Old Master Xu gave the housekeeper a look. The housekeeper immediately understood and stepped forward, gesturing for Xu Man to leave. Xu Man shot Old Master Xu an unwilling glance, then looked at Xu Shichu. With a stomp of her foot, she turned and ran out.
The girl, who had still been huddled in the corner, saw Mom leave and hurried after her.
Xu Man stormed out of the old residence. When she saw her daughter following behind, she poked her in the forehead. “All you do is study by rote. You’ve studied yourself stupid—you don’t even know how to suck up to people!”
The more she thought about it, the more unwilling she felt. She took out her phone and called He Wan.
Inside the living room, the atmosphere had turned strangely tense and still. Xu Shichu glanced at Old Master Xu, then at Xu Jingheng, and asked, “So Jiang Li really does have another woman?”
It wasn’t that she couldn’t understand. After all, they had married because of the child, and Jiang Li had been only eighteen at the time—not even old enough to marry.
At first, they had only held a wedding. They got their marriage certificate later.
The following year, after she gave birth, she fell into a coma again. One could imagine the pressure Jiang Li had to face.
They had never had especially deep feelings for each other to begin with, and she had been gone for thirteen years. If he really had another woman, it would be entirely understandable.
Still, Xu Shichu felt something she couldn’t quite put into words—a hint of regret, perhaps, or sorrow.
“If he really has fallen for someone else, we can get a divorce by mutual agreement. The Xu family already has an excellent heir, so we won’t be losing out!”
Time stood still inside System Space. Though her body had lain there for thirteen years, it was still exactly as it had been when she left.
She had given birth at twenty-two and spent five years lying in a hospital bed. That meant her body was only twenty-seven now.
At that age, it would be perfectly normal to start dating again. She didn’t have to remain fixated on Jiang Li.
Hearing how breezily she put it, Old Master Xu finally seemed to relax a little.
“Actually, Jiang Li has had a hard time these past years, too. Not long after you left, a woman showed up with a five-year-old child, claiming the child was his.”
“Somehow, that woman got hold of his sperm and had a child who’s only a few months younger than Jingheng.”
He sighed. “They’ve already done a paternity test. The child really is Jiang Li’s. He was set up, but the Jiang family acknowledged the child and didn’t let the woman into the family.”
“For the past few years, Jiang Li has been tormenting himself over this. He’s grown more and more withdrawn. He’s nothing like he was when he was young. A lot of people outside say he’s a little crazy now.”
When he’d first heard about it, Old Master Xu had nearly taken people over to the Jiang family to fight. But before he could go, he heard that Jiang Li had taken the child in his arms and set himself on fire.
His heart had given a hard thump. Jiang Li really had gone mad!
He had a whole bunch of illegitimate children himself, but when it came to his son-in-law, he was shamelessly biased!
But seeing how badly his son-in-law had suffered, his fury gradually turned to pity, and he could no longer bring himself to say any of the things he’d wanted to accuse him of.
Xu Jingheng silently raised his head and added in a small voice, “My surname is Xu. If Mom gets divorced, I’m going with her.”
Old Master Xu burst out laughing. “Ha! Of course the heir to the Xu family can’t be left with the Jiang family.”
Xu Jingheng still wasn’t entirely reassured. His younger brother was sweet-tongued and knew how to charm people. Everyone in the family adored him, and Maternal Grandfather was no exception.
If Mom met his younger brother, would she end up liking him too? Would she want only his younger brother and not him?
Seeing Xu Jingheng frown and ponder so seriously, Xu Shichu gradually emerged from her complicated feelings.
She lightly tapped him on the head. “You’re already eighteen, a full-grown adult. Why would you need to choose whether to go with Dad or Mom?”
Xu Jingheng suddenly saw the light.
Right—he could simply stay by Mom’s side every moment. Wherever she went, he’d go too.
Once he’d figured it all out, Xu Jingheng felt wonderfully at ease.
Mm. To keep Jiang Li from being lonely, he’d let his sweet-talking younger brother stay with the Jiang family!
It wasn’t that he wanted to get rid of a younger brother who might compete with him for Mom’s affection.
He simply couldn’t bear the thought of Jiang Li being left all alone at the Jiang family.
Xu Shichu pieced together the plot of the novel she remembered and combined it with what her father had just told her. Had the Jiang family really been this unsettled all these years?
But the novel had said very little about the male lead’s family background. All she knew was that he had a bad relationship with his father; eventually, they had turned against each other, Jiang Li had died by suicide, and Xu Jingheng had taken over the Jiang family’s company.
The novel hadn’t explained exactly why they had fallen out. Could it have had something to do with this illegitimate child?
Xu Shichu’s thoughts felt like a tangled ball of yarn, winding around and around until she couldn’t make sense of any of it.
She glanced at her son with concern. When he was little, he and his father had gotten along so well. How had everything turned upside down by the time he grew up?
She asked, “What’s that woman’s background?”
Old Master Xu sighed. “She’s an illegitimate daughter from the Lu family’s second branch. The Lu family only took her back because she was pregnant with a Jiang child. The Lu family has been in decline these past few years, so they’re hoping to arrange a marriage between her and Jiang Li.”
In Haicheng, there weren’t many wealthy families that could rival the Jiang and Xu families. The Lu family was one of them.
The Lu family had been declining for years. If things continued like this, they would soon fall out of that circle, so they were eager to stabilize their standing through a marriage alliance.
Now Little Jiang Yan’s existence was their best link to the Jiang family.
After getting a brief overview from her father, Xu Shichu didn’t ask any more questions. She couldn’t quite untangle the complicated relationships herself.
As for what came next—whether they would divorce or something else—she would have to wait for Jiang Li to come back.
For now, she wasn’t going to make herself miserable over it.
After lunch, Xu Shichu took a group of people straight to the Jiang family.
Before she left, Old Master Xu held her hand, looking very worried. “Chuchu, take it easy. Don’t actually shake all the bones in that old man’s body loose.”
After all, Old Man Jiang was getting on in years, and his body wasn’t as strong as it used to be. If something really happened to him, outsiders would have all sorts of things to say about their Chuchu!
Xu Shichu: “…Am I really that kind of person?”
Old Master Xu said nothing. He only looked at her with a meaningful gaze.
Xu Shichu: …