“Go quickly, Xia Lei. Don’t come to our home again.” Zhang Hui-Lan flipped attitudes more easily than pages of a book. “And our Jing and you are never going to be together.”

Xia Lei looked at her and was silent for a bit before saying, “Ning Jing is a person, not your plaything and not your product. She has the right to like whomever she likes and the right to live the life she wants. You may be the mother who raised her but you should not treat her as your money tree.”

“What did you say?” Xia Lei’s last sentence triggered Zhang Hui-Lan’s anger and her face darkened as she pointed at him and scolded, “You! Get out!”

“If it weren’t for Ning Jing, I wouldn’t come into your house even if you carry me to it with eight palanquins. Having a mother like you makes me feel sorry for her,” said Xia Lei in a normal tone. 

“You punk! You’re asking for a beating!” Ren Wen-Qiang suddenly threw the rose bouquet he was holding at Xia Lei. He’d long wanted to hit Xia Lei in return for making Shentu Tian-Yin kick him out of Vientienne Group. He had been conscious of his status earlier in front of Ning Jing’s parents and Ning Yuan-Shan but it now looked like...