Chapter 380: Punishments

“He is already 23 years old.” Wei Zhijian had once had expectations about Wei Keli, but not any longer. Wei Keli had long since passed his best years.

No one in the Eight Great Clans had had their Patriarch abilities awoken at this late age.

Wei Zhiqian was from the Zhi generation, and he had awakened the Patriarch ability.

Wei Keli was from the Ke generation. It was a generation younger than Wei Zhiqian.

There were only Wei Keli and Wei Keren in the Ke generation at that moment.

Wei Keren was three years older than Wei Keli.

He was the son of Wei Zhigong.

Wei Zhigong was the son of the eldest son of the patriarch and matriarch, Wei Mingzhong. And that made him the cousin of Wei Zhijian.

The point was that there wasn’t any member of the Ke generation other than those two.

The one who had the highest probability of awakening the Patriarch ability was one of these two as of right. As a matter of fact, their families had been waiting for it to happen.

It came as no surprise to anyone that the two fought with one another for their awakening.

Yet, at the same time, neither showed any signs of awakening, even though they were both in their 20s, closing in on their 30s.

At this point, neither Wei Zhigong or Wei Zhijian had any hopes for their sons.

Just then, Wei Zhijian muttered with a disturbed look, “I heard rumors that my eldest brother is planning to have a third child.”

Wei Zhigong had had a second child when Wei Keren was 12 and still hadn’t awakened his Patriarch ability.

Unfortunately, his second child had been a daughter.

Needless to say, there were cases where daughters had successfully awakened, but those instances were rare.

Hence, Wei Zhigong waited for his daughter to grow in stature and maturity, hoping that she would show signs of awakening. But to his disappointment, things did not unfold according to his expectations. And that was why rumor had it that he was planning to have a third child.

He indeed was going all out to achieve his ambitions.

“Wei Zhiqian may be annoying, but I agree with one thing he said,” Wei Zhijian turned to Li Xiangrong and began to explain. “At this age, Keli is still imprudent and capricious in his speech and conduct. How can we count on him in the future?”

“Are you suggesting…?” Li Xiangrong seemed to pick up on Wei Zhijian’s idea.

“Let’s have another child,” Wei Zhijian suggested. “It’s still possible at your current age. With our family’s capabilities, although you will be a bit older than normal, we will ensure that you are able to have a safe labor. As for Keli…”

At that, Wei Zhijian turned around and glanced at Wei Keli, who remained unconscious on the back seat. “We can’t count on him anymore. What if our next child can awaken the Patriarch ability?

“We have to seize this opportunity now that Wei Zhiqian is still single. Otherwise, after he gets married and has children, the chances of his offspring awakening the Patriarch ability will be much higher than ours. When that happens, we will be totally sidelined.”

“I know. All right, let’s do it then.”

After that, Wei Keli arrived at the hospital safely. And thus their conversation ended for now.

…

The situation in the Qin family was a little different. Qin Murong and Qin Muxiao had been detained and sent back to Qin Mansion.

The Qin family’s patriarch and matriarch sat in the family living area, perched on their honored seats with solemn expressions.

Qin Murong and Qin Muxiao were kneeling in the middle of the living area.

Qin Zhenglu and Qin Zhengdu and their families were seated on both sides of the room, facing each other.

“You good for nothings! How dare you, as fellow women, scheme to harm another innocent woman?” Old Madame Qin snapped and pointed her finger at Qin Murong. “Don’t you have any empathy? What did Tan Mo do to you that you wanted to use such depraved means to deal with someone around your younger sister’s age?

“As Qin family members, you should uphold its name and be full of integrity. Yet, you abused the name of our family by committing foolish acts and willfully engaging in misconduct.”

“Grandma, I did no such thing. Who informed on me to you? We were wronged. We…we were staying at the villa quietly. Why are we being accused of things we did not do? This is uncalled for.”

Qin Murong would never admit her wrongdoings.

“Bring him in,” Old Mister Qin commanded. Soon, someone brought in the man who Qin Murong had sent to the villa to wreak havoc.

As soon as the man arrived, he spilled his guts immediately when he saw Qin Murong, even before anyone had started questioning him. “It’s her. She’s the one who came to me!”

Following that, the man repeated to everyone what he had already told Wei Zhiqian.

After Wei Zhiqian had taught him a lesson, he dared not waste a second lying about what he had done.

The rough way he had been taken into custody had given him enough reason to believe that these people were not pushovers.

He would do anything to avoid the suffering of the flesh. So this time, he stopped chattering nonsense and told the whole story to everyone, everything from soup to nuts.

After the man had finished speaking, Old Mister Qin ordered, “Take him away. Send him back to the hotel. Let the hotel management decide what to do with a person who has trespassed in another hotel guest’s room.”

“No, what he just said is untrue!” As soon as the man left, Qin Murong declared, “I don’t know who made him say that. What he said was a slander.”

“Is that so?” Old Mister Qin smirked. “I have plenty more evidence. If you are going to continue to deny the truth, we will proceed with the hearing.”

Upon hearing that, Qin Murong became terror-stricken and quickly corrected herself, saying, “It was Wei Keli who lied to me. He forced me to do this.”

“So, which was it? Lying or forcing?” Old Madame Qin cocked her head.

Her question left Qin Murong in a dazed state.

“Mufeng, make a public announcement that from this moment onward, all of Qin Murong and Qin Muxiao’s deeds and conduct will have nothing to do with the Qin family,” Old Mister Qin uttered in a cold tone. “Moreover, we will no longer acknowledge anything that they say, be it good or bad.”

“Father!” Qin Zhengdu’s face drained of color.

Old Mister Qin’s instructions strongly indicated that he had the intention of severing the relationship between the Qin family and Qin Murong and Qin Muxiao.

The only thing that would be left of them were their names in the genealogy. But from that day onward, the Qin family would not be responsible for anything the two said or did. Following that, would there still be anyone who would take a second glance at them?

Everyone only respected them because they were Qin family members.

Without the backing of their family, what would become of them? Looking back on the things the sisters had done in the past, was there still anyone who would look up to them?

Qin Murong had been a little better as she had put an effort into keeping up appearances.

But an opportunist like her treated different people differently.

On the other hand, Qin Muxiao was arrogant and had a superiority complex. She looked down on everyone other than the Eight Great Clan’s direct descendants.

As one would expect from someone like her, she had offended many people in the past.

Qin Zhengdu had never thought too much about that as they had the Qin family behind them.

“Father, is there any difference from severing ties with them if we do this?” the mother of the sisters, Lu Yiling, asked as she wrung her hands.

“Now that you have mentioned it, why don’t we also remove their names from the Qin family’s genealogy right away?” Old Mister Qin replied unhesitatingly. “Pick one between the two options.”

Lu Yiling was dumbfounded.

Her daughters would be finished if their names were removed from the genealogy.

At the very least, she could still look for suitable matches for them in the name of the Qin family.

If her daughters were no longer related to the Qin family, would they attract anyone’s fancies with their awful personalities?

“Father, Mother, is this the only…?” Lu Yiling tried to appeal for her daughters.

“No, this is the only outcome! Isn’t having us to cover their backs the only reason they dared to scheme against Tan Mo? Did you think that the Tan family members were a bunch of easy meats?” Old Madame Qin shook her head upon realizing that Lu Yiling still remained oblivious of what was at stake.

Right then, Old Madame Qin heaved a deep sigh and added, “Tanyue is currently the number one household goods brand in the Hua Empire. Although not on the scale of the Eight Great Clans, they aren’t people who a daughter of our family can push around.

“Furthermore, Tan Mo has President Mu, Professor Guo, Professor Zhao, and Professor Yue on her side. Who do you think these people are?”