Chapter 183 - 179: Wimp x Pure-hearted Little Overlord 18

Chapter 183: Chapter 179: Wimp x Pure-hearted Little Overlord 18

"Mr. Xu, you’re certainly early."

The butler opened the door, holding a black umbrella just high enough that its edge didn’t touch Xu Ji’s head.

On the second floor, Ji Yao hid behind the curtains. Peeking through a gap, she watched Xu Ji trudge through the uncleared snow, one unsteady step after another. He wore a camel-colored scarf, and a small section of loose, sagging skin was visible on his neck.

Ji Yao suddenly snatched the scissors from her vanity and pressed them to her own throat.

Just then, Li Liping burst in. The mirror reflected her face, which had instantly turned deathly pale.

Ji Yao said through her tears, "Mom, I’d rather die..."

"Put that down!"

Ji Fu shoved the door open and rushed in, knocking the scissors from her hand with a single motion.

The bronze handles of the scissors hit the marble floor with a sharp CLANG.

Immediately after, Ji Yao’s arms were twisted behind her back, and she was forced down in front of the vanity mirror.

Her messy hair stuck to her tear-streaked face, and her eyes were red and swollen.

In the mirror, she could see Ji Fu’s twisted face. He said viciously, "You think death will solve everything? Believe it or not, I’ll have your mother take your place in that coffin."

Down in the living room, Xu Ji caught the familiar scent of Chanel N°5 and froze for a moment.

He only snapped out of it when he saw Ji Yao being escorted downstairs by two bodyguards.

Ji Yao’s face was pale, buried in her mink-fur collar. Her wrists were covered in black and blue bruises from being grabbed. She looked more like an imprisoned criminal than he, the supposedly unlucky and down-on-his-luck man, did.

"Yaoyao is just throwing a little tantrum."

Li Liping explained as she poured tea for Xu Ji with a trembling hand, splashing scalding water onto the antique coffee table. "She’s always been timid, ever since she was little. She used to be scared of cockroaches..."

"I understand."

Xu Ji cut her off and took a velvet box out of his briefcase. "The wedding ring I gave Jiang Manyun was taken back long ago. I bought this one on the street this morning."

In the morning light, the platinum ring inside the box glinted coldly. The initials of its previous owner were still engraved on the inner band.

In the corridor of the Civil Affairs Bureau, the radiator let out a HISSING sound.

Ji Yao suddenly broke free from the bodyguards and bolted for the emergency exit.

Xu Ji had anticipated this. He immediately stepped in her way. The impact made him stumble, but he used the momentum to wrap an arm around Ji Yao’s waist, saying with false concern, "Careful, don’t fall."

He leaned close to Ji Yao’s ear and said with a cold smirk, "I hear Jiang Manyun is investigating that business with the fake medicine you endorsed?"

Ji Yao froze on the spot, not daring to move.

Xu Ji used his snow-dampened cuff to wipe the tears from her face and continued, "What’s so bad about being Mrs. Xu? At the very least, I can make sure all those rotten affairs of your father’s—his past of murder and arson—stay buried."

With that, he gently brushed his thumb over Ji Yao’s trembling lips. "Be a good girl. Smile."

Just as the camera flash went off, Ji Yao saw Li Liping, who was outside the glass door, turn her face away.

As the heavy THUD of the official seal came down, Ji Yao’s mind drifted back to her seventeenth birthday party. Back then, her laughter was constant.

That day, Xu Ji had given her a diamond-studded butterfly hairpin. But on that very same day, Ji Xiaosong was in the attic with a high fever, completely ignored.

The more arrogant and domineering she had been back then, the more miserable and wretched she was now.

The moment they received the marriage certificate, Ji Fu snatched it away.

The red ink from the official seal on the certificate wasn’t even dry yet, but Ji Fu was already holding it up to the daylight and taking a picture of the inner page.

When the camera flash illuminated Xu Ji’s puffy eyebags, he deliberately used the shadow of his thumb to obscure half of his son-in-law’s face.

"See, Xiaosong? Daddy does what he says."

Xu Ji suddenly spoke up. "Father-in-law, since Yaoyao and I are married now, we should just move in here with you."

Ji Fu ignored Xu Ji, pressing the send button with a cold smile.

After returning home, he turned and tossed Xu Ji’s briefcase to a servant. "Old Chen, take Mr. Xu to the laundry room in the backyard. And teach him how to use a washboard. The son-in-law of the Jiang Family has probably never seen such old-fashioned things."

Xu Ji stood motionless at the foot of the spiral staircase. He toyed with a snagged thread on the Persian Carpet with his finger and said, "Yaoyao is afraid of the dark. We’ll take her south-facing room on the second floor."

"That’s the dog’s room!"

Li Liping shrieked, cutting him off. But under Ji Fu’s sinister glare, she quickly corrected herself, "I mean... Yaoyao is allergic to dog fur..."

"Then clear out the pool’s changing room."

Xu Ji suddenly ripped open his collar, revealing a scratch on his collarbone that hadn’t healed yet. "Perfect for the media to snap some juicy post-wedding gossip. Didn’t you get your first round of funding back in the day by leveraging gossip about you and the Shen Family, Father-in-law?"

The veins on Ji Fu’s forehead throbbed.

He thought of the yacht the bank had repossessed last month. Half a case of gold, which he hadn’t had time to move, was still hidden in its cabin.

And now, this troublesome bastard was grinding the tip of his shoe over a hidden compartment under the carpet, where a valuable gift for a certain important figure was locked away.

"Take my son-in-law to the west wing guest room."

Ji Fu squeezed the words out through gritted teeth, then turned to his phone with a cold sneer. "Xiaosong, your brother-in-law says he wants to be the model son-in-law."

Late that night, Xu Ji shuffled into the kitchen, wearing Li Liping’s fluffy slippers.

He deliberately overcooked the frozen dumplings until they turned into a mushy soup, all while humming an off-key rendition of *The Drunken Imperial Concubine* and banging the ladle loud enough to wake the dead.

When the on-duty bodyguard rushed in, he found Xu Ji pouring an entire jar of caviar down the drain.

"You wastrel!"

Ji Fu, drawn by the commotion, hurried over and raised a hand to slap him.

Xu Ji, his fingers smeared with black caviar, ran a hand over the antique dining cabinet. "Jiang Manyun always loved this cabinet. She said you could smell the tormented souls seeping out of the red sandalwood."

He suddenly leaned close to Ji Fu’s ear and whispered, "Just like the evidence of your past murders and arsons in your safe?"

Xu Ji was not an easy man to deal with. Having been married to Jiang Manyun for years, there wasn’t a dirty trick he hadn’t used.

This was just a fallen family, after all. Not so powerful that he couldn’t get them under his thumb.

Ji Fu stood frozen, his eyes filled with murderous intent.

Three days later, the butler found that Xu Ji had set up a mahjong table in the garden gazebo.

To his left sat Ji Yao, whose allowance had been cut off. To his right was a plumber who had come to fix the pipes.

Xu Ji himself was lounging with his legs crossed, gnawing on a watermelon. Bright red juice dripped into Ji Fu’s prized koi pond.

"Three Dots!"

Xu Ji spat out a watermelon seed, hitting the surface of the water. "Care to play a round or two, Father-in-law? I hear you were quite the legend in the casinos back in your day."

He deliberately dragged out his words, watching Ji Fu’s face go from ashen to livid. Suddenly, he pushed his tiles forward. "Mahjong! As for Yaoyao’s gambling debt to me..."

He grabbed Ji Yao’s hand and slammed it on the table. "Your penalty will be to call Jiang Manyun tonight and ask if she still wants that case of jewelry she left abroad."

The koi in the pond suddenly thrashed, shattering the reflection of the crescent moon on the rippling water.

"You monster! What the hell do you want?"

Ji Fu couldn’t take it anymore. He strode forward to kick Xu Ji, but probably because he was too old, he threw out his back instead.

"What do I want? Heh. I just want to live out my golden years in peace, my dear Father-in-law!"