Mind reading saves the whole family; I'm firmly in the role of a charlatan.

Chapter 451 Do you want this favor?

After the car started, Du Anrao was quite reserved at first, adhering to the idea that she would not move unless the enemy moved. Xi Jingyue remained silent, and so did she.

But as time went on, she couldn't hold back any longer.

Xi Jingyue noticed her anxiety and spoke up at the right moment: "Didn't you just say you had something you wanted to tell me?"

"I didn't... Oh right, I do have something I want to ask you. On the day of the ancestral worship ceremony, you said your parents were worried that your grandparents' anxieties about what happened during the ceremony would be affected, so they stayed a few more days to be with them. How have they been these past few days? I hope nothing has happened?"

"It's nothing. My parents said that my grandparents have been sleeping very well these past two days, they haven't even had many dreams. It's my relatives who are..."

Du Anrao's attention was immediately drawn: "What happened to those relatives?"

“My eldest uncle, the one who was in charge of the ancestral worship ceremony that day, he and my aunt signed divorce papers, and his son and daughter-in-law also got divorced.”

"So fast?"

Xi Jingyue smiled and said, "That sister-in-law, now I should call her my ex-sister-in-law, comes from a famous family of lawyers. Eighty or ninety percent of her uncles and younger relatives graduated from well-known law schools at home and abroad and work in various related industries. If my eldest uncle and eldest cousin don't sign this document, they may face disgrace and... imprisonment."

After a moment of silence, Du Anrao gave Xi Jingyue a thumbs-up with a complicated expression.

This woman is amazing; no wonder she can do what ordinary people can't and dare to think what ordinary people wouldn't even consider.

"It's worth mentioning that this cousin-in-law is indeed pregnant. After my aunt divorced my uncle, she had nowhere to go, so my cousin-in-law took her with her. In the future, they will most likely raise the child in her belly together."

Du Anrao: "..." That's pretty explosive!
In any case, you've all escaped your misery. The most important thing for the three of you is to live your lives well.

Xi Jingyue: "???" Can this sentence be used here?

"Ahem, besides that, my third grandfather's cousin has also revealed something big these past two days."

It took Du Anrao a long time to figure out which cousin Xi Jingyue was referring to as the "third cousin".

[Oh, that's the guy who was born with low sperm count, was cheated on by his illegitimate brother and his wife, and was forced to take over the baby!]

Yes, that's him.

A smile flickered in Xi Jingyue's eyes: "This cousin's father was a playboy when he was young. Besides this cousin, he had many illegitimate children. A couple of days ago, one of the illegitimate children came to provoke us and revealed that he was having an affair with my cousin's wife..."

[Holy crap, are they that brave? Didn't they initially plan to keep it a secret from Mr. Xi, their cousin, and make him a sucker to raise their child and hand over the inheritance? Why did they suddenly reveal themselves like a werewolf? Or are they so confident in their possession of Mr. Xi's secret about having low sperm count that they want to force him to swallow this bitter pill?]

Xi Jingyue's next words quickly answered Du Anrao's guess. "That illegitimate son, in order to humiliate his cousin, went around saying that his cousin was weak-sperm and would never be able to have his own child. The fact that he was able to give him a child to take care of him in his old age is already a great kindness to him."

Upon hearing this, Du Anrao was completely stunned. All his thoughts, however many, could be summed up in a single sentence.

Do you want this favor?

These words infuriated Du Anrao, an observer, let alone the person involved. He was a psychologically twisted, vengeful demon king, whose character was personally confirmed by the mastermind behind the plot. How could anyone allow him to ride roughshod over him like this?
"He's already like this, doesn't your cousin have any thoughts of fighting back?"

“My cousin got sick from anger and started making a scene, wanting to divorce his wife. His father, who is my uncle, advised him not to make a big deal out of it, since he couldn’t do anything about it anyway… In short, he wanted him to keep his wife and the child.”

"And then what? He agreed?"

[This cousin Xi is a ruthless individual capable of taking on a hundred men single-handedly, wiping out an entire enemy force. Is it really possible he would swallow his pride for the sake of so-called family honor? It seems highly unlikely.]

As it turns out, Du Anrao's judgment of people was quite accurate.

"How could that be? My cousin had a huge fight with my uncle and publicly exposed that my uncle had known all along that the illegitimate child and my cousin's wife had cheated on him and plotted to make him raise someone else's child. He said that they did all this under my uncle's instructions, and that he was the culprit who wanted to drive my cousin to his death. All he did was to secretly swallow up the inheritance that my cousin's mother left him."

"Wow!" Du Anrao couldn't help but let out a heartfelt exclamation.

[My cousin's move was brilliant! He immediately shifted everyone's focus from whether he was truly infertile to the intricate family drama of a wealthy family's inheritance battles between husband and wife, father and son. This instantly reduced the credibility of the evidence presented by his adversaries to attack him by more than half.]

Xi Jingyue laughed and continued, "Afterwards, my cousin tearfully recounted in front of many people how he and his mother were treated coldly and harshly at home when his mother was alive, as well as how my uncle favored his mistresses and illegitimate children."

"Wow, your cousin is really good at being flexible! Your uncle must be furious now, right?"

"I am indeed quite angry, but who can blame him for being in the wrong? My uncle is notorious for favoring his concubines over his wife. The death of my cousin's mother was inextricably linked to those women outside. Everyone just keeps quiet about it, not wanting to meddle in other people's business, maintaining a facade of respectability, but in reality, they know everything. He has a bad reputation in this regard, so it's not right to blame my cousin for speaking the truth and losing face."

Du Anrao nodded in agreement: "That's true. You can't just cover people's mouths and not let them talk. If you dare to do something, you have to dare to admit it. If you want to be romantic and charming, and also have a good reputation that everyone praises, then you have to have it all."

"Yes, what you said makes a lot of sense." Xi Jingyue turned to look at her at the traffic light, his smile widening.

"Because of this, my cousin and my uncle had a complete falling out. My cousin used the excuse of getting sick from anger to stop all business at the company and focus on recuperating."

Du Anrao was somewhat puzzled upon hearing this: "Won't leaving the company at this time allow that illegitimate child to take advantage of the situation?"

"No. My cousin has been working in the company for eight years and has long since sidelined my uncle. To outsiders, it still seems like my uncle is in charge, but in reality, my cousin removed all of my uncle's cronies from the management team four years ago."

It's fair to say that their company is now basically run by the older cousin, while the older cousin is merely a figurehead, all show and no substance; otherwise, he wouldn't have orchestrated this whole mess. To put it bluntly, everyone in this drama has their own ulterior motives and hidden agendas.