Chapter 528 - Dinner At The Long Ancestral Residence Part II
Dinner was an ordeal for everyone. n.o.body had an appet.i.te. The atmosphere was heavy and tense, making everyone uncomfortable.
As the elders, Long Tengfei and Yang Jiahui tried to act as if everything was normal. They forced themselves to eat, even though the food tasted like sand in their mouths at that moment.
Meimei began stress eating, shoving food into her mouth nonstop, much like her twin bro, the food-vacuum Dom. Although she was eating a lot, it didn"t look like she was enjoying it.
The two men, Jin Liwei and Long Hui ate mechanically. Both of their expressions were cold, but they still continued to eat. They also looked like they weren"t enjoying the food.
As for Iris, she didn"t bother eating. After a couple of bites, she simply stopped. She just sat there with her hands on her lap and watched her darling eating beside her.
Perhaps the atmosphere became too much for Yang Jiahui until she couldn"t bear it anymore because she shot a meaningful look at her husband, silently telling him to do something.
Long Tengfei carefully set his chopsticks down. Then he cleared his throat to get everyone"s attention. The others stopped eating and looked at him.
"Hui, Xiulan, the two of you are my children. You are brother and sister. As your father, I want you to stop fighting like this. Talk to each other and try to solve all of the issues between you."
Silence.
Finally, Iris was the one who responded to Long Tengfei first. "Your eldest son is the one who should stop hurting and make peace first with my friend Ying Yue and my G.o.dson Little Jun. He"s the one who caused this mess. Once he asks for Ying Yue"s forgiveness and she forgives him, then that"s the time that I will stop fighting with him."
Everyone noticed that she stopped referring to Long Hui as her "Elder Brother", referring him to Long Tengfei as "your eldest son" instead.
Long Hui glared at her. "I"m the one who caused this mess?! Jiang Ying Yue was the one who cheated on me first!"
"She didn"t," Jin Liwei interjected. "Jiang Ying Yue and my Eldest Brother Lin Yehan aren"t in a relations.h.i.+p. They only met the weekend before you saw the photos of them together. That was just a coincidence. I don"t think that they"re even friends. Eldest Brother Lin Yehan is a man of integrity. He"ll never destroy a committed relations.h.i.+p by having a love affair with one of the parties involved. You"re the only one who latched onto this idea that they"re cheating on you even though it"s not true. You didn"t even let the mother of your child explain her side of the story. You were just trying to find a reason to break up with her so that you can marry your current fiancée who"s richer and has a status in high society compared to Jiang Ying Yue. Truly a pathetic man who can"t even own up to your motives and decisions and just keeps on blaming others for the mess you made."
Long Hui was triggered by what Jin Liwei said about him. "What did you say, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d?!"
"Don"t you dare call my fiancé a b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Iris also raised her voice at him.
"Enough!" Long Tengfei banged his hand on the dinner table, making some of the dinnerware bounce dangerously.
Long Hui immediately stopped, acting like a well-behaved son. Years of being trained and disciplined as the successor since he was a young child made him unable to openly defy his father. He could only do things behind Long Tengfei"s back. If it was face to face, he didn"t have the courage to do it.
On the other hand, Iris wasn"t the least bit affected by Long Tengfei. She even shot a cold look at her "father".
"I"m sorry to say this, Father. But I can"t accept that you"re not doing anything while your son is doing all of these things to hurt the mother of your grandson. Little Jun is caught in the middle of this mess! You didn"t hear how your grandson was screaming and crying—he was so scared, poor child—when this jerk barged into their condo unit and fought with Ying Yue," she told Long Tengfei.
"You! Stop it! Don"t try to influence how Father should think," Long Hui said in a hurry, a slightly panicked look in his eyes as he glanced at his father.
Iris ignored Long Hui and continued speaking directly to Long Tengfei. "Father, I know that you prefer to leave us, your children, to decide on how we live our lives. This son of yours is intent on hurting my friend and taking advantage of her weakness and powerlessness. He"s using their son, your grandson, to hurt her and validate his mistaken sense of dominance in their relations.h.i.+p. If you"re just going to let him do what he wants in this matter, then please don"t stop me if I want to simply protect my friend and your grandson from his attacks. Between him and them, I choose my G.o.dson and my friend! Little Jun has no future with this jerk! He"ll only bring Little Jun into a world of hurt if he successfully gains custody of your grandson!"
"Who are you calling a jerk?! And what do you mean my son has no future with me?! I can give my son a brighter and much better future than Jiang Ying Yue! She"s only a bodyguard! How can a mere bodyguard compare to me and what I can give to our son?!"
"You f.u.c.king a.s.shole! How dare you call Big Sis Yue a "mere bodyguard"?!! How dare you?!!!" Meimei yelled at Long Hui, waving a fork in a threatening manner at him. It was as if there was nothing in the world that she wanted to do right now but to stab him with the fork.
"Xiao Mei, stop! Don"t interfere with their discussion!" Yang Jiahui reprimanded her niece.
"Auntie, I can"t stop! He just insulted my friend! Unforgivable! And you call this a discussion? What part of this is a discussion? This is fighting, that"s what this is!"
"You—" Yang Jiahui closed her eyes, helpless at her niece.
With Meimei riled up like this, of course Iris also felt offended for her friend. If eyes could shoot fire, hers would be like a military-grade flamethrower burning Long Hui alive.
"Ying Yue might not be able to afford what you can give Little Jun with her own money, but I can! Liwei can! We both can! We"ll a.s.sist her in every way that we can in raising her son! Little Jun is our G.o.dson and what you can give him, Liwei and I can give him many times over!"
"Correct," Jin Liwei said.
Long Hui banged both of his hands on the table and shouted at the couple. "Long Jun is not your son! He"s MY son! I have every right to take him! I"m in a much better position than Jiang Ying Yue to raise him!"
"Don"t you dare yell at Xiulan," Jin Liwei warned him in a low, dangerous voice.
"Stay out of this! You"re not even a Long! You"re an outsider of this family!"
"Liwei is my future husband. He"s MY family. He has every right to be here," Iris retorted.
"So you"re going to use Jin Liwei"s status and influence to suppress me?" Long Hui asked, daring her to answer with his expression.
"So what if I do? I just told you, he"s my future husband! His power is my power and my power is his power! This is what a relations.h.i.+p is! You don"t understand because you only think about yourself! You know what? I"m glad that you broke up with Ying Yue! She"s better off without a sc.u.m like you!"
"That"s right! She"s so lucky that you showed your true colours before you married! Good riddance to you!" Meimei b.u.t.ted in.
"Xiao Mei, please…"
Yang Jiahui pleaded to her niece to stop but Meimei was too fired up to listen to her aunt.
Long Hui ignored Meimei. He sneered at Iris. "Hah! So you"re admitting that you"re using Jin Liwei"s power for your own benefit! You"re exactly like your mother! That s.l.u.t—"
"STOP IT!!!" Long Tengfei roared.
A gla.s.s of water crashed to the floor a few metres away from the table after he threw it.
Everyone became silent, even Iris. They could feel Long Tengfei"s fury.
In the end, the attempt to reconcile Iris and Long Hui during dinner by Long Tengfei and Yang Jiahui failed.
It failed miserably.