Irresistible, Young Master vs. Family Head... A Clash of Power

"Reporting to Young Master, these things... I saw those students heading upstairs earlier, and I happened to overhear them talking bad about Young Mistress..."

"Young Mistress is so healthy, how could she possibly have some terminal illness?"

"These people are just maliciously stirring up rumors about Young Mistress, they're just jealous. I've already memorized their faces. Next time they come back to the dormitory, I'll give them a hard time."

The dorm matron had already decided—for those few who had spoken ill of their Young Mistress, if they so much as stepped into the dormitory with their left foot first next time, points deducted!

Just kidding... even if they stepped in with their right foot first, it would still be points deducted!

Coming in without greeting—points deducted. Left eyelid twitching twice—points deducted. Shifty eyes—points deducted. Breathing—points deducted...

The dorm matron meant well. She knew the current rumors circulating about Ye Cheng on campus. Some were true, but some were outright persecution!

Their Young Mistress was such a cheerful person—how could she possibly jump off a building, attempt suicide, or have a terminal illness?

Slander. Framing. Conspiracy. Barefaced retaliation and character assassination!

"Young Master, I've already sent our people down to investigate. We should have results soon. I promise we'll root out whoever dared to defame Young Mistress's character and plant them in the dirt like a ginseng root!"

The dorm matron looked fierce and righteous, completely failing to notice that the expression on her Young Master's face was growing more and more grim.

The timing of this post's appearance was far too coincidental. Ye Cheng had just fled in guilt, suspected of having a terminal illness, resisting examination—and then midday, news of him jumping off a building and attempting suicide exploded out of nowhere.

If the news were false, fine. But if it were true...

Shen Qinghan's hands clenched tightly at her sides, fingernails digging deep into her flesh without her even noticing.

The dorm matron, who had been rubbing her hands together nervously like a fly trying to leave a good impression on her Young Master, sharply sensed that something seemed off.

Was it her imagination? How come... their Young Master's face looked so awful?

Was the content of that post really that outrageous? It looked fine to her—clearly nonsense. Their Young Mistress was in perfect health, clearly someone destined for a long life!

"Find whoever posted this immediately. And help me look into something—this hospital's records..."

Shen Qinghan pulled up the file about Ye Cheng that had been buried in her phone for some time, specifically highlighting the record of Ye Cheng's last hospital visit.

As long as she confirmed the time, she could quickly determine who the attending physician was, and... why exactly Ye Cheng had gone to the hospital back then!

What illness he had!

She needed to verify some things personally. This post might look utterly absurd, but... she wasn't willing to gamble on it.

Thinking about it carefully, Ye Cheng's strange behavior these past few days—it had started back at the hospital. Refusing blood draws, avoiding physical examinations, all manner of clues pointing to a problem.

She had thought at the time that Ye Cheng was being bullied. Now that she thought about it... she had been deceived!

Some idiot had tricked her!

"Yes, Young Master, mission accepted!"

"BEEP BEEP BEEP..."

"Hey, Niu Fen! Get your ass over here right now! What the hell is wrong with the campus network? Fix it, and fix it fast—Young Master needs it!"

The dorm matron grabbed her phone and started shouting at the top of her lungs out in the hallway.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the line, Niu Fen was already drenched in sweat, having absolutely no idea how to respond to his mother.

"This thing today—you must not tell anyone. You understand what I mean, right?" Du Wanyi patted Niu Fen on the shoulder, flashing a "warm" smile.

A smile hiding a dagger. No, wait... the dagger was practically pressed against his forehead.

Who was Niu Fen?

The position of principal wasn't obtained simply through connections—he had real brains. If he couldn't read between the lines, he might as well step down and go herd cows somewhere.

Translation: Anything that happened today must not be reported to their Young Master... or he was dead meat.

"Do this well, Little Niu, and there'll be plenty of rewards for you in the future. But if you mess it up... you know my methods."

Du Wanyi slapped Niu Fen's shoulder twice more.

Cold sweat poured down Niu Fen's forehead. Every slap made his legs buckle. After three or four of those, he was nearly on his knees.

He should never have gotten involved. Tell the truth, and he betrays the Family Head. Lie, and he betrays the Young Master. Either way, he was a dead man...

In that case...

"Hey? Mom, what did you say? I can't hear you—the signal's terrible... AH!"

Niu Fen manually cut the signal while mentally preparing himself. His gaze turned resolute, and with a bang, he slammed himself headfirst into the wall.

He crumpled to the ground with a thud, a massive lump swelling on his head.

Between YES and NO, Niu Fen chose "and"—as long as he stayed unconscious, he could keep avoiding the question. This way, he neither hid anything from their Young Master nor failed the task given by their Family Head...

Worth it!!!

"Goddammit, Niu Fen! You're playing dead on me, you piece of shit! You choose NOW to drop the ball? Just you wait—when I get home, I'm hanging you up and beating your sorry ass! Useless piece of—"

After cursing for quite a while, the dorm matron finally hung up, switching instantly from that ferocious expression to a face full of sycophantic smiles.

She kept rubbing her hands together nervously.

"Heh heh heh, Young Master, that fat brat of mine is useless. I'll deal with him when I get back. No worries, Young Master—I'll find someone else. Mission will be accomplished!"

"BEEP BEEP BEEP..."

Soon, the dorm matron started calling other members of the Du family. Shen Qinghan waited quietly nearby.

On the inside, she was nowhere near as calm as she appeared on the surface. She kept rewatching the video clip in the post... Because it had been maliciously edited by Mo Liangxin, the middle portion—Ye Cheng's "fancy diving" moves and spins—had been cut out, and the fall itself had been blurred, making it look like he was simply in free fall.

BANG!

He hit the ground hard. The same impact hit Shen Qinghan's heart. It clenched.

This idiot... what other things was he still hiding from her!

Shen Qinghan clenched her fists, eyes narrowing, seemingly lost in thought. She was searching for details she had missed. When had it all started?

Time flashed back to the day the two of them first met, by the poolside...

After a few minutes passed, the sweat on the dorm matron's forehead kept growing.

No matter how many calls she made, the result was always the same—bad signal, or couldn't hear clearly, or family emergencies like grandma getting married, dad going back to school, grandpa visiting in a dream complaining the coffin was uncomfortable to sleep in...

Everyone had an excuse, but they all meant the same thing.

They couldn't do it.

One or two was one thing, but all of them like this—it already said enough.

Someone had made their move faster and had called off all the Du family's people.

As for who this person was... it was so hard to guess.

The Family Head.

The dorm matron: "..."

Gulp.

The dorm matron felt like she had just poked a hole in something massive. Sure, she was on the phone right now, looking all proactive about it.

But in reality, she was trying to figure out how to faint gracefully in a moment or two. She was a woman in her sixties, after all—low blood sugar, high blood pressure, things like that. It would be perfectly normal for her to suddenly pass out, right?

Every clue pointed to the fact that what that post said was real. Otherwise, how else could you explain the school suddenly losing internet, and every member of the Du family replying with nonsense that had nothing to do with anything?

That was the Family Head's order!

The dorm matron suddenly understood why her own son had "fainted" out of nowhere just a moment ago.

Looks like... she was going to have to faint too now.

"Enough. Stop calling. Give me the phone." Shen Qinghan's icy voice came from beside her, and the sweat-drenched dorm matron flinched so hard she nearly jumped.

Even someone like her could see what was going on, so there was no way their brilliant young heir couldn't...

It was over.

"I am Shen Qinghan. I am now speaking as the young heir and future Family Head of the Du family. I command you: within five minutes, get me all the information on that hospital. If you fail, you are permanently stripped of your name from the family!"

The tone was calm, but devastatingly serious. The Du family retainer on the other end of the line, who had been trying to make excuses about "grandpa being sick, need to take leave," suddenly froze.

There was a brief silence—so quiet you could hear the sound of swallowing saliva and the frantic wiping of sweat from foreheads.

And so the question was: when the young heir's order conflicted with the Family Head's order, which protocol was supposed to run?

Their Family Head had already given a strict order: not a single piece of information was to be leaked to the young heir, or else she'd be strung up and beaten, and considered an enemy of the Du family from then on.

But their young heir over here was even harsher—straight up removal from the family.

Gulp...

"Yes, Young Heir!" After a brief silence came an affirmative answer, with zero hesitation.

Displeasing the Family Head didn't necessarily mean death—at worst, you'd get strung up and beaten. But displeasing the Young Heir? You'd be out on the streets begging for food elsewhere—truly, literally, erased from the family.

Weighing the pros and cons, the choice was obvious... damn it, they were going for it!

Sorry, Family Head, but the Young Heir's order cannot be defied—that's something you yourself said before!

Right—the Du family, in a sense, had two people with supreme command authority: Du Wanyi, the current Family Head, and Shen Qinghan, the future heir.

It was just that the young miss had never once used that identity before.

The reason she had been so formal just now... was to remind everyone in the Du family exactly what position and identity she was speaking from.

This was an order, not a discussion!

The young heir had refused power for too long. Now that she snapped it back, everyone below was caught off guard. Their young heir had finally acknowledged her own title.

This was good news—fantastic news!

Go!

The Du family's paralyzed logistics system roared back to life, running at full speed. Shen Qinghan had given them five minutes, but in less than three, all the files and information came flooding in.

Down to the second, precise.

They even found out exactly why Ye Cheng had gone to the hospital in the first place... because he had coughed up blood.

Shen Qinghan narrowed her eyes and carefully went through the messages and photos sent over, eventually zoning in on the shady logistics company Ye Cheng used to work at, the hospital he had previously visited... and Da Congming.

2 p.m.

The abandoned factory.

Da Congming, with a bag over his head yet again, was escorted to the all-too-familiar "stage of fate."

The moment the hood was yanked off: wow... it was bright out. After blinking a few times to adjust, he took in the situation around him.

Wow... so many people.

Not far away, there was a middle-aged balding man already tied to a stone pillar, face swollen and bruised, beaten half to death... the owner of the shady logistics company Ye Cheng used to work for.

Da Congming: "..."

He looked around—over a hundred black-suited men, ferocious-looking, no end in sight. Da Congming swallowed hard, and his gaze finally landed on the cold-faced young woman standing right in front of him.

THUD!

He dropped to his knees on the spot.

"I'll talk! I'll confess everything! Young miss, tell me what you want me to say, and I'll say it!" Da Congming cried out in misery, his face twisted into a mask of pain. He had thought the last one was dark enough... but no—this one was far more ruthless!