Chapter 164: A Husband and Wife Putting on an Act Together?

"What is going on? Are you still in Qiantang? Old Bai's younger son and daughter-in-law are talking about getting a divorce? And Old Bai got himself mixed up in it?"

Wu You shifted his phone to his right hand and began digging in his ear with the pinkie of his left hand.

The clatter of crashing objects occasionally echoed from the other end of the line, accompanied by a woman's shrill scolding and a man's loud rebukes.

Wu You remembered Bai Yanxi mentioning that his younger daughter-in-law was a mercenary and standard shrewish woman, though it seemed his younger son was no better—at least his unfilial nature was certain.

"Mr. Wu, we are in Suzhou City. As for getting mixed up in it, well, I suppose you could not quite put it that way. Before the old man arrived, the couple merely had a few words, much like any ordinary, slightly discordant couple."

Lu Xian on the other end of the phone was somewhat at a loss as to how to explain this thoroughly farcical situation.

Originally, Bai Yanxi had asked him not to spread the word, but could Lu Xian dare not answer when his own boss was asking?

Glancing at Bai Yanxi, who was playing the role of a mediator over there, Lu Xian figured he would just have to apologize to the old man later.

Lu Xian was quite sick of dealing with this daily routine.

He quietly stepped outside and half-closed the door.

"It is like this: the couple was originally just estranged. When Old Man Bai first found them, they even 'united against an outsider'."

Wu You grew interested. Could it be that the old man went to break them up? Old Bai was surprisingly ruthless in taking revenge on his son; he had never shown that side before.

"So Old Man Bai wants them to get a divorce?"

Wu You asked offhandedly.

"No, no, how could Old Man Bai do that? Mr. Wu, you have no idea, that is where the real drama lies..."

As Lu Xian narrated the events, Wu You gradually grasped the situation.

Bai Yanxi's younger son's family—that couple—both possessed petty minds. Coupled with the daughter-in-law's penchant for making unreasonable scenes, deep-seated grievances had accumulated over the years.

When Bai Yanxi first arrived, they looked down on him and had no desire to shoulder any filial responsibilities.

However, the old father had arrived this time beaming with health and vitality, dressed in a high-end, silver-shimmering silk practice suit.

He looked completely different from the down-and-out figure of his post-prison days.

Indeed, Bai Yanxi was no longer what he used to be.

Behind him followed a bodyguard in a suit, and later they discovered a Mercedes-Benz parked downstairs in the old man's residential complex.

This was clearly the aura of a boss, and all within just a few short years?

Their attitude naturally shifted.

They ushered him into the house, showering him with warm inquiries and probing indirectly about his recent circumstances.

How could Bai Yanxi fail to realize what these two unfilial wretches were thinking? Yet, out of longing for his grandson and a spirit of magnanimity, he let it slide.

Therefore, he held nothing back and told them everything he could.

Although his old father was not the boss himself, it was hardly surprising given his advanced age; starting a business at his stage was unlikely.

Yet the person he followed was undeniably a genuine, wealthy boss.

A basic monthly salary of fifty thousand yuan for doing practically nothing, living at the boss's estate, having saved the boss's grandfather in his early years, and an unknown end-of-year bonus waiting for him.

Furthermore, he participated in the company's pharmaceutical research, meaning he would share a certain percentage of the profits in the future.

The old man whom they used to disdain instantly transformed into a highly sought-after prize.

That evening, when little Hu came home from school, his mother harshly scolded him because he felt distant from his grandfather and addressed him too stiffly.

Little Hu's father, Bai Dongli, casually retorted, "Isn't that what you taught him?"

That remark directly ignited the gasoline barrel.

The daughter-in-law felt that in front of her wealthy, returned father-in-law, her useless husband—whom she had always suppressed at home—had made her lose face.

She launched into a torrent of abuse, completely shifting the blame for failing to support Bai Yanxi over the years entirely onto Bai Dongli.

Normally, he might have just swallowed the insults, but taking the blame in front of his own father was out of the question.

Bai Dongli fired back calling her a shrew and a spendthrift, while his wife hurled back accusations of him being a spineless loser.

Lu Xian watched from the side, utterly dumbfounded.

It felt like lighting a string of firecrackers; once they started popping, there was simply no stopping them.

Bai Yanxi also felt a headache coming on. Although he longed for his grandson, he felt it inappropriate to stay any longer that evening, so after making a strenuous effort to mediate for a while, he helplessly got up and took his leave.

He intended to buy his grandson a gift before visiting again.

The couple was still fuming and hurling occasional insults as they saw him out.

The next day, when Lu Xian and Bai Yanxi returned bearing gifts, neighbors informed them that the couple had quarreled fiercely throughout the night.

Before Bai Yanxi even had the chance to suggest moving back to Qiantang, the two powder kegs that had exploded the previous night flared up again.

With no other choice, Bai Yanxi tried to mediate once more. A tactful father-in-law would naturally reprimand his son for being in the wrong.

And that was precisely what Bai Yanxi did.

A sensible daughter-in-law would either take the opening to back down or simply keep quiet.

Instead, the shrewish wife took her father-in-law's support as license to become even more outrageous, dragging up every old grievance she believed stemmed from her husband's incompetence over the years.

Lu Xian, standing in the background, witnessed with his own eyes how Bai Dongli's face flushed crimson, the bulging veins on his temples looking almost identical to the stance he struck when practicing Iron Intent Boxing.

And then, predictably, the conflict escalated.

Verbal sparring gave way to physical blows. Bai Dongli's face was scratched with several deep gasps, while his wife was rewarded with a resounding slap across the face.

Once physical violence entered the picture, the rift between the couple widened irreparably.

Over the next few days, developing in a manner Lu Xian found utterly incomprehensible, the pair actually progressed to demanding a divorce—escalating from hollow threats tossed around during arguments to a genuine determination to split up.

Although displeased with his daughter-in-law and exasperated by his younger son, Bai Yanxi had no wish to see his grandson become a child of a single-parent household.

Rack his brains as he might on how to restore harmony between the couple, Bai Yanxi was utterly sick of it.

"That is basically how things stand."

Lu Xian delivered his report in one breath.

As Wu You listened, the underlying implications gradually began to dawn on him.

Bai Yanxi and the others were too close to the situation to see clearly, but he managed to pick up on the underlying subtext.

After more than ten days of escalating drama, save for the opening days, the subsequent rows sounded like thunder with very little rain.

It was not that Wu You was prone to judging others by his own cynical standards, but neither of this couple could be considered noble characters.

To put it bluntly, were they not simply coveting Bai Yanxi's money?

The old man had struck it rich.

In a normal family, an elder's wealth would eventually pass down to them anyway.

However, both husband and wife knew very well how poorly they had treated Bai Yanxi during his adversity.

Who could say whether Bai Yanxi might withhold his money from the household, or perhaps only hand over a pittance once little Hu was married and independent?

The former option was a dead end, and the latter would take many years—yet the couple was already salivating for it now.

Seeing how much Bai Yanxi cared for little Hu and how desperately he tried to mediate out of a desire to prevent the boy from growing up in a single-parent family had likely planted some alternative schemes in their heads.

Lu Xian had mentioned more than once the subjects of their arguments, which invariably centered around the man being spineless, incapable of making money, and life being too hard...

Good grief, the picture was already glaringly obvious.

Lu Xian had always been a sheltered homebody, so it was hardly surprising that he genuinely believed they were simply screaming at each other over a divorce. Bai Yanxi, on the other hand, was likely blinded by genuine concern.

Under normal circumstances, with the old man's usual shrewdness, could he really have failed to read between the lines?

Regardless of whether the actual facts aligned with this, Wu You had already made up his mind on the matter.