Chapter 163: Chapter 163: Smashing the Cracked Pot

The butler, Old Wei, checked off names on the guest list. Only those with connections or status were allowed into the main house.

The others were sent to a side hall for a cup of tea before being dismissed.

The kitchen had prepared two extra tables of refreshments, which, despite the name, were practically a banquet.

This sort of thing happened every year, but this year was different.

Because the patriarch of the Ling family had recently let it be known that it was time to start discussing his granddaughter’s marriage.

But what about Shanshan, the center of attention?

She spent all day cooped up in her room helping her father recuperate, never showing her face.

Every morning, she brought Ling Anxun his medicine right on time. They ate lunch together, and in the afternoon, she would curl up by the window to read.

"Honestly, they’re practically arranging your marriage out there, and you’re just lying here reading a book?"

Ling Zhiwei pushed open the door, a cup of hot coffee in his hand.

He walked over to her bed and set the cup on the nightstand. His tone was a mixture of resignation and teasing.

"What’s the rush? Grandpa and Grandma are better at blocking people than I am."

Shanshan didn’t even look up, her tone airy.

She was telling the truth. Her grandparents had recently turned away five different marriage proposals.

Their excuses grew more ingenious each time.

Sometimes they claimed to be too unwell to discuss such things; other times, they cited a family custom that the time wasn’t right.

’As long as someone else is running interference for me, why should I have to deal with it?’

"This time is different. The family that came is a big deal."

Ling Zhiwei sat on the sofa opposite her, setting down his coffee cup.

"I heard he’s the youngest son of a military region commander. He earned a double master’s overseas, returned to join the Strategic Department, and was appointed a deputy division chief in his twenties. He specifically asked to meet you and even brought a formal betrothal contract. It was enough to make even Grandpa frown."

The moment Shanshan heard that, she put her book down.

She closed the book on her lap, folded her hands over the cover, and fixed her eyes on her brother.

"Are you serious? The guy from the Strategic Department? How do they know about me? Who made the introduction?"

’A family of that caliber... once they set their sights on something, a few polite excuses from the elders won’t be enough to put them off.’

"Let’s go take a look."

She threw off the thin blanket covering her knees, slipped her bare feet into a pair of slippers, and grabbed a jacket to throw over her shoulders.

Ling Zhiwei hurried to catch up, calling out a reminder as they walked, "Don’t be too aggressive. Try to let them save some face."

Just as they reached the living room, they could hear the guests gushing with praise.

That Grandma Xu had a loud voice, and her face was flushed with excitement as she spoke.

"Your family’s Shanshan is so accomplished, her children will surely..."

She said this with a meaningful smile at her son, who was sitting beside her.

The others nodded along in agreement, making for a very harmonious atmosphere.

Old Mrs. Ling barely maintained her smile, secretly digging her fingernails into her palm to keep from blowing up right then and there.

The moment the words were out, the smile on Ding Qin’s face faltered.

Standing off to the side with a fruit platter, she heard the talk of having children and her grip tightened, nearly cracking the porcelain plate.

Before Ding Qin could react, Shanshan’s voice drifted in from the entrance.

"You want to be my husband? Well, you’d have to be at least as smart as I am. I’m this brilliant—if I marry some dimwit and our kid ends up dull, wouldn’t I be taking a major loss? I’m not about to do something that foolish."

The guests had no sooner left than the reporters arrived.

Two reporters stood outside, holding voice recorders and cameras. They were polite, but their questions were blunt.

At first, the Ling family was reluctant to say much, stating only that Shanshan was their adopted daughter.

They added that she was doing very well and that they hoped for privacy.

But as the family discussed it among themselves, the angrier they became.

The truth of Shanshan’s origins had been a secret they’d bottled up for years.

Now that things had escalated to this point, there was no longer any point in hiding it.

They decided to take this opportunity to get the truth out.

While they didn’t have Shanshan speak, they did reveal some of the facts to the media.

She was, in fact, the child abandoned by her birth parents all those years ago.

As the story unfolded, it turned out that not only was this girl a top student, but she had also been abandoned by her own flesh and blood.

Her adoptive family had endured countless hardships to raise her, and now that she had finally made something of herself, her biological father was cruelly denying any connection to her.

Each new detail was more explosive than the last.

The reporters organized their notes on the spot, confirmed a few key details, and then hastily took their leave.

Back at the news agency, they skipped dinner and went straight to the editing room to rush the story to print.

The layout was rearranged overnight, clearing the front-page headline for the article.

The next morning, the papers were distributed all over the city via early-morning buses and street-corner newsstands.

That morning, Cao Daqiang rode his bike to his work unit as usual.

As soon as he entered his office and sat down, he sensed that the atmosphere was off.

He picked up his mug for a sip of tea, his mind still on the reports he had to write that day, completely oblivious to what was going on.

It wasn’t until his lunch break, when he went to the breakroom to get some hot water, that he overheard two young colleagues whispering.

"I never would’ve thought a family like that could raise a daughter who’s a top scholar."

"I know, right? And her biological father works right here in our organization. I heard he was about to be promoted. That’s probably off the table now."

Cao Daqiang whipped his head around. The two immediately fell silent, grabbed their mugs, and walked away.

Utterly bewildered, he returned to his desk and snatched a newspaper lying open on a coworker’s desk.

The front-page headline seared his eyes, though the accompanying photo was pixelated.

But the names "Top Scholar Shanshan" and "Biological Father Cao Daqiang" were printed in crystal clear text.

The article detailed how the child had been abandoned, adopted by the Ling family, and achieved her high scores through sheer effort. It concluded by pointing out that Cao Daqiang still refused to acknowledge his daughter and added a line stating they were ready for a paternity test at any time.

The more he read, the more he panicked. The more he read, the more he feared.

It was over.

This time, there was no way to deny it.

By the time the teacher burst in, Cao Jiajia’s hair was a tangled mess, and her face was covered in red scratches.

Her left earlobe had been pulled so hard it was bleeding, and the corner of her mouth was split.

The surrounding students were all chattering at once, trying to explain what happened, but no one could clearly say who had started it.

The teacher yelled for order while pulling her and the other girl apart.

The other girl hadn’t fared much better; one of her eyes was swollen shut, and her collar was nearly ripped off.

Two buttons were missing from her school uniform, and there were visible scratch marks on her neck.

The two stood facing each other, neither willing to back down and admit they were wrong.

The air was thick with suppressed hostility.

"Fine! That’s it! Both of you, to the office! I’m calling your parents to deal with this!"

The teacher’s voice trembled with rage as she dragged them toward the office, already dialing a number.

Cao Jiajia had wanted her to call her dad.

But when Cao Daqiang picked up, he just said he was busy and told her to have the teacher call her mother.

"Teacher... my dad can’t get away today..."

She mumbled, trying to get out of it.

Her fingers anxiously twisted the hem of her shirt, her voice trailing off.

But the teacher wasn’t having any of it. She snatched the phone and dialed Liu Yingzi’s work number directly.

The dial tone droned from the receiver.

She closed her eyes, sensing the situation was about to get even worse.

’Now I’m really screwed.’

So Cao Jiajia just leaned back against the wall, crossed her arms, and put on an expression of someone who had already given up, ignoring everything.

No matter what anyone asked, she just shook her head or stayed silent.

She let the teacher’s words go in one ear and out the other.

She’d stopped believing long ago that any of this could change a thing.

The moment Liu Yingzi pushed open the office door and saw her daughter’s slovenly state, her temper flared.

She strode over, her brow deeply furrowed.

"What did you do this time?"

There was a flicker of pain for her daughter, but it was quickly overwhelmed by sheer exasperation.