VHBF -Chapter 169 The School Tyrant Daddy (End + Extra)

“Holy shit, reading this post shattered my worldview! How does someone like this even grow up? In a mud pit or a pile of shit? So shameless—absolutely disgusting!”

“The world is huge and nothing is too poisonous to exist. If you’re going to be a mistress, at least have the self-awareness and professional ethics of one. You killed the original wife, didn’t even spare the child, and even took over the inheritance the child’s parents left behind, claiming it was yours. Why don’t you go out on the street, see something you like, and say it’s yours too—see if you don’t get beaten to death!”

“Thankfully the police uncle saw through everything. The vicious stepmother finally got what she deserved. Otherwise I’d have gathered my buddies and squatted outside their house throwing rotten eggs!”

“I heard Liu Group hasn’t been doing well lately. The latest project lost funding after Big Boss Shen pulled out, their capital chain snapped, and now they’re going around begging everyone for investment! And now this happened—who would help them? Shen Group took the lead in tearing them apart, and no one dares to support them. Gotta say, my Shen-dad is awesome!”

“Hey, the one upstairs—heard that the richest boss handed that company to the crown prince for training. So the one leading the withdrawal and beating them up should be the young, hot, impulsive crown prince. Don’t get it wrong!”

“Tsk, I don’t believe it. Without the richest dad’s approval, could the crown prince really cut off a profitable project just like that?”

“The richest dad with rock-solid values and the crown prince—I’m officially a fan!!!”

The young man who posted the thread sat in his chair with his legs crossed, checking the comments one by one. When he got here, he couldn’t help curling his lips. That pair of big-shot father and son were upright and righteous? That was the funniest joke of the year! He laughed to himself for a good while, then thought of the little princess Yinyin whom the two of them protected in the palms of their hands. He clicked his tongue twice—if he got married now and had a chubby son next year, would it still be in time to send him over to woo their little princess?

“You guys are off topic! Keep cursing the vicious stepmother! I’m reporting her with my real name—people like this should be executed immediately. As someone from the same country, I feel ashamed of her!”

“There are many people in this world with crooked values, but very few actually put them into action. Gotta say, this one’s a rare, rank, stinking freak!”

“Boss Liu is also an idiot—scummy and blind. How could he fall for someone like that? Heard the original wife was a beauty from a scholarly family, beautiful, kind, and talented, just a bit weak in health. And this trash man actually abandoned such a great beauty to cheat with an old witch?”

“Ahhh I’m so angry after reading this post! I also have a stepmom, but my mom is wonderful. She raised me and my younger brother, treated us the same as her own child, and even worried others might look at us differently, so she treated us even better than her biological child. This woman is an insult to the word ‘mother’!!! I’m furious!”

“So this has nothing to do with being a stepmother. If a person is rotten to the core, no matter what position they’re in, they’ll do vicious, unbelievable things. At the root of it all, her heart was just too filthy!”

“Bury the vicious stepmother thickly!!!”

“Sisters, push this onto the trending searches so the police uncles see it. This case absolutely cannot be let go lightly—we must make that vicious woman receive the punishment and retribution she deserves!”

“Um, has the child been found yet? Who’s raising her now? I’m more concerned about this. Even if the stepmother’s in prison, I’m still worried. That scummy dad is so scummy—he definitely won’t take good care of the kid. Maybe once this stepmother’s gone, there’ll be another one!”

“He can’t even protect himself anymore. Liu Group hit the down-limit for a whole week straight, got forcibly suspended from trading, assets shrank by over a billion, and the capital chain snapped again. That scumbag’s just waiting for bankruptcy!”

This piece of gossip was lively and explosive, hitting the news multiple times—even making it onto the national TV social news segment. It was a case of nationwide gossip. The public applauded when the stepmother was arrested and praised the police uncles’ efficiency, while the behind-the-scenes contributors—the Shen father and son—quietly hid their merits and fame.

With solid evidence, severe social impact, and the suspect’s stubborn attitude of insisting she was not wrong and showing no remorse, multiple crimes were combined for punishment, making the case especially serious. One of the charges—murder—even crossed the bottom line of the law.

Not only did she have to return everything she had unlawfully taken in full, she also faced three years of imprisonment, followed by execution after those three years.

Under the law, this woman—dubbed the most vicious stepmother—finally received her punishment.

Mrs. Liu, who had shouted that spending “her own money” was never wrong, fainted on the spot upon hearing the judge’s verdict.

Liu Dong walked out of the courthouse looking ten years older. Not yet forty, he already had several strands of white hair on his head, and even the back he had always kept straight was now bent.

If—if he hadn’t been bewitched back then and started something with that woman, would his wife still be alive? Would their adorable daughter still be by his side? Would the family and company be thriving, the family of three living harmoniously, not mocked or ridiculed by others, not facing bankruptcy, not ending up with a broken home and ruined lives?

When Liu Dong returned home, after so many incidents, all twenty-plus servants had been dismissed. Only an old butler, a driver, and a cook remained.

The two children saw him and ran over crying.

“Dad, where’s Mom? Has Mom come back?”

“Why didn’t you save Mom? You’re a bad dad!”

“Dad, do you still like that little bitch? Mom said that little bitch was an outsider. We are—”

Liu Dong slapped his daughter hard across the face. Seeing her blank yet righteously indignant expression, despair surged in his heart. His daughter, only three or four years old, already looked so sharp-tongued without realizing it—how much she resembled her biological mother: committing crimes while insisting she was right, so self-righteous it was terrifying.

He closed his eyes and barked decisively, “From now on, you are not allowed to curse people, and you are not allowed to say the words ‘little bitch’ ever again.”

Two days later, Liu Dong took the divorce agreement to the prison and divorced Mrs. Liu. She dared not refuse to sign. The two children were in his hands, dependent on him for survival. After she was executed in the future, the children would have no one else to rely on but this man.

Her hands trembling, she signed and cried, begging him to treat the children better.

Liu Dong looked worn yet somber. He stared at her for a long time. “Since you know how to beg me to treat your children better,” he said quietly, “why didn’t you treat someone else’s child better?”

The disheveled woman froze, staring blankly at the man’s retreating figure. He no longer seemed as strong and tall as before—his back slightly hunched, head lowered as he walked forward, like an old man nearing the end of his years.

A month later, the Liu Group, barely holding on, finally declared bankruptcy. Its assets were frozen and reclaimed by the court, and even the Liu family’s old mansion was seized and put up for auction.

Liu Dong took his two children and found himself with nowhere to go. In the end, they moved into the small apartment where Mr. Liu had once kept his lover. Back then, fearing his wife would find out, the property had been put under the butler’s name. Now, it had become their only refuge. Suppressing his discomfort, Liu Dong stayed there that very night. A few days later, he sold the place and bought a small house in the suburbs. The house was barely thirty square meters—not even as big as one room in their old home—but now it was the shelter for one adult and two children.

The two children had been spoiled by their mother since young. At first, they couldn’t adapt. Every day they cried and screamed for their mom, demanded their dad buy this and that, complained that their dad’s cooking was terrible, wanted chicken legs, meat, eggs, cake…

Later on, they stopped saying anything.

Their dad would no longer indulge them.

The food was still on the table. If they didn’t eat, their father would take it away, and they would have to wait until the next meal to eat again. There were never any snacks at home, never any extra food.

They couldn’t afford chicken legs or cakes. They couldn’t afford to stay in a private school either—so they withdrew and transferred to a small elementary school near their residential complex. Stationery was bought only once per term; if it broke, it was fixed and used again. A schoolbag had to last two years, and only when it was completely worn out could a new one be bought. They wore school uniforms all year round. New clothes were unaffordable, toys were unaffordable, and they could no longer compare themselves with their classmates.

In just a few short months, they fell from young masters and little princesses to nobodies. And because it was their father who was raising them, and he was busy every day going out to work and earn money, they somehow didn’t even know how to take care of themselves. Day after day they were disheveled and dirty, isolated and looked down upon at school. Their grades never improved, and the teachers didn’t bother with them either.

When they went home, their father no longer loved them the way he used to. He would always look at them with complicated eyes, caring only that they had a single meal to eat.

Once again after getting off work, Liu Dong gazed at the sunset on the horizon. The sunset was truly beautiful—but no matter how beautiful, it was still the dusk of the day.

Every day he numbly did menial jobs he had never done before, earning a wage that barely kept them alive. What was it all for, really?

Liu Dong had nightmares every night. He dreamed of his wife crying as she asked him whether he had raised their little princess properly. In the end, she would always rush at him with a ferocious face, trying to strangle him, accusing him of why he had taken a mistress, why he had caused her death.

After waking from the dream, Liu Dong would lean against the headboard in the narrow, dim room, always recalling that in his memories there had once been a sweet, adorable little daughter—a tiny pink-and-jade-carved bundle, unbearably lovely.

When she was first born, his wife had held her with a face full of joy. He too had been filled with surprise and anticipation at her arrival, and had sworn before his wife that he would give them the best life, that he would dote on their daughter and raise her into a little princess.

Later… later, how did it all become like this?

Only when he was on the brink of death did Liu Dong finally understand: it was because he was too greedy. He wanted everything. And so he ended up hurting everyone—losing the Liu family’s foundation, and losing his beautiful wife and adorable daughter as well.

—

Epilogue:

After Mrs. Liu’s sentence was handed down, word spread that the Liu Group had gone bankrupt and that Liu Dong had disappeared with the two children. Shen Huainan and Shen Lian thought that was the end of it—turn the page and move on. From then on, the child would be their family’s little princess.

But unexpectedly, two months later, a man dressed in cheap clothes came knocking. Standing in the Shen family’s grand courtyard, he looked extremely ill at ease. He hesitantly opened his mouth and asked to see his daughter one more time.

Shen Lian rejected him without a second thought.

Liu Dong touched the photo in his pocket. A surge of satisfaction rose in his heart, washing away his disappointment. He nodded awkwardly and did not insist, instead handing over a large box in his hands.

“These are the things Yinyin’s mother left behind. Two antiques were recovered, and part of the money that hadn’t been spent was also retrieved. Together with the dividends from these years and the income from a few shops, I’ve put it all into this card. I’ll have to trouble Young Master Shen to give these to Yinyin. I… the Liu family is bankrupt. I have nothing else to give her. I can only return her mother’s things to her.”

After saying this, as if afraid of being mocked—or perhaps afraid of being refused—he bowed deeply and left without looking back, his retreating figure hurried.

Shen Lian fell silent. He hadn’t expected this guy to still have a bit of conscience—bankrupt, yet still knowing to return what belonged to her.

A small figure clung to the door and peeked out. In a soft, crisp, babyish voice, she called, “Daddy!”

Shen Lian turned around. The man who had already taken several steps forward froze, subconsciously turning his head back. A trace of hope rose in his eyes—only to see the pink-and-jade-carved, innocent and adorable little girl pounce onto the young man’s leg, climbing up him while coquettishly calling out “Daddy.”

The youth lifted her up in one motion and tossed her into the air, drawing from her a clear, sweet, glutinous laugh.

Liu Dong stiffly turned his head back.

So she wasn’t calling him after all.

His already stooped back bent even more. He slowed his steps as he walked forward, wanting to hear a few more words of the girl’s soft, milky voice—even if the “Daddy” she was calling wasn’t him.

From afar, the girl’s babyish, puzzled voice seemed to drift over: “Daddy, who is that uncle? Why is he walking so slowly?”

“A fool.”

……

—

Extra

From an ignorant school tyrant to a master’s and PhD graduate of Harvard Business School, Shen Lian took six years. From Young Master Shen to President Shen, another three years.

At twenty-eight, a man was at the peak of his charm—especially when that man was handsome, tall, rich, and powerful. Countless people threw themselves at him. What made people sigh the most was that this young and accomplished President Shen had already become a father before even getting married.

He had a mysterious little princess whom he held in the palm of his hand. For many years, he protected her so tightly that not a drop leaked out. The outside world was extremely curious about what the little princess looked like as she grew up. The few photos circulating were still from when she was three years old—group photos of the little princess with her father and grandfather. After she turned five, the Shen family never again released any information about her.

In business circles, it was said that President Shen was no less capable than Shen Huainan back in the day—indeed, the student had surpassed the master. Ten years on, the once-young heir of the Shen family had long been able to stand on his own. A natural financial genius, he had already carved out a realm on Wall Street while studying at Harvard. After returning home, he founded his own company, and the business empire he built was no weaker than the Shen Group of old. Father and son each held half the sky of the business world.

There were also rumors that the Shen family’s little princess was no less outstanding than President Shen himself. She had become famous as an “exam prodigy” at three, skipped grades continuously after starting school, and at just twelve years old was admitted to the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Young Talent Program, competing alongside a host of geniuses.

Winter in the capital was cold—especially so this year. From the gates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a small red figure emerged in the distance. The girl was around thirteen. Her features were delicate and pretty, with a hint of baby fat puffing her cheeks. A pair of round, almond-shaped eyes were clear and clean.

Though her figure had stretched out slightly compared to her chubby childhood, she was still a petite little bundle. Wrapped in a bright red padded jacket, she wore so many layers that from afar she looked like a clumsy little penguin, wobbling as she walked. Shen Lian couldn’t help laughing and pressed the car horn.

The girl’s eyes instantly lit up. She hopped and skipped over, making Shen Lian’s heart leap to his throat, afraid that this clumsy little penguin might slip and fall on the icy ground.

He got out of the car, leaned against it, and naturally opened his arms to catch his little girl.

“Daddy, you’re even more handsome again!”

“Little flatterer—you’ve gotten heavier again.”

“……”