Chapter 13: 13

As usual, only four people were sitting at the large table, but Zhao Lingjun was much more quiet than before, seemingly having learned her lesson.

Just like in the past, when the housekeeper brought the soup, Zhao Lingjun personally served Xiao Yao a bowl, adding a few words of praise as she did so, “Honey, today’s cordyceps and soft-shelled turtle soup looks very fresh; you should drink it quickly while it is still hot!”

Taking the bowl, Xiao Yao nodded, “It’s not bad.” He picked up a spoonful and was about to eat when–

“Dad!” Xiao Ying called out to him.

“Pa,” the spoon fell into the bowl, and Xiao Yao couldn’t control his emotions as he looked up in shock. He hugged Xiao Ying, who was sitting beside him excitedly, “What did you call me just now?! Call me again!”

Zhao Lingjun clenched the chopsticks in her hand and casually picked up a dish for Xiao Yinxiu, all of her attention on the bowl of soup in front of Xiao Yao. This left no one in the mood to pay attention to Xiao Yixiu, wrinkling his face as he poked at the celery in his bowl.

“This….” Xiao Ying didn’t call out as his father would have liked, instead pointing to the soft-shelled turtle soup on the table, “I want to drink this too.”

Xiao Yao paused, “My dear son, this is medicinal. You might get nosebleeds if you drink any…. I’ll ask the kitchen to cook a cup for you tomorrow, okay?”

Xiao Yao nodded obediently, “Then, can I have just a small taste?” His eyes were watering as he begged and deliberately lowered the volume of his voice, “Grandma used to take me to catch small turtles in the pond, and every time we would have delicious turtle soup afterwards, I miss grandma….” Xiao Yao watched the show performed for him and felt distress for the young boy.

He gestured Xiao Ying over to him and placed him on his lap. He poured a small amount of soup into another bowl giving it to Xiao Ying, saying, “You can only have this much today, tomorrow I’ll give you as much soft shelled turtle soup as you want.”

Zhao Lingjun watched on without moving. She felt no need to step in for the boy and was still waiting for her husband to drink his share.

Picking up his bowl, Xiao Ying smiled contentedly and raised his head to drink it,  but no one saw that a transparent hand had stretched itself into a thin film and firmly attached itself in front of Xiao Ying’s mouth to catch all the soup. The source of the medicine and its effects were still unknown, and Mo Jingxuan would not let his baby take any risks.

“Puff ~” Xiao Ying put down the empty bowl and stuck out his tongue, “It’s not yummy, grandma’s soup doesn’t taste like this.”

Xiao Yao shook his head, thinking of Xiao Ying’s poor living conditions before, “Maybe it’s because of the addition of caterpillar fungus, if it’s not good, don’t drink it.”

“Oh….I thought Aunt Zhao was adding something delicious to the soup when she went to the kitchen.” Xiao Ying smiled where no one could see, “It turns out that that white powder is caterpillar fungus! It really doesn’t taste good.” He stuck his tongue out again as he acted cute for his father.

Mo Jingxuan was enjoying the scene from the side; with all of the high-quality ingredients in this soup, there was no way it tasted bad. Xiao Ying’s acting skills were really good, much better than he expected.

Zhao Lingjun jumped as her name came out of Xiao Ying’s mouth and accidentally knocked over the bowl in her hand. At this moment, her heart would not calm down; she had checked multiple times to ensure no one was in the kitchen! How did this kid know?

Xiao Yao picked up the actual caterpillar fungus in the bowl and looked at Zhao Lungjun with a livid face.

Ignoring the overturned bowl in front of her, Zhao Lingjun hastily started speaking, trying to explain things favourably, “Don’t call me auntie, who is your auntie little bastard? And you should stop talking nonsense! How could the caterpillar fungus be white powder?” Her lips curled in disgust, “All that I had in the kitchen was some sugar, I really want to know how your mother taught you, to make up such malicious stories about others!”

This woman really acted well, trying to make Xiao Ying lose his temper and slip up. He patted him on the shoulder, preventing the boy from being impulsive.

He held the hand on his shoulder as he stared into Zhao Lingjun’s eyes and said, “My mother passed away when I was three and a half years old. She didn’t manage to teach me much, but at least I learned how to be kind and tolerant towards others. What did auntie—I mean, Miss— learn from her parents?” The implication in his words being that Zhao Lingjun was vicious and mean.

“You—!” Zhao Lingjun was angry enough to even try throwing the soup she had laced across the room in hopes of destroying the proof.

Xiao Yao held the soup cup once more, and his calm voice ordered, “Sit down,” in a tone that could not be ignored.

Mo Jingxuan raised his eyebrows. As expected, he was a businessman who was always sensitive to others’ expressions and tones. Zhao Lingjun’s acting might seem natural to others, but Xiao Yao, who had been with her for so many years, could definitely see the unnaturalness in it.

Zhao Lingjun froze but quickly recovered, “Husband, look at what this child is saying. You can’t be so biased!”

Xiao Yao repeated himself, “Sit down.”

Having no choice, Zhao Lingjun sat down and hugged her son, who had been eating with his head down. At this moment, he was her only spiritual support.

“Qin Zhong, take Yixiu to the back garden.”

Zhao Lingjun quickly objected, “Husband! Yixiu hasn’t had enough to eat yet!”

Xiao Yao refused to tolerate her any longer, “Qin Zhong! Don’t make me say it a second time.”

Housekeeper Qin nodded, “Ma’am, I will bring some food out with me for the child, don’t worry.” After saying that, he forcibly carried the boy away from her regardless of Xiao Yixiu’s or Zhao Lingjun’s fuss.

“Xiao Ying, Dad is going to ask you to stay by my side for a while.” Xiao Yao, who had already guessed most of the matter, was incredibly glad his son had stopped him from drinking earlier. He decided to show Xiao Ying the world since he was going to be inheriting everything later; it was better to expose him to these types of schemes early on. Only after experiencing them would he know how to guard against them, but what he didn’t think of was how long Xiao Ying had survived with abusive and neglectful relatives on his own. He had experienced far more darkness as a child than he imagined and may even be stronger and more independent than his father. To try and teach him to protect himself now, that was a joke to laugh at.

“En.” Xiao Ying nodded.

Satisfied, he sat the boy on his lap and took his phone out to call the exclusive Xiao family doctor.

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As he did this, Zhao Lingjun was fidgeting in her seat. She really wanted to get up and run away, but doing so would only make matters worse. She still had the fluke mentality; even if the medicine was discovered, it was only a small dosage. It was just medicine for insomnia, and she was Yixiu’s mother, so why should she have to worry?

After calling the doctor over, Xiao Yao was silent for a while before saying to Zhao Lingjun, “I hope you didn’t do anything to disappoint me, after all…you are Yixiu’s mother. Soon the doctor will be here so if you want to admit anything, now is the time.”

“What could I have done? After so many years of being husband and wife, just because of a child’s fantasies you’ll call the doctor to check. Am I not even as important as that housekeeper in your heart?”

Xiao Yao said lightly, “Apart from being Yixiu’s mother, in this house, you really have nothing.”

Zhao Lingjun looked at the man in front of her as she burst out laughing, “Hahaha…okay, I have nothing! So what, even after staying by your side for years, I am still nothing!”

After that, the room fell into an endless silence until the doctor’s arrival was announced by a servant, “Master, Doctor Xia Chengyu is here.”

“Let him in.”

A man in a suit with gold-rimmed glasses and a fair complexion walked in, followed by a young man in a lab coat and a child.

The messy-haired little boy grabbed the gentle man’s hand and said, “Dad, dad, this place is so big! It’s even bigger than our own house! I’m going to go play in the yard we passed, okay? It was really pretty!”

Xia Chengyu awkwardly told the naughty child, “Qifan, don’t make trouble,” before apologizing, “I’m sorry to bother you. My son was refusing to stay home, I only brought him with me as a last resort.”

Xiao Yao didn’t care, “It’s fine, my son just came to the Imperial Capital and doesn’t have any playmates yet. Feel free to bring your son over when you are not busy.” The man looked at Xiao Ying in surprise, realizing who he was as Xiao Ying explained, “He’s my beloved son. I only found him recently, else you would have met long ago.”

Xia Chengyu smiled and said nothing, and after greeting Zhao Lingjun, he looked at the soup on the dining table and asked, “Is this the soup you need checked?”

“Yes.”

He took the soup cup, shaking it slightly as he sniffed it carefully before tapping the table and ordering his assistant to get out his materials. The young man in the white lab coat quickly unloaded a white box from his bag. 

Opening the box, there were various precision instruments to be taken out and assembled before they could begin. Finally, a rectangular piece of paper was handed to the doctor, who dripped two drops of soup onto it. The paper turned orange and was inserted into the instrument. 

Glancing at the series of numbers that were displayed after a few minutes, Xia Chengyu announced, “The soup contains a small amount of sleeping pills.”

Zhao Lingjun tensed in her seat.

Mo Jingxuan frowned; it was impossible for this woman to scheme so much just for her to only use sleeping pills.

Xiao Yao seemed to agree with Mo Jingxuan’s thoughts as he glanced at her, asking the doctor again, “It’s just a sleeping pill?”

Xia Chengyu nodded, “But this sleeping pill has serious side effects and has been strictly banned by the state. When taken over a period of time, the subject will go insane without any traces of manipulation.”

Mo Jingxuan suddenly understood this was why Xiao Yao went insane in his last life. He hadn’t interfered, and Zhao Lingjun would have successfully drugged Xiao Yao. He no longer had to worry, Xiao Ying’s mental condition in his past life wasn’t hereditary, and he could raise him to be a normal, kind child this time.

He laughed at himself, that meant that it was entirely because of him that Xiao Ying became like that then. To make a man so crazy for him, what was he capable of? Why did his heart hurt so much when he thought of it? ……Xiao…Xiao….Baby….In this life, it will never happen again. No matter what.

Staring at Zhao Lingjun, Xiao Yao calmly asked her, “You want to see me mad?”

Not expecting Xia Chengyu to know so much about a medicine that had long been banned, Zhao Lingjun was not ready to explain. She stumbled over herself, saying, “No, no, I—I just watch you—watch you sleep! It’s not good, so—so—”

Xiao Yao shook his head, “Look at you. You’re contradicting yourself from earlier and can barely get a word out of your mouth. Do you want to confess it yourself or should I call the police to help you?”

“No—!” Zhao LIngjun grabbed the hem of Xiao Yao’s pants as she knelt down by his feet, her eyes in a panic as she pleaded, “Yao, you can’t do this to me, I am Yixiu’s mother. The only daughter of the Zhao family, you can’t treat me like this, you can’t!”

Looking down at his wife, Xiao Yao was disheartened, “Is there nothing you can’t do? You’ve beat my son, drugged my food, and who knows what else you’ve schemed…. And those were only in the last three days! Do you think that just because I married you, I’ll let you get away with everything? So far, all of your chances have been for Yixiu’s sake, otherwise you would not be able to even think of kneeling at my feet. You still want to mention the Zhao family? Are you so stupid you don’t realize that what you’ve done is a crime? Who found you the banned drugs, huh? Do you really think that they will come stand up for you and put themselves in harms way? All you’re doing is offering more evidence to be handed over to the police…. I’ll give you two choices. You can sign a divorce agreement and go back to your old home, or you could go to prison.”

Zhao Lingjun let go weakly, “I’ll go. Don’t call the police.” She staggered to her feet, and Xiao Ying, who was still beside Xiao Yao, caught her eye. Raising her hand, she slapped down hard, only to be seen by Xiao Yao and flung away.

“Slap!’ Following Xiao Yao’s moves, Mo Jingxuan, slapped the woman hard, adding to the force of her fall.

“Get out.” Xiao Yao picked up Xiao Ying and left the room, not looking back.

Once he had gone, Xia Chengyu picked up the soup and data as evidence and took his son to follow Xiao Ying out. 

And Zhao Lingjun, who was lying on the ground? She crawled up in despair and left the house humiliated and unwillingly.

 

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