"I know what you want. Oh well, I am indeed getting old..."

He remained silent for a moment. In the moonlight, his temples seemed to be frosted with white, and every fine line on his face showed his weariness.

"Leave those two to me... The Xiao family is yours, and you are the true head of the Xiao family now. From now on, I will no longer interfere in your affairs. Do whatever you want, and you don't need to worry about anyone anymore."

Xiao Lingchen bowed slightly and smiled, "Thank you, Father."

.

This summer, the atmosphere in Beijing is eerily quiet.

Half of the top circle witnessed that farce firsthand. Everyone here is quick-witted and understands what happened.

But it was precisely because they knew it was a big joke that they were even more eager to see how the story would unfold. Surprisingly, the Xiao family remained completely silent, as if nothing had happened.

"I've only ever heard of women pretending their illegitimate children are their own, making their husbands cuckolded, but I've never heard of someone voluntarily adopting their own child..."

"That family is special—the Xiao family is powerful, and the head of the Xiao family was in his prime back then. Who wouldn't want to marry into the family and become a wealthy and honorable matriarch?"

“That’s right, but the head of the Xiao family made it very clear: the first wife’s son is the only heir, and she can’t have children after marrying into the family! By then, the eldest son of the Xiao family will be too old to be raised properly. How many women would be willing to marry into the family and waste their entire youth? Once the head of the Xiao family is gone, she probably won’t even get a fart!”

"Tsk, this woman bringing along this burden, she's probably up to no good! I remember we went out for afternoon tea together before, and she kept calling her 'niece' a little mistress..."

"So she can't have children herself and wants her daughter to have them? Hahahaha..."

"Won't Patriarch Xiao be furious this time and kill her?"

"Who knows? Let's watch the show!"

As rumors spread, Bai Zhu finally understood everything, feeling a mix of emotions, both amused and exasperated.

"This is really... Uncle must be very angry. Is there anything we need to do?"

Xiao Lingchen sliced ​​a seasonal peach for her and said slowly, "You don't need to do anything. Why do you think he's angry? It's not because she hid the fact that Qingwan is her biological daughter."

"no?!"

"Of course, that's not important. What truly enraged him was that his wife, whom he considered the most obedient and compliant, dared to conceal and deceive him. In his eyes, this was infidelity. And once the label of 'infidelity' was etched into his mind—"

Xiao Lingchen smiled slightly, stuck a toothpick into the sliced ​​peach, and handed it to Bai Shu, feeding her piece by piece. The two of them were squeezing onto the sofa in the home theater to watch a movie, with the male and female protagonists intimately embracing each other flashing on the screen opposite them.

“All trust and indulgence will be destroyed. As punishment, no matter how small the matter he finds out, it will only add fuel to the fire in his already raging heart—he needs to vent his anger, he needs to make amends to us, and their fate is predictable.”

Xiao Lingchen smiled slightly.

Madam Xiao and Xiao Qingwan dared to harm his Bai Shu, and he could not quell his hatred even if he tore them apart alive. However, Bai Shu was soft-hearted and kind, and he did not want her to see too much darkness and bloodshed. He would rather find another way to let them taste the bitterness of getting what they deserved.

Soon, news began to arrive.

Xiao Qingwan was hospitalized with injuries to both legs. Her legs suffered comminuted fractures with no possibility of recovery, so the hospital opted for amputation.