Chu Xiyue asked in return, "Why would I lie?"
Chu Xiyue had not lied. Not long after Ji Guowei and Mrs. Ji returned, he claimed something had come up at the company and went out to see Qiu Baizhen.
Chu Xiyue could have told Mrs. Ji everything she knew. But she knew Mrs. Ji would not believe a word of it. Mrs. Ji had to grow suspicious first, then investigate for herself.
Having planted that seed of doubt, Chu Xiyue said goodbye to Mrs. Ji and left the Ji Family home.
Mo Xiang went upstairs. Mrs. Ji sat in the living room a while longer before Ji Peng and Ji Guowei returned together, chatting and laughing. But the moment they saw her, the easy mood between father and son stiffened.
In the past, Mrs. Ji would never have noticed such a subtle change. Today, though, she was unusually alert. Chu Xiyue's words came back to her as she looked at them. "Guowei, didn't you say you were going to the company? How did you two end up coming back together?"
"We ran into each other on the way." Ji Guowei clasped his hands behind his back, his expression stern. "Ji Peng, come to my study. We'll continue discussing that plot of land in the south of the city."
Mrs. Ji watched Ji Guowei and Ji Peng go upstairs. Then she remembered the small movement Ji Peng had made just now.
As his mother, she knew all his little habits. When she had questioned them, Ji Peng had picked at his thumbnail with his index finger. That was what he did when he felt guilty.
It seemed he and Ji Guowei really had gone to see Qiu Baizhen. But why did Ji Peng feel guilty?
Mrs. Ji could not make sense of it. After some thought, she called a private investigator she had worked with before.
"Find out who Ji Peng and Ji Guowei met tonight." She paused, then added, "And find a way to bring me the originals of Ji Peng's medical examination reports from the past few years."
Chu Xiyue learned from the system that Mrs. Ji had contacted a private investigator.
Mrs. Ji had not yet considered that Ji Peng might not be her biological son. After all, who would suspect for no reason that the child she had carried for nine months was not hers—that her baby had been switched at birth?
Ji Guowei and Ji Peng had no idea Mrs. Ji had grown suspicious of them. They had kept the truth from her for so many years that they had long since let down their guard.
Two days later, Mrs. Ji received the investigator's findings.
On the night of the banquet, Ji Peng, Ji Guowei, and Qiu Baizhen had been together. Chu Xiyue had not exaggerated. The investigator had obtained nearby surveillance footage, and the three of them looked unexpectedly close—just like a family of three.
A family of three?
Mrs. Ji shook her head, dismissing the absurd thought. Still, the sight of them getting along so well left her uneasy.
Her husband seeing another woman no longer stirred much feeling in her. Ji Peng was different. He was her son. Why was he laughing and chatting with his father's mistress?
Mrs. Ji wanted to ask him, but just as she was about to speak, she felt that pressing the matter would make it seem as though she cared deeply about Qiu Baizhen.
In the end, she said nothing.
Mrs. Ji was unhappy. In the past, she had taken her bad moods out on Mo Xiang. This time, though, Ji Peng was the one she had a problem with. He was the one making her uncomfortable, so she went all out making his life difficult.
The system described the commotion at the Ji Family home over the past few days: [Mrs. Ji really knows how to make someone miserable. Early yesterday morning, she dragged Ji Peng out of bed and ordered him to make breakfast for the whole family. The moment he looked even slightly reluctant, she gave him a thorough dressing-down.]
[At noon, Ji Peng was working from home when Mrs. Ji ordered him to turn over the lawn in the garden. She wouldn't let him use a machine, either. He had to do it all by hand with a hoe. It nearly broke his
back, and his hands blistered. But Ji Peng didn't dare stop, because every time he did, she yelled at him.]
[By evening, Ji Peng still couldn't rest. Mrs. Ji made him cook dinner, then scolded him again because it tasted awful. In the end, she and Mo Xiang ate the dinner the chef had prepared, while Ji Peng ate the terrible food he had cooked himself. Mrs. Ji's mouth barely stopped moving all day. Ji Peng was exhausted in body and mind, but he didn't dare complain. If he did, she would point at his nose, call him an unfilial son, and have the company's directors kick him out.]
Mrs. Ji and her husband had built the Ji Group together. Although she had long since stepped away from running it, she still owned shares, and many of its current shareholders were her friends. Her threat to kick Ji Peng out was no empty talk. She could do it.
Chu Xiyue was astonished. Mrs. Ji truly deserved the system's designation as a wicked mother-in-law. She had a real talent for tormenting people. Apparently, when she had only mocked Mo Xiang, she had been showing restraint.
Ji Peng endured two days of Mrs. Ji's treatment before escaping on the third by pretending to be sick. Feeling guilty, he did not dare ask why she had been acting so strangely.
Once Ji Peng had "recovered," he found a chance to see his birth mother, Qiu Baizhen. Her heart ached when she saw the wounds on his hands.
As she applied medicine, she fumed, "How could that old hag put you through this? What's gotten into her?"
Ji Peng thought of the cold looks Mrs. Ji had given him these past few days, and the times she had seemed on the verge of saying something. His earlier doubts resurfaced. "Mom, do you think she knows something?"
"Impossible!" Qiu Baizhen had been at odds with Mrs. Ji for most of her life. No one knew her better. "If she knew the truth about your birth, she'd never be this calm. She's probably going through menopause and can't feel comfortable unless she's tormenting someone."
"Just put up with her for now. Once you get her shares in a couple of years and take control of the Ji Group, you won't have to keep trying to please her."