Chapter Ten: I Have Become a Young Master

Tang Yiliu shifted the entire blame onto one of his subordinates. The official statement released to the public was that this subordinate had transferred over from the Jiang Group. Out of resentment for the exploitation he suffered at his former employer, he bore a grudge and sought to use Tang Yiliu’s influence to frame Jiang Tianxiang and his daughter.

Upon investigation, it turned out that this employee of Tiantang Company had indeed previously worked at the Jiang Group! What’s more, the reason for his resignation was cited as exploitation: not only was he forced to work overtime without pay, he even had to pay out of his own pocket to repair damaged office property.

With the help of media coverage and a thorough whitewashing, the negative public sentiment toward Tang Yiliu and his company all but vanished. Instead, many people sympathized with the employee’s experience at the Jiang Group, taking the opportunity to criticize the company’s unreasonable and exploitative policies.

Thus, the storm of slander and controversy came to an end. Apart from Tang Yiliu, the guilty parties received their just deserts, and the lives of Qin Tian and the others returned to normal.

Two days later, in the Jiang family’s living room.

“Yingying, let’s go shopping later. I want to buy some new clothes—it’s the change of season, and I’m running out of things to wear,” Shen Xiaoqing lounged on the sofa, an apple in her left hand and her phone in the other, looking perfectly relaxed.

“You’re out of clothes? You have three walk-in closets at home, and two of them are packed with your outfits. How can you say you have nothing to wear?” Jiang Yingying replied helplessly.

“Haven’t you ever heard the saying? A woman’s wardrobe is always missing that one piece,” Qin Tian chimed in from the side, glancing up from his book.

“Keep your mouth shut!” Jiang Yingying shot him a glare.

Ever since Qin Tian and Jiang Tianxiang had started referring to each other as uncle and nephew, Qin Tian’s status in the Jiang household seemed to have risen noticeably, leaving Jiang Yingying speechless. After all, Qin Tian was just an employee! Yet now he was being treated almost like family!

She’d even brought this up to her father, but Jiang Tianxiang hadn’t seemed concerned in the least. In his eyes, someone as extraordinary as Qin Tian couldn’t be treated like an ordinary employee. Although Qin Tian hadn’t displayed much of his abilities yet, the fact that he had a master with such otherworldly skills was reason enough for this special treatment.

“Don’t be so harsh on him, I think he’s right,” Shen Xiaoqing said.

“You two… You’re going to drive me mad!” Jiang Yingying huffed. She could understand her father siding with Qin Tian, but even Shen Xiaoqing seemed to be favoring him. What had Qin Tian done to deserve such treatment?

“Come on, let’s go shopping,” Shen Xiaoqing said, beckoning to Qin Tian. “You can be our driver and carry our bags.”

“You’re bringing him along?” Jiang Yingying’s eyes widened.

“Free labor—why waste it? He’s on your family’s payroll anyway, why not make use of him?” Shen Xiaoqing winked.

Jiang Yingying let out a soft sound of realization—there was some logic to what Shen Xiaoqing was saying! That’s right, why not treat Qin Tian like a servant? After all, her family was paying his wages!

“Go get the car!” Jiang Yingying tossed the keys to Qin Tian.

Qin Tian put away his book, stood up, grabbed the keys, and headed for the garage.

The car that had been rear-ended had already been repaired and brought back. The damage wasn’t too severe, and given Jiang Tianxiang’s status, the repair shop had it fixed and returned within a day.

“Which mall are we headed to?” Qin Tian asked.

“Let’s go to Wu Wang Mall—the clothing stores there are plentiful,” Shen Xiaoqing replied.

Qin Tian nodded. He was familiar with the roads in Wu City, and half an hour later, they arrived at Wu Wang Mall. However, it happened to be a holiday, and the place was packed—every parking spot was full.

Qin Tian circled the area for a while, but couldn’t find a single open spot. Eventually, he pulled over at a place where he wouldn’t block traffic or pedestrians.

He was just about to open the navigation app to check for nearby parking when he heard a knock on the window.

Qin Tian looked up to see a traffic officer and quickly rolled down the window.

“We’re just about to leave. I’m checking the navigation for a parking spot,” Qin Tian explained.

“Illegal parking. One hundred.” The officer said nothing more, handing Qin Tian a ticket.

Qin Tian’s eyes widened in disbelief. He’d been stopped for less than a minute, was still in the car, there were no no-parking signs, and he wasn’t blocking traffic—yet he’d been given a ticket?

“Isn’t that unreasonable?” Qin Tian frowned.

“Are there parking lines here? No! If not, then it’s illegal parking. Take the ticket to the station and pay the fine,” the officer said coolly.

“This is how you enforce the law?” Qin Tian’s brows knit together. What rotten luck to run into this kind of trouble.

“How is this illegal parking? We’re still in the car, and we’ve only been here for less than a minute. Why would you ticket us? Are you doing this on purpose?” Shen Xiaoqing, always straightforward, spoke up.

“No parking lines means it’s illegal. Don’t argue,” the officer snapped, shooting her a glare.

Shen Xiaoqing’s face darkened, her temper about to flare, but Qin Tian reached out to stop her.

“How often do you issue tickets here?” Qin Tian asked.

“Every half hour,” the officer replied.

“Fine. Here’s a thousand yuan—ticket us all you want.” Qin Tian got out, slapped a thousand-yuan note on the window, secured it under the windshield wiper, and turned to the two stunned women. “Let’s go. Didn’t we come here to shop?”

Shen Xiaoqing and Jiang Yingying got out of the car, still a bit dazed—it didn’t feel quite right.

“Are we really just going to do that?” Jiang Yingying asked anxiously.

“When you come across someone abusing their authority, what can you do? Since he’s being unreasonable, we’ll be unreasonable too. It’s only a thousand yuan—think of it as a contribution to society,” Qin Tian shrugged.

The traffic officer was left dumbfounded, staring at the money on the windshield and then at the departing trio, his expression souring.

Lin Zhiyong had been a traffic officer for years, but he had never encountered anyone so brazen. He sneered—if they dared to defy him, let them come to the station to pay and reclaim their car.

“Hello, there’s an illegally parked car on Wuchang Road. The driver was extremely rude—send a tow truck and bring the car back to the station,” Lin Zhiyong said into his radio, his sneer deepening as he hung up.

The three of them entered the mall.

“When did you get so extravagant? You just threw away a thousand yuan like it was nothing,” Shen Xiaoqing said, still not quite recovered from the incident.

“The money came through,” Qin Tian replied with a smile.

“Huh? The twenty million Jiang Feng owed you—it’s been transferred?” Shen Xiaoqing recalled that Jiang Feng had asked her for Qin Tian’s bank account number the other day.

“Yes,” Qin Tian nodded.

He himself was a bit surprised. He’d half expected someone like Jiang Feng to try to weasel out of the payment—after all, twenty million was no small sum—so he hadn’t held out much hope. But unexpectedly, Jiang Feng really had transferred the money over. Whether it was a matter of pride or simply keeping his word, he wasn’t sure.

“So, will you buy me a dress today? After all, I was the one who gave him your account number,” Shen Xiaoqing teased.

“Of course. Today’s meal and shopping are on me. Let me play the rich young master for once!” Qin Tian declared, thumping his chest.