi Su, as if afraid she might have been wronged just now.

Shi Su was almost full, but she still made an effort to eat for appearance’s sake, while pondering over the topic that Jing Sixue suddenly brought up earlier.

She originally assumed that she was merely someone raised by Jing Jihan’s parents, untouched by the grime of the world—a delicate flower pampered and protected.

But now it seemed that’s not the case.

Jing Sixue evidently knew about the situation early on, though it’s unclear from where she got the information, and was fully aware of Shi Su’s existence. This indicated that, although Jing Sixue was in the United Kingdom, she probably did a lot of investigating into Jing Jihan back in their home country.

Even if those around Jing Jihan were extremely discreet, there might still be some clues to pick up from his everyday life and any personal interactions outside of work, assuming one was persistent enough in their surveillance.

Clearly, Jing Sixue had investigated her, but Mrs. Jing seemed unaware that her daughter was already informed of her existence.

She appeared to be the cherished lily sheltered by Mrs. Jing, yet unexpectedly turned out to be someone with hidden depths.

Moreover, considering Jing Sixue’s Weibo account, it must involve some kind of method, for how else could one precisely locate her Weibo and see the picture of Jing Jihan showing just the lower half of his face in the vast internet?

Between Shi Yunyin and Jing Sixue...

There couldn’t be any connection.

However, the photo was originally posted by Shi Yunyin, which is how Shi Su found Jing Sixue’s Weibo.

If Jing Sixue was simply aligned with Mrs. Jing, it would be manageable since Mrs. Jing, being her mother, no matter how upset or biased, wouldn’t make things intolerably awkward, limiting any drama to the household.

But if things involve Shi Yunyin...

After dinner, Shi Su accompanied Mr. Jing for a chat, and when he needed to discuss a business cooperation plan with a former acquaintance with Jing Jihan, Shi Su went back to her room first.

Lying on the bed, she stared at her phone in daze for a while, then logged onto her Weibo alternate account. She searched again for the Weibo post by "The Little Squirrel Accompanying Jing" and discovered that Jing Sixue had deleted the post with the photo. Besides, her Weibo only contained a few posts about studying at a management college in the UK, with nothing else.

Unsure if Jing Jihan instructed the deletion or if there was another reason, she hesitated for a moment before following Jing Sixue’s Weibo with her own account.

After following, she planned to check something else, but suddenly recalled that earlier she saw the Weibo content count indicated a dozen tweets, yet only three or four reposts were visible.

Feeling uncertain, Shi Su clicked back and indeed, Jing Sixue hadn’t deleted the photo but set it to be visible to followers only.

The last time she looked, her account wasn’t following her; now that it was, she noticed several other posts visible only to followers.

She had seen the picture from Jing Sixue’s birthday before.

Scrolling further back, there was a post from half a year ago without a photo, merely a piece of English text: a translation of a love poem by a modern poet, expressing longing and yearning.

Scrolling further down, a post from over a year ago appeared, featuring a beach photo, accompanied by English text: The white sands of Dorset County are so clean, is the natural stone arch of Jurassic Coast a gateway to dreams? To bring you back to me, the sun is warm, but my love for you is warmer.

Shi Su enlarged the beach photo below.

The picture showed a corner of the beach, capturing Dorset County’s renowned natural stone arch in the frame. Among the crowd stood a tall and slender man whose back was unmistakably recognized by Shi Su—it was Jing Jihan.

The picture also featured Jing Jihan’s parents amidst the crowd; everyone wore beach or swimwear except Jing Jihan, who was clad in shirt and trousers, clearly not there to accompany his parents on a vacation.

Dorset County hosted a branch of the Yu Jing Group; the company’s overseas tourism ventures were significant. His business trip to the UK and presence there seemed normal, aware of his parents at the beach, he visited to see them, yet Jing Sixue managed to photograph the moment.

Scrolling further, she noticed that Jing Sixue’s Weibo contained poems from overseas with many revolving around yearning and unrequited love. Nonetheless, these poets displayed immense confidence, believing the subject of their affection would equally reciprocate their feelings, which intensified the agony of yearning.

At this moment, Shi Su felt a slight unease in her stomach.

After reading a few more love poems, scrolling further down, she spotted a photo from three years ago.

The image lacked Jing Jihan’s presence, only capturing a large European-style white double door window, opening to the azure sky behind the Jing family villa in the UK.

A dark silver, discreetly elite tie clip from a well-known brand rested on the window ledge; its style made it easily recognizable as one of the clips Jing Jihan frequently wore at formal external meetings.

The accompanying text read: A year ago was the second time I saw you. I was daydreaming on the swing when you returned, reminding me about the cool weather and not to stay out. As you passed by, the wind seemed imbued with your scent. I prepared a second meeting gift for you, but you left without it; did you forget? It’s been a year, when will you return to the UK? I miss you dearly.

Shi Su didn’t read any further; there weren’t really any more photos below. Altogether, comprising her lengthy unrequited love, there were only two photos—one was a long-ago candid beach shot, the other a snapshot from months ago when Jihan was angled beside the dining table chatting with his parents.

Thus, the problem arose.

Her other Weibo posts were consistently limited to followers or possibly viewed only by herself; the earlier photo was the singular instance publicly posted, before being converted to follower-view only.

And how coincidental that the photo was found by Shi Yunyin.

She reviewed Jing Sixue’s Weibo follow list; it contained only Yu Jing Group’s official account, her school’s account—Jing Jihan lacked a Weibo account, otherwise, she would’ve noticed his following—but nothing linking to Shi Yunyin.

Until Shi Su opened the followers list and amongst the few inactive followers was an account that recently reposted Shi Yunyin’s content from a few days ago.

She explored that account’s contents awhile, unexpectedly realizing she incidentally discovered it was Shi Yunyin’s alternate account.