The representatives from Jiang He said a lot, but generally, those words were what they meant. When the reporter uploaded the recording online, there was an immediate backlash from netizens.
They immediately connected to the video uploaded yesterday by other netizens, which someone had listed out all products under Jiang He to be boycotted. Aside from their property business, the most profitable of Jiang He"s a.s.sets was Jia Ye Movie Studio.
Jia Ye Movie Studio is considered well known in the country. They were ranked in several famous cinema theatres and even though they ranked last, they were still part of the top list of movie studios. The business is also somewhat related to the Lu Family.
Most of Xing Chuang"s big-budget movies were distributed exclusively by Jia Ye.
If they angered the public, more than half of the country"s population would boycott Jiang He and not patronize Jia Ye. That would be enough for them to suffer major losses.
If there was a boycott, movie producers would not distribute their films to Jia Ye to lower their costs and cut their losses.
Jia Ye would not be able to get any distribution rights even if they had money to buy it.
Even though an immediate effect would not be seen from boycotting Jia Ye, but it was enough to damage Jiang He and make them suffer.
Lawyer Zhou knocked on the door and entered Yan Beicheng"s office.
"Master Yan, everything has been taken care of. Jiang He might have arranged to buy that piece of land, but they have not signed the contract. It was just a verbal agreement that still needed a signature. Miss Jiang had acted too rashly and approached the orphanage before signing the contract. We offered a slightly higher price, and leveraging on the Yan family"s standing, we were able to send someone to sign the contract and formalize the land purchase. The land has nothing to do with the Jiang family already," Lawyer Zhou reported.
Yan Beicheng nodded. He did not immediately inform Lin Chu and the old Princ.i.p.al about the situation. He wanted to wait until everything was a done deal.
Even though he believed there would not be any changes, it would still be better for things to be confirmed officially before telling them about it and making them feel more secure.
Evening came and Yan Beicheng picked up Lin Chu from Lin Yi and informed her about the situation. They were concerned about the old Princ.i.p.al still worrying so he drove Lin Chu to the orphanage.
The situation had gone on for three days. The old princ.i.p.al did not have the heart to push Yan Beicheng as she was aware that it was not a small matter. He would not be able to settle it with just a word, but it still could not stop her from being fl.u.s.tered over the matter.
She felt uneasy seeing them approach.
However, the old Princ.i.p.al felt a glimmer of hope upon seeing the relaxed expression on Lin Chu"s face.
"Don"t worry, everything has been settled. The orphanage won"t be demolished, and the children would not need to leave," Lin Chu did not waste any time and told the old Princ.i.p.al immediately as she held her hands.
The old Princ.i.p.al looked at Yan Beicheng in surprise. How did he settle it so quickly?
It was just two days ago and now everything has been resolved?
Yan Beicheng nodded. He did not act too gentle or enthusiastic but only said matter-of-factly, "Miss Jiang had acted too rashly. Even though they had an agreement to buy the land, but no official contract was signed. They may have rapport and understanding between them, and if it was before, there was nothing to worry about as no one would dare to offend the Jiang family and grab this land from them. To get the land, it would be necessary to raise the asking price. No one would be willing to go against their promise if the price was not high enough. In this case, the profit would be low, and they"d be forced to offend someone, it would be a lot of unnecessary work."
"But Miss Jiang was too eager to show off. This time, the situation is different than usual, which was why it was not difficult for me to purchase this land as soon as I took action. It did not take much, it was just a matter of paying a little more money."
"This afternoon, Yan Hui had already sent someone to sign the contract. We already have it in black and white, so you don"t need to worry anymore," Yan Beicheng explained.
Even though she felt embarra.s.sed to have troubled Yan Beicheng, the old Princ.i.p.al still felt a weight lifted off her and heaved a deep breath of relief.
"I have not been able to sleep a wink at night because of this. I can"t sleep at all. The moment I close my eyes, I could see the children being dragged away while crying. I keep seeing them crying to me that they did not want to leave, and I couldn"t stop my tears from falling. But it"s all good now, I don"t need to worry anymore," the old Princ.i.p.al sighed, then smiled in relieve.
The land was in Yan Beicheng"s hands, there was nothing to worry about now.
Even though it was a little thick-skinned of her to think this way, but the old Princ.i.p.al could not help but feel that leaving the land in Yan Beicheng"s hands was the same as having it in her hands. It would be a long time before anyone had to worry about the orphanage.
"You just said that you had to raise the price before obtaining the land, doesn"t that mean…" The old Princ.i.p.al could not help but feel concerned.
Yan Beicheng did not mention how much more he had to pay, she did not even dare imagine how much could that be.
"Yan Hui did gain over this matter, you don"t need to worry about it," a.s.sured Yan Beicheng.
Lin Chu helped the old Princ.i.p.al to sit down and Yan Beicheng continued, "The little district next to the orphanage would definitely be demolished for new building development. When that is done, Yan Hui will profit from it and won"t make any losses. Besides, due to your protest against Jiang He yesterday, that company"s reputation has suffered a big hit. Even though their property business is not big but since there are many choices for the consumers now, many would choose not to purchase Jiang He"s properties. As far as I know, the movie studio under Jiang He this week has suffered a big loss in terms of box office numbers."
"This is the moment when the general public is most enraged as Jiang He has suffered the most. With Yan Hui taking a stand at this time, many would be applauding us. It will indirectly profit Yan Hui"s products and brands, so you don"t need to worry about this," Yan Beicheng explained.
The old Princ.i.p.al did not understand much but since Yan Beicheng insisted that they stood to gain, she felt much better.
She got Lin Chu and Yan Beicheng to stay for dinner. The children had limited knowledge of the matter. Even though they had tried their best to keep it under wraps, some of the children still got wind of the situation.
Mo Jingxi had just finished his homework when he walked out and spotted Lin Chu. He quickly ran over and called out, "Chu Chu!"
Lin Chu felt glad that Jiang He did not sign the contract as she watched the pretty little boy ran over clumsily. It was lucky that Jiang Changdai came looking for them before making sure everything was a done deal, which created an opportunity for them.
Otherwise, all these little children would be forced to leave. Lin Chu felt relief and heartache for them at the same time.
Mo Jingxi climbed up the chair next to Lin Chu and tugged her sleeve in a pitiable fas.h.i.+on as he asked her worriedly, "Chu Chu, are we going to leave this place?"
She watched as the children looked like they were about to cry. Tian Tian held on tight to s.h.i.+ Tou"s arms. They watched her with big, teary eyes. Lin Chu thought it looked exactly like how Chu Xi always looked at her.
"Don"t worry, everything"s been taken care of. None of you should worry about this. No one will chase you away," Lin Chu said as she rubbed Mo Jingxi"s soft hair.
"Is that true?" Tian Tian sniffled as the tears were still br.i.m.m.i.n.g in her eyes, but her big, bright eyes were filled with a pleasant surprise.
Lin Chu nodded enthusiastically, "It"s true."
She did not expect Tian Tian to suddenly burst out in tears. "That"s good, that"s really good, I don"t need to leave, I won"t be separated from s.h.i.+ Tou and Jingxi. Wahhh…."
s.h.i.+ Tou coughed embarra.s.sedly upon noticing Lin Chu and Yan Beicheng looking at him, and said maturely, "Tian Tian is… is an emotional little girl!"
"She"ll be okay after crying out loud for a while," Mo Jingxi whispered understandingly.
Lin Chu listened and before she could console her, Tian Tian suddenly stopped crying. All was left was her little red nose and she looked especially adorable.
While Yan Beicheng was sending someone over to sign the contract, Jiang He was hard at work salvaging their reputation. Jiang Changdai"s older brother, Jiang Changzai, was in Ning City. After all, the Jiang family had started in Ning City and their roots were there.
When this situation exploded, the news had not yet reached Ning City. By the time he got wind of it, the matter was already out of control.
Jiang Changzai was so mad, he nearly broke his phone into pieces.
When Jiang Changdai approached him to ask for his help, he did not think it was anything serious. Jiang He had already developed a few commercial-residential areas in B City. While the land where the orphanage was and its surrounding lands were not considered large areas, purchasing them was still considered expensive given its strategic location.
Jiang Changzai had specially held a meeting to draw out a plan to build a high-end residential area there. He wanted it to be top-notch as B City had a lot of well-to-do people.
Jiang He may be in the property business, but they were still far behind compared to the much more established Yan Hui as Jiang He was not capable to build hotels and theme parks.
Jiang Changzai had planned to expand its presence and property business to B City. When Jiang Changdai came asking for his help, he had agreed but not entirely for the sake of Jiang Changdai being his sister. It was more of a business decision.
As for the orphanage, he planned to give them proper compensation. He understood no matter business or celebrities, they would be fighting to do charity work. It did not matter if it was sincere or not, the point was to gain brownie points for their reputation.
The orphanage creating a ruckus over the purchase of the surrounding lands was the biggest potential problem. They had already reached an agreement with the residential owners of the areas around the orphanage. They would be compensated with demolishment fees and their old houses will be exchanged for newer, bigger houses. Everyone was willing, especially when properties in B City was so expensive that would be difficult for them to purchase.
Jiang Changzai had also thought that the orphanage would be filled with the old and the weak, women and children. Even if they decided to create trouble, there was not much they could achieve as they were perceived to not know their rights. They would not know where and how to make their complaints anyway.
But who knew that Jiang Changdai, that stupid woman, could be so direct as to say those infuriating words? Even if she thought so, she should not have been so straightforward about it!
Everyone was busy fis.h.i.+ng for fame and building a good image for themselves, yet here she was doing the exact opposite!
Even if Jiang Changzai looked down on these incapable poor people, he would never say so in front of them!
Now that the situation has gone out of hand and has affected the whole of Jiang He, Jiang Changzai was busy cleaning up the mess made by Jiang Changdai that he had yet to find time to call her and give her a good scolding.
He spent the whole night trying to get a public relations company to help resolve the crisis and prepare a statement to announce that whatever was said did not represent the thoughts of Jiang He, and was a personal opinion.
Unfortunately, Jiang Changdai was his younger sister. Everyone looked at him and Jiang Changdai as one. Who would believe the statement that was written for publicity purposes?
Jiang He"s reputation was damaged overnight thanks to those few words from Jiang Changdai.
Their stock value continued to drop while cinemas which showed their movies by their movie studio was empty in every city that they were in.
Even then, Jiang Changzai had not given another thought to the contract. As the details were already agreed upon and they have already decided on the dates to sign the contract, it did not seem right to make last-minute changes.
Who knew that after three days, the land now belonged to Yan Hui. They had even signed the contract!
Jiang Changzai made the call to ask what happened, but all the other side said was, "President Jiang, we really couldn"t do much about it. This matter has escalated to such a terrible situation. If we proceed to sell the land to Jiang He, we would be criticized badly by the public. Even if you don"t touch the orphanage, the negative image has already been planted. Many do not look to the future, only the current results. Things ended up like this because Jiang He handled this badly. If this had been done more smartly, none of this would have happened."
As soon as he ended the call, his a.s.sistant forwarded a press statement from the land seller to Jiang Changzai. In the statement, they had clarified that both sides had not come to terms with the negotiation and it was never confirmed that the land would be sold to Jiang He. It was all a misunderstanding and the land had now been sold to Yan Hui.
He closed the doc.u.ment and his a.s.sistant sent another one to Jiang Changzai. This time, it was from Yan Hui.
The press statement announced that "Yan Hui could not stand by while Jiang He conducts such acts for profit. We would rather make some losses and purchase the land at a higher price. The contract has already been signed between us".
The statement also made a solemn promise to demolish only the houses around the orphanage and the orphanage will continue to operate as usual. They had also donated 30 million Yuan to the orphanage.
Jiang Changzai nearly threw up blood in anger upon reading it.
Jiang Changdai suddenly called at this moment.
Jiang Changzai was annoyed at seeing Jiang Changdai"s name on the screen. He had been too busy to be bothered with her for the past few days. Otherwise, he would have given her a good scolding on the phone. He did not expect Jiang Changdai to have the gall to call him instead.
It must have been because of the news online.
Jiang Changzai had no idea that Jiang Changdai had insisted on demolis.h.i.+ng the orphanage because she wanted to threaten Lin Chu. He only thought of her as being stupid.
If Jiang Changzai knew that Jiang Changdai was doing all these stupid acts for her personal gain, he would have beaten her to death.
Jiang Changzai sent his a.s.sistant out of the office. He made sure he was alone before picking up the call. Before he could say anything, he heard Jiang Changdai said, "Brother, what happened? Why did Yan Hui manage to buy the land instead?"
Jiang Changzai could not hold in his temper the moment he heard her voice. "You dare to ask me this question? It was all because of your stupidity of saying all those words to the orphanage that they managed to get hold of something against you. After creating a huge backlash in public opinion, you are now questioning me about what happened? If you were thinking about prancing around it, you should"ve waited for the contract to be signed and the orphanage to be demolished before heading there. The contract hasn"t even been signed yet and there you are, rus.h.i.+ng over to say all those things. What exactly was in your head?"
Jiang Changdai was not happy with those words. She was feeling fl.u.s.tered about what Jiang Changzai had just said.
She had wanted to use the orphanage to threaten Lin Chu, but Yan Hui had bought it in the end!
"How would I know that the honest-looking old lady could be so cunning?!" Jiang Changdai clenched her teeth at the thought of the old Princ.i.p.al.
The old Princ.i.p.al from the orphanage had such a kindly, benevolent look. She looked so fragile that one could have kicked the life out of her on the spot. Who knew that she was capable of something so despicable?
"How would you know? With that stupid brain of yours, there"s so much that you don"t know! Do you think people are so easily bullied? The really stupid person here is you. You"ve been stupid since young, never once contributing to the family and always creating a mess for us to clean up!" Jiang Changzai was so mad, he began thras.h.i.+ng anything he could get his hands on. He threw his pens and holder viciously on the ground.
"You still dare to question why are you so stupid and how did you create a mess?" Jiang Changzai said ferociously. All these years looking at this stupid thing moving around in front of him had brought him nothing but anger.
Now that Jiang Changdai dared to ask this question, Jiang Changzai decided to be frank with her. He had finally understood that there was no need to beat around the bush when it came to people as dumb as she was. He might as well be blunt and direct. There was no hoping she would understand anything through hinting.
"You"re asking me? Right, let me explain clearly to you. If it wasn"t for you, we"d still be in-laws with the Yan family. The Jiang family"s development would have gone further from what it is now. But what happened? Marrying you there turned them into our enemies instead of family. How could Yan Huaiyuan not match up to Lu Zhengting? What is Lu Zhenting compared to Yan Huaiyuan? You had an affair with Lu Zhengting behind Yan Huaiyuan"s back and caused his death. The Yan family may not have done anything drastic to us, but do you think the Yan family had let us off the hook? It"s been 18 years and the Jiang family is still stagnant at the same spot. We have not moved forward at all in these 18 years. We"ve never been able to expand any of the industries we"re involved inDo you know why? It"s because the Yan family did not allow us to!"
"They did not allow the Jiang family to develop and has always been suppressing us, yet, they did not let us die easily. They want to see us work hard for an opportunity, only to end up empty-handed. Countless times, countless times! It has always been this way! They gave us hope then destroyed it! It"s like a rope being tied on our backs, we can see mountains of gold and silver right in front of us, just a few steps more but the rope pulls us back to where we started. It"s so near, yet we can never reach it."
"If it wasn"t for you, the Jiang family would have been much more than we are right now! And yet you dare look down on others? What right do you have? You"re nothing but trouble to the family!" Jiang Changzai said angrily.
He was so angry that he hit the table hard a few times.
His a.s.sistant was standing outside the office, listening with trepidation and did not dare walk in.
"You have a son like Yan Beicheng yet you do not know how to use him! If you had treated Yan Beicheng well, if you had a good relations.h.i.+p with him, the Yan family would have given us some slack for Yan Beicheng"s sake. But you, you chose to push Yan Beicheng away and treat the daughter of your old lover so well instead. What is your relations.h.i.+p with Lu Weining? You sideline your son and treat him like the enemy, but you spend so much time being good to Lu Weining like she was your daughter. Isn"t this all for the sake of getting into Lu Zhenting"s good books? You never see the bigger picture and can"t tell what"s good and what"s not. Saying you"re stupid is a humiliation to the word stupid!"
The Jiang family was placed in an awkward position because of Jiang Changdai. He truly wanted to treat Yan Beicheng well, be it on a personal level to compensate for his personal loss or for business to help the Jiang family. But because of Jiang Changdai, Yan Beicheng had always been distant to the whole Jiang family.
"Other people would do what is best for the family, but you? From the moment you caused Yan Huaiyuan"s death and returned to the Jiang family, I asked for nothing from you. I don"t expect you to contribute anything to the Jiang family as long as you don"t create any trouble for us."
"And yet, here you are being the troublemaker you"ve always been. You never know when to stop. You are not capable, yet you are deluded about being able to achieve something!" Jiang Changzai was so mad that he was about to cough out blood from his lungs. His niece, Yan Zhiqing, was exactly like Jiang Changdai. She was not capable yet believes she does. She was exactly like Jiang Changdai!
"Brother, how could you say that about me! Your words are terrible. I"m your sister, can"t you say something nicer?" Jiang Changdai could not help protesting.
Nothing good came out of his mouth. From his words, she was nothing but a stupid troublemaker.
When Jiang Changzai mentioned Yan Huaiyuan, Jiang Changdai felt bad.
It was not easy, but it took her a few years to feel better about the whole situation. She still did not like anyone mentioning Yan Huaiyuan"s name. Who knew that Jiang Changzai would go straight for the heart with his words?
Jiang Changdai was very conflicted. She still felt guilty about Yan Huaiyuan and knew that she had let him down. But she had never thought about compensating him nor return his grat.i.tude, she did not even want to hear his name being mentioned.
She felt terrible every time she heard his name and would feel extremely guilty. That was all there was to her. Once the feeling was gone, it was a done deal for her.
"You"re lucky you"re my sister. If it was another person, my words would be worse. Would you like to hear them?" Jiang Changzai sneered sarcastically. After venting at her, his temper was slightly calm. It felt better now that he had raged at her.
Jiang Changzai continued after sitting down. "You are the one that caused the Jiang family all these troubles. It has been 18 years and the Jiang family are still where they were while others have moved on to further expand themselves. Fine, no matter what, things have already happened and there"s no changing it. I won"t mention it, it will only make me angry. What exactly are you doing in B City? When can you stop creating trouble?"
"You said you wanted to buy that piece of land, I bought it! But could you not go making trouble? You did not bother to grow a brain and destroyed this business trade with your own hands, and you dare come to question me?" Jiang Changzai suddenly picked up the pen on his file and flung it away.
"Jiang Changdai, let me tell you this. Don"t ever come to me again if you need anything. If you don"t have the capability, there is no need to pretend to have a brainwave like others. There is no need to rack your brain if you don"t have one. Just stay there quietly and be good. If you create any trouble of your own or stir up anything, please resolve it yourself. I"m already old, do you expect me to clean up your mess for the rest of my life? If the Jiang family business suffers any more because of you, don"t blame me for being brutal with you!"
"You"re already an older woman and yet you"re still completely useless to the Jiang family. You"ve never done anything beneficial to the Jiang family, all you know is going around in pretense!" Jiang Changzai said furiously.
Jiang Changdai was not about to back down and retorted, "What do you mean I haven"t done anything for the family?! Wasn"t I forced to marry into the Yan family in the first place? Didn"t I compromise for the sake of the Jiang family? And now here you are, blaming me for Yan… Yan Huaiyuan"s death."
She had not spoken his name in 18 years. Now that she said it, Jiang Changdai"s tongue was tied and she felt horribly guilty.
"If it weren"t for you all forcing me to marry into the Yan family, none of these would have happened and he wouldn"t have died. To be honest, his death was because of all of you!"
Jiang Changzai laughed bitterly. "I see that the Jiang family has kept a traitor among us for all these years. Jiang Changdai, if you still want to stay in B City, then behave yourself and stop acting like a demoness there. Otherwise, I"ll drag you back here myself! I"m not asking you to bring any benefits to the Jiang family, all you need to do is to stop stirring trouble for the Jiang family!"
He had originally thought that she had finally thought it through in B City and wanted to repair her relations.h.i.+p with Yan Beicheng.
He knew it would be no easy task, particularly when she had ignored Yan Beicheng since giving birth to him. If she was looking at repairing their relations.h.i.+p now, to be honest, even a saint would be stupid to forgive her.
But Jiang Changzai still held on to a glimmer of hope, he had been optimistic about the outcome. If Jiang Changdai maintained a good att.i.tude, she might be able to touch Yan Beicheng"s heart. He did not expect Yan Beicheng to treat Jiang Changdai the way he treated the two Yan family elders, but at least he would be more concerned with her and stop suppressing the Jiang family. That would be good enough.
Who knew that he had overestimated Jiang Changdai"s IQ and EQ. If he did not see through her and realized that Jiang Changdai was not in B City to ask for Yan Beicheng"s forgiveness, then he would be another stupid one in the family. The Jiang family would have been destroyed if he was.
Not only was Jiang Changdai not there to beg for Yan Beicheng"s forgiveness, but she also did not even have a shred of guilt in her, and actively introduced and matchmade Lu Weining to Yan Beicheng.
Jiang Changzai thought this was impossible, what was in Jiang Changdai"s brain?!
Wait, that was not right. Jiang Changdai had no brain. Anyone with half a brain would not do something so stupid and laughable.
Yan Beicheng had s.n.a.t.c.hed the land from them and released such a press statement, directly stomping onto the legs of the Jiang family.
If this was caused by Jiang Changdai"s stupidity of leading Jiang He to lose both its legs and making them fell to the ground, then Yan Beicheng"s act of buying over the land and issuing the press statement was the same as giving Jiang He a few more kicks while the company was already down in the dumps.
If Jiang Changdai could have treated Yan Beicheng better and slightly fixed the relations.h.i.+p between them, Yan Beicheng would not go as far as to do this!
Jiang Changzai was not aware of the reason for Yan Beicheng doing this, all he could do was guess that Jiang Changdai must have done something dumb in B City. He had not expected her to cross the line.
One could not blame Jiang Changzai for not being able to guess what she had done. Jiang Changdai"s brain worked at a level that was not logical.
Jiang Changzai hung up angrily. Jiang Changdai was also holding on to her phone, her hands trembling with anger.
She stayed in her room for a while to calm down before going out.
Lu Weining and Yan Zhiqing sat in the living room. Lu Weining had watched the news and found out about Yan Beicheng"s actions, so she quickly rushed over.
She had just confirmed the matter with Jiang Changdai, which was why Jiang Changdai had given Jiang Changzai the call.
She had not expected the first sentence from him to be a scolding. Jiang Changdai gave Lu Weining an embarra.s.sed glance. When she realized that she had not heard anything, she quickly went into the room to continue the conversation with Jiang Changzai.
When she came out, she had her emotions under control and continued to act kind and loving towards Lu Weining.
"There"s nothing much we can do. Everything has been set. It"s all my fault. I could not stop myself, which caused all these," Jiang Changdai sat down and Yan Zhiqing quickly moved to sit beside her.
She might have faulted herself with her words, but Jiang Changdai still felt that she had done nothing wrong.
She might have acted rash and allowed the old Princ.i.p.al to have evidence against her, but that was because the old Princ.i.p.al was too cunning.
Also, it was Yan Beicheng"s fault.
He chose to help an outsider and not his mother.
That old Princ.i.p.al was a two-faced person. She acted all righteous and saintly and claimed to not want to take advantage of the Yan family. Who knew she would tell Yan Beicheng about this the moment they turned their backs?
Yan Zhiqing a.n.a.lyzed the situation and commented, "So, mum, you were right. Lin Chu is a complete burden to my brother. She still needed his help over such a small matter. I wonder how much he had to pay just to get that piece of land. Wasting all that money for nothing, just because of Lin Chu. If she was from a well-to-do family, this would not have happened. It"s because she has nothing that she needs Brother to help with this. She"s a vampire, a parasite!"
Lu Weining lowered her gaze, the look in her eyes changed before she raised her head and held Jiang Changdai"s hands, "Auntie, don"t blame yourself. I"m to blame too. If I stopped you in time that day, this would not have happened. I had thought you were right too, there was no reason for me to hold you back, who knew…"
"How could this be your fault?!" Jiang Changdai consoled her gently as she thought how considerate Lu Weining was.
It was Sat.u.r.day. Lin Chu and Yan Beicheng visited the orphanage and had lunch there before leaving to see the two elders in the old mansion.
Not long after they left, the doorbell rang at the orphanage.
The old Princ.i.p.al thought that it must be the young people or friends nearby coming over to deliver something to them.
When everyone found out that Yan Hui had bought the land and the orphanage could continue staying and did not need to move, the people staying near the orphanage and the neighbors whom the children were familiar with were very happy.
Supervisor Yang came over that night to visit them and b.u.mped into Lin Chu and Yan Beicheng, so he did not stay long and left soon early. The next day, more retired friends came by to visit with other friends.
They came by to have a potluck and celebrate the orphanage staying put. Everyone had especially prepared their best dishes to put together into a luscious dinner, celebrating the occasion together.
The old neighbors had also gotten busy these few days, bringing over something nearly every day to give to the orphanage.
They must have been worried over the orphanage having to move away. Now that they did not have to, everyone was so happy that they could not stop bringing things over in joy.
The old Princ.i.p.al tried rejecting but to avail. Now that the doorbell rang again, she quickly went out.
At the door was not a familiar face from the neighborhood. Standing there was the face of a stranger.
It was a middle-aged woman. She wore a greyish-green blouse with a thinly knitted peony-colored sweater over her, it was matched with a pair of coffee-colored cloth pants. On her feet were a pair of wrinkled, black loafers which were misshapen at the tips.
She was on the plump side and slightly out-of-shape. Her sweater was tight, which stuck tight to the excess fat on her abdomen. Along with her b.r.e.a.s.ts, it looked like she had a few layers of fat on her.
There were two to three millimeters of white hair on the woman"s hair roots, which she was not able to dye it black in time. Her skin was dark, coa.r.s.e and dry. From the skin tone on her neck, one could tell that her skin was not naturally dark-skinned but was tanned from working long hours outdoor under the sun and she did not bother to take good care of her skin.
There was still a distance from the gate to the door, but the old Princ.i.p.al could see the middle-aged woman acted hesitantly. If she were to reach her a bit slower, the woman would have left. She was not sure what was the woman was afraid of.
As she thought about this, the old Princ.i.p.al quickened her pace to open the gate.
"May I ask what you are here for?" The old Princ.i.p.al asked in a friendly tone.
"I"m… I"m looking for someone," the middle-aged woman said hesitantly as she looked at the old Princ.i.p.al, and later lowered her head to look at her feet. The old princ.i.p.al could see the white hair at the top of her head.
"Who are you looking for?" The old Princ.i.p.al smiled and said quietly, in case she frightened her.
This middle-aged woman acted timidly like she could be easily scared away.
The middle-aged woman took out a piece of folded paper from her pocket and opened it. The paper had been in her pocket for quite a while. It was a little torn.
The middle-aged woman pa.s.sed the paper to the old princ.i.p.al, "This… This is my daughter"s date of birth. I… I left her here 25 years ago."
The middle-aged woman started to tear up as she continued, "I… I couldn"t do anything back then. I was only 17. I couldn"t even take care of myself. The child would have suffered with me. I may not have money now but at least life is still pa.s.sable. I"m not looking for her to acknowledge me, I… I just want to take a good look at her."
The middle-aged woman did not dare to look at the old Princ.i.p.al, as if afraid this kind face would look at her with despise and disgust.
Her dry, dark hands covered her face as tears streamed through them.
"I know I"m not worthy of being a mother. I"m not so greedy as to want to acknowledge her, I don"t expect her to acknowledge me either. All I want… All I want is to take one good look at her from afar."
The old princ.i.p.al indeed had no fondness for this middle-aged woman. Only now did she learn regret and guilt. Why did she not know what when she abandoned her child?
It was indeed not a good age to even take care of oneself at the age of 17. They were not responsible for themselves and certainly not responsible for their children. Having a child at such a young age was no strange thing to the old Princ.i.p.al. After all, many of the children in the orphanage were here because of such situations.
These underaged teenagers wanted to have the forbidden fruit for that moment of excitement and fun, but they lack the common knowledge of basic prevention. This has resulted in them giving birth but unable to care for the child, and the only thing they could do was abandon their child to fend for themselves.
The old Princ.i.p.al had seen so many cases such as this. It was difficult for her to like this woman standing in front.
However, she had been good-tempered all these while and has always been nice to people. It was difficult for her to look cold in a matter of seconds.
The old Princ.i.p.al looked down at the birth date written on the paper. She could not see well and moved the paper further away. When she saw the dates, the expression on her face changed.
The middle-aged woman was too busy covering her face in tears to notice it.
The old Princ.i.p.al remembered the date on the paper very clearly.
This was Lin Chu"s birthday!
It was because of this birthday that Lin Chu was picked by the Lin family, only to be tortured by them when she was there.
It was a string of numbers that the old Princ.i.p.al would never forget her whole life.
During the years Lin Chu was with the Lin family, the old Princ.i.p.al had blamed herself while looking at these numbers on the paper numerous times. She consistently regretted the day. How nice would it be if Lin Chu was not born during that time.
The middle-aged woman messily wiped her face with her palms and the back of her hands, "I… I saw the news. That Lin Chu, Miss Lin, the media reported her story. I"d like to ask, Is she… Is she my daughter?"
"When the news reported about her, my daughter was watching it and shared it with me," said the middle-aged woman.
When her daughter saw the news, there was envy on her face. She could not stop gus.h.i.+ng about how lucky Lin Chu was. An orphan could be so lucky to be in a relations.h.i.+p with such an outstanding, tall, rich and good-looking man.
She went into a daze looking at Yan Beicheng and had jealously commented that an orphan could get herself such a das.h.i.+ng man because she had a pretty face. Even celebrities could not match up to that beauty. She wondered if Lin Chu had any plastic surgery done.