Qin's mother had a gentle smile on her face, which carried a hint of knowing wisdom from someone who had been through it all.
"Silly child, what Mom means is..."
She paused, a hint of shrewdness and joy in her eyes, as if she were planning how to distribute the harvest from her own vegetable garden.
"If we have another wife, we'll have to give up a portion of our family heirloom."
"Mom can't show favoritism; she has to treat everyone equally."
Qin Xiao's heart skipped a beat, and the wound on his back seemed to throb even more intensely. This familiar rhetoric... this is bad.
Sure enough, Qin's mother's next words completely stunned him.
"I recently had someone bring back a top-quality jadeite rough from Myanmar. It's icy green with excellent translucency."
“That piece of material is really big,” she gestured, her face beaming with pride. “I reckon it could easily make ten or twenty bracelets.”
"..."
Qin Xiao's lips twitched violently, and a terrifying image flashed through his mind: a group of beautiful women surrounding him and calling him "husband".
A dozen or so? Twenty or so?
Mom, what do you take me for? A human seed-planting machine? Can this kidney handle it?
He endured the pain and quickly turned around to call for a stop.
"Stop, stop, stop! Mom!"
"Calm down! Where would I get so many girlfriends?!"
Qin's mother gave him a reproachful look, put down the ointment in her hand, and gently patted his uninjured shoulder.
"Mom, isn't this just a precaution?"
"Besides, you're not young anymore. It's time to think about settling down, starting a family, and giving Mom a big, healthy baby!"
"I'm still looking forward to holding my grandchildren and enjoying the joys of family life!"
When the topic of children came up, Qin Xiao's expression instantly became somewhat subtle, even showing a hint of resistance.
He pursed his lips and muttered something.
"What's so great about having children? It's such a hassle."
These words seemed to have stepped on Qin's mother's landmine.
Her face hardened, her eyebrows furrowed, and she raised her hand, slapping Qin Xiao's back, which was still glistening with the cool ointment after the medicine had been applied, with pinpoint accuracy.
"Awooo—!"
Qin Xiao cried out in pain, almost being launched off the bed, and was covered in cold sweat.
This time, the mother showed no mercy and used considerable force.
Seeing her son's grimacing face, Qin's mother felt no pity, but instead became even more self-righteous.
"Look at the state you've become!"
"He's always causing trouble outside, fighting and killing, never a moment of peace!"
“If you had children, you would have something to care about, and you would know how to take care of your family. You wouldn’t act so recklessly! You would have to have a sense of responsibility!”
Her tone turned serious, and her eyes sharpened as she stared intently at Qin Xiao's profile.
"Mom can tolerate your youthful vigor and your own ideas about handling things, but she cannot tolerate you being an irresponsible man."
"If you don't want to be the kind of bastard who starts something and then abandons it, tell Mom the truth: cut off all those messy relationships outside of the Su family!"
"Especially that Gu Siqing! She's the daughter of the Gu family, her status is different! If you don't plan to settle down with her, don't get involved, don't ruin her bright future!"
The air in the room seemed to stagnate, and the air, thick with the smell of ointment, became heavy.
With his back to his mother, Qin Xiao endured the pain in his back and took a deep breath.
He was silent for a moment, then forced a slightly stiff but ingratiating smile onto his face, turned to look at his mother, and spoke in a consultative tone.
"mom."
"If the jadeite in our house is really that plentiful, and there's still some left after making bracelets..."
"Could you... make me a men's Guanyin amulet to wear for protection?"
...
Meanwhile, in a cramped and dark rented room in the capital city.
Ye Chen suddenly opened his eyes, his hangover-like headache causing him to furrow his brow uncomfortably.
The air was filled with a pungent, rancid smell—a mixture of cheap cigarette smoke, leftover instant noodle soup, and low-quality air freshener—that nauseated the senses.
He rubbed his throbbing temples, trying to shake off the jumbled fragments of memories from his mind.
An unprecedented sense of power surged through my limbs and bones, like a rushing river.
Upon internal observation, the dantian was filled with qi, bulging as if it were about to burst out of the body at any moment.
He tried to practice the profound martial arts techniques passed down in his family.
That force moved with perfect ease, almost without any resistance, and easily broke through the invisible barrier that had troubled him for so long.
Late stage of Dark Force!
It's done!
A flash of wild joy appeared in Ye Chen's eyes, which was then replaced by a strong sense of pride and arrogance.
My master once said that this bottleneck requires the balance of Yin and Yang to break through. Hmph, it seems I am indeed destined by Heaven, possessing great fortune, and can progress on my own without needing those ordinary, vulgar women!
Thinking of those ungrateful so-called fiancées in the capital who dared to reject his advances, a shadow of gloom and coldness appeared on his face again.
Especially Qin Xiao! That ant who opposes him at every turn!
Ye Chen gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with malice, and muttered the name "Qin Xiao" over and over again, cursing it several times before the anger in his chest finally subsided a little.
Just then, the old-fashioned flip phone on the bedside table, which had been recently purchased, had a large screen, and a noisy ringtone, started ringing with a piercing call.
Ye Chen picked up his phone impatiently, glanced at the unfamiliar number, frowned, and pressed the answer button.
"Hello?"
A hurried and clearly panicked voice came from the other end of the phone. It was Qin Nanxi, the cousin of Qin Xiao's second uncle, who was his mole in the Qin family.
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