The custody case finally concluded on the fourth day of the official court sessions.Full custody was awarded to the mother, Jiang Ying Yue, and limited visitation rights given to the father, Long Hui. And of course, he was ordered to provide child support every month until his son became a legal adult.
Long Hui didn’t resent paying child support. Not at all. It was his responsibility as a father, after all. In fact, he still regularly sent money every month to the bank account Jiang Ying Yue set up for their son even when they were currently at war against each other. Jiang Ying Yue set up the bank account shortly after she started working as Iris’ bodyguard back then. Long Hui knew that it was his youngest half-sister who advised Jiang Ying Yue to open a separate bank account for Little Jun. When they were all still in good terms with each other, he thought that her advice was an excellent idea. Well, to be honest, he still thought that it was an excellent idea but he would never admit that now because his hatred for Iris and everyone on her side had reached an all-time high at the moment.
Yes, he had no problems paying child support. He already decided since the beginning that no matter what the outcome of the custody case was, he would always provide financial support to his son. The best case scenario for him was to, of course, win full custody of his son, but unfortunately that didn’t happen, resulting in his pride taking a huge hit that left him reeling with so much negative feelings.
After the judge announced the final result of the case, he still experienced a moment of disbelief even though he already expected it. Utter humiliation filled him, especially because he was the one who launched this custody battle in the first place. Yes, he knew that he would be the one at a disadvantage, not Jiang Ying Yue, because of the power combination of Iris and Jin Liwei supporting her. But he still went ahead with it because his life was so shitty right now that he wanted the chance, no matter how small, to hurt Jiang Ying Yue and punish her for choosing to stand on his sister’s side rather than with him when he desperately needed her love and support during this difficult time that his status as the successor of the business and the clan was becoming more and more unstable.
Jiang Ying Yue’s team didn’t ask for an exorbitant amount of child support. Her request was actually quite reasonable, catching the media watching the entire proceedings off-guard because they expected that she would milk him for all he was worth, like how his father Long Tengfei had been so tragically milked by Wei Lan when they divorced back in the old days. The amount she asked for was so reasonable that the judge took it upon himself to increase it in his final verdict.
Unbeknown to others, Jiang Ying Yue didn’t want anything from Long Hui at all. When she quit her job as his bodyguard, broke up with him and then left him after getting pregnant with their child, she also didn’t want anything from him. She loved him, but the Long clan had humiliated her, hurt her, and trampled on her dignity too much. If giving up on him back then was a sign of weakness, then she would readily admit that she was a coward. She didn’t have the strength to fight for her love for him.
Her own pride also didn’t allow her to beg him for help. However, things were too difficult for an unmarried, single, pregnant and recently unemployed woman that time, so she had to force herself to swallow her own pride and accept Long Hui’s goodwill offer of a lump sum money to help throughout her pregnancy, the birth, and the first year of their son. She refused to accept anything more than that.
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Things changed when they got back together again after becoming close to Iris and Jin Liwei. Iris had persuaded Jiang Ying Yue to allow Long Hui to act on his responsibilities as a father to their child. That was when Jiang Ying Yue began accepting money from Long Hui which he deposited directly to Little Jun’s bank account. All cash gifts given to Little Jun from others were also deposited into the account. The compensation she received from winning in the American libel case against Wu Qianxi was also all deposited as a trust fund for Little Jun.
Jiang Ying Yue didn’t plan on touching her son’s money unless it was absolutely necessary. She and her son were living comfortably with Iris and Jin Liwei while she worked as a member of Dragon Palace Home #10’s security team. There was no need to touch the child support Long Hui was regularly sending. Little Jun would be able to access all of the money after reaching the legal age of majority.
The money was for her son, anyway, not for her.
Long Hui wasn’t aware of this. He just thought that the reasonable amount of child support requested was so like Jiang Ying Yue. A wave of nostalgia and longing for her began crawling through the stormy sewer of negative emotions inside his heart.
‘If only Xiulan didn’t get between us, I know that I would’ve still won you back when you left me after you got pregnant. If only Xiulan wasn’t stealing the position of successor from me, we would’ve all still continued living in peace and happiness. Perhaps we would’ve already been married now, maybe even got you pregnant again with our second child. If only Xiulan didn’t exist…my life would’ve been perfect.’
His heart turned cold.
“Yes, this is all your fault, Xiulan,” he whispered.
