Xu Zhongyi’s words made Xia Xiaolan’s thoughts scatter in all directions.

Then she felt depressed.

If things turned out this way, wouldn’t it be karma? Previously, she had come up with ideas to deal with Du Zhaoqi… now that the same situation had fallen on her head, she finally understood how uncomfortable it felt.

Perhaps in the future, she should act with more conscience.

Despite her unhappiness, she still had to comfort Grandmother Yu: “Let’s see what the city government says. Even if they don’t give us the small building, they’ll have to investigate this matter. Someone will suffer consequences. Besides, Mayor Shao is still there—they won’t let me be taken advantage of in the end.”

But Grandmother Yu couldn’t get over it.

This was her returned ancestral property, yet somehow it had ended up in State Cotton Factory No. 3’s hands.

Grandmother Yu had a strong personality. Someone had taken the thank-you gift she’d given to Xiaolan, and she simply couldn’t swallow this grievance.

It wasn’t just because she now had her son and grandson backing her up. Even before, if State Cotton Factory No. 3 had tried to swallow up her small building, Grandmother Yu would have dared to petition the city government.

If the city government didn’t work, she’d go to the provincial government.

If the provincial government didn’t work, she’d go to the central government. What wasn’t rightfully hers, she wouldn’t take.

But what was rightfully hers—surely there was somewhere in this world that would listen to reason!

“Zhongyi, we can’t let others have this small building. We won’t accept compensation with other properties either. Without even a word of notice, it became State Cotton Factory No. 3’s asset—they’re bullying me, a lonely old woman!”

Grandmother Yu was fighting for the small building on Xia Xiaolan’s behalf, but instead of arguing from Xia Xiaolan’s perspective, she emphasized her status as a lonely old woman.

This made Xu Zhongyi feel quite guilty.

Indeed!

The property rights of Number 45 being taken away certainly didn’t happen in the past few days—it happened when he and Changle hadn’t yet returned to reunite with their family.

Whoever dared to do this was indeed bullying a lonely old woman.

Of course, perhaps they didn’t know Xia Xiaolan’s background, or even if they did, they thought her influence was too far away—leaders from another province couldn’t interfere in Shangdu’s affairs, so they simply ignored Xia Xiaolan.

Xu Zhongyi’s facial expression didn’t change much, but his eyes grew cold.

Xia Xiaolan secretly exchanged a glance with Grandmother Yu: Was it necessary to manipulate Uncle Xu like this? He was her son after all!

Grandmother Yu shot her a side-eye: Just stay put! Didn’t she know whose interests she was fighting for? Ungrateful child!

As they exchanged glances, their tacit understanding left Xu Changle stunned.

So people really could communicate through eye contact?

The relationship between Xia Xiaolan and his grandmother was surprisingly close!

Caught in the act, Xia Xiaolan coughed lightly: “Grandmother Yu, Uncle Xu, I don’t want to invest too much energy in the small building matter. As I said, let’s not make things too complicated. If the city government has other plans, I’m willing to comply with their planning… My leave from school is almost up, and I can’t stay in Shangdu much longer. I’ve booked a flight back to Pengcheng for tomorrow.”

Grandmother Yu was startled, “You’re going back to America?”

“Yes, I still have two months of studies to complete.”

Just because she had helped Grandmother Yu find her family, did that mean she could skip returning to Cornell University? How could that be possible? Xia Xiaolan was part of the Education Ministry’s exchange student program. Unless it was a self-funded study abroad, where skipping the remaining two months would only waste some tuition fees—what would be there to fear?

If she dared say she wouldn’t return to Cornell for the remaining two months, the first person to be disappointed would be Mao Kangshan.

The old man might even borrow Grandmother Yu’s cane to beat her to death!

Grandmother Yu was reluctant to part with Xia Xiaolan but knew she couldn’t interfere with a young person’s education.

Xu Zhongyi thought for a moment, “Changle, go with Xia. Pengcheng is close to Hong Kong, you can look after Tina.”

Tina might not recognize Xu Zhongyi, but Xu Zhongyi had to care about Tina—she was his daughter. He wouldn’t be angry with Tina just because the child couldn’t accept things right away.

He and Changle had been back in Shangdu for three or four days, and although they had left people in Hong Kong to keep watch and report daily, having Xu Changle there personally would be more reassuring.

Xu Changle was indeed worried about his sister.

He also couldn’t bear to leave Grandmother Yu, looking at her with hopeful eyes, wishing she would agree to go to Hong Kong for his sake—that would solve everything.

But Grandmother Yu’s resolve was firm:

“Then let Changle go along, take care of whoever needs taking care of. With my old bones, I really can’t handle all that running around.”

Grandmother Yu wouldn’t go to Pengcheng or Hong Kong—she refused to cultivate a relationship with Tina.

Not only was Xu Changle disappointed, but Xu Zhongyi also had no way to persuade his mother.

When only Xia Xiaolan and Grandmother Yu were left, Grandmother Yu promised her: “Go take care of your own business. What’s yours, no one can take away.”

Grandmother Yu was referring to Number 45.

Xia Xiaolan knew she didn’t need to worry about it—Xu Zhongyi would do his best. She wasn’t concerned about that, but rather about Grandmother Yu:

“Are you thinking of having Tina take another DNA test? I don’t think Uncle Xu will agree, and Brother Xu will oppose it too.”

Taking the test would show they doubted Tina’s parentage.

Their relationship was already so fragile—it couldn’t withstand any doubt.

Was blood relation really that important?

Xia Xiaolan had no blood ties with either Grandmother Yu or Tang Hongen, yet both treated her very well.

“You little girl, you’re not even married yet—you don’t understand at all!”

Grandmother Yu dismissed Xia Xiaolan with just one sentence.

Xia Xiaolan wanted to protest—it wasn’t her fault she hadn’t married in her previous life, she just hadn’t found the right person!

This old lady knew how to hit where it hurt.

Watching Xia Xiaolan storm off angrily, Grandmother Yu’s stern expression softened:

“How could this possibly be the same thing?”

Not emphasizing blood ties came from developing emotional bonds first—not being related by blood but being as close as family.

Tina’s situation was different.

If she wasn’t the Xu family’s granddaughter, then she was born from Cui Yiru’s affair with someone else. She didn’t love Cui Yiru the way her son Xu Zhongyi did. Just thinking that Tina might be “evidence” of Cui Yiru giving Xu Zhongyi a green hat, Grandmother Yu didn’t even want to look at the child.

Unless they did another DNA test… if it proved Tina was really her granddaughter, Grandmother Yu would definitely apologize to Tina and compensate her doubly, treating her well.

At ten o’clock that night, Xia Xiaolan was lying in her guesthouse bed when she heard a noise at her window.

She was startled.

Because she’d been with Zhou Cheng all day, she hadn’t brought her electric shock device when returning to China!

Just as Xia Xiaolan was about to call for help, a handsome face peered through the window, “Don’t shout, it’s me!”

That rascal Zhou Cheng—why use the window when there was a perfectly good door?

He supported himself with one hand and easily jumped into the room.

“Experienced at being a thief?”

Relying on his good physical condition, he seemed quite practiced at climbing through windows!

“Don’t joke around, darling. Do you think I want to climb through windows? Have you seen what time it is? Do you know that Old Tang has bought off the guesthouse staff? If I dare appear in your room after nine at night, Old Tang will know within five minutes.”

It wasn’t that he wanted to act like a thief.

It was that his future father-in-law was guarding against his future son-in-law like guarding against a thief!

Xia Xiaolan hadn’t known about this.

“Isn’t that too extreme?”

“Not extreme at all. He’s bought off at least five staff members, and their leader is Hu Yongcai. Old Tang shared a cup of tea with him—Hu Yongcai was walking on clouds after that.”

Zhou Cheng described it so vividly.

Xia Xiaolan was so afraid of alerting Old Tang’s “spies” that she had to bury her face in her pillow to muffle her laughter.