Second Sister Yuan trembled.

Mother Yuan’s face was white.

This sick woman somehow found strength from somewhere and spat forcefully on the ground:

“Pah, don’t listen to such nonsense. That woman couldn’t possibly have such ability or temperament, impossible!”

Mother Yuan refused to acknowledge her former daughter-in-law’s capabilities.

She was just a weak-willed woman.

Completely devoted to Yuan Han, doing whatever she was told.

Mother Yuan had genuinely despised her former daughter-in-law Ye Xiaoqiong.

Without a powerful family backing, unable to help advance her son, if not for Ye Xiaoqiong’s family returning a large house, Mother Yuan would never have agreed to her son marrying Ye Xiaoqiong!

Oh, and there were those worthless paintings and calligraphy.

Mother Yuan disliked Ye Xiaoqiong. Though the Ye family ancestors had been high officials, Ye Xiaoqiong carried an air of old-fashioned stuffiness, avoiding confrontation, speaking in flowery language… making Mother Yuan and her daughters appear uncouth in comparison.

Yes, Mother Yuan hated how Ye Xiaoqiong carried herself – this wasn’t the old society anymore, yet she still put on airs!

“That woman, stupid and cheap, throwing herself at my son—”

“Slap!”

He Shiyuan struck Mother Yuan across the face.

“Old woman, you clearly don’t understand the situation. We’re in the middle of nowhere, no one would see if, following my inclination, I had you all killed and stuffed into sacks with large stones, then thrown into the sea. The bodies wouldn’t float, they’d bloat in the water and slowly be eaten clean by fish… How does that sound?”

If Du Zhaohui had been present, he might have greatly admired He Shiyuan.

Their thinking was quite aligned.

Tying stones to enemies and unwanted people before sinking them into the sea – truly an efficient solution!

He Shiyuan’s sinister tone made the Yuan family tremble like quails.

Zhou Yi wasn’t frozen in fear; she was stunned by what she’d heard.

“…What about forcing an abortion and divorce?”

He Shiyuan looked at her, “This is why I call you stupid. You think you’re innocent now, having done nothing wrong? Sometimes, living in ignorance is the greatest wrong! You fell for this worthless man Yuan Han, but he already had a wife. The more eagerly you pursued him, the more he wanted to live off you. With such a great opportunity before him, how could this scum resist? Unfortunately, he was already married back home, his wife was pregnant, and their house was his wife’s returned ancestral property… He wanted to climb higher but shamelessly wanted to keep his wife’s property too, so he and his family conspired to trick his pregnant wife into an abortion, then demanded divorce while she was still weak from surgery.”

He Shiyuan gestured with both hands:

“Such a large baby aborted. One life was lost, and the mother nearly died too. When she refused to divorce, the Yuan family could deny her food, neglect her care, and take advantage of her weakness to end her life directly. Why didn’t they kill her? I thought about it – not because Yuan had a conscience, but because to marry you, ‘divorced’ sounds better than ‘widowed.'”

Zhou Yi trembled all over.

She remembered nearly dying while giving birth to her child.

She had been lucky, with her parents rushing to her aid, helping deliver her daughter.

Yuan Han’s ex-wife hadn’t been so fortunate, tricked into an abortion several months into pregnancy. Zhou Yi felt ice-cold.

“I didn’t know, I didn’t know, Yuan Han didn’t tell me—”

He Shiyuan sneered:

“Did you not know, or did you not want to know? Miss Zhou, you’re not innocent either. For Yuan Han to marry up with you, he sold his ex-wife’s family antiques and artwork for cheap. Didn’t that money go toward your wedding? This scum not only was evil but also ignorant – those items were sent to Hong Kong and resold for over a million Hong Kong dollars! To redeem them now might cost over a million and still be impossible… Half this debt should be counted against you, wouldn’t you say that’s fair!”

Wedding expenses?

Those household appliances and furniture?

Zhou Yi shivered, truly not knowing.

These days, any family not completely destitute would spend money on their son’s wedding. Zhou Yi hadn’t thought Yuan Han’s expenses excessive – from her perspective, it was all appropriate.

Now He Shiyuan was telling her that the wedding money came from selling his ex-wife’s family antiques and artwork. Zhou Yi felt both furious and nauseated.

She had known Yuan Han’s family was ordinary and never looked down on them.

But being ordinary versus being so poor they had to sell his ex-wife’s belongings were two entirely different matters!

Zhou Yi now despised Yuan Han. His actions left her unable to face He Shiyuan’s accusations, with no right to argue back.

Yuan Han himself, along with his mother and sisters, were completely stupefied.

Ye Xiaoqiong’s artwork was worth over a million Hong Kong dollars?!

If they had known this earlier, Yuan Han would never have casually sold those items!

With over a million Hong Kong dollars, he wouldn’t have needed to take bribes, leading to He Shiyuan’s report.

No, with such money, he would have certainly stayed with Ye Xiaoqiong, who always obeyed him and had no family to interfere – he wouldn’t need to watch his in-laws’ faces! Yuan Han was consumed with regret! He hadn’t wanted to live under the Zhou family’s scrutiny either; with Ye Xiaoqiong, he had always eaten his “soft rice” with pride.

He Shiyuan’s revelation felt like a knife to Yuan Han’s heart. Second Sister Yuan was nearly driven mad:

“Over a million… over a million, haha, over a million Hong Kong dollars! My poor sister-in-law Xiaoqiong, you suffered so much because of that slut Zhou Yi, it was all Zhou Yi’s fault for seducing Little Han, all Zhou Yi’s fault!”

Second Sister Yuan moaned, beating the ground and wailing.

Over a million Hong Kong dollars!

Who could produce such money?

Even though Zhou Yi’s father is a high-ranking official, he couldn’t give the Yuan family such a sum at once.

Yet the Yuan family had possessed an inexhaustible gold mountain.

To marry Zhou Yi, Yuan Han had sold it for nothing.

Second Sister Yuan’s heart ached terribly. Mother Yuan, weak from illness, couldn’t bear such a shock and fainted.

But He Shiyuan wouldn’t allow her to faint – that would be escape. She pinched Mother Yuan’s philtrum hard, painfully reviving her.

Zhou Yi was so angry her head buzzed:

“I seduced Yuan Han? How was he worth seducing? He deliberately caught my attention!”

It was Yuan Han who had seduced her.

Second Sister Yuan jumped up to attack Zhou Yi. This time He Shiyuan didn’t stop her. Second Sister Yuan knocked Zhou Yi down, and sat on her, hitting and cursing: “You did seduce him, you shameless woman! A good family’s daughter would never elope with a man or get pregnant before marriage. You slut, return our Yuan family’s money—”

Second Sister Yuan, usually soft-spoken, could no longer maintain her facade. While beating and cursing Zhou Yi, she turned to curse Yuan Han:

“I said it before, Zhou Yi was already pregnant, why spend so much on the wedding? Who else could she marry? You were too good to her, that’s why the Zhou family looked down on you. If you’d beaten her into submission early on, many things wouldn’t have happened!”

Zhou Yi wasn’t one to take abuse lying down and fought back against Second Sister Yuan.

He Shiyuan wanted to applaud – good drama needed such tension. Dog eat dog, how satisfying!

Fight, keep fighting.

This was exactly what she wanted – them fighting and cursing each other, ensuring they’d never forget this day, never forget the fortune they had lost!