Chapter 2295: Annoying Old Man
Otherwise, how could Qiao Zijin have agreed to sell her family out for the sake of money to begin with? It had only been a few days, and all Qiao Zijin had to do was to have a chat with Qiao Nan. Then, that huge sum of money would be hers. But Qiao Zijin had refused without even giving it a second thought!
There was no way Qiao Zijin had suddenly grown a conscience and become a virtuous person.
“Don’t worry.” It was exactly because the court date was fast approaching that he couldn’t afford to panic. “I don’t understand others, but I’m all too clear about the kind of person Qiao Zijin is. It’s not that Qiao Zijin won’t be willing to be in cahoots with Qiao Nan, but Qiao Nan would never bother about someone like Qiao Zijin. Qiao Zijin is someone who only cares about her own interests, whereas Qiao Nan would never be bribed by Qiao Zijin. So, there’s no way they would have colluded. I’m guessing that Qiao Zijin still thinks that my offer is too low, and that’s why she rejected me today.”
Was ten million still insufficient for her? Someone as greedy as Qiao Zijin was sure to come to a horrible end one day!
Li Yayan was not as angry or worried upon hearing that all Qiao Zijin wanted was more money. “Dear, how much are you willing to give her?” Given a choice, Li Yayan would much prefer Qiao Zijin throw out a specific price instead of being wishy-washy about it. Otherwise, they would always live in fear.
The problem was that Li Yayan had a slight understanding of w.a.n.g Yang’s temper now that she had been married to him for years. w.a.n.g Yang was a conceited person. This had a huge correlation to his experiences growing up.
w.a.n.g Yang’s family might not have been as well-off as the Zhu family, but they had been much better off than average families. Besides, the high standards of the Zhu family benefitted w.a.n.g Yang too. After all, w.a.n.g Yang’s mother was Zhu Chengqi’s younger sister. Afterward, he had even plotted Zhu Baoguo’s death, becoming the closest younger relative to Zhu Chengqi.
Up until the appearance of that will, w.a.n.g Yang had gotten everything he had ever wanted. In fact, w.a.n.g Yang had always managed to take advantage of others to suit himself. That had been the case with Zhu Baoguo as well as Zhu Chengqi’s intention to take Qiao Nan in as his G.o.ddaughter. He had managed to put a halt to it just in time by getting Chen Jun to date her.
Success had always come so easily, and w.a.n.g Yang had always been the one manipulating others. But now, w.a.n.g Yang had to take instructions from Qiao Zijin as to how much money she wanted for the sake of this lawsuit. w.a.n.g Yang’s pride would never allow Qiao Zijin to step over his head. He didn’t think that Qiao Zijin had such a right to do so in front of him. It was only because he had given Qiao Zijin an opportunity that she was useful for once. If he hadn’t given her this chance, Qiao Zijin would remain a leech to Qiao Nan for the rest of her life!
In that case, how could someone as useless as Qiao Zijin act so haughtily in front of him?
To be honest, w.a.n.g Yang had had the urge to slap Qiao Zijin to death earlier. It was the Qiao family’s business that they had tolerated Qiao Zijin’s att.i.tude, but he would never allow Qiao Zijin to be so brazen in front of him.
“There’s no hurry. If she’s really that capable, she can board the bus back to Ping Cheng tomorrow. I want to see if Qiao Zijin can really be so carefree about the ten million yuan.” This was a test of their patience. If w.a.n.g Yang approached Qiao Zijin first, she would naturally get to decide on the price. On the other hand, if Qiao Zijin could no longer hold it in and approached w.a.n.g Yang first instead of going back to Ping Cheng, w.a.n.g Yang would easily be able to shake Qiao Zijin off with just an extra million or two.
w.a.n.g Yang had hired Qiao Zijin to help him out. As her boss, it didn’t make sense for him to need to depend on Qiao Zijin’s mood.
Since w.a.n.g Yang was the head of the family and insisted on doing that, Li Yayan could only listen to him. As such, Li Yayan had no response other than silence.
Li Yayan was different from w.a.n.g Yang. She had had personal interactions with Qiao Nan and had a slight understanding of Qiao Nan. Before interacting with Qiao Nan, she had thought that Qiao Nan would choose to take however much money she could since she hadn’t worked hard for it anyway. Besides, they hadn’t shut her down with a firm price either. As long as Qiao Nan was open to discussion, a few more millions wouldn’t matter to them.
The problem was that Qiao Nan had never been receptive to any discussion. Because she had had experiences with Qiao Nan, Li Yayan felt that Qiao Zijin could be telling the truth about returning to Ping Cheng. After all, Qiao Nan was not an average person.
She had met countless people over the course of her life, and it was only Qiao Nan who was particularly tricky to handle. She had been full of confidence about getting that five million yuan reward previously, but after learning that Qiao Zijin had spent the new year in the capital, her confidence had dropped. It was only after interacting with Qiao Nan that she realized how Qiao Nan truly was as a person.
Li Yayan knew that she would never have the confidence to promise w.a.n.g Yang about successfully persuading Qiao Nan even if she had two more months to do so, much less when the court date was in another two days’ time. She knew that she would never be able to convince Qiao Nan to agree to their terms and give up the Zhu family’s inheritance.
If she couldn’t handle Qiao Nan, Qiao Zijin would probably be in the same boat. Since she had already decided to give up the five million yuan, ten million probably didn’t make much of a difference to Qiao Zijin. It was not that she didn’t want money. It was just that it didn’t belong to her.
Li Yayan wisely chose not to voice out her thoughts upon seeing how sullen w.a.n.g Yang was. Anyway, w.a.n.g Yang would probably not believe her even if she were to explicitly state that Qiao Zijin had no way of convincing Qiao Nan either. In that case, it was better if she remained silent.
The couple went to bed with this stifling atmosphere, not caring about the other. This was completely different from Qiao Nan and Zhai Sheng, who were sharing a hot and pa.s.sionate night.
Compared to the cold and lonely night w.a.n.g Yang and his wife had, Qiao Nan realized that she had already missed her first lesson of the day the moment she awoke the next morning. At the thought of that, Qiao Nan had the urge to hammer that annoying old man, Zhai Sheng, to death!