Chapter 38

The sales office manager dared to make that guarantee for two reasons. First, he wanted Weng Shao to spare no effort in organizing viewing groups to come see the properties before leaving. Second, he wanted to build a connection with Weng Shao.

After all, sharing profits was also a form of connection, and even more so, an attitude. With Weng Shao's abilities and education, he would most likely soar to great heights once he went to Jinghai. If they could befriend someone like him while he was still at the bottom, it would be like burning incense for eight lifetimes. No one would offend Weng Shao over a commission worth a few million. Everyone was smart. Even considering Weng Shao's relationship with Pei Xingze, the big boss of the group, they would not focus only on immediate gains or make it a one-time deal.

Besides, the people coming through the viewing groups were Weng Shao's clients to begin with. They only had to help close the deals, earn what they were supposed to earn, and make a friend of Weng Shao. Why not?

Weng Shao understood the sales office manager and the other employees' little schemes perfectly well, but he did not mind them.

Everyone had their own calculations when working away from home. As long as they did not harm Weng Shao's interests, he was happy to cooperate for mutual benefit. So he entrusted the work of receiving the viewing groups to the other sales office staff and began creating client profiles.

It was tedious and dull work, but Weng Shao adapted well and even cherished the opportunity. After all, not everyone had the chance to access the client records of a multinational group. Now that Weng Shao was responsible for building profiles for Lakeside Garden's clients, the sales office manager had granted him internal access, allowing him to view all client files belonging to Pei Real Estate.

That morning, clients came to view properties in an endless stream.

A black Maybach slowly pulled up in front of the sales office.

Zhou Shujing, the chairman's wife of Weng Group, entered the sales hall surrounded by bodyguards. The sales office manager recognized her at once and hurried over with a welcoming smile. "Mrs. Weng—"

Before he could finish, Zhou Shujing cut him off. "Where's Weng Shao?"

She removed her sunglasses, her piercing gaze sweeping over the bustling crowd in the hall one by one, but she did not see Weng Shao.

The sales office manager's heart skipped a beat, though he kept a calm smile on his face. "He didn't come in today—"

"Don't try to fool me. My people saw him come in." Zhou Shujing interrupted the manager without the slightest courtesy. Though she was used to throwing her weight around, she deliberately put on a wronged expression and said pitifully, "Your Pei Real Estate employees are really strange. I'm his mother, and I only want to see my biological son. Why are you, an outsider, trying to stop me from seeing him?"

Every word implied that the manager, as a member of Pei Group, was deliberately driving a wedge between her and her biological son.

The sales office manager shook his head with a bitter smile. Just as he was about to speak, someone behind him said, "Maybe he saw that you came with ill intent and was afraid you were here to bully me again."

Everyone turned toward the voice and saw a tall, handsome young man slowly descending from the second floor. His perfectly tailored suit made his already elegant, well-proportioned figure look even more striking. His long legs carried him down the stairs step by step until he came to a steady stop before Zhou Shujing.

Without another word, Zhou Shujing dropped to her knees in front of Weng Shao and cried sorrowfully, "I know I gave birth to you but never raised you. I wronged you. But can you let your full-blooded younger brother go for the sake of the fact that I gave birth to you? He's still young. He doesn't understand. If you have any resentment, take it out on me directly. Can you spare him?"

Weng Shao smiled. Under the burning stares and whispered discussions in the sales hall, he slowly crouched before Zhou Shujing and said evenly, "See? Our manager wasn't wrong to worry. You really did come with ill intent."

Zhou Shujing stared at Weng Shao with bloodshot eyes. "I didn't come here to do anything. I only hope you'll spare A Sui. You're brothers, after all!"

Weng Shao's smile grew brighter. "When Weng Zhen and Weng Sui bribed reporters and marketing accounts to slander me, did you kneel in front of them and tell them we were brothers, begging them to spare me?"

"Of course I did—"

"But they still did it." Weng Shao helped Zhou Shujing straighten her collar with exaggerated regret. "It seems your knees were useless before the sons you gave birth to and raised yourself. So what makes you think I, the son you gave birth to but never raised, would accept your moral blackmail?"

Zhou Shujing's expression changed.

Zhou Shujing stared at Weng Shao with a sinister gaze.

Weng Shao was right. She had deliberately chosen the busiest time of day to come to the sales office and kneel in public because she wanted to use public opinion to force Weng Shao to withdraw the lawsuit. She had also considered what to do if Weng Shao refused to withdraw it. Naturally, she would mobilize the media to condemn Weng Shao for being greedy and heartless, for choosing to side with his enemies rather than reconcile with his own family.

Zhou Shujing had even arranged for reporters to blend into the crowd and photograph her kneeling before Weng Shao. Whether Weng Shao agreed to her request or not, she would publish the photo on the front pages of major newspapers and magazines.

Zhou Shujing knew full well that domestic moral sentiment had always favored the belief that parents could do no wrong. Weng Shao had actually forced his biological mother to kneel and apologize to him. No matter what the truth was, once that photo was published, people would surely condemn Weng Shao for being unfilial and relentlessly aggressive. Then everyone's attention would be focused on Weng Shao, and the public pressure on Weng Group and Weng Sui would lessen considerably.

This was the ultimate move Zhou Shujing had come up with to deal with Weng Shao. Yet what she had not expected was that Weng Shao's reaction would be even harsher than she had anticipated.

"Sometimes, I really wonder whether I'm actually the biological son of you and Weng Yingjie." Watching Zhou Shujing's expression shift again and again, Weng Shao smiled unhurriedly. "When I was being cyberbullied, when reporters surrounded me outside the exam hall, when people pointed at my face and cursed me, where were you? Why wouldn't you step forward to defend me? Yet now, for Weng Sui's sake, you can kneel before me in front of so many people."

Zhou Shujing hurriedly explained, "I did defend you. I really did. Back then, I urged your father not to hold it against you. But your father thought you were too unruly and wanted to temper your personality. You cursed so viciously at the banquet back in our hometown that your father and the others couldn't swallow their anger. They wanted to teach you a lesson. But I swear, we never wanted to destroy you. We love you too—"

"You never wanted to destroy me." Weng Shao repeated Zhou Shujing's words with interest. "Then do you know that when an elder kneels before a junior, it shortens the junior's life?"

Zhou Shujing was left speechless. Before she could think of a response, Weng Shao continued, "Of course you know. You deliberately came here to shorten my life and put me over the fire."

As Weng Shao spoke, he slowly rose to his feet and looked around at the spectators. At a glance, he spotted the reporter hiding among the crowd and secretly taking photos.

Weng Shao gave the sales office manager a look. The manager waved his hand, and two security guards immediately dragged the reporter over.

The reporter looked terrified and struggled desperately. "What are you doing? Let me go! I'm a reporter. I have the right to cover the news! You can't do this..."

Weng Shao took the reporter's shoulder bag and immediately spotted the camera caught in the zipper opening. He lowered his head with a soft laugh, took out the camera, and shook it in front of Zhou Shujing. "You even brought in a reporter to take pictures."

His tone was mild, as though he had long grown accustomed to everything happening before him. He was not even as agitated as the spectators around him.

Zhou Shujing's face, however, turned completely dark. She had not expected Weng Shao's eyes to be so sharp.

The crowd watching the spectacle erupted in an uproar as well.

Weng Shao handed the camera back to the reporter, who looked as though he were facing a great enemy, and asked with a smile, "How much did she pay you?"

Zhou Shujing's hands clenched tightly into fists on her knees. Before the reporter could speak, she looked at Weng Shao with reddened eyes and forced out a few words through gritted teeth. "I just can't bear to watch you brothers turn against each other and tear each other apart. You're both my sons. One is no less precious than the other. I don't want to see you become enemies."

"I know you blame me. You resent us for not helping you back then. Mom knows she was wrong too! That's why Mom is kneeling before you in public to ask for your forgiveness." As Zhou Shujing spoke, tears began streaming down her face. She looked up at Weng Shao through blurred eyes and said humbly, "Will you forgive Mom?"

"No." Weng Shao shook his head and cut straight to the point. "You don't know you were wrong. You just know it hurts now."

The buzzing discussions around them came to an abrupt halt.

Weng Shao beckoned to the reporter. "Were the photos you took from behind the crowd clear enough? Do you want me to have the sales office provide you with surveillance footage instead?"

The reporter was speechless.

Zhou Shujing's expression was even more colorful than a palette, too awful to look at. She had no idea why things had developed into this situation. Weng Shao was supposed to be condemned by everyone and cursed as unfilial, yet now she was the one trapped in an impossible position.

Weng Shao studied Zhou Shujing's expression. "Did you think that kneeling before me in public as my mother and crying that you knew you were wrong would force me to withdraw the lawsuit? That it would reverse the public image of Weng Group and the Weng family, even turn public opinion around and make people condemn me instead?"

"The logic behind that thought is that you see the status of parents as above everything else. You think children are born as their parents' possessions. So no matter how badly you hurt me, all you have to do is kneel before me when things get out of control, and it cancels out all the evil you've done."

"You don't even take the law, public order, or common decency seriously. In your eyes, your knees are more precious than established facts. All you have to do is touch the ground, find a few low-grade reporters to write a few articles, and you can twist black into white and turn the world upside down. You don't just take me for a fool. You take everyone else for fools too."

"You people of the Weng family truly are as stupid and arrogant as ever."

After Weng Shao finished speaking, the packed sales hall fell silent. Everyone's eyes landed on Zhou Shujing like needles.

Zhou Shujing trembled with rage.

"Don't forget, you're a member of the Weng family too!"

As Weng Shao's words became harsher and sharper, Zhou Shujing's mind went blank. She wanted to refute him, but she did not know what she could say. She could only cover her face with her hands and cry miserably, "I know you hate me, but you shouldn't think so badly of me. I'm your biological mother. Would I really harm you?"