Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Zhang Jinshan opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.

He remembered Liu Lei telling him that Song Chao was most agitated in the interrogation room not when he was being beaten, but when Liu Lei said he was going to investigate Yuan Qiao.

He struggled like a madman, the handcuffs rubbing his wrists raw, and blood flowed down the chains.

Liu Lei even laughed and said that this trick worked, because what people fear most is something happening to their wife and children.

But now that Ming Shao has said that, Zhang Jinshan finally realized what was going on.

The Song Dynasty wasn't afraid.

That was when he was at his most resilient.

He felt he was protecting his family with his life. Every punch he took made him feel like he was protecting his family a little more, and every time he endured a blow, he felt like he was becoming a more manly person.

This kind of person can't be defeated by force.

If you hit him, he thinks he's a martyr. If you threaten his family, he thinks he's a hero.

"What should we do then?"

Zhang Jinshan's voice sounded bitter; he was truly at his wit's end.

Ming Shao did not answer directly.

He picked up the glass, swirled the amber liquid inside, and watched the streaks left by the liquid on the glass slowly slide down.

"To break him, you have to destroy what he cares about most. Not by hitting him, nor by scaring his family. It's about letting him know that everything he's been fighting so hard to protect was a lie from the very beginning."

Zhang Jinshan frowned, not quite understanding.

Ming Shao raised his chin and looked at Zhang Jinshan's face, a look that sent chills down Zhang Jinshan's spine.

"Don't you have a recording of Yuan Qiao's report to you?"

Zhang Jinshan straightened up immediately.

You mean—

"She told you that after Song Chao came home, he fixed the roof, nailed a table, bought a Barbie doll for his daughter, and gave you five thousand yuan for living expenses. She told you that Song Chao was pitifully stupid, saying that he still doesn't know Niu Niu isn't his child. Do you still have that recording?"

"Yes, yes, I've kept it all along." Zhang Jinshan nodded hurriedly, his eyes beginning to shine.

"And there's that video you recorded three years ago when she received 30,000 yuan. She took the money and said she would do as we said and frame the child to Song Chao. That video hasn't been deleted, has it?"

"I didn't delete them! They're all on my computer, in encrypted folders, absolutely safe." Zhang Jinshan's voice already carried a hint of excitement; he vaguely understood what Young Master Ming was going to do.

Ming Shao nodded, a faint smile playing on his lips.

"Find a suitable opportunity to show it to the Song Dynasty."

Zhang Jinshan was so excited he almost stood up, his voice rising a half-octave.

"That's right! How come I didn't think of that! I'll arrange it right away! I'll send the recording and video to Liu Lei's phone later so he can play them in the interrogation room in front of Song Chao!"

Zhang Jinshan became more and more excited as he spoke, gesturing with his fingers in the air, his face glistening with oil.

"I want to see if he can still get hard after knowing he's been cuckolded for three years, knows his daughter he's raised for three years isn't his, knows his wife was with us from the beginning! I'll make him get hard! I'll make him suffer! I'll make him—"

"Alright."

Ming Shao coldly interrupted him.

Zhang Jinshan was like a duck with its neck choked, its mouth still open, but its voice stuck in its throat.

Ming Shao stood up and straightened the cuffs of his coat.

"Have your men send a media player to the interrogation room. You personally oversee it."

"Yes, yes, I'll take care of it right away!"

Zhang Jinshan sprang up from the sofa, hunched over, and retreated towards the door. He almost tripped when he reached the doorway, and only managed to steady himself by grabbing the door frame.

Ming Shao didn't look at him.

He walked back to the French windows, turned his back to the door, and looked at the gray sky outside.

Zhang Jinshan quietly closed the door, and the office returned to silence.

Ming Shao stood alone by the window, the twilight of late autumn filtering through the glass curtain wall, casting a cold gray light over the entire office.

He recalled the wedding three years ago.

It was the wedding of one of his distant cousins, which he hadn't originally intended to attend.

But at that time, he had just secured a project in Jeolla Province with his family, and his father said that he would be able to meet several provincial committee members at the wedding, so he had to attend.

He went.

After a few rounds of drinks, he went for some fresh air in the corridor outside the banquet hall and saw Yuan Qiao wearing a bridesmaid dress.

She was squatting in the corner, wiping the red wine stains off her skirt with a handkerchief, a few strands of her hair falling down and sticking to her cheeks.

He drank quite a bit that day, and his mind wasn't very clear anymore.

He walked over and grabbed her arm.

Yuan Qiao was startled and looked up at him, her eyes filled with fear, but even more so with confusion.

She didn't know who he was or what he wanted to do.

He didn't give her time to react and dragged her into the empty room next door.

Afterwards, he leaned against the headboard and watched Yuan Qiao huddled under the covers, crying. Her shoulders were trembling, and she was crying very softly, as if she was afraid of being heard.

He found it annoying.

He took out 30,000 yuan in cash from his wallet, threw it on the bedside table, and said it was compensation.

Yuan Qiao cried even louder, saying it was her first time.

He chuckled, finding it laughable that people still brought up their first time these days.

He put on his clothes and left without even leaving his name.

He thought that was the end of it.

Unexpectedly, two months later, Yuan Qiao found him.

She somehow found out his identity and took a bus from Chenxi City to Zhaoming City, where she waited for him downstairs at his company for an entire day.

The security guards tried to get her to leave, but she just squatted by the flowerbed on the side of the road. The cold wind had cracked her lips, but she still wouldn't leave.

When he came out of get off work, he saw her hunched over under the streetlight, her hair disheveled by the wind, her face covered in tear stains.

When she saw him, the first thing she said as she stood up was, "I'm pregnant."

His first reaction was annoyance.

Then comes the scheming.

He originally wanted her to abort the child and give him some money to settle the matter.

He had just established himself in Jeolla Province when this child arrived at an inopportune time.

But when he went to the hospital for a checkup, the doctor said something that made him change his mind.

The doctor said that Yuan Qiao has a special constitution and a thin uterine wall. If she aborts the child, she may never be able to get pregnant again.

Yuan Qiao sat outside the examination room and cried, her whole body trembling.

Even now, Ming Shao is still unsure what she was crying about.

Perhaps it's because she might never be able to be a mother again, or perhaps it's because the child was forced to stay.

But he didn't care why she was crying.

He only cared whether the child could be used by him.

At that time, he was facing the old man's ultimatum.

The old man said that in order to obtain the inheritance rights of Jeolla Province, one must get married and have children within six months.

He didn't believe the old man's threats, but he needed the old man's resources.

The project in Jeolla Province is too large; without family backing, he can't leverage it with his own funds alone.