However, the bride and groom didn’t have any time to feel relieved because today’s ordeal wasn’t done yet. They still had to go to the wedding banquet. Its scheduled duration was longer than the wedding ceremony itself.
Long Tengfei and Yang Jiahui were inside their vehicle on the way to the banquet. They looked exhausted. Even Yang Jiahui who usually had a pleasant temperament looked strained.
During the wedding ceremony earlier, Long Tengfei’s first ex-wife found every chance to target them with unpleasant words. As the current wife, Yang Jiahui received more than half of the verbal attacks.
This was actually the first time that Yang Jiahui had this kind of interaction with her husband’s first ex-wife. It was usually Wei Lan (second ex-wife and Iris’ mother) and Zhu Ning (ex-mistress and Long Jian’s mother) who often targeted her.
Zheng Suyin went into some kind of seclusion after her divorce with Long Tengfei. She rarely appeared in public. Thus, she and Yang Jiahui never encountered each other until today.
Yang Jiahui sensed that her husband’s first ex-wife still might not have completely moved on from the divorce. Her words today were filled bitter resentment and furious indignation for her son, Long Hui.
She felt that handling Wei Lan and Zhu Ning was actually much easier than trying to deal with Zheng Suyin. At least with Wei Lan and Zhu Ning, she already knew what to expect.
Zheng Suyin, on the other hand, was someone unfamiliar. Yang Jiahui felt unprepared.
She really didn’t want to spend the rest of today enduring the woman’s verbal abuse. She might be tolerant but only to an extent.
”Stop the car,” she ordered.
The driver found a nearby plaza and safely parked.
”What’s wrong?” Long Tengfei asked.
”I don’t want to go to the banquet anymore. You go by yourself. I’ll call a taxi and go to the gala instead.”
Long Tengfei’s expression turned dark. “You’re leaving me alone?”
She glared at him. Gone was her usual kindness and gentleness. She was truly angry this time. “You allowed your ex-wife to insult me!”
”What do you mean? I defended you!”
”Not enough!” She started unbuckling her seatbelt.
”Stop it, Jiahui. I’m not going to leave you here by yourself!”
”Then go call another car to pick me up and send me to the gala. I’d much rather spend the rest of today with my niece Meimei and Xiulan and the others who genuinely treat me well. I even prefer to spend time with Wei Lan. At least she already stopped picking fights with me ever since she remarried. The worst she does is ignore me which is already the best that I could ask from her. It’s many times better than wasting my time enduring disrespect from your awful first family who think that they’re superior compared to everybody else!”
Long Tengfei closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. However, he never let go of his wife. He held on, not allowing her to get out of the car.
”Jiahui, I don’t want to fight with you.”
”I don’t want to fight with you either! But I can’t help it when I feel so awful!”
”I feel awful, too.” He paused then said, “I’m sorry.”
She was startled and looked at him in both surprise and wonder.
”You already know that my…past history with women isn’t something that I’m proud of.”
Yang Jiahui snorted but she was already starting to calm down. Even so, she refused to give in so easily to him like she normally did. “You were born in the wrong era, Tengfei. You should’ve been born in the ancient times. Then you could’ve legally married more than one wife and taken in as much concubines as you can afford.”
He sighed. Experience had taught him enough not to make any careless remarks to his angry woman or suffer the consequences. His wife, Yang Jiahui, was perhaps the only woman that he felt genuine romantic love for the first time in his life.
They were already at this age. Both of them were mature. Long Tengfei didn’t want destroy this marriage like his previous ones. He wanted to keep this one until their last breaths.
The only method that he could think of at the moment that would reduce his wife’s anger was what he had always been good at.
At the front passenger seat, Cai Guang, Long Tengfei’s long-time assistant, immediately activated the partition wall to give his boss and lady boss some privacy. His expression barely changed, neither did the driver’s.
Later, there was a knock from the backseat. Cai Guang lowered the partition wall.
”Go call another car,” Long Tengfei told him. “You’ll go with me at my son’s wedding banquet.”
”Understood, President.”
Then Long Tengfei instructed the driver, “Bring the Madam to the gala safely.”
The driver obeyed.
Finally, Long Tengfei talked to his blushing wife. “I’ll try to leave the banquet as soon as I can and follow you to the gala later. If I can’t make it, I’ll at least pick you up. Wait for me, okay?”
Yang Jiahui already felt better. The anger was still there but she was mature enough to judge that it wasn’t worth it to fight with her husband over his horrible first family. Today, at least.
But if something like this happened again, then she wouldn’t let it end so peacefully. She was a loyal and devoted wife to her husband but she never claimed to be a martyr. There was a limit to her tolerance.
It seemed that Long Tengfei understood her conviction. Hopefully, he would be more careful next time.
Long Tengfei kissed his wife one more time before climbing out of the vehicle with his assistant, Cai Guang. They watched as the vehicle drove away and waited for the other car to arrive.
”President,” Cai Guang spoke after what felt like a long time. “May I say something…that you might find, er, offensive?”
”What is it?”
They might have an official boss and subordinate relationship but they were actually also the closest friends.
”I think…that trying to stay neutral and maintain a balance among your children like you have always done already reached the limit. It’s clearly not working anymore. Young Master Hui and Young Miss Xiulan are no better than mortal enemies now. Your other children, Young Master Jian and Young Miss Jinjing, have basically chosen a side as well. They are both close to Young Miss Xiulan.”
Long Tengfei was quiet. He didn’t agree or disagree. Yet.
Cai Guang continued, “At this point, I also personally think that Young Miss Xiulan is the best among your children. It’s not only because she married CEO Jin Liwei but also because of her own abilities. She’s a certified genius and an official Cross Academy student. What’s more, she’s the disciple of the business legend, Sir Lu Jianhong. Her Eve Holdings might be new but it’s already running like a well-oiled machine with all the successful companies like Orchidia under it. And also….”
”Just say whatever you want to say in one go,” Long Tengfei told him. “What’s with you with all these pauses?”
”About Phantom Dragon….”
”Ah.” Long Tengfei’s expression turned grave.
”I have reason to believe that Phantom Dragon is owned by Young Miss Xiulan.”
Long Tengfei nodded. “I also think so.”
”Although we can’t find anything about this new investment company’s real background, I recently found out that Elder Long Jufang is assisting Phantom Dragon behind the scenes to swallow more shares. As the President already knows, Elder Long Jufang has become a staunch supporter of Young Miss Xiulan for a while now while Elder Long Meng supports Young Master Hui.”
”I know.” Long Tengfei massaged his aching temples. He suddenly felt so old all of a sudden. “So what are you suggesting that I should do?”
Cai Guang cleared his throat. “If I may be presumptuous, I think the President should give more power to Young Miss Xiulan. At the moment, she’s just a brand ambassador for Long Industries. I believe that only by giving her roughly the same authority as Young Master Hui and Young Master Jian to make major decisions in the company would it be a level-playing field for them.
”Then they can all openly prove their capabilities in front of everybody. This way, their need to do things to sabotage each other in the dark might be reduced. Or at the very least, Young Miss Xiulan wouldn’t have to unleash such an aggressive, uh, entity as Phantom Dragon. If she swallows Long Industries this way, she’ll face a lot of dissension. It won’t be true success.”
Long Tengfei stayed silent while pondering his assistant’s words.
”Protecting your children and trying to prevent them from harming each other are one thing,” Cai Guang said. “But we also need to ensure that Long Industries won’t fall into ruin due to their constant in-fighting.”
Long Tengfei sighed. “You’re right.” He sighed several more times. “You’re absolutely right.”
”It’s not that I’m siding with Young Miss Xiulan. I just think that based on what we’ve seen so far, she’s the one who has the advantage. Between the Jins and the Maos, oh and the Zhengs too, who would you rather Long Industries have as a backer?”
Long Tengfei clicked his tongue. “Is that even a question?”
”Exactly, President. In my opinion, one is a true backer while the rest are…uh, I’m sorry to say this but the rest are leeches.”
The other car finally arrived at this point. They climbed inside and immediately headed to the wedding banquet.
”We’ll continue discussing this later,” Long Tengfei said.
”Understood, President.” Cai Guang bowed to him.
