Mu Zi smiled. Her eyes were clear as water.
Instead of continuing the topic of compensation, she asked, "I heard that Aunt Qiao has just been promoted to a prosecutor?"
Qiao Jingjia's expression relaxed, thinking that Mu Zi must be afraid of her. Children always had natural awe towards professions like police and prosecutors.
She liked Mu Zi's reverence and admonished kindly, "Zizi, I'm a prosecutor, so I know these laws and regulations best. It's not good for you to continue pursuing this. If you take the money, you can buy whatever you want, and you can also go to school. It'll be the most practical solution for your family and yourself. Aunt is saying all this for your own good."
Mu Zi did not speak and simply continued to smile.
If she said something, at least Qiao Jingjia could respond to it. However, she was smiling so inscrutably that Qiao Jingjia could not help but feel a little annoyed.
"If you don't agree, then I won't force you." Qiao Jingjia turned away from her and glanced at the house. "Your mom isn't here today, so Aunt will come back to talk to her another day."
Mu Zi opened her mouth. "You're third brother's friend, so according to principle, I should be calling you Sister Qiao instead. Do you know why I always call you Aunt Qiao?"
Qiao Jingjia was stunned. Of course she knew.
—It was because Mu Zi's status was not legitimate.
She was an adopted daughter and an adopted daughter by a mistress at that. Even if Elder Mu wanted to bestow her the crown of the surname Mu, others would not accept her.
No matter how high Mu Zi's position in the seniority hierarchy was, she was just an outsider in the eyes of the Mu family. She was merely a stranger who lived under the same roof.
The Mu family was close-knit, but Mu Zi politely and distantly called others Uncle and Aunt because no one truly regarded her as a young lady of the Mu family. Just like how Mu Ling never saw Mu Zi as an aunt, Mu Zi would clearly offend people if she called Mu Ling her niece.
Mu Zi smiled and said, "It's because no one treats me like a family member, right? —If eldest brother really thought of me as his younger sister, Mu Ling would not have dared to push me into the lake. She's been playing tricks on me and bullying me all these years, and now she almost killed me. Does Aunt Qiao think that I'll simply sue her for intentional injury?"
She looked up and stared at Qiao Jingjia. Her quiet and calm eyes suddenly revealed a sharp glint. "Eldest brother wants to protect his daughter, and the servants at home won't testify for me either. At that time, an intentional injury will become a negligent injury. As a prosecutor, Aunt Qiao advocates mediation, and the matter will end unsettled. I would have struggled for nothing and not even receive a single dime."
Qiao Jingjia said, "We'll try our best to make it up to you…"
Mu Zi interrupted her. "It's no wonder that eldest brother felt that this money isn't worth spending. Even if the judicial appraisal determined that it was an intentional injury, Mu Ling is under eighteen-years-old and did not cause any obvious injury to me, so she would be sentenced to one and a half years at most. That should be worth one hundred and fifty thousand. Why don't we change the charges? What does Aunt Qiao think of the crime of abuse?"
Qiao Jingjia's eyes suddenly widened as if in disbelief. Then, she got angry.
Mu Zi was too unappreciative!
"Zizi, you can't talk so flippantly about abuse." Qiao Jingjia barely maintained her bearing. "Elder Mu kindly adopted you, and the Mu family provided you with food and clothing. If that's called abuse, then you really…"
She stopped and looked at Mu Zi meaningfully. Her eyes were full of warnings.
Mu Zi laughed instead. "Then I'm really cruel and unscrupulous? Ungrateful? Aunt Qiao should worry about yourself first. Since you're a prosecutor, you should know about the new 'Anti-Abuse Law' that was introduced this year. The bill just came out, and the procuratorate is focused on the pilot now. As a prosecutor, if you take the attitude of trying to quiet down a case of vicious bullying, I wonder what impact it'll have on you if word is spread?"
Qiao Jingjia's heart sank with a jerk.