When a Blade of Grass Wants to Become Immortal

Chapter 180: Chapter 176: Wimp x Innocent Little Overlord 15

Ji Fu moved faster than Ji Xiaosong had imagined. In less than a day, Li Liping had located the wife of Ji Yao’s lover.

Of course, Li Liping didn’t want her daughter to marry a man like that, but she had no choice. Everything she had in her life was given to her by Ji Fu. If she didn’t obey him, she could forget about living a life of luxury.

’Besides, what’s the big deal about forcing a marriage? They could just get a divorce in a few years if it doesn’t work out.’

Inside a private room at an exclusive restaurant, Li Liping laid printed photos of Ji Yao and her lover on the table.

Steam curled gently from the bone china teacups on the glass lazy Susan.

Just as Li Liping checked her watch for the fifth time, the door to the private room was finally pushed open.

Jiang Manyun walked in on ten-centimeter Jimmy Choo satin heels. The subtle pattern of a Hermès silk scarf was visible beneath her black cashmere coat, and she was followed by two men in suits carrying briefcases.

”I hear Ms. Li has something interesting to show me?”

Jiang Manyun took off her sunglasses, casually tossing her Birkin bag onto the back of a carved wooden chair.

Her curly hair, dyed a dark tea brown, fell to her collarbones. On her wrist, a Cartier Panthère bracelet glinted coldly under the warm light.

As Li Liping pushed the photos across the table, her fingertips trembled slightly.

In the pictures, which had been secretly taken in a hotel parking lot, Jiang Manyun’s husband was pressing Ji Yao against a car door in a deep kiss. The hem of the girl’s white dress fluttered in the night wind like a butterfly.

”Miss Jiang, let’s not beat around the bush.”

Li Liping swallowed. ”As long as you sign the divorce papers, the Ji Group is willing to give you a thirty percent silent partnership in their jade mines in Myanmar...”

Before she could finish, a sharp laugh cut her off.

Jiang Manyun pulled a stack of documents from her crocodile leather handbag. The notary’s steel seal was clearly visible on the tissue paper. ”What a coincidence. My husband just took over the legal department of the Jiang Group last month. These are Ji Fu’s safety production records from the Shanxi coal mines. What do you think would happen if I sent these to the Emergency Management Bureau? Would Chairman Ji still be able to attend his daughter’s wedding?”

A cold sweat instantly broke out on Li Liping’s back.

She remembered the drunken words Ji Fu had slurred three days ago—the compensation for those mine collapses was still sitting on the group’s books.

A light rain began to fall outside. The crystal chandelier cast fragmented light on Jiang Manyun’s face, making the beauty mark near the corner of her eye look all the more bewitching.

Jiang Manyun used a finger adorned with an emerald ring to flick through the photos, then suddenly pulled out a napkin and placed it over her fingertips. ”I was wondering why these photos have such a greasy, foul smell. Turns out they’re covered in the sweat from the car seats of an illicit affair.”

She leisurely wiped each of her fingers. ”Ms. Li, back when you were in the hospital handing the first wife abortion drugs, did you also use such a low-down angle for your secret photos?”

Li Liping’s face flushed red. ”At least my daughter’s feelings are genuine...”

”Genuine?”

Jiang Manyun suddenly struck her cup with a teaspoon, making Li Liping jump. ”The way you barged into the maternity ward back then, pregnant belly and all, crying to the first wife that ’it’s true love,’ and the look on your daughter’s face now as she kneels to tie my husband’s tie—”

She deliberately drew out her words. ”You’re truly cut from the same cheap, groveling cloth.”

”Why must you be so nasty?”

Li Liping clutched the golden thread embroidery of the tablecloth. ”Yaoyao is young and naive...”

”Naive?”

Jiang Manyun pulled a tube of lipstick from her Birkin bag and drew a bright red marriage certificate on a napkin. ”At my birthday party last month, your precious daughter snuck into my husband’s study wearing a transparent slip.”

She suddenly slapped the lipstick-stained napkin onto the back of Li Liping’s hand. ”Just like you, back in the day, wearing a nurse’s uniform and swapping the first wife’s hot milk with one mixed with safflower.”

Li Liping snatched her hand back, and the napkin fluttered to the floor.

Jiang Manyun’s high heel ground the glaring red mark into the floor. ”I hear Ji Yao is a performance major? It seems to be a family tradition for you two, specializing in seducing married men while their wives are pregnant.”

”Miss Jiang!”

Li Liping’s nails dug into her palm. ”Name your price. What will it take for you to get a divorce?”

Her cashmere coat slipped to the floor, revealing a pigeon’s-egg-sized diamond necklace at her collarbone. ”Back then, Ji Fu threatened his first wife with their daughter to get rid of her. Did you really think a marriage in the Jiang Family is the same as your cheap union, where a foot-washing servant clawed her way to the top?”

She suddenly leaned in, staring into the other woman’s evasive eyes. ”Do you know why I even allowed you to sit here and negotiate?”

Li Liping’s lips trembled as she watched Jiang Manyun pick up her used teacup with a pair of tea tongs and, with a CLATTER, drop it into the trash can.

”I just love watching a wild pheasant make a fool of itself flapping its wings.”

Jiang Manyun put her sunglasses back on, and the two lawyers immediately pulled the door open. ”Go back and tell Ji Yao that every tear she sheds today is an echo of the sins you committed back then.”

”Ms. Li, please wait a moment.”

The lawyer with the golden-thread glasses stopped Li Liping, who was about to bolt out the door. He pulled a file three fingers thick from his briefcase. ”According to Article 1091 of the Civil Code, any property received by Miss Ji during her improper relationship with our client’s spouse constitutes unjust enrichment.”

The other lawyer simultaneously projected a list onto a screen. Images of Bvlgari necklaces and Van Cleef & Arpels bracelets flashed frame by frame. ”From May 2023 to February 2024, Miss Ji received a total of seven Hermès bags, four sets of Cartier jewelry, and two apartments at Wulin No.1 in B City.”

He pushed up his glasses. ”Calculated at market price, the amount to be returned is twenty-three million yuan. Considering depreciation, we’ll waive the odd change.”

”Those were voluntary gifts!” Li Liping’s voice trembled.

”How unfortunate.”

Jiang Manyun leaned against the doorframe, admiring her fresh manicure. ”My husband used a corporate card. It was all billed to the Jiang Group’s public relations expense account.”

She suddenly shoved her phone in Li Liping’s face. The screen showed a surveillance screenshot of Ji Yao in a silk nightgown signing for the gifts. ”What do you think would happen if we reported this to the tax bureau...?”

A vibration came from the pocket of her cashmere coat. Li Liping glanced down and saw an asset freeze notification from her bank.

Three sets of jade jewelry in her name were now listed at an auction house.

The lawyer in the gray suit timely presented a POS machine. ”If you pay now, you can take advantage of our installment plan. A down payment of thirty percent will suspend the asset liquidation process.”

”Oh, right. That Tiffany blue diamond engagement ring Miss Ji received last month.”

Jiang Manyun suddenly used the tip of her shoe to lift the silk scarf Li Liping had dropped. ”Remember to have the ’J&Y 2013’ engraving on the inside of the band polished off. It was my tenth-anniversary edition.”

A downpour hammered against the floor-to-ceiling windows. Li Liping watched as the lawyer slapped the compensation agreement against the rain-streaked glass.

The black ink bled in the rainwater, smearing into a grotesque spiderweb. The last line, in small print, was exceptionally clear:

For three years following the termination of the illicit relationship, Party B must submit Ji Yao’s monthly physical examination reports to Party A.

Li Liping’s face instantly turned ashen. Her gaze was fixed on that line of small print as if she’d been nailed to the spot, completely frozen.

Her lips trembled uncontrollably, but she couldn’t utter a single word.

”This... this is too much!”

After a long moment, she finally forced out the words through gritted teeth, her voice hoarse and trembling with a hint of despair.

”Too much?”

Jiang Manyun sneered. ”You and your daughter brought this upon yourselves.”

Li Liping’s legs went weak. She instinctively reached out to steady herself on a nearby chair, just barely managing to keep from collapsing to the floor.

”I don’t have that much money,”

Li Liping’s voice was tinged with sobs. ”You’re driving us to a dead end.”

”Hmph. You should have thought of this before you started.”

Jiang Manyun crossed her arms, her eyes filled with disdain. ”When you and your daughter were destroying someone else’s family, did you ever think this day would come?”

Li Liping’s eyes reddened, and tears welled up.

She was filled with anger and resentment—angry at Jiang Manyun’s ruthlessness, and resentful of her own stupidity.

She regretted believing Ji Fu and getting dragged into this absurd farce. But now, there was no turning back.

”Can... can I discuss this with my daughter?”

Li Liping said in a pleading tone. At this moment, her only hope was her daughter. Perhaps her daughter could figure out a way out of this predicament.

”Discuss?”

Jiang Manyun raised an eyebrow. ”Do you really think there’s room for discussion? You have three days. If you don’t come up with the compensation, you can wait for a court summons.”

With that, she turned and left, her heels making a sharp CLICK, CLACK on the floor. The two lawyers filed out after her, leaving Li Liping standing devastated in the private room, staring out at the torrential downpour as if her world had just collapsed.