Jiang Ling: "..."
Although her heart was panicking immensely, Jiang Ling held her breath and said, "It's good that you found out. It saves me the trouble of having to figure out how to explain it to you."
Jian Zhou smiled, with a hint of mockery. "If I hadn't found out, would you have kept it from me your whole life?"
Jiang Ling, after all, had lived two lives. After a brief moment of panic, she gradually regained her composure.
That's right, she hadn't done anything to wrong Jian Zhou. Why should she panic?
What was there to panic about?
Jiang Ling smiled faintly. "Keeping it from you for a lifetime? That's not likely. After all, I'm upright and proper, and I haven't done anything I can't face the light of day with, so there's no need to hide it."
Upon hearing this, Jian Zhou's brow furrowed tightly.
He had thought that seeing the contents of the booklet would give him leverage against her, but she had easily diffused the situation with a single sentence.
"Jiang Ling, are you really so heartless?"
Jian Zhou, in his anger, couldn't help but roar.
Jiang Ling replied, "Being heartless, being carefree, not taking things to heart—that's how one lives a freer, more exhilarating life!"
This statement only infuriated Jian Zhou further. "Deceiving me, toying with me, playing me for a fool—is that fun for you?"
Jiang Ling remained silent.
Jian Zhou suddenly raised his voice. "Speak! Have you run out of words?"
Jiang Ling calmly looked at his eyes, which were filled with rage.
She knew that with the contents of this booklet exposed, a soft landing was no longer possible.
Perhaps, this was fate.
This was also what she had intended from the start: to explain everything and then go their separate ways.
From now on, you walk your Cheng Hua Road, and I'll cross my Er Xian Bridge.
Jiang Ling took a deep breath, steeled her heart, and sneered, "You say I deceived and toyed with you, but wasn't your deliberate approach to me also ill-intentioned? A fine Jian Second Young Master you are after your rebirth!"
Her words fell like thunder.
Jian Zhou's eyes widened, and he stammered, "You... How did you know I was... I was..."
"At first, I didn't realize you were reborn either. I thought you were deliberately approaching me because of that little bitch An Qiuyan's instigation, trying to use a honey trap to dig up dirt on me and completely ruin my reputation in the entertainment industry. But as we spent more time together, I gradually sensed something was off. With your Jian family's immense wealth and power, they had plenty of ways to deal with me; there was no need to resort to such base tactics."
Jiang Ling spoke word by word, then paused to continue, "Clearly, I made a mistake of jumping to conclusions. I thought you liked An Qiuyan so much that you must have been approaching me for her sake. But after ruling out that reason, I couldn't help but feel puzzled. If not for An Qiuyan, what was your purpose in approaching me?"
"At this point, a terrifying thought entered my mind: could you, the second young master of the Jian family, also be a reborn person like An Qiuyan? But I wasn't sure. To verify my guess, I set a trap, using revenge as an excuse to have you dig up dirt on Huahuo Media."
"As expected, without the foreknowledge and assistance of An Qiuyan, you managed to uncover shocking revelations about Huahuo Media's top artists repeatedly. From that moment on, I was certain that you were also a reborn person."
Jian Zhou listened to her words, a mixture of amazement and bitter laughter on his face. "So, you had me find Xiao Hei to dig up dirt because you wanted to probe my depths?"