He couldn't fathom why it was considered the foremost of the Four Great Classical Novels.
His father, however, had told him that the novel held the history of the rise and fall, the blood and tears of a great family. How could a young man who had experienced nothing in life understand the intricacies within?
After his rebirth, as he read it again, tears streamed down his face. Only then did he understand what "absurd words on a full page, a handful of bitter tears" truly meant.
Especially during the inspection of the Grand View Garden, the words spoken by Tan Chun with heartbreaking anguish struck him like thunderbolts.
"It is known that for a family of such stature, if attacked from the outside, it cannot be killed in a single instance. This is what the ancients said, 'A centipede dies but does not stiffen.' It must first destroy itself from within before it can be utterly defeated!"
Indeed, the Jian family had been prosperous for a hundred years, with deep roots, possessing trillions in wealth. Even with the fierce impact of the capital markets from the outside, they could not have fallen so quickly.
It was all his fault for being too infatuated with An Qiuyan, for being schemed against by her and Shen Mingjue, leading to internal demolition and causing the Jian family's swift downfall and his parents' demise in sorrow.
He hated An Qiuyan to the extreme, hated Shen Mingjue to the extreme.
If he didn't destroy the Shen family, he couldn't vent the hatred in his heart.
Since Shen Mingjue had used him to destroy the Jian family in his previous life, in this life, he would use Shen Minghuang, a member of the Shen family, to completely destroy the Shen Corporation.
Brother fighting brother, self-destruction, that was his best revenge.
If not for this, he would have already wiped out the Shen Corporation.
Standing on the overpass, the cold wind howled, but it blew away much of the chill and cunning within his heart.
All the arrangements were in place; from now on, he only needed to watch the show.
After these calculations and arrangements, it was already midnight when Jian Zhou returned to his hotel room.
The room light was on, and the door had been opened a crack at some point.
Jian Zhou thought that the hotel's security was too poor, that the door could be opened so easily. He worried about thieves and decided he would definitely complain tomorrow.
Pushing the door open, Jian Zhou saw an unexpected person sitting inside.
"Mom, why are you here?" Jian Zhou exclaimed.
The person was none other than Jian Mom.
Jian Mom sat on the sofa, her posture so elegant, displaying the demeanor of a wealthy lady. However, her face was gloomy, and her lips were pursed, showing her inner dissatisfaction and anger.
"I heard you had a stomachache and were hospitalized. Are you feeling better now?"
Although Jian Mom was annoyed, she still cared for her younger son.
"I'm fine, it was just irregular eating habits, nothing serious," Jian Zhou said vaguely with a smile.
"Was it really irregular eating habits? But why did I hear that you were hospitalized after eating the tofu pudding made by Jiang Ling?"
A mother knows her son best. Jian Mom saw at a glance that Jian Zhou was protecting Jiang Ling. She didn't play games with him and got straight to the point.
"Yes, but she didn't know I can't eat spicy food. You can't blame her for that."
Jian Zhou knew his mother had already investigated everything, so denial was useless. He simply admitted it.
In his heart, he wondered why his mother had come at this particular juncture, not earlier or later.
It turned out that Jian Mom had been investigating Jiang Ling long ago and was supposed to come and break them apart.
Then, by coincidence, Jiang Yushuang happened to give birth at this time.
Jian Mom had longed for a grandchild for many years. Once her wish was granted, she was overjoyed and focused on enjoying her grandchild, putting the matter out of her mind.
It wasn't until she remembered Jian Zhou's birthday that day and was about to call her younger son to wish him a happy birthday that she heard he had been hospitalized with a stomachache. This had terrified her.