Chapter 8: Human-bone Prayer Beads

At Qin Jiang’s command, Mo Da and Mo Er lifted their brows, grabbed the vase beside them and smashed it hard onto the floor.

With a loud bang, it sounded the finale of Qin Jiang’s complete break with the Qin family!

“Qin Jiang, you’ve hit the peak of your rebellion!”

“Stop right there, where do you think you are going?”

As the head of the family, Mr. Qin felt insulted that Qin Jiang’s men were allowed to wreak havoc. He put on airs and tried to stop them from smashing more.

But he was too old to fight back. Mo Da just waved casually and Mr. Qin immediately stumbled backward.

“Sign the severance agreement before I come back down, or I’ll smash the second floor too,” Qin Jiang called from the stairs.

Qin Jiang stood at the stair landing. This time he came back not only to sever ties with the Qin family but to take back his treasures.

He went upstairs, passed all the luxuriously decorated doors of the rooms along the corridor, and finally stopped at the messy stairwell leading to the attic.

This was his room.

It was dilapidated and didn’t even have a proper bed—just an abandoned mattress.

The Qin family wasn’t poor, but they were stingy with him, always using the excuse that boys should be “raised with hardship” to skimp on his living conditions.

And he had once accepted this as normal to win the family’s favor.

This cramped room was filled with things Qin Jiang had painstakingly made for his five Qin sisters.

There were financial plans for eldest sister Qin Moyun, rare medicinal herbs collected for second sister Qin Muyun, blueprints for modifying racecars, custom scripts for big brands, professional books on cosmetic surgery, and beauty ointments he’d made for their mother, and more…

This little room was nearly full of all his affection for the Qin family.

But since they didn’t care for them, he decided to take everything back.

There weren’t many things. He packed a whole suitcase and hauled it downstairs.

“Brother Qin Jiang, are you moving out of our house? Don’t be impulsive, I know you’re mad at me. I’m the one who should leave—I’ll go marry into the Yan family, you just—” Qin Yun pressed in to persuade him.

Smack!

As Qin Yun tried to reason with him, Qin Jiang spun and slapped him across the right cheek.

Clean, decisive, and resonant.

“Qin Yun, Yanyan is already my wife.”

“Don’t pretend to cozy up to her here.”

Qin Jiang, strong and muscular, grabbed Qin Yun by the throat and looked up at Mr. Qin.

“Well? Have you signed the severance agreement?”

“If you don’t sign, I won’t be merciful to your dear son,” Qin Jiang issued the threat.

Qin Shuyun stared at Qin Jiang in disbelief, as if she were meeting him for the first time.

Her eyes couldn’t hide her disappointment and her voice was as cold as ice, “Qin Jiang, you’ve gone too far!”

“In the four years you’ve been home, whatever Yun had, you had an identical share—how can you still be dissatisfied?”

Qin Shuyun had once been an actress of the year. Three years ago, she had an on-set accident while doing a wire stunt and survived, but the facial and bodily scars were hard to repair.

This forced her, someone who loved performing, to temporarily withdraw from the spotlight. She retreated to the backstage, wearing a mask for years while working as a screenwriter and director to satisfy her passion.

As a result, her temperament became stranger and more reclusive.

She seldom showed a kind face to family even, except for Qin Yun. She treated others more or less the same with hostility.

Qin Shuyun’s gaze fell on Qin Yun, full of worry.

Even the most authoritative cosmetic surgeons in the industry had given up on her face, but recently the long-standing blotchy scars had miraculously faded a little.

Though the effect was small, it gave her immense hope.

It was all thanks to Qin Yun applying a newly developed scar-removal ointment on her while she slept every night.

She also found many cosmetic surgery manuals in Qin Yun’s drawer and notes estimating the success rates of procedures.

Seventy percent…

Qin Yun was her hope for regaining her appearance!

“So what if I’ve gone too far?”

“Qin Shuyun, keep nagging and I’ll slash Qin Yun’s face until it’s as disgusting as your disfigured one!”

When Qin Jiang said this, everyone gasped.

Since Qin Shuyun’s disfiguring accident, the family dared not mention her looks.

But Qin Jiang was openly taunting her!

“Qin Jiang! You’re asking for death!”

Furious, Qin Shuyun grabbed a shard of the broken vase and aimed to stab Qin Jiang’s face.

How dare Qin Jiang humiliate her!

Qin Jiang didn’t dodge. When Qin Shuyun lunged forward, he shoved Qin Yun toward the shard in her hand.

They both went tumbling to the ground.

The glass shard grazed Qin Yun’s neck, nearly cutting an artery.

The whole Qin family screamed and rushed over.

Irritated and enraged, Mr. Qin signed the papers, then threw the documents and the household registration to Qin Jiang, and spat venomously, “You unfilial son, get out and don’t come back. If Yan Liang abandons you, don’t beg us to take you back!”

Qin Jiang took them, a satisfied smile twinkling in his eyes at last.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be on your knees begging me.”

“I won’t return to this den of thieves either!”

A den of thieves they were—an entire family that bled him dry and stole his achievements!

His description was accurate.

Qin Jiang left with flair, and at the gate he even flipped them the middle finger!

Mr. Qin flew into such a rage he overturned another table.

“Unfilial brat, how dare you call me “old man”—I’m not dead yet!”

Mr. Qin’s gaze was icy. Seeing the mess around him, he ground his teeth at Qin Jiang even more.

This wild kid dared to rely on the Yan family’s power to defy his authority—he should be made to suffer outside.

Without the Yan family, he was nothing.

“Moyun, I remember Qin Jiang majored in finance and needs to complete an internship during his second year of university. Put the word out—no one in the industry is to give Qin Jiang any internship opportunities!” Mr. Qin ordered.

The powerful Yan family in the capital had large financial interests, but those assets weren’t under Yan Liang’s control—they were held by the reclusive, disabled eldest brother.

He wanted to see how Qin Jiang—someone no more than just a “human sperm bank” and who had ridden on a woman’s favor—would survive in the industry without Yan Liang’s backing.

He needed to teach him a lesson and force him to return home to admit his mistake.

To make it clear who the real boss around here was!

“I’ll do that.”

Qin Moyun nodded, her gaze landing on the hand that had given the middle finger as Qin Jiang left, frowning tightly.

This Qin Jiang had lived at the bottom of society for over a decade—his behavior was shameless and despicable.

She agreed he should be taught a lesson. If the family couldn’t teach him, society would chastise him!

Fourth Sister Qin Shuyun, clutching the fallen Qin Yun, looked at him with a mix of resentment and anger. “Qin Jiang has truly rebelled! He’d better not come back here again!”

“Otherwise he must suffer the family cane outside the Qin gate—kneel five days and five nights!”

Fifth Sister Qin Xianyun had never seen such an outburst before.

But for some reason, seeing Qin Jiang’s back as he left with his suitcase left her feeling heavy-hearted.

Qin Jiang called their home a den of thieves? But had any of them ever stolen Qin Jiang’s things?

Clearly it was Qin Jiang who stole from Qin Yun and their parents and got caught!

He was the one with dirty hands, steeped in the sourness of being a lower-class person.

Qin Xianyun said with a complicated expression on her face, “Fourth Sister, I think Qin Jiang really won’t come back this time.”

“He packed up everything from the attic.”

Qin Shuyun busied herself tending Qin Yun’s wound—fortunately she managed to stop the glass fragment in time, or the consequences would have been dire.

Qin Yun, pale and fragile, bit his lip and frowned, “Sisters, it’s all my fault for making Brother Qin Jiang leave. Once I’m a bit better, I’ll go apologize to him and bring him back.”

Seeing Qin Yun injured yet willing to swallow her pride for family harmony to apologize to Qin Jiang, while Qin Jiang acted recklessly in his rebellion, made Qin Shuyun feel even more protective of Qin Yun.

“Humph, once Yan Liang tires of him, let’s see if he still dares to behave to arrogantly—he’ll inevitably cry and beg to return to the Qin family.”

“Yun, don’t blame yourself. Qin Jiang is a jinx, but he’s thick-skinned and able-bodied. Let him suffer outside as character training.”

“You’re delicate and frail—just stay here and let us protect you.”

To her, once Qin Jiang was abandoned by Yan Liang, he’d have no one left in the capital to rely on.

Where else could he go but back to the Qin family?

She was convinced that Qin Jiang couldn’t possibly leave their family forever.

…

In the Yan family’s study.

In front of the multinational conference screen.

Yan Liang leaned in a leather chair, her dark-red hair lazily draped behind her.

Her pale skin seemed like jade under the lights, her thin, cherry-tinted lips soft and full. And a half-smile lingered at the corner of her mouth.

“Ms. Liang, we’ve secured the Middle East land project. After preliminary discussion, the proposal for the East Sea underwater cruise-hotel project is drafted for your review…” Zhou Ning reported.

Zhou Ning stood behind Yan Liang, watching the usually composed, emotionless Ms. Liang ignore the meeting report and stare at the tiny diamond ring in her hand for nearly half an hour. That diamond was so small he almost wanted a magnifying glass to study it.

The executives at the other end of the conference trembled as they carefully reported the meeting contents, not daring to ask if Yan Liang had any comments.

They kept reporting the meeting’s contents without pause.

In truth, each executive’s undershirt was soaked with sweat.

My God, why is that she-devil smiling?

Was some group about to be swallowed up and acquired? Was some management about to be wiped out?

Her smile never bode anything well for the company!

“Mm, the project is well done.”

“Raise their salaries.”

“Increase each person’s year-end bonus by one million!”

Only then did Yan Liang casually raise her eyes. The smile in her gaze chilled everyone watching the screen.

Yan Liang’s methods in business were always grim and terrifying, ruthless and venomous. Her bloodthirsty, icy aura could freeze anyone into a skeleton within ten meters of her entrance.

Worse still, she liked to play with prayer beads.

Her cold face carried a bewitching air of mercy, and the beads she rolled in her hand were made of bone.

Rumor in Yan Group held that those bone beads were forged from the spines of the “defeated subordinates” who had opposed her and blocked her from becoming head of the Yan family.

Every sutra she chanted for salvation was entwined with symbols of slaughter and bloodthirst.

Everyone was flattered and terrified at the same time. “Th-thank you, Ms. Liang!!”

Yan Liang was never nice for no reason!

Could it be that their Ms. Liang planned to use them as bait for the Middle East partners? Was she giving them a good meal before their deaths?

“Let me ask all of you, is this ring beautiful?”

Yan Liang’s lips lifted unconsciously. Though her gaze was usually cold, it flickered now with innocence and sweetness.

The executives hurriedly scrutinized the diamond ring in her hand. In an attempt to find what made it worthy of Ms. Liang’s favor.

But… it was so ordinary.

It wasn’t even one carat.

Not a designer piece—just a very ordinary style.

The kind you could pick up by the handful on the street!

They were puzzled but dutifully nodded. “Beautiful!”

“This ring’s style is unique, the diamond is both elegant and classy—delicate and unconventional, perfectly matching Ms. Liang’s temperament!”

“Since Ms. Liang likes this ring, I thought of a project—let’s build an amusement park themed around ‘the beauty of love,’ using this ring as the park’s motif. Would you be willing to invest in that?”

If Yan Liang was willing to wear it, it must be something special.

So they flattered her to the skies!

“Mhm, invest one hundred million.”

The executives were even more shocked.

Yan Liang stroked the ring with her fingertip, almost wanting the whole world to know.

This was her first gift from her precious Jiang.

And it was a ring too.

Zhou Ning had never seen this side of Yan Liang. She was finally exhibiting the innocence and beauty one would expect at her age.

But beauty is fleeting.

For example, Qin Jiang still hadn’t returned.

If he didn’t return soon… Yan Liang’s patience would be exhausted.

“Ms. Liang, may I ask which gentleman gave you this ring?” a flattering executive dared to ask.

The flattering executive privately congratulated himself on his skill—a promotion and raise were imminent.

But as soon as he asked…

Yan Liang’s gaze suddenly darkened. When she opened her eyes again, they burned with possessiveness, madness, and a pathological mania!

“Qin Jiang is still not home?”

“Such a disobedient boy—should I chop off his limbs and turn him into a human bolster, imprisoning him by my side forever so he’ll obey?”