"Yutang, you..." Sun Meifang was a clever woman. She desperately tried to force a smile, but simply could not manage it.
"Song Yutang, don't push us too far." Song Mingzhe trembled with rage.
Song Yutang had not actually expected them to pay their respects.
Her disgusted gaze swept over the three of them as she rebuked them coldly. "Forget it if you're unwilling. But Concubine Sun, concubine-born elder brother, concubine-born younger sister, there is a distinction between legitimate and concubine-born children, and an order between the high and low. You had best remember your lowly status, know your place, and mind your words and deeds. If you bring trouble upon the Song Family, I will not let you off lightly."
The mother and her two children: "..."
Was there something wrong with Song Yutang's brain?
How could she keep spouting such absurd, feudal nonsense with such righteous conviction?
"I am a well-bred person. You may have no manners, but I cannot neglect propriety. Butler Wang, reward them." Song Yutang had intended to humiliate them all along and gave Butler Wang a meaningful look.
Butler Wang hurriedly picked out three inexpensive gift boxes from the gifts brought for her first visit home after marriage.
Holding their gifts, Sun Meifang and her two children turned green with rage.
But with those dozen or so burly bodyguards there, they could only grit their teeth and thank her.
Lunchtime soon arrived, and the butler arranged a homecoming feast that filled an entire large table.
Once Jiang Guoqiang and his wife had taken their seats, Sun Meifang tried to sit down as well.
Song Yutang cast her a casual glance. "Concubine Sun, no respectable household allows a lowly mistress or concubine to sit with honored guests. Come forward and attend to my mother-in-law. Concubine-born elder brother, attend to my father-in-law. Concubine-born younger sister, you can attend to me."
Naturally, the mother and her two children all looked utterly displeased.
The bodyguard captain, who had already figured out Song Yutang's routine, silently raised a fist as big as a clay pot.
Father Song shuddered in fright and instinctively snapped at Sun Meifang and her children. "Wh-what are you standing around for? D-do as Yutang says."
At last, Song Yutang felt at ease and gave an approving smile. "My instruction all this time has not been wasted. Father, you are finally beginning to look a little like the head of a household. But you must not let it go to your head. You must continue to accept instruction humbly."
"..." A mouthful of old blood lodged in Father Song's chest. It felt worse than swallowing a fly.
Meanwhile, in a bedroom at the Jiang Family estate.
Jiang Muyan's eyes had gradually adjusted to natural light, and after a brief period of rehabilitation, he had barely regained the use of his limbs.
After making sure no one would come in for a while, he endured the aches throughout his body and eased himself out of bed, taking a laptop and a spare phone from a hidden compartment at the head of the bed.
Having lain in bed for three whole months, his fingers were not very nimble.
Still, Jiang Muyan quickly opened a professional scanning program and thoroughly swept the room.
After confirming there were no hidden cameras, he hacked directly into the backend of the Jiang estate's security system and pulled up every live surveillance feed from the main gate to his bedroom door.
The screen split into over a dozen small windows, and he activated an alarm program at the same time.
Anyone appearing within ten meters of the room would automatically trigger an alarm.
Once all that was done, he plugged in the phone and switched it on, then used software on the computer to check the device as well.
After making sure it was not being tapped, Jiang Muyan finally placed a video call.
Almost the instant it connected, a huge nostril filled the screen. "We are Qin Shi Huang of the Mars Office on Earth. Send money at once. Once We purchase a spaceship, We shall appoint you the eighty-third crown prince of the Milky Way..."
Jiang Muyan fell silent for a second, then lowered his hoarse voice. "Zhao Chuan, it's me."
Zhao Chuan was his special assistant and the person he trusted most.
On the other end of the screen, Zhao Chuan's entire body twitched several times as though electrocuted, while he sang wildly off-key. "Ah~ who is knocking on Our~ lonely skull~ so it's you, Our wild Ultraman, lost for so many years..."
Jiang Muyan adjusted the camera to point at himself again. "...It's me, Jiang Muyan. I'm awake."
The other man sang even more enthusiastically, singing and dancing at once. "What Yan? Oh? It's you, Our chief imperial Wi-Fi unplugger. Beloved minister, present three thousand units of mobile data at once. Once We connect to 5G, We shall grant you lifetime VIP membership at the Southern Heavenly Gate tollbooth..."
Jiang Muyan pinched the bridge of his nose. "Zhao Chuan, stop acting. I really am awake."
Zhao Chuan's breath caught. He lay straight down on the floor and wailed with elaborate rises and falls in pitch. "What? Our Makka Pakka dynasty has fallen? Fallen?? Felled just like that by stir-fried tomatoes and mooncakes in a dream?? Oh-what-sorrow-"
Jiang Muyan was speechless for a long while. "I backed up the full HD video of you cross-dressing and dancing to 'Gokuraku Jodo' and stored the copies in different clouds. If anything happens to me, they'll automatically be sent to your elementary school, middle school, high school, university, and graduate school alumni groups, as well as... the email address of the goddess you've had a crush on for eight years."
Zhao Chuan's bizarre expression instantly froze.
A deathly silence lasted about five seconds.
He sprang straight up from the floor. "Holy shit, President Jiang, you're really awake?"
Jiang Muyan looked at the name badge on his chest that read [Qingshan Psychiatric Hospital]. "How did you end up mentally ill?"
While unconscious, he had learned from his parents' conversations that Zhao Chuan had suffered a mental breakdown, but he did not know the details.
Zhao Chuan instantly grew serious, his teeth itching with hatred. "There was definitely something fishy about our crash. That truck driver had terminal cancer. Just over a week before the accident, his daughter had undergone heart surgery. His wife's account also mysteriously received three million in an overseas inheritance."
Jiang Muyan's eyes abruptly turned cold. "The handiwork of that dear second uncle of mine."
Zhao Chuan grew angrier still. "If it's not a hundred percent certain, it's ninety-nine. I wasn't badly injured in the crash and woke up the next day. But that very night, a new nurse on the night shift came to change my IV bottle, and her hands were shaking like chaff in a sieve. I said I needed the bathroom and put off the infusion, then dipped a test strip in the medication while she wasn't looking. Guess what? It was laced with a powerful anesthetic. If that girl hadn't been so nervous that she gave herself away, I'd be stone cold by now."
Jiang Muyan tightened his fingers around the phone. "They wanted to cut out the grass by its roots."
Zhao Chuan sounded helpless. "You were still in the ICU then, boss, with a severe brain injury and your life hanging in the balance. Hengxing Technology could give me some support, but an open spear is easy to dodge; an arrow in the dark is hard to guard against. So I simply developed brain damage and a mental disorder too, to lie low for a while. Sure enough, Jiang Qingyu was still uneasy and later sent someone to give me a psychiatric evaluation. I made arrangements with the evaluating doctor beforehand and gloriously checked into a VIP suite at Qingshan Hospital."
Jiang Muyan understood. "No wonder you were so vigilant."
Zhao Chuan said, "I was, after all, a senior security specialist specifically recruited by the security department. I do have that much vigilance."
Jiang Muyan remained expressionless. "I was the one specially recruited. You were just brought along as my assistant."
Zhao Chuan rubbed his nose awkwardly. "Uh... anyway, since I became mentally ill, my safety has been temporarily assured, but that also means I'm completely trapped here. I secretly investigated the truck driver's trail, and it eventually led to several overseas shell companies. The trail went cold there.
"They've wiped the chain of evidence proving that Jiang Sinian sold the core technology completely clean. As for the father and son using shell companies for related-party transactions and transferring assets overseas, their books are watertight too... The key accounts and projects we'd been watching so closely now all look perfectly legal and compliant on the surface."
In other words, all their efforts over the past few months had gone to waste.
Jiang Muyan listened quietly, little stirring in his eyes. "My father was only acknowledged and brought back into the Jiang Family within the past year, but Jiang Qingyu has been transferring company assets for years. I suspect he knew about his own parentage long ago and doesn't trust the old man. Besides, the shares my father and I currently hold are on par with his. Counting the portions held by Third Uncle and Aunt, Jiang Qingyu and his son don't actually hold that much. To get more, they will definitely make another move."
Zhao Chuan was still somewhat worried. "But your health... Besides, more than half the people we worked so hard to place in the group and around Jiang Qingyu have been purged one after another over these past few months. We're short-handed now, and our information isn't very timely either."
"How are things at Hengxing?" Hengxing Technology was a technology company Jiang Muyan had started with several classmates in university. It had just gone public before the New Year.
The Jiang Family knew nothing about it.
It was also an important source of support in his fight for the Jiang Group.
"Following the strategy you laid out previously, all existing projects are progressing steadily. The software supply chain is largely integrated, and we've also reached cooperation agreements with several Middle Eastern countries. Congratulations, President Jiang. Your net worth has gone up again..."
Jiang Muyan smiled faintly. "Good. My body needs time to recover, but it's not a major problem. Besides, we used to be in the light while they were in the shadows. From now on, they're in the light, and we're in the shadows. What's more, I still have Hengxing as my trump card..."
Beep, beep, beep, beep-
As the two spoke, an urgent alarm sounded through his earphones.