So what if she's a fake heiress? She's being pampered by a powerful figure in Beijing'

The lunch ended unhappily.

After receiving the list, the fifth son lost his appetite and hurriedly left the house with the remaining younger members of the family.

Before leaving, the Fifth Madam, realizing what had happened, glared at Xie Junfei. To her surprise, Xie Junfei winked at her playfully, acting completely shameless!

The Fifth Madam had no way to retaliate and could only grit her teeth and endure it.

Watching the departing figures of the five members of the family, Huo Shen and Xie Junfei exchanged glances for a moment.

Soon, someone couldn't hold back any longer and the two of them burst into laughter at the dinner table.

The man's eyes had lost all the oppressive and mocking tone he had shown in front of the Fifth Master; his dark eyes were now filled with amusement.

"As expected of your idea, I've never seen Fifth Master so cowardly before."

Xie Junfei was extremely pleased with his praise and hummed in response:

"That's right, don't look at who I am."

Fifth Madam guessed correctly. This tactic of feigning retreat to advance, first exaggerating the consequences to the point of expelling them from the Huo family, and then, after they begged for mercy, pretending to reluctantly back down, revealed her true intentions—demanding that they return all the antiques.

Only a clever little girl like Xie Junfei could come up with such a roundabout tactic!

After all, a young master like Huo Shen, who comes from a prestigious family and has grown up in luxury, would be absolutely dictatorial when dealing with the Fifth Master. If he were to kick them out, there would be no room for negotiation.

Such a roundabout method is simply immoral!

Xie Junfei's comment on this was, "So what?"

Forget about whether this method is unethical or not, just tell me if it works or not.

Even a certain important figure said, "It doesn't matter if it's a white cat or a black cat, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat!"

With the pressure from the Fifth Master, Xie Junfei believed that Huo Qi would definitely return what he had soon.

After all, the Fifth Master's granddaughter is currently at the stage of getting engaged.

The groom's family initially looked down on this good-for-nothing young lady, but out of consideration for her being Huo Shen's cousin, they reluctantly agreed to the marriage.

But if the fifth branch of the family is kicked out of the Huo family's old house at this critical juncture, then the marriage will definitely fall through!

Everyone is selfish.

When their own interests are threatened, the fifth branch of the family will definitely run faster than a rabbit when it comes to recovering the antiques.

As for Huo Qi, if he still wants to use the people of the Fifth Branch, he will definitely have to return the things.

Thinking of this, Xie Junfei chuckled:

"Your family's sixth wife's illegitimate son is quite a character."

Upon hearing her mention Huo Qi's name, a hint of sarcasm flashed in Huo Shen's eyes.

Yes, this Huo Qi is quite a character.

Reluctant to use his own money to bribe those people, he actually came up with this ingenious idea of ​​"the wool coming from the sheep's back," having the Fifth Master steal the Huo family's own things and give them to outsiders, and then having those outsiders sabotage the Huo family's own businesses.

As expected of an illegitimate child, his mind is full of crooked ideas and cunning schemes.

If he competes fairly with Huo Shen at Huo's company and makes a name for himself in his projects, Huo Shen will respect him as a true man.

And yet he actually betrayed his own people and did such a shady thing, and those idiots in the lower four branches of the family still dared to continue using him?!

Sure enough, smart people flock together, and so do fools.

After this incident, Xie Junfei realized that there was a reason why these families looked down on illegitimate children.

Although the children born to the principal wife in a family may fight amongst themselves, when faced with external enemies, their first thought is always to unite against them and advance or retreat together.

However, the situation is different for children born out of wedlock to mistresses.

They're not on your side at all. At a critical moment, it's considered to have some conscience if they abandon their family and run away with a bucket. The majority are the unscrupulous ones like Huo Qi who collude with outsiders to cause trouble for their own people and seek personal gain.

Thinking of this, Xie Junfei couldn't help but sigh:

"Having learned this lesson, I will be more careful when cooperating with those illegitimate children who seize power and take over their families in the future when I return to the capital."

Upon hearing this, Huo Shen nodded in agreement:

"Indeed, businessmen with poor personal ethics generally cannot grow their businesses very large."

After all, the business world is like a battlefield, full of deceit and treachery.

If someone has moral failings and can't uphold the bottom line, then in the end, doing business will definitely lead to jail time and a life of hardship.

Once the five families left, the remaining scattered clansmen also got up to say goodbye.

Xie Junfei looked around at the empty, desolate house and felt a little worried:

“This is my first year living in your family, and your family has already become like this.”

"It wouldn't look good to stay up all night for the Lunar New Year a few days later."

Seeing the little girl's worried expression, Huo Shen gently pinched her nose:

"This little girl thinks quite a lot."

"Moreover, although it was lively in previous years, everyone had their own ulterior motives while staying up late on New Year's Eve, and they were too busy scheming against each other."

"This year, it's still peaceful."

After saying that, Huo Shen added a word of comfort to her:

"Don't worry, the second branch of the family is much more populous than the first branch. It's just that most of their children are overseas, but they will all be back in a couple of days."

With Huo Shen's words, Xie Junfei was able to relax a little.

Over the next two days, Xie Junfei spent the happiest and most relaxed time at the old house.

The third branch is in hiding, the fourth branch is untraceable (404), the fifth branch is keeping a low profile, and Huo Qi of the sixth branch is in the worst situation. He is currently busy trying to steal a chicken but losing the rice instead, and is bowing and scraping to the remaining officials who accepted gifts and refused to return them, trying to get his things back.

Huo Shen had work to do and didn't care about her; he just gave Xie Junfei all the keys to the old house and told her to play by herself.

Xie Junfei immediately complied.

The Huo family is large and powerful, with a very mature management team.

For trivial matters like New Year's preparations, maid training, and house maintenance, the head of the household doesn't really need to do them herself; as long as the funds are available, it's fine.

Xie Junfei's job was mostly limited to setting the general direction, inspecting the work, and checking the accounts.

With such a group of worry-free subordinates, Xie Junfei was too lazy to be a meddlesome boss. He simply wrapped himself up like a bread roll and went for a stroll in the garden with a warm hand warmer.