Chapter 184 Severing Ties

The next morning, the half-melted snow water froze into a thin layer of ice on the bluestone slabs, and Lu Rensheng and Lu Yaoting blocked the courtyard gate again.

Lu Yaoting was so cold that he wrapped a red scarf around his face, almost covering half of it. He was silently praying: Please don't run into Lu Zheng, and if you do, please don't agree to go back to Hong Kong with Dad...

Only if the old man gives up will he throw all his family fortune at me!

He rubbed his frozen fingers, and just as he turned the corner, he saw Lu Zheng bending down to tie his shoelaces, with a bamboo basket beside him, looking like he was about to go into the mountains.

Lu Yaoting's heart sank to the bottom.

"Hmph!" Lu Rensheng stepped forward. "Seeing your father arrive, you're still preparing to leave? Is this the etiquette of the Lu family descendants?"

Lu Zheng straightened up and said calmly, "You should use appropriate etiquette for different people. Mr. Lu, I made it very clear last time. Why are you here again today? Are you still not giving up?"

He stepped aside to block the hospital door: "My mother said she doesn't want to see you again. Now, please leave."

"You bastard!" Lu Rensheng's cane trembled with rage. "How dare you speak to your father like that?! Wang Meihua! Is this the good son you raised?!"

Hearing the commotion, Wang Meihua peeked out of the house. Seeing Lu Rensheng again, she said coldly, "Lu Rensheng, how dare you say that! I teach my son to be an upright person, unlike some people who abandon their wives and children and act like cowards!"

Ignoring Wang Meihua, Lu Rensheng stared intently at Lu Zheng: "I'll ask you one last time, are you coming back to Hong Kong with me or not?"

Lu Zheng bent down and lifted the basket on his back, the bamboo strips scraping against the ground with a soft sound: "My answer is the same as before, I don't care about your money."

"Don't you care?" Lu Rensheng snorted. "With this money, you can do whatever you want in Hong Kong! You can eat delicacies or live in a villa on the hillside, it's all up to you. Even if you get a fatal disease, you can choose the best doctors in the world! But without money, what can you do? Stay in this desolate mountain valley and eat sweet potatoes for the rest of your life?"

Seeing that Lu Zheng's expression remained indifferent, like a stone that could never be warmed, his face finally darkened: "Do you really think I only have you as my son?"

Lu Yaoting's eyes lit up, and he immediately fawned over her like a lapdog.

"Dad! Don't worry, I'll definitely listen to you!" He turned to Lu Zheng, secretly pleased, and continued to stir things up: "Brother, hurry up and apologize to Dad, or he'll get angry."

Lu Zheng didn't even lift his eyelids. He bent down, picked up the bamboo basket, walked past the Lu family father and son, and headed straight out of the courtyard: "My affairs are none of your concern. Now, please leave my house."

"You—!" Lu Rensheng was so angry that he trembled all over, pointing at Lu Zheng's back, unable to speak for a long time.

Lu Rensheng swallowed his anger after his Adam's apple bobbed violently three times.

He nodded to Lu Yaoting, who immediately stuffed his crocodile-skin briefcase into his hand as if presenting a treasure, zipping it up quickly to reveal neatly folded documents inside.

“Lu Zheng, this is the last time I’m talking to you. You know the situation in China. I don’t have time to keep running back and forth to this poor mountain village. This time I’m here with the utmost sincerity. Everything I promised you before, as long as you nod and come with me now, will stand by and do as I say.”

Lu Zheng didn't even lift his eyelids, and started putting down the basket and tidying up the tools inside.

Seeing that he was unmoved by reason, Lu Rensheng took a deep breath, took out an agreement from his briefcase, and handed it to Lu Zheng. The agreement had the words "severance of father-son relationship" written on it.

“I didn’t want things to come to this. But you insisted on staying in this poor mountain village and going against me! Have you forgotten how I accompanied you in your studies when you were a child? How I taught you how to be a person? Now that I’m asking you to come back to Hong Kong with me and live a good life, you’re like a rock in a latrine—stinky and stubborn!”

As he spoke, he suddenly clutched his chest: "Dad is a hundred times more heartbroken than you are by showing me this agreement! But you insisted on forcing me to do this!"

Lu Rensheng closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, the feigned pain in his eyes had solidified into a cold, resolute expression.

“I can’t let you brothers turn against each other, and I can’t leave any future trouble for the Lu family.” He deliberately slowed his speech. “If you insist on not coming back to Hong Kong with me, then we will sever our father-son relationship.”

"From this day forward, the Lu family's assets and glory will have nothing to do with you." He stared at Lu Zheng. "If you want to stay in the mainland and work the land, then stay here. Whether Yaoting makes the Lu family's business flourish or declines in the future, it will have nothing to do with your branch of the family!"

As he said this, tears seemed to well up in his eyes, and his voice choked as if it were about to break: "Do you think a father wants to take this step? You forced me to..."

Xia Qianqian saw all of this clearly. The icicles on the eaves reflected a cold light, making Lu Rensheng's "heartbroken" face look particularly ironic.

What a beautiful scene of filial piety and parental love! Unfortunately, it was performed too forcefully, and even the slight moisture squeezed from the corner of his eyes carried a hypocritical and fishy smell.

This isn't a case of being forced into a corner; it's clearly a meticulously designed logical loop!

He absolved himself of all responsibility, as if all the blame lay with Lu Zheng for being "unappreciative" and with his mother-in-law for being "stubborn and unenlightened." He claimed that they forced him, the "loving father," to sever ties with his family and to "reluctantly part with his loved ones."

Lu Rensheng is truly wasting his talent by not acting.

Upon seeing this, Lu Yaoting could barely hide his smile. He had deliberately insisted on coming along because he was afraid that Lu Zheng would fight him for the family fortune.

Now that's great, once the termination agreement is signed, the company in Hong Kong, the villa in Mid-Levels, the shares in the pier... will all belong to Lu Yaoting from now on!

So what if he's the second wife? He's the winner now!

“My older brother definitely doesn’t care about Dad’s money,” Lu Yaoting finally couldn’t help but say. “Otherwise, even though Dad has made everything clear, he still insists on staying in this poor mountain village. But to be honest, I have to thank my older brother for ‘giving up’ his money.”

Xia Qianqian was standing by the door frame when she heard this and suddenly burst out laughing. She turned to Lu Zheng and winked, "Lu Zheng, why don't you... go back with Mr. Lu?"

She deliberately dragged out her words, her eyes sweeping over Lu Yaoting's pale face: "To save some people from jumping around here, it's so annoying. It would be such a waste if the family fortune were inherited by some Tom, Dick, or Harry."

"You—!" Lu Yaoting's face turned pale instantly, his heart jumped into his throat, and his mouth was as if it were locked shut, and he dared not say another word.

He stared intently at Lu Zheng, afraid that this older brother would really be persuaded by Xia Qianqian's "sarcasm," and then his smugness would become a joke.

Xia Qianqian burst out laughing, her shoulders trembling slightly. Lu Yaoting's expression, as if he had swallowed a fly, was so satisfying.

Lu Zheng's gaze fell on her reddened earlobes, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously curved up.

He stepped forward, ignoring Lu Rensheng's ashen face, and said softly to Xia Qianqian, "Yaoting was right just now. I, Lu Zheng, really look down on that filthy money stained with the stench of money."