Chapter 15 I'm not as kind-hearted as my mother...
Xie Tang's team took on a tough case—the divorce case of a senior executive of a listed company, involving the division of stock options worth eight figures, which had dragged on for four years. The previous two legal teams had both failed in the first and second instances.
This time, the client went all in, betting their chances of a retrial and a comeback on them.
In the office, team leader Li Qing tapped on the case file and said to Xie Tang, "Transfer the small cases you're handling. This week, get all the transaction records and CSRC filings sorted out. Also, Li Zan is a senior intern; he'll be working with you."
"Okay." Xie Tang walked out of the office carrying a large pile of materials.
She sat down in her office chair, looked at the materials piled up on half the table, and rubbed her temples.
"Sis, dinner's ready." A plastic lunchbox suddenly landed on the case file.
Li Zan leaned against the workstation partition with one hand, while holding a spicy hot pot takeout bag in the other.
Xie Tang looked up and paused, then asked, "Aren't the interns supposed to report for duty next week?"
The young man snapped the disposable chopsticks with a crisp sound, his canine tooth flashing as he smiled. "I don't have classes in my senior year, and I'm just wasting my time at school anyway, so I might as well come here early to adapt to life at the law firm."
Under the incandescent light, the arrogance in his eyes softened by the steaming hot soup.
The rebellious teenager who spent all his time in internet cafes playing games four years ago has finally grown up.
Yin Xi moved closer to Xie Tang's table and quickly snatched a piece of taro from her spicy hot pot bowl: "Your brother is quite thoughtful, isn't he? He even knows you like taro."
"Hmm." Xie Tang pushed the lunchbox over, but before she could eat, her phone screen lit up with a familiar number without a signature.
Her eyes turned cold, and she hung up immediately.
The phone rang again immediately.
Xie Tang answered, her tone impatient: "Hello?"
"We're having dinner with the Chu family at six o'clock tonight. You have to be there."
It was Ji Yan's voice. Xie Tang refused decisively: "I'm busy."
"This is a formal family banquet after the wedding! How can you expect the Qin and Chu families to save face if you're absent?"
"I am neither surnamed Chu nor Qin, so what does it have to do with me?"
“Fine,” Ji Yan’s voice carried a hint of threat, “then I’ll have to ask your mother…”
Xie Tang's fingers clenched instantly, "...The address!"
After receiving a reply, she abruptly ended the call, her face darkening.
"Who is it? Why do you look so pale?" Yin Xi asked vaguely, biting into a slice of lotus root.
Her gaze was fixed on Xie Tang's left ring finger—the platinum ring gleamed coldly, with Cartier's stamp engraved on the inside.
This is not a style you can easily buy in a department store, nor can it be replicated by products from Taobao.
Chu Yun knew Xie Tang all too well; he had an inherently stubborn pride.
Even though she had to save every penny for her mother's medical treatment over the years, she always kept two or three well-made suits in her wardrobe, which were her armor for important occasions.
She once said, "I can't afford the real thing, but I don't want the fake one either."
Yin Xi sensed that she was hiding something, so she stared into her eyes and asked, "Who gave you the ring?"
Upon hearing the word "ring," Li Zan immediately slid his chair closer: "Sis! What ring? You have a boyfriend? Who is he?!"
Xie Tang pushed his head away: "Don't pry into adults' affairs."
"Why can't I know?" Li Zan persisted. "What about him? Is he good to you? Is he good enough for you?"
Yin Xi put her arm around Xie Tang's shoulder and lowered her voice, "Well done, you kept it a secret! Who was it?"
Xie Tang pushed her hand off her shoulder. "I just wear it for fun, it's just for looks."
"You're kidding me!" Yin Xi pointed at the exquisitely designed platinum ring. "This one costs at least five figures. Would you really buy yourself something like this?"
Xie Tang glanced at her sideways: "Are you ever going to stop?"
"Fine, fine, I won't say anymore." Yin Xi raised her hands in surrender, but couldn't help but lean closer, her tone unusually serious, "As a friend, take my advice—just listen to what men say and forget about it. Even if you're tempted, you have to stay clear-headed, or you'll fall headfirst into a trap you can't escape."
Xie Tang looked at her best friend, who had endured seven years of hardship and countless breakups and reconciliations with her long-distance boyfriend, with a complicated expression: "Is there any confirmation about your boyfriend... being transferred to Shenzhen?"
Yin Xi's expression darkened: "...Not yet. I've submitted the application, but who knows how long it will take."
"What if he never comes?"
Yin Xi frowned, then, as if trying to convince herself, said, "...No way. We've made it through seven years, what's a few more months?"
After she finished speaking, she looked down and poked at the food in her bowl.
The noise in the office seemed to disappear instantly.
Xie Tang had little appetite and silently packed up her lunchbox. The cold ring around her ring finger made her fingertip ache.
This ring is really eye-catching.
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The shimmering light from the crystal chandelier spilled onto the gleaming dining table, reflecting off Ji Yan's exquisitely made-up face.
She was dressed in gorgeous clothes, but the smile lines at the corners of her lips were filled with ice. Her gaze toward Xie Tang was even more intense: "Oh, so the young lady has finally deigned to grace us with her presence?"
Xie Tang looked around the empty private room. There was only Ji Yan, her two daughters, and an unfamiliar niece, but her son was nowhere to be seen.
“Ha,” she pulled out a chair and sat down, “What’s Madam Qin up to? Where are the Chu family members?”
Ji Yan picked up her teacup with elegant manners, but her words were venomous: "What's the rush? Your father and the Chu family agreed to meet at 7:30. The reason he asked you to come early is naturally to give you some 'advice'."
She deliberately emphasized the last two words.
Xie Tang leaned back in her chair, her gaze sweeping over Qin Wu, who was looking down at her phone. "Speak quickly if you have something to say."
Ji Yan's sharp gaze swept across her face: "Look at you! You have no manners whatsoever! Is this how your mother taught you to speak to your elders? I'm still your stepmother..."
"Mistress!" Xie Tang interrupted her, her sneer like shattered ice. "Stop trying to glorify yourself. Before Qin Ruhai married you, you were his mistress for eight years. You really have a way with words."
Ji Yan's face darkened, and she slammed her hand on the table, shouting, "Xie Tang! Who do you think you are? If it weren't for our Qin family, would you have been able to climb up the social ladder to the Chu family? Keep dreaming!"
Qin Wu shuddered in fright, threw her phone on the table, and hurriedly pulled Ji Yan away, saying, "Mom! Don't say that!"
"Shut up!" Ji Yan flung her daughter's hand away, her fingertips almost poking Qin Wu's forehead. "How could I have given birth to such a wretched child! If you hadn't caused that scandal, getting involved with that poor boy Chu Yi and ruining the marriage with Chu Song, would Xie Tang have been able to reap such immense wealth?"
Qin Wu's face drained of color, and she twisted her fingers in embarrassment.
Xie Tang slowly took a sip of tea, her eyes watching a farce.
She couldn't understand how Ji Yan, who was so assertive, could raise a daughter who was as timid as a quail, yet still managed to commit the "heroic act" of cheating on Chu Song.
"A glorious moment?" Xie Tang set down his teacup with a crisp sound, his sarcasm deepening. "It seems Madam Qin has a bad memory. It was Qin Ruhai who begged me to take on this mess! Without my 'marriage,' would he have gotten those five hundred million from Huasong?"
"you……"
"That ten million, that villa?" Xie Tang leaned forward, his gaze sharp as a blade, piercing Ji Yan's heart. "Trying to fob me off like a beggar? Back then, he was worth nearly a hundred million, and he thought he could get rid of my mother with a mere fifty thousand, severing our twenty-year relationship! You, my virtuous wife, must have played a part in this, right?"
She paused deliberately, savoring Ji Yan's ashen face. "Let me remind you, how much my mother was entitled to back then is up to the law. She can sue anytime she wants and take back half of the Qin family's current fortune!"
Ji Yan's pupils contracted sharply, her voice suddenly rising in a shrill voice, tinged with panic: "Nonsense! Back then, Cisco..."
"Qin Ruhai's name is printed in black and white on the 2007 Forbes Rich List!" Xie Tang interrupted sharply, each word ringing with conviction. "Evidence? I have as much as you want!"
Ji Yan's lips trembled, as if she were being choked, and her resentful eyes were fixed on Xie Tang.
Xie Tang stood up, her high heels clicking crisply on the ground, and walked to Ji Yan's side.
Still haunted by the slap she'd received last time, Ji Yan instinctively covered her face and took a half-step back, her voice sharp but her voice weak as she asked, "What do you want?"
Xie Tang didn't look at her, but instead raised her foot and kicked hard at the metal leg of Ji Yan's chair!
A screeching friction sound was accompanied by a loud thud as the chair tilted!
Ji Yan screamed in shock at the sudden violence, her heart pounding wildly.
Xie Tang looked down at the still-shaken Ji Yan and the pale-faced Qin Wu, his voice as cold as the wind: "Listen, I'm not as soft-hearted as my mother. If you two behave yourselves and don't bother me or my mother, we'll go our separate ways. Otherwise..."
She gave a cold smile, "I wouldn't mind learning from Madam Qin's methods and whispering sweet nothings in Chu Song's ear..."
"Xie Tang!" Ji Yan screamed like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, her face breaking down. "How have I wronged you? Offending the Qin family won't get you any benefit whatsoever! You have no manners..."
She suddenly pointed at Qin Wu, her voice shrill, "I haven't settled the score with you for dumping food on Xiao Wu's head at school! Do you know how much your bullying caused her..."
Xie Tang frowned as she looked at Qin Wu. How did she end up being accused of bullying?
"Mom!" Qin Wu suddenly stood up, her voice sharper and trembling than ever before.
She gripped Ji Yan's arm tightly, "Stop talking! It wasn't her! It wasn't Xie Tang who threw away my food back then!"
Ji Yan seemed not to understand, forcefully shaking off her daughter: "Why are you afraid of her! Mom's here..."
"Enough!" Qin Wu screamed in despair, tears streaming down her face.
She pointed at Ji Yan, then at Xie Tang, and finally covered her face in anguish, her voice broken yet clear: "I said—no, it, wasn't, her, who, did, it!"
The cold light from the crystal chandelier cut through the silence.
Ji Yan stared at Qin Wu, her chest heaving with anger, her nail-painted fingers jabbing hard in Qin Wu's direction. "How long are you going to keep lying to me? Your 'good' friend Li Pan told me herself! It was you back in school..."
"Enough!" Qin Wu's usually evasive eyes were now bloodshot, like a small animal on the verge of collapse. She almost screamed, "I said—it wasn't Xie Tang! It was Li Pan! It was them! Li Pan deliberately fell on my head, she framed Xie Tang! How many more times do you want me to say this?"
Ji Yan's carefully maintained expression shattered instantly.
She swayed as if struck by a heavy hammer, her eyes widening in disbelief, her voice trembling: "You... what did you say? Li Pan? Mrs. Li's daughter?"
The Li family, whom she was so proud of and tried so hard to curry favor with?
"Yes! It's her!" Qin Wu's pent-up grievances and resentment, accumulated over many years, surged forth like a flood bursting its banks.
She no longer avoided her mother's gaze, which was filled with pain: "Back then, in order to squeeze into Mrs. Li and Mrs. Wang's circle of wealthy women, you forced me to fawn over Li Pan! Did you really think they considered me a friend? In their eyes, I was nothing more than a toy that you, their second wife, brought into the house, something they could play with at will!"
Her voice trembled with emotion, each word dripping with blood and tears:
"What's wrong with dumping food on my head? They tore up my notebooks and watched me crouch in the corner of the classroom piecing them back together page by page! They threw my schoolbag into the sink in the boys' restroom!"
Qin Wu's breathing became rapid. She took a step forward, her eyes fixed on Ji Yan's shocked, pale face, and dropped the most impactful bombshell:
"High school! They dragged me into the dirtiest girls' restroom stall and locked the door! Li Pan... she stuffed a mop rag, soaked in sewage, into my mouth, and they laughed and filmed it, saying, 'Let your mom see, this is where you belong! Bastard!'"
With a "boom," Ji Yan's mind went blank.
The glamorous facade of the "high society circle" that she had carefully cultivated and painstakingly climbed into was completely shattered by her daughter's bloody accusations.
Those "wives" she fawned over, their precious daughters actually... actually abused her daughter like this!
Extreme shame and anger at being fooled instantly overwhelmed the feigned sympathy.
Ji Yan's face turned from white to green, and finally flushed a deep liver color, as a surge of anger rushed to her head.
She suddenly raised her hand—
A resounding slap landed hard on Qin Wu's face!
A note from the author:
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Plums are so delicious in March, it's easy to eat too many without realizing it.
About Cisco: Where ideas can go, science can go too.
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