Zhuang Yuexiang’s eyes slowly widened. He never expected that the first person to interrogate him wouldn’t be Qi Zhi, but Qi Zhennan. “Weren’t you the one who started hitting him while he was down? I only took this stance for your sake. How can you end up acting like you’re still pining for him and can’t let go?”
Qi Zhennan remained silent, his gaze fixed elsewhere, his eyes flashing with a trace of resentment.
Qi Zhi and the other two had likely been so frightened by Lan An’s sudden violence that they hadn’t listened closely to his words, overlooking that specific phrase: not an only child.
A difference of a few words, yet worlds apart in meaning.
Everyone believed the Qi family had only one child, but Qi Zhennan knew his father had another child outside—a secret son born to his childhood sweetheart and first love.
A son who was more outstanding than Qi Zhennan and more beloved by their father.
His father put up a good front on the surface, but in secret, he had already prepared to leave the majority of his shares to that illegitimate son. If Qi Zhennan wanted to fight for his inheritance, he needed powerful allies.
The Qi family (Qi Zhi’s family) was the best ally he could have chosen.
Although the Qi family wasn’t considered top-tier nobility in Haicheng, they had a solid foundation and wide-reaching connections. They were significantly better off than “new money” families like Qi Zhennan’s.
Furthermore, the Qi family had an eldest son named Qi Sen. Although the wife he married was just a dance teacher, his father-in-law worked at City Hall, his mother-in-law was a judge, and his brother-in-law was in the Public Security Bureau.
As for Qi Zhi, he had a passive nature; he had no interest in the business world and was entirely devoted to literature.
Under these circumstances, if Qi Zhennan stayed with Qi Zhi and given they couldn’t have children Qi Sen would treat Qi Zhi well for the sake of his own reputation and would naturally support Qi Zhennan as his “younger brother.”
It was a situation with everything to gain and nothing to lose.
Unfortunately, now…
He did like Qi Zhi, but he simply couldn’t continue to be with a Qi Zhi who no longer had the backing of the Qi family name.
As for Qi Ran?
Was his face even a third as beautiful as Qi Zhi’s? Was his character even a third as kind? Initially, Qi Zhennan had felt a bit of pity for him due to his tragic background, but he turned out to be a calculating creature. Did he really think Qi Zhennan couldn’t see through his pretenses and his constant attempts to frame Qi Zhi?
Take today’s fall, for example; Qi Zhennan was well aware it had been Qi Ran’s doing.
But what could he do? Until his goals were achieved, he could only play along with Qi Ran’s whims.
As a friend of many years, Zhuang Yuexiang understood Qi Zhennan’s temperament to some extent.