Chapter 36

Weng Yingjie took a deep breath, his temples throbbing and his chest aching as though it had been forcibly shoved. "You're right. I did neglect your upbringing in the past. But I won't anymore. I'll take you back to the Weng family and properly educate you. I'll fulfill my responsibilities as your father."

"Fulfill a father's responsibilities?" Weng Shao smiled meaningfully and cut straight to the point. "No. You don't want to fulfill a father's responsibilities. You want to exercise a father's authority."

Weng Yingjie's face darkened. "Don't worry. I know what you want. After stirring up all this trouble, aren't you just after money? Whatever the Pei family can give you, I can give you. I can even give you what the Pei family can't—but that depends on your performance."

Weng Shao chuckled. "Forgive my bluntness, but your promise is just like your wife's knees."

As he said that, Weng Shao lightly glanced at the media reporters around them, who had fallen silent but continued taking photos and recording videos. "They think they're precious, but they're actually useless."

Weng Shao mocked them without the slightest politeness.

The muscles in Weng Yingjie's face twitched uncontrollably. He stared at Weng Shao with a sinister gaze. Though he was furious enough to see red, he still forced himself to maintain his composure. "You're still young and haven't seen much of the world, so you've been fooled by certain people's petty favors. I don't blame you. I don't blame you for being shortsighted, nor do I blame you for speaking without restraint. But I absolutely will not allow a child of the Weng family to go and become someone else's dog—"

"Chairman Weng certainly has plenty of free time," a voice interrupted Weng Yingjie's grandstanding.

Pei Xingze, who had hurried over from the inner venue, stepped decisively to Weng Shao's side. He wrapped an arm around Weng Shao's shoulders and defended him in an unquestionable manner. "Instead of staying at your company to clean up the mess, you brought your entire family to our Pei Group anniversary celebration to bully an outstanding employee of Pei Group. That hardly seems appropriate, does it?"

Weng Yingjie turned his cold gaze on Pei Xingze. "I'm disciplining my biological son. I'm telling him to think further ahead and not become someone else's dog over a few petty favors!"

Pei Xingze smiled. "I'm having a little trouble understanding. Chairman Weng, what exactly are you trying to say?"

"Weng Shao is the top salesperson at Pei Real Estate, as well as Pei Group's Outstanding Employee of the Year. His performance and achievements since joining the company are obvious to everyone. No matter how you look at it, he is precisely the exceptional talent Pei Group needs most. Yet Chairman Weng uses such degrading language to describe an outstanding individual capable of driving development and reform across an entire industry all on his own. That makes me curious—how exactly do you view the employees under Weng Group?"

"Do you consider them all dogs of the Weng family?"

Pei Xingze's counterattack was just as sharp, and Weng Yingjie's expression changed abruptly.

In front of so many media outlets and guests, Weng Yingjie could never tolerate Pei Xingze slandering him like this. "President Pei certainly has a sharp tongue. I admire that. But I still hope President Pei won't twist my words. Weng Shao is my son, and I don't wish to say much about the grievances between our two families. If you have any dissatisfaction, you can direct it at me. There's no need to incite a child who has only just become an adult to hate his parents and family. I know you want to see the people close to him suffer while his enemies rejoice, but I must say, one should not be so despicable."

Pei Xingze replied courteously, "Chairman Weng is overthinking it. What grudge could there possibly be between us? It's merely business."

At the words "merely business," the corner of Weng Yingjie's eye twitched uncontrollably.

Pei Xingze merely smiled without speaking. He knew that once the Weng family recognized Weng Shao's value, they would certainly try every possible means to drive a wedge between them. But that old fox Weng Yingjie would never have imagined that, while it looked as though he had approached Weng Shao first, Weng Shao had actually cast the bait.

The one who had been hooked from beginning to end was him.

Pei Xingze looked at Weng Yingjie with a touch of pity. Even now, that old fox still had not realized just how outstanding the Weng Shao he had abandoned was. Come to think of it, he really should thank the Weng family—if they had not all worked together to bully Weng Shao, Weng Shao would never have appeared by his side of his own accord.

When the two of them eventually became a couple, he would definitely buy the finest wedding candy to thank those utterly foolish matchmakers.

While Pei Xingze secretly reveled in their misfortune, Weng Shao smiled and added insult to injury. "President Pei, you don't understand. In Chairman Weng's heart, sons and employees really are different. He treats employees like dogs, but he still has to pay them every month. He doesn't treat his son like a person, so he can't even bear to pay a few thousand yuan in annual tuition."

Having said that, Weng Shao immediately sighed with deep feeling. "Looking at it this way, being Chairman Weng's father or son isn't worthwhile. Neither compares to being President Pei's dog."

Pei Xingze frowned at those words. He gave Weng Shao's shoulder a slight squeeze, and the smile that had been on his lips vanished. He said solemnly, "You are my person and my most valued partner. If anyone insults you again, slap them across the face."

Weng Shao deliberately put on an enlightened expression. "I understand now. So in the eyes of normal people, I'm actually a person!"

Then Weng Shao looked at the Weng father and sons again. "Then why have the three Weng gentlemen never treated me like one?"

Pei Xingze casually added, "Who knows? Perhaps they see no one because they're dogs at heart."

The moment those words left his mouth, even the reporters nearby, who were watching the drama and recording it, could not help laughing. Not to mention the guests and hotel staff who had been struggling to hold back their laughter.

Laughter spread through the hotel entrance. Even though everyone immediately fell silent after realizing it was inappropriate, they had already successfully enraged Weng Yingjie.

"You bastard!" Overcome by rage, Chairman Weng instinctively raised his arm and viciously swung it toward Weng Shao's face. Pei Xingze swiftly intercepted him.

Pei Xingze clamped down hard on Weng Yingjie's arm and looked directly into his eyes from above. "Chairman Weng, I assume you and your family don't want to be thrown out by security?"

Faced with Pei Xingze's blatant threat, Weng Yingjie, who was nearly angered into a cerebral hemorrhage, could only snort coldly and violently shake off Pei Xingze's hand.

"Since you enjoy being someone else's dog so much, I, as your father, can hardly stop you. But remember: when the birds are gone, the good bow is put away; when the cunning rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked," Weng Yingjie said, giving Weng Shao a sinister look. "If you don't want to end up like a dead rabbit and a cooked dog, you should understand that your value in other people's eyes exists only because your surname is Weng."

Zhou Shujing, who had not spoken until now, silently sighed as well. She reached out, wanting to touch Weng Shao's cheek, but Weng Shao avoided her. She could only lower her arm dejectedly and say earnestly, "I know you're still angry with us, but you will always be a member of the Weng family. Weng blood flows through you. Perhaps our way of educating you was wrong in the past, but we all love you. A family remains connected even if its bones are broken. That will never change."

"The doors of the Weng family will always be open to you."

After saying that, the family of four entered the hotel without another word. But from their backs, they looked rather bedraggled.

After they left, Pei Xingze led Weng Shao into the inner venue as well. "Sorry, my arrangements were inadequate—"

Before he could finish, Weng Shao interrupted him. "It has nothing to do with you. They were looking for trouble with me anyway."

Pei Xingze knew perfectly well that the Weng family of four might not actually have come to pick a fight with Weng Shao this time. Reading between the lines, based on what they had just said to persuade Weng Shao, they likely wanted to reconcile with him—at least to bring him back to the Weng family. And if possible, drive a wedge between him and Weng Shao.

Unfortunately, Weng Shao refused to follow the script. A few words from him had completely ruined the Weng family's carefully staged reunion scene of "disappointment born from love." Weng Yingjie had even nearly been provoked into hitting someone in full view of everyone.

The Weng family truly had not expected Weng Shao's sharp tongue to be so vicious that it nearly poisoned them to death.

"What an ungrateful little bastard." Once they entered the sightseeing elevator, Weng Yingjie's face went completely dark.

With no outsiders around, Weng Zhen, who had been trying hard to restrain himself, could no longer hold back. "In all my life, I've never seen someone so unappreciative. He could have been a young master from a wealthy family, yet he insisted on becoming someone else's lackey."

Weng Zhen simply could not understand what benefits Pei Xingze had given Weng Shao to make him follow him so wholeheartedly and devote himself to opposing the Weng family!

"If we'd known he would be this difficult, we should have agreed when he wanted to come back," Zhou Shujing said with some regret.

Just as Weng Shao had said, this was something that could clearly have been resolved with only a few thousand yuan. Instead, Weng Group had lost several billion yuan in market value in just a few months.

If Weng Group had not suffered such heavy losses, with the shareholders and directors constantly pressuring them, why would they have come here to endure others' contempt?

Hearing Zhou Shujing's words only made Weng Yingjie and Weng Zhen angrier. Ever since Weng Group had been established, the father and son had held high positions and great power. They had never suffered such humiliation.

Yet now, because of Weng Shao, they had come to Pei Group's anniversary celebration to endure other people's mockery and sarcasm. They had lost both face and ground. It was simply humiliating themselves.

"That old fox Pei Jingyao must be laughing himself sick," Weng Zhen snorted bitterly.

Thanks to Weng Shao, their entire family had come here to put on such a spectacle. If they were Pei Jingyao, they would probably be laughing themselves sick too.

"At the end of the day, it's all Weng Shao's fault." Weng Sui cursed indignantly. "He was Uncle's son for eighteen years, and over a few thousand yuan, he turned on us just like that. With a character like his, who would dare trust him? Grandfather only said a few things to him, and he angered him into fainting. Mom and Dad only said a few things to him too, yet he holds it against us and immediately colludes with Dad's enemy."

The more Weng Sui spoke, the angrier he became. Unable to control his volume, he complained loudly, "He can't tell right from wrong and bears grudges over every little thing. He's clearly an ungrateful traitor! I just don't understand why all those people online are taking his side. Even the court thinks the reporters and marketing accounts we hired were spreading rumors! I really don't understand. Where did we spread any rumors?"