True and False Daughters 21
Even in the midst of his terror, the executive’s mind was still working well. In just a few seconds, he understood the full cause and effect, and he felt completely drained. Just thinking about those big shots who’d coordinated behind the scenes—making things difficult for an obscure professor from Capital University hadn’t weighed on him at all, but targeting a professor who’d won the Hua Country Science & Technology Prize… that was a completely different story!
Would the authorities and his superiors suspect that he was colluding with sinister forces, domestic or abroad, intentionally attacking a distinguished contributor…
The words “treason” flashed through his mind. Even though he knew he wasn’t guilty, just being investigated under that pretense would be enough to ruin him!
The more he thought, the colder he felt. Cold sweat was soaking through his jacket.
Violently shivering, he struggled forward and grabbed Manager Shang’s collar, bursting into loud, sobbing pleas. “Manager Shang, pull me up! I’ll say everything! I…”
Shang Xi’s father shook his head helplessly and glanced over at another executive, who was standing there as pale as a stick, frozen with fear. “You still don’t get it? Begging me is useless. It’s not about whether I want to help you or could help you, it’s that my word doesn’t count for anything here.”
The other executive was also nervous, but he knew that he’d simply kept quiet during the negotiation, and taking a couple of slaps would probably be the worst of it. Unlike his peer from a rival company, who was on the verge of fainting, he didn’t stand much chance of avoiding a prison sentence.
But now was the perfect time to get on Manager Shang’s good side. He stepped boldly forward, grabbed the weeping peer’s shoulders from behind, and gave a hard yank—but the man wouldn’t budge.
It wasn’t until his own assistant jumped in to help that, together, they managed to pull the executive away from Manager Shang.
Shang Xi’s father told his assistant to make arrangements since he was going to find his son.
The assistant nodded and stepped back a little to make his phone calls.
Shang Xi’s father took another look at the now-despondent platform executive and stated a single request. “I don’t really care about getting my account back, but I hope you’ll stop limiting the Shang Corporation’s official account.” Without waiting for any displays of loyalty, he got into his business car and drove off, making a grand exit.
However, he hadn’t gotten far before all the executives and assistants—faces ranging from red to white—had their phones start ringing one after another.
As for Shang Xi’s father, he sat in the car with his assistant and bodyguard, heading toward the airport, phone in hand, chatting and joking with his wife and son. The laughter wasn’t hearty or triumphant—it was almost… sly.
After a while, he even started humming, “I’m riding high on my child’s success! People only try desperately to smear what they can’t have—hey, today’s a great day for regular folks like me—hey!”
The driver, assistant, and bodyguard all kept silent, but there were smiles on their faces. They felt deeply honored: winning by just lying low had never been so satisfying!
Shang Xi took another look at his father’s flight info, pocketed his phone, poured wine for Uncle He, and poured juice for Xiao Xi.
At that moment, Qin Jingzhou was having dinner with his daughter and the others in the private restaurant downstairs.
Of course, he knew what the authorities were planning—Gao Wen had told him in advance. Originally, he’d wanted that “bad review” to simmer for three full days to catch all those influenced by Jin Li and the center-of-attention system lurking in the dark, but it seemed the leadership simply couldn’t bear to see him enduring “injustice” for even three days.
So, he would just let things flow naturally.
Taking a sip of rice wine, he praised his daughter for picking out the drink. “My daughter has great taste.” With a thoughtful daughter at his side, all his needs except for travel were taken care of.
He Chunxi just smiled without saying anything.
Qin Jingzhou glanced at Du Jiaying on the other side of the table, who was completely lost in thought, and tapped the table with his fingertips. “Earth to Jiaying.”
Du Jiaying scrubbed at her face so hard she almost took off her false eyelashes. “So that’s why you guys are so confident!”
The remark… He Chunxi couldn’t help but snap back and give her a bit of advice. “Why do you sound so salty? And ‘you guys’… Listen, the Du family may prefer sons over daughters and have always brainwashed their girls to make sacrifices for the clan, but they never stopped you from getting an education or seeing the world, did they?” She gestured to Gao Wen, seated beside her father. “Look at his whole demeanor. Can’t you tell what kind of family he’s from? Or the bodyguard outside the door—they’re deliberately low-key, sometimes entirely blending in. Yet after these days at my dad’s side, you really had zero guesses?”
Shang Xi chimed in, “I suspect BT001 made her less intelligent.”
Du Jiaying clapped a hand to her face and swore, “My dad’s just a dragon protagonist, as if anyone could guess that!”
Her intelligence had indeed been lowered, but even without that, a real daughter could still easily be indecisive—it just wasn’t that lovable, not his kind of ideal daughter anyway. Then again, he probably wasn’t her ideal kind of dad either.
Qin Jingzhou’s tone was gentle. “A lack of self-confidence isn’t your fault. Though we’re not that familiar, I still hope you’ll feel a little less burdened to do what you enjoy—to live how you want. I’ll back you up, but not without any conditions.” He finished by flicking his precious daughter’s nose.
The precious daughter just propped her chin and grinned. She could hear the unspoken words in her father’s heart: I’ll back you up—no conditions for you, my girl.
The father-daughter exchange was clear to see. Du Jiaying put down her hands, feeling complicated, a little sad and regretful, but not too much. She looked at Gao Wen and found a bit of courage again. “I know I can’t just lean on my dad without shame, but you’d never really leave me hanging.”
Qin Jingzhou smiled. “Well put. That’s what I meant a couple of days ago, but at the time, maybe you thought I was just showing off.”
Du Jiaying’s face flushed. “Yeah.”
Qin Jingzhou wouldn’t press the matter. Anyway, it was clear the real daughter wasn’t blaming Gao Wen or resenting him for not telling her the truth. Du Jiaying might be practical, but at least she knew right from wrong.
Meanwhile, the whole Ji family, along with every hotel manager, had already been waiting at the door to the small restaurant for a while after watching the news.
Qin Jingzhou had Gao Wen go and let them in.
The Ji family was there to congratulate him.
Father Ji started with, “Professor He truly deserves his reputation! How about a celebration?”
Qin Jingzhou agreed.
He himself wasn’t especially excited, but his precious daughter and her childhood friend were grinning so hard that they’d developed wrinkles before their time. Even Gao Wen and the others seemed eager to join the fun… After all, it would be a shame to win a great honor without enjoying it with loved ones—this was just the same logic.
He made sure to admonish Father Ji seriously, “Let’s not get too extravagant.”
Father Ji patted his chest, “Leave it to me.”
Ji Chun had quietly slid in next to Shang Xi. “Brother Xi, here’s to our good fortune!”
Shang Xi poured more wine for Uncle He and replied offhandedly, “Could I ever forget you?”
Ji Chun patted his own chest. “I’ve set my sights on holding onto your thigh for life!”
The mood upstairs on the forty-fifth floor was warm and jubilant, while on the twenty-fifth floor, the entire production team was distracted and anxious. The producer felt as though he’d fallen into an ice cave—his hands were still icy cold even though the room heat was blasting. The director and assistant director, a pair of hapless brothers-in-arms, were so distraught that they could barely resist the urge to jump from the window.
It was the equivalent of becoming a legend in the real world!
Having won the Hua Country Science & Technology Prize, as long as He Jingzhou didn’t overstep too far—no, to be precise, as long as he didn’t commit treason—never mind the authorities, even the general public would be nothing but indulgent toward him!
The reason was simple: the Hua Country Science & Technology Prize was just that prestigious.
Earlier, the broadcast had only mentioned that He Jingzhou won for groundbreaking achievements in neurosurgery, but no details were given... which meant those details were still classified.
At this, the director began to tremble.
The assistant director spent a long moment in a daze before speaking weakly to the director, “But what if he got it because of connections?”
This assistant director was, in fact, a well-connected person sent by the streaming platform!
The director’s voice was nearly gone. “If a guy like him got this prize by connections, that’s even scarier.”
The assistant director fell completely silent.
As for Jin Li, who’d just burned through thirty Charm Cards in a row… because of the backlash of the broken skills, she lay unconscious between the bathroom and the bedroom.
It had happened so fast that the center-of-attention system could only shield itself first, abandoning Jin Li’s mental state.
After securing its core, the center-of-attention system hid away, waiting for the waves of backlash to pass before checking on Jin Li’s condition.
Even as a system incapable of feeling, it had to admit she was impressive—Jin Li had not only managed to travel safely through time and space but had brought a lifetime’s worth of accumulated fate with her… a real chosen girl. After thirty rounds of fate backlash from elite heirs and young moguls, Jin Li just fainted, and her luck had only been cut by half.
Thinking of He Jingzhou and He Chunxi, the father-daughter pair, the system bristled, its thousand tendrils lashing in agitation, a third of them tangled together: this was exactly why it had advised Jin Li to start in the entertainment industry. Without sufficient growth, if she tangled with someone like He Jingzhou, someone blessed by the Nation’s Fortune, one wrong step could spell disaster for both host and system alike!
The center-of-attention system would never admit it simply wasn’t high-level enough and could only discern the presence, not the quantity, of nation’s luck.
That being said, it had to start planning its next move… and its exit strategy.
Jin Li slowly regained consciousness. Ignoring the small cut on the back of her head or the metallic taste in her mouth, she squinted through her blurred vision and called her system, “You there?”
The center-of-attention system confirmed there was no immediate danger and replied, “I’m here.”
Jin Li let out a breath, braced herself against the doorframe to sit up, and after a moment’s pause, grabbed her phone. She was heading to the hospital to get her wounds treated.
Naturally, she wasn’t the least surprised by the wall of angry messages on her phone demanding she cut ties. She only felt a bit wistful. “I haven’t even left yet and everyone’s already gone cold.”
The system couldn’t resist adding, “Those big shots who boosted your fame—all their favorability is now in the negatives.”
Jin Li gave a bitter laugh. “In front of them, I played the mystical princess. Since I claim to know the occult, if I couldn’t even predict He Chunxi’s father winning a national prize, it’d be stranger if they didn’t suspect me.”
The center-of-attention system was somewhat relieved. “Good thing you’re still rational. We’re not at the point where we have to give up—there’s always hope. Oh, by the way, Du Jiahui still loves you.”
Jin Li blinked. “He’s really devoted! Is there any value in that? Is moral blackmail my last weapon? But that’s a trump card! Now that He Jingzhou got a top national prize, they can’t just let his daughter stand by and watch me die, can they?”
The system laughed as well. “Can’t argue with that.”