Yu Xiang’s expression turned even more severe as she looked at Jiang Yihua. “I’m warning you—our son finally came home for a visit. If you start spouting nonsense again, don’t blame me for packing up and moving back into the faculty dormitory!”
“…” Jiang Yihua felt stifled.
Seeing his father end up shooting himself in the foot, Jiang Lin’an was satisfied and finally got down to business.
“Mom, Dad, I heard from A Zhi that at last week’s family dinner, Grandfather announced this will be his last year attending the group’s annual meeting.”
Jiang Yihua suppressed the urge to mock and simply replied, “Yes.”
Jiang Lin’an lowered his head. “I admit, I was impulsive before and didn’t take into account the feelings of my younger siblings or Mom. But if you agree to one condition, Dad, I can come home and play the part of a flawless eldest grandson in front of Grandfather, adding fuel to our family’s cause.”
What?
Jiang Yihua was taken aback, puzzled as to why his rebellious eldest son had suddenly seen the light!
“What condition?”
Jiang Lin’an said, “As long as you promise that during your scheming and after you get what you want, you won’t trade away my marriage as a bargaining chip—and you won’t force me to inherit or take over the group.”
Heh.
Jiang Yihua was about to sneer, but caught the stern look in his wife’s eyes and immediately tempered his tone. “And if I don’t? You’ll refuse?”
“Yes.”
“…” He had truly never seen someone who would go to such lengths to help his old man secure the succession, only to want nothing for himself.
But since his son had finally come around to this way of thinking, regardless of how he got there, Jiang Yihua had to keep him steady. “Be at the main building an hour early on Sunday afternoon. I’ll take you to your grandfather to offer a humble apology.”
The “humble apology” Jiang Yihua referred to was literal—it was the rule in the Jiang family code.
Jiang Lin’an lowered his eyes. “Understood.”
Having settled things with his parents, Jiang Lin’an took his leave, handing the floor back to them.
Jiang Yihua looked at his wife’s face, trying to soften things up, but Yu Xiang was unexpectedly resolute this time. “Before, I was too bound by convention. I always told myself I came from a modest family and for your sake and the children’s, I had to follow the rules—so I endured and yielded, always letting you have your way.”
“But moving out to live here on my own has been good. You handle the external affairs of the group, and I handle the home and the children. That works.”
“…”
Jiang Yihua had always known that people who study literature tend to be stubborn, rigid, and stuck in their ways.
He took a deep breath. “Fine. Got it.”
Then he made a phone call. “Hey, Xiao Sun, have someone move all my personal belongings over to Mingyue Tower.”
“Yes, everything.”
?!
Yu Xiang looked at him like he’d lost his mind. Everyone knew the most central and authoritative place in this estate was the main building!
The two side structures were extensions of the main building’s power—practically prime real estate!
Hadn’t the second and third branches of the family squeezed two households into one building just to live in the west wing?
Jiang Yihua said, utterly shameless, “I’m busy all the time and haven’t spent enough time with my daughter. I’m just moving here to be with her—what’s wrong with that?”
Yu Xiang’s lips twitched. She got up and left the study. “Suit yourself.”
In the living room.
Jiang Chuling was absently watching TV. Fifteen minutes later, her older brother came down and told her he was moving back home. Five minutes after that, her father came down and told her he planned to move to Mingyue Tower just like her mother.
?!
What a blessed day this was! She really had a talent for keeping the family together!
In the afternoon.
Qiuyun was accompanying the young miss in her room as she carved wood, while she herself embroidered small patterns onto the miss’s clothes.
Jiang Chuling hummed happily as she carved, and even when she ruined a piece of wood, she wasn’t upset—she just smiled and switched to a fresh one.
“The young miss seems very happy today,” Qiuyun remarked with a raised brow.
Finally someone asked. Jiang Chuling nodded hard. “Extremely happy! Sister Qiuyun, you don’t know—Auntie from the second branch keeps asking me, ‘Where’s your brother? Everything still good with his girlfriend?’ Hmph, she thinks because I’m young she can stir the pot and gloat without me catching on! But now that my brother’s really coming back, I want to see how she can keep smiling!”
Qiuyun let out a laugh. “Want me to teach you how to get back at her?”
“Yes! Yes!”
Jiang Chuling sat up straight, all ears.
Qiuyun put on a pitiful expression with droopy eyes and sighed. “Auntie, last time I asked about my brother on your behalf, his girlfriend overheard, and she thinks our family keeps asking because we don’t approve of her—she’s kicking up a fuss about breaking up! Auntie, it’s all your fault, I ended up being the scapegoat!”
“Hahaha!”
Jiang Chuling slapped the table, laughing. “Auntie’s probably the last person in this family who wants my brother to break up! If he really did because of her nagging, she’d be livid to death!”
“Strike the viper at its head—go for the core,” Qiuyun said without pausing her needle. “After all, no one can know the truth except what we tell them.”
Jiang Chuling took the lesson to heart, then slowly propped herself up on her elbows.
“Sister Qiuyun, about that question you asked me before—I think I have an answer now.”
“Oh?” Qiuyun stopped stitching and looked over seriously. “What’s the young miss’s answer?”
Jiang Chuling rested her chin on the table. “You asked me before what my plans for the next thirty years were. Back then, I didn’t know how to answer, since even the eldest brother in the family is only a junior in college.”
“But yesterday, Brother asked me—if Dad takes over Grandfather’s position, and both he and Elder Brother don’t want the job, what then?” She sighed. “But this inheritance is Dad’s after all—it can’t just be handed to his nephews or nieces. So of course, it has to fall to me!”
Qiuyun: …
Great. Here was a massive family fortune, and these people were pushing it away and refusing it. Compared to that, her past life—where she and the wife had fought tooth and nail against concubines and secondary wives—what was that even?
A testament to how narrow-minded they were?
Still, she had to admit family education had a huge influence. With how the master and mistress had raised their children before, no wonder the two eldest sons had grown distant from the family, with no sense of belonging or responsibility, only wanting to run away.
Fortunately, the young miss was still young and hadn’t been too affected.
Jiang Chuling was lost in her own thoughts. “So after Brother asked me, I started thinking—what if it really is me who inherits? Would I live in the main building? Would everyone in this estate be tiptoeing around me? Would I become the sole voice of the Jiang family?”
That would be amazing!
“Theoretically, yes,” Qiuyun said. “And given the age gap of over thirty years between you and your father, you won’t have the same conflict with him that he has with the old master.”
“Hmm?”
Qiuyun wouldn’t hide anything from the young miss, even if she had kept it from the lady and the eldest young master. So she immediately told her everything that had been discussed with the master in the study earlier.
“What!” Jiang Chuling slammed the table in anger. “How could Dad do this!”
She wanted to storm off and expose him, but then she realized that would blow Sister Qiuyun’s cover.
Sister Qiuyun trusted her completely and held nothing back—she couldn’t betray that. So she forced herself to hold back.
“Dad’s too much! If I’d known earlier, I wouldn’t have worked so hard to keep the mood lively today—I’d have let him sit alone at the dinner table in shame!”
