When the argument finally settled down, Su Boyuan saw it was the perfect chance for him to speak up and give his own two cents about this issue. "The longer we delay the process, the more suspicious we will appear to be." Su Meixiu attentively listened to her father as he spoke. She was looking at him, absorbing everything that was being said.
Someone chimed in. "Suspicious? What is there to be suspicious about?! We"re clearly innocent here. I believe we should not apologize at all."
And just like that, another round of arguments erupted.
"Fifth brother, you"ve become dumber with each pa.s.sing day! Spending all this time by the beach, your last brain cells must"ve been washed away! The Yangs have every right to be suspicious of us. Only a fool would not know how prized Mu Ting was back then!"
"Fifth brother, seventh sister is right. If Mu Ting never pursued an acting career, he could"ve become a well-respected instructor here."
Another person said, "I heard he was even scouted a while back by local triads who saw potential in him! But all of us fended them off because he was the possession of the Sus and we would be the ones to decide what to do with him!"
"Ugh, you"re not understanding the gist here! You"ve always had a soft spot for him because he"s a popular actor and I know you want your daughter to be matched with him. Stop complimenting him and kissing his a.s.s when he"s not even here. We have to make a plan-of-action here!"
Su Meixiu felt left out of the conversation. There was so much that she wanted to say. She couldn"t find the courage to speak up. Her opinions were never prioritized at this table and if she ever said anything, her father would quickly shut her up or she would be blatantly ignored.
The arguments were beginning to give her a headache. She finally had enough.
She roughly jammed the leg of her chair into the floor, then rudely pushed it back. It caused a loud and obnoxious screech which captured everyone"s attention.
The room finally quieted down.
Su Meixiu plastered an apologetic expression on her face. "I"m really sorry for the disrespectful way I tried to grab your attention." She began, her eyes swirling around the room, taking in the unpleasant looks on her relatives" faces.
"There will be many who disagree with what I am about to say, but please, at least hear me out." She snuck a glance towards her father whose face was placidly blank. He was seated like before, his eyes wandering off to La La Land.
"I"ve been by President Yang"s side for nine years now. If there is anyone in this room who is more qualified to speak, it should be me."
At her words, more chaos came about, but with one warning glare from Elder Su, everyone shut their mouths.
"I know him the best. Yang Ruqin is someone he treasures and dotes upon and regardless of who hurt her, he, alongside with Yang Yulong, will cut anyone down."
Su Meixiu will never forget the first time she witnessed Yang Yulong in his full glory. There was a punk who had the audacity to stalk and follow Yang Ruqin whose modeling career was just taking off.
Yang Yulong dragged the man to a dark alleyway. Despite not knowing that the stalker had called forth a small gang of twenty men, all armed with all sorts of dangerous weapons, Yang Yulong had single-handedly taken on all of them, using their own weapons against them.
The only reason Su Meixiu witnessed this scene was because she was the one who spoke up about the stalker after hearing reports from Yang Ruqin"s bodyguard. That was her first encounter with Yang Yulong, but she was able to successfully leave a good impression on him.
He trusted her, just like how Yang Feng trusted her.
"Even if Mu Ting does not have any ties or connection to us, aside from that of being a student, the Yangs will still find fault in that." She began to slowly sit back down now that she had everyone"s attention. There was no point in standing up anymore. She didn"t want to be the lone person standing up.
"I recommend we should explain to them that Mu Ting had not been instructed by us to do what he did. We merely trained him and that"s the only connection we have with him. Explaining our side of the story should not hurt us in any way because there is no fault in coming forward first."
"The longer we delay our action and the more we continue to act as if this did not occur, the angrier the Yangs will become. By now, I am sure everyone has heard the news of what happened to Yang Ruqin. She is a stupid girl, very naive and ignorant, but that does not belittle her position in everyone"s hearts." Su Meixiu anxiously tapped her foot on the floor. She needed something to distract her before she backed out of her own decision at the last minute.
"Old Master Yang cares for her in ways you can never imagine coming from a man like him. We should not offend him and damage the relations.h.i.+p we have with him just because of our stubbornness."
Su Boyuan took a long drag of his cigarette, his eyes crinkling when the smoke burned his eyes. The entire time his daughter was speaking, he was ignoring her. He did not believe or think she had the capability to control the attention of the table, so when she did, he was pleasantly surprised by it. However, it was short-lived because the second she finished her speech, it was pried apart by everyone.
"What do you mean there"s no con?! There are plenty!"
"Fourth brother is right! What if the Yangs are not even after us, but because of our explanation, they realize we had a family discussion about the issue. It"ll make us look very suspicious!"
Su Meixiu opened her mouth and said, "But, the pros outweigh the cons—"
"Meixiu." Su Boyuan warned.
Su Meixiu immediately clamped her mouth shut.
The tone her father was using meant he was not in the mood to listen to her worthless talks. She remembered the last time she disobeyed him by continuing to voice her opinion. When it happened, he slapped her so hard, there was a bruise tainting her cheeks for weeks.
Elder Su individually looked at all of his kin — even the worthless ones who did not contribute much to the family, but still had the audacity to voice their opinions.
In a low, somber voice laced with obvious fatigue from all the years of shouldering the problems that arose, Elder Su said, "We shall listen to Xiao Xiu"s plan."
Su Meixiu did not remember her grandfather"s voice being this...brittle and weak. The last time she heard him speak, it was filled with vigor and loudness, something he was known for. But today, he sounded sickly and she noticed he would occasionally grip his white handkerchief, suppressing a cough. His face would get red, turn back to normal, then become red a few seconds later.
Seeing as Elder Su himself agreed to the plan, no one else dared to share their opinion or object. It was finalized: the Sus would apologize to the Yangs.
Su Meixiu sat bitterly in her chair, resisting the urge to laugh. Even after she gave a long speech and provided valid reasoning, they did not believe in her words. Some were not even listening to her speak. It was a plan that had been at the top of her head for the entire day, but her opinions did not matter to any of them. They never did.