Return of the Antagonistic Lady Boss

Yu Minglang reached out to stop the fat woman.

"Sis, if you’ve got something to say, say it properly. Don’t hit the kid."

"You don’t know, this brat’s not my own. His dad’s a murderer, got arrested and sentenced to life. We only took him in ’cause he had nowhere to go, but look at him—rotten from the top down. We pity him, and this is how he works for us?"

Hearing the fat boss lady, the kid’s eyes filled with tears, but he forced them not to fall. From the look on his face, he obviously hated hearing her talk about his biological father, yet he had no strength to argue.

Brutal reality had already taught a half-grown child what it means to compromise with life.

"The adults’ mess—don’t drag the kid into it. At his age he shouldn’t be working in the first place."

Yu Minglang couldn’t stand the woman’s domineering arrogance, but he thought it through—if he jumped in now and offended her, once they left she’d definitely beat the boy even worse. So he forced down his irritation and spoke mildly.

"Bro, that’s where you don’t get it. The old saying goes: dragons birth dragons, phoenixes birth phoenixes, and a rat’s son knows how to dig holes. His dad did every bad thing under the sun and finally got what he deserved. We’re his guardians now. If we don’t want him turning out just like his dad, we have to keep him on a tight leash."

Even talking to customers, the boss lady was holding back a bit, and it was still this nasty. You could imagine how much more vicious she was with the kid when no one was around.

Hearing her harp on about his father again, the child suddenly turned and bolted. The furious woman pointed after him and cursed.

"You little bastard, don’t come back if you run! Wild spawn that got born but never raised!"

The whole scene played out right in front of Yu Minglang and the others, and even little Panpan sitting next to Da Yi saw it clearly. Panpan’s face changed on the spot.

The boss lady seemed ready to chase after the boy, but Yu Minglang blocked her.

"Sis, don’t hit him. We’ll buy whatever he got dirty, but you have to promise you won’t hit him anymore."

Qian rolled her eyes. See? This guy’s saint complex is acting up again!

What a waste of that overbearing-CEO face, and he spends his days doing stuff only bleeding hearts bother with!

But then she thought about it: in her previous life, wasn’t her bond with Yu Minglang also born from this exact saint complex of his?

Back then Qian had tried to jump in the river and end it all, and it was Yu Minglang who saved her.

Thinking of that, she suddenly didn’t feel so put off by his habit of casually throwing money around.

Hearing Yu Minglang offer to pay, the boss lady’s face lit up like a flower. "You can tell at a glance you’re not ordinary folk—such a good heart. All right then, if you cover his tab, I won’t hit him. This way, please."

As she turned, she muttered to herself, "Kids that aren’t your own just don’t stick, you can’t raise them tame. Say a few words to him and he runs off. In a bit I’ll have to tell his ’Da’ to drag him back."

"Da" was probably the local way of saying "Dad." After coming to this house, the boy had been made to call the boss and his wife "Da" and "Niang," but even with the new titles, they never treated him as family.

On the way down the stairs, the boss lady kept habitually grumbling about how kids shouldn’t be raised for other people, and so on. Seeing this, Qian left Da Yi and Panpan upstairs and followed Yu Minglang down.

At the register, Qian leaned close to the boss lady’s ear and whispered something. The woman’s face instantly turned green.

"Are you serious?!"

"Serious. We come here a lot, we see more than most. Be better to that kid. He must’ve seen something, worries about you too much, that’s why he got distracted and messed up. Think about it: he may not be your biological son, but he still worries about you. If you keep beating him, when you’re old and have no one to depend on, who exactly are you hoping will be there for you?"

"Yes, yes, I’ll think it over carefully..." One sentence from Qian made the boss lady’s expression shift and her heart soften. She even muttered under her breath, "Looks like I really shouldn’t be beating that kid all the time from now on."

Yu Minglang stared at Qian, stunned. Dear, what on earth did you feed her?

Qian tilted her chin proudly. Brainwashing people is my specialty. Way more efficient than you throwing money around to play saint and getting fleeced.

On the way down, Panpan clearly looked much dimmer than before. It was obvious she’d taken everything in.

On the way home, Qian grabbed a big bunch of skewers her man had bought—the ones that had fallen on the ground—and the two of them walked along the road looking for stray cats and dogs.

"Wife, why do you have to take them with you? Can’t we just toss them?" Yu Minglang only wanted to hurry home and make a baby with his wife, but she insisted on packing up the skewers he’d just paid for, so now the two of them were traipsing along the street hunting for animals.

"Walk a bit further ahead, there should be plenty of strays in the park— I’d rather feed cats and dogs than leave them for that fat woman. Can’t you tell? The moment we walk out, she’ll grab the skewers right back, do some random ’processing,’ and keep selling them."

That was Qian’s temperament—she had money, but she never let anyone take advantage of her for free. Since Yu Minglang had bought the skewers, they were getting packed up and taken away. If people couldn’t eat them, then animals would.

Yu Minglang thought about it and had to admit she had a point. He’d stirred up the mess, so he should follow his wife’s lead with the aftermath. Thinking about what happened at the barbecue place, he couldn’t help asking:

"Qian, what exactly did you say to her?"

For a boss lady that fierce to suddenly change attitude after a few whispered words?

"Actually, nothing much. I just told her that last time we came, her husband was flirting with one of the waitresses, and that kid happened to see it and snapped a few lines at the waitress. After that, the whole staff started ganging up on him."

"...So you just shifted the conflict and stirred up trouble with rumors?!" Yu Minglang was floored. That little face looked so honest—how did everything out of her mouth come out like this?

"It’s not exactly a rumor. We’ve eaten at that place often. You’ve seen what kind of man that boss is. Even if nothing’s actually going on with the waitress, there’s no way he hasn’t copped a feel or two. These guys who claw their way up from the bottom and become small-time bosses love that kind of crap."

Wasn’t her estranged father Chen Lin exactly like that? He opened a shop and hooked up with the waitress Qu Xue. Qian had run into this barbecue boss a few times—his look toward that waitress was obviously different.

She’d just made good use of that and shifted the conflict a bit. With any luck, from now on the boss lady might not treat the foster kid like her own, but she’d at least stop beating and cursing him at will. She’d definitely want to plant an informant to keep an eye on her husband; if the boy had any brains, he could work that angle and save himself some pain.

When they reached the park, they really did find a few stray dogs. Qian stripped the meat off all the skewers and scattered it on the ground, and within moments dogs started trotting over.

"Wife, I feel like I’m always seeing you feed cats and dogs. Do you like small animals? Want to keep one too? I’ve been sick of Yv Gang for ages. His wife’s got this little Pekingese, she walks that dog every day, and that guy struts around like he owns the world. Let’s get a big dog and have ours chase his down and bite it, how’s that?"

"Childish! No way. Pets are absolutely not allowed in the house."

Qian thought to herself: raising him alone is already exhausting. He’s got endless brainless moments as it is. Add a cat or dog on top of that, and it’d be enough to drive anyone over the edge.

Seeing how firm she was, Yu Minglang dropped it and just helped her feed the dogs. Once they were about done, Qian pulled out some tissues, wiped the grease off her hands, and was just about to toss them in a trash can when she suddenly heard someone crying.