Read Novel Full Chapter 51.2 – Birthday Banquet: Third Part (II)
Chapter 51.2 – Birthday Banquet: Third Part (II)
Huo Pengyi pointed at Ning Shaobai, trembling with rage. “You—you did this on purpose…”
Ning Shaobai replied, “Please don’t start throwing baseless accusations like Zhou Qianqian. You’re giving me too much credit. It’s not like I told her to gift the houses to Director Luo.”
“Speaking of which, if those houses were truly important ancestral properties of your family, the title certificates should’ve been locked up tight. Yet Zhou Qianqian, an outsider, could just casually give them away? Are you sure you treasured those houses—or were you just using them as an excuse to extort us?”
“That still can’t be in your hands!” Zhou Qianqian was filled with panic—if those courtyards were in Ning Shaobai’s possession, wouldn’t that mean she’d lost the bet? If he exposed her true identity on such an occasion, both she and her mother would be finished!
Unfortunately, things didn’t go her way. “There’s no need to doubt this—plenty of people know about it.” Ning Shaobai said lightly.
“It was the Shengming Auction House that connected me with the deal. I traded it for a stamp.”
An elderly man who had previously shown interest in stamps suddenly said, “You’re the one who wanted to trade a ‘The Red Landscape of China’ for courtyard houses?!”
Ning Shaobai clapped his hands. “See? Didn’t expect someone here would recognize it.”
He looked at Huo Pengyi’s wide, shocked eyes. “Oh, I forgot Uncle Huo’s a stamp enthusiast too. Had I known, I’d have traded directly with you. That would be a win-win solution, no? No need for Huo family’s own traitor to squander things and then blame us outsiders.”
“And now, somehow Zhou Qianqian, who’s supposed to have no relationship whatsoever to your family, ends up in the middle. Losing money is one thing—who knows what bigger mess she could end up stirring?”
Just as he finished speaking, Uncle Ma, the Ning family’s steward, suddenly entered with a stern face and whispered something into Old Master Ning’s ear.
Old Master Ning glanced at Huo Pengyi, making the latter’s heart skip a beat.
Then Old Master Ning nodded, and Uncle Ma walked up to Zhou Qianqian and said, “Miss Zhou, please come with me. There’s something we need your assistance with.”
Zhou Qianqian nervously twisted her fingers, looked to Old Madam Huo for help, but was ultimately led out unwillingly by Uncle Ma.
The crowd seemed to sense something and instinctively held their breath.
Sure enough, moments later, Zhou Qianqian burst back in, panicked. “No, I’m not going with the police!” In her frantic state, she forgot everything else and cried out, “Mom, Mom, you have to save me! I didn’t bribe anyone! Those were just regular gifts!”
Then she turned to Huo Pengyi. “Dad, Dad, I’m your real daughter! You can’t just stand by and watch… Whether it was giving paintings or the courtyard, I did it all for the Huo family! Dad, Dad! I’m your biological daughter! Huo Xuewen is actually the Zhou family’s child—you can’t abandon me!”
Amid the uproar from the crowd, Zhou Qianqian was taken away by two plainclothes officers.
“Oh, my!” Rong Xin whistled. “That juicy, huh?”
Ning Shaobai let out a silent chuckled—the bet was fulfilled quicker than he’d expected, and he didn’t even have to say a word.
The noise in the hall instantly surged several decibels.
“What? What does this mean? I don’t get it.”
Someone familiar with the Huo family explained, “The Huo family values male heirs the most. Back then, it seems the old lady switched her own daughter with a boy so she could enter the family…”
“That’s really…”
“How absurd! That means Huo Xuewen is the pitiful one…”
Ning Shaoyun suddenly strode up to the trembling Old Madam Huo and shouted angrily, “No wonder you let Zhou Qianqian trample over our entire family, acting high and mighty! Even Chenchen was not spared! Now I see, this is the real truth!”
“We were never part of the Huo family at all!”
She turned to Huo Pengyi, as if a wave of understanding had just struck her. “And you—you knew all along!”
Trembling with rage, tears streaming down her face, Ning Shaoyun cried out, “No wonder you never cared about Huo Xuewen, never cared about Chenchen!”
“No wonder Chenchen ended up in danger,” she practically roared, “It’s because he was in the way of your so-called Huo bloodline, so you wanted to get rid of him?!”
“You deceived Huo Xuewen and me, and you still wouldn’t spare my child!” Ning Shaoyun grabbed a teacup from the table and hurled it viciously toward Old Madam Huo. “You—you’re worse than animals!”
Chaos erupted at the scene.
Ning Shaoyun broke down sobbing. “Do you know I dream every night of Chenchen being kidnapped—such a small child, having his fingers cut off, legs broken, lying lifeless in a pool of blood…”
Xia Mian was stunned for a moment. She wasn’t sure if Ning Shaoyun was really dreaming about how Chenchen had ended up in his previous life. She quickly stepped forward to support her. “Sister Ning…”
Ning Shaoyun pointed at Huo Pengyi and Old Madam Huo. “I will never, ever forgive you!”
People had initially been shocked that she lashed out so suddenly, but after hearing what she said, they now felt that just lashing out was already showing restraint…
“This… this is insane…”
“She should’ve hit harder. Even beating them to death wouldn’t be too much!”
“Destroying someone’s life for selfish reasons and even eliminating a child just because he got in the way?”
“This family really does whatever they please.”
Old Master Ning slammed his cane on the floor and roared, “Huo Pengyi! Is what Xiao Yun said true?! Was the kidnapping of Chenchen related to your Huo family?!”
Fan Xiuzhi instinctively glanced at Ning Shaobai, only to see him looking back with a mocking expression—
Huo Pengyi hadn’t expected the scandal the Huo family had tried so hard to cover up would be exposed under such circumstances. Gasping for breath and trembling, he denied it, “Old Master, these things are pure fabrication…”
But no matter what, he absolutely couldn’t allow himself to be accused of colluding with the kidnappers.
Ning Shaobai commented, his tone nonchalant, “Uncle Huo, there’s no need for you to argue here. With today’s medical technology, a DNA test can reveal everything. As for the kidnapping…”
He suddenly smiled, “How many rounds of interrogation do you think Zhou Qianqian can withstand?”
Ning Shaobai glanced at Fan Xiuzhi when he said this, but there was no change in her expression.
As expected… the job must’ve been done cleanly.
It was Old Madam Huo, on the other hand, whose face turned deathly pale as she fainted on the spot…
The place plunged into chaos once more. Old Master Ning’s expression darkened. He coldly instructed the steward to take the fainted old lady away, no longer showing any hospitality.
He then looked up at his granddaughter’s tear-streaked face, opened his mouth, but in the end, only let out a long sigh.
“Sister,” Ning Shaobai said, “let Xia Mian help you back to your room for a bit. It’s Grandpa’s birthday today—let’s not spoil his mood.”
He glanced at Fan Xiuzhi and smiled faintly. “Aunt Fan still has an important announcement ahead. We can’t afford to waste time now.”
At those words, Ning Shaoyun instantly pulled herself together. That’s right—they had only just dealt with an accomplice. The real mastermind was still right there.
Ning Shaobai didn’t bother to conceal anything. Though no one knew exactly what he was planning, it was clear to everyone—after the Huo family, it was now Fan Xiuzhi’s turn…
Fan Xiuzhi secretly clenched her fists. She had to admit that she had seriously misjudged Ning Shaobai. He had only been back for a month, yet he had already accomplished so much…
Everyone present was highly perceptive. They had just witnessed the Huo family’s face being stripped layer by layer, their inevitable decline all but set in stone. And in all those seemingly unrelated incidents, the shadow of this Ning family’s eldest son could be found.
Clearly, he was nothing like the useless fool Fan Xiuzhi had described. People were now looking at him with fresh eyes—evaluating, recalculating.
After all, Fan Xiuzhi’s ‘good stepmother’ image had already been torn apart. Would she follow in the Huo family’s footsteps?
It wasn’t that these people particularly cared about the Ning family drama, but they all had ties with the Ning family’s business—some already collaborating, some about to—and Fan Xiuzhi’s outcome could affect their interests.