Chapter 22: Whether It’s the Betrothal Gift or the Dowry, It All Belongs to Her

The lynx, shaped like a big cat with sharp claws and fangs, has long preyed upon foxes.

This debt could be traced back twenty years.

In today’s world, spiritual energy was increasingly scarce—practically the end of the cultivation era. The demon race was on the brink of extinction, their lifespans increasingly short, rarely exceeding a hundred years like humans, and reproduction was extremely difficult.

And Bai Yu was the last—and most handsome—cub of the fox clan.

But his birth had been exceptionally perilous.

When Bai Yu’s mother gave birth to him, it coincided with the migration of the lynx tribe.

The two clans had always been natural enemies. A large portion of the fox clan had perished under the lynx’s claws.

At that time, Tu Shanju’s parents had been out on a countryside trip and just so happened to witness this battle.

Predictably, the Bai family couldn’t fend off the lynxes, their natural predators. They had no choice but to barter a knife with Tu Shanju’s parents to survive and safely deliver Bai Yu.

Back then, the Bai family was nearly exterminated. Bai Yu’s mother was weak after childbirth, and the whole clan was focused on caring for her and the infant. Tu Shanju’s parents didn’t push for repayment, so the debt was left unpaid—until now.

The Bai family had a natural love for treasure hunting and collecting rare items.

Their favorite was collecting all types of jade.

The demon race was extremely sensitive to spiritual energy, so the jade they held was always top-quality. They even possessed jade mines.

Currently, only Bai Yu and his parents remained of the Bai fox clan, and Bai Lu—Bai Yu’s father—was the most renowned jade tycoon in Yishi City.

Today, when Tu Shanju flipped through her ledger looking for debts to collect, she happened to land on the Bai family’s page.

Yishi City was too far, and Tu Shanju was too lazy to travel, but Bai Yu just happened to be filming in Nancheng, so Bai Lu notified his son to prepare the repayment.

So here it was—whether it was solid jade decorations or complete sets of collectible jewelry, there were two or three dozen items in total.

Any one of them alone wouldn’t go for less than nine digits.

And just like that, the jewelry part of her dowry was complete.

Bai Yu noticed Tu Shanju didn’t even bother to open the suitcase and asked, “Aren’t you afraid I might give you subpar goods?”

Tu Shanju calmly replied, “Not afraid. Because your Bai family couldn’t afford the consequences.”

Bai Yu gave a dry chuckle. “Don’t know if it’s true or not. Do you knife-barterers really have such accurate predictions? Never failed before?”

Tu Shanju paused, pursing her lips for two seconds before replying, “The knife as proof, the word as evidence. When the prophecy is fulfilled, then comes the payment. Ever heard that saying?”

Bai Yu nodded.

He’d heard it plenty. His parents had told him stories about knife-barterers since he was a kid—his ears practically had calluses from it.

“But… what does that have to do with what I just asked?”

Tu Shanju smiled faintly. “How is it not related? We only collect payment once the prophecy comes true. In other words, if our prediction is wrong, we simply don’t charge. Makes sense, right?”

Bai Yu was momentarily speechless.

It did make sense… but something still felt off.

Tu Shanju cast him a sidelong glance, suppressing a smile.

Who says foxes are always clever?

This one in front of her wasn’t exactly the brightest.

As for failure—well, the Tu Shan family had never really experienced that.

They weren’t stupid. If something was beyond their grasp, they wouldn’t barter a knife to begin with. So failure? It never happened.

Of course, there were very few things the knife-barterers couldn’t predict—unless the matter was deeply entangled with their own fate.

At the moment, she was even considering giving this silly fox another knife.

After all, something foul had recently taken a liking to him.

Bai Yu felt her staring and those shining eyes made his scalp tingle. He quickly blurted out, “I’m warning you—I already like someone. Don’t fall for me. It won’t work out!”

This time, it was Tu Shanju’s turn to be speechless.

A few seconds of awkward silence passed.

She pulled up the suitcase handle and tossed out a line, “Be careful these days. If you can, avoid any physical contact with the female guests in your upcoming variety show.”

Bai Yu didn’t quite register what she meant.

By the time he wanted to ask, some pedestrians had passed nearby, and Tu Shanju was already out of sight.

When Tu Shanju returned to the Xie family estate, it was already the middle of the night.

Just as she reached her room, the study door across the hall opened.

It was Xie Shiyu.

He looked surprised to see her. “You’re still up?”

“Mm, went out to collect a debt.” Tu Shanju didn’t try to hide it and patted the suitcase she was dragging.

“Collect a debt?”

She nodded and said bluntly, “Yes. Grandpa said I can’t marry off too shabbily. I still need to have a proper dowry. So I’m collecting a few debts to make up my dowry. Today was the first one.”

Xie Shiyu looked down at the large suitcase that reached her waist and spoke gently, “This afternoon I had someone transfer 5% of the Xie Group’s dividend shares into your account. Did you see the message?”

Tu Shanju paused, suddenly remembering that her grandfather had mentioned this before.

Back then, Old Master Xie had said when the two kids got married, 5% of the Xie Group’s shares would be given to Tu Shanju as part of the betrothal gift.

But because her grandfather’s fate was a special one and their family couldn’t hold too much wealth, the dividends had been stored within the Xie family for years, never transferred.

Now that her grandfather had passed, that fate restriction was lifted. Naturally, the dividends should be given to her as soon as possible.

It was just that her arrival had been sudden, and the amount built up over the years was enormous. The process took time, hence the delay until this afternoon.

Tu Shanju took out her phone to check. There was indeed a message. She smiled apologetically. “My phone was on silent this afternoon while I was napping. When I woke up, I went straight out to collect. I didn’t check. I’ve received the message now—thank you.”

Seeing her calm and gentle demeanor, Xie Shiyu said sincerely, “There’s no rush with the dowry. You don’t have to go out collecting in the middle of the night. What’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is still yours. Either way, it’s all yours—so the dowry doesn’t even matter.”

Tu Shanju shook her head in disapproval.

“No, that’s not right. One thing is one thing. The amount your family gives for the betrothal is your sincerity. My grandpa said, now that I’m the only one left in the Yang world from our family, the more dowry I have, the straighter I can hold my back.”

Seeing how serious she was, Xie Shiyu didn’t argue further.

He thought to himself—whatever makes her happy. After all, whether it’s the betrothal gift or the dowry, it’s all hers in the end.