Strategy to Capture Men

Han Yanyan's mother returned the next day.

Had she come back a day earlier, she could have attended her daughter's celebration dinner, but she hadn't. She was interested in neither  the dinner nor it's host.

Upon seeing her own daughter, she just nodded and said "Not bad. Congratulations", before heading straight to the study. It was her lover, a little embarrassed, who greeted Han Yanyan by saying, "Long time no see - I heard that you broke through to S-class? Congratulations."

He had even prepared her a gift, better by far than her own biological mother.

She had arranged a cold marriage like this for her father and mother in this world.

She had also had parents in Qiao Wenxing's world, a loving couple who loved not only her, but also each other. Every time her mother went abroad for a while on vacation, her father would whine in front of her to hint that she should call her mother back home as soon as possible. It was cute just to think about.

The parents she had in this world were completely indifferent to each other. Not even the child they had had together could make their minds and worlds connect. That they occasionally treated her with a little warmth was already quite flattering.

This was ostensibly done in order for the plot to make progress.  But in reality, it was because her heart had become cold and hard that she had created such cold and indifferent characters.

From these two sets of parents Han Yanyan could clearly see how her mindset had changed.

Yet as a fellow woman, she had still given her mother a kind and gentle lover. To look at him, it seemed as though he had been very well-constructed.

She thanked him for his gift, called a manservant to take care of him, and left. He wasn't important enough of a person for Eldest Miss Han, heir to the Han family, to personally entertain.

She hadn't asked her mother why she had returned this time, and her father had also avoided talking about it. However, Han Yanyan knew everything.

"We agreed on a sixty-forty split, sixty for me and forty for you. Now you want forty-sixty?" Yin Wei, Han Yanyan's mother, was having an argument with Patriarch Han in the study.

"We agreed that you could only give me children," Patriarch Han said coldly.

Yin Wei choked. She, too, knew that it was only because of this that he had laid eyes on her.

"The child was unplanned." She seemed to weaken. "I didn't have the heart."

"That's why Yin Chen, who had the heart, became Patriarch Yin, while you... could only accept defeat," said Patriarch Han mercilessly.

Yin Wei pressed her lips together.

Patriarch Han flicked the ash from his cigarette. "Right at the beginning, we agreed that you could only give me children, and that Yanyan's only siblings would be my children. There could be no brothers and sisters with other surnames. Since you couldn't keep up your end of the deal, the original agreement is invalid."

Pressing her hand on the table, Yin Wei asserted, "Fifty-fifty. This is my bottom line."

"It's been four years," Patriarch Han sneered, "Yet you're still nibbling around the edges. When will the Yin family's shipping routes finally fall?"

Yin Wei gritted her teeth. "They fought back violently this year. We lost a lot of people."

"I'll provide you with the manpower," said Patriarch Han. "I'm giving you two more years, Yin Wei. If you can't take these shipping routes, forget about getting any more support from me."

When Yin Wei left the mansion, her lover asked a little uneasily, "Aren't you going to see the Eldest Miss?"

"Didn't I just see her just now?" Yin Wei seemed a little preoccupied.

The words that her lover had been about to say faltered.

Yin Wei finally reacted to his question. Frowning, she said, "What are you thinking? Are you expecting Han Yanyan to treat your child like a sibling? If she does, the older Han will never tolerate you."

"I get it," sighed her sweetheart.

"You have to understand," Yin Wei said, "People like that can't tolerate anyone else laying hands on what's theirs."

She had failed in the competition to become Matriarch of her own house. Afraid of her, her cousin had sent her to marry into the Han family, along with a generous dowry. The man who headed the Han family had always ruled with an iron fist. It was completely out of the question for her to ever lay her hands on the affairs of the Han family.

In the eyes of others, she was rich and idle, bringing her lover all around the world on vacation after having completed the responsibility of creating an heir. In reality, with the secret support of Patriarch Han, she was on the one hand legally competing with the Yin family for business on the shipping routes, while on the other hand harassing them in the guise of armed robbers.

She was doing this for her own benefit, while Patriarch Han was doing it because he was voracious and had his eye on Yin territory. What she was doing was like asking a tiger for its skin1.

Xinya sent Tang Ke to school on the school bus. Children who went to public schools were concentrated in the rundown areas of town. Since both their parents have to work long hours every day, having a school bus reduced their burdens.

She returned home, turned on her implant2 and browsed available jobs for awhile before sending out her resume to several places. Then she opened her bank account and went through their recent expenses. If they lived like this, they would be able to last two years on the money they had left.

But Tang Ke had already had a breakthrough. He had to begin using nutrient solution every month. It was very important, and had an outsized influence on a child's development between their first and second breakthrough. As Patriarch Han had said, whether a child broke into A or S-class during their second breakthrough would determine their future.

Xinya turned off her implant and sat there on the sofa, staring blankly forward.

He promised, and he got what he wanted. He shouldn't break his word, she thought.

The moment she thought of him, a call from a strange number came in. She picked it up to hear the voice of the man who made her shiver in her shoes.

"I'm at the door."