Long Tengfei was caught off guard. He wasn’t able to reply to his daughter’s words for a few moments. Iris didn’t speak and patiently waited for him to gather his wits. He opened and closed his mouth. She could almost see the gears in his head turning, thinking of a way to answer her.
In the meantime, she continued enjoying the pastries in front of her. Knowing that her health plan didn’t allow her to overindulge in sweets, she took mini bites of the already bite-sized pastries, savouring their taste as if they were the best food in the world. Well, for a pregnant woman like her, anything that satisfied her cravings was considered as the best food in the world at that moment.
She was on her third pastry when Long Tengfei released a long, drawn-out breath. It seemed that he was finally ready to speak.
“Xiulan….” He sighed again.
“Yes, Father?”
“He’s your brother.”
She knew who he was talking about and murmured, “Indeed, he is.”
“And he’s my son.”
She stopped eating. Her emotional intelligence had grown by leaps and bounds this year. Although there were still situations that she couldn’t read accurately, she wasn’t as dense as before. She immediately knew what Long Tengfei’s words meant. She placed the half-eaten pastry back on the table and focused on Long Tengfei.
“Father, I remember having a similar talk with you before about your eldest son’s falling out with your grandchild’s mother and the rest of us. He hurt Sister Ying Yue too much and even slandered one of my husband’s best friends on national news.”
Long Tengfei remained silent.
“It was my understanding that you wouldn’t interfere in our conflict when we talked about this matter last time but it seems that I was wrong.” Iris tilted her head to the side. “Father, he has to pay for what he did.”
Another sigh from Long Tengfei. “I know that I said something like that before but…”—sigh—”…as a father, I just can’t sit still while I watch my own son going through something like this. If this happens to you or your other siblings, I would do the same thing. I can only do this much for all of you and use my wealth and influence to protect my children.”
Iris didn’t react much but her nose started to feel a little sting and her eyes watered. Ugh. Her emotions were starting to overwhelm her again. Almost anything was able to make her feel touched now. She wanted to scoff at Long Tengfei but her feelings were doing the opposite.
It seemed that she was starting to…sympathize with Long Tengfei’s predicament as a father who was caught between his children’s conflict which also involved his first grandchild, Little Jun. She scowled. This wasn’t good. She had to take firm stand not be swayed like this because of her unstable emotions.
Stupid hormones!
Long Tengfei saw her scowling and thought that she was angry at him. He wasn’t surprised. If this were any normal situation, his pride as a Long wouldn’t allow anyone to act this presumptuous in front of him but this was his youngest daughter who he honestly thought would continue being a disappointment before but now had soared to unbelievable heights like a reborn phoenix. Now, this daughter of his only kept on giving him great pride with all her accomplishments since waking up from her year-long coma. He really couldn’t muster any urge to scold her for showing such an unpleasant expression on her face in front of him.
“You’re pregnant now,” he said. “You’re going to be a mother, a parent very soon. You’ll eventually understand how I feel, why I can’t just leave your older brother alone.”
It was clear that Iris was upset. Long Tengfei didn’t want to upset her due to her pregnancy but it was inevitable to have hard feelings when talking about this topic.
Iris leaned back her head on the back of the couch and closed her eyes while taking deep breaths.
“Daughter, are you…alright?”
“Yes, Father. Just give me a few moments to control my temper so that we can continue talking calmly like the reasonable adults that we are.”
Long Tengfei was left speechless for a moment but understood that pregnant women had frightening mood swings. When his ex-wife Wei Lan was pregnant with their daughter back then, the woman was like a demented tigress who wanted to bite everyone’s heads off. Compared to the mother, the daughter was clearly much better in this aspect—no, in MANY aspects.
Iris remained in that position for so long that Long Tengfei thought that she had already fallen asleep. He was about to try calling her and see if she would respond but her eyes already opened.
“Father, I’m fine now. Mostly fine.” She sat up straight and immediately finished the half-eaten pastry she left on the table earlier. Her expression looked better after eating the pastry.
“Do you want more?” Long Tengfei asked. “I’ll have Cai Guang bring more.”
“No, thank you. It’s not healthy for me to eat too much sweets.” Iris drank plain water before facing the original Long Xiulan’s father. “With everything you just told me, does this mean that you’ll continue to interfere with the lawsuit against your eldest son?”
He didn’t respond. He didn’t need to. She already knew his answer from his silence alone. She couldn’t help but sigh.
“Fine. I can’t force you to change your mind. But a word of advice, Father. It won’t be good for your reputation or the company’s if it’s found out that you’re using your influence to delay the lawsuit. You might even get into legal trouble.”
Long Tengfei still didn’t respond. From his expression alone, he already knew the risks before acting on his paternal instincts to protect his eldest son.
Iris added, “Even if you keep on trying to delay the lawsuit, it will still have to end eventually. The evidence is strong against your son. This is just stalling for time. Unless you pay off the judge to rule in his favour, then your son can’t escape the inevitable.”
“I know.” He sighed and looked older than his age at that moment. “But I can’t just abandon my own son.”
