Since everyone knew each other’s situation, it was good enough to live in peace by keeping mum about the situation.

  If anyone dared to spill the tea about others, someone else would definitely step in to bring up their matters too. Then, everyone would go down together. No one would be spared.

  Zhai Sheng had silently broken this unspoken rule. But no one dared to go against Zhai Sheng. Besides, it was Zhai Sheng who had brought this matter up. If the Wang family truly got mad, they would have to direct their anger toward the Zhai family. But there was no way they would be able to rival the Zhai family and would have to bow down to the Zhai family instead.

  The moment Zhai Sheng appeared with his overwhelming power, the Wang family had no other choice but to back down. After all, they were no match for Zhai Sheng.

  They had had no luck in moving up the social ladder. In fact, with Zhai Sheng’s lead, the Wang family had almost been torn apart. One could only imagine how miserable the Wang family’s state was.

  Not only had they not gained any benefit at all, but they had even injured themselves badly in the process. More importantly, everyone in Ping Cheng now knew that the Zhai family and the Wang family were not on good terms. Anyone against the Wang family was a friend since they were their enemies’ enemies. Thus, the Zhai family wouldn’t do anything to them for the time being.

  In the same vein, an enemy’s friends were enemies all the same.

  Anyone who walked close with the Wang family had reason to worry that they would be next in line now that Zhai Sheng had called the Wang family out.

  \r \r \r

  With this worry, those who had initially been on bad terms with the Wang family practically severed all ties with them, while those on average terms gradually distanced themselves from the Wang family, for fear of being dragged down.

  Of course, the Wang family had been infuriated by this situation. They hadn’t even been able to attack the Qiao family, and yet, the Qiao family had already made them suffer a huge loss through the Zhai family. The world was upside down!

  The Wang family was nearly driven crazy. Not only had their children not been able to climb the ladder, but they had even been dragged down!

  Once the news spread that they had provoked the Zhai family, everyone regarded the Wang family as jinxes. As such, it was obvious that the Wang family had no way of raising their children up to match Wang Yang’s status and position nor making use of the Zhu family’s assets. In fact, they had even ruined everything for themselves!

  The Wang family had never been too bold nor persistent to begin with. After having firsthand experience of Zhai Sheng’s powers, their plans had failed before they had even gotten the chance to implement them.

  It was only when the Wang family stopped making trouble for Qiao Nan did Zhai Sheng get his men to stop their attacks against the Wang family. Although the Wang family was cowardly, they had some capabilities after having worked in the government sector for so many years.

  If they were to fire all of the Wang family from the government sector, it would create another problem of finding their replacements. It wasn’t so easy to hire talents. What if someone worse than the Wang family were to take their places? Then, it wouldn’t be beneficial to the state or the people either.

  Zhai Sheng was absolutely clear of that, and he would never gamble on the interests of the state and the people.

  The Wang family had not made that much trouble, and yet, their careers and families had already fallen to such lows. Because of that, Wang Yang had become much more outstanding in contrast.

  Through this incident, the Wang family had gained firsthand experience of Zhai Sheng’s powers. They knew for a fact that they would never be able to deal with Qiao Nan, nor ever get their hands on the Zhu family’s assets, as long as Zhai Sheng was around. As such, they had no choice but to give up for the time being.

  At some point in time, their ideas would finally be in sync.

  Both Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin felt that there was no way Qiao Nan would always have such good fortune. Even Qiu Chenxi, who had such a great family background, had only managed to remain as Zhai Sheng’s wife for three short years. How could someone who couldn’t even match up to Qiu Chenxi be the Zhai family’s daughter-in-law and the chief’s wife forever?

  Anyone who believed that was incredibly naive!

  There would eventually come a day when Zhai Sheng would grow tired of Qiao Nan and divorce her.

  Then, Qiao Nan would lose Zhai Sheng’s support, and the money from the Zhu family would mean nothing to her. She would be like a three-year-old with a stack of cash. Not only would she be defenseless, but she would even be ruined because of the enviable wealth that she had. There would surely be hordes of people who had their eyes on her.

  When that time came, it would be the chance for the Wang family to deal with Qiao Nan and to get Qiao Nan to spit up whatever rightfully belonged to them. Given the current situation, it would take only another few years for that to happen. As for the exact timing of that, it would depend on when Zhai Sheng decided to divorce Qiao Nan. Yes, the answer was that simple.

  If the Wang family were to pose such a question to Zhai Sheng, he would only express that he had been too softhearted and had gone too easy on the Wang family earlier. It was obvious that they had not learned their lesson at all.

  Nevertheless, Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin had averted disaster and had gone on with their lives peacefully with no knowledge that anything had ever been plotted against them.

  In the blink of an eye, a year had gone by. Throughout this period of time, Qiao Nan had never once been back to the Qiao family’s courtyard to visit Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin even when she returned to Ping Cheng. She would much rather not step into the Zhai family’s house in the quad, staying in the Zhai family’s old villa in Qingshui Town instead, than get close to those two women. Otherwise, she might very well be guilt-tripped into needing to visit and take care of Ding Jiayi.

  In the short span of a year, Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin had caused much less trouble than before. Qiao Nan was sure that this had something to do with the method she had employed.

  It was hard to say which one was Zhou Yu and which one was Huang Gai between Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin. Between the pair, it seemed like their roles changed constantly. To be honest, it seemed like they took advantage of each other.

  Qiao Nan thought that it was good enough that the mother-daughter pair lived their own lives well without causing anyone else harm.

  Although Qiao Dongliang had been slightly unused to it in the beginning when he had first lived apart from Ding Jiayi, he had gotten used to it over the past year. Besides, Qingshui Town was peaceful and quiet. In fact, Qiao Dongliang had realized over his stay there that Qingshui Town was perfect for retirement.

  Even Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin’s existence could no longer affect Qiao Dongliang. As such, he led a blissful life in Qingshui Town. In the later part of the year, Qiao Dongliang had only talked about how leisurely and comfortable his life was. He had never even mentioned Ding Jiayi or Qiao Zijin a single time in his conversations with Qiao Nan.