As soon as these words came out, before anyone else could react, Wen Yifeng’s face changed instantly: “What are you talking about? Don’t fabricate lies and slander people!”

Boss Jin had never liked the two big bosses of the Wen family.

Both of them, like him, were people who came from the south to develop in the Imperial Capital. Just because they arrived earlier, they put on airs even higher than the locals, as if they were somehow superior to him!

He let out an “Aiya,” as if extremely worried about the matter: “Well, it can’t be me fabricating lies. Who knows, maybe this interview is made up of lies? How about I play it for you to hear? Maybe some family made a fake interview just to smear you?”

How could Wen Yifeng and Wen Qingcai agree to this?

Before they could say anything, Boss Jin moved faster and directly played the interview audio loudly on the dinner table!

The interview got to the point extremely quickly. Before Wen Yifeng and Wen Qingcai could say anything, the question posed by the stranger reporter directly attracted the ears of the entire table.

“Mr. Wen Jr., recently many people have been curious about one thing: how exactly was a painting genius like you cultivated? There is a saying that your parents paved the entire painting path for you early on, but as far as I know, the facts seem to be otherwise?”

Wen Yifeng’s face looked terrible. He slapped the table and stood up: “Jin Xinxin! What are you doing? Can rumors like this be spread casually? Turn it off immediately!”

Boss Jin looked extremely surprised. He leaned back in his chair and looked up innocently at Wen Yifeng: “What? Yifeng, why are you so agitated? I just don’t know if this interview is a rumor or not, so I played it to let you two judge, right?”

Boss Jin spoke unhurriedly.

During the exchange, the interview playback didn’t stop and continued to play loudly.

The voice of the young man answering the questions was heard and recognized by many people at the table.

The young man’s voice answered gently and dejectedly: “In fact, regarding my painting path before this, rather than saying it was cultivated, it’s better to say it was a struggle.”

“You said, struggle?”

“Yes. In fact, until a few months ago, everything related to my painting had to be kept secret from my mom and dad—including taking Mr. Gong as my teacher and submitting the transfer application to the school. Before these things happened, I didn’t reveal a single word to them.”

“What was the reason that made you decide to hide such an important choice from your parents?”

“…Because they never supported my path of painting. More precisely, they have always been very opposed to it. Half a year ago, they almost threw away my collection of paintings—if my brother hadn’t happened to return home that day, all my early works would have been completely lost that night. Not afraid of your ridicule, I almost threw away my paintbrush completely at that time.”

Wen Yifeng couldn’t stand such embarrassing things the most in his life!

Seeing that Boss Jin didn’t stop, he was so angry that he left his seat immediately, strode halfway around the dinner table, came behind Boss Jin, and reached out to snatch the phone.

Boss Jin’s eyes widened: “Hey hey hey! What are you doing, acting tough?”

Wen Qingcai’s face was as black as the bottom of a pot. She shouted loudly: “What are you doing? Wen Yifeng!”

She was calmer than Wen Yifeng. She squeezed out a smile and said to everyone at the dinner table and Boss Jin: “Sorry, Yifeng is a bit impulsive. Sigh, this is indeed Shaozhuo’s interview, but this child has loved to go against us since he was little. He’s so rebellious and never understood our painstaking efforts as parents! …Alright Old Jin, everyone is eating properly, why play an interview? Don’t spoil everyone’s mood for the meal, put it away quickly. After the meal today, we still have to…”

While smoothing things over, she tried hard to signal Wen Yifeng with her eyes, fiercely warning him to come back quickly.

But coincidentally, just at this moment, the reporter in the interview asked something unknown, and Wen Shaozhuo’s soft and gentle voice, which faintly suppressed surging sadness, slowly said:

“Actually, this is also a misunderstanding. I never thought about going against them. If I had such thoughts and courage, I would have run away from home more than ten years ago. Why wait until now?”

“I know that the original intention of Mom and Dad making all choices must be to make me more outstanding. But judging from the results of their actions, I think they actually don’t know the real me. They don’t know what I like, don’t know what I’m thinking, and don’t think knowing my true side is important.”

“So when Brother Ah Heng appeared in my life and gave me the confidence to make changes and the courage to leave them, I felt that my life… seemed to be full of hope again.”

The answer of just a few sentences was over in the blink of an eye.

The other bosses at the dinner table seemed not to join the dispute between Wen and Jin, and there were even a few bosses who pretended to mediate. But when these words in the interview came out, the faces of several bosses at the table changed subtly on the spot.

…You know, as early as the previous few meals, they had consulted Wen Yifeng and Wen Qingcai for a lot of experience because of their self-proclaimed educational level!

But according to the current situation, is the educational experience they shared reliable or not?!

Those capable of becoming bosses to this level on their own, who isn’t extremely proud inside?

Being fooled like fools, being used as NPCs for others to show off, and even this whole process was seen by other bosses…

For a time, the atmosphere at the dinner table became strangely stiff.

After all, shrewd people are shrewd people. The Wen family has a big business, and they wouldn’t fall out with each other just because of this small matter.

But this frustration and anger had to be vented somewhere.

So that night, many bosses who were not familiar with the Wen couple ate a mouthful of the Wen family’s gossip for various reasons.

“…Clang!”

The glass was smashed to the ground and shattered into pieces.

Wen Qingcai was extremely angry about what happened today: “Listen to what they are discussing now?! Something that happened only an hour ago has now reached the ears of our good neighbors!”

Wen Yifeng was also very angry about this matter. He immediately grabbed his phone and called Wen Siheng: “What is going on with Shaozhuo accepting an interview?! Your behavior has seriously damaged the reputation of the Wen family. Plus the fact that you took Shaozhuo to transfer schools without permission before and taught him to follow crooked ways, guess how much you will have to pay if this matter goes to court?!”

However, facing his angry questioning, Wen Siheng was extremely surprised: “What? The Wen family’s reputation rights? Oh, Mr. Wen, this matter actually has nothing to do with me. This interview was Shaozhuo’s own wish to accept! Besides, the contract project task given to me by my boss didn’t include a clause that Shaozhuo must stay in the School of Finance?”

Wen Yifeng couldn’t reason with this worker Wen Siheng!

So he hung up the phone angrily and went to find Lin Chen.

But he didn’t expect that this ball surnamed Lin kicked even more smoothly: “Aiya, I’ve heard about this matter too. It was my employee who wasn’t considerate enough. I have deducted all his bonuses for this quarter. However, the transfer matter cannot be blamed on us. Originally, there was no such item in the contract project. You two can’t not pay and yet want us to include it in the scope of tasks, right?”

How agitated and angry Wen Yifeng and Wen Qingcai were, the neighbor couple didn’t know at this moment.

They heard about the neighbor Wen couple and Little Wen, and sighed and chatted about this matter in their own garden for a while.

The hostess was somewhat worried: “I said before when Little Siheng came over, why would he make such a request to us… Sigh, Little Wen is such a good child, forced to the point of running away from home now. They really are…”

The hostess shook her head in disappointment. She hesitated for a moment and called her husband together: “Are the cookies in the house baked? Let’s bring some and go sit at their house. I’ll talk to Qingcai. Consider it fulfilling Little Siheng’s request. Otherwise, if they are like this, when can Little Wen return home?”

The neighbor’s visit surprised Wen’s dad and mom a bit.

However, they quickly restrained their temper and impulsiveness, and smilingly greeted the neighbor couple into the house.

The neighbor couple were older than them, and their achievements back then were also quite brilliant. They had also helped them a lot on their path of business expansion over the years, so they could be said to be senior-like existences.

After a few pleasantries, the neighbor quickly cut to the chase.

The neighbor hostess gently informed them of the interview turmoil about their family she had heard. After simply understanding the situation in a few sentences and discovering the anger hidden under the politeness of the Wen couple, she calmly comforted them with a couple of sentences, and then said: “Thinking from another angle, is it really that important for him to achieve success in business? For this goal, you wouldn’t hesitate to make him become enemies with you?”

The word “enemies” was too harsh.

Wen Qingcai subconsciously wanted to refute: “Enemies? How could it reach this stage? Yifeng and I are clearly doing it for his own good…”

The neighbor hostess asked gently: “Has it really not reached this stage? But why did I hear that since Little Wen ran away from home, he is not even willing to see you?”

The neighbor hostess spoke in a way that made people feel like a spring breeze, very gentle, but sometimes, this gentleness would be accompanied by incisive judgments, piercing sharply into people’s hearts.

Like now.

“Qingcai, think carefully. Are you doing it for Little Wen’s good, or do you want to use Little Wen’s achievements to prove your abilities? Yifeng, you too. Do you want to cultivate Little Wen into a capable person, or do you want Little Wen to help you earn face outside?”

The neighbor hostess said gently: “You guys, if someone treated you like this now, you would definitely be unhappy and would resist too. So how can you blame Little Wen?”

The neighbor hostess’s words were really too gentle and too direct. Wen’s dad and mom fell silent, which was rare.

Using Shaozhuo to prove themselves, using Shaozhuo to earn face.

…How is it not?

They tried every means to deny this point, but found that they had no place to deny it.

But this wasn’t the most terrible thing.

The most terrible thing was that when they were forced to admit this in their hearts, the words Shaozhuo used to “rebelliously” accuse them over and over again during this past period, including the words they heard in the interview at the dinner today, surged uncontrollably from the deepest layer of memory.

…After leaving them, life regained hope?

…Is he treating them as enemies?

No…

Not right…

This is definitely not right…

How could things be like this?!

…

Wen Shaozhuo felt that his recent life was very abnormal.

The reporters who chased him chattering every day a while ago disappeared.

Instead, the ones blocking him on his way to and from school every day became his mom and dad?!

Wen Shaozhuo found it hard to describe his feelings when he first saw them at the school gate.

Fortunately, Brother Ah Heng also came to find him that day.

He almost reflexively shook his head and ran directly towards his brother, using all his strength to prevent himself from hiding behind his brother. He grabbed his brother’s wrist tightly, and then stared vigilantly in the direction of his mom and dad.

Wen Shaozhuo didn’t know why, but mom and dad’s faces became very distorted at that moment, and they even glared at his brother as if somewhat angry.

But brother…

Hmm?

Wen Shaozhuo was suddenly pulled forcefully behind his brother. His vision blurred, and he was stuffed behind his brother.

Naturally, he didn’t see.

After pulling him behind, Wen Siheng smiled at the Wen couple, and at the same time said smilingly to them with lip language: Don’t~be~anxious~

…

Lin Chen of course knew what Wen’s dad and mom were planning.

He had told them the truth through the mouths of countless people, and they had reflected on themselves, but at this age, their educational methods had become habits over so many years. It was unrealistic to expect them to make any fundamental changes in a short time.

Because of the existence of public opinion, Ah Shao’s painting path had become a safe path that they couldn’t forcibly cut off as long as they still cherished their face.

However, according to their consistent educational philosophy, since they were forced to accept this path, they naturally wanted to strive to pave Ah Shao’s painting path with the shadows of resources and connections.

But before doing so, they faced a very realistic dilemma—

Wen Shaozhuo was simply unwilling to meet them!

So what to do?

Wen Siheng: “In principle, I won’t be responsible for tasks outside the contract project… What? Bypass our boss and give me extra money and items separately? …You know, I’m not completely for money… What? Continue adding money? Oh, I have a soft heart, and I can’t stand the deep estrangement between parents and children the most…”

That’s what he said.

But considering the stubbornness of the parents and Ah Shao’s personal wishes, Lin Chen cautiously signed an extremely conservative advisory treaty.

The most conservative part of the treaty was that he refused to make exact guarantees about the relationship between Wen Shaozhuo and them during his remaining term.

Wen Siheng: “I won’t charge you sixty million either. How about this—if Ah Shao really refuses to see you, then I’ll help you succeed in meeting once, charging six million. If you meet him ten times and fail to make Ah Shao let go of the past and accept you again, then it’s not my problem… I sincerely believe that you two definitely won’t reach that stage, right? This deal is very cost-effective, right?”

Wen’s dad and mom: …Strange, why does this statement sound so familiar?

But whether it was cost-effective or not, Wen’s dad and mom could only sign it.

After signing the supplementary contract, Lin Chen was busy for a while.

But as Wen Shaozhuo’s schoolwork gradually became busy, and the frequency of flying around the country with Dean Gong increased further, Lin Chen rarely obtained a formal rest time after coming to the Wen family.

…Maybe it could be counted as rest.

“Knock knock knock—”

Lin Chen was sitting by the window reading a book when a light knocking sound suddenly came from the side.

Lin Chen sighed helplessly and lightly. He closed the book, looked up, turned his head, and looked out the window.

“Little Landlord Cheng, this is already the tenth time you’ve come to collect rent this month.”

He casually rested one elbow on the windowsill, lifted the window halfway with his fingertips, and asked with a half-smile: “What, seeing that Ah Shao and I have ample funds, you want to raise the rent on the spot?”