Chapter 12 — The Mighty, All-Powerful Genie

The video recording Nhã Kỳ's answer at the inauguration ceremony, when she openly mocked the role of "her husband" in front of a financial reporter, although not officially broadcast, still spread silently in the business world through unofficial recordings and rumors from people present that day. That news, seemingly harmless, finally reached Hứa Việt Long's ears through one of the sources he maintained within the financial media.

"Đường Nhã Kỳ openly despised her husband in front of the press?" Việt Long raised his eyebrows, a faint smile appeared on the corner of his lips when listening to his assistant report the whole story. "That's interesting."

"Are you planning to take advantage of this?" asked the assistant.

"A marriage without true feelings is always a fatal weakness for anyone, especially when that person is trying to build the image of a perfect, trustworthy female leader before the public and shareholders." Việt Long stood up, walked to the large window, his eyes looked far away at the Đường Gia headquarters building looming in the distance. "If that marriage collapses at a sensitive time, when she needs the absolute support of the board of directors and strategic partners, the consequences will not be small at all."

He spent many years researching the Duong family, knowing clearly about the strange arranged marriage between Nhã Kỳ and a man of unknown origin, without any public records before the marriage took place - an unusual thing that Việt Long always found suspicious but never found a satisfactory explanation. Now, with clear evidence that the marriage was completely devoid of true feelings, he saw a new opportunity to attack.

"Learn more about her husband." Việt Long ordered his assistant. “I want to know everything there is to know—origins, past, social connections, anything that could be used as leverage.”

Việt Long, who always believed that all secrets could be bought with enough money and patience, had no doubts about the success of this plan. During the twenty-six years of rebuilding Long Thịnh from the ashes, he had never met an opponent whose weakness he could not find, even the smallest one. He believed that Đường Nhã Kỳ, no matter how smart and brave she is, is still just a young girl who is not experienced enough to recognize when she is being manipulated.

In the following weeks, Việt Long's private investigative team tried to track Cảnh Bách Nguyên down, but strangely, they couldn't find any records of him before the marriage — no long-stored official birth certificate, no educational history, no trace of previous employment, as if he had just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. This made Việt Long even more curious and wary, but at the same time opened up another avenue of attack that he considered much more effective than trying to expose Bách Nguyên's identity.

"If we can't find a weakness from his past, we will create a weakness from the present," Việt Long said in a closed meeting with his trusted team. "Đường Nhã Kỳ has openly shown contempt for her husband. If we can make her believe that her husband is betraying her, or worse, is secretly doing something to harm the corporation, the suspicion and rift within her own family will be a stronger blow than any business tactic we have ever applied."

Việt Long's plan began to be implemented in a sophisticated way. He had people secretly approach a few low-level employees in the Duong villa, bribing them to gather information about Bách Nguyên's daily activities - secret meetings with the housekeeper, trips out with unknown purposes, discreet conversations he often had with Lâm Đắc Tường about gathering information to deal with Long Thịnh.

"We have information that Ms. Nhã Kỳ's husband often has secret meetings, with unknown purposes, with many outside people." Việt Long's assistant reported after several weeks of investigation. "It seems he is looking for information about many companies, including Đường Gia's competitors."

Việt Long smiled calculatingly when he heard that report, even though the real information - that Bách Nguyên was secretly collecting evidence to protect Đường Gia from Long Thịnh himself - was completely contrary to what he was deducing. "Perfect. We will make Đường Nhã Kỳ believe that her husband is secretly collecting internal information to sell to competitors, or worse, is having a shady relationship with a third party whose interests conflict with Đường Gia."

He had someone draft an anonymous letter, attaching several secretly taken photos of Bách Nguyên meeting with former employees of rival companies at deserted cafes - meetings that were really only intended to collect evidence of Long Thịnh's unfair competition tactics, but through the perspective and cunning interpretation of the anonymous letter, they became evidence of a suspicious plot of betrayal.

The letter was sent directly to Nhã Kỳ's personal inbox at the office, without the sender's name, just a few lines: "Your husband is secretly meeting with people connected to competitors. You should ask yourself why a person with no job, no career, needs to meet so many people in the business world."

Nhã Kỳ opened that letter late one afternoon while alone in the office, her hand trembled when she saw the attached photos - images of Bách Nguyên sitting and chatting seriously with strangers at cafes, his face carrying a tense, focused look, different from the calmness he still showed at home.

Anger and suspicion began to rise in her heart, not because she had any deep feelings for Bách Nguyên to feel betrayed in the sense of love, but because she felt deceived and used again, exactly like the biggest fear she had carried with her all her life since losing her parents. If the man living in the same house as her for over a year, who she always thought was harmless, turned out to be secretly doing something that could harm the very corporation she was trying to protect, then it would be an unforgivable betrayal.

She called Thanh Hoài into the room, showed her the letter and photos, trying to keep her tone as calm as possible. "What do you think about this?"

Thanh Hoài looked over, her face hesitated before answering. "Miss, I don't think I should rush to conclusions based on an anonymous letter of unknown origin. But if you are worried, perhaps you should investigate further before confronting him directly."

That cautious advice partly helped Nhã Kỳ regain some composure, but it was not enough to completely erase the seed of doubt that had taken root in her heart. She sat quietly in the office, her hand tightly clasping the anonymous letter, her eyes staring thoughtfully out the window, her heart full of contradictions between the curiosity that had been sparked since the traffic accident a few weeks ago and the new suspicion that had just been subtly sown. Little did she know, this was exactly what Việt Long wanted — a seed of doubt planted at the exact moment she began to be curious about her husband's true personality, enough to turn that curiosity into a crisis of faith that could cause her to single-handedly push away the only person who was truly on her side, right before she needed his protection the most.

That night, when Bách Nguyên returned home after another secret meeting with a former employee of Long Thịnh to collect more evidence, he immediately noticed Nhã Kỳ's unusually cold and searching eyes as she watched him enter the living room, a completely new alertness that he had never seen in her before, and he knew, something had changed, although he couldn't yet guess exactly what it was.

He stopped at the doorway, clearly feeling the unusually cold atmosphere enveloping the room, completely different from the familiar coldness that he had learned to accept over the past year. This was another kind of wariness, sharp and suspicious, as if she were looking at him not as a useless husband anymore, but as some kind of suspect. His intuition told him that, whatever had just happened, it was definitely related to the secret meetings he had been secretly having all this time.