Chapter 21: They Got into a Fight

In the midst of the rain, an Alfa business car parked by the roadside. This was a car that Uncle Pei had bought to make it more convenient for the two kids to go to school and back.

Jiang Mingzhi reached out to open the car door, and as soon as her hand touched the handle, raindrops landed on the back of her hand. She didn’t hurry to wipe them away and instead turned to Guan Jingxu, saying, “Just bring me the umbrella tomorrow.”

Inside the car, Pei Jinyang was sitting on the other side. He had been looking down at his phone, but when he heard Jiang Mingzhi’s voice, he lifted his gaze to see who she was talking to.

After two seconds, he furrowed his brow and spoke, “If you don’t want to get in the car, then shut the door. It’s freezing.”

Jiang Mingzhi glanced at Pei Jinyang, who was bundled up in his coat, then rolled her eyes. She quickly put on a smile, turned around, and waved goodbye to her friends, “I’m leaving now, bye.”

The car door slammed shut, cutting off the sound of the pouring rain outside. Jiang Mingzhi took another glance at Pei Jinyang and swallowed the mocking words she had planned to say.

Forget it, ignoring him was better than arguing.

The whole way, apart from occasional sounds coming from the phone, the two of them didn’t speak a word to each other.

The driver slowly stopped the car outside the gate and turned to them, “Jinyang, Mingzhi, I need to rush to the airport to pick up Mr. Pei, so I won’t drive to the basement today.”

The Pei family had two drivers. One was responsible for taking the children to school, and the other usually drove for Pei Zhaohua. However, since Pei Zhaohua had been out of town for a few days, the driver had been reassigned by Qiu Tang.

Pei Jinyang was the first to open the car door, “Okay.”

He opened the umbrella and got out of the car. On the other side, Jiang Mingzhi opened the door, only to stretch one foot out and suddenly remember she didn’t have an umbrella.

She hesitated for a moment but still stepped out of the car. The driver started the car and slowly drove off.

Jiang Mingzhi held her hands over her head, glancing at Pei Jinyang, who was leisurely walking through the rain with his umbrella, and gritted her teeth before running.

She didn’t want him to shield her from the rain, even though he could. After all, what if their relationship improved?

The rain pelted down mercilessly on her exposed skin, cold and stinging.

Jiang Mingzhi kept running, from the big iron gate to the main building’s entrance in about ten seconds. By the time she arrived, her cheeks and hair were dotted with raindrops.

She stood in the hallway, wiping herself dry with some tissue. Pei Jinyang walked in through the rain and saw her damp hair sticking to her forehead, giving her a frail appearance. He couldn’t help but taunt, “You gave the umbrella to someone else, and now you’re drenched. If you catch a cold, you deserve it.”

Jiang Mingzhi looked at him calmly, slowly parting her lips, “None of your business.”

Pei Jinyang placed the umbrella in the umbrella rack at the entrance and sneered, “Getting along so well with Guan Jingxu? Didn’t expect you to have such methods.”

The Guan family was a powerful family, with his mother being the district leader, and his father working in a high position while also serving as the president of the Chamber of Commerce. Almost all of their relatives were well-known figures in Beijing, and Guan Jingxu’s great-grandfather was a major figure as well.

Pei Jinyang’s words were clearly full of malice, and Jiang Mingzhi narrowed her eyes, her gaze fierce as she shot back, “Watch your mouth, you dog.”

“Isn’t it the truth?” Pei Jinyang’s eyes, like sharp daggers, seemed to pierce through her as he continued, “You’ve only been here for three months, and you’ve already seduced Guan Jingxu. Like mother, like daughter.”

Jiang Mingzhi’s face instantly darkened. In this life, Pei Jinyang was not just cruel but also disgusting.

How had she not noticed this in her past life?

Fury bubbled up inside her. Jiang Mingzhi couldn’t tell if it was his words that angered her or if it was the regret for her past life’s sacrifice. Without thinking, she slapped him hard across the face.

The boy’s head turned to the side from the force of the slap. He reached up to touch the spot where she had hit him, his eyes burning with malice as he glared at her and spoke slowly, “You asked for this.”

Saying that, he reached out and grabbed Jiang Mingzhi by the neck, shoving her back against the cabinet door.

This was the fifth time he had been slapped, and the first time had been because of this woman. This time, he was going to teach her a lesson.

With a dull thud, Jiang Mingzhi felt a sharp pain in her back. The most intense pain, however, was at her neck, where she could actually feel his fingers sinking into her flesh.

Pei Jinyang’s veins popped out on his forehead, showing that he was indeed furious. His amber eyes seemed to burn with anger in the rainy weather.

Jiang Mingzhi, unable to speak, felt her face turning red as she struggled with all her might, her fists landing on his body. The pressure on her neck eased slightly.

The Nanny Heard the Noise and Ran Out to Check on the Situation

When the nanny heard the noise, she rushed out to see what was going on. Upon seeing the scene, she was shocked and let out a loud scream, running over to pull the two apart.

The two of them each went back to their rooms, leaving the nanny downstairs, nervously twisting her apron.

It would have been better if she hadn’t seen this, but now that she had, should she tell the family later?

Besides, these two kids were each from Pei Xianhua and Qiu Tang, so…

When Pei Zhaohua returned home, the nanny still didn’t know how to bring it up.

Jiang Mingzhi stood in front of the bathroom mirror, checking the marks on her neck. It was red, and the place where her fingertips had pressed was slightly swollen.

She didn’t hurry to treat the injury but instead waited until Qiu Tang called her downstairs for a late-night snack. Afterward, she wiped her neck with a wet towel, applying a little pressure. The pale skin of her neck, which had started to regain its color, turned red again.

From the nanny, Qiu Tang learned that the two kids had fought when they got home. At first, she thought it was just a small argument since she knew their relationship wasn’t very harmonious.

The nanny didn’t go into much detail, so Qiu Tang hadn’t expected to see such severe marks on her daughter’s neck, and she became upset.

Her daughter was well-behaved, smart, and modest. Qiu Tang was sure Pei Jinyang must have bullied Jiang Mingzhi.

After all, Pei Jinyang was a troublemaker—proud and arrogant, with a bad temper. When she and Pei Zhaohua first got together, that brat had spoken rudely to her several times.

Qiu Tang had always prided herself on being an elder who didn’t argue with kids, but she never expected him to actually harm Jiang Mingzhi.

In front of Pei Zhaohua, she knowingly asked, “Zhi Zhi, how did you get hurt on your neck?”

Jiang Mingzhi wasn’t foolish. She knew her mother was trying to help her. She raised a hand to touch her neck and winced as she touched the swollen area, her tone full of grievance, “Pei Jinyang grabbed me.”

Qiu Tang hurriedly called the nanny to bring the medical kit.

Pei Zhaohua called out to his son, who was heading toward the dining room, “Pei Jinyang! How did you come back home like this?”

Pei Jinyang lazily lifted his eyelids and glanced in their direction, his voice mocking, “Why don’t you ask her how she slapped me?”

Immediately, all eyes turned to Jiang Mingzhi.

She lowered her gaze, putting on a victim’s demeanor. “I shouldn’t have struck first, but who told him to say those hurtful things and insult me?”

She knew exactly how to please her elders. If it weren’t for her insistence on being with Pei Jinyang in her previous life, she would have been the family’s beloved little princess.

Qiu Tang might not have known how much motherly love she had for her daughter, but Jiang Mingzhi had value—she was beautiful and smart, enough to make the Pei family proud.

A little family affection and some unspoken vanity could easily form a happy, harmonious blended family.

But unfortunately, in her previous life, she was a love-struck fool, thinking that as long as she was with Pei Jinyang, nothing else mattered.

As a result, she had gone from being a daughter who could bring honor to her family to someone who would be embarrassed just to be talked about.

Qiu Tang looked at Jiang Mingzhi with a compassionate gaze. She had known her daughter couldn’t have hurt someone for no reason, and she could probably guess what kind of words Pei Jinyang had said.

“Don’t take those words to heart, they were unintentional. My daughter is the best, the most well-behaved.”

Pei Zhaohua was a man of power and influence. Being an authority figure, he was accustomed to it. At this moment, the more his wife and daughter acted weak and vulnerable, the more it highlighted the contrast with Pei Jinyang, which stirred his protective instincts.

Sure enough, Pei Zhaohua’s anger flared. He turned to Pei Jinyang and said, “Starting today, all your pocket money is cut off. If you can’t even maintain basic family harmony, how can you manage employees in the future?”

Pei Zhaohua understood his son well. Although the boy had grown up, he couldn’t be disciplined physically anymore. The simplest, most straightforward method was to cut off his pocket money.

This was a common tactic used by families in their circle to deal with disobedient children—it was simple and effective.

These spoiled children who had been living a life of luxury would initially resist when their money was cut off, but after a few days of struggling, they would naturally give in.

The principle was simple: it’s hard to go from extravagance to frugality.