Xia Hailin, the second son of the Xia family, had been taking care of the family's business overseas all this while. He had completely inherited the avaricious nature of the Xia family and believed that their overseas company should be his. Thus, he never returned all year round.
"I'll ask him to return to the country as soon as possible." Resentment flitted across Xia Yongqiang's pupils. "If he really wants to make an issue out of this matter, we'll have his father return instead."
Xia Wan became relieved after hearing her grandfather's words.
However, she vowed in her heart that she would one day have Shen Xinglan find out about what happened between A Miao and Xia Fan. But now was not the time.
"That's enough. Go and rest, everyone. Even if you guys aren't tired after all that fuss tonight, I am." Xia Yongqiang turned around and walked up the stairs.
Seeing that no one paid her any attention, A Miao sneaked into the kitchen. She ate very little tonight, having of fright.
Xia Wan sneered as she looked at A Miao's back, preventing Yao Lili from trying to make trouble for A Miao.
"Don't worry, Wanwan! I won't let off that illegitimate child. Tomorrow I'll…"
"Mom." Xia Wan gave Yao Lili an impatient look. "Can you use your brain? We can't touch her now."
Yao Lili did not expect such words to come out of her daughter. "Are you afraid of your father and grandfather? Don't worry. I won't let them find out that I'm the one who ordered the men."
"I'll say it again: We can't touch her now." Xia Wan looked at her mother coldly. "Grandfather is counting on this marriage alliance with Ji Conglomerate. If something happens to her, there will no longer be any hope between the Xia and Ji families."
She paused for a moment before adding, "If that happens, Grandfather will not let you off."
"But… But are you really going to marry into the Bai family? Don't you like Shen Xinglan?" Yao Lili did not consider this too deeply. She simply wanted her daughter to get what she desired.
"What woman wouldn't like a man like Shen Xinglan?" Xia Wan replied impatiently. "But under such circumstances, marrying into the Bai family is my only way out."
A mocking smile suddenly appeared on her face. "Why do you think Shen Xinglan is marrying A Miao? I dare guarantee that it's not because he likes her."
Xia Wan felt that she finally saw through this man. A man like Shen Xinglan would never fall for any woman. Whether it was her or A Miao, both were chess pieces for that man to manipulate.
"You mean…" Yao Lili's eyes glinted. "There might not be a good ending for that illegitimate child?"
Xia Wan lifted her cup of coffee and took a sip. "I don't know about the future, but at the moment…"
The most eligible bachelor of City S had a new fiancee and his fiancee was even an ugly woman with an unknown background! Hehe! There would likely be plenty of women who would be waiting to put A Miao in order.
"Mom, please don't do anything at all. Never mind their engagement. They could even divorce after getting married." Xia Wan once again warned Yao Lili. "We can just wait and see."
After placating her mother and sending her away, Xia Wan entered the kitchen.
"To think that you still have the mood to eat."
A Miao was seated at the table and slurping the noodles that she had just finished cooking.
"Why not?" She sipped the soup while casting an attentive glance at Xia Wan.
She had been left thoroughly impressed at this woman's performance tonight. In her position, Xia Mei would likely only know how to cry and cause havoc. Not only did this woman pick up her shredded ego, but she also mended the relationship between the Xia and Bai families.
"Do you know how badly I want to kill you?" Xia Wan walked slowly toward the knife rack and fished out a fruit knife. She slid her finger across the knife. "With a single stab…"
She lifted the knife. "What a pity! You can't die now."
"Even though we don't have a good relationship, but I desperately want to tell you that I'm the one who wishes to die," A Miao said in a low voice. She patted her abdomen after finishing her big bowl of noodles.
"Shen Xinglan is a homicidal maniac." Her eyes were particularly serious. "Do you know why he wants me to live with him?"
The rage that Xia Wan subdued after great difficulty rose again. "What did you say? You're going to live with him?"
"Yes. Why? Didn't your grandfather tell you?" A Miao took a couple of steps backward and pointed at her. "You should put down that knife."
"Why did it turn out this way?" Xia Wan was so angry that she could die. She threw the knife in her hand into the sink.
She thought that she could make life difficult for A Miao each day for as long as the latter lived here. She thought that she could even provoke Shen Xinglan's admirers and cause trouble for A Miao every now and then.
"Look, you're getting angry before I even finish talking," A Miao said in a manner that incited people to hit her. "Did I tell you that the guy is a psycho? You don't need to kill me. Who knows if he'll dissect my corpse once I move there?"
Right then, the psycho that A Miao was referring to was sitting in the living room of the Ji family manor.
"Don't tell me you're really marrying that woman?" Ji Xue, who sat on the opposite, looked at him unhappily.
She was the daughter that Bai Yongwei and Ji Zeming gave birth to after getting married. She had an older brother called Ji Yan. Her biological brother despised Shen Xinglan and thus did not return this time.
"You picked a woman of that quality after shopping for candidates for long? She can't even match up to the female celebrities that you fool around with." When Shen Xinglan ignored her, Ji Xue's resentment deepened even further.
She blurted out, "Didn't you say you're waiting for that woman in the drawing? What's wrong? Did you finally believe that she's dead, so that's why you're just randomly picking an inferior woman…"
"Pa!"
A wide-eyed Ji Xue clutched her face. "You actually told him to hit me?!"
Shen II took a step back in silence. Ji Xue stood up, looking as if she had gone mad. "Dad! Mom! Hurry up and come downstairs! Someone is bullying me! Hurry up and come!"
"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Bai Yongwei had just finished changing her clothes when she heard her daughter bawling. She immediately ran downstairs.
There was a clear red imprint on Ji Xue's cheek. Upon closer look, her skin was even a little inflamed. Bai Yongwei hastily called for the servant to bring an ice pack before looking at Shen Xinglan with a difficult expression.
"She's your younger sister. No matter what, you can't hit her!"
Shen Xinglan tilted his head. "Sorry, my mom only gave birth to me alone."
"You…" Bai Yongwei's face turned pale. When she saw Ji Zeming walking down the stairs, she immediately sniffled. "Xinglan, are you still blaming me after so many years?"
"Tch!" Shen Xinglan did not even spare her a glance and directly told Ji Zeming, "Watch your daughter carefully. I don't have the habit of not hitting women. If she provokes me, I'll still beat her to death."
"Dad!" Ji Xue yelled while in tears. "Are you just going to let him act that way?"
Ji Zeming sighed. "You're aware of his bad temper. Don't talk back to your brother in the future."
"What gives him the right? He made his subordinate hit me when all I did was say a few words!" Ji Xue was unsatisfied with this outcome. "Furthermore, I'm doing this for him! I heard that A Miao couldn't be considered part of the Xia family at all; she's just an illegitimate child that they recently picked up."
Shen Xinglan's eyes dimmed and Shen II once again moved. Ji Zeming swiftly stepped forward and extended his hand. "What are you doing, Xinglan?"
"I've already made myself clear. Watch your daughter or I'll beat her to death."
Ji Xue screeched, "Ah! Mom, look at him! He still wants to…"
"Xiaoxue, that's enough!" Bai Yongwei looked at her daughter in anger. "It's not up to you to meddle in Xinglan's affairs. Regardless of that woman's status, she's your future sister-in-law."
Seeing as her daughter seemed like she had more to say, Bai Yongwei secretly pinched her while adding, "Don't let me hear such rubbish from you in the future. Otherwise, you won't even have to wait for Xinglan to act against you; I'll be the first to beat you up."
"Sob!" Ji Xue pushed her mother aside and ran upstairs in tears.
Ji Zeming looked at Bai Yongwei with a complicated expression but the latter merely shook her head at him. "It's fine. It's our fault for spoiling her."
"Xinglan, don't order people to hit others at home," Ji Zeming warned him solemnly. "That's my limit."
Shen Xinglan stood up indifferently. "It's home to you, not to me."
"You…" Ji Zeming clenched his fist and looked at him weakly. "When you have the time, bring the girl called A Miao home for dinner. You must let us get to know her."
"We'll see!" Shen Xinglan waved a hand and left.
Bai Yongwei leaned into Ji Zeming's embrace sadly. "It's all my fault. If not for me, your father-and-son relationship wouldn't be this bad."
"How can it be your fault?!" Ji Zeming hugged her tightly. "Xinglan blames me for accidentally losing him back then and causing him to wander in the world alone for so many years, suffering so much hardship."
Bai Yongwei's expression shifted ever so slightly and she swiftly changed the topic. "Don't say that. You didn't live well those years either. Since the child is all grown up now, please stop giving yourself a hard time."
She helped Ji Zeming up the stairs. "You've spent so many hours on the plane. Go take a bath and rest!"
"Xiaoxue?" Taking advantage of the time when Ji Zeming was bathing, Bai Yongwei went to her daughter's room.
Ji Xue was burying her head in her pillow while sobbing. She did not even look up when her mother came in.
"You silly child, don't provoke him next time." Bai Yongwei pulled her daughter up from the bed and examined her face.
"I'm just unhappy! Why would he get engaged to such an ugly woman?" Ji Xue angrily threw her pillow off the bed. "I once saw a drawing of a pair of eyes in his room. I knew it was a woman's at first glance."
Bai Yongwei frowned. "Why have you never told me this?"
"It's nothing important; what's there to say?" Ji Xue curled her lip indifferently. "I thought that's the woman that he likes!"
"That's not right. What are you doing inside his room?" Bai Yongwei looked at her daughter suspiciously. "When did this happen?"
Ji Xue's gaze flitted. "When he first returned. Ah, I've long forgotten what I was doing then," she replied impatiently. "What's the point of asking all these now? Mom, you're Dad's legitimate wife! Are you going to let him bully you like this?"
"So you know I'm your Dad's legitimate wife!" Bai Yongwei flicked her daughter on the forehead. "So no matter how he treats me, that's an unchanging fact."
"Your Dad has always felt guilty over losing Shen Xinglan when he was young. Of course, he'd be partial toward him," Bai Yongwei said, disappointed that her daughter was not wiser. "Remember not to provoke him in the future."
Ji Xue snorted. "I'm not so free as to pay him any mind!"
"Be a little smarter, won't you?" Bai Yongwei suddenly chuckled. "There are many ways to solve a problem. You don't have to act on your own each time."
In the dark of the night, a black car sped down a mountain road. Shen Xinglan cast a glance at the villa that was disappearing out of sight behind him and laughed soundlessly.
That villa was purchased when Ji Zeming and Bai Yongwei wedded.
The former Ji family villa had long been renamed as the Shen family villa. That was also the home that he occupied alone. Regardless of its location or economic value, it was superior to this villa here.
"Boss, Dr. Le called you earlier tonight. He said that he has already left City S."
Shen Xinglan nodded to indicate that he understood. With a shift of Shen I's pupils, he said, "There's something else…"
"What are you dallying about? Speak."
Shen I immediately raised his head and puffed out his chest. "Boss, I only have a question. Will Miss A Miao be sleeping with you?"