After failing to get Liling to give up on Fang Bingwen, Zhang Renshu cut off all ties with her.
There was no use having a daughter who wouldn't listen to him anymore. He still had other ambitions to accomplish and refused to be killed by high blood pressure on her matter.
Left with no choice, he continued with his plans to marry Xiaoling off to the new friend he made through politics just to secure a solid foothold in that world.
No matter what Shi Wenqian said to get him to change his mind, he refused to budge, and instead, her plans backfired.
Glaring at her, he pointed his index finger straight into her eyes as if he wanted to pop it.
"If you don't like my decision, take your daughter away from my sight and establish her with a job and a husband. But bear in mind that any involvement with the Fang family through marriage, will cause dire consequences!"
Shi Wenqian looked unafraid as she met his furious gaze head-on. Her eyes were equally blaring with fire as her lips thugged downwards.
"You were not able to handle a small girl whom you call your daughter, yet, you come here to command what to be done with my own daughter. Zhang Renshu, what right do you have?"
"You dare to ask me what right I have?" Zhang Renshu's chest rose and fell abnormally.
If it were to be possible, his gaze would have already drilled a hole in her body. After accepting and raising the child she came into their marriage with, she dared to stand there and ask him the right he had to make decisions on her head?
"Why wouldn't I?" She asked, pissed at his current inability to control Zhang Liling to give up on the man her daughter was interested in.
"... You fail to get your daughter to listen to you, but you come here to force your decision on us, don't you think your ways are twisted and unfair? This is the height of injustice I can tolerate."
Zhang Renshu stood there watching her raise her voice at him and even point fingers at him. 'She is crazy.' He concluded.
Without giving him a break to respond, she continued. "Zhang Renshu, you don't have any right to instruct us and expect us to listen to you. You allow your daughter to act the way she wants, but you come here and treat my daughter as a pawn for your political career!"
After speaking in anger for a short while, Shi Wenqian stopped talking just to catch her breath. While staring angrily at him, she panted for air.
"Are you done?!" Zhang Renshu asked with a death glare as his brows knitted together.
Instead of replying to him, she rolled her eyes at him and threw her face away and he took it as sign that she was done talking.
"Since you feel that I allowed Liling to act the way she wants, you can also tell Xiaoling to act the way she wants too."
Just when she shifted her gaze back to him, she heard him say, "But get ready for her name to be taken off the family register. She will leave Zhang group and every need she has will be met by you!"
"What?!" Shi Wenqian exclaimed in shock, but she didn't let his decree to cloud her mind as she immediately retorted the next moment.
"Why would you take Xiaoling's name off the family register when you didn't do the same with your daughter? Is that not cheating?"
"Yes." He admitted without a care. He even went further to sit on his chair and cross his legs while glaring at her.
He didn't care about her feelings any concerns as he didn't mind. It's not like he even had the slightest kind of feeling for her.
So what if he was being partial? It's not like she could do anything about it.
"Since we started this argument, you have clearly reminded me so many times that Xiaoling is not my biological daughter, so why would I give her the same treatment as Liling?"
Shi Wenqian stood in front of his home office desk staring at him. Now that she had stopped talking, she was beginning to hear the sound of her heartbeat going off in her head along with his voice.
Her lips slowly parted, but no words could come forth. Her tongue was tied as if a cat got it.
Seeing her staring speechlessly at him, he felt a bit happy. At least he could still get her to shut up.
"Although in my heart, Liling is no longer my daughter, but I would still never take her name off the family register. But as for Xiaoling, I would go to that length because she is not my biological daughter and thanks for reminding me of that, I would begin to see her that way."
Shi Wenqian didn't know how she made it back to her bedroom and unknown to the both of them, Xiaoling had eavesdropped on their entire conversation.
,m She had placed her ear on the door and through the small gap between the door and the frame, she was able to hear everything clearly, all thanks to her mother who didn't shut the door properly when she barged in earlier.
Zhang Xiaoling returned to her bedroom unfazed by her stepfather's decision to use her as a pawn for she had long accepted that fact in her mind.
She wasn't like Zhang Liling who was still able to cope after being cast away from the family because she had her mother.
Her case was very different. She had a mother, but she would never settle for her to be assisted with her blood money for the day she does that, her entire life would be over.
Xiaoling had to forcefully bring herself to accept Zhang Renshu's decision. At least he was using her as a pawn for his political career, but still chasing the right family for that.
Even if there was no love in her marriage, at least there will be power, wealth, recognition and influence. Just the things she needed to finally be independent and take control of her life.