Page 41

"You're so good to your child," Weng Shao sighed wistfully. "Sometimes I really envy you, President Pei. You and the chairman are both good fathers who care about their children, unlike my biological parents..."

Weng Shao trailed off, seemingly hesitant to continue.

Pei Xiyao sneered inwardly. He knew Weng Shao was referring to how Weng Yingjie and his wife had hired reporters again to publish sympathetic press releases. Ever since Zhou Shujing had failed to force Weng Shao to withdraw the lawsuit by kneeling, only to suffer a public backlash, Weng Yingjie had changed tactics. The reporters and marketing accounts he hired no longer tried to force Weng Shao into compromising through moral blackmail. Instead, they took the dual approach of painstaking concern and sincere repentance.

They tried to make netizens and readers believe that they had always cared deeply about Weng Shao, but had merely used the wrong parenting methods, leading to the father-son feud and brothers turning against each other. With villains stirring up trouble in the middle, Weng Shao, a young man too inexperienced to know better, had become even more stubbornly misguided, determined to oppose his biological parents and blood brother.

Needless to say, that "villain" was naturally Pei Xingze and the Pei family.

Pei Xiyao was dismissive of this. As a member of the Pei family, of course he had no fondness for the ungrateful Weng Yingjie. In truth, he did not think much of Weng Shao either, the young man with Weng family blood flowing through his veins. He believed Weng Yingjie and Weng Shao were fundamentally the same sort of people.

Both were cold-blooded opportunistic machines who would abandon righteousness for profit.

The only difference was that Weng Yingjie had betrayed the Pei family, while Weng Shao had betrayed the Weng family.

People said that those not of one's kind were bound to harbor different intentions. Pei Xiyao simply did not believe Weng Shao would be overcome with gratitude toward his enemy, Pei Xingze, over a few thousand yuan. More likely, he had regarded that wastrel Pei Xingze as a stepping stone to advancement—or even an automatic cash machine.

Otherwise, how could he have tricked Pei Xingze into spending sixty-six million yuan on him in just three months?

Even if Pei Xingze insisted that the money was Weng Shao's stock-market dividends, profits Weng Shao had earned himself, who besides Pei Xingze would believe that?

An eighteen-year-old high school graduate, no matter how talented, could he really have orchestrated short-selling worth several billion yuan?

Pei Xiyao merely felt sorry for the money. Inwardly, he cursed Pei Xingze more and more for being a prodigal. Using Pei Group as a pretext to give away houses, cars, and commissions was one thing, but he was even giving away stock-trading dividends?

Weng Shao had actually accepted it without the slightest shame. That greedy, insatiable face was exactly like Weng Yingjie's back then.

Who could say they were not father and son?

Pei Xiyao felt thoroughly disgusted, but he still had to soothe Weng Shao aloud. "Because of your family affairs, Weng Group has suffered heavy losses recently. Your parents had reached the end of their rope, which was why they thought of using this kind of rhetoric to restore the company's image. But I believe most people have minds of their own. They won't be easily led astray by the public opinion created by reporters and marketing accounts."

Yeah, right.

It could only be said that Weng Yingjie and his wife had indeed found the untouchable trump card of public opinion in this country. Once they brought out the argument that "there are no parents in the world who are truly wrong," then added accusations of "there are always villains trying to sow discord between us," that whole combination had genuinely influenced quite a few muddleheaded people. They truly believed Weng Yingjie and his wife loved their child and had merely chosen the wrong methods, hurting Weng Shao instead.

Now, Weng Yingjie and his wife were doing everything they could to redirect the blame. They no longer criticized Weng Shao, instead spinning conspiracies about how the Pei family had orchestrated everything behind the scenes. They claimed Pei Xingze had provoked father and son into destroying each other. Quite a few people online actually believed it and went to major forums to curse Pei Xingze, saying he deserved a horrible death for abducting someone else's child.

Of course, some netizens also thought Weng Shao was troublesome. They believed he should come to his senses and return to his parents instead of continuing to follow Pei Xingze and help a tyrant commit evil... Faced with such public opinion, Pei Xiyao was also curious about what Weng Shao would do next.

Would he go with the flow, take the money Pei Xingze had given him, and return to the Weng family in glory, becoming a filial son reconciled with his biological parents? Or would he stubbornly continue following Pei Xingze and be called Pei Xingze's dog?

On one side was family affection, and on the other was profit. Pei Xiyao truly did not know what Weng Shao would choose. So he brought up the old matter again. "Xingze said you have a great talent for financial trading. He said his two successful short-sales against Weng Group were all thanks to your planning. That's why he's looking forward to you joining Pei Group's investment company. But I still think your own wishes should be respected. After all, Weng Yingjie and Zhou Shujing are your biological parents..."

"One side is family affection, the other is gratitude. Isn't that a difficult choice?"

Pei Xiyao appeared thoughtful and considerate, but with just a few words, he had pushed Weng Shao into a perilous storm of public opinion.

If Weng Shao truly had only been an eighteen-year-old fresh out of high school, he definitely would not have been able to withstand it.

Unfortunately, beneath Weng Shao's youthful exterior was an old fox who had seen it all. Hearing Pei Xiyao's lament, he merely curled his lips indifferently. "What's so difficult about that?"

"They once cast me aside like worn-out shoes. Now I'll make sure they can never reach me again."

Pei Xiyao's pupils shook. Clearly, Weng Shao's sudden burst of cringeworthy teenage melodrama had disgusted him.

He finally realized that Weng Shao really was just a child who had recently graduated from high school. Though he acted mature and steady, and was even more capable than most adults in certain respects, he was still just a child.

And he had actually been playing mind games with a child.

At that thought, Pei Xiyao found it both funny and ridiculous. A trace of contempt for Weng Shao arose naturally from the depths of his heart. He did not even notice this slight change in attitude himself.

But that reaction was precisely what Weng Shao wanted.

These old foxes always wanted to play dumb before him while secretly showing their claws. Then let them see who was the pig and who was the tiger.

After that exchange, Pei Xiyao suddenly lost all interest in keeping up pretenses with Weng Shao. A few minutes later, he found an excuse and left.

Weng Shao returned to the seat of honor and cheerfully served himself another bowl of rice.

Thanks to interruptions from all sides, the meal did not end until after four in the afternoon.

Before parting, Weng Shao exchanged new contact information with everyone.

The sales office manager clung to Weng Shao with tears and snot running down his face. "...Bro, I really can't bear to let you go! What are we supposed to do without you?" They might never again be able to recreate the glory of the past three months.

Weng Shao could only pat the sales office manager's back reassuringly. He finally managed to free himself from the man's embrace, only to see several other colleagues already waiting in line.

Weng Shao: "..."

In the end, Weng Shao could only hug everyone one by one in farewell.

After the group boarded the bus with their suitcases and headed to the airport, Weng Shao took a taxi back to Jinghai University.

He did not hurry home to rest. Instead, he walked around Jinghai University from front to back, recording all the information for storefronts available for lease or sale.

He was only halfway through when Pei Xingze called. "Where are you? I'll come pick you up."

Weng Shao looked around and gave him his location.

Three minutes later, Pei Xingze appeared before him in that Cayenne.

Weng Shao: "?"

Pei Xingze smiled. "Didn't expect me to get here so quickly, did you?"

After thinking about it briefly, Weng Shao knew Pei Xingze must have already arrived at the school gate. He simply had not been able to determine Weng Shao's exact location, which was why he had called.

Watching Weng Shao leisurely stroll down the street alone, Pei Xingze asked with a grin, "Let me guess what you're doing?"

Without waiting for him to guess, Weng Shao gave him the answer directly. "I want to buy a storefront and bring my mother here."

Weng Shao had promised Yu Huixin long ago that he would bring her to Jinghai City for a good life. Previously, he had asked Pei Xingze to arrange for Yu Huixin to work as a cleaner at the Lakeside Garden Sales Office so she could adapt to the pace of city life and work habits as soon as possible.

Now that Yu Huixin had more or less adapted, it was time for him to fulfill his promise.

"Help me think it over. Should I open a milk tea shop or a fast-food restaurant across from the school?"

He could hire people to make milk tea at a milk tea shop, or hire chefs to cook at a fast-food restaurant. Yu Huixin would only need to sit at the counter and collect payments every day.

Given Weng Shao's ability to make money, he could easily buy Yu Huixin a property in Jinghai City and give her a few thousand yuan each month, letting her begin a life of retirement early. But Weng Shao did not intend to do that.

"If a person does nothing and has no goals, it's easy to lose their drive."

So Weng Shao planned to give Yu Huixin something to do and pay for her social insurance. He would secure her material life while also giving her some emotional purpose. That way, the Weng family would not set their sights on her again and dump that cripple Weng Yingxiong on her.

Pei Xingze considered it seriously. "If you don't want Auntie to tire herself out but still want to give her something to do, why not ask what she wants? Maybe she doesn't like doing business and would prefer working as a dorm supervisor at the school?"

Weng Shao: "?"

Weng Shao immediately took out his phone and called Yu Huixin.

Ten minutes later, Weng Shao looked at Pei Xingze in a daze. "...My mom said she wants to sell houses!"

Even Pei Xingze showed a flicker of surprise this time.

It all began when Weng Shao and Lakeside Garden's top salespeople collectively took leave to attend the Pei Group Centenary Gala in Jinghai City.

Because most of Lakeside Garden's sales elites had been pulled away for the gala, the remaining sales consultants could not handle the massive weekend crowds. Even Yu Huixin, the cleaner, had been pressed into service, helping serve tea and water. Occasionally, she also had to receive customers who had been left on their own, so they would not feel neglected.

Unexpectedly, while chatting with customers, Yu Huixin had actually helped close a deal by accident—the customers had come specifically for Weng Shao. After learning that Yu Huixin was Weng Shao's mother, they asked her to show them the apartments.

Though Yu Huixin was only a cleaner at the sales office, she had always been hardworking and diligent. After working at Lakeside Garden for three months, she had already memorized all the information about the development. And when she showed clients apartments, she did not use the usual sales pitch. She simply analyzed, based on her own perspective and experience, which unit suited them best and how to renovate it more practically, while also casually complaining about the pitfalls people could easily encounter during renovations. Weng Shao's apartment in Lakeside Garden was currently being renovated, and whenever she had spare time, she would go upstairs to take a look. The renovation workers had told her all these things.