"Ah? How could that be? Manman was with me the whole time, she only left a few minutes ago. She didn't go to the Civil Affairs Bureau," the elderly lady expressed her surprise.
Lu Xingzhou found it incredible too, "Grandma, wait a moment."
He asked his assistant Zhao Huai to fetch his marriage certificate.
After opening the document and confirming it several times, "Jiang Man, she and I have already registered for marriage."
"Impossible," the elderly lady still hadn't caught on to the mystery in the names.
Zhao Huai glanced at his watch, reminding, "Boss, it's time to board the plane."
Lu Xingzhou nodded, reassuring the other end of the line, "Grandma, I'll have someone look into this matter. Don't worry for now, I need to board my flight, we'll talk later."
After hanging up the call, Lu Xingzhou glanced at his assistant, "Fifteen minutes, get me all the information on Jiang Man."
"Yes!"
Fifteen minutes later, before the plane had taken off, Zhao Huai was holding a laptop, handing it over to the man in front of him.
The first-class cabin was chartered, and Lu Xingzhou was leaning back in his seat, eyes closed, resting.
Hearing his assistant's words, he immediately opened his eyes and took the laptop.
Upon seeing the brief information on the screen, his brow furrowed deeply, "Is this all?"
"...That's all," Zhao Huai bowed his head respectfully, "My subordinates have found out that this Jiang Man... cough, the young mistress, was abandoned at birth because of her heart disease. The Jiang couple took a baby girl from the orphanage back then to cover up the crime of abandoning their child."
"But recently this adopted girl caught the eye of a wealthy young boss. The Jiang family wanted money, but couldn't bear to part with the adopted daughter, so they searched everywhere for their biological daughter to marry her off."
"Perhaps the young mistress has been unregistered since she was young, so no information could be found. Ah, it's rather tragic."
Zhao Huai couldn't help but sigh.
Receiving a glare from Lu Xingzhou, he awkwardly shrank back.
Lu Xingzhou closed the laptop, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
It seemed, he really had married the wrong person.
Grandma only mentioned that the lifesaver's name was Jiang Man, but as to which characters, he hadn't asked in detail.
It appears to be a coincidence, this girl's name and that of the lifesaver sound very similar.
"What was the name of grandma's lifesaver?" Lu Xingzhou asked again.
Zhao Huai instantly replied, "Jiang Man."
"Which Jiang? Which Man?"
"The Jiang as in ginger, the Man as in satisfied."
Indeed.
Lu Xingzhou couldn't help but laugh, the names indeed sounded similar, no wonder he had made a mistake.
Now recalling his meeting with the girl when she asked him if he was selling toys, she probably had doubts at that time too.
But, for what reason did she mistake her marriage partner?
Could it be that she recognized he was the famous president of Lu Corporation and decided on a whim to marry into wealth?
Lu Xingzhou didn't want to speculate maliciously about his new wife, but he really couldn't think of a more reasonable explanation.
"Inform the housekeeper of Rong Mansion not to neglect Jiang Man. We'll discuss everything when I return," he stated.
"Yes," Zhao Huai nodded.
Lu Xingzhou leaned back into the sofa chair, closed his eyes, and changed the topic, "Has Dr. M been contacted?"
His trip to Haicheng was to negotiate a billion-dollar project.
Recently, Lu Corporation developed a new virtual neurotherapy device that controlled a patient's brain waves to cure illnesses.
But the final step—the chip issue—had been troubling him and the entire Lu Corporation's R&D department.
Hearing that Dr. M overseas was an expert in this field, no matter the cost, Lu Xingzhou intended to persuade the doctor to come.
"We've made contact, but he declined,"
"Keep following up, at all costs!"
"Yes!"
...
Jiang Man was completely unaware that her image had already collapsed in the eyes of her flash-marriage husband.
Her 'tragic background' couldn't help but make one suspect that marrying into wealth was her deliberate mistake.
Stepping down from the taxi, Jiang Man looked up at the vast courtyard in front of her and couldn't help but click her tongue twice.
Rong Mansion was situated within the Second Ring, where land was worth its weight in gold.
Although she had spent many years living abroad, Jiang Man had accessed plenty of domestic information online.
It was said that Rong Mansion was also known as 'Young Master's Mansion' or 'Princess's Residence,' and anyone living there had to have a net worth starting from at least ten billion.
She had never expected that the marriage partner she had chosen at random would be a tycoon!
Jiang Man walked to the three-meter-high gate, ready to input the code to open it.
Just then, five people emerged from the villa.
The leader was a middle-aged man in a white shirt and black suit vest, sporting a slicked-back hairstyle that gleamed.
Behind him followed a group of young women all dressed in uniform light blue uniforms.
It wasn't hard to guess that the man was the butler, and the others were maids.
"You must be the young madam, right? Welcome, young madam," the butler greeted Jiang Man with a bow as the iron gate opened.
In wealthy families, news travels fast.
Zhao Huai's assistant had already informed him that the new young madam was coming and that the young master had mistaken the bride, that this new young madam was a girl whose name coincided phonetically with the life-saving benefactor of the old lady, and that the girl had been unregistered at birth, only recently finding her biological parents.
The butler sized up Jiang Man based on this information.
For some reason, he felt that although the new young madam was simply dressed, she exuded the poise of a lady from a prestigious family, graceful and even a bit haughty.
"Where is your family head? When will he return?" Jiang Man had no intention of entering yet, instead standing fixed on the spot as she asked coldly.
The butler bowed slightly, "Young Master will be back at the earliest by tomorrow afternoon."
"Then give me his contact, will you?" Jiang Man's tone remained cold.
The butler hesitated, surprised. They had both registered for marriage, yet had no contact information?
"Young madam, may I borrow your mobile phone?"
Without a second thought, Jiang Man took out her phone from her pocket and handed it to the butler.
The butler, receiving a phone that looked like a brick, paused.
Because he had never seen such a phone on the market before.
The style of the phone suggested it was specially customized.
Wasn't the young madam from a life of hardships, unregistered at birth, where did she get the money for a custom phone?
Moreover, such custom phones couldn't just be bought with money, they required status!
Where did the young madam get this phone from?
Could it be stolen?
When the phone's lock screen was unlocked, the butler was even more stunned.
Because he couldn't operate it!
The phone contained a series of codes he couldn't understand!
Seeing the butler frozen, Jiang Man finally realized and snatched back the phone, "You dictate the number, I'll take note."
"Yes, 136…" The butler, obedient, clearly pronounced the number.
"OK," Jiang Man nodded, shoved the phone back into her pocket, and turned to leave.
"Young madam… where are you going?" the butler asked in amazement.
Jiang Man turned her head, quirking an eyebrow, "Anything else?"
"Young master instructed me to take good care of you, young madam. If you need anything, just instruct me," the butler said.
"Oh." Jiang Man patted her head, suspecting that Lu Xingzhou still didn't know he had mistaken his marriage partner.
"Alright then, I'll stay here for the night and wait for Lu Xingzhou to come back tomorrow." Saying so, Jiang Man turned around and walked into the courtyard.
A mansion worth hundreds of millions didn't even get a second glance from her, as it wasn't anything special at all.
Upon entering the villa, she instructed, "Just prepare a guest room for me."
Jiang Man then sat down on the sofa, and her phone in her pocket suddenly rang.
Upon checking it, she saw a six-digit number.
Jiang Man recognized this number—it had tried to contact her before while she was still in M Country.
It was a landline number from the National Research Institute of Z Country…