"No, I don’t want to!" Xu Meimei let out a piercing scream.
Dong Min and Dong Fei moved their mouths but ultimately didn’t dare to object.
Shen Chi just now was too frightening.
Zhou Jincai was led in by two soldiers in crisp uniforms, his whole body shivering, in a state of panic and unease.
—Anyone roused from their sleep at home and snatched up by two expressionless soldiers would not remain calm.
"Is, is this Zhou Jincai?" Dong Fei asked with a trembling voice.
"What else did you think?" Jiang Tao said with a faint smile.
The man in front of them wore an old, dark cyan jacket, his hair a tangled mess, of average height with a sleazy appearance, and when he heard Dong Fei mention his name, he instinctively smiled obsequiously, revealing yellow teeth.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" Xu Meimei began to scream hysterically, her voice breaking as she said, "I’ll go to the mental hospital, I don’t want to marry him!"
Dong Min couldn’t bear it and hesitated, "Mr. Shen, don’t you think this man is a bit too old? Compared to my niece..." It was impossible for her to go to a mental hospital, if they really let her go, their Dong Family’s daughter would be unable to marry, and they couldn’t afford to lose that face.
"So you do understand this principle?" Shen Chi spoke leisurely, "But did you forget? I’m even older than he is."
"Your niece doesn’t scorn me, an old man close to fifty, so this gentleman, I reckon, isn’t even in his forties, right?" Perhaps their expressions were too miserable, which actually seemed to put Shen Chi in a better mood, though he still kept one arm around Lin Xiaoguai.
"I’m 34 years old this year." Zhou Jincai didn’t understand what was happening but responded automatically.
"I think this age is quite suitable. Remember, Xu Meimei is 23 this year; an 11-year gap isn’t that big. My wife and I also have a ten-year difference," Shen Chi spoke kindly.
Dong Min was left speechless; Shen Chi had made himself clear, what more could he say?
He surely couldn’t say that because you’re in a high position, even fifty or eighty years old would still be better than this bachelor, could he?
"Uncle?" Realizing Dong Min’s decision, Xu Meimei stared blankly at him and then shrieked, "Uncle, I don’t want to marry this man, you can’t make me marry him. I only like Shen Chi, I won’t marry anyone else!"
While she spoke, she reached out to grab Dong Min’s trouser leg, looking over with hopeful eyes.
"Meimei..." Dong Fei squatted beside her, sighed, and said, "Your uncle and I naturally want you to be happy, but... there are a lot of other things to consider. If you go to the mental hospital, then your cousin’s life at her in-laws’ will suffer, and your younger cousin still needs a family. We really have to consider all this." The Dong Family, being in the business, didn’t have to follow the official policy of not having more than one child, and since they were not short of money, they had a few more children.
"Additionally..." Dong Fei hesitated, then said, "After all, he is the child’s biological father, marrying him would be good for the child too."
"What child! I don’t have a child, that’s just a bastard! It has nothing to do with me, it’s not mine," Xu Meimei said agitatedly.
Zhou Jincai suddenly lowered his head to look at Xu Meimei, and after a moment, with a dawning expression, said, "You are that woman from that night!"
Having said that, he suddenly realized what he had done to Xu Meimei and looked around at the people with a frightened face—
"You, are you here for revenge against me?" he said with a quivering voice: "It wasn’t just me involved in the matter, why are you only coming for me? And the one who came up with the idea wasn’t me, it was..."
"Don’t speak, don’t you dare speak!" Xu Meimei, who had been lying powerlessly on the ground, suddenly lunged at him, viciously choking his neck shouting, "I told you to talk nonsense! I told you to talk nonsense!"
Lin Xiaoguai was somewhat speechless; did Xu Meimei have an addiction to choking people?
Zhou Jincai was startled as well, but after all, he was a grown man, and Xu Meimei, having been thrown against the shoe cabinet by Shen Chi, was not lightly injured, so her strength was far less than before. Quickly, her hand was pried away by him.
"What I said is true, you were drunk so you might not remember, but there were five or six others who slept with you, all people I knew, and if you don’t believe me, we can call them over," he defended loudly, thinking Xu Meimei didn’t believe him.
The room went silent for a moment, until the low laughter of Shen Chi broke through.
Lin Xiaoguai poked him disapprovingly; although she couldn’t muster up sympathy for Xu Meimei either, wasn’t it a bit too much to gloat so brazenly?