Chapter 485 — Naming Her Grievances

Wei Zhao would never have been so courteous! Wei Zhao would never have demanded a written statement from him -- he'd have beaten him until his arms and legs were broken and he could never write a statement again.

Zou Tiandi not only wrote out a statement declaring that from this day on he would never trouble Xiaowei, Diao, or Dan again, but also returned the contract he had previously signed with Xiaodan, untouched, to Xiaodan -- which is to say, from then on Xiaodan and he would have nothing to do with each other.

Only after she had the statement and the contract in hand did Tang Zhi breathe a sigh of relief. She no longer wished to stay in Zou Tiandi's house a moment longer, and nodding, she said to her mother, "Then let's go."

"Wait a moment!" Zou Tiandi called the Tang family back.

Tang Zhi's heart gave a jolt. Had Zou Tiandi seen through something? Did he know she was only bluffing?

"Mr. Zou? You're going back on your word?" Tang Zhi turned around anyway, making her voice sound calm. Mother Tang, Xiaowei, and Xiaodan were frightened out of their wits, but they had not yet grasped what was happening -- and Zou Tiandi could not see them.

"No, no, Sister Tang, you misunderstand!" Zou Tiandi started in alarm and hastily explained. "What I meant was, I'll send a car to take you home... It's dark now, and you're carrying all that money. It isn't safe!"

It wasn't that Zou Tiandi was being meddlesome -- he had no choice but to meddle! The Tang family was carrying a great deal of money, and with the additional two hundred thousand it would come to seven hundred thousand. Going out at night was truly unsafe. If something happened and they were robbed, and Wei Zhao thought he had sent the robbers, that would be a disaster!

So to prove his innocence, Zou Tiandi had no choice but to send a car and personally escort them home; only once they were safely there would he rest easy.

"Is that so? Well, that works too," Mother Tang said, thinking it over. It was late, and carrying so much money really wasn't very safe.

Seeing Mother Tang agree, Zou Tiandi hurriedly called his driver and told him to bring the company's business van back, then threw on his coat, ready to escort the Tang family himself.

"Mr. Zou, you rest. There's no need for you to come," Tang Zhi said, not wanting Zou Tiandi to tag along -- if he noticed something along the way, that would be bad. "What if Wei Zhao sees you and gets angry again?"

"Huh?" Zou Tiandi was startled by Tang Zhi's words, and thought, she's right. If Wei Zhao didn't see him, the matter would blow over in a few days. But if Wei Zhao did see him, and gave him a beating, what then? So Zou Tiandi said gratefully, "Thank you, Sister Tang! I was being a bit unwise! In that case, I won't see you off. It's not that I'm lacking in courtesy -- I truly don't dare!"

Mother Tang, Xiaowei, and Xiaodan breathed a sigh of relief, but Mother Tang turned and said with great swagger, "No need. With that courage of yours -- I'll have a word with my son-in-law later and tell him not to scare you anymore!"

"Ah! Then thank you, Auntie!" Zou Tiandi was overjoyed. That was exactly the sentence he had been waiting for!

Zou Tiandi's driver arrived quickly. Zou Tiandi gave him a few instructions, telling him he must respect the Tang family even more than he respected Zou himself, and only then did he let the driver leave with them.

Zou Tiandi's driver was very conscientious. He would rather take the dirt road and scrape the car's undercarriage than fail to deliver the Tang family right to their doorstep, and only then did he return to report back.

Once home, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The performance had gone reasonably well. Happiest of all was Mother Tang -- not only had she not had to pay any money, she had come away with two hundred thousand more. A windfall from the blue!

"Mom, how could you say such reckless things? Wei Zhao and I are through, and you still call him your son-in-law -- aren't you embarrassing me?" After returning home, Tang Zhi felt very awkward, and a little ashamed.

Her small measure of self-respect made her unwilling to borrow Wei Zhao's name. He had already cast her off -- if she went around invoking his name, wouldn't that be shameless? Tang Zhi felt she had no place to hide herself.

"So what!" Mother Tang said, unbothered. "That Boss Zou doesn't know anyway. But tell me, daughter, is there still a chance for you and Wei Zhao? Why did he leave you?"

"That..." Tang Zhi felt rather embarrassed. It wasn't easy to talk about what had happened with Wei Zhao, especially with Xiaowei and Xiaodan present -- some things were all the harder to say.

"Xiaowei, Xiaodan, it's getting late. You two should head home too, and don't have any more contact with Boss Zou!" Mother Tang saw what Tang Zhi was thinking and turned to speak to Xiaowei and Xiaodan.

Xiaowei was also curious about why Wei Zhao and Tang Zhi had broken up, and in his heart he hoped they would get back together, so he wanted to stay and listen. But seeing his sister's expression, it seemed she had something difficult to say, and he had no way to stay. He stood up, took Xiaodan by the hand, and said, "Auntie, we'll be going now..."

"Mind how you go! Call Auntie when you get home!" After seeing Xiaowei and Xiaodan off, Mother Tang returned to the room, took her daughter's hand, and said, "Yun'er, this time tell me -- how on earth did the two of you break up? I thought Wei Zhao treated you quite well. This morning there wasn't the slightest hint of anything. How did it come to a breakup?"

"Mom... he already had a girlfriend before... and she transferred to our school, and she even sits at the same desk as him..." Tang Zhi found it hard to get the words out, but under her mother's pressing, she still blushed and gritted her teeth and said it, feeling deeply wronged: "...You tell me, if he already had a girlfriend, why did he come and provoke me?"

Mother and daughter were of one heart; before her mother, Tang Zhi shed the toughness she had shown earlier, buried herself in her mother's arms, and wept with grievance.

"Yun'er, don't cry." Mother Tang sighed, thinking to herself, so that was how it was -- much as she had guessed. It wasn't that Wei Zhao no longer liked her daughter; rather, the rightful owner had come charging in and forced Wei Zhao to break up with her daughter!

"Mom, how can he be so awful? He had a girlfriend and still came to provoke me? I'm so humiliated -- how am I supposed to hold my head up from now on?" The more Tang Zhi spoke, the more wronged she felt.

"Yun'er, ah!" Mother Tang sighed. "It's all my fault, all because our family is poor. If our family were rich too, Wei Zhao wouldn't have been able to break up with you! This girlfriend of his -- she must come from a very wealthy family, right? I'm afraid his family found her for him?"

"...She drives a sports car to school..." Tang Zhi nodded; she wasn't lying, at least.

'I knew it! Otherwise, why would Wei Zhao, perfectly fine as he was, break up with you?" Mother Tang stroked her daughter's lovely hair and shook her head. 'Has his girlfriend come to see you?"

"Yes, she came to see me..." At the mention of Feng Xiaoxiao, Tang Zhi felt even more wronged. "His girlfriend called me tactless, and said that at first she took pity on me and was going to let me be the mistress. But since I wanted to monopolize Wei Zhao, she wouldn't even let me be the mistress..." Hmph, who wants to be anyone's mistress!