The Zhao family kept that secret tightly guarded.
The servants knew nothing about it.
Therefore, the servant answered naturally, "To answer you, Young Master, Young Master Xuewen is not at home. The Old Madam sent him back to his mother." He paused, then began to complain indignantly, exaggerating Shang Wenyun's actions to make her sound completely unforgivable.
"...As a daughter-in-law, she doesn't respect her mother-in-law or raise her children properly. Instead, she has brought disaster to the family. Even I can't stand watching it anymore!"
Zhao Hao frowned.
"There must be some misunderstanding. Wenyun is a virtuous and gentle person; she would never cause trouble out of nothing." His clear gaze fell on the servant, tolerant yet helpless. "Did Mother do something?"
The servant was speechless.
Zhao Hao did not press the issue aggressively. It was true that his mother could be somewhat overbearing, but children should not speak of their parents' faults... Besides, Wenyun was the junior; she just needed to yield a little.
Why be so stubborn?
After thinking about it, his brows relaxed. Now that he had returned to the country, he could act as a mediator between his mother and his wife. He would coax his mother, then have Wenyun carefully apologize. What couldn't be resolved with a good talk?
"Young Master, you don't know how arrogant the Young Madam has become by relying on that Su Ning's power. She goes against the family at every turn. It would be one thing if she just caused our business to decline..."
The servant kept chattering away.
Beside him, Zhao Hao could hear the deep anxiety hidden beneath the servant's dissatisfaction, but he didn't think much of it. It seemed this Su Ning was quite powerful and unforgiving when she had the upper hand.
However, firstly, his family made their living from land and rice shops; their foundation could not be easily shaken.
Secondly... at the end of the day, this was all just a conflict between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law. This Su Ning was merely backing Wenyun up. Once he resolved the root of the conflict, everything would be fine.
Thus—
"Rest assured."
He nodded in understanding and said with a firm tone, "I will have a good talk with Wenyun and persuade her to come back and live a good life. Miss Su has a large business and should understand the principle of not forcing others. We will apologize properly, and the family will be fine."
The servant nodded repeatedly, "That's good, that's good."
He no longer felt tired carrying the heavy luggage and walked forward happily. That's right, no matter how much resentment Shang Wenyun held against the Zhao family, seeing her resurrected husband should make her anger vanish.
The couple would live happily together.
All the troubles would disappear.
But... would Su Ning really be as easy to deal with as the Young Master said? The servant couldn't help but worry. The Young Master hadn't been in Peiping and didn't know how ruthless and cold-blooded Su Ning was. Getting her to stop would probably be no easy task.
Sigh, really.
Why did the family have to offend her?
Up ahead, Zhao Hao had already put the matter out of his mind. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a street vendor selling pinwheels and woven bamboo dolls. He stopped and took out some money to buy a few—
He remembered that Xuewen loved these when he was little. When one was mailed from home, the boy would hold it while sleeping and refuse to let go, though he was introverted and stubborn, never saying it out loud... just like his mother.
He gave a melancholy smile.
He stopped, bought a few, and tucked them away.
After going home, he would have a good discussion with his mother about Xuewen's situation. It was one thing that he didn't want to hide Xuewen's true identity from the family, but the family absolutely could not expose it in front of Wenyun—she had a soft and kind nature and would definitely be heartbroken.
Why cause unnecessary pain?
............
An early summer afternoon.
The sunlight spilled through the car window onto her body, warm and cozy. Su Ning couldn't help but yawn, a few tears welling up in her eyes. Back when she was a student, this kind of weather was the hardest for her to resist—
It was perfectly suited for sleeping with her head on the desk.
If there was also the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the leaves outside, it would make her even sleepier.
"Give me some water."
Su Ning blinked and ordered. She couldn't sleep. Today she was going to inspect two of her properties: the mansion and the fertilizer plant... It was okay to let go appropriately, but she couldn't be an absent boss forever, leaving everything to her subordinates.
That would be a huge test of Lin Sen and the others' professional ethics.
Success or failure lies in the details.
Shortly after.
Shang Wenyun handed over a cup of fragrant tea, saying softly, "The freshly brewed tea is a bit hot, please be careful." With public opinion in an uproar, external socializing was temporarily unnecessary, and Lin Sen happened to be too busy to act as an assistant.
So, she temporarily took over the role.
Looking at it now, she was doing quite well. Su Ning took the tea and took a sip. The temperature was just slightly hot, leaving a sweet aftertaste and quenching her thirst... but the drowsiness was still creeping up.
Let's chat for a bit then.
"I heard the Zhao family has been looking for you a lot lately?" Su Ning lowered her eyes, lightly running her fingertips over the porcelain surface, producing a faint, continuous squeaking sound.
"Yes."
It was an abrupt question.
Shang Wenyun nodded without hesitation, smiling faintly to entertain Su Ning's boredom and proactively satisfying her curiosity, or rather, her desire to watch a good show.
"Watching their accomplices fall into misfortune one after another, not knowing when it will be their turn, yet harboring the fluke hope that they might not have been discovered... of course they will feel guilty and desperately grab onto any life-saving straw."
Thinking of something else.
She smiled again, as if talking about something amusing:
"Also, yesterday morning, Zhao Xuewen even tentatively tried to put in a good word for the Zhao family. Eating my food but thinking of others... he really is an ungrateful little wretch!"
"Is that so?"
Su Ning really wasn't sleepy anymore!
How fun. Compared to Shang Wenyun, she knew a bit more. For example, Zhao Xuewen had no blood relation to the Zhao family, and he had been kicked out by them. Even so, he could still put aside his grudges and speak up for the Zhao family in front of his adoptive mother.
Her gossipy nature flared up.
"System, what kind of mindset do you think Zhao Xuewen has?" She enthusiastically proposed possibilities: "Did the Zhao family give him some kind of benefit, like still acknowledging him as a member of the Zhao family?
Or perhaps he's trying to test Shang Wenyun, wanting to know his weight in her heart.
It could also be both."
After saying this, she sighed to herself. A child not even ten years old had so many schemes; so precocious, so scary.
"Mhm, mhm, mhm."
The System responded perfunctorily. He was just a child instinctively looking for something to rely on. When it came to being scary, you, a person with a twisted taste for watching drama, were much scarier, okay?
After thinking for a moment, it reminded Su Ning:
"Host, when are you going to tell Shang Wenyun the whole truth? She can't be squeezed for any more rewards." It meant she should stop tormenting the poor woman.
"Besides, Zhao Hao is coming back."
"Wait a little longer."
Su Ning replied leisurely, mischievously refusing to explain her thoughts to the System. Her gaze fell on Shang Wenyun, who was organizing documents. She couldn't see any traces of resentment on her face; compared to before, she even looked quite a bit younger.
It made sense.
The husband who betrayed her was dead, her vicious in-laws were about to be ruined, and even the bastard in her eyes was completely under her control, to be dealt with however she pleased.
"Miss, do you need anything?"
Shang Wenyun closed the file and asked with concern.
"Nothing."
Su Ning shook her head, sketching out the plot in her mind. Zhao Hao returns from the dead, thinking he hid everything perfectly, wanting to live harmoniously with his wife and child. At this point, Shang Wenyun would be very angry.
But it wouldn't reach the peak.
The Zhao father and son could deceive themselves, luckily thinking they could explain things away.
They might even fantasize about persuading her to beg for mercy on their behalf to save the Zhao family.
And then, ta-da!
Su Ning tapped her knuckles against the teacup to provide sound effects. Zhao Xuewen's true parentage would be completely exposed. In front of a furious Shang Wenyun, they would realize their hopes were entirely shattered and that everything was over.
Boom... total emotional collapse.
All the hatred would pour onto her, and only then would the rewards reach their peak.
Reaping two major plot characters at once.
Su Ning felt she was pretty awesome.
Soon, the car stopped.
The first stop was the mansion construction site in the city. There was absolutely no trace of the former Guan family residence left here. On the empty lot, the skeletal framework of the building had already taken shape. Even without any decorations, one could tell how magnificent it would be upon completion.
Its presence was incredibly majestic.
Su Ning looked at it with appreciation for a moment. Not far away, Su Chen jogged over, beads of sweat constantly rolling down his sun-tanned, wheat-colored skin.
"Cousin, you're here..."
He was about to explain why he hadn't come to greet her earlier, but Su Ning casually interrupted him: "What happened at the site?" Her tone carried a hint of amusement:
"Someone actually dares to make trouble here?"
The sun hadn't set yet, and it was far from quitting time, but there were hardly any people working on the site. Did she even need to ask? Something had definitely happened.
"It's not an outsider."
Su Chen was taken aback for a moment, then shook his head with a cold sneer. "Knowing you were coming, Cousin, Assistant Lin simply moved payday forward so you could get to know everyone's faces. I just didn't expect someone to have a death wish."
The implication was that the troublemaker was someone from the construction site.
Now that was interesting.
Hearing this, Su Ning wasn't upset at all. What was the fun in everything going exactly according to plan? A little interlude, a minor twist, was much more fitting for her status as a System host.
She walked over to the gathering spot.
From a distance, she heard a familiar voice. It was actually Half-Immortal Su?
"...Even if you kneel here until you die today, don't even think about getting this wage! Pah! I calculated it long ago: you have a destiny of leaking wealth. You should be burning high incense in gratitude that the site was even willing to take you in. We provide room and board, what do you need money for!"
Beside her, Shang Wenyun couldn't help but widen her eyes.
She thought she had heard wrong.
