Ch 25: The Unfilial Children Trembles in Fear (QT)

Yun Xi had a servant bring her a cup of coffee. Sitting calmly on the sofa, she said,

“I’ve never believed that money can solve everything. But your relationship is closely tied to money. Surely you don’t think she fell in love with your character, your personality, or your inner beauty?”

The look of disbelief on Yun Xi’s face made Fu Junjie feel deeply humiliated.

“What we love is each other’s personalities!” he snapped. “It has nothing to do with material things! Of course, someone like you would never understand.”

Yun Xi smiled.

“Out of all the wealthy heirs she could have chosen, she picked you solely because you’re the heir to my fortune. That’s all.

Otherwise, you’re hot-tempered, selfish, cold-hearted, and completely unaccomplished. What exactly is there for her to love?

You really are far too confident.”

The original host had never spoken harshly to Fu Junjie before.

His face turned livid as he stared at Yun Xi, unable to believe she would belittle him so openly.

Grinding his teeth, he shot back,

“The one who’s overly confident is you. You’re unbelievably self-righteous.

Zhixin and I were dating perfectly happily, but you’ve convinced yourself she has bad intentions and only wants your money.

You’re pathetic.

In your eyes, there’s only money. You don’t understand feelings at all.

When you married my father, it was only to produce an heir. You never cared about his feelings or what he wanted.

And do you think I care about being your heir?

You gave birth to me like you were completing a task. The only reason I exist is to continue the family line and inherit the Fu family.

You’re just a tool used by the Fu family to carry on the bloodline. A cold machine.

I honestly don’t understand what you’re so proud of.

Do you know how suffocating it was growing up as your son?

I’d rather have been born into an ordinary family and actually been happy!”

Having finally vented everything he had bottled up for years, Fu Junjie felt an immediate sense of relief.

He looked at Yun Xi provocatively, expecting to see her furious and shaken.

Instead, he was disappointed.

Not only was Yun Xi not angry, she actually laughed.

Embarrassed and enraged, he snapped,

“What are you laughing at? Do you think I’m funny?”

Yun Xi ignored the question.

Instead, she said,

“You keep saying you don’t care about being my son. You don’t care about being the heir. But that’s easy to say.

Do you actually dare to prove it?

You claim Yan Zhixin loves your soul and that her feelings have nothing to do with the Fu family or money.

Do you have the courage to test that?”

Fu Junjie froze.

Yun Xi continued,

“If you do, I’ll have someone draft the paperwork right now.

You can leave the Fu family completely. You’ll have nothing. No money. No inheritance.

Go to Yan Zhixin as a penniless man and see whether she still loves you.

If giving up being the heir truly makes you happy, and if you two can still get married and live happily together, then from this day forward I will never interfere in your life again.

Do you dare?”

For a brief moment, Fu Junjie hesitated.

That hesitation only made him angrier.

It felt humiliating.

He hated being born as an heir.

He hated being treated like a tool of the Fu family.

He wanted to prove that Yan Zhixin loved him rather than his money.

So why had he hesitated?

Even that tiny moment of hesitation felt like an insult to himself.

Without another thought, he immediately agreed.

“Fine. Let’s do it.

And don’t you dare regret it later.

I’ll show you that not everything in this world revolves around money.”

Yun Xi smiled and shook her head.

Then she made a phone call and instructed her executive assistant to arrange everything.

The assistant was stunned.

The mother and son had just finished arguing earlier that day.

Now they had escalated all the way to transferring assets.

Still, she asked no questions.

She immediately drafted all the necessary documents and brought them over for signatures.

In truth, Fu Junjie owned very little.

He had always spent money freely and never saved.

Later, he had simply used Yun Xi’s supplementary credit card.

He had no real savings of his own.

After turning eighteen, he had gone abroad to study and had only recently returned, so Yun Xi had not even purchased a house for him yet.

The only assets in his name were two cars.

He transferred both of them to Yun Xi.

The only other significant matter involved his father’s estate.

Both he and Yun Xi had inherited portions of it.

However, because of the prenuptial agreements and property arrangements established years ago, his father’s estate consisted only of two villas, three vehicles, some collectibles, and a sum of savings accumulated over the years.

Since there had never been any need to formally divide the inheritance before, it had remained untouched.

Now, Fu Junjie signed away all rights to it.

Once the documents were notarized, he would truly become penniless.

When he reached the final signature line, his hand paused briefly.

Then he noticed Yun Xi looking at him.

Immediately, he signed his name, tossed the pen aside, and felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.

This time, he had defended his dignity.

Yun Xi sighed.

She honestly felt there was something wrong with his brain.

Was he truly confident that he could live well without money?

Did he genuinely not care?

Or was he simply convinced that he was the only heir and would eventually be welcomed back anyway?

To be fair, her earlier words had been somewhat misleading.

Anyone might assume she was merely conducting a test and would eventually take him back.

Still, the fact that Fu Junjie had signed everything without a moment’s serious thought was astonishing.

Looking at the documents, Yun Xi deliberately asked,

“You still have time to change your mind.”

Fu Junjie cut her off immediately.

“I won’t regret it.”

Yun Xi stood and headed upstairs.

“These documents will be notarized tomorrow.

Until then, you can still change your mind.

Countless people would love to be the heir to the Fu family.

Don’t ruin your life because of a moment of impulsiveness.”

Something about her words felt strange to Fu Junjie.

But the satisfaction of finally striking back at his mother overwhelmed any doubts.

Deliberately raising his voice, he shouted,

“I’ll never regret it. Not in this lifetime!”

No one answered.

Yun Xi had already returned to her room.

As far as she was concerned, the matter was resolved.

Now all she needed was a good night’s sleep, enough rest to restore her energy, and the beginning of a completely new life that belonged solely to her.

Fu Junjie sat alone in the empty living room.

Gradually, the exhilaration faded.

In its place came irritation.

Then anger.

Finally, he realized something.

The reason Yun Xi hadn’t been angry or upset was because she looked down on him from the bottom of her heart.

She was convinced he couldn’t survive without the Fu family.

Convinced he would eventually crawl back and beg her for help.

That was why she had remained so calm.

For all he knew, she was probably laughing at him internally.

He drained his glass of wine in one gulp.

Then he strode upstairs and began packing his belongings.

The moment the notarization was complete the next day, he moved out.

At that time, Yun Xi was at the company.

She had just finished a meeting and was leaving the conference room with a group of executives when she received a call from the family butler.

The butler informed her of what had happened.

Yun Xi responded casually,

“Fu Junjie will never return.

Remove every trace of him from the house.

Delete his fingerprints. Delete his facial-recognition access.

Notify everyone that from now on he is to be treated like a stranger.”

The butler hesitated.

“Madam… Young Master Junjie is still young and impulsive. He may realize his mistake soon and come back…”

“No.”

Yun Xi’s tone was firm.

“This is my Fu family.

I do not need a son like that.

I do not need an heir like that.

Do you understand?”

“…Understood.”

The butler was shocked.

He said nothing further and immediately went to notify everyone at the villa.

The executives, secretaries, and employees standing behind Yun Xi had heard the entire conversation.

They were even more shocked than the butler.

One of them cautiously asked,

“Chairwoman Fu… you and Young Master Junjie… what exactly happened?”

Yun Xi said,

“He repeatedly stated that he doesn’t want to be my son or the heir of the Fu family. He would rather leave the family penniless.

From today onward, he is no longer a member of the Fu family. Naturally, the company has nothing to do with him either.

If he comes to any of you for help, you don’t need to consider my feelings. I won’t be giving him any opportunities.”

Everyone understood the unspoken message.

In other words, they were not to give Fu Junjie any assistance.

As far as they were concerned, this was a battle between mother and son.

No one intended to get involved.

After all, if the two reconciled in the future, anyone who had chosen a side would be left in an awkward position.

It was like the struggles between an emperor and the crown prince in ancient times.

Wise officials protected themselves.

Those who recklessly picked sides usually died the fastest.

None of them were fools.

And just like that, Yun Xi cut off every avenue through which Fu Junjie might seek help from the company.

Even the receptionists and security guards were informed that Fu Junjie was now considered an outsider and was not to be admitted into the building.

Yun Xi quickly dealt with company affairs.

She delegated many responsibilities that did not require her personal attention and suddenly found herself with much more free time.

The original host had been a workaholic.

Everyone assumed this change was simply because she was heartbroken and needed time to recover.

No one thought much of it.

Only her executive assistant found it strange.

That was because Yun Xi asked her to hire several private tutors.

The original host had been carefully groomed by the Fu family since childhood.

She excelled at piano, oil painting, tea ceremony, flower arranging, horseback riding, and many other refined skills.

Yun Xi herself was only truly skilled at horseback riding.

Although she possessed the original host’s memories, she still needed proper practice before she could fully master the other skills.

So she instructed her assistant to hire tutors.

She considered it a way to enrich her life.

She also planned to learn calligraphy, chess, traditional-style painting, and the guzheng.

In addition, she wanted to study programming languages and ideally learn hacking techniques as well.

After all, she traveled randomly between worlds.

In her previous life, she had started in an era so underdeveloped that she had waited decades before smartphones even existed.

Who knew where she might end up next?

Ancient times were possible.

The distant future was possible.

This world happened to provide top-tier status, wealth, and social standing, along with advanced technology.

It was the perfect place to learn as much as possible and prepare herself for whatever came next.

She considered it a way of fully arming herself.

The assistant assumed that anyone dealing with emotional turmoil would need distractions.

Perhaps Yun Xi wanted to shift her focus and improve her mood through learning.

Being extremely considerate, the assistant selected only gentle and patient teachers, hoping the lessons would be relaxing and enjoyable.

With a single instruction from Yun Xi, everyone around her immediately handled the arrangements.

She couldn’t help thinking that being rich and being poor were obviously not the same.

This level of treatment alone was enough to brighten a person’s mood.

She was a simple woman in that regard.

She liked being wealthy.

If Fu Junjie didn’t want that life, then she wished him happiness.

After moving out of the Fu family home, Fu Junjie went directly to find Yan Zhixin.

When she opened the door and saw the mountain of luggage beside him, her face filled with surprise.

“Why are you…”

Then realization dawned on her.

“You had another fight with Auntie? Did you run away from home?”

Although Fu Junjie had left dramatically, actually arriving completely penniless still made him somewhat uneasy.

So when he heard her question, he instinctively replied,

“Yeah.

In her eyes, there’s only money.

I couldn’t get through to her, so I decided to prove my point through actions instead.

Just like you said yesterday in front of her, using money to measure feelings is an insult to love.

We don’t care about her filthy money at all!”

Yan Zhixin felt a flicker of panic.

This was not part of her plan.

Pressing her lips together, she stepped aside.

“Come in first.”

Fu Junjie’s expression turned awkward.

“Zhixin…”

He hesitated.

“The moving truck driver is still downstairs.L

“Could… could you pay the moving fee for me first?”

“I promise I’ll pay you back double once I start earning money.”

Yan Zhixin stared at him in shock.

“You mean you actually left the Fu family with nothing at all?”

“How is that possible?”

Normally, everyone had at least some money.

Even if they were broke, they should have a little cash in their digital wallet.

But Fu Junjie genuinely had nothing.

His payment accounts had been linked to credit cards.

When Yun Xi made him leave penniless, she had also paid off and canceled all of his credit cards.

If he wanted to use them again, he would have to reapply.

His credit limits had been extremely high.

Had they not been canceled, he could have continued spending on credit for months.

Yun Xi’s reasoning had been simple:

Otherwise, the test would be cheating.

At the time, Fu Junjie had thought it didn’t matter.

No money was no money.

Yan Zhixin would never look down on him.

They loved each other so much.

Surely she would happily spend money on him.

He could always earn money later and repay her.

What he had not expected was how humiliating and difficult it would feel to ask her for money.

Fortunately, Yan Zhixin reacted quickly.

Her surprise lasted only a moment before she concealed it.

Looking at him with concern, she immediately transferred two thousand yuan to him.

“Go pay the moving fee first,” she said gently.

Fu Junjie let out a sigh of relief.

After going downstairs and paying the moving fee, he watched the truck drive away. He wiped his face hard and broke into a smile.

From this moment on, his new life was beginning.

Yan Zhixin really hadn’t looked down on him. She was even worried about him.

He hadn’t made the wrong bet.

Soon enough, Yun Xi would regret driving him away so easily. And when she wanted him to come back, it wouldn’t be so easy anymore.

Meanwhile, Yan Zhixin carried Fu Junjie’s luggage into her apartment piece by piece.

She kept her head lowered so he wouldn’t see her expression as she rapidly sorted through the chaos in her mind.

According to her original plan, the two of them would continue pulling back and forth with Yun Xi for a while. She would add a little subtle manipulation here and there, and eventually Fu Junjie would register a marriage with her.

Once they were legally married, the matter would be settled.

No matter how much Yun Xi opposed them afterward, it would be useless.

Even in the worst-case scenario of divorce, Yan Zhixin would still receive a considerable amount of property.

She had never expected Fu Junjie to run away from home.

Much less arrive completely penniless.

Had she pushed things a little too far yesterday?

Had she angered Yun Xi too much?

No.

This was a test.

Without drawing attention to herself, Yan Zhixin studied Fu Junjie carefully, trying to see whether he was lying.

Sure enough, his expression was relaxed.

What heir to a wealthy family could walk away with nothing and still look so carefree?

The only explanation was that he had confidence.

And that confidence came from knowing he could return whenever he wanted.

That was it.

Yesterday, Yun Xi had clearly dismissed her talk about true love.

She had asked whether Yan Zhixin would still love Fu Junjie if he had absolutely nothing.

Yan Zhixin had immediately answered yes.

Afterward, Yun Xi had declared that she would strip Fu Junjie of his inheritance and give her a penniless Fu Junjie.

At the time, Yan Zhixin had assumed those were just angry words.

She had never taken them seriously.

But now it seemed Yun Xi had actually intended to use this situation to test her.

And whether Fu Junjie was trying to prove something to Yun Xi or wanted to test Yan Zhixin himself, he had agreed to cooperate in this performance.

This was a test of her.

If she passed, Fu Junjie would trust her completely from now on.

She would become the unquestioned future Mrs. Fu.

Therefore, she absolutely could not show even the slightest hint of impatience.

Everything had to remain exactly the same as before.

She loved Fu Junjie for his soul.

Money had nothing to do with it.

Once she understood everything, Yan Zhixin regained her usual composure.

A delighted smile appeared on her face.

Taking hold of Fu Junjie’s hand, she said,

“From now on, we’ll get to be together every day.

We should celebrate tonight.

I’m going to cook a big meal myself and let you try my cooking.”

Fu Junjie’s mood immediately brightened.

As expected, Yan Zhixin loved him, not his money.

“Great. I’ll help.”

The two spent the evening wrapped up in domestic bliss in the kitchen.

He fed her a bite of food.

She kissed him.

The entire apartment seemed filled with pink bubbles.

Fu Junjie even ordered wine, candles, a tablecloth, and roses through a delivery app.

While Yan Zhixin was cooking, he transformed the dining room into a candlelit dinner setting.

In truth, Yan Zhixin only cared about tangible benefits.

Romantic gestures like these meant very little to her.

Still, when she walked out and saw the arrangement, her face filled with delighted surprise.

The two shared an affectionate candlelit dinner together.

After the meal, Fu Junjie took out a ring box.

Then he walked over and knelt on one knee in front of her.

Yan Zhixin’s heartbeat sped up.

Her eyes widened.

For the first time that evening, her surprise was genuine.

Had she passed the test already?

Had her performance really been that convincing?

Looking at her with deep affection, Fu Junjie said,

“Zhixin, our love may not be blessed by others, but I truly love you.

Even though I can’t give you a luxurious life right now, I’ll find a job soon and work hard to earn money.

I’ll support our family.

You can do whatever makes you happy.

We’ll live as an ordinary married couple together.

What do you think?”

His voice softened.

“Will you marry me?”

The moment Yan Zhixin heard that, she became even more convinced this was still part of the test.

He was checking whether she was willing to live an ordinary life with him.

Taking a deep breath, she excitedly extended her hand.

“I will!

Of course I will!

I love you too!”

Fu Junjie laughed happily.

Opening the ring box, he slipped a men’s diamond ring onto her finger.

The ring was slightly too large.

Embarrassed, he explained,

“I don’t have money to buy a proper engagement ring right now.

This is a ring I bought before, so it’ll have to do temporarily.

But once I start earning money, I’ll buy you the most beautiful diamond ring.”

Yan Zhixin’s smile froze for an instant.

Only an instant.

Then she quickly recovered.

“It’s okay.

The kind of ring doesn’t matter.

What matters is your sincerity.

As long as you love me, I’d even be happy with a ring woven from grass.”

Fu Junjie was deeply moved.

The girl he loved was simply too wonderful.

He pulled her tightly into his arms, as though he were embracing the entire world.

“Don’t worry.

I’ll definitely give you a good life.

I could never let you wear a grass ring.

You’re my priceless treasure.

I’ll cherish you properly and never let you suffer any grievances.”

Hidden from his sight, Yan Zhixin’s expression remained calm.

Only her voice was filled with emotion and joy.

“As long as I’m with you, I won’t feel wronged no matter what happens.

I’m so happy.

When you said yesterday that you wanted to marry me, I thought you were acting on impulse.

I never imagined…

I never imagined you’d actually propose.”

Her voice trembled.

“It still feels like a dream.

Can we really get married?

“What about your mother…?”

Fu Junjie let out a cold snort.

“Of course we can get married.

I’ve already left the Fu family.

She can’t control me anymore.

We’re going to register our marriage tomorrow.”

That question had been designed specifically to provoke him.

The moment he gave a concrete date for the marriage registration, Yan Zhixin’s lips curved upward slightly.

“Okay.”

In her eyes, Yun Xi had made a terrible mistake.

She had practically handed Fu Junjie over on a silver platter.

Once they obtained their marriage certificate, what test would even matter anymore?

By then, if Yun Xi regretted her decision, it would already be too late.

Yan Zhixin found herself wanting to see the look of regret on Yun Xi’s face.

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