Chapter 1526: Long-Overdue Bickering

With this concern set aside, Shi Youxuan had another question: "Why does the housekeeping company need so many staff members? Shouldn't a housekeeping company be hiring nannies? You haven't hired a single nanny, yet you've hired over a thousand office workers? And it's called 'Eagle Under Heaven'—how does that sound like a housekeeping business?"

Nianyin smiled mysteriously: "Sister, don't worry about it. Mother has her reasons for doing this; she is going to change the entire Jiangzhou!"

Shi Youxuan:...

That tone was far too grand.

Change the entire Jiangzhou—did she think of herself as a savior?

Shi Youxuan asked Nianyin, but couldn't get anything out of her, so she asked her aunt.

Ji Yingjie spoke with a sarcastic tone over the phone: "Hello, who are you looking for?"

Calling her mobile phone, who else could she be looking for?

Shi Youxuan: "Looking for you."

"Who are you, looking for me? I'm busy with a thousand things every day; I'm not someone just anyone can find whenever they want."

Shi Youxuan knew her aunt was being difficult, angry that she didn't contact her often, and was now putting on airs as an elder to pick a fight.

Shi Youxuan had ways to deal with her aunt. She said softly: "Aunt, it's your niece Shi Youxuan. I know you're busy with a thousand things, which is why I didn't dare to disturb you usually..."

Ji Yingjie had a tough temper and loved hearing nice things.

Whether they were real or fake, she loved them all!

Her tone softened, and she chided: "So you still remember you have an aunt like me. I thought you'd forgotten me, only calling your father and never calling me!"

If Shi Youxuan continued to flatter her, the two would have a rare moment of harmony.

But such scenes were rare precisely because they were hard to come by, like right now.

Shi Youxuan: "I could forget anyone, but I could never forget you. You just like to seek attention when you're bored."

Ji Yingjie raged: "You dead girl, can't you speak to me properly?"

She said with a cheeky grin: "I'm afraid if I speak to you properly, you won't be used to it."

"Hmph!"

"Beep—"

A busy signal came from the phone. Ji Yingjie didn't waste half a word and simply hung up; she was just that decisive.

Shi Youxuan called back and had to apologize: "Aunt, don't be angry. I was just joking with you; why are you so unable to take a joke?"

"Get lost, what kind of joke? I think you just want to piss me off to death."

"No, no, you've misunderstood me. At most, I'd only piss you off half to death. A thousand-year pest, a ten-thousand-year turtle—you won't be dying anytime soon..."

"What are you looking for me for? Don't tell me it's just to bicker!"

"Nothing much, just wanted to chat with you."

Ji Yingjie didn't buy it: "Don't try that with me. Do you think I don't know what medicine you're selling in your gourd? Don't forget you are also a woman of the Ji Family, you came from our family!"

"Aren't you just trying to find out what I'm doing in Jiangzhou? I won't tell you, just to piss you off. I'm a thousand-year pest, and you're a ten-thousand-year demon—you won't be dying anytime soon either..."

Ji Yingjie began to counterattack. Once she started, she wouldn't stop, becoming more fluent the more she cursed!

On the other end of the phone, Shi Youxuan laughed while eating an apple. Her aunt was still the same aunt, not changed at all. She was forever a warrior; wherever there was a struggle, she was high-spirited. She was someone who could never sit still for a moment.

Ji Yingjie cursed for a while, but when she didn't get a response, she became dissatisfied and asked: "Shi Youxuan, are you there? Are you there? Are you still there?"

The apple was still in Shi Youxuan's mouth, so she mumbled unclearly: "Here, I'm here!"

"Hmph, you're here but not speaking? I thought you'd suddenly turned into a mute. Feeling guilty, are you?"

Shi Youxuan knew she couldn't be "soft-hearted" with her aunt.

She retorted: "I just didn't want to lower myself to your level. You're an old lady now, I'm afraid of giving you a stroke."

Ji Yingjie was furious, her voice immediately rising an octave: "You make it clear, who is an old lady? If we don't settle this, I'm not done with you."

She was long past the age to be called an "old lady," but Ji Yingjie was someone who would never admit to being old.

"Oh my, you're not convinced even when I say you're old? I only started, and you went on and on endlessly. Who but an old lady would be so long-winded? Anyway, I've never seen a young person like you."

Ji Yingjie feared being called old more than anything; it was her fatal weakness.

But Shi Youxuan poked specifically at that weakness.

Everyone else feared her aunt, but she didn't. She could provoke her as she pleased; her aunt might take revenge on anyone, but never on her or Wan'er!

Although Ji Yingjie was unreasonable and overbearing, she had one merit: she was protective of her own.

Her own family could do no wrong, but if someone else's child dared to speak to her like that?

She'd finish them off.

The aunt and niece bickered for a while longer, then Shi Youxuan asked how Zhu Qingrui died.

Ji Yingjie said triumphantly: "He tried to run away but didn't make it, and died of anger."

Died of anger?

Trying to fool a child.

Shi Youxuan knew things weren't as simple as her aunt said, so she pressed for the truth: "How did he die of anger? You didn't finish him off after his failed escape? That doesn't sound like your personality."

This time, when Ji Yingjie was retorted, she didn't get angry: "My personality is so gentle and kind, how could I finish him off? You don't understand your aunt at all. Your aunt is a cultured person; of course, I have to be civilized and polite in my actions, I can't do crude things..."

She praised herself in various ways, and finally revealed the method for dealing with Zhu Qingrui—imitating the way Empress Lü of the Han Dynasty dealt with Consort Qi, turning Zhu Qingrui into a human pig.

Shi Youxuan:...

She knew why Nianyin wouldn't say anything.

"You've gone too far, you're completely inhumane."

Ji Yingjie retorted: "Stop trying to constrain me with your Jiangzhou rules. You have no idea what the outside world is like. The outside world is a place where the weak are prey to the strong; whoever is weak deserves to be beaten and bullied."

"You've lived a comfortable life for too long, which is why you say such things to me. What is humanity? Humanity is bullying the weak and fearing the strong. You're the one without humanity. If I were in Zhu Qingrui's position, the way he would deal with me would be no less cruel than how I dealt with him!"

"He was just one person; his death ends it all. If he had turned the tables, none of our family would have had a good end, and neither would yours... do you think I'm doing this just for myself..."

Ji Yingjie went on another long vent, and only stopped when her niece apologized.

"Alright, I can't blame you for not being able to accept it; you have seen too many clean things with your eyes, so it is normal that you cannot accept unclean things."

Ji Yingjie brought the conversation back to ease the relationship between the two.

It was not worth it for them to have an unpleasant falling out over a dead Zhu Qingrui.

Zhu Qingrui was already dead, and Shi Youxuan would no longer pursue his affairs, but she had to interfere with what her aunt was going to do in Jiangzhou.

"You have caused such a big commotion since arriving in Jiangzhou; what exactly are you trying to do?"

"Why do you care? I do whatever I want, and it is none of your business."

"No, I must care. Jiangzhou is not the outside world; this is a place that follows the law and rules, and you cannot act recklessly."