The Mid-autumn festival is a family feast so it ought to have been arranged at Jiang Yishan's residence, but the today's business was pretty special. It wasn't just the Mid-autumn festival today but also the day of the Demigod battle between Jiang Luoxia and Ji Wudao. The venue was set at the Donglu Mountain especially by Jiang Yishan because he wanted everyone to see how Ji Wudao kills Jiang Luoxia so that he could intimidate them and cement the Jiang family's strength further, pulling it back from its current desperate straits.
Jiang Yi didn't feel even a little happier when he got down the car and saw the place where he had spent his youth. He could only sigh. In a blink, he had already become 50 years old and about to embrace the vicissitudes. The teen who used to run around here back then never thought that fate would be so harsh to him.
Lin Yueling got down the car and grabbed his arm. At this moment, she wanted to stand beside her husband with resolution. She hadn't backed down during those 20 years of trails and hardships so there was no way she would back down now.
Jiang Xiu stood behind them.
"You're here!"
Jiang Hao welcomed him at the doorway and led them inside, "First Brother, Third Brother, Fourth Brother. Fifth Brother has finally arrived…"
"They are accompanying Father inside."
Jiang Yishan had five sons and two daughters. The total people numbered pretty high after adding the outer relatives, and the three generations of the family gathered together. The manor was unusually lively right now. This year's Mid-autumn festival was foreordained to be different from the usual. Although many of them had received the news long ago and knew the root cause, they were still pretty shocked.
Jiang Yi appearing at the courtyard was that special an occasion.
"You've returned!"
Jiang Yishan was seated on the old wooden armchair, waiting for their family to come over.
"Mhm!"
Jiang Yi also responded in a manner lacking with respect. The matter from a decade ago as well as a few months ago had already left them father and son estranged from each other. The reason he had come here was to see whether the other side would repent.
Jiang Hao chipped in, "Jiang Xiu, this is your Grandfather. Call him Grandfather!"
He knew Jiang Yi, and Lin Yueling wouldn't address appropriately so he could only coax the child, Jiang Xiu.
"Call him Grandfather?"
This was the best joke Jiang Xiu had heard in all his life, almost making him laughed out. He looked at Jiang Hao as if he were an idiot.
Jiang Hao was left in an awkward situation now.
He actually tried to dupe the majestic Mr. Jiang as if he were a child.
The Elder spoke out at this moment, "You're no good, and the son you've raised up is the same as well." He looked at Jiang Xiu and made a great effort to calm himself, expressing goodwill in the expression of guidance he had assumed. "At the very least, if a person doesn't even know how to act with courtesy, he wouldn't achieve much when he enters the society in the future."
The other children of the Jiang family were quite amazed. They had never seen the Elder act so amiably with any of, the younger generation, not even Jiang Hao whom he doted on the most.
If it weren't for the Jiang family suffering an attack and the need for this brat to marry the Nangong family's girl, the Elder wouldn't have acted so kindly to him. Jiang Yi's son is indeed quite lucky. Such thoughts were going through their minds.
"Youngest, Yueling, come sit here."
When Jiang Hao saw Jiang Xiu sit as well, he said, "The adults need to talk, why don't you have fun with the other kids?"
"Jiang Zhang, take Jiang Xiu out…"
A youth, who looked around 2-3 years older than Jiang Xiu and had a tall figure, walked towards them from a distance. "Come. I'll take you along to have some fun."
Jiang Xiu almost laughed. They were really treating him like a child. Lin Yueling knew Jiang Xiu's character and was worried he would mess up the matter. "Go with him, okay?"
The party had just begun, and he didn't wish to face these people as well, so he stood up after his mother told him to go.
"The reason I've specially invited your family from Jiangnan today is that I have a matter to consult with you about. A few days ago, as I was drinking tea with your Uncle Nangong, he mentioned that Kou'er already old enough and reached the age of marriage. I already promised him that the wedding shall happen as soon as possible." Jiang Yishan spoke as if he were passing down an order instead of consulting with them.
Indeed, what ought to have come had arrived in the end.
Jiang Yi's expression turned ugly. He still held a bit of hope, but this final hope was destroyed by these words. Did you call our family back so that you can use Jiang Xiu to maintain your relations with the Nangong family through a marriage?
He stiffly spewed out the words, "You're late!"
"What do you mean?"
Jiang Yi continued, "Little Xiu has already married the girl with whom he was engaged in his childhood, Cheng Lingsu. She's a lovely, smart girl. I and Yueling like her very much."
As soon as these words were spoken out, the temperature of the entire manor fell by a few degrees.
"What?"
Elder Jiang's eyes twitched, "How could you let Jiang Xiu marry without my permission? What do you take the promise I made to Old Man Nangong for?"
Elder Jiang scolded in a fury. Many of his positions were taken away, and he currently lacked enough authority to pass through this storm. All of his hope laid with the Nangong family but… He stood up in anger, "You disgraceful thing!"
Jiang Yi and Lin Yueling's expressions turned stiff. They should've never harbored hope at all.
The other members of the Jiang family looked at them with a sour expression as well, as if they had committed a huge crime.
Elder Jiang suppressed his anger and sat down again, "Let it be. It's useless to quarrel since it's already done. Make them split. Fortunately, it's a girl from an ordinary family so we can seal their mouths."
"Impossible. As parents, how can we make our son divorce his wife?" He wasn't that attached to this matter like Lin Yueling, but since the Cheng family had just suffered an incident, he didn't have the heart to do something like that.
"Did he marry on his own will? Isn't it just you forcing him? What's the difference between you and me then? You're just troubling the child."
Jiang Yi revealed a dazed expression after hearing these words. Lin Yueling was the same as well. Even they couldn't declare whether Jiang Xiu really liked Cheng Lingsu or not.
"Let the child make a choice. Since I wasn't able to change your decision, you too must not hinder his choice."
"What do you mean?" Jiang Yi asked him.
Elder Jiang asked Jiang Hao, "That lass from the Nangong family has arrived?"
"Yes. She's planning tennis on the tennis court. Jiang Zhan took him over there…"
The manor was quite large. The name 'Little Old Summer Palace' wasn't just for namesake. It had everything, even a few golf courses, let alone a tennis court.
Jiang Zhan jumped into his mountain car and made Jiang Xiu sit behind him, "Brat, sit tight. Don't blame me if you fall off while I drive the car."
"Hmph!"
The car drove at a fast speed, and Jiang Zhan deliberately chose a route with many windings as well as ups and downs in the topography instead of the leveled road. He continued doing this for over 10 minutes yet discovered that Jiang Xiu hadn't fallen off at all.
After passing through a field, he finally entered the open sports playground. The sounds of tennis shots were audible from a distance. "Can you play tennis? How about a game?"
"Okay!"
A tennis shot from a Demigod was enough to blow away a car.
When Jiang Xiu got down the car and entered inside, he saw there wasn't anyone there except for a single person hitting the ball in the area. It was a tall girl who wore a white T-shirt as well as a white tennis skirt, revealing her slender, beautiful legs outside, matching with a pair of pink sports shoes. The sweat which had formed from running glistened the sunshine.
Looking at her from a distance, Jiang Xiu felt that this girl was a little familiar-looking as if he had seen her somewhere. He kept looking at her as she prepared to receive the served ball. Her back was facing Jiang Xiu as her butt rose up and body bent down, moving left and right rhythmically. She reacted quickly as the ball came over, giving out a lovely cry as he hit it. "Hei!"
It was a powerful counter.
Jiang Zhan came beside Jiang Xiu, "Do you like the view?"
Jiang Xiu didn't reply to him. Everyone says that girls are attracted to boys who play sports, but boys are attracted to girls who play sports as well. That aura exuded by the body as well as that curvaceous, lithe body indeed drew a lot of gazes, preventing them from looking elsewhere.
A pretty tennis girl could just intoxicate a man.
"Come. Let's go in!"
Jiang Xiu went inside along with him. The girl heard the footsteps and turned around to look. Jiang Xiu could see her face clearly at this moment, it was none other than the girl who had fatefully met him in Jiang City, Nangong Kou'er.