After Divorce, I Inherited the Game's Fortune

While reflecting on his situation, Kang Jingchun couldn’t help but think of a story.

In ancient times, there was an old lady who had three sons and a daughter.

However, once her sons had divided up the family property, none of them was willing to take care of her. They had agreed to take turns, but each son treated his duty more perfunctorily than the next, and their attitudes towards their mother grew increasingly worse.

Later, the old lady’s daughter came up with a solution. She bought her mother a set of glamorous new clothes and sewed several fake gold bars directly into them. She then spread a rumor that in her youth, the old lady had saved a “Scholar” who had since become a high official, and wanting to repay her kindness, had given the old lady a sum of money when he accidentally met her days before.

Not long after the rumor was out, the old lady’s three sons scrambled to their sister’s house to verify the story. There, they saw their mother magnificently dressed, with bulges in her clothes that felt hard to the touch.

Consequently, the three sons vied to take their mother back to their homes, spoiling her with food and drink, each hoping to inherit the gold bars sewn into her clothing after her death.

And now, Kang Jingchun felt he was like the old lady in the story, the difference being that whereas the old lady’s gold bars were fake, his were real.

Given this situation, his children were even more attentive!

Heshuo Hotel.

Banquet Hall No. 3.

This was the venue for Kang Jingchun’s birthday banquet.

Since it was an eightieth birthday celebration, and the Kang family had some local prestige in Xiangyang, they decided to have a grand feast with a total of twenty tables.

When Yang Hao arrived at the scene with the people of the Kang family, the banquet hall was already buzzing with noise.

Kang Jingchun’s eldest son, Kang Zhifei, was bustling about, greeting guests. A businessman who often worked away from home, although he was the one paying for the banquet, limited time meant he had only returned to Xiangyang this morning, coming straight to the hotel.

Kang Zhifei, who was 57 years old, slightly overweight with a prominent beer belly, seemed in good spirits and showed no signs of fatigue despite being busy all morning.

However, seeing Kang Zhichao and his several sisters finally arrive, he immediately went up to them, complaining, “Zhi Chao, Ermin, you think you are guests too, huh?”

“Don’t you know to come over earlier? I’m the only one taking care of everything inside and outside the hotel.”

“Big brother, wasn’t I going to pick up dad?”

Kang Zhichao immediately invoked their father’s name and strategically stepped back, moving Kang Jingchun to the front.

“Dad.”

Kang Zhifei quickly nodded his greeting.

Then, his gaze fell on Yang Hao, who was walking beside Kang Jingchun.

“Yang, long time no see!”

Kang Zhifei had heard Yang Hao was coming. In fact, he had wanted to return the day before upon learning of Yang’s arrival, but his work was prearranged with leaders of the local government, and he was unable to leave.

NOW seeing Yang Hao, he immediately approached with enthusiasm.

“Uncle.”

Yang Hao nodded in return. He was quite familiar with Kang Zhifei as he used to run a hotpot restaurant and the two of them were the only ones from the larger Kang family involved in business.

However, Kang Zhifei conducted business on a grander scale, and in their conversations, he tended to adopt a condescending tone, even somewhat disdainful of Yang Hao’s smaller scale endeavors.

In the past, Yang Hao’s business was indeed smaller than Kang Zhifei’s, and after he went bankrupt, he naturally had nothing to say in front of him. But times had changed; Yang Hao was now a multi-billionaire worth over two hundred billion, resulting in a dramatic reversal of their statuses.

In fact, Yang Hao’s decision to attend Kang Jingchun’s birthday banquet was partly motivated to show face for Li Manni and also to settle scores with Kang Zhifei, as he had been oppressed by his uncle in the past.

Precisely for this reason, seeing Kang Zhifei actually made Yang Hao quite happy.

“You must be Mr. Yang.”

“Oh my, you’re even more handsome than you are online!”

At that moment, a middle-aged woman in her forties, with a beaming smile, approached.

“And you are?”

Yang Hao didn’t recognize the woman, but she spoke with the familiarity of an old friend.

“Although I’m not much older than you, you should call me ‘Auntie’.”

The middle-aged woman said this while taking Kang Zhifei’s arm, apparently asserting her identity with this gesture.

Seeing her introduce herself in such a manner, Kang Huimin and Kang Huifen, the sisters, both sneered disdainfully.

The woman, Liu Hongyan, was Kang Zhifei’s later wife, but she started as the ‘other woman,’ getting together with him before he divorced his first wife.

And Liu Hongyan was quite young, only 43 years old, which made her 14 years younger than Kang Zhifei.

She was even 7 years younger than the youngest of the Kang siblings, Kang Zhichao!

As an ‘other woman’ who had moved up the ranks, and with Liu Hongyan being quite scheming herself, it was no wonder that Kang Huimin, Kang Huifen, and the others weren’t too fond of her.

Thus, when she initiated a conversation with Yang Hao, Kang Huimin and Kang Huifen showed their disdain.

“Yang, if you don’t feel comfortable calling me Auntie, just call me Sister Yan, it’s all relative.”

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Liu Hongyan continued to speak to Yang Hao, ignoring the sisters’ reactions.

“I should still call you Auntie, otherwise, it would mess up the hierarchy.”

Yang Hao replied quite seriously.

“Whichever is fine, a title is just a nickname after all.”

Liu Hongyan responded with a smile, and after exchanging pleasantries with Yang Hao, she turned her attention to Li Manni. She took Li Manni’s hand in a very familiar way and praised her enthusiastically, “Manni, you look so much better in person than on TV!”

“I always thought TV stars wouldn’t look as good in real life, but it turns out you’re even more beautiful off-screen.”

“Manni, what’s your secret for maintaining such great skin? It’s just too good…”

Liu Hongyan kept flattering Li Manni with an extremely exaggerated expression.

However, her flattery was in fact truth—Li Manni did indeed look prettier in person than on the silver screen, a trait often found in exceptionally beautiful actresses.

Most current filming and photographic equipment come with built-in beautification features, and even when these are not used during shooting, TV stations will often apply professional enhancements in post-production.

The result is that actresses who are an 8 out of 10 become a perfect 10.

And those who are a perfect 10 may look somewhat unreal due to beautification and photoshopping.

Li Manni belonged to that group that already had a natural 10; her appearance on camera was beautiful enough but felt somewhat distorted, unlike her real flesh-and-blood beauty.

The party moved into the banquet hall, and Kang Jingchun, the guest of honor, took his seat at the head of the room surrounded by guests.

Seeing the birthday boy arriving, the relatives and friends present immediately crowded around to greet him.

After the greetings, though, nearly everyone took the opportunity to chat with Yang Hao for a moment, and that’s the power of influence!