The venue for the banquet was a luxurious restaurant, the most extravagant in the city.
Mrs. Lin Cui Ping entered with Lin Mu Ci, carrying her Hermès bag. She glanced at the person opposite them and then smiled.
“Madam Ling, I presume? I’ve heard so much about you.”
The middle-aged woman opposite appeared to be preoccupied.
She wore a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
She nodded at Lin Cui Ping, then the middle-aged woman spoke.
“Mu Ci, I’ve also been looking forward to meeting you. I won’t beat around the bush. It’s simple: one hundred million, and you leave Qian He. How about that?”
Lin Mu Ci thought to herself, that’s not good at all.
But with Lin Cui Ping present,
it wasn’t her place to speak.
Mrs. Lin Cui Ping directly threw down her bag, stood up, and stared at the middle-aged woman opposite. She scoffed repeatedly, her tone chillingly cold, speaking in one breath.
“One hundred million? What kind of people do you think we Lin family are? To pull stunts like those cheesy TV dramas, you think you can dismiss a beggar to my daughter, Lin Mu Ci?”
“My pocket money for her is more than a hundred million. Use your brain!”
She raised her head, mockery in her eyes.
Her gaze was devastatingly sharp.
“I can’t stand people like you. Tsk tsk tsk, brazen and shameless. What do you mean, one hundred million to make Xiao Ci leave? She’s a top celebrity. Do you think one hundred million can buy her off? Especially when she has me, her mother!”
Mrs. Lin Cui Ping fiercely protected her cub.
She looked coldly at the middle-aged woman opposite.
Every word was
filled with arrogant coldness.
“If this is your attitude, then there’s no need for this meal.”
She pulled Lin Mu Ci, ready to leave, giving the middle-aged woman opposite no face at all.
Madam Ling watched as Lin Cui Ping, across from her, prepared to pull Lin Mu Ci away. Madam Ling suddenly seemed flustered. She stammered a few times, then said with a stutter.
“Wait, wait, I was just joking.”
“I saw in the news, those entertainment reporters writing nonsense, saying that your Xiao Ci and our Qian He are dating.”
“Although, when it comes to young people, elders shouldn’t interfere. But our family’s situation is a bit complicated…”
“Qian He has been stubborn since childhood, not one to get close to people. I’ve treated him with utmost kindness, yet he listened to some riff-raff and ran off to the orphanage.”
“I can’t do anything about him. However, to avoid people saying I mistreated him, I did indeed – give him living expenses.”
“Who would have thought that a girl working at the orphanage took a fancy to Qian He.”
“She seduced Qian He!”
Lin Mu Ci coughed.
She almost spat out her water.
Madam Ling was completely, utterly spewing nonsense and fabricating lies.
When had she ever had anything to do with Ling Qian He? This was absolutely fabricated! Lin Mu Ci wore an expression that said, I’ll just watch you brag and lie. Madam Ling continued to sigh, lamenting as she went on.
“She came to my door, blackmailing me. Saying if I didn’t pay, she’d smash her head against a wall.”
“You think a girl like that could be a good person? I could only spend money to avert disaster. I was also afraid Qian He, being young and impulsive, might do something foolish, so I chose not to tell him.”
“But that girl still disappeared later. Qian He has hated me immensely because of it.”
“He probably thinks it was because of me that the girl disappeared. Later, his older brother had a car accident, which was also related to his impulsiveness.”
“His eldest brother, because of this matter…”
As Madam Ling spoke, she even wiped her eyes in a show of false emotion.
“His eldest brother, because of this matter… was also very angry, after all, his younger brother was bewitched by such a shameless woman. When he went out, he wasn’t careful and had a car accident, becoming a vegetative state. But even so, I didn’t say I wanted to harm Qian He. I just didn’t take care of him in a fit of anger, which is why he was left to fend for himself and suffered some hardship.”
“But he is, after all, of the Ling family bloodline. If I hadn’t supported him behind the scenes, he wouldn’t have become, wouldn’t have become a superstar!”
In other words, Madam Ling spoke logically, but Lin Mu Ci’s head was filled with black lines, she wished she could roll her eyes to the heavens.
What a load of crap!
If she hadn’t been the person involved,
she would have believed her fabricated story.
Believed her nonsense!
When did she seduce Ling Qian He five years ago?
When did they have anything to do with each other?
The system couldn’t help but chime in in her mind.
【Are you sure you didn’t have feelings then…? Host, don’t play dumb. I feel like your return later was just going with the flow, you’d been eyeing that pretty boy Ling Qian He for a long time!】
Lin Mu Ci vehemently denied it in her mind.
【What pretty boy, what pretty boy? Aren’t older men more appealing?】
Although Lin Mu Ci verbally denied it,
her body was more honest.
She let out a light hum.
Her tone was very serious.
“That’s just Madam Ling’s side of the story.”
The woman opposite widened her eyes and pointed to her chest.
“Heaven knows my heart! And I can guarantee, the woman who seduced Ling Qian He back then was definitely not a good person. It was Qian He’s youth and innocence that fell for that kind of girl from society.”
“Qian He is innocent. That girl was just too scheming, and she seduced many men.”
“Like the CEO of Feng Corporation, Feng Yu Ting!”
“She even almost became Feng Yu Ting’s fiancée! I guess Mr. Feng, being a formidable force in the business world, immediately saw through this girl’s true nature, and that’s why he dumped her.”
“Then, from somewhere, she learned of Qian He’s true identity. Although he’s an illegitimate son, even a mosquito’s leg is still a piece of meat, so she clung onto Qian He, wanting to make a fortune!”
“Qian He, such an innocent boy, was deeply hurt by her. She’s just a shameless gold digger!”
Madam Ling spoke with heartfelt grief.
Lin Mu Ci’s expression turned somewhat peculiar. Lin Mu Ci coughed, then she said.
“Gold digger?”
“You mean, Ling Qian He was deceived?”
Madam Ling nodded.
“Of course. Qian He probably still can’t forget that woman. Later, an assistant appeared by his side, who looked exactly like that woman, but then disappeared again. I suspect Qian He is hiding this woman!”
Madam Ling’s eyes widened, she said through gritted teeth.
“Qian He is definitely hiding this woman!”
“If you want to be with Qian He, you must know about this, know his past!”
Lin Mu Ci couldn’t help but want to roll her eyes.
She complained in her heart.
Of course, she knew best.
In this world, who could possibly know better than her?