Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

  Zhu Chengqi had neither a son nor a daughter to inherit his assets, after all.

  Since he had no chance of ever passing anything down to his children, he would have to hand them over to an outsider. That would depend entirely on Zhu Chengqi’s mood.

  Although Zhai Sheng and Qiao Nan wanted to meet Zhu Chengqi purely out of concern for him, others had spun tall tales regarding this matter.

  Thinking back to what Miao Jing had said earlier, Zhu Chengqi and Qiao Nan immediately realized what Miao Jing was worried and upset about. Those people thought that the Zhai couple was trying to suck up to Zhu Chengqi so that they would stand to gain from Zhu Chengqi’s death.

  It did indeed sound awful. It was wrong no matter who did it. The problem was that neither Zhai Sheng nor Qiao Nan had ever intended to do so and yet, that was how other people were viewing them. How unjustified it was for them!

  If an average person were to encounter such a situation where his good intentions were mistaken, it was only natural for him to put away his good intentions so that others would no longer spread rumors about himself……

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  But if Zhai Sheng and Qiao Nan were to do just that, they would have helped someone achieve his goal. There was no way they would agree to that, especially Qiao Nan. It was especially because she had encountered such a situation that she had to press on. If she was so easily wavered by these rumors, there would truly be no one sincere toward Zhu Chengqi by his side.

  Thinking about how Zhu Chengqi had been silently taking care of her all these years and how he had been the only one trying to help her even as her closest kin continued pressuring her for money, Qiao Nan was even more persistent not to give up on this friendly old man.

  Qiao Nan looked at Zhai Sheng. They remained silent but the same thought formed in both of their minds. There was only one name that came up when they thought about who could have started this rumor: Wang Yang.

  Only Wang Yang would be so concerned about the Zhu family’s assets and only Wang Yang understood just how much of a danger Qiao Nan was to him. Others knew about Zhai Sheng and the Zhai family’s situation. As such, there was no way they would have started such a ridiculous rumor about the couple.

  Even without the Zhu family’s assets, Zhai Sheng and the Zhai family were already doing well enough.

  Even though Zhai Sheng had no descendants for the time being, there had already been three generations of chiefs in the Zhai family. It was evident that they were much more capable than the Zhu family that only had two generations of chiefs. Whether one thought about it from Zhu Chengqi’s perspective or Zhai Sheng’s perspective, such a rumor was ridiculous all the same.

  There was no need for Zhai Sheng to go after anything that the Zhu family had. After all, the Zhai family had whatever the Zhu family had. In fact, the Zhu family might not even have some things that the Zhai family had. Even if Zhai Sheng did not have it at the moment, there was nothing out of his reach with some hard work.

  Besides, Zhu Chengqi was no fool. There was no way he would hand over two generation’s worth of the Zhu family’s hard work over to an outsider like Zhai Sheng. As such, no one would have managed to guess that the true reason for such an absurd rumor was Qiao Nan, who was stuck between Zhai Sheng and Zhu Chengqi.

  Because of Qiao Nan’s existence, Wang Yang had no other choice but to resort to such means. He had already taken nine hundred and ninety-nine steps of the way and was just one step short of success. There was no way he would allow himself to be tripped up by Qiao Nan at this critical moment and lose his chance of reaching his ultimate goal.

  Now that the couple had their suspicions, there was no way Wang Yang was going to get his way. Thinking again about how she had lost a good younger brother, Zhu Baoguo, because of Wang Yang, Qiao Nan harbored a deep hatred for Wang Yang. Even after finding out that Wang Yang had been the one who had arranged for Chen Jun to seduce her to disappoint Zhu Chengqi, Qiao Nan had not hated Wang Yang. But she could not take Zhu Baoguo’s death lying down. She would never be able to forgive herself otherwise.

  Since Wang Yang cared so much about the Zhu family’s assets, she would make trouble for him, scare him, and cause him to lose everything that he had been working for all these years. Qiao Nan had not thought up a comprehensive plan as of yet. After all, Zhu Chengqi had the final say over who was to inherit the Zhu family’s assets. It was true that she had no blood ties with Zhu Chengqi. As such, there was nothing wrong with Zhu Chengqi wanting to hand everything over to Wang Yang.

  And it was not as though Qiao Nan could directly tell Zhu Chengqi that it was Wang Yang who had hired those hooligans and caused Zhu Baoguo’s death. Qiao Nan was worried that the truth might be too much for Zhu Chengqi, who already did not have many days left to live, to handle.

  But the more Wang Yang did, the more stubborn Qiao Nan got about not letting Wang Yang get his way. She would find a way to solve the Zhu family’s problems. In short, she would much rather donate everything that should have belonged to Zhu Baoguo to the less fortunate than let it fall in the hands of someone like Wang Yang.

  “Don’t worry too much about Wang Yang. I can handle it.” Zhai Sheng could sense Qiao Nan’s hatred toward Wang Yang. Of course, based just on Chen Jun’s matter, Zhai Sheng could fully understand why Qiao Nan hated Wang Yang so much. Even if Qiao Nan did not mention it, there was no way Zhai Sheng would let the matter slide after someone had bullied his wife.

  Besides, Wang Yang had already sent himself to his doorstep. If he were to do nothing, he would never be able to call himself a Zhai again.

  Because of Zhai Sheng’s assurance, Qiao Nan naturally allowed Zhai Sheng to handle Wang Yang’s matter. Compared to Zhai Sheng, Qiao Nan knew her abilities as a pregnant woman.

  Qiao Nan was already quite advanced in age as a pregnant woman, and as such, she had no choice but to cut down on the number of courses she took to slow down her hectic schedule. The English examination was the only activity that Qiao Nan had not given up.

  Compared to everything else, English was the only subject that she excelled in without much effort.

  Zhai Sheng’s and Qiao Nan’s lives seemed to be on the rise and the atmosphere in the Zhai family was better than ever before. There were many people in the capital who knew that Zhai Sheng had gotten married a little later in life but was rather ‘capable’, having gotten his wife pregnant in mere months. The Zhai family would get bigger very soon.

  This news inevitably spread to Shi Qing as well.