Although Qian Heng had affirmed her, Cheng Yao still felt a knot in her heart.

In the Bai Xingmeng case, as one of the agent lawyers, Cheng Yao hadn’t felt any pang of conscience taking it, because Xu Jun had genuinely and deliberately hidden assets, giving his ex-wife less than her fair share — he was clearly in the wrong, indefensible both legally and morally.

But this case in hand now was different. Chen Qingmei was, in every sense, a mistress. There was no whitewashing that. Helping a mistress go after the inheritance share for her illegitimate child, taking it from a wife who had already been hurt so badly — Cheng Yao couldn’t quite get past that in her heart.

In the past, if Qian Heng had taken on a case like this, she would have thought nothing of it — after all, wasn’t he a “malignant tumor”? A tumor that didn’t care about right and wrong, about justice or morality, and took on cases with a good price tag — nothing could be more natural.

But the more time she spent with Qian Heng, the less she could equate him with that label. He was indeed the reigning “Lord of the Five Poisons,” but Cheng Yao increasingly felt that this lord wasn’t someone who went around wreaking havoc without any sense of reason. After all, a man who would step up to protect his subordinates, who would take the blame and the insults on their behalf, couldn’t possibly be a bad person.

Yet now he had taken Chen Qingmei’s case with almost no hesitation or inner conflict, and Cheng Yao couldn’t think of a way to excuse him for it anymore.

Could it be that he’d grown up poor, endured too many hard years, and developed some kind of pathological faith in money because of it? That even after his circumstances improved, he couldn’t help but hoard a compulsive attachment to money from that formative environment? So that any case involving money, he simply couldn’t resist taking?

At lunch with her colleagues, Cheng Yao finally couldn’t help asking Bao Rui about it.

“Was our Partner Qian’s family struggling financially before he became a lawyer?”

Bao Rui’s eyes went wide, looking at Cheng Yao with an expression that said “are you serious right now.” “You don’t know our Partner Qian’s family is the richest in City A?”

Cheng Yao: ???

Bao Rui slurped a mouthful of noodles and sighed. “Even though our Partner Qian keeps a low profile and never publicizes it, it’s an open secret here at Junheng. How do you not know this? Cheng Yao, are you even a modern human being?”

Now that Bao Rui mentioned it, Cheng Yao recalled that the richest man in City A was named Qian Zhan, whose family business spanned everything from finance and trusts to real estate and hotel chains. Going by age, he could plausibly have a son Qian Heng’s age, but—

“But I’ve seen an interview with Qian Zhan. He does have a son, but I remember the name was Qian Xin.”

Tan Ying leaned in, her tone implying Cheng Yao simply didn’t know better. “Qian Xin is our Partner Qian’s older brother. Partner Qian is Qian Zhan’s genuine youngest son.”

“…”

Cheng Yao thought about it and, unwilling to give up, pressed on. “So as the younger son, was he not favored? You know how it is in rich families — two sons fighting over the inheritance, and our Partner Qian lost out? So the parents handed all the future assets to the elder son, and he was forced out to make his own living as a lawyer to maintain his expensive lifestyle?”

“Cheng Yao, has anyone ever told you that you have a very vivid imagination?” Bao Rui looked at her with something like sympathy. “Our Partner Qian is the most doted-on person in that whole family — it wasn’t any kind of power struggle he lost. He wanted to become a lawyer himself. His brother loved art and never wanted to take over the family business, but for his younger brother’s sake, he forced himself to give up art and take the reins instead. He’d had long hair for years — cried while cutting it off to take over.”

“If he’s so beloved, why has Qian Zhan never mentioned his younger son in interviews?”

“That’s because in Partner Qian’s very first year as a lawyer, he turned traitor on his own family — took money from his aunt and represented her in a divorce suit against his own uncle. Won her so much that the uncle nearly ended up begging on the street. Nearly gave his own father a heart attack…”

“…”

But—

“Wait, doesn’t the Lawyers Law say attorneys can’t represent a client if it creates a conflict of interest with their own or their close relatives’ interests? How was it not illegal for him to represent the aunt directly against his own uncle???”

“Close relatives under civil procedure law means: spouse, parents, children, siblings, grandparents, maternal grandparents, grandchildren, and maternal grandchildren. A paternal uncle doesn’t count!” Bao Rui took a sip of tea, calm as ever. “His uncle actually raised that very point and tried to get Partner Qian recused. Our Partner Qian just slapped the judicial interpretation right in his uncle’s face.”

“…”

That sounded exactly like something Qian Heng would do…

Fine — since Qian Heng had become a lawyer purely out of personal passion and not out of financial need, then why did he take on any client regardless of how distasteful? Could it be that his parents had an unhappy marriage, a cold household, and that had left him with some kind of hatred toward good marriages? So that, out of some inner damage, he was even willing to represent clients who wrecked or betrayed marriages?

“So are our Partner Qian’s parents not that close? Like a rich-family marriage that’s basically dead in name only?”

“Nope. They’re very much in love. The two of them tag-teamed to scold Partner Qian for refusing to take over the business — you could tell right away they’re soulmates.”

“…”

“So did Partner Qian get hurt in love? Like, did he have an ex-girlfriend he was willing to give everything for, only to be betrayed, and now he’s sworn off love forever?”

“Our Partner Qian loves making money. Before he beat his dad to become the new richest man, he had no time for romance — stayed single his whole life.”

……

Cheng Yao was baffled. Cheng Yao fell silent. Cheng Yao was lost.

So a man with a happy life, a wealthy family, harmonious parents, an affectionate sibling relationship, and no romantic trauma whatsoever — how exactly had Qian Heng become a “malignant tumor”?

Bao Rui seemed to see straight through the question in Cheng Yao’s mind. He patted her shoulder like someone who’d been through it all. “I used to wonder the same thing, but I’ve figured it out now. Some people become an absolute specimen not because of any external cause, but because they were simply born to be one.” At this, Bao Rui looked rather pleased with himself. “Borrowing from the idea of inalienable human rights, I coined a term for people like this: ‘born-gifted specimens.’ What do you think?”

“…”

After the case was handed to Bao Rui and Cheng Yao, the two discussed the details over their meal and organized the evidence.

Cheng Yao went to meet with Dong Shan’s father in person. The old man was lying in a high-end care ward, and as luck would have it, Dong Min had just left when Cheng Yao arrived to visit. The two didn’t cross paths, but Cheng Yao caught sight of her retreating figure heading into the elevator.

Sure enough, the moment she stepped into the ward, she saw fresh fruit arranged by the old man’s bedside — apples already sliced, oranges already peeled. It seemed that, spoiled as she was, Dong Min was genuinely devoted to her grandfather.

Cheng Yao introduced herself to the old man, skipped the small talk, and laid out the matter of Chen Qingmei and the child in her belly, asking him to help arrange a paternity test.

But Cheng Yao felt somewhat uneasy inside — it was clear that Dong Min and her grandfather had a close bond, and there seemed no reason for the old man to sacrifice that relationship for the sake of an illegitimate grandchild…

Though frail in body, the old man’s mind was still sharp. He listened patiently to everything, was silent for a moment, and finally spoke.

He asked only one question: “Boy or girl?”

Cheng Yao realized he meant the child in Chen Qingmei’s belly.

“A boy.”

“Are you sure?”

“They had a gender test done in Hong Kong.”

The old man hesitated. “Are these gender tests accurate? I’ve heard of ultrasounds getting it wrong before — boy turns out to be a girl.”

Cheng Yao patiently explained, “The test done in Hong Kong was a chromosome test — it can clearly detect the Y chromosome, confirming it’s a boy. It’s not like an ultrasound, which can be inaccurate.”

Almost the moment she finished speaking, the old man nodded without the slightest hesitation, agreeing to the paternity DNA test. “If it were a girl, I wouldn’t bother. I have Minmin, and that’s enough — I don’t want an outsider dividing up Minmin’s inheritance. But if it’s a boy, he’s still of the Dong bloodline, and he ought to be recognized as part of the family.”

The old man coughed and struggled for breath, as though speaking both to Cheng Yao and to himself. “This is for Minmin’s own good too. Our family’s business is so large — someone has to take it over eventually. But she has no interest in that, doesn’t understand the business. A girl, in the end, will marry and have children of her own — women manage the home, men handle the outside world. Making her raise a child while also running the company would be too much pressure on her. I don’t want her to live under that kind of strain, so it’s better left to a son. A boy should shoulder that family responsibility — a heavier load on his shoulders won’t hurt him.”

“Show me the gender test report for this child. Once it’s confirmed a boy, I’ll do this paternity test.” Then the old man added, with a note of worry, “Could a report like that be forged?”

“It can’t be forged,” Cheng Yao explained. “For paternity testing, we need to prove shared paternal lineage through the Y chromosome. If the child isn’t a boy, there’s no Y chromosome, and no paternity test with you would even be possible. A paternity test is only feasible in the first place if the child is a boy.”

The old man thought for a while, then confirmed, “So you’re saying, if it’s a girl, even if I agree to this test, it can’t prove she’s Ah Shan’s child? She can’t come after Minmin’s inheritance? Only if it’s a boy — and if it really is Ah Shan’s child — can it be proven through me that there’s a blood relation?”

“That’s right.”

The old man thought a while longer, then finally nodded. “Alright. I’ll do it.”

As Chen Qingmei’s representative, Cheng Yao naturally welcomed this outcome. And yet, as she left the care ward, there was a note of melancholy and regret in her heart.

Did gender really matter that much? Right there by the old man’s bed sat the fruit Dong Min had brought him, and yet in his heart, a girl would never measure up to a boy.

It was already the year 8012 — Cheng Yao didn’t believe Old Master Dong or Dong Shan were unaware that professional managers existed. Rather than hand a family enterprise to blood relatives who didn’t even understand how to run it, it would make more sense to set up a family trust to secure the descendants’ livelihoods while hiring professional management for the company.

In other words, the Dong family’s descendants — regardless of gender — needn’t affect how the company ran or how its wealth accumulated. And even if Chen Qingmei’s child were a boy, that hardly meant he’d be fit to take over. Who knew whether the child would even be clever, whether he’d have a head for business.

To put it bluntly, this talk of recognizing a son as heir to spare Dong Min the burden was just a dignified excuse dressed up to disguise plain old preference for sons over daughters.

Bao Rui took charge of gathering the rest of the evidence, while the task of dealing with Chen Qingmei fell to Cheng Yao, as a fellow woman.

Though deeply reluctant inside, Cheng Yao told herself this was simply work, and after meeting with Old Master Dong, she took a deep breath and steeled herself to see Chen Qingmei. She paused for a moment before finally stepping into Chen Qingmei’s apartment.

Back at the firm, when Dong Shan’s death had come up, Chen Qingmei’s face had been full of sorrow. But by now she had long since recovered her spirits.

In the sunlight, her face was rosy and radiant, her expression carrying that natural, delicate fragility, like a climbing vine. She’d filled out quite a bit compared to before — at a glance, she looked like a carefree, contented pregnant woman, even somewhat plump and at ease.

“So because it’s a boy, Old Master Dong agreed to the paternity test? It’s confirmed now, right?”

Cheng Yao nodded. “Yes. You’re less than two months from your due date — get plenty of rest. We’ll have the chain of evidence ready within these two months. You can rest assured.”

“No, I want the DNA test done now.”

Cheng Yao had done some research on DNA testing before coming, and was quite taken aback by Chen Qingmei’s decision. “I consulted a doctor. With the baby still in the womb, given how far along you are, the only option would be a cord blood DNA test — but that’s an invasive procedure with a real risk of causing a miscarriage. It would be better to just wait until closer to the due date…”

“I can’t wait that long,” Chen Qingmei said, unusually insistent. “Two months is more than enough time for Jiang Wenxiu to move her assets. By the time I give birth, there might be nothing left to give my child.”

“If she’s deliberately transferring assets, we can sue over that.”

Chen Qingmei gave a faint smile — still delicate and pretty in appearance, though what she said next was calm and calculating. “Attorney Cheng, you know as well as I do that plenty of judgments, even when you win, are hard to enforce. If Jiang Wenxiu moves the money overseas, even if the court awards it to my child, how would I ever collect it? Cross-border enforcement is next to impossible. So if I wait until then to give birth, a single woman with a baby — how am I supposed to raise him? How am I supposed to live?”

Chen Qingmei kept her words vague, but Cheng Yao had already caught the subtext.

If this child couldn’t win any inheritance, then even if he really were Dong Shan’s son, what would be the point? A child with no use value — what good would it do to have him at all? Wouldn’t he just be a burden dragging down her own still-young life?

Any mistress who could get a man to leave his wife for her, even to walk away with nothing, was never really as fragile, innocent, and powerless as she seemed.

Dong Shan would never know that the girl he’d thought so pure at heart — who claimed she stayed with him for love alone — couldn’t even wait two months to secure her share of the inheritance, and was even willing to risk his beloved son’s life for it.

If Dong Shan were still alive — if he really had walked away from everything, believing it true love — would Chen Qingmei’s smile still have waited for him?

New clothes are better, but old friends are best.

What a shame so many people never learn that lesson.

Cheng Yao spent the entire day running back and forth over Dong Shan’s inheritance dispute, not a moment to herself. By the time she got home, Qian Heng was already there waiting.

“I’m hungry.” He sat on the sofa, looking at Cheng Yao with total entitlement.

It was already eight o’clock! Why hadn’t he eaten yet?!

Cheng Yao asked, surprised, “Didn’t you order delivery?”

“Delivery’s no good.”

“Should I order something better for both of us?”

Qian Heng said nothing, just staring at her. “Yours is better.”

“…”

“I want the tomato and egg soup you make.”

“…”

“Even something this simple, yours is better than anyone else’s.”

“…”

“I want…”

“Don’t say another word!” Cheng Yao cut in. “I’ll go buy groceries!”

This tactic — the thing was, everyone knew exactly what it was, and it still worked every time.

When Qian Heng wasn’t being venomous, and instead just sat there quietly like this, saying nothing but looking at her — the effect alone was devastating, let alone with these rare compliments piled on top.

Cheng Yao thought grimly to herself that she was probably never going to be able to hold her ground against this man.

She hadn’t expected, though, that only ten minutes after arriving at the supermarket, she’d get a call from Qian Heng.

“Cheng Yao, come home right now.”

“Huh? But I’ve only just bought some bread for tomorrow morning — I haven’t even gotten to the vegetables yet…”

Qian Heng’s voice on the phone kept breaking up, interrupted repeatedly by something, his tone somewhat breathless and edged with gritted teeth. “Forget the shopping. Come back. Now.”

Cheng Yao never could have guessed what awaited her when she got home.

Qian Heng sat at one end of the sofa, his hair slightly mussed, his face dark, while her mother sat glaring at the other end.

“Mom? What are you two doing here?”

Cheng Yao’s mother shot her a furious look. “You got doxxed by someone recently, remember? I was worried about your state of mind, so I asked Cheng Xi for your address and wanted to check on you — and look what I find!” She pointed at Qian Heng on the other end of the sofa. “I find this!”

Cheng Yao: ???

“Cheng Yao, no matter how I calculated it, I never imagined my own daughter would sneak around behind her parents’ backs and move in with some wild man!”

“Ma’am, you should be careful with your words — what wild man?” Qian Heng gave a cold snort. “My name is Qian Heng. I’m Cheng Yao’s boss.”

Hearing this, Cheng Yao’s mother only grew angrier. “Boyfriend is boyfriend — and now you don’t even have the nerve to admit it, lying to me and calling him your boss instead! Cheng Yao, look at the kind of judgment you have!”

Cheng Yao stammered, “He really is my boss…”

“Ha, boss? What normal employee would be stupid enough to share an apartment with their boss? Seeing him during the day at work isn’t enough — you need to see him at night too?”

Qian Heng glared at Cheng Yao. “Cheng Yao. Explain.”

Caught between her mother’s suspicion and her boss’s pressure, Cheng Yao tried to clarify. “It’s like this — this apartment was originally double-leased, there was a bit of a mix-up, and after that we decided to ‘amicably’ share it. It was only afterward that I found out he was my boss. I know it sounds fake, but it’s true!”

“Fine, even if that’s true, I still can’t believe this is your boss.”

“Why not?”

Her mother said with conviction, “You think I can’t tell how much rent this apartment and this neighborhood cost? Isn’t your boss supposed to be a law firm partner? Living in a place this cheap? That’s got no class at all!”

“…”

“And besides — I’m not against you dating, I’m against living together before marriage! Any man capable of moving in with a woman before marriage isn’t a responsible man — that’s just taking liberties!”

At this view of her mother’s, Qian Heng finally couldn’t resist scoffing. “It’s the modern era, ma’am. Living together before marriage should actually be encouraged. Plenty of couples date all romance and moonlight but never live together, only to find after the wedding that their lifestyles simply don’t mesh, and it ends in divorce. A trial cohabitation before marriage is entirely necessary.”

“Isn’t that just an excuse for men to take advantage of women?”

“What do you mean, take advantage? Men and women are equal. Trial cohabitation gives everyone a chance to cut their losses in time.”

Facing Qian Heng, Cheng Yao’s mother wasn’t backing down either. “Living together before marriage, having premarital relations — isn’t that still the man taking advantage?” She glanced at Qian Heng, her anger flaring. “You’ve already taken advantage of our Cheng Yao, haven’t you?”

“When it comes to sex, both men and women can enjoy it equally.” Qian Heng brought out that same air of certain victory he carried in court, glancing loftily at Cheng Yao. “Besides, given who I am, even if something did happen between Cheng Yao and me, as you put it, she’d be the one taking advantage of me.”

“…”

Boss, this is not the time to argue over who wins this — just clarify the situation first!!!

… Cheng Yao’s mother, a leader of her local plaza-dancing troupe, and Qian Heng, a notorious “malignant tumor” of the legal world, had somehow ended up locked in battle…

“Cheng Yao, I absolutely do not approve of this boyfriend of yours. He is never, under any circumstances, setting foot in the Cheng family home! Don’t even think about it!”

Cheng Yao was nearly out of energy. “Mom, he really is my boss…”

Her mother raised an eyebrow. “Don’t try to fool your own mother. You complained to me on the phone before — you said your boss did nothing but exploit and oppress his staff, that he was the industry’s malignant tumor, that anyone could tell just by looking at him he’d gone twisted from too long without a sex life, that he had no morals or conscience, that his only principle was worshipping money, and he’d take on any client at all…”

“Mom, it’s not like that… just — just stop talking!” Cheng Yao genuinely wanted to die. “He really is my boss!!!”

Mom… please… spare your daughter’s life…

Under Qian Heng’s stare, Cheng Yao no longer knew if it was too late to atone with her own death — especially since those words had come from back when she’d first joined Junheng and still held deep hostility and prejudice toward him.

Her mother had no idea what was going through Cheng Yao’s head and kept going, while Cheng Yao’s hopes shrank from getting her mother to spare her life to simply hoping for an intact corpse…

“What boss — that boss of yours, so repressed for so long, it shows on the face — he’s definitely not good-looking, nowhere near as handsome as this pretty boy in front of you.”

Whether it was her imagination or not, Cheng Yao couldn’t help but notice that after this remark from her mother, Qian Heng’s dark expression seemed to be clearing up.

Her mother glanced at Qian Heng again and muttered to Cheng Yao, “Though I’ll admit, he is quite easy on the eyes. No wonder you lost your head over him.”

Qian Heng’s expression, while still cool and aloof, showed signs of clearing further toward sunshine.

Cheng Yao had already given up trying to save the situation. “Mom, if you keep this up I might end up unemployed…”

But no matter how Cheng Yao tried to explain and argue, her mother seemed dead set on not believing her.

“Confess honestly and I’ll go easy on you, resist and I’ll come down hard — if you don’t come clean with me today, I’m going to—”

Cheng Yao all but gave up on herself. “Ugh, fine, Mom. This is my boyfriend.”

Qian Heng: ???

Her mother finally got the answer she wanted and let out a breath of relief. She glanced between the two of them. “You two sit tight. I’m going to the bathroom. I’ll interrogate you more when I’m back!”

The instant her mother left, Qian Heng struck. He raised an eyebrow. “Boyfriend?”

Cheng Yao was practically ready to get down on her knees. “Boss, saving a life is worth more than building a seven-story pagoda. If I tell her you’re my boss now, my mom won’t believe a word of it — you know how she is, I’ll never have any peace, I won’t be able to work properly, she might even move in to keep an eye on me. Let’s just go with it — after all, once this Dong Shan inheritance case wraps up, Dong Min definitely won’t keep pestering you anymore, and your villa will just be finishing its renovation, so you’ll be able to move back into your big house, right? And then I’ll tell my mom we broke up and it’s all settled. This is the least troublesome solution I could come up with…”

“Indeed, the least troublesome and very reasonable,” Qian Heng said with a faint smile, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “But I’m supposedly a repulsive, psychologically twisted boss — why would I help you?”

Cheng Yao, sweat beading across her forehead, thought fast. “There — there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding here. In my heart, your image is so towering, so unreachable, precisely because you’re so outstanding, so dazzling that I… I grew jealous, and out of that twisted feeling, I badmouthed your image to my family…” She kept watching Qian Heng’s expression as she spoke. “But you see, even after I trashed you like that, my mother still couldn’t help being won over by your noble bearing and outstanding looks…”

Sure enough — flattery worked wonders, no matter how blatant. Qian Heng was quite receptive to this kind of praise, and his expression finally eased somewhat.

Cheng Yao pressed her advantage. “Boss, if you’re willing to help me out with this one, I’ll repay you with everything I’ve got! Aside from cooking, I’ll take on all the household chores for a whole year! I love physical labor anyway — cleaning can double as a workout to lose weight!”

Qian Heng nodded, laughing lightly. “Deal.”

Cheng Yao’s plan was working out nicely — Qian Heng would be moving out soon anyway, so even if she was on the hook for chores for a year, it wouldn’t last that long in practice.

She hadn’t counted on the old saying: however high the road rises, the mountain rises higher still.

After agreeing, Qian Heng glanced at her again and added with a smile, “But seeing as I might be moving out soon, why don’t you come do the cleaning at my villa instead.”

“…”

“My villa, basement included, has four floors, over four hundred square meters, plus a yard of over a hundred square meters. Just running back and forth between the floors and the yard a few times ought to give you plenty of exercise. Perfectly suited to your fitness goals.”

“…”

“The firm’s gym is pretty limited, and a membership at a good large gym costs several thousand a year, doesn’t it?” Qian Heng was still smiling. “I’m saving you all that money, no need to thank me too much — just work a couple of unpaid weekends to repay me.”

“…”

“Good exercise for the year ahead.”

“…”

By the time Cheng Yao’s mother returned from the bathroom, she found the atmosphere rather strange — her own daughter’s expression looked like a bitter melon, green shading into yellow shading into black, while Qian Heng, by contrast, had shaken off his earlier scowl entirely and looked positively refreshed.

Regardless, Cheng Yao had finally admitted that he was her boyfriend and sincerely apologized, explaining that the two of them had simply shared the apartment to split the rent and nothing had happened between them. Her mother did a quick inspection of the rooms and indeed found the two areas cleanly divided, everything in its proper place, nothing suspicious — and finally relaxed.

Then came the interrogation.

“Yaoyao, what does little Qian do for work?”

Just as Qian Heng opened his mouth to answer, Cheng Yao cut in swiftly. “Him? He works the factory assembly line, three-shift rotation. Just got laid off in the recent factory cuts, actually.”

For this whole fake-boyfriend charade, Cheng Yao had already paid such a heavy price that she felt no need to hold back — figuring she’d tell her mother they’d broken up soon enough anyway, there was no reason to be honest about Qian Heng’s real circumstances. Ignoring the displeasure radiating off him, she decided to be bold and seize this one chance to thoroughly slander him.

Sure enough, her mother blinked in surprise. “So what’s little Qian’s education? Did he study mechanical engineering or something? Managing engineer on the factory floor?”

“What mechanical engineering — he’s a technical secondary school graduate. Just a factory line worker.”

Her mother choked. “He doesn’t seem the type… looks clever too. Was it money problems that made him drop out? Maybe he should try night school or something. Young people need to strive to better themselves — life’s hard without at least a bachelor’s degree.”

“No, Mom, his family could’ve afforded his schooling just fine. He’s just not that bright, you know?” Cheng Yao’s tone grew more animated by the second, as though describing not her “boyfriend” but some gleefully-anticipated misfortune of a rival. “In high school they nicknamed him ‘Barbecue’ — you know why? Because he scored a six on every single subject — math, physics, chemistry — six, six, six, so they called him ‘Barbecue.’ His brain just doesn’t work. All he’s got is the face.”

Her mother’s expression fell. The Cheng family, while fairly traditional and not in favor of premarital cohabitation, still believed in freedom of love and marriage. With Cheng Yao having chosen this partner, her mother couldn’t very well step in to stop it, and could only fret. “So what’s little Qian going to do now that he’s out of work?”

Ignoring Qian Heng’s warning glare, Cheng Yao thumped her chest grandly. “It’s fine, Mom. I make plenty. I’ll support him.”

“This…”

“It’s the modern era, Mom — nobody follows that whole men-outside-women-inside thing anymore. I really like my job, and I don’t want to give it up for the sake of the household. It works out perfectly — since Qian Heng can’t earn money anyway, he can stay home and cook for me from now on. Right, Qian Heng?”

Qian Heng shot Cheng Yao a venomous glare, but thinking of the year-round villa cleaning service and Cheng Yao’s genuinely mouth-watering cooking, he finally gritted his teeth and grunted an “Mm.”

Her mother, still worried, asked a few more questions, and seeing the hour growing late, finally set down the bags of food and bedding she’d brought, gave Cheng Yao a few more instructions, and left with a look that suggested she still had plenty more to say.

The moment her mother was gone, it was naturally time for Qian Heng to settle scores.

“Cheng Yao. Enjoyed slandering me that much?” Qian Heng’s voice was sinister. “How exactly were you planning to ‘support’ me?”

Cheng Yao coughed. She’d already prepared her excuse and now put on a righteous face. “Boss, I had no choice! You’ll be moving out soon anyway, and then I can tell my mom we split up cleanly. If I’d told her the truth about you now, do you really think she’d let go of such a perfect future son-in-law? She’d be pushing us to get back together constantly! Besides, if I described you honestly — as impossibly perfect as you are — wouldn’t it look like I’d lost my mind to break up with you? So, framing you as mediocre in every way makes the breakup much more believable.”

Qian Heng gave a cold laugh. “And it never occurred to you that it would be equally believable for someone as outstanding as me to dump you instead?”

“…”

“No year-end bonus this year.”

The moment Cheng Yao heard “no bonus,” she exploded. “Qian Heng! That’s an abuse of power for personal gain! And this kind of thing is a flagrant violation of the Labor Protection Law! You’re a lawyer, and you’re breaking the law you’re supposed to know!!!”

Qian Heng only smiled, utterly unbothered. “Go ahead and resign, then. File for labor arbitration. Sue me. Let’s see if you can beat me.”

“…”

Damn him.