Jason was still hesitating the previous second, but reacted immediately the next: Why am I starting to look out for Gu Qingjiao? She is the niece of the person the Second Young Master hates the most!
Regaining his stern expression, Jason straightened his posture and walked over to the screening room doors, letting those people out.
As the dark space was suddenly flooded with light, the aunts rushed out in a flurry, every single one of them with tears on their faces and wearing heavy perfume.
Honestly, Gu Qingjiao still felt a bit of heartache thinking about how such expensive nail polish had been wasted on them.
The moment the women came out, they spotted Gu Qingjiao. The second grand-aunt walked toward her with a fierce look in her eyes, raising her right hand to strike.
Gu Qingjiao ducked behind Shi Lijiin, grabbing his arm to shield herself. “Aunty, why are you hitting me?”
“You still have the nerve to ask, you little vixen! How dare you lock us inside!”
After roaring, the woman prepared to swing her hand at her again, but seeing a flash of cold light in Shi Lijiin’s eyes, her hand instantly froze mid-motion. Unreconciled and on the verge of tears, she said, “Second Young Master, Gu Qingjiao is vicious and completely lacks any manners!”
The others chimed in immediately:
“That’s right! We kindly invited her to watch a movie with us, and she ended up locking us in!”
“She even got nail polish all over us. How utterly despicable!”
“Second Young Master, Gu Qingjiao is utterly unruly. You might as well send her back to the Gu family!”
Shi Lijiin glanced at Gu Qingjiao. “Come out.”
Gu Qingjiao let go of his arm, staring quietly into his eyes without saying a word.
This wretched life is finally coming to an end, she thought.
“Who scolded you?” Shi Lijiin asked her.
Gu Qingjiao thought about it, but truly couldn’t remember who started it, so she simply said, “They all scolded me.”
“So what if we scolded you, you little vixen!” The women swarmed over aggressively, like a pack of fierce tigers.
“Shut up,” Shi Lijiin said impatiently, then turned back to Gu Qingjiao. “Who played the movie?”
Gu Qingjiao couldn’t remember the mastermind either, so she casually pointed at random in the crowd: “She, she, and her.”
“Nonsense! It was clearly Sister Red’s idea!”
“Exactly, don’t frame us, we were victims too!”
“Not only did the little vixen lock us up, but she is also maliciously slandering people! Hateful!”
Before Gu Qingjiao could even react, Jason, standing nearby, couldn’t listen anymore. He crossed his arms over his chest, walked up to the aunts, and pinched the bridge of his big nose. “Second Young Master, is this what you taught me before, about a dog biting Lu Dongbin?”
Shi Lijiin calmly corrected him: “It’s dogs biting dogs.”
All the relatives: ???
The women wore expressions of utter astonishment. How could the Second Young Master call us dogs?!
Shi Lijiin turned to Gu Qingjiao. “If they scold you, scold them back. If they scold you once, you scold them ten times. If they play a horror movie for you, hang the horror movie posters over their walls and sew them into their beds.”
Gu Qingjiao was instantly dumbfounded.
As expected, Shi Lijiin is truly ruthless, and he certainly knows how to play dirty. Once these words left his mouth, she couldn’t even tell whether he was standing on her side or intentionally trying to antagonize Northern Manor.
The relatives were also thoroughly terrified, staring in disbelief at this second young master who looked just like the King of Hell.
Gu Qingjiao grabbed Shi Lijiin’s arm again, fluttering her pretty, wide eyes. “Fiancé, I am so gentle, how could I ever say such vulgar words?”
The relatives were left utterly speechless.
Without a word, Shi Lijiin casually gave Jason a look.
Jason instantly caught the hint, walked over, and stood right in front of Gu Qingjiao. “Miss Gu, it is fine if you cannot curse. I will teach you:”
“You bunch of old hags from Northern Manor, you look like steamed flower buns. You are too ugly for the steamer, and you will explode in the oven! Were your daughters picked up off the street or bought? You clearly knew she had ties to the Second Young Master, yet you still desperately tried to marry your way in! Oh right, you have zero manners! Who gave you permission to sneak into the screening room and play movies? Your hands are not clean and neither are your mouths. You must have stuffed yourselves so full at dinner last night that everything coming out of you smells spoiled, and your bodies stink too!”
Everyone was left gaping in utter shock.
This was actual Chinese being cursed out by a foreigner!
Gu Qingjiao suddenly remembered that on the very first day, the person who said Shi Lijiin would rather marry a chicken than her was none other than this guy.
She had not expected him to be quite so formidable. Not only was his Mandarin fluent, but he had also mastered the essence of cursing without using dirty words, truly proving that he who stays near vermin is tainted, and he who stays near Shi Lijiin becomes ruthless.
While feeling quite pleased, Gu Qingjiao did not forget to remind him: “Brother Jason, what the aunts have on them is nail polish. It actually smells okay, not really that stinking.”
Jason, suddenly addressed as brother out of nowhere, froze, his heart pounding wildly.
Gu Qingjiao actually called him brother!
Then the husband of a younger sister is a brother-in-law. If the two of them end up together in the future, wouldn’t the Second Young Master become my brother-in-law?!
Awesome! How thrilling!
Jason grinned from ear to ear and impulsively glanced at his future brother-in-law, but the brother-in-law did not seem too happy, casting a bone-chilling glare his way.
Shi Lijiin: “Jason, book the earliest flights for them and get them all sent away before dark.”
Jason: “Got it, brother-in-law!”
Shi Lijiin: “?”
Jason: “Got it, Second Young Master!”
As for those relatives who had just received their eviction notices, they were so furious they almost vomited blood on the spot.
Facing Shi Lijiin, who was a generation below them, they did not dare show the slightest bit of disrespect, not only because they had never taken part in his upbringing, but also because during the most painful phases of this illegitimate son’s life, they had stood firmly on the other side without a moment’s hesitation.
And what shocked everyone most was that the boy who had once suffered through endless darkness was actually able to take sole control of Southern Manor in just over a decade, to the point where even the Elder of the Shi family was willing to hand the succession rights over to him.
Times change, everything shifts in the blink of an eye. Shi Lijiin had already risen to power, surrounded by hidden talents, while those relatives who had stood idly by during the dark times could each very well become stepping stones on his path to success.
A mere eviction notice was already the greatest leniency he could afford them.
“Not leaving yet?” Jason roared at the dazed group of women. “Are you waiting for me to call people to carry you out?!”
Startled, the women did not dare let out another peep and obediently shuffled away.
The second grand-aunt walked at the very back. Filled with extreme resentment, she suddenly whipped her head around, pointed at Shi Lijiin, and cursed fiercely: “Shi Lijiin, you have no upbringing! You deserve to have your mother die and suffer for the rest of your life!”
As soon as those words fell like a thunderclap, Jason rushed forward, pinned her down, and shoved her stinking face straight into the ground. “Old hag, what the hell did you just say!”
Shi Lijiin rubbed his wrists, rolling his sleeves up slightly to reveal a section of white gauze.
His black leather shoes stepped toward the woman one step at a time. He bent his knees slightly, squatting down in front of her with a smile.
Sensing that the villain was about to snap, the system hurriedly tapped Gu Qingjiao: [Host, hurry! He is losing it, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Rush between the two of them right now and tell him, “If you want to kill her, kill me with her!”]
Gu Qingjiao: ?
Gu Qingjiao: Stop messing around, stay out of other people’s family business.
System: [What is this, Host? You have already lived past your expiration date. If you do not find a way to get me back to being the female lead, my system is going to completely break down. Oh please, care about me! Are you going to care about me or not?]
A drop of cold sweat rolled down Gu Qingjiao’s forehead. What is wrong with this little glitch? When it gets anxious, it drops its cold persona completely and even learns to throw a tantrum.
Gu Qingjiao: Fine, fine, alright, alright. I really yield to you.
On the other side, Shi Lijiin reached into his waistband and pulled out an exquisite black utility carving knife.
“What are you going to do? What are you going to do?! Let me go!”
Pinned to the ground and unable to move, the woman stared with wide, bulging eyes as the carving knife slowly approached her. Her chest heaving, she could not help bursting into tears, drop after drop hitting the floor.
“Second Young Master, I am sorry! I did not mean to! Please forgive me! I beg you to forgive me! I am sorry!”
Shi Lijiin’s voice was exceptionally cold, his expression unchanged.
“Grand-aunt, when your daughter’s mother dies in the future, it certainly will not be any less painful than mine.”
With that, he pressed the cold blade against the woman’s face, gently tracing it along her jawline.
Just then, an index finger suddenly stretched out from behind and poked his shoulder.
Shi Lijiin glanced back at Gu Qingjiao.
Gu Qingjiao rolled up her sleeves and, under the terrified gazes of everyone present, guided the hand holding the carving knife straight toward herself.
“Fiancé, your little knife is so pretty. Can you help me trim my eyebrows?”
Trim her eyebrows?
The utility knife Shi Lijiin used for malicious deeds was being asked to trim eyebrows?!
Gu Qingjiao glanced down at the woman on the floor and praised gently, “Aunty’s eyebrows are full of character, no need to trim those. Mine are the ones that do not look too good, can you help me fix them?”
Shi Lijiin: ……
The hand holding the knife trembled slightly.
After a moment, Shi Lijiin’s thin lips parted: “Your eyebrows are the prettiest.”
“Really?” Gu Qingjiao pressed her hands against her cheeks and smiled bashfully.
Having narrowly escaped disaster, the woman was instantly yanked off the ground by Jason and dragged away, trailing tears as she left with her old cronies.
Once they stood up, Gu Qingjiao let out a sigh of relief.
He actually hides a small knife on him! Truly worthy of being a future criminal.
The system popped up again: [You are so disappointing.]
Gu Qingjiao: Cherish life, reject getting knifed!
After collecting his thoughts, Shi Lijiin found that she had picked up a bottle of rubbing alcohol and gone back into the screening room.
Following her in, he saw Gu Qingjiao earnestly wiping down the sofa.
Shi Lijiin walked over and asked, “What are you doing?”
Gu Qingjiao thought for a moment, deciding that getting nail polish on a relative’s pants was not a very glorious thing, so it was best not to let a guy know. She casually replied, “Disinfecting your sofa.”
“Such trivial tasks can be left to the servants.”
Gu Qingjiao paid him no mind, busily wiping down every single sofa that had been stained with nail polish.
When she finished her work, she casually planted her hands on her hips and looked up to find Shi Lijiin sitting across from her, staring at her with a terrifying quietness.
“Are you not leaving?” Gu Qingjiao asked.
Shi Lijiin leaned his upper body slightly forward, his noble and tall figure standing out under the dreamy starlight ceiling, effortlessly creating a distance from the little cleaner. With an arrogant posture and an aura of irresistible dominance, he extended two fingers and crooked them lightly toward Gu Qingjiao.
“Come here.”
Gu Qingjiao put down the alcohol, pulled out a wet wipe, and slowly wiped her hands, muttering internally: What kind of mega-boss aura is this?
Suddenly, her head buzzed as that little system started getting excited again:
System: [Host, a rare opportunity! Quick, go up and slap him across the face!]