Old Lady Yan picked up a teacup and sipped the tea. Yan Beicheng attentively filled up her cup.

"If you truly want to treat Beicheng well, then you should believe in his judgment and support his decision, not trying to control him. How did you even get so thick-skinned? You have never cared about him and now, you"re back here trying to interfere with his matters," Old Lady Yan said, giving Jiang Changdai a sarcastic glare.

"You"ve misunderstood me. All I wanted to do was to know Lin Chu better," Jiang Changdai said with a crying face.

"Know her better? And later try to get her and Beicheng to break up, right? Who do you think is better with a good, strong background? Lu Weining?" Old Lady Yan"s mouth twitched.

Jiang Changdai"s lips trembled and she shrank her neck. "I do think that Weining is a better choice. Her family background, character, and looks are all top-notch. The most important thing is, I watched her grow up and know her well. I… I do know her background well."

Old Lady Yan was trembling in rage. She was already filled with hatred at the sight of Jiang Changdai. Now that she was hearing those ridiculous words from her mouth, she could not take it anymore and slapped her hard.

Jiang Changdai"s face was struck hard to the side. Her left cheek was red from the swell, and her hair was disheveled and messy on her face. She looked up at Old Lady Yan in disbelief at what had just happened.

She had not expected her to slap her in front of all these juniors.

The last time Old Lady Yan was in a rage was when Yan Beicheng"s father had pa.s.sed away. Old Lady Yan had wanted so much to tear her apart.

Old Lady Yan did not even care about her image back then as she pulled her hair and beat her up hard. Her body was weak then and after she got beaten up, she had to be admitted into the hospital for high fever. It took a few days for her fever to subside and most of her hair fell off.

After that incident and the funeral, she was chased out of the Yan family. Old Lady Yan had personally gone to the house where she and Yan Huaiyuan resided and threw every single of her personal belongings out together with some empty boxes.

Her clothes, which included her undergarments and daily necessities were scattered all over the ground. Old Lady Yan was very feisty back then. She did not care about being embarra.s.sed and shouted as she did so. Everyone came over to watch Jiang Changdai in humiliation.

She ran back home to Ning City in shame and had nightmares for several nights.

Now, Jiang Changdai was shocked to receive a hard slap from Old Lady Yan in front of the juniors, and felt ashamed and did not dare to see the expressions on the others.

"Jiang Changdai, you are absolutely disgusting! You claim to be Beicheng"s mother, but which part of you is fit to be one?!" Old Lady Yan pointed at Jiang Changdai as she said.

She was not like before and was up there in age.

If she was younger, she would have pulled Jiang Changdai"s hair and beat her up!

"Lu Weining has a good background? Yes, we do know her background. Just by being Lu Zhenting"s daughter, she can never hope to step into the doors of the Yan family! She wants to be with Beicheng? Well, you do have big dreams, don"t you?! What kind of person can his daughter be judging by the kind of person Lu Zhenting is? Stop making us throw up! How dare you even bring this up?! Such thick skin!"

Old Lady pointed at Jiang Changdai"s nose, her slightly wrinkled finger nearly poking her nose. "Do you dare to swear to the heavens that it"s all for Beicheng"s good that you insist on him and Lu Weining to be together? That it is because of your mother"s love for him and not because of your selfishness? That it"s not one of your despicable plans to benefit your own agenda? Do you dare to swear? Otherwise, you"ll be struck by lightning and die a horrible death, get hit by a car that destroys your corpse!"

One could tell how much Old Lady Yan truly hated Jiang Changdai by these words.

Jiang Changdai trembled as her face became extremely pale, but she had no courage to swear to the heavens.

She may not be superst.i.tious but these were truly venomous words. Even if one was not superst.i.tious, one would not be able to utter them as n.o.body would want to threaten their own life jokingly. What if they came true?

Old Lady Yan sneered. Lin Chu sighed quietly and turned towards Yan Beicheng.

He would be the one feeling the worst now that things have escalated this way.

His mother was using him to please her lover, putting him in such a difficult spot. Now that his grandmother has laid a hand on his mother, it would be even more challenging for him to pick a side.

Yan Beicheng lowered his head as he felt her gaze. While he looked to be expressionless, his eyes were gentle and determined. He reached out to hold her hand, letting her know to not worry for he was fine.

She felt his warm, dry palms on the back of her hand, he held on to it firmly and determinedly.

Lin Chu felt a lot better and turned her hand around to hold his hand back.

No matter what, she would be here for him.

Yan Zhiqing noticed their little interaction and felt hatred for it.

Could they not see what was happening? Jiang Changdai was just slapped by Old Lady Yan, who was now shouting at her while pointing at her nose. These two still had time to be affectionate, not even putting Jiang Changdai to heart.

Yan Zhiqing could no longer hold back. She went and helped up Jiang Changdai, "Mum, are you okay?"

Jiang Changdai shook her head. She looked very pale. She did not dare to lift her head in case they spotted the hatred in her eyes.

All those years ago, if it was not for the Yan family"s plan to matchmake Yan Huaiyuan, the Jiang family would not have found out about it and volunteered Jiang Changdai, and she would not have been forced to break up with Lu Zhenting.

Jiang Changdai did not even stop to think that telecommunication was not that advanced back then. The Yan family would not have found out about anything or anyone in the faraway Ning City.

Besides, it was not the Yan family that fancied the Jiang family. Instead, it was the Jiang family that spotted the opportunity to latch on to a more powerful family.

To be honest, it was the Jiang family that hid the truth from the Yan family. If she wanted someone to hate, she should be hating the Jiang family. This had nothing to do with the Yan family or even Yan Huaiyuan.

After marriage, Yan Huaiyuan had never done anything to hurt her. Even when he stayed for a year overseas, he had never cheated on her.

On the other hand, she did not settle down into marriage and had an affair behind her husband"s back.

But Jiang Changdai would never think from this perspective. She had always blamed the Yan family and Yan Huaiyuan for destroying her life.

If she did not marry Yan Huaiyuan, she would be with Lu Zhenting. She would not need to watch Lu Zhenting marry one after another, knowing that she was never the bride.

After Yan Huaiyuan"s death, Lu Zhenting was now much older and with her status of once being the daughter-in-law of the Yan family, there were too many considerations between them. He was unable to marry her so soon and the matter was delayed until now.

Her life"s happiness had been destroyed by the Yan family, how could she not hate them?

With the situation prolonging, she had even slowly forgotten that Yan Huaiyuan had risked his life for her. She had even thought that she had given back everything she had owed Yan Huaiyuan. The guilt in her had long dissipated. Now that she was slapped by Old Lady Yan, she was filled with even more hate.

"Grandma, my mum is just concerned for big brother. How could you…. How could you hit her? Even if my mum likes Sister Lu, there"s nothing wrong with it! It"s too much of you to treat my mum this way in front of Lin Chu!" Yan Zhiqing cried as she said.

She then turned towards Yan Beicheng and accused him with some rage. "Big brother, are you just going to stand by and watch? Say something! She"s your mother too!"

"There"s no place for the juniors to speak in front of seniors," Yan Huaian said casually.

"In front of Beicheng, Miss Jiang is his mother. But in front of my brother and sister-in-law, Miss Jiang is still a junior. No matter what, we have to follow seniority," Yan Huaian said calmly.

"You"re not the ones who are hurt! You don"t need to give any sarcastic remarks from the side! Lin Chu, are you going to stand there and do nothing? This was all because of you! If it wasn"t for you, this mess wouldn"t have started!" Yan Zhiqing raged wildly.

Old Lady Yan looked at Yan Zhiqing disappointedly. She had been raised by Jiang Changdai to not be able to differentiate wrong from right. She knew that, in reality, Yan Zhiqing was not close to the Yan family.

Now she had to watch her make accusations on behalf of the Lu family and for all these disgusting people!

"Ask her if she dares to tell you what shameless things she had done all those years ago!" Old Lady Yan said furiously.

Yan Zhiqing was not aware of the past and the Yan family had never mentioned them before.

It was not some glorious story, so no one was willing to talk about it.

Besides, they were not close to Yan Zhiqing as compared to Lin Chu. After all, Lin Chu was the person who would spend her whole life with Yan Beicheng. She needed to know the story.

As for Yan Zhiqing…

This was dirty linen and Yan Zhiqing was not the smartest person around. She did not know how to keep her mouth shut. It was worrying too if anyone had told her about it.

If Yan Zhiqing was more mature, they would have gladly shared the story with her and let her make her own judgment.

But obviously, Yan Zhiqing was not someone like this. She was not a good judge of character and was constantly sweet-talked by the Lu family. She did not take her own brother"s happiness into account. All she wanted was doing what she liked, much like Jiang Changdai. Because she liked it, she wanted to force Lu Weining on Yan Beicheng.

Lu Weining had coaxed her into being close as if they were sisters. If it was some other stranger that had tried to cajole her, there was a chance she would immediately reveal all the family secrets.

Besides, Yan Beicheng did not grow up with her. In comparison, he was much closer to Yan Huaian, who was like a brother to him.

However, when Yan Beicheng grew up and had the capability, he would always give Yan Zhiqing whatever she wanted and was good to her. But in the end, Yan Zhiqing only wanted to push Lu Weining to him and did not even care about his happiness or wondered if he was willing.

As a sister, it was inappropriate to make decisions on behalf of her older brother.

Besides, she was only 18, what did she know? She was full of herself and liked to gossip behind another"s back.

Old Lady Yan was good to her because this was her granddaughter, but she had a personality that was very difficult for people to be fond of.

Yan Zhiqing misunderstood Old Lady Yan"s words. "Grandma, are you talking about the relations.h.i.+p between my mum and Uncle Lu? Dad has pa.s.sed away so many years, you can"t be letting mum stay a widow all her life! If someone is willing to take care of her, then she deserves happiness too. You can"t dislike my mum and Sister Lu over this."

Old Lady Yan looked at her intently. She did not understand it. Everyone in the Yan family was intelligent and quick on their feet. Even Yan Ningbai, who although made stupid mistakes occasionally because he was still a child, could still see through the important matters clearly.

How could Yan Zhiqing be so clueless and so full of herself?

Did she inherit this from Jiang Changdai?

"Grandma…" Yan Zhiqing was feeling uncomfortable from Old Lady Yan"s staring.

 Old Lady Yan looked at her and said, "Zhiqing, you"re my granddaughter and we will love you no matter what. You and your mum are two separate ent.i.ties."

Old Lady Yan pointed at Jiang Changdai. "But you… I asked you here today to tell you clearly that you should stop interfering with Beicheng"s matters. No matter who he likes or who he marries, it"s all up to him. We are very happy with Lin Chu and we have agreed to their marriage. Stop bringing up Lu Weining to disgust them. I"m telling you right now that those with the surname Lu should never think of stepping into the Yan family door. Stop daydreaming about it."

"The Yan family matters are decided by those whose surnames are Yan, not you. It is not your decision to make on who Beicheng ends up with. Moreover, you are neither qualified nor do you have the right to control Beicheng. Take a good look at yourself and stop being an embarra.s.sment. If you continue to say anything to Beicheng or Lin Chu in private, don"t blame the Yan family for retaliating. In our eyes, you are nothing, do you understand? Lin Chu will be the granddaughter-in-law of the Yan family, which means she belongs to the Yan family. You, on the other hand, do not deserve to flaunt yourself in front of the Yan family and act like you are the mother-in-law."

"If you know your place, you"re still her mother-in-law. Otherwise, you are nothing. Who do you think you are to look down on Lin Chu? You should take a good look at yourself and your ugly doings. What right do you have to look down on others?" Old Lady Yan pointed to the direction of the door.

"We are letting you know where our family stands on this today. Stop overestimating yourself and think that you are somebody here. Leave now and stop dirtying our home. Don"t try to come in through that door again or think that we can forgive you. That would be impossible. We don"t want to see you again so never appear in front of us or Lin Chu. Xiao Chen, send the guest out!" Old Lady Yan said loudly.

Jiang Changdai was trembling. She was filled with so much anger and humiliation.

She had come over happily this morning and was full of hope, thinking that they could improve their relations.h.i.+p. Yan Beicheng was her son. He was always cold to her and it must be because of the Yan family because Yan Beicheng was brought up in the old mansion. Old Master Yan and Old Lady Yan must have told him so many bad stories about her.

She had long forgotten how she had treated Yan Beicheng, how she had disappointed her son repeatedly until he went numb over it.

She had thought that once she had reconciled with the two elders, Yan Beicheng"s att.i.tude towards her would improve. Then, she would show more concern to him and their relations.h.i.+p would get better. He would then be more filial and obedient to her and break up with Lin Chu. He would pick her choice of Lu Weining and their family could live happily together.

Everything would have gone according to her plan.

Who knew this would be the result of today? Not only did they not reconcile but Old Lady Yan had cut off any ties she ever had with the family. She… She was even humiliated in front of Lin Chu.

She was the one that was condescending towards Lin Chu yesterday, and now, she had lost all dignity in front of Lin Chu.

Yan Zhiqing quickly helped her up. Jiang Changdai took a quick look at Lin Chu and saw that there was no expression on her face, there was not a shred of pity on it, not even a look of delight. She just watched her coldly.

Her gaze fell on Lin Chu and Yan Beicheng"s hands, which were still holding together. Jiang Changdai was stunned for a minute as her heart filled with rage.

She looked up at Yan Beicheng, crying as she asked, "Beicheng, don"t you acknowledge your mother?"

"You gave birth to me, so naturally you"re my mother," Yan Beicheng replied casually. He did not express any pity, nor did he gloat over her crying.

His cold expression told her that he was in no way affected by her.

Jiang Changdai felt that Yan Beicheng"s words meant that she was nothing more than a mother in name.

But Jiang Changdai was unwilling to admit it.

Jiang Changdai acted like she had experienced a great grievance, her lips trembled, "You…"

Old Lady Yan could no longer stand her pretense and called out loudly, "Xiao Chen, send the guest out quickly. Our family would like to have a happy reunion this weekend."

Aunt Chen rushed over quickly, but Yan Zhiqing looked back with resentment as she said, "How could you treat mum this way?!"

She helped Jiang Changdai toward the door.

Suddenly a shadow shot toward them and laid down on the living room"s floor. Its head was low, chewing on something.

At closer look, it was Chu Xi. It had disappeared from Yan Ningbai"s side for a while. No one knew when it had gone to the door and returned with a ladies" high heels in its mouth. It was chewing on the heels in the living room. The once elegant looking heels were now chewed into shreds and the leather on it had fallen apart.

Jiang Changdai"s expression changed. The heels in Chu Xi"s mouth belonged to her!

Her face turned dark. Today had been a terrible day for her. Not only was she humiliated but even a dog was bullying her!

Yan Zhiqing recognized it. Chu Xi was brought over by Lin Chu, it must be Lin Chu who purposely brought it over to create trouble.

Her face was grim as she scolded it while looking around to search for something. "Go away! Ill-bred thing, you"re a bad dog! Stop biting!"

She could not find anything around her, so she decided to kick it with her legs.

Chu Xi was a smart dog. It knew how to act all cutesy and could tell if someone was good or bad to it. It would play with those it liked without wary, showing off its most vulnerable belly and letting them give it a good rub.

Those it did not like, it would not hesitate to bark at them and scare them away but it would never actually bite anyone.

At the moment, it was busy with its chewing and did not see Yan Zhiqing was about to kick it.

Yan Ningbai got angry and fl.u.s.tered and shouted out, "Chu Xi!"

He ran over shouting, but his legs were too short and could not run fast enough.

As Yan Zhiqing"s foot was about to land when somebody suddenly pushed her away.

She staggered a few steps back to balance herself. She saw Yan Beicheng standing indifferently in front of her, watching her coldly and said, "Chu Xi is still a puppy and has much to learn. How much hate do you have in you to be vicious enough to kick it?"

Yan Ningbai quickly picked up Chu Xi but was not able to move it much. Chu Xi"s back legs were still on the ground when Ningbai pulled it to the side. The heels were thrown away.

Yan Ningbai stroked Chu Xi. The thought of Chu Xi almost getting hurt gave him a heartache. He looked up at Yan Zhiqing, "How could you be so evil?!"

"That dog did not behave itself and damaged my mum"s heels! You"re actually blaming me over a dog!" Yan Zhiqing retorted and pointed at the chewed-up heels on the floor.

"Why are you so worked up over a dog? If it is naughty, we can teach it. It"s still a life. It has feelings and feels pain and fear. Do you think it is appropriate to treat it violently over a mere shoe?" Yan Beicheng replied lightly.

She was accusing him while looking like she suffered a grievance.

He was well aware of Yan Zhiqing"s stubbornness. Moreover, Jiang Changdai had suffered such a humiliation today, losing all dignity because of the two elders. Yan Zhiqing never had a good temper, and now, she must be even more in rage.

She had always looked down on Lin Chu, but Lin Chu had witnessed their humiliation and embarra.s.sment today. Yan Beicheng had guessed that she would need to vent her frustrations somewhere.

No matter what, Yan Zhiqing was his sister. There were many things that he was willing to overlook if she did not cross the line.

For example, Yan Zhiqing"s closeness with Lu Weining and her intentions of having Lu Weining as her sister-in-law. Yan Beicheng had always been aware of it, but he also knew that nothing would ever happen between him and Lu Weining. So, he let it be and allowed them to continue their daydream as he could not be bothered by it.

But now, Yan Zhiqing was about to kick Chu Xi. Chu Xi was Lin Chu"s pet and the woman and dog had a close relations.h.i.+p. Yan Beicheng would naturally not allow Chu Xi to be bullied by Yan Zhiqing.

Yan Beicheng may not realize it then, but in his mind, Lin Chu"s dog was much more important than Yan Zhiqing.