Chapter 21 Severing ties with relatives and then serving you tea and water?

Xu Zhili slightly moved her toes and easily dodged.

Chopsticks scattered all over the floor with a "clatter".

Lin Jinguo's forehead veins bulged, and he reached out to grab Xu Zhili's wrist: "You bastard! Apologize to your mother! Right now!"

Xu Zhili flipped her wrist, deftly breaking free, and then kicked over the chair next to her.

With a loud crash, her eyes suddenly reddened, but a near-manic smile spread across her lips.

"Apologize? You're the one who should be kneeling in the freezing cold and repenting! You live a life of luxury, working in a nice house, all thanks to your promises, and then you turn around and report your own wife to go to hell! Lin Jinguo, you're really good at playing the 'righteous indignation against your own family' trick!"

She pointed sharply at Zhang Jiumei, whose face had turned pale, "This kind of opportunistic, trashy woman, who wouldn't even deign to pick up trash, dares to call me 'Mom'? She's nothing but a lowly concubine!"

"You! You!"

Lin Jinguo trembled violently, his finger almost poking Xu Zhili's nose. "Shut up! Don't mention those things! You're slandering me! You're trying to kill my whole family!"

He was all bark and no bite, and what he feared most was having old grievances brought up again.

Xu Zhili acted swiftly, slapping away the obstructive finger with a "smack," her voice suddenly turning cold, carrying a chilling edge.

"Since I've already done it, why am I afraid of what people will say? Besides, I hate it when people point fingers at me."

Her eyes were like knives, slicing across Lin Jinguo's panicked face. "Have some manners, Technician Lin."

Lin Jinguo covered his hands, looking like a chicken being choked, his face turning a deep purplish-red.

"Alright."

Xu Zhili instantly regained her nonchalant sweet smile, clapped her hands as if dusting off some dirt, and said, "Grandma doesn't have time to watch your monkey show. Where's my money? Haven't you raised enough yet?"

She sighed dramatically, "Oh well. Anyway, there are plenty of people fighting tooth and nail for that lucrative position in the machine factory office, all vying for two thousand yuan. I'll just go out and shout it out..."

She made a gesture as if to turn around.

"Don't!"

Zhang Jiumei and Lin Wanwan rushed forward at the same time to try to pull her away.

Get your dirty hands off me!

Xu Zhili shouted angrily and quickly stepped back, her eyes filled with disgust as if they had been stained with filth.

Zhang Jiumei forced a smile that looked more like a grimace: "Here! The money's ready! As for the job... when can I transfer the job?"

Xu Zhili crossed her arms, tilted her head to look them over, like a cat toying with a mouse under its paws: "What's the rush? Three small conditions, agree to them, and the job will immediately be Lin Wanwan's."

A glint flashed in Zhang Jiumei's eyes, and she immediately nudged Lin Jinguo: "Old Lin! The letter of severance!"

Lin Jinguo, with a gloomy face, took a piece of paper from the drawer and handed it over.

Xu Zhili took the book and skimmed through it. In the silence, she suddenly burst out laughing, then slowly began to clap her hands, the crisp sound particularly jarring in the oppressive room.

"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"

She laughed hysterically, but there was no laughter in her eyes, only cold mockery.

"With Technician Lin's writing skills, it's a waste that he's not writing formulaic essays! Look at this: 'My birth, aging, sickness, and death have nothing to do with the Lin family—'"

She jabbed her finger heavily on the paper. "It only says that I'm not allowed to ask you for help when I'm in the countryside, but it doesn't say that you 'cannot' ask me for help! What's wrong with that?"

Her voice suddenly rose, carrying a sharp and compelling quality.

"So you're planning to wait until I'm gone, and then your whole family gets sick, bedridden, or dies, and I, your 'severed' daughter, have to come back to mourn you, clean up your messes, and take care of you until the end? You're dreaming! You're even better at getting something for nothing than this! Did your brain get squeezed by a door or kicked by a donkey?"

Lin Jinguo's face turned ashen, his lips trembled, and the shame and anger of having his thoughts completely exposed almost suffocated him.

"You...you're talking nonsense!"

Xu Zhili slammed the letter severing ties on the table, leaned forward, her sweet smile laced with venom, and her voice was terrifyingly soft.

"Hey, Lin Jinguo, the head of the family? Hmm? You even wrote such a pathetic letter severing ties? Or is it..."

She drew out her words, her gaze sweeping meaningfully over Zhang Jiumei, "Your 'wise wife's' idea? Tsk tsk tsk, a grown man being ridden on by a woman and not daring to utter a sound? Lin Jinguo, are you even a man? If you're a man, just say it, stop dawdling like a spineless coward!"

"you--!"

Lin Jinguo's eyes were bloodshot. His last fig leaf had been torn to shreds in public. The intense sense of humiliation and the aroused masculine pride caused him to completely lose his mind.

He snatched the letter of severance, grabbed a pen, and with almost all his strength, fiercely signed his name at the bottom, the pen tip nearly tearing through the paper!

Xu Zhili watched coldly, her heart unmoved, filled only with a desolate chill and the burgeoning flames of revenge.

Her belief has never changed: whoever makes her unhappy, she will turn their world upside down and make them never have a peaceful day again.

This is just the beginning.

Lin Jinguo shuddered at Xu Zhili's words, "a spineless coward."

"You unfilial daughter! Your mouth is full of foul language, what kind of behavior is this! Look at yourself now, where is even a trace of the upbringing a daughter of the Lin family should have! You are a disgrace to the family!"

His finger trembled as he pointed at Xu Zhili, his glasses sliding down to the tip of his nose. "Scheming? Work, marriage... all of that was for this family! For the greater good! Wanwan has found a good home, and you going to the countryside was an honor in response to the call! You... what do you know about sacrifice and dedication!"

Xu Zhili laughed as if she had heard the biggest joke in the world, letting out a string of clear, bell-like but chilling laughter.

She tilted her head, her eyes sharp as knives beneath her bangs, and a sweet smile played on her lips, yet her words were piercing to the heart.

"Sacrifice? Dedication? Technician Lin, you're really good at flattering me! Sacrifice me to dedicate to your precious stepdaughter and bright future?"

She approached slowly, her voice as soft as a lover's whisper, yet it sent a chill down Lin Jinguo's spine.

"You schemed to give your own daughter's job to your stepdaughter, then stole her man, and finally kicked him to the countryside as an educated youth... Is this your 'family-oriented' perspective? Your 'glory' is the glory of climbing over your wife and your own flesh and blood, isn't it? Bah!"

She spat, her eyes suddenly turning fierce.

"Dare to mention 'family education' to me again? When you reported your spouse and allowed your stepmother to mistreat your own child, what happened to your noble 'family education'? Everyone in the family compound knows about your dirty deeds."

Should I go out right now and give you a good 'publicity' about how you 'sacrificed your own family' back then, getting this technician position by reporting your wife?

"You...you're spouting nonsense! This is utterly unreasonable!"

Lin Jinguo's face turned from red to white, his lips trembled, like a rooster being strangled, he could only repeat "incomprehensible" in vain, and finally choked out a pale sentence, "I...I did it all for this family!"

Xu Zhili rolled her eyes dramatically, crossed her arms, and looked as relaxed as if she were watching a farce: "For the family? Save it, Lin Jinguo. Your thoughts are dirtier than a sewer. I'm warning you one last time, get it over with quickly, and stop dawdling."