blooming at fifty #2
“Betrayal is never a sudden strike, but a carefully calculated chess game laid out over years.”
Saturday, September 19, 2026 | Sunny
In the afternoon, my business partner Mr.S.G and I went to the office of my attorney L. I have filed lawsuits against nine cooperative enterprises that owe me tens of millions in long-overdue project funds. These outstanding debts have pushed my company to the brink of collapse. Meanwhile, I have been sued by several suppliers and placed on a personal debt restriction list.
As the on-site supervisor for all these projects, Mr.S.G signed numerous legal power-of-attorney documents. For this reason, he is listed as the second plaintiff alongside me in this series of litigation cases.
I sat across from the lawyer L, with a neat stack of bank statements and purchase orders spread out on the table. We were verifying every cost invested in the construction sites, and I buried myself in reviewing the documents.
Suddenly, I felt a soft kick on my foot.
I looked up toward lawyer L. He met my eyes and subtly guided my gaze to a blank sheet of paper in front of him.
He wrote down a figure: 2.8 million, followed by a bold question mark.
Leaning forward and lowering his voice, he whispered: “This amount comes from repeated falsified declarations for multiple batches of construction materials.”
Lawyer L and I looked up simultaneously toward Mr.S.G. This was the man I had single-handedly lifted up. Years ago, he was drowning in bankruptcy and utter despair, and I pulled him back from the edge of ruin. He had sworn countless times that I was the person he was most grateful to in his life, and that he would dedicate himself entirely to the company to repay my kindness and trust.
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Could it be that he had embezzled company funds?
Mr.S.G sat two seats away, his head bowed over his phone, fingers scrolling nonstop. He remained completely indifferent to the lawsuit that would decide the company’s survival, utterly unaware of the stare the lawyer and I fixed on him.
The lawyer continued writing on the paper: “He is also a plaintiff. Confronting him now will work against your interests. Do not alert him for the time being. Prioritize the overall situation. Win the core lawsuit first, and all other issues can be resolved afterward.”
The total litigation claim exceeds 20 million yuan. I quickly weighed the pros and cons in my mind. I glanced sideways at Mr.S.G, who was still busy typing on his phone. I nodded faintly at the lawyer. He crossed out the words on the paper, and we refocused on discussing the details of the case.
Just then, my phone vibrated gently on the table. I unlocked the screen and saw a WeChat message from my younger sister: “Your partner has been messaging me. He says you still have millions in your account and have been lying about being broke, with no intention of paying back the 500,000 you owe me. He claims suing you is my only way to get my money back.”
Those few lines shattered the last trace of calm I had left. The message was not merely a relay of Mr.S.G’s words — it was my sister’s quiet doubt, a test to verify whether his accusations were true. A tangled rush of emotions washed over me.
I had previously told Mr.S.G that I borrowed over 500,000 yuan from my sister to cover the upfront costs of these lawsuits, and I had yet to repay the debt. My mother had also gently urged me to settle the repayment as soon as possible, for my sister’s family has always lived modestly with limited means.
Mr.S.G and I have known each other for nearly two decades. He is fully aware of how strained my relationship with my biological family is. He knows they will never stand by me or offer any support if I fall into trouble.
What he does not know is that I entered a secret marriage three years ago, a fact I have never disclosed publicly. Legally, I have a husband — who is the primary legal heir to all my personal assets.
He assumes I am fighting this battle alone, and he is determined to seize everything I have for himself.
He has precisely exploited the rifts in my family ties, quietly weaving an elaborate trap. Rather than wait for me to audit the accounts and demand he return the misappropriated funds, he chose to strike first to destroy me. If I were incapacitated and unable to hold him accountable, any unexpected setback during the litigation would allow him to legally claim all the recovered project funds for himself.
He was once the city’s official chess champion. True to his reputation, he is a master of layout, deception, and breaking through every line of defense.
But in this long game of chess he started, he has never seen all my pieces.
