Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
Zou Weijun’s impending job at “Jinhu” felt like an invisible clock bell urging Xie Jinhu on. With each passing day, time dwindled, and Xie Jinhu’s psychological pressure mounted. He was busy checking and balancing accounts, unaware that his reputation in the capital had already rotted away.
While Xie Jinhu was occupied in the capital, Zhao Dong in the magic city was also feeling somewhat puzzled.
Having leaked the news that Wen Ying was Xie Qian’s girlfriend to Xie Jinhu, logically speaking, Xie Jinhu should have taken some action.
Yet nothing happened at all.
Wen Ying’s five-city book signing tour concluded successfully. For a time, her popularity and momentum suggested she was poised to claim the title of the top youth literature writer, leaving Zhao Dong deeply disappointed.
President Xie was really not up to the task, was he?
Zhao Dong feared Xie Qian might cause trouble for his sister Zhao Qian, so he worried for a while. He discovered that Xie Qian had recently been busy raising funds for Ji Xin and showed no intention of troubling Zhao Qian. Could it be that Xie Qian actually did not know, or that he knew but did not care, and Zhao Dong had simply overestimated him?
The uncertainty of when the other shoe would drop was the most worrying part.
Feeling unsettled in his heart, Zhao Dong made several transoceanic calls to warn Zhao Qian to behave herself lately.
Zhao Qian seemed to have truly come to understand some things. Lately, she had been extremely compliant, even reducing the frequency of her shopping outings significantly. She was making a great effort to cultivate feelings with Zhuo Chen.
“If you truly learn from this and become sensible, I am not the harsh type.”
Zhao Dong was not yet married with children, which did not stop him from having his own educational theories.
Teaching children was probably much like training pets: punish for mistakes, reward for good behaviour, repeat a few times, and Zhao Qian would know what to do and what not to do, right?
If Zhao Qian erred, deduct her pocket money; if she behaved well, increase it. Zhao Dong’s reward and punishment system was simple and crude.
With Zhao Qian no longer causing trouble, Zhuo Yue was greatly disappointed.
Zhuo Chen comforted his sister, but Zhuo Yue’s eyes reddened with grievance. “I just wanted to fight for a chance for you, brother. As long as the Xie family is willing to engage with us, they can see how excellent you are!”
She welcomed Zhao Qian’s little schemes.
Zhuo Yue hoped Zhao Qian’s misdeeds would draw the Xie family’s attention and did not care if such actions implicated her and her brother Zhuo Chen.
Zhuo Yue did not expect praise from the Xie family. Even a warning or reprimand would be better than the current indifference!
To reprimand the siblings meant they still cared about them. This kind of silent “exile” was the most terrifying.
Because if they did not see the siblings as Xie family children, then whether the siblings did bad things or what their character was like had nothing to do with the Xie family at all!
Zhuo Yue felt aggrieved, and Zhuo Chen fell silent.
After a long pause, Zhuo Chen shared an even worse piece of news with Zhuo Yue. “Zou is going to work at Jinhu, and the Xie family supports it.”
Zhuo Yue was very surprised. “Going to work at Jinhu? Was she not said to have depression?”
“Depression varies in severity. Hers should be the milder kind.”
From his tone alone, it was impossible to tell what Zhuo Chen thought about the matter.
Zhuo Yue gritted her teeth. “Does Daddy agree too?”
“With the entire Xie family supporting it, what use is Daddy opposing alone? Daddy cannot have his way in many matters, which is why we have to keep living abroad.”
Zhuo Chen used to return to China frequently, and so did Zhuo Yue.
At first, Sara Zhuo’s rendezvous locations with Xie Jinhu were not fixed. Xie Jinhu would inform Sara Zhuo in advance of the city he was visiting for business, and Sara Zhuo would bring the two siblings to meet him.
In 1997, Hong Kong’s handover; in 1999, Macau’s handover. Sara Zhuo successively purchased properties in Hong Kong and Macau. Xie Jinhu could visit these places conveniently under the pretext of business trips. Apart from Chinese New Year when he could not get away, he made an effort to spend other major holidays with the mother and her two children.
In this way, Xie Jinhu maintained a second family for many years, and Zou Weijun never noticed a thing. Over time, Xie Jinhu’s boldness grew. Half a year before the affair was exposed, he even considered transferring Zhuo Yue to school in the capital!
Heaven dooms those it wishes to destroy by first making them mad. Xie Jinhu’s brazen affair and mistress-keeping was what finally led someone to report it to Xie Yuping.
Xie Yuping was both shocked and furious.
This was not because Xie Yuping’s intelligence was lacking. At his position, ordinary people could not reach him, and those who could would not expose shortcomings to his face. In the eyes of the Xie family, Xie Jinhu and Zou Weijun had always had a good marriage. Who would imagine Xie Jinhu capable of such outrageous behaviour!
In another family, regardless of acceptance or rejection, they would summon Sara Zhuo, the mistress who had borne two children for Xie Jinhu, to the Xie household for a visit. To preserve Xie Jinhu’s family, they would need to threaten and warn Sara Zhuo.
But Xie Yuping never met Sara Zhuo from start to finish and refused to see siblings Zhuo Chen and Zhuo Yue.
What the mother and children wanted to do, whether the siblings were outstanding, Xie Yuping cared not a jot!
The siblings’ illegitimate birth was their original sin, determining Xie Yuping’s attitude towards them.
Once Xie Yuping softened even slightly, it would signal to the outside world that the Xie family intended to accept Xie Jinhu’s illegitimate children, something absolutely impossible!
Thus, Xie Yuping refused to see Sara Zhuo and her children, would not use his official powers to deal with them, and all directives targeted Xie Jinhu personally.
The requirement that Sara Zhuo and her children not return to the country was Xie Yuping’s directive to Xie Jinhu.
Xie Jinhu feared Xie Yuping, and Sara Zhuo’s family depended on Xie Jinhu. The food chain was arranged clearly, each link pressing down on the next.
Thinking of this, Zhuo Yue’s eyes grew even redder.
She was an extremely beautiful young girl, so beautiful that even a casual tear from her would make onlookers reluctant to see it. Yet Zhuo Yue’s tears never fell.
Sara Zhuo had told her that a girl’s tears had value only when used in the right place. Her brother Zhuo Chen shared the same mother with her; emotionally and in terms of interests, the siblings were in the same camp. There was no need for Zhuo Yue to use tears as a weapon.
Zhuo Yue blinked and held back the tears again.
“I am going to talk to Mummy about this!”
“What are you going to say?”
Zhuo Chen frowned. Zhuo Yue said nothing, showing her stubbornness through silence. Seeing her bite her lip tightly, Zhuo Chen could only give in to her.
Sara Zhuo was in the middle of a yoga class.
Having borne a son and a daughter, Sara Zhuo maintained her figure not just through innate advantages but through indispensable post-natal effort. Beauty was the most expensive luxury, requiring lifelong investment of money and energy to maintain.
With her children coming together to find her, Sara Zhuo still completed her yoga session as planned.
“Something the matter?”
Even her action of wiping sweat was graceful.
Zhuo Yue asked if she knew about Zou Weijun going to work at Jinhu. Sara Zhuo smiled. “Your brother told you? Actually, I told him. Of course I know.”
“Mummy, are we just going to do nothing?”
Zhuo Yue was anxious.
Sara Zhuo put away her smile and asked seriously, “Then what do you want to do? Seek recognition from the Xie family, become Xie family children? Impossible. If you could be Xie family children, I would have given you the surname Xie instead of Zhuo. Remember this: you can never gain the Xie family’s recognition. They will not acknowledge you, will not welcome you. Your reliance has always been your daddy, not the Xie family!”
Bypassing Xie Jinhu to curry favour with the Xie family?
No need!
A wife needed to maintain good relations with her in-laws, but a mistress had no such concerns.
Once you became a mistress for a day, forget about gaining the man’s family’s recognition. Even in rare cases where a mistress rose to become the wife, others would never forget that period as a mistress.
Sara Zhuo understood this truth better than anyone.
After choosing this path, she never expected to gain respect or recognition from others. There was no such thing in the world as having both substance and face!
She understood, but her daughter Zhuo Yue did not. She still delusionally hoped for acceptance and recognition from the Xie family, so Sara Zhuo mercilessly shattered Zhuo Yue’s naivety.
Zhuo Yue’s face paled. “But must my brother and I always remain illegit—”
Always remain illegitimate children?
Sara Zhuo’s brows furrowed slightly. “This is America. Single mothers are everywhere. Who cares if you are illegitimate? Did someone say something to your face? I do not trust anyone daring to gossip to you directly! As long as no one says it to your face, what do you care about them? Backbiting will not make you lose a piece of flesh.”
Gossip would not truly make one lose a piece of flesh; poverty was what truly eroded self-esteem. Sara Zhuo understood this, but Zhuo Yue still did not.
Sara Zhuo hoped Zhuo Yue would never need to understand.
She set down the towel, touched her daughter’s hair to comfort her, and said, “Alright, do not worry about things in China. There is me and your daddy. Your daddy dotes on you siblings so much. How could he let you and your brother suffer losses?”
If Zou Weijun did not pressure Xie Jinhu, Xie Jinhu would harbour guilt towards Zou Weijun.
Once Zou Weijun started pressing aggressively, Xie Jinhu would see her as an enemy rather than a wife.
Sara Zhuo reckoned Zou Weijun did not understand this principle. Regarding Zou Weijun going to work at “Jinhu”, Sara Zhuo was not worried at all. Xie Jinhu was, after all, a boss who had rolled in the business world for years. Zou Weijun, a long-time housewife, could hardly outfight him!
