Who Is Jiang Junlai?

"Mom..."

"Dongxue, don't say any more. Everyone can see how useless Zhang Yang is. I won't make things hard for him. If he doesn't have the money, he doesn't have it."

Cheng Dongxue wanted to explain what Zhang Yang had done and hoped he could help her family through this crisis. But Cheng Hai cut her off before she could speak.

Cheng Dongxue sighed and fell silent. She simply couldn't bring herself to talk back to her parents.

As for Zhang Yang, none of this concerned him. Since no one wanted his help, he tuned out the discussion and focused on eating.

"Eat, eat, eat. That's all you know how to do. You're like a pig," Yang Su snapped.

Lin Xiaofei wanted to explain too, to say a few words for Zhang Yang. But seeing how unruffled he was, she shut her mouth again, swallowing even her offer to help.

The people before her were far too arrogant. They needed a harsh lesson, and Lin Xiaofei was willing to give them the chance to learn one.

After asking everyone around the table, Yang Su had raised a pitiful sum. Hardship revealed who truly cared, and in her hour of need, everyone seated before her had an excuse. Even those willing to contribute offered scraps, nowhere near enough to help.

They were especially good at changing the subject at just the right moment. Zhang Yang had to admire that. In an instant, a flood of accusations, mockery, and cutting remarks came his way.

Yang Su and Cheng Hai, still reeling from their failure to raise the money, took their anger out on Zhang Yang.

"He's been our live-in son-in-law for years, and all he knows how to do is eat and drink. Has he ever contributed anything to the Cheng Family? He can only do housework. He's no use at all."

Yang Su was furious. More than a dozen relatives had come to dinner that day, all close to her or people she thought highly of. Yet apart from Yang Gang, who had offered one million, the others had given only small amounts. Together, they had not even raised 1.2 million, leaving them far short.

Cheng Hai was anxious about the company's future too. The worry had not brought him down; instead, like Yang Su, he vented his anger on Zhang Yang.

"Useless coward. The Cheng Family must have been blind to let someone like you in."

"It's all your fault. If you hadn't insisted on bringing him into the family, we could have had any number of sons-in-law. We wouldn't be in this miserable position today."

Cheng Hai's accusation sounded as though he were berating himself for misjudging Zhang Yang. Yang Su followed up by blaming Cheng Dongxue for choosing him.

"Exactly. Your brother-in-law isn't like him. If he were, I'd have divorced him long ago."

Cheng Dongyu seized her chance and laid into Zhang Yang.

"I'm nothing like him. If I were, I'd find a block of tofu and bash my head against it."

Xia Shiying had failed to impress anyone at his mother-in-law Yang Su's birthday banquet. Now he joined in to please Cheng Dongyu, hoping to avoid being scolded—or even hit—when they got home.

"What else is there to say? Even if there were no men left in the world, she shouldn't have chosen someone like him. A dog would be better."

Yang Tai jumped in, adding fuel to the fire. He seemed determined to insult Zhang Yang to death.

Zhang Yang stayed silent. He wondered whether he had committed terrible sins in a past life to end up in this family, where he was constantly bullied.

"So if he's worse than a dog, what good is he? Cousin, I still think you should divorce him!"

Yang Tai warmed to the subject and kept attacking Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang remained silent, eating and drinking as though no one else were there. His composure stunned even Lin Xiaofei.

"Zhang Yang—"

Cheng Dongxue stamped her foot in frustration. He was being humiliated, yet he still had the appetite to eat—and looked perfectly content doing it.

"Are you hiding what you're capable of? Are you waiting for your chance to turn things around and win them all over in one stroke?"

Sitting beside Zhang Yang, Lin Xiaofei asked him in a low voice.

Zhang Yang froze. Lin Xiaofei knew something about him, which made her the most dangerous person here. If she wanted to hurt him, she was a ticking time bomb.

"Don't be ridiculous. There's nothing I can do. They've made sure of that," Zhang Yang told her with a grin.

Lin Xiaofei was stunned. His answer only made her more certain he was plotting something.

Perhaps Zhang Yang was waiting for the Cheng Family's troubles to spiral out of control. Then he would step in, save them, and clean up the mess. What a wicked plan.

Lin Xiaofei did not believe for a second that Zhang Yang could do nothing. It was just that no one was willing to trust a live-in son-in-law who had achieved nothing in all his years with the Cheng Family.

Even Zhang Yang's remarkable performance at Yang Su's birthday banquet, which had stunned everyone, had failed to change how the family saw him.

Yang Su had even resented Zhang Yang for showing off instead of leaving Cheng Dongyu a chance to shine.

"Grinning like an idiot. You really are a clueless good-for-nothing." Cheng Hai saw Zhang Yang smiling as he spoke to Lin Xiaofei and started scolding him again.

The sight of Zhang Yang irritated Yang Su. She had another reason to dislike him, too: he was the one who had noticed something wrong with the Sapphire Necklace and warned Cheng Hai.

What angered her even more was that Zhang Yang had been home when she bought the Sapphire Necklace. He had not stopped her. He had not even come out to take a look.

"Mom, I'm telling you, Little Sister would be better off divorced. For a useless man like Zhang Yang, remarrying would be next to impossible. But Cheng Dongxue is different. She's young and beautiful. Rich young men would line up for her."

Cheng Dongyu could barely stand the sight of Zhang Yang now. If he had any ability, they would not have been the ones asked to save Cheng Company. He could have helped them instead.

"She's right. If it were me, I'd never take a good-for-nothing like Zhang Yang. Unless he was very rich, I wouldn't give him a second glance."

A beautiful woman with an aloof air stood up and pointed at Zhang Yang, her smile never reaching her eyes. She looked every bit as disgusted with him as she sounded.

She was Yang Lanlan, a relative on Yang Su's side and Cheng Dongxue's cousin.

Yang Lanlan had not attended Yang Su's birthday banquet, claiming a business trip made it impossible. In truth, she had gone away with her boss. He was married, and an affair in Gong City would have been inconvenient, so he had taken her elsewhere to carry on openly.

For someone like that to stand there criticizing Zhang Yang was laughable.

"So Yang Tai is right. Divorce him. You absolutely must," Yang Lanlan said with a disdainful smile.

Zhang Yang raised his head and looked directly at Yang Lanlan for the first time.

"What are you staring at? Never seen a beautiful woman before? I heard what you did at Auntie's birthday banquet. You even dared to flip the table. Who do you think you are?"

The corner of Zhang Yang's eye twitched as he studied Yang Lanlan. He had to admit, she had a certain novelty as an occasional bedmate. No wonder her boss dared to fool around with her behind his wife's back.

Zhang Yang let out a long breath and suddenly spoke. "That big bed in the luxury room was comfortable, wasn't it? How's Jiang Junlai? His wife must be worried that all his business travel is wearing him out."

"Huh... Who's Jiang Junlai?" Yang Tai frowned and immediately turned to Yang Lanlan.