At this moment, Qin Jingzhou had just finished dinner with his daughter Mi Xiaoxiao. With nothing else to do, he started teasing his cheap daughter. "Why are you so quiet? Weren’t you always so talkative?"
Mi Xiaoxiao lowered her head. After a moment, she said, "It’s just… I feel embarrassed…"
Qin Jingzhou kept teasing her. "Because you judged me wrong?"
Mi Xiaoxiao covered her face, made up her mind, and said, "Dad, I’m sorry! I must have been blind!" She even took the initiative to carefully hug his arm.
Now that was more pleasing to the eye.
In the last world, his daughter, though she eventually came around, spent most of her time in a "hopeless case" state. But this time, this darling daughter of his satisfied Qin Jingzhou’s heart as a father in a way nothing else could. It turns out, compared to one another, you really can just toss out the worse deal.
Mi Xiaoxiao could feel that her father was not only not angry, but actually quite happy. So she simply leaned against his shoulder. Her mother had always said that it wasn’t just about money. Her father was so obsessed with his "handiwork" that he couldn’t extricate himself, and when he was in the zone, he didn’t care about anything or anyone… Being with him had been exhausting for her mother.
Now, looking back, she could only sigh at the whims of fate. Mi Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but feel sad. She missed her mother.
Qin Jingzhou noticed the change in his daughter’s mood immediately. With his other hand, he flicked her lightly on the forehead. "Want to learn?"
Mi Xiaoxiao took a deep breath. "I do!"
Her daughter would be starting her final year of high school soon. Although her grades were pretty good, she wasn’t one of those little geniuses who could compete in Olympiads, so Qin Jingzhou would have to be patient and teach her from scratch.
The two sat side by side in front of the computer. They had just ordered some basic toolbooks when Qin Jingzhou’s phone rang.
Seeing who was calling, he said to his frowning daughter, "Well, look at that. A rare caller. The last time he called me was last year."
Mi Xiaoxiao didn’t like her half-brother either. Originally, she wanted to join in with her father’s sarcasm, but on second thought, it seemed pointless, so she only said, "He never visits unless there’s something in it for him."
Qin Jingzhou put his arm around his daughter’s shoulders and hit the speaker. "What is it?"
Gu Sheng’s voice came through clearly. "I have something to ask you."
Qin Jingzhou was quite calm as he told his daughter, "You might bear a little grudge against me, but he actually hates me."
Mi Xiaoxiao gave a small snort. She didn’t bother holding back anymore. "In his eyes, everyone owes him something."
Gu Sheng’s tone changed a little. "Mi Xiaoxiao moved in with you?! You two…"
Qin Jingzhou interrupted him. "Come over." Then he hung up.
Less than ten minutes later, the doorbell rang.
That’s right: Gu Sheng had been calling his father from right outside the neighborhood. He never considered that his father might not want to see him. As for his father telling him to "come over"… it wasn’t enough to throw him off; he still had to put on his usual sullen face as he entered.
No matter what kind of face he pulled, though, Qin Jingzhou and Mi Xiaoxiao wouldn’t pay him any mind.
He stood in the entryway for a while, but as no one acknowledged him, he finally had to start the conversation, getting straight to the point. "What’s with this post of yours on Mechanical Heaven?! Are you actually scamming money from the Zhao Family now?!"
He had barely finished speaking when a cold glint flashed before his eyes. He instinctively dodged to the side, then turned for a closer look—a gleaming steel plate was embedded in the entryway wall.
Turning back toward the living room, he saw his father sitting on the sofa with something that looked like a handheld thermometer in his hand, smiling at him. Then, from a plastic bag on the coffee table, he picked out another steel plate the length of a forearm and began loading it onto the "thermometer."
Gu Sheng’s mind went blank for a second, but at least his reactions were quick enough. "Dad, I misspoke. You’d never scam anyone…"
Wait a sec, wasn’t that the prototype of some kind of anti-gravity launcher from a sci-fi movie?! Damn, his dad might actually be able to custom-make exclusive prosthetics for Zhao Er! Maybe all those flowery compliments from Zhao Er in the post hadn’t even been exaggerated!
He had to admit, even as an old-school, melodramatic overbearing CEO, his father’s IQ and EQ were always on point.
Mi Xiaoxiao, seeing her cheap brother so frightened he nearly dove for cover with a white face, clapped excitedly. "Daddy, six out of six!"
Qin Jingzhou smiled at his daughter, then stood up and looked at Gu Sheng. "I was just thinking: why do you dare to talk to me this way?"
Mi Xiaoxiao immediately chimed in. "Because he thinks you’re a pushover, Dad. Easy to bully."
Qin Jingzhou smiled again. "Right. After all, he’s the absolute major shareholder and president of Gu Group, and he’s my only son. I thought it over. If he doesn’t show me respect or courtesy, it must be because I haven’t given him enough beatings. Well, now I can remedy that."
As soon as he finished, the thin steel plate in his hand rapidly twisted and transformed on the pusher until it became... a crude metal slipper. He pressed the button on the pusher.
The metal slipper shot straight at Gu Sheng.
Unlike the steel plate earlier, which was merely a warning, this slipper gave Gu Sheng no time to react. It slammed into his upper abdomen. The slipper hit the floor with a crisp clink, while Gu Sheng clutched his stomach and dropped to one knee. So this was what a "gut-kicking" felt like?!
Even though he got kicked, there was at least something to gain.
Gu Sheng mused to himself: Ling Yu sure was good at targeting people... Sometimes it seemed even his own son didn’t know his dad as well as Ling Yu did. Thinking of Ling Yu’s professional background in hotel management, and those ever-inventive suggestions of hers, especially several that had drastically increased material utilization and cut costs—he’d been suspicious for a while, and now he was all but certain: something was very off about Ling Yu.
He slowly stood up, and realizing his father was no longer who he used to be, didn’t dare try to stall. Instead, he remained where he was and told him exactly why he’d come.
Qin Jingzhou leaned against the back of the sofa and asked, "So what do you want to do?"
Gu Sheng answered quietly, "She might be a big fish."
A dogfight, huh? Nothing wrong with that. Qin Jingzhou waved his hand. "Get out."
Hearing his father’s impatient tone, Gu Sheng realized today was definitely not the day for any family bonding—he took off in a hurry.
Mi Xiaoxiao stood by the window, watched her brother drive away, and finally asked her father, "Dad, do you think he’ll just swallow this?"
"He’s not stupid. He already saw the value of the tech in my hands. Before he gets his cut, he won’t turn on me no matter what." Qin Jingzhou reminded his daughter, "Even presidents have performance quotas to meet."
Mi Xiaoxiao let out a barely audible sigh, then said, "Next, he’ll do his best to cozy up to you…"
"Exactly," Qin Jingzhou said as he went on sorting materials from a plastic bag. "But that depends on whether I allow him to cozy up."
Mi Xiaoxiao’s eyes widened.
Qin Jingzhou grinned. "You’re the one I’ve chosen as my heir. Our family may not have an imperial throne, but I’ve got plenty of patents."
Mi Xiaoxiao: …
She couldn’t hold it in any longer—she burst into tears.