Chapter 73
A porcelain vase that was about to fall
Xu has been a bit troubled lately. Every time she tries to close the door and be alone with Jiang Fengyi, she hears continuous meowing from outside.
Snowball has grown quite a bit; it's no longer the skinny little thing it used to be. Its head is round, its belly is round, and now it's truly a ball.
"Meow~ Meow~"
It started scratching at the door with its newly grown claws.
Its two front paws were placed on the door, its entire upper body was pressed against the door, and its protruding belly was covered with a ring of fine downy hair that was standing straight up.
Xu was forced to stop what she was doing and angrily ran to open the door.
"Snowball, what are you doing?"
Xu opened the door, but the kitten stood at the doorway and didn't come in. It then let out a soft "meow."
Jiang Fengyi lay on the bed, peeking her head towards the door.
What's wrong with Snowball?
"Just scratching at the door out of boredom."
Hearing Jiang Fengyi's voice, Xue Tuan clearly felt she had found a backer, and the cat tilted her head back, looking much more smug. In this house, Xu would discipline her, while Jiang Fengyi unconditionally doted on the kitten.
"How could such a cute kitten do anything wrong?" is a phrase she often says.
As soon as its backer spoke up, Snowball immediately responded with two "meows".
She deftly bypassed Xu Que and ran into the room.
Meow~
It ran towards Jiang Fengyi, who had her arms outstretched.
Xu immediately turned around and called out to the kitten's back.
"Snowball, you're not allowed on the bed! Your fur is everywhere!"
The kitten couldn't understand human speech. She ran straight to the bedside, pushed off with her feet, and jumped lightly into Jiang Fengyi's arms.
The person on the bed had already spread out their palms, waiting for it to jump on. At this moment, they were skillfully and gently scratching the kitten's chin. The expert technique made Xue Tuan squint its eyes and enjoy it, making a comfortable purring sound in its throat.
Jiang Fengyi couldn't stop praising him.
"Whose cat is so amazing? It turns out to be my Snowball."
Snowball lazily rolled over in her arms, and its sharp claws instantly pulled a thread out of Jiang Fengyi's silk nightgown.
Xu, who was approaching, happened to witness this scene.
"Snowball, it's time to trim your nails!"
Meow~
The kitten was unaware of what was happening. Its pink paws were caught in the silk thread and it couldn't break free. It stared at Jiang Fengyi with its innocent, round eyes.
Jiang Fengyi's heart melted, and she quickly said, "It's all the fault of the thread on the dress, which got Xue Tuan's paws tangled. I'll wear pajamas that won't snag next time."
"You spoil it too much!"
Xu forcibly took the kitten from Jiang Fengyi's arms.
"Let's go get our nails trimmed."
"Meow meow meow!"
Xue Tuan didn't want to cut her nails, so she cried loudly and urgently, frequently looking at Jiang Fengyi, hoping that she could come to her rescue.
Xu seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, sensing Jiang Fengyi's intention, and spoke up before she could: "Don't plead for it, Xue Tuan's nails are too long and it will scratch people if they're not trimmed."
Jiang Fengyi got out of bed and followed her out.
Xu took a cat treat out of the cabinet and gave it to Jiang Fengyi, dividing the tasks: "You feed Xue Tuan the cat treat to distract it, and I'll cut it."
As soon as Xue Tuan saw the snacks, she quickly forgot to resist the idea of having her nails trimmed. Guai Guai was held in Xu Que's arms and licked the cat treats with gusto.
Xu moved swiftly, using nail clippers to snip off the cat's overgrown claws. Xuetuan, engrossed in eating, offered no resistance.
But she couldn't keep up with the speed at which the kitten licked the cat treat. Jiang Fengyi squeezed the cat treat to the top, but couldn't squeeze out any more.
That's it?
"It's gone."
However, there was still one cat paw that hadn't been trimmed.
Without cat treats to attract the kitten's attention, it started to make a fuss. Whenever Xu Que's nail clippers came near, it would meow loudly, as if it had a speaker inside its belly.
"Should I give it another cat treat?"
"I show it cat cartoons."
Xu turned on the living room TV, preparing to project Cat TV onto the kitten in a different way to distract it.
She looked down to find the video source; entertainment news was playing on the TV.
[The two families have completely broken off relations and are now exchanging barbs from afar]
[Former marriage partners, now mortal enemies: Why did the powerful Zhao and Li families' marriage alliance turn into a bitter feud?]
[The relationship between in-laws turned into enmity, with both sides hiring PR firms to release smear articles against each other]
Jiang Fengyi hadn't heard any news about the Zhao family for a long time, so hearing it on TV suddenly felt somewhat unreal.
"Why did the Zhao family and the Li family have such a messy falling out? They don't seem to have any grudges against each other, do they? I remember receiving an engagement invitation from both of them last time."
Who knows?
Xu didn't care; she only used her limited energy to focus on the people she cared about.
She found the cartoon that Snowball liked to watch and pressed play. As soon as the cute background music started, the kitten's ears perked up and its eyes were fixed on the TV screen.
Its head followed the small black ball on the screen, moving back and forth. Xu, having clipped its nails, made a grasping motion in the air with his forepaws, as if trying to grab the constantly bouncing black ball on the screen.
"It's watching very intently."
Jiang Fengyi poked its ear tip, and the snowball's ears, covered with a layer of downy fur, just twitched very quickly. Its gaze did not leave the TV screen, and it was completely undisturbed.
Jiang Fengyi asked curiously, "Do you think the kitten will become nearsighted if it watches cartoons every day?"
"So it can only be watched for half an hour."
Xu set a timer, and the video call ended in half an hour. The two didn't leave, but instead snuggled up on the sofa behind the kitten, gazing at the snow-white ball with smiles in their eyes.
The living room was filled with warmth.
In contrast, there is the Zhao family.
The living room was a complete mess.
The decorative porcelain ornaments were smashed all over the floor. Old Mrs. Zhao smashed them so much that only one piece survived on the antique shelf, but her anger had not been completely quelled.
She sat in her wheelchair, watching the company's stock price continue to fall, her spirits dwindling day by day.
He said in a sinister tone, "The Li family is a real scourge. Ever since I got involved with them, not a single good thing has happened!"
He frowned and asked his granddaughter, "What trouble did the Li family cause us today?"
Zhao Rufei pursed her lips and handed the tablet to her grandmother.
"They held a press conference to accuse us of being heartless and ruthless, and of wanting to break off the engagement without any warning."
"They even publicly released photos from the engagement banquet, claiming that the two families were a perfect match, a marriage made in heaven, and expressed their firm disagreement with breaking off the engagement."
Grandma Zhao slapped the armrest of her wheelchair, causing the carved display shelf next to her to shake: "Our family is almost bankrupt, yet we still buy trending topics every day. Do you think we have too much money?"
"It's gotten to this point, they'd rather never see each other again, yet they still refuse to annul the engagement. It's obvious they're deliberately trying to annoy the Zhao family!"
She coldly ordered, "Contact the public relations department and leak the news that the Li family is practically an empty shell."
Old Mrs. Zhao smiled sinisterly: "Make sure the Li family's business partners know."
"Since we've started this fight, I'll definitely see it through to the end and see whether your Li family's impending bankruptcy is more substantial, or my Zhao family's long-standing strength will prevail."
Zhao Rufei remained rational: "Grandmother, tearing each other apart will not benefit us. It will only weaken us and make it even harder for us to deal with the Jiang family in the future."
Grandma Zhao was furious and wouldn't listen to anything: "You wouldn't be trying to say something good about the Li family, would you?"
Zhao Ruxuan chimed in, "The Li family has gone too far as to bully us! This is intolerable! We're just fighting back!"
"Stop stirring things up. If you hadn't gone on the show and started talking nonsensically about the Li family, none of this would have happened."
"How can you blame me!" Zhao Ruxuan angrily threw the cushion in her arms away. "It's just that her name was mentioned on the show, and Li Miao is like a piece of chewing gum sticking to me. She immediately contacted the production team to participate in the next episode of the variety show."
"They're the ones who won't leave us; they're like bloodsucking worms clinging to us!"
"You two are always arguing, can't you be quiet for a while?!"
Grandma Zhao was so angry that she slammed her hand on the armrest of her wheelchair several times, causing the display shelf next to the wheelchair to tremble.
The only surviving porcelain vase, unbroken, had been moved to the very edge by the continuous tremors. It teetered precariously, threatening to fall at any moment.
The three, consumed by anger, did not notice.
The light in Zhao Rufei's eyes completely disappeared: "The Li family is trying to drag our Zhao family down with them."
She couldn't help but recall how the Zhao family had gradually fallen to its current state. It was originally second only to the Jiang family, and even without the marriage alliance with the Jiang family, it shouldn't have declined to this extent.
Jiang Fengyi! It was Jiang Fengyi who hastened the demise of the Zhao family.
Initially, the Zhao family terminated the cooperation, causing them to lose the business they relied on for survival. Later, the other partners joined forces to attack the Zhao family, either withdrawing their investment or canceling contracts. In this way, the Zhao family's business was gradually disintegrated.
Having finally managed to climb up to the Li family, thinking they had found a lifeline, it turned out the Li family was already an empty shell, and it was really uncertain who would save whom.
They didn't gain any benefits and were instead exploited by the Li family.
Astute businessmen had already sensed something was amiss and silently categorized the Zhao family as an unstable business partner.
Zhao Rufei was filled with despair, resentment, and melancholy.
"No, no...it shouldn't be like this, the Zhao family shouldn't be like this..."
With a loud bang,
Grandma Zhao's repeated slaps shook the carved wooden frame, causing the already precarious vase to shift and fall to one side.
Grandma Zhao's wheelchair was parked right next to her. Before she could react, the blue-and-white porcelain vase fell straight down and hit Grandma Zhao on the head as she looked up, realizing something was wrong.
"Thump—"
The porcelain was shattered all over the floor.
A large scar the size of a bowl appeared on Old Mrs. Zhao's forehead, and blood gushed out, soaking her skin, creases, and graying temples.
"grandmother!"
"This...this is..." Zhao Ruxuan stammered several times, panicking, "Grand...Grandmother..."
Zhao Rufei rushed over, pressed hard on the old lady's wound to stop the bleeding, and shouted loudly.
"doctor!"
"Go call the family doctor right away!"
Zhao Rufei yelled at her, "Call the family doctor!" Zhao Ruxuan snapped out of her daze and hurriedly said, "I'll call, I'll call the doctor right now!"
Zhao Rufei's hands were already stained crimson with blood. She looked at her grandmother, whose eyes were closed, her voice choked with sobs, unsure whether she was trying to comfort her grandmother or herself.
"It's okay, everything will be alright!"
"The doctor will be here soon, and everything will be fine once the bleeding stops."
"Grandmother, open your eyes and look at me."
She picked up the broken pieces of porcelain that were lying in front of Old Mrs. Zhao, one by one.
Blood-stained shards of porcelain were scattered everywhere, piercing Zhao Rufei's palm and embedding themselves deeply into her flesh.
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