008 Stifling Birth-Giving Soup_1

Inside the apartment.

Jiang's mother was cooking dinner when she heard Jiang Doudou's cries. She wiped her hands and came out of the kitchen to find a small figure rushing into her arms, crying earth-shatteringly loud.

Jiang Xi stood at the door, pulled out her keys, and glared at Jiang Doudou's tiny back, shouting, "Stop pretending, I hardly even touched you."

"Mrs. Luo, Jiang Xi hit me, and it really hurt," Jiang Doudou tattled.

He looked up, tears rolling down his cheeks, which made Jiang's mother's heart ache. She quickly picked him up and said, "Doudou, be good, don't cry. Jiang Xi, what are you yelling for? He's only so young. Can't you teach him properly without getting physical?"

Jiang Xi closed the door and walked in, dropping onto the sofa with a huff, "Mom, you're just too indulgent with him. Do you know what he did at kindergarten today? He hit another kid."

"So he hit someone, just go apologize and that's it," Jiang's mother defended, losing sight of any principles at the sight of Jiang Doudou crying.

"Easy for you to say. Do you know who he hit today? It was a child from the Rong Family of the prestigious North Rong and South Ye clans. If they decide to pursue it, they could crush us with a flick of their finger," Jiang Xi snapped angrily.

Jiang's mother knew which Rong Family she was talking about. She was defiant at first, but now she also felt a bit unnerved, "Kids fighting is normal, isn't it? Besides, how much damage can Doudou possibly do at his age? Even if they are the Rongs, they can't just be unreasonable, right?"

Jiang Xi scoffed, "Indulgence is like killing a child. You're so unable to distinguish right from wrong, one day you'll spoil him into a scourge upon the world."

"Is it me who can't distinguish right from wrong, or do you have a bias against Doudou? Jiang Xi, have you ever asked him why he hit that kid?" Jiang's mother stared at her sternly.

She could tell that Jiang Xi didn't like Jiang Doudou.

Ever since Jiang Xi found out that Jiang Doudou was their father's posthumous child, she naturally resented the boy, and despite how well she hid it, Jiang's mother saw right through her.

It was very distressing for Jiang's mother. Several times she had wanted to tell her about Jiang Doudou's true identity, but in the end, she always had to swallow the secret back down.

She knew that once she told Jiang Xi the truth, it would turn her currently peaceful life upside down.

"I..." Jiang Xi indeed hadn't asked and found herself speechless for a moment.

Jiang Doudou, from Jiang's mother's arms, looked up, his teary eyes accusing, "Rong Jiabao wouldn't play with Yueyue and even pushed Yueyue to the ground. I told him to apologize to Yueyue, and only when he refused did I hit him. I'm not a scourge upon the world!"

"So you're saying that you were standing up for justice?" Jiang Xi sneered.

Jiang Doudou glared back, anger blazing in his bright eyes, "If you don't believe it, then forget it."

Jiang Xi, infuriated, pointed at him and complained to her mother, "Mom, look at his attitude. Does he even regard me as his sister?"

Jiang Doudou burst into loud cries with a "wah."

Jiang's mother was exhausted. She set Jiang Doudou on the sofa and yanked Jiang Xi towards the front entrance, shoving her out, "Get out, get out, stop bullying people here."

"So he cries and he's right, is that it?" Jiang Xi was pushed outside by her mother. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jiang Doudou sitting on the sofa, making faces at her. She was about to explode with anger, "Jiang Doudou, you just wait!"

Seeing her threaten the child, Jiang's mother slapped her on the back and exploded with a roar, "Jiang Xi, if you don't treat Doudou well, you'll regret it one day."

With a "bang,"

the security door closed mercilessly right in Jiang Xi's face. Jiang Xi, kicked out of her own home by her mother at dinner time, stormed off in a huff.

At the entrance of the residential compound, an armed sentry stood motionless, back ramrod straight, radiating an imposing aura without a word.

A black SUV slowly drove in and stopped in front of a three-story villa with a sizable courtyard. The back door was pushed open, and Rong Jiabao, with his large backpack, jumped out of the car and dashed through the gate.

Rong Nian caught up in a few steps, and as soon as he entered the foyer, he saw his usually elusive second brother, Rong Hechuan, sitting on the living room sofa with Rong Jiabao twisting and turning in front of him.

The atmosphere between father and son was off. When Rong Nian walked over, Rong Hechuan spoke in a deep voice, "Go upstairs and put down your schoolbag."

Rong Jiabao, as if granted amnesty, didn't dare to look at Rong Hechuan even once and quickly disappeared at the staircase.

Rong Hechuan loosened his tie and, upon seeing Rong Nian sit down opposite him, he finally spoke, "Kids these days really don't give you peace of mind."

Rong Nian's voice was low and coolly detached, "You're too harsh on Jiabao, he's still a child."

"Which child of the Rong Family wasn't strict with themselves from birth? He falls far short compared to me when I was a child," Rong Hechuan said, his tone full of disdain for his son.

"Any news from the second sister-in-law?"

Mentioning Rong Jiabao's irresponsible birth mother, Rong Hechuan's handsome face darkened, "If she's alive, she should show herself; if she's dead, there should be a body. She can't just vanish from this world into thin air."

Rong Hechuan's ex-wife, Mu Jin, left Rong Jiabao, who was still in swaddling clothes, in someone else's care and, on the day of Rong Hechuan's wedding to his first love, had the child sent to the wedding venue before disappearing without a trace.

His first love, unwilling to raise a child for Mu Jin and Rong Hechuan after their marriage, called off the wedding on the spot. The scandal also damaged Rong Hechuan's personal reputation and put a halt to his career.

As a result, every time Rong Hechuan thought of Mu Jin, he was filled with such rage that he gritted his teeth, thinking that if he found her, he would certainly flay her alive!

The atmosphere in the living room was heavy. Rong Hechuan stood up, "I'm going to check on that child."

Rong Nian followed suit, "Second Brother, I remember you have a bottle of '82 Lafite in your wine cabinet. Would you consider gifting it to me?"

Rong Hechuan looked at him in surprise. It was the first time Rong Nian had ever asked him for something since becoming an adult, and it was for a bottle of wine, "If you like it, just take it to drink. Talking about transfer hurts brotherly bonds."

A hint of a smile played on Rong Nian's lips, "Thank you, Second Brother."

Rong Hechuan turned and went upstairs, and soon a servant came down with a bottle of well-wrapped red wine and handed it to Rong Nian, who took the red wine and walked out the door.

Gu Family Villa.

Jiang Xi stood at the front gate with her bag for a good ten minutes, psyching herself up before walking in. She changed shoes at the entryway and was about to head upstairs when she saw Lady Gu sitting on the living room sofa.

In front of Lady Gu, three bowls of dark herbal medicine were laid out. Jiang Xi knew they were bowls of "fertility soup" prepared for her.

Jiang Xi stifled the urge to turn and flee, walking reluctantly toward the sofa and coming to a halt beside it, "Mom, I'm back."

"Hmm, you came back a little late today," Lady Gu said expressionlessly, gesturing to the herbal medicine, "Pick a bowl and drink it."

It had been four years since Jiang Xi married Gu Bichen, and she had been drinking this fertility soup for four years.

In fact, everyone knew that Gu Bichen had no inclination to touch her and that she couldn't possibly reproduce a child by parthenogenesis, even if she drank fertility soup every day.

Unless she had an affair!

But it's one thing for everyone to know, and it's another for Lady Gu to force her to drink the fertility soup; it was a stance, proving that it wasn't because Gu Bichen didn't touch her, but because her womb was to blame.

In the past, she might have just picked a bowl and gulped it down while holding her nose; as long as it didn't kill her, she would drink it to death's door.

But today, she felt rebellious all of a sudden and no longer wanted to aggrieve herself.