After the Divorce, the Paranoid CEO Begs for a HE with His Life Chapter 26

Chapter 26: A Memory from Sixteen Years Ago

“Why didn’t you go to class? Why did you fight with people? I had the driver send you to the school gate but didn’t take you to the classroom because I wanted you to learn to be independent. But you—you actually caused trouble for me!”

Ji Xiao’s face was green. He felt the blood in his entire body was boiling. He pointed at Ji Songting, who was kneeling on the ground with a bleeding head, and shouted angrily:

“How do I usually teach you? Think twice before you act. Have upbringing and be polite. Which one did you follow? Have you taken my words as wind passing by your ears?!”

Little Songting raised his head and looked at the man calmly. Several wounds still remained on his pale cheeks, but he was born with a kind of stubbornness and persistence.

He bit his lip hard, enduring the pain on his body, and said neither humbly nor arrogantly:

“They were the ones who said you were a murderer first! They even said I was the son of a murderer! When facing a group of impolite things, there’s no need to have upbringing.”

In his youth, he didn’t understand what his father’s so-called upbringing was. It was just that his natural pride didn’t allow him to bow his head to anyone. He also didn’t understand why this father, who seemed like a gentleman on the surface, would cause others to go bankrupt and commit suicide.

Hearing this, Ji Xiao was stunned. His brows were tightly knit. But in order to play the role of a righteous father in front of his son, he didn’t choose to explain.

The man’s chest heaved violently. His wide eyes were filled with anger. He gritted his teeth and scolded:

“Do you know what you’re saying? To be so arrogant at such a young age and act like it’s only natural… when you grow up, are you going to overturn the heavens?!”

Lin Qiuwan, who was beside them, sighed and gently pulled the man’s arm. She looked at her son on the ground with heartache and said:

“Xiao-ge, don’t be too angry. Let me take Xiao Ting to apply some medicine first, and then we’ll see how to solve this matter. Besides, it’s quite normal for children to be willful.”

“You get to the side. Indulgent mothers spoil their sons! It’s because of a mother like you that such a rebellious son could be pampered!”

Ji Xiao pulled his arm back. On the contrary, he felt her soft-hearted words were adding fuel to the fire. He scolded with disappointment:

“I only have him as my son. What do I want him to be willful for? What I want is for him to hide his light and bide his time from an early age, accumulating strength to break through so he can take over my company in the future, not to become some profligate playboy!”

In fact, as his wife, Lin Qiuwan knew best what her husband was thinking.

On the surface, he was educating his son to abstain from violence. But what Ji Xiao wanted was never someone who only relied on brute force to solve things. He wanted a elite in the workplace who didn’t show his sharpness and was good at calculating.

But Ji Songting’s pride and stubbornness were undoubtedly challenging Ji Xiao’s patience and desire to conquer.

Little Songting looked at his embarrassed and angry father indifferently. The nature of being unwilling when a child suffers grievance and blame forced him to talk back:

“Should one just endure in silence when being bullied?”

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To his surprise, the other person ignored this bit of grievance. In his heart, he more and more felt that his son was actually so disobedient that he even dared to talk back to his father. He immediately said sternly:

“You still dare to talk back? There are many ways to strike back. Why do you insist on using violence to counter violence! Have you still not realized your mistake until now?”

As soon as these words were spoken, Lin Qiuwan immediately knelt down. She gently patted little Songting’s shoulder and urged anxiously:

“Quickly, Xiao Ting. Admit your mistake to your father. Say you won’t fight anymore in the future and will handle conflicts rationally. Then Mom will take you to bandage your wounds.”

But a child is a child. How could he compromise so easily? Especially when he had been beaten hard just to defend his father’s reputation.

Little Songting covered the back of his hand, which was full of bruises. His small shoulders trembled from the pain, but his voice still replied steadily: “No. I am not wrong.”

Ji Xiao was furious at these stubborn words.

He originally thought his earnest teachings could make this rebellious son recognize his mistake and restrain himself a bit, but he hadn’t expected to get an even more intensified resistance in return.

“Good! Very good! Your mouth is so hard at such a young age. Today I must break your spirit!”

Ji Xiao rubbed his throbbing forehead. He suddenly stopped pacing and instead reached out to Li Tang behind the sofa. “Butler, bring the family discipline!”

Li Tang seemed a bit caught in a dilemma. He reminded him in fear: “Chairman, this… Young Master is still young. I’m afraid he won’t be able to bear it. Chairman, please think twice!”

“I told you to go, so go!”

“Yes, Chairman. I’m going right now!”

Seeing that her husband was serious, Lin Qiuwan’s eyes were full of panic. She stood up and shielded her son tightly behind her, her voice choking:

“Are you crazy…? Xiao Ting is only a ten-year-old child, and you’re so heartless? Is he still your biological son? Why be so strict with him?”

For Lin Qiuwan, she didn’t care about those so-called fame, fortune, status, or the harsh requirements for excellence and high grades. She also didn’t want her son to inherit anything.

Right now, as a mother, she only wanted Ji Songting to be simple and happy, to be healthy and joyful. She had no other demands.

“It’s because he is my son that I must be cruel enough to educate him and let him know what to do next time!”

Saying that, Ji Xiao gripped the long whip in his hand. He forcefully pulled away the woman who was protecting him at the front and then quickly lashed the whip onto little Songting’s back!

A heart-piercing and bone-deep pain instantly spread throughout his body. His entire back felt as if it had been split by a knife.

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Little Songting groaned in pain. His body, which had already suffered punches and kicks, clearly couldn’t bear such a violent and heavy blow. His straight back couldn’t help but bend down.

His red eyes looked at his father and that long whip—which was as ferocious as a poisonous snake—with resentment.

Lin Qiuwan, who had been forcibly pulled away, was eager to protect her son. She rushed forward and used her own body to block another whip that was coming down.

Several strands of her black hair suddenly broke, falling messily over her shoulders. Her face was deathly pale, and her pupils were constricted, but she still tightly held little Songting’s shoulders and wouldn’t let go.

Little Songting was frightened by this sudden situation. For a while, he was at a loss, and his voice was also stained with a crying tone:

“Mom! You…”

Ji Xiao hadn’t expected her to rush over. He simply couldn’t stop the whip he had raised in his hand.

He was panicked for a moment. The anger on his face turned into unreasonableness again. He then said in a severe voice:

“Chen Ma, take the Madam to her room to apply medicine!”

At this whip, Chen Ma’s heart also skipped a beat. She went to help Lin Qiuwan with a sense of pity. However, the other person insisted on protecting her son and simply couldn’t be pulled away.

Finally, several maids were called in to barely manage to take the struggling Lin Qiuwan back to her room.

Ji Xiao closed his eyes irritably. He opened them and stared at his son lying on the floor, asking: “I’ll ask you one last time. Are you wrong or not? Do you still dare talk back?”

Little Songting straightened up weakly and shook his head resolutely. “I… am not wrong, and I wasn’t talking back.”

The furious man once again raised the whip and lashed it on his back without mercy. Immediately after, he picked up his son, who was curled up in pain, and walked outside the front door.

At this moment, the dazed little Songting was thrown out. Like a discarded house cat, he fell into the snow.

And his father’s heartless voice rang in his ears: “Then you will kneel outside until you admit your mistake!”

It turned out that apart from his mother, no one dared to step forward to protect him.

He didn’t know if her back hurt after being whipped… but he himself really, really hurt. It felt like he was about to die.

The cold wind swept across his frozen cheeks. The snow falling from the sky landed on his thin body, cold and bone-piercing, as if it were going to swallow him whole.

Little Songting struggled to maintain his spirit, afraid of falling asleep. He hugged himself tightly. At only ten years old, he was experiencing pressure and pain that he shouldn’t have at this age.

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In the room, Lin Qiuwan didn’t cooperate with the maids to apply the medicine; instead, she drove everyone out one by one.

From Chen Ma’s mouth, she learned that her son had already been thrown at the door and was currently being drenched in the wind and snow.

She simply couldn’t understand how Ji Xiao could be so heartless. Just to make Ji Songting remember the lesson, he ignored his young age and used those deceptive and calculating methods from the workplace to force his ten-year-old son to admit his mistake.

Ji Xiao was despicable, but she was not.

The bedroom door had already been locked by the servants. Lin Qiuwan could only open the window. She pulled down the curtains hanging on it and tied them together with things around her that could be made into a hemp rope, then tied it tightly to the sturdy wardrobe beside her.

She took a deep breath and looked down at the height of the three stories. Her innate fear still made her shrink back.

But women are weak, yet mothers are strong. Her determination to save her son covered that area of fear in her heart in an instant.

Lin Qiuwan didn’t hesitate at all. She threw the braided curtains down. She gripped the rope tightly and stepped out of the window, moving down the rope bit by bit.

The bone-chilling wind in mid-air scraped her jade-like white cheeks. The white gauze dress on her body was also stained with snowflakes.

When she was about two meters from the ground, the length of the curtains was not enough. Lin Qiuwan steeled her heart. She closed her eyes tightly and gritted her teeth, letting go of the rope and jumping down!

The moment she landed, her bones seemed to be shattered. Strands of blood seeped from the back of her hand and her forehead, and her foot was also heavily sprained.

“Ouch…”

The pain made her unable to stop herself from crying out, but she immediately covered her mouth. She leaned against the wall and stood up with a limp.

She didn’t know if Ji Xiao was monitoring Ji Songting in front of the surveillance cameras, but once she thought of her battered son, she couldn’t care about that much. She walked all the way along the corner to the door.

When she saw her son covered by a thick layer of snow on the ground, Lin Qiuwan’s heart instantly twisted together, and tears rolled down unconsciously.

She dug away the snow with force and held the unconscious little Songting tightly in her arms. Her trembling hands touched his forehead and chest one by one, but they were burning hot.

“Xiao Ting, don’t be afraid… Mom is late. You must hold on. We’re going to the hospital right now…”

The person in her arms coughed violently a few times. His thin lips, which had no color, murmured. He said weakly: “Mom… I’m not wrong. But I made you get beaten…”

Lin Qiuwan: “Silly child. Mom doesn’t hurt. Why are you so stubborn? You’ve suffered so much for no reason.”

Ji Xiao watched the mother and son walking away in the wind and snow through the surveillance camera, but he didn’t stop them.

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