After living abroad for so long, Mo Xuan became busy again upon returning to the capital. Aside from taking care of his two wives, he also had to handle dropping off and picking up the kids from kindergarten. Even while abroad, Mo Xuan hadn’t relaxed much. He continued to participate in coding projects for Rongxing and occasionally held video conferences with relevant personnel.
Luo Shiya and Luo Muqi had returned to the manor to rest during their pregnancies. Mo Xuan had just driven Luo Wei'er and Luo Xue'er to kindergarten when Luo Muqi called: "Brother, could you bring me a chocolate cake when you come back?"
"Alright, I got it," Mo Xuan replied with a wry smile. "You never get tired of it, do you?"
He parked the car in front of a shop and got a cake for Luo Muqi. Not far away, at a supermarket, a woman was carrying a box of beer inside.
"Tingting, take it slow."
Hearing that voice, Mo Xuan felt as if time had stopped. He turned sharply and saw Mo Qingqing coming out from inside, extending her right hand to help the woman who had her back turned carry the beer inside.
Mo Xuan was surprised to see his biological older sister like this. The woman who once always wore tailored suits or professional attire was now dressed in simple jeans and a plain jacket, clean but unremarkable.
It wasn’t until the woman carrying the beer turned around that he recognized her as Mo Tingting. Like Mo Qingqing, she was dressed plainly, without makeup, and was wiping sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.
Sensing his gaze, Mo Qingqing looked up and met Mo Xuan’s eyes. To his surprise, she didn’t seem embarrassed by her current situation, nor did she avoid his gaze.
"Long time no see," Mo Qingqing said after a brief pause, smiling as she greeted him. Hearing this, Mo Tingting quickly turned around. When she saw it was Mo Xuan, she covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face.
"What are you doing here?" Mo Xuan asked, gesturing to the small supermarket behind them. "Did something happen?"
After returning to the country, Mo Xuan hadn’t specifically inquired about the Mo family’s affairs. He had only heard from Uncle Zheng that Mo Jinpeng and the others had died in prison, reportedly from a contagious disease.
As for the three sisters, Uncle Zheng had told Mo Xuan that the Ye family had fallen into trouble, and Mo Qingqing had been taken away by the police during her engagement banquet.
"Come in and sit for a while?" Mo Qingqing offered. "How have you been abroad?"
"Not bad," Mo Xuan nodded. "So, you and her opened this supermarket together?"
It was hard to believe that the woman in front of him was the same Mo Qingqing who had once been a ruthless and calculating figure in the business world. The coldness and cruelty she once exuded were gone, replaced by a sense of calm and acceptance.
The supermarket wasn’t large, but the shelves were neatly arranged, the floor was spotless, and the goods were organized in an orderly manner.
Mo Tingting pulled over a plastic stool, even wiping it down before inviting Mo Xuan to sit. Mo Qingqing noticed the confusion in his eyes and smiled bitterly. "The schemes of the clever often lead to their own downfall..."
Mo Xuan recognized the line—it was from *Dream of the Red Chamber*, specifically Wang Xifeng’s lament in *The Song of Cleverness*.
"Back then, when I was engaged to Ye Ning, I never expected Ye Grandmother to report me at that very moment," Mo Qingqing said with a self-deprecating laugh. "She didn’t anticipate that I would use Ye Ning to target her. And I didn’t expect her to choose that occasion to strike at me."
Mo Qingqing had always been wary of Ye Grandmother. She had considered many possibilities but never thought the old woman would act against her during her engagement to Ye Ning.
Mo Qingqing wasn’t foolish. Knowing she had vulnerabilities, she had prepared countermeasures early on. In the end, with insufficient evidence, she avoided prison, but she lost everything.
Fines, back taxes—Mo Qingqing’s personal assets, which had just been returned to her, were completely wiped out. The Ye family publicly cut ties with her, and her cosmetics company ultimately fell into their hands.
But Mo Qingqing wasn’t the type to sit back and accept defeat. Ye Grandmother had underestimated her once again. Mo Qingqing not only had evidence of Ye Ning’s chaotic personal life but also, during her time with the Ye family, Ye Ning had trusted her too much, delegating many tasks to her.
This gave Mo Qingqing access to a wealth of the Ye family’s dirty secrets. She not only filed a formal report but also used what little money she had left to buy trending topics online, anonymously releasing the information.
The Ye family was thrown into turmoil, and the final blow came from Liu Yiyi, Luo Tian’s wife.
Of course, Luo Tian’s explanation was: "I’m a businessman. If there’s an opportunity, I’d be a fool not to take it."
He would never admit that he had been waiting for a chance to teach Ye Ning a lesson since that banquet. Luo Tian hadn’t expected the Ye family to collapse so spectacularly before he could even act. Liu Yiyi, leveraging her family’s influence, delivered a crushing blow to the Ye family.
But for Mo Qingqing, neither she nor the Ye family emerged victorious.
"Looking back, I often wonder if things would have been different if I had stopped then. With the assets I had at the time, I could have lived comfortably for the rest of my life," Mo Qingqing said with a bitter smile, rolling up her sleeve to reveal a gruesome scar on her left arm.
"Ye Ning did this to me in revenge. My left arm is practically useless now," she said, pulling her sleeve back down. "Ye Grandmother passed away from illness, and the Ye family, though diminished, still had some resources. But Ye Ning, used to his arrogant ways, had made too many enemies. When they retaliated, he took it all out on me."
Even after the Liu family’s attack, the Ye family still had enough to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. But Ye Ning couldn’t accept it. Those who once flattered him now turned against him. Even when he went to nightclubs or bars, the staff he had once humiliated treated him with disdain.
This reversal was too much for the prideful Ye Ning to bear. After a confrontation with a former drinking buddy, the man sneered, "Your family’s downfall is your own fault. You let Mo Qingqing play you like a fool."
Those words cut deep. At the time, Mo Qingqing had nowhere to go. It was Mo Tingting who heard about her situation and took her back to the Mo family villa.
But Ye Ning showed up. When Mo Qingqing stepped out, he slashed her arm with a knife, severing her tendons.
"After that, I spent all my savings on medical bills. When I realized my hand was permanently damaged, I just... lost the will to fight," Mo Qingqing said.
She couldn’t remember the vile things Ye Ning had said to her, nor how much it had hurt. All she felt was exhaustion—an overwhelming desire to just let go and die. But Mo Tingting had rushed to her rescue, crying, and the security guards subdued Ye Ning.
Ye Ning was eventually imprisoned for assault. His parents, burdened with caring for his three illegitimate children, spent what they could to ease his sentence before moving away with the kids.
"Maybe they were just disappointed. Ye Ning never changed," Mo Qingqing said with a bitter smile. "In the end, Tingting and I sold the Mo family villa and used the money to open this supermarket."
Mo Xuan listened in silence. When Mo Qingqing finished, she looked up at him. Since he had left home and started a new life with the sisters, Mo Xuan’s demeanor had changed.
Back in the Mo family, his eyes had been cold, distant, and filled with resentment toward them. But now, as he looked at them, there was only calm and acceptance.
"I should get going," Mo Xuan said, standing up slowly. "My wife is pregnant—our second child."
Mo Qingqing couldn’t help but chuckle. *Wives*, she thought, but didn’t say it aloud.
"After this, I don’t think we’ll see each other again," Mo Qingqing said with a smile. "Mo Xuan, Tingting and I don’t expect your forgiveness. We just hope you’ll be happy."
Mo Xuan looked at her, returning a smile of understanding, then picked up the cake and left the supermarket.
Only after watching Mo Xuan drive away did Mo Tingting finally speak. "Sister, you..."
"Forget it. I mentioned it to my assistant before—the best outcome for me and Mo Xuan is to never see each other again," Mo Qingqing shook her head. "This little store is doing fine now. If I put in the effort and work hard, it’s manageable, even if it’s tiring..."
It wasn’t that Mo Qingqing didn’t need Mo Xuan’s help. It was just that she was now a discredited person. Forget about making a comeback; even finding a decent job had become incredibly difficult.
She wasn’t trying to cling to her pride. It was more that she realized she no longer had the same drive to climb up as she once did.
"Sis, it’s okay. If we work hard, maybe we can expand this little supermarket in the future?" Mo Tingting tried to comfort her. "You managed such a big company before. There’s still a chance for you. Just think about it..."
"No..."
Mo Qingqing looked at her sister, her eyes filled with an indescribable weariness and helplessness.
"Right now, I feel the saddest thing is that I’ve lost that relentless drive I used to have..."
Mo Tingting, who had been halfway through her sentence, swallowed her words. Mo Qingqing turned away and mechanically began organizing the merchandise.
Mo Qingqing hadn’t given up completely. After selling the villa, she had tried to start over, but in the end, she gave up.
The most tragic part for her was that she couldn’t accept that this was her fate. She had once been so determined to rise, even at the cost of alienating everyone around her.
But in the end, Mo Qingqing found that she had achieved nothing. Greed and scheming had ultimately led her to hit rock bottom.
For the first time in her life, she resigned herself to her fate—but only after she had lost everything.