The ecstatic expression on Shao Qiyun’s face froze completely, making her look even stranger. She stood motionless for a moment. “So you’re not giving me money? Were you just playing with me just now?”

  Shao Qiyun slammed the table furiously. “You think I’m a fool and you’re playing with me, right!”

  “You were the one who treated me like a fool first.” Old Master Ji shrugged. “I was just playing along.”

  After saying that, he sighed and said, “So why didn’t you treat Xiao Wu better? Even if you couldn’t raise him personally because of secular views and reality and had no choice but to raise him by saying he’s your brother’s son, you could’ve just secretly treated him well. You could even have just treated him to a few meals or bought him a few clothes, so why didn’t you treat him better? He’s your biological son. This should be easy, so why couldn’t you do it?”

  Shao Qiyun’s face twisted when she heard this. “You mean that if I had treated Xiao Wu well, you would really have given me a million yuan?”

  “Of course, but not just a million yuan. I could even have agreed to your absurd request to marry Buwang. Xiao Wu is the child left behind by his older brother, so he’s Buwang’s biological nephew. It wouldn’t be a problem for him to raise Xiao Wu. We can all agree on this…

  “But you didn’t do it!” Old Master Ji was heartbroken.

  Shao Qiyun suddenly took two steps back and completely clung onto Old Master Ji’s words. That’s right, why hadn’t she done it?

  It wouldn’t have taken long. As long as she had raised Xiao Wu for a few years, she would have been able to live a life of luxury and wealth. From then on, she would have had everything. Why hadn’t she done it! Why hadn’t she?

  Shao Qiyun hugged her head and screamed as she squatted down. “Why is God treating me like this!”

  She had always wanted to marry a rich man and change her fate, but Xiao Wu had ruined it. She had always hated Xiao Wu to death and blamed everything that had gone wrong on him, treating Xiao Wu as the beginning of her misfortune. However, she hadn’t expected that the greatest fortune in her life and the turning point of her fate would also be Xiao Wu.

  It turned out that as long as she’d treated him well, she could even have raised him under Shao Qihai’s name. She could’ve just treated him well in private or bought him a few meals and some clothes. For the sake of the child, the Ji Family would have let her marry into the rich family she had dreamed of. Even if they did not, they would at least give her a million yuan.

  But she had missed it. She had missed it!

  \r \r \r

  Shao Qiyun was filled with regret. “Why, why didn’t you tell me earlier!”

  Mu Jingzhe looked at Shao Qiyun’s expression of true regret for the first time and the corners of her mouth curled up in a mocking smile. Previously, Shao Qiyun had put on an act with the help of ginger and made a fuss, but she had never truly regretted it.

  This time, she really regretted it. She really regretted it because she couldn’t get the money.

  Shao Qiyun suddenly crawled toward Xiao Wu. “Xiao Wu, I’ll be good to you. I regret it. I’ll be good to you in the future. Tell your great-grandfather and the rest to forgive me, alright?”

  Seeing that Old Master Ji really wouldn’t give her any money, Xiao Wu heaved a sigh of relief. He was stunned by Old Master Ji’s actions. Upon seeing her coming over, he immediately retreated.

  Shao Qiyun wailed, and Old Master Ji sighed beside her. “Why are you making things difficult for Xiao Wu? Time can’t be reversed, and there’s nothing Xiao Wu can do about it either.

  “It’s normal for you to regret it. Let’s not talk about a million yuan anymore. Let’s not talk about you marrying into the Ji Family either. Look at Xiao Wu. He’s already so promising at such a young age. As long as you’d treated Xiao Wu well, wouldn’t you have been able to lead a good life now? Wouldn’t your fate have been completely different? Why didn’t you treat him better?”

  Old Master Ji said a few more words. In the end, he said the same thing again. “Why didn’t you just treat him better?”

  This sentence seemed to stab Shao Qiyun’s heart deeply. This was the only thing left in her mind. That’s right, why hadn’t she treated him better? It had been such a good opportunity to change her fate, but she had actually missed it. The closest she had gotten to her dream had been because of Xiao Wu, but in the end, she had missed it.

  Shao Qiyun was overwhelmed with regret. All that could be heard in the room was her sobbing.

  Xiao Wu, Little Bei, and Shao Xi fell into deep thought as they looked at Shao Qiyun and Old Master Ji. When Mu Jingzhe looked at Shao Qiyun, she couldn’t help but look at Old Master Ji. Old Master Ji was still sitting in an ordinary chair, just like before, but Mu Jingzhe couldn’t take her eyes off him and couldn’t help but praise him in her heart.

  Brilliant. This move was really brilliant. It could simply drive one crazy. He had given Shao Qiyun hope time and again, making her extremely happy. In the end, he had ruthlessly pushed her down.

  He tortured her again and again. Eventually, through temptation and a few choice words, he had forced Shao Qiyun into a dead end and made her plunge into a never-ending cycle of what-ifs.

  He knew human nature too well.

  This was what it meant to destroy a person by attacking their psyche.

  Old Master Ji was very familiar with all this.

  No wonder Ji Buwang could be so infuriating sometimes, as he resembled Old Master Ji. Still, he was inferior to Old Master Ji. Indeed, the older the ginger, the spicier it was.

  Old Master Ji was a sensitive person, so how could he not notice Mu Jingzhe’s gaze? Upon seeing the admiration in her eyes, he finally felt a little better.

  The reason he was so ruthless to Shao Qiyun today was because he felt sorry for Xiao Wu and wanted to avenge him.

  Old Master Ji knew very well what people like Shao Qiyun were thinking. To deal with such a person, one had to understand what they cared about. Things like ethics and morals were completely useless to them.

  He had achieved his goal, but he wasn’t in a good mood. Unexpectedly, he saw Mu Jingzhe’s adoring gaze.

  Old Master Ji’s mood brightened. He looked up at the sky and roared in his heart. He also shook his head at Ji Buwang. Say, if he had learned from him properly, he would have attracted the admiration of that girl and married her long ago.

  However, the fact that Mu Jingzhe had realized what he had done and even worshipped him meant that this girl was actually very smart. She also had righteousness and principles in her heart and knew how to teach children.

  This was the rarest thing. There were many smart girls, but there were very few girls like her. Now, other than Tang Moling, who wasn’t very clear-headed, only Buwang was left in the Ji Family. They needed a good female.

  As the old saying goes, a bad father raises one bad child, whereas a bad mother raises a nest of bad children. It was really important to get a good wife.

  If he married Jingzhe, he wouldn’t need to worry too much about the Ji Family’s third generation.

  However… Shao Qihai was still standing there. Old Master Ji looked at Shao Qihai with some regret.

  He turned around unintentionally and saw three pairs of sparkling eyes. At a glance, he saw that they belonged to Xiao Wu, Shao Xi, and Little Bei. The three children had widened their horizons today.

  Shao Xi’s eyes were bulging as if he had learned something, while Little Bei and Xiao Wu purely admired Old Master Ji.

  They marveled at how impressive this old man was. Look at how he’d made Shao Qiyun cry.

  Old Master Ji was surprised by their gazes but gave them a benevolent smile. Little Bei tugged at Xiao Wu’s clothes. “This grandpa is a little impressive.”

  Xiao Wu nodded and said, “Yes, but he’s also a little scary.”

  Shao Xi clenched his fist. “I want to be as impressive as him in the future.”

  Little Bei: “…”