Either you are malicious or you are foolish. Which one is it?

"I didn't do anything."

Qiao Weidong instinctively took a few steps back to distance himself from He Chen, clearly knowing his ex-wife very well.

"You didn't do anything?" Song Qian raged. "Didn't you see what just happened? Is that how you act as a father? What kind of father could tolerate something like this? Let alone stand there chatting and smiling with the chief culprit! I knew I wasn't wrong—you two are birds of a feather! You don't deserve to be Yingzi's father!"

"I wasn't smiling," Qiao Weidong protested with grievance. "With Yingzi like this, how could I possibly smile?"

With his daughter present, he couldn't bring himself to repeat what he had just discussed with He Chen, lest it further stimulate his daughter's imagination. As they had talked about those things, his heart had felt like it was being wrung out; how could he possibly have smiled?

"Mom! Stop talking!" Seeing both her father and He Chen being subjected to her mother's wrath because of her, Qiao Yingzi quickly grabbed her mother's arm to stop her.

However, how could she realistically persuade a furious Song Qian?

"I have to speak! I must speak!" Song Qian yelled. "He is simply not a qualified father! He hasn't fulfilled his responsibilities as a father all these years. Now that you're in your senior year of high school, he suddenly turns on the charm, only caring about trying to please you, and can even pretend not to see something that affects your whole life. He completely fails in his duties as a father! What use is a father like this? We'd might as well not have one at all, and end it once and for all!"

"Have I not wanted to fulfill my responsibilities as a father all these years? I've wanted to so badly, but you wouldn't give me the chance!" Qiao Weidong complained, feeling wronged. "I've done everything I could to cherish Yingzi. What else do you expect me to do?"

"You cherish Yingzi?" Song Qian sneered. "If you cherished Yingzi, would you be running around with one little girlfriend after another? If you truly cherished Yingzi, you should give this scumbag a slap across the face—this scumbag who is seducing our daughter right when she's in her final year of high school and needs to put her heart and soul into fighting for her future!"

"Mom!!!" Hearing her mother say increasingly outrageous things, seemingly slipping back into her previous state of hysteria, Qiao Yingzi felt she couldn't take it anymore and cried out.

"I've already told you, this has nothing to do with He Chen! I didn't get involved with him like that at all, I just wanted to make you mad! Do you have to force me to be with him for you to be happy?"

"Uncle Qiao, go ahead and hit me!" He Chen suddenly said, drawing the attention of all three members of the Qiao family.

"What?" Both Qiao Weidong and Qiao Yingzi were stunned, looking at He Chen in utter bewilderment. Song Qian was also taken aback for a moment, but then became even more convinced that He Chen was trying to seduce her precious daughter, going so far as to use a self-inflicted pain ploy.

How hateful!

Still, she wanted to indulge herself first; she had long found He Chen unpleasant to look at, and after the scene just now, she felt an intense urge to slap He Chen across the face with her own hands.

"Qiao Weidong, he's asking for it himself! Why aren't you hitting him?"

"Kid, are you serious?" Qiao Weidong secretly signaled He Chen with his eyes, urging him to leave quickly.

"Of course I'm serious!" He Chen smiled. "If you really cherish Qiao Yingzi, you certainly ought to slap this face! But not mine—it should be your brain-damaged ex-wife's! Give her a hard slap across the face and see if it can knock some sense back into her. That would be a huge blessing for you, for her, and for Qiao Yingzi! If one slap isn't enough, give her a few more! Don't look at me with that shocked expression! Have you forgotten what I told you? This emotionally unstable ex-wife of yours, whose brain isn't working right, is driving your daughter crazy! Stop spewing that bullshit about everything she does actually being for Qiao Yingzi's own good! Stop putting on a hypocritical act! Let alone the fact that Qiao Yingzi's grades are already among the top, and normal studying is more than enough for her to get into her dream university and dream major—even if she really messed up and didn't do quite ideally on the exams, so what? Uncle Qiao is a multi-millionaire, and she herself owns four or five school-district properties in the capital. What kind of family fortune is Qiao Yingzi, as an only child, going to inherit? An academic achiever from an ordinary family couldn't earn this much wealth in a lifetime of hard work! Does Qiao Yingzi need to push herself so desperately? Not at all! So who needs it? Either someone who is genuinely stupid! Completely out of touch with reality, brainless, and miserable! Or someone with a thoroughly rotten conscience who puts on a hypocritical act, playing a role for others to see, trying to make ordinary people think that children from wealthy families also work just as hard—or even harder—facing immense pressure and always being just as unhappy. That way, everything they achieve seems justified. But in reality, it's all bullshit! How many second-generation elites work themselves to the bone like that? If they were born in Rome, already so exceptional yet working themselves to the death, then Rome wouldn't have fallen, there wouldn't be so many prodigal sons, dynasties wouldn't collapse within two generations, wealth wouldn't fail to pass the third generation, and empires wouldn't be unable to escape the historical cycle of destruction every one or two hundred years! Isn't it simply because being born into such wealth means they don't need to work that hard, couldn't possibly work that hard, and certainly wouldn't drive their own child—and an only child at that—to death over a mere college entrance examination? Anyone who actually does this is either malicious or stupid! Which one do you think your ex-wife is?"

"He Chen, stop talking." Hearing He Chen deliver such a harsh scolding, Qiao Yingzi immediately felt a pang of heartache for her mother.

This was far too vicious. It hurt her mother too much!

"I'm scolding her for her own good, and even more so for yours!" He Chen didn't give Qiao Yingzi any face. He glanced at Song Qian, whose face had turned livid, and continued to look at Qiao Weidong, who was left utterly at a loss by the scathing tirade.

"Uncle Qiao, didn't you ask me what you should do? Well, I'll tell you: listen to her. Either go over there right now and give her a slap—or several more—to wake up that absurdly foolish brain of hers! Or file a lawsuit immediately to take back custody of Qiao Yingzi from her, and stop letting her torment your precious daughter day in and day out!"

"How dare you!!!" Song Qian shrieked, her voice a mix of fury and terror.

"Don't get excited, I won't actually do it," Qiao Weidong said with a bitter smile, trying to soothe her.

"As expected." He Chen wasn't surprised at all and nodded. "Besides, suing for custody doesn't make any sense anyway. Before the lawsuit even officially begins, Qiao Yingzi will already be an adult. Since you're too soft-hearted for that, there is one last resort: give her—this cat-lady who will likely end up with no children if she keeps tormenting people like this—another child!"

As soon as these words were spoken, all three members of the Qiao family were dumbfounded.

Qiao Yingzi's eyes flickered with an indescribable, complex mix of emotions—instinctive rejection, surprise, and anticipation. If having a younger sibling could mend her broken family, she would be more than willing.

Qiao Weidong's mouth twitched uncontrollably, yet he didn't flatly refuse either. Although he had a younger, prettier little girlfriend who was already dying to marry him immediately and bear an even cutelier daughter, he was reluctant in his heart. He felt that would be a betrayal of his precious daughter. Furthermore, deep down, he still harbored thoughts of reuniting with his ex-wife. If he and his ex-wife were to have another child of the same mother and father, making the broken family whole again, it wouldn't count as a betrayal of his daughter.

However, Song Qian could never accept such a thing. Putting aside the fact that she currently had no such inclination, even if it did touch upon the hidden desires deep in her heart, this proposal was put forward by He Chen—the very person who had tried to seduce her daughter while calling her either malicious or stupid. She would absolutely never agree to it.