Chapter 961: If a Wolf Turns Its Head, There Must Be a Reason

It was a pity that Dad was as dense as a block of wood and didn't catch her subtext at all, which made Shi Youxuan anxious.

Ji Yingjie: "Go out for a walk and come back in half an hour."

Shi Yucheng: "Alright."

He went out, but before leaving, he didn't forget to look at his daughter with disdain: "When did you learn to be so indirect? Can't you just say what you mean?" He didn't give her a chance to argue, and he was already gone.

Shi Youxuan handed her phone to Nianyin and went out as well.

Nianyin placed the phone steadily on the stand, aimed the camera at herself, and then knelt down to Nianyin: "Nianyin pays respects to Mother."

Ji Yingjie was expressionless: "Don't perform such a grand gesture; I cannot accept it. I am no longer your mother. Where did you find that brat? Why did you let him run away?"

Nianyin remained kneeling on the ground and recounted in detail the circumstances of discovering Zhu Qingxiang.

"Heh, he is still thinking about the Diamond Mine? His ambition is truly not small."

Ji Yingjie decided to set off for Jiangzhou immediately; she wanted to catch that brat herself.

There was one thing she had kept hidden and never said: the reason she was relentlessly pursuing the sons of Zhu Yiwen was not just because they were the sons of Zhu Yiwen.

It was because when those three people escaped from the Ji Family back then, they took away a great secret of the Ji Family, a secret concerning the Ji Family Treasure.

The pendant given to Shi Youxuan back then was indeed the key to opening the treasure, but the map was not given to her in its entirety.

In other words, even if Shi Youxuan wanted to keep the treasure for herself, she couldn't do it.

She kept the most important piece of the map herself, and when that woman escaped from the Ji Family with Zhu Yiwen's two sons back then, besides taking a lot of the Ji Family's wealth, she also took the map!

Last time, that woman tried to kill Ji Yingjie at the confinement center but failed, and instead accidentally killed herself.

At that time, she searched Rong Huaying's body, but did not find that map.

It wasn't found at her residence either, so Ji Yingjie had to find Zhu Qingxiang and Zhu Qingrui to get the map back.

Shi Family.

Ji Yingjie and Shi Yucheng returned, and Shi Youxuan and Nianyin arrived as well.

Nianyin was anxious and uneasy, standing obediently by Ji Yingjie's side with her head lowered and eyes submissive.

Shi Youxuan wanted to reconcile the two, so she kept saying good things about Nianyin and even asked Meiyin to get close to her grandmother, hoping to use the child to change Ji Yingjie's impression of Nianyin.

Unfortunately, Meiyin did not cooperate!

The little girl hid behind Shi Yuke, and Shi Yuke hid behind a pillar; the mother and daughter watched Ji Yingjie with vigilance, their eyes looking exactly the same.

"Meiyin, come here. Grandma brought you lots of fun things, all the ones you like best; they are not easy to buy outside, you know." Shi Youxuan waved the doll in her hand to attract Meiyin.

The little girl was a bit swayed; she wanted the doll.

Shi Yuke wanted it too!

But she knew she couldn't snatch it from her daughter, so she asked timidly: "Is there one for me?"

"Yes, this one is for you." Shi Youxuan felt a surge of joy and grabbed another doll to hand over.

"You are not allowed to give it to her!"

At the critical moment, Ji Yingjie disagreed.

"Snatching things from a child, you have no dignity at all."

Shi Youxuan:...

She glanced toward the kitchen; it was fortunate that Dad and her brother-in-law were in the kitchen, otherwise, they would surely be unhappy if they heard the aunt speak like that.

She reminded her: "Please don't forget your status. You are now my sister's stepmother, and a stepmother is still a mother. Can you act a bit like an elder? It's lucky Dad isn't here to hear this; if he heard it, how heartbroken he would be?"

Ji Yingjie nodded; her niece had a point.

"Fine, give her the doll, let her go play with it, and bring Meiyin over."

Shi Youxuan handed over the doll, but Shi Yuke shook her head: "I don't want it, I'll play with Meiyin..."

Although she was simple-minded, she could see that Ji Yingjie did not like her and held deep hostility toward her.

She now had the temperament of a child, and a child's world is very simple: if you are good to me, I will be good to you; if you are not good to me, I will stay far away!

Seeing that Shi Youxuan had tried to persuade her for a long time without success and that she only kept shaking her head, Nianyin realized her mother's patience was wearing thin, so she immediately stepped forward and pulled Meiyin over.

"Come play with Grandma. If a little girl doesn't listen, I'll throw you into the pond to feed the fish!"

"Waa—"

Meiyin burst into tears, crying and shouting: "It hurts, Mother pulled me and it hurts, Mother is bad, Grandma is bad, I don't want you, I want Mommy."

Mother and daughter were of one heart; Shi Yuke also grabbed Meiyin's other arm: "Don't go, they are both so fierce, they are both bad people!"

Yulong rushed over like a little bomb at this moment, punching and kicking Nianyin: "Bad person, let go of Meiyin, you are not allowed to bully my mommy."

Nianyin:...

She was furious.

It was one thing that Meiyin wasn't her own flesh and blood, but Yulong was her own biological son, yet he was siding with others and was of one mind with Shi Yuke, which made her very angry.

"You little brat, you can't tell good from bad, I am your own mother!"

Nianyin slapped Yulong across the face—"Waa," the boy also burst into loud sobs.

This caused trouble.

The boy's crying was too loud, loud enough to drown out the sound of the range hood in the kitchen, startling the two men inside.

"What's wrong?"

The two men came out of the kitchen one after another, each picking up a child to coax them: "What's wrong? Don't cry, be good!"

Meiyin was sobbing, but she didn't forget to complain: "She is bad, she made me go play with Grandma, Grandma doesn't like..."

Shi Youxuan hurriedly took over the conversation: "It's just because of a doll, it's nothing, right Sister?"

Shi Yuke felt something wasn't quite right.

But she couldn't say what was wrong.

Her sister mentioning the "doll" had drawn all her attention away, so she nodded: "Right, I wanted the doll, but Mommy said to let the child play with it and wouldn't let me play, and Meiyin didn't want to play either, so she cried."

After thinking for a moment, she added another sentence: "I am also a child, I can play with dolls."

Shi Yuke did not explain clearly, but isn't this just perfect?

Shi Yucheng did not blame anyone else, but instead told his daughter: "Remember, you are no longer a child, you are an adult."

"Mm, I've remembered, I am a big child."

Shi Yucheng:...

He even turned around to comfort his wife: "Yuke's mental maturity is not fully developed, just treat her as a child, don't lower yourself to her level."

Ji Yingjie was originally in the wrong, but now seeing her husband speak this way, she immediately took the opportunity to step down: "Rest assured, I am not angry."

A conflict that could have intensified was resolved.

The meal was served on the table, very sumptuous.

Gu Zhihao's culinary skills were beyond reproach; even Ji Yingjie, who was accustomed to eating good things, praised it endlessly and ate an extra half bowl of rice.

After the meal, Gu Zhihao went to the kitchen to clean up the dishes, and Ji Yingjie spoke to her husband without restraint: "Didn't you say that men in Jiangzhou can all support their families and don't do housework? I see your son-in-law cooking, doing housework, and taking care of children at home, isn't that also quite good?"

Shi Yucheng: "It is quite good."

Ji Yingjie: "You are fooling me. You said that men in Jiangzhou who serve their wives and children at home are useless, so why have you changed your tune now to say it's quite good?"

Shi Yucheng:...

He was momentarily speechless.

He had said that at the time because Ji Yingjie wanted to hold him to the standards of men from the Ji Family, and he naturally disagreed; those were all just off-the-cuff remarks to fob her off.

He just didn't expect her memory to be so good, and now he had left himself open to criticism.