Just as I didn’t know what to do, Diana’s soft hand reached out and gently took mine.
The touch was cool yet warm, easing my tense mood.
Once she saw I had relaxed, the corner of her lips curved in a faint smile again.
“Let’s go over there.” “Honey, I wasn’t being cold to you just now.
It’s just a habit I’ve formed over the years.” When a beauty is leaning close, does being cold or not even matter?
I stupidly rubbed my nose.
“Let’s go, let’s go.” I led Diana and Nick into the yard next door, sneaking glances at her from time to time.
Seeing her once again wear that cold expression that kept people a thousand miles away, I couldn’t help but recall the emotional journey she had once told me about.
In fact, that cold expression was only a disguise she used to protect her gentle heart.
Her outward coldness and seeming lack of feeling had helped her, whether in school or now as the CEO of the group, fend off countless unwanted advances and made her subordinates treat her with the utmost respect.
But she reserved her true gentleness for family, for me, and for the person behind us… Thinking of this, I glanced back at Nick and saw his eyes fixed obsessively on Diana’s graceful back.
Inside, I felt a wave of irritation.
Just as I was thinking of finding an excuse to reprimand him, I realized we had already stepped into the neighbor’s yard.
As soon as we entered, we saw a fat woman, as wide as a barrel and nearly as tall as one, one hand on her hip, the other holding a ragged broom, pointing at Harry and cursing loudly.
As the saying goes, even when you beat a dog, you look at its owner.
This fat woman was called Hilda Niu “Niu” meaning cow, “Hilda” meaning rosy clouds yet she was as coarse and vulgar as her name suggested.
Her hair was full of curlers, she wore white pajamas, and a toothpick dangled from the corner of her mouth, her face covered with rolls of fat.
Seeing me walk in first, she gave a strange, mocking snort.
“Oh, if it isn’t Secretary Yue’s eldest young master.
Here again to help your mom with her dog?” I smiled coldly.
“Hilda, sniping and making insinuations here is pointless.
Wait until my mom comes back and then curse all you want in front of her.” “Let’s see if that spineless husband of yours will drop to his knees again.” Speaking of Hilda, she had quite a bit of history with my mother.
Her father, Bernard Niu, was once the county magistrate of Huashan County under Handong City, but because of issues with his conduct as well as bribery, he was taken down by my mother and Aunt Serena from the provincial Procurator’s Office both highly capable, stunning mature women.
That woman had held a grudge ever since.
Her husband worked at the city’s cultural bureau.
He could have been promoted long ago, but because he was implicated by his father‑in‑law, he’d been stuck in a minor clerk position for nearly ten years with no promotion in sight.
The one thing I never understood was why, instead of avoiding my mother like the plague, Hilda had gone to great lengths to pull strings and become my mother’s neighbor.
Since then, that wretched woman had been finding trouble with my mother every few days.
Who knew who gave her the courage?
Luckily, my mother, as the third‑in‑command of a quasi‑first‑tier city with ten million people, regarded people like Hilda as no more than ants.
Crushing her would be as easy as a glance.
If my mom so much as nodded, there would be countless people eager to step forward and get rid of that shrew for her.
Back then, I had also suggested that my mother deal with her.
But my mother told me that some things cannot be done too absolutely, or they will give people something to talk about.
If you were the leader, would you entrust major responsibilities to a subordinate known for being too vicious and ruthless?
When I heard that, I nodded in agreement.
Hilda had become my mother’s neighbor as a kind of showpiece, a “gold‑for‑buying‑the‑horse‑bones” move.
Gradually, I also came to understand.
You’re the widow of a fallen official what abilities and influence could you possibly have?
My mother, Lydia, stands right here.
If you really have what it takes, bring it on.
If you don’t, all you can do is yell nonsense.
With a small effort, my mother could silence her forever.
By letting her jump and shout, my mother could repeatedly crush her and at the same time highlight her own broad mind and magnanimity.
Another thing my mother did not explain back then was that, besides serving as a demonstration, that clownish shrew also had someone behind her someone who was my mother’s rival on the political stage.
That person had specifically placed Hilda next to my mom to disgust her.
Getting rid of that shrew would have been easy.
The problem was that Hilda had not actually committed any major crime.
If my mother had lashed out at her under repeated provocation, she would have fallen into her opponent’s trap.
But a shrew is a shrew.
With my mother giving her some leeway, and knowing she was a gun in someone else’s hand while she herself hated my mother, Hilda grew increasingly reckless.
She wanted my mother to finally explode and take action against her, while the person behind her could then collect evidence that my mother had abused her position to harm others, and then publicize it widely, bringing down a mighty dam with a single ant hole.
That day, I deliberately mentioned her husband to make this shrew, Hilda, fear my mother’s authority as deputy Party secretary for political and legal affairs.
Seeing the expression on her dark, fat, ugly face soften slightly, I felt contempt.
I assumed it was my mother’s status that intimidated her.
But later I learned that it was when she noticed Nick’s tall figure at the gate that her expression changed so rapidly.