She used to be his mother-in-law, after all. But now, he’d said with his own mouth that they’re not close!
Han Zhuoling smiled cheekily at Shi Xiaoya and said, “How’s that?”
Shi Xiaoya laughed and nodded. He gave him the “you’re not bad; not the best, but it’s passable” look and said, “Not bad.”
Shi Xiaoya’s reply pissed Cen Mengqing so much that she tilted her head backward.
But Han Zhuoling had to simply give in and play along with her.
He was not unhappy at all about her behaving like this and even smiled so happily like a fool!
This was probably Cen Mengqing’s first time seeing Han Zhuoling smiling like a fool!
These two, they were purposely acting in front of her, right?!
They were purposely angering her like this!
She would definitely not believe that Han Zhuoling would treat Shi Xiaoya so specially.
That he would not get angry no matter what Shi Xiaoya said.
No one would be like this!
Xia Zhancheng said, “Mr. Han.”
Even as Xia Zhancheng called him that, he also felt that it was strange and was not used to it.
He had clearly been his son-in-law in the past, but he had to call him Mr. Han now.
Anyway, he would just not call him “Young Master Ling,” even if he was beaten to death.
Calling him that would mean that he was placing himself in a lower status than Han Zhuoling.
No matter what, he was still Han Zhuoling’s elder!
Even if Han Zhuoling had already divorced Xia Yixin, he had once been Han Zhuoling’s father-in-law no matter what!
Anyway, Xia Zhancheng just could not bring himself to call him “Young Master Ling.”
“Can you spare us a little bit of your time, for us to have a talk?” Xia Zhancheng said. “I saw that there’s a pretty good cafe beside this place. We can go in and have a good talk. I know my wife and daughter brought a lot of trouble to Miss Shi. This time, we came here to apologize sincerely. I am not like the two of them, I came here with sincerity. I hope I can ask for Miss Shi’s forgiveness, and that we can patch things up.”
Han Zhuoling’s eyebrow twitched slightly, but he did not immediately answer him.
He just turned and said to Shi Xiaoya, “You go up first?”
“Okay.” Shi Xiaoya nodded obediently.
She did not fight with Han Zhuoling at all.
Anyway, Han Zhuoling was doing this to protect her, lest she got pestered by Xia Zhancheng and Cen Mengqing.
Shi Xiaoya did not want to face the two of them either, anyway.
“Wait!” Xia Zhancheng quickly said. “We are here to apologize to Miss Shi, and we sincerely hope that Miss Shi can forgive us. We also hope that if Miss Shi wants anything, she’d tell us. We will also try our best to make it up to you, to express our apology.”
Xia Zhancheng tried his best to show his sincerity. “I totally hadn’t known about what this mother and daughter did. If I’d known, I would definitely have stopped them. I know saying all these now is too late because they’d already committed their wrongs.
“But I did not come today to plead leniency for Xia Yixin,” Xia Zhancheng said.
They noticed how he’d change the way he addressed her, calling Xia Yixin by her full name as if he was talking about an outsider who was not related to him at all.
Shi Xiaoya could not help but feel stunned, thinking to himself that Xia Zhancheng might really be thinking about giving up on Xia Yixin.
Indeed, she heard Xia Zhancheng say, “All this time, Xia Yixin had been finding trouble with you both. I need to teach her a lesson, or else she would not know to be afraid, and she would not stop.
“You two shouldn’t think that I’m being ruthless for not wanting to save my own daughter.” Xia Zhancheng smiled bitterly as he twitched his mouth before continuing, “I really am scared of being implicated by her now. At her age, I can no longer educate her. She won’t listen even if I taught her.”
“If she knew how to listen, she wouldn’t have harmed the family to this extent. I am really scared now. Since I can’t teach her well, then I’ll let other people teach her. It’s better than saving her every time, only for her to drag down the family time and again, becoming worse each time.”
