Chapter 7: It was you who provoked me first.

After Lin Xu finished buying clothes, she went to look at shoes and bags. Just when she was about to excitedly move on to jewelry, Ji Tingyang immediately stopped her.

"It's already noon. Aren't you hungry? Let's go eat something before we continue shopping. Otherwise, you'll have no energy to walk later."

Lin Xu didn't feel it at first, but upon hearing him say that, she felt her stomach growling. "Okay, let's go have lunch then."

Ji Tingyang silently breathed a sigh of relief.

The driver had already been waiting at the entrance of the mall, and the two headed straight for the car.

All of a sudden, the immense electronic screen on the building opposite the mall switched displays, and a handsome man with distinct facial features appeared on the screen. He lifted the corners of his lips into a charming smile and gently kissed the perfume bottle he held to his lips.

In an instant, he captivated the women passing by on the street, leaving them wishing it was they whom he kissed.

"Ah! It's Ji Zeqiu!"

"Honey, don't kiss it, kiss me!"

"If I use this perfume, rounding up, doesn't that mean my husband is kissing me? Ah!! I'm going to buy them all!"

The screams echoed through the crowd, each one underscoring just how popular Ji Zeqiu was.

Lin Xu stared at the face on the screen that resembled Ji Tingyang by about sixty to seventy percent and zoned out for a while, "Is that... Zeqiu?"

Ji Tingyang saw the figure on the screen as well. With an indifferent expression, he pursed his lips and acknowledged with a "Hmm."

"Is Zeqiu now a big star? That's amazing."

While Lin Xu was unconscious, she only saw glimpses of some events her three children went through and their eventual outcomes; she knew nothing else.

During these days, Ji Tingyang never mentioned his brother or sister, so the things she could know about became even less.

But she never expected the little baby who used to be held in his mother's arms all day to become an overnight celebrity known to every household.

Lin Xu excitedly turned her gaze back to the electronic screen, wanting to get a longer look at her youngest son's handsome face. However, the advertisement didn't last long and soon switched to another one.

On the way to lunch, Lin Xu kept searching for information about Ji Zeqiu on her phone.

It detailed the difficult times from his debut to his rise to fame, and the more she read, the more furrowed her brows became.

Lin Xu was saddened not to have been part of her children's growing up, so she looked at these materials very seriously. She tried to imprint these matters in her mind, then deceive herself, as if she had been part of their experiences.

However, she looked too focused on the information and didn't notice the complex expression that flashed across Ji Tingyang's face several times as if he was about to say something but then hesitated.

When Lin Xu's gaze landed on the entertainment company that Ji Zeqiu belonged to and realized that it was Chenxing Entertainment, she suddenly lifted her head and looked at Ji Tingyang's pupils with a hint of shock and confusion.

"Chenxing is our family group's competitor, isn't it?"

In her memory, Chenxing had always been a rival of the Ji Group. Had the rivals been acquired by the Ji Group over the years?

"Yes." Ji Tingyang's word dashed her last illusion.

"Why would Zeqiu be at Chenxing? The Ji Family has its own entertainment company too, doesn't it?"

Lin Xu had always thought that Ji Zeqiu debuted under the Ji Family's subsidiary entertainment company. That's why when she read how difficult and tough his path to fame was, she felt both heartache and confusion.

Why would it be so difficult at his own family's company, when Ji Tingyang was clearly there to back him up?

All became clear to her after seeing the company Ji Zeqiu belonged to.

Ji Tingyang, under Lin Xu's probing gaze, let his eyes fall on the sharp edge of a knife on the dining table, silent.

"Did you have a fight?"

The last time Ji Tingyang mentioned that his youngest son and daughter seldom came back home to stay, she had already begun to wonder. Now, with Ji Tingyang's taciturn attitude, her suspicions seemed to be confirmed.

Thinking about the plot in the novel, Lin Xu suddenly had a suspicion.

Could it be because of Wen Li?

She remembered that the plot said both antagonistic sons favored Wen Li, leading to a rift between the brothers?

The more Lin Xu thought about it, the more she felt she had uncovered the truth.

---

With her mind preoccupied, Lin Xu had no mood for shopping in the afternoon and asked the driver to turn back to the villa.

This let Ting Yang breathe a sigh of relief; he wouldn't have to endure the torment of shopping anymore.

He couldn't understand how his father had managed before, able to shop all day with his mother without showing any signs of tiredness.

His necktie was loose around his neck, adding a few points of lazy charm to his handsome appearance.

Ting Yang lifted his foot to head to the bedroom but changed direction as his gaze reached the door at the end of the hallway.

He pushed open the door, and Wen Li was on the phone, her back to him.

"Now that the weather's turned cold, remember to wear more clothes... Mhm, I'm fine here..."

"Let's go on a date tomorrow... As long as I'm with you, it doesn't matter where we go..."

Her face, blushing with a shy smile, was reflected in the glass of the windowsill, stinging Ting Yang's eyes.

He walked over, grabbed Wen Li's phone, and the screen shone brightly with the name Xiao Yu.

Wen Li went pale and reached out to snatch back her phone.

Ting Yang hung up before she could, angrily throwing the phone on the ground. He grabbed her chin and said fiercely,

"Wen Li, I allowed you to go out, not to date Xiao Yu."

Tears welled up in Wen Li's eyes in fright, and she choked up, "You have someone new by your side now, why can't you let me go?"

Someone new?

Ting Yang hadn't yet realized who she was referring to when he heard Wen Li continue, "Don't you already have Lin Xu? You give her your credit card, accompany her to buy clothes, why can't you just let me go?"

Ting Yang was taken aback and wanted to say that Lin Xu was just his mother. But remembering Lin Xu's youthful appearance now, that was a hard statement to believe.

He could only deny it dryly, "She, she isn't... not what you think..."

Wen Li's tears finally fell, landing on the back of his hand. With a fragile expression, she pleaded, "I beg you to let me go, there's no chance for us."

It was as if Ting Yang had been scalded by her tears, and he released his grip on her chin.

He stood there, and after a long while, he muttered brokenly, "Wen Li, you were the one who came after me in the first place."

At that time, he was dejected due to his parents' passing, with all the relatives in the Ji Family trying to seize the opportunity to carve up what his father had built in Ji's.

During that period of haze, Wen Li was the first one to approach him proactively.

"If I could turn back time, I would definitely not choose to get close to you," Wen Li said coldly, her eyes brimming with tears.

Hearing her words, Ting Yang's face turned pale, his gaze fixed on Wen Li.

After a long moment, he turned and left.

Before going out, he left one merciless word.

"I'll tell the butler that you'll be taking a day off at home tomorrow."