“Kneeling on Chang’an Street holding an apology sign?”
Just imagining that scene was something to look forward to.
“It will happen as you wish. When that time comes, I hope Ms. Ji won’t try to take back her words or play dumb – I won’t tolerate that,” Xia Xiaolan said with a smile on her face, showing no malice at all.
She then turned to Tang Hongen and said, “Uncle Tang, I’ll head back first.”
Tang Hongen stood up from his seat, “Let’s go, I’ll see you off.”
Ji Lin hadn’t fully processed the situation yet. He could accept that the Zhou family could pressure the Ji family and that Tang Hongen could pressure the Ji family – after all, since his father’s passing, the Ji family had been declining.
But he found it particularly laughable that a rural university student was threatening that one day the Ji family would willingly bow their heads and apologize. If it had been a male student making such claims today, Ji Lin might have given it some consideration.
But with Xia Xiaolan being a girl, Ji Lin wasn’t worried at all without outside help. While it’s true that women can hold up half the sky, it depends on the circumstances.
The prestige of being a university graduate only matters to ordinary families. Ji Huaixin had spent his whole life in education, and the Ji family never lacked university graduates. When he heard Tang Hongen was leaving, Ji Lin became anxious:
“About the matters between our families—”
Tang Hongen secretly shook his head, thinking that with Ji Lin in charge, it would be difficult for the Ji family to achieve any significant development. It wasn’t surprising that Xiaolan would surpass them.
“I won’t do anything to the Ji family anymore, and Jiang Yuan can continue studying at Huaqing. However, Ji Ya shouldn’t think about going abroad. You can only fulfill one of these two conditions, so naturally, our reconciliation can only be half complete – after all, if Ji Ya doesn’t return to the country when it’s time for her to apologize on Chang’an Street, nobody can do anything about it, right?”
Ji Ya’s face turned ashen – Tang Hongen was implying she would default on her promise.
Tang Hongen had no interest in talking to her further. Ignoring whether the Ji family would be pleased, he patted Jiang Yuan’s shoulder:
“Get back to class soon, you can’t neglect your studies.”
Though feeling heavy-hearted, Ji Jiang Yuan nodded. This whole situation stemmed from the conflicts between Tang Hongen and Ji Ya’s divorce over a decade ago, and coincidentally dragged the innocent Xia Xiaolan into it… Ultimately, it also had to do with Ji Jiang Yuan not being assertive enough. When conflicts arose, he habitually yielded to Ji Ya. Over the years, their mother-son relationship was anything but American-style – his words carried no weight with Ji Ya!
After saying this, Tang Hongen left the Ji family behind and departed with Xia Xiaolan and the others. The most amusing part was Grandmother Yu, who turned back at the doorway and added: “You must save some face for Ji Huaixin. Keep your word – if you said Chang’an Street, it can’t be changed to anywhere else!”
Chang’an Street was once considered the longest and widest street in the world, and one of the most important streets in China, honored as the “First Street of China.” As Beijing’s east-west axis, its midpoint is Tiananmen. “The ten-li long street” that saw off the Premier refers to Chang’an Street – the distance between Jianguomen and Fuxingmen is about ten li. It wouldn’t be easy for Ji Ya to walk the entire length holding a sign!
Coming from Grandmother Yu, these words left Ji Lin unable to utter even a peep.
After a long while, Ji Lin finally broke the silence.
“Jiang Yuan, if you’re choosing to stay in China because you’re worried your father might cause us trouble, there’s no need.”
“No, Uncle, it’s my own decision to stay in China.”
While Ji Jiang Yuan wanted to stay in China, Ji Ya had no such desire.
She had built a small business in America – what did she have in China? Having experienced the conveniences of life in a developed country, Ji Ya was very dissatisfied with China’s current state. The Reform and Opening Up policy had only been proposed a few years ago, and the biggest changes weren’t in Beijing but in several coastal cities, which Ji Ya hadn’t experienced yet. In her view, during her twelve years in America, the domestic environment hadn’t changed at all.
Except for not needing ration tickets to buy rice and meat, everything else remained largely the same.
But when had Ji Ya ever concerned herself with mundane matters like buying rice and meat?
“I don’t agree to staying in China. I want to return to America with George!”
Tang Hongen was simply playing games – talking about reconciliation, winning over Jiang Yuan, yet still not agreeing to let her leave the country. He only agreed to stop targeting the Ji family. Ji Ya was now deeply disappointed in her own son too, not even wanting to look at Ji Jiang Yuan, feeling that her maternal love had been betrayed.
“Can’t you just stay quiet for a few days? Haven’t you caused enough trouble for the Ji family!”
Even if they wanted to return to America, there was no need to antagonize Tang Hongen. They just needed to wait patiently for things to blow over.
Ji Lin was also mentally exhausted.
He still didn’t know how to handle Grandmother Yu’s situation.
The Ji family indeed hadn’t repaid their debt of gratitude to Grandmother Yu, and with the old master already buried, if Grandmother Yu were to speak out now, the Ji family’s situation would become even more precarious. Though the old master had passed away, some of his college classmates from Beiping were still alive. Not to mention others, the old master and Ning Yanfan had been friends for decades, their relationship beginning as classmates!
Ning Yanfan knew Grandmother Yu.
Ji Lin had a splitting headache, and with Ji Ya still being stubborn and difficult, he had lost all patience.
…
While Xia Xiaolan had left, the Beijing Office’s private room was in complete disarray.
Tang Hongen knew Xia Xiaolan was angry – initially, it hadn’t involved Ji Jiang Yuan, but now she’d said she didn’t want to be friends with him either. Tang Hongen sat in the passenger seat, “I’ll take you back. I didn’t handle this well today.”
It wasn’t Tang Hongen’s fault – he had simply overestimated the Ji family.
The Ji family was more foolish than expected.
The Ji family thought they didn’t need to apologize to Xia Xiaolan, probably thinking that after reconciling with him, they could leverage that to handle the pressure from the Zhou family. But Xia Xiaolan was stubborn and proud, refusing the final negotiation and compromise, wanting to force the Ji family to bow their proud heads… This gave the Ji family some breathing room.
When Tang Hongen called the Ji family foolish, he meant they couldn’t read people.
They dared to humiliate Xia Xiaolan without understanding her background.
They dared to agree to a “bet” without investigating Xia Xiaolan’s abilities and character – wasn’t that stupid?
In this car, probably even Driver Wang knew what kind of person Xia Xiaolan was. Wang had been listening outside the private room earlier, silently lighting a candle for the Ji family. Xia Xiaolan wasn’t someone to be trifled with – everything she had set out to do, she had never failed at. Just take the matter of currying favor – Liu Tianquan had spent so much time at it, yet the leaders still didn’t warm to him, while Xia Xiaolan had only been around for a short while, and the leaders were already completely won over!
“Uncle Tang, this might be a good thing. I’ve become a bit complacent since getting into university, and now I have a goal to strive for.”
The Ji family’s arrogance had truly ignited Xia Xiaolan’s anger and her competitive spirit!
To make the Ji family fear her and sincerely apologize, who needed 30 years? Since Ji Ya was so eager to make a scene on Chang’an Street, Xia Xiaolan would naturally fulfill her wish.
Tang Hongen didn’t try to persuade her further – it wasn’t a bad thing for young people to have drive, and turning anger into motivation was fine too.
“Comrade Liu Fen, I’m truly sorry for making you come from Shangdu without hearing a single apology…” Mayor Tang looked genuinely apologetic – such a high-ranking leader was down-to-earth!