Chapter 455 – Starting with Xu Jinning
“That old man is so biased. He favored the eldest back then, and now he’s favoring the eldest’s son,” Xie Miaomiao said angrily.
“And that brat Xie Ting’an—how could he marry that Xu Jinning?”
“I’ve looked into it. That Xu Jinning is nothing but a country bumpkin from the countryside. She just got lucky and made it into Beijing University, and then into the National Translation Department.”
“Who knows if Xie Ting’an helped her get there?”
“I’m sure of it! Without Xie Ting’an’s help, how could a country girl like her get into those places?”
Xie Miaomiao spoke with such confidence, as if she had already uncovered the truth.
“Marrying a country girl—does he plan to make her the mistress of the Xie family one day?”
“Wouldn’t everything in the Xie family end up in the hands of that clueless, rootless country girl? She’d probably move it all back to her village.”
Xie Miaomiao kept repeating “country girl” as if it rolled off her tongue effortlessly.
Whenever she thought of the grand Xie family falling into someone else’s hands, her heart ached.
She was, after all, the old man’s daughter. With the eldest gone, only she and the second son remained.
The Xie family should rightfully be half hers.
“Xie Ting’an should have married my Tongtong,” Xie Miaomiao added.
Her only daughter, Fang Tong, felt a flash of embarrassment in her eyes but thought that if she could truly marry her cousin Xie Ting’an, then she would be the future mistress of the Xie family.
Then she wouldn’t have to deal with her mother’s nagging anymore.
Xie Zeheng furrowed his brows. “Aren’t Tongtong and Xie Ting’an cousins?”
Xie Miaomiao immediately became upset when she heard this. “So what if they’re cousins? Weren’t there plenty of cousin marriages back in the day?”
“There are still many cousin marriages now.”
“If you ask me, cousin marriages are the best.”
“This way, you keep the wealth in the family!”
Duan Wei listened from the side, inwardly sneering.
“Keeping the wealth in the family, indeed!”
The national law had stipulated years ago that cousins could not marry, as the close blood relations increased the risk of birth defects.
Wasn’t Xie Miaomiao worried that Fang Tong might end up giving birth to a fool?
How foolish!
“Let’s talk about how we’re going to return to the Xie family,” Xie Zeheng said, not wanting to hear Xie Miaomiao’s unrealistic remarks.
“If you can’t do anything about it, what can I do?”
“You know the old man’s temper.”
“Probably, ten years ago, when we did what we did, he hated us so much that he decided never to acknowledge us again.”
“How could he think like that? We are his own children. Aren’t parents supposed to plan for their children’s future?”
“If he really cared about us back then, he should have actively distanced himself from us.”
“And now that we’ve taken that step, he’s still blaming us.”
“Shouldn’t parents be happy seeing their children live well? Instead, he hoped we’d suffer with him in the countryside.”
Xie Miaomiao spoke with a sense of righteousness.
Even now, she didn’t see anything wrong with her actions from back then.
She even thought that it was the old man who didn’t understand her and didn’t consider the needs of his children.
Moreover, even if he held a grudge back then, it had been ten years. Shouldn’t he have let go of that anger by now?
Xie Miaomiao’s words made sense to those around her, including Xie Zeheng, Duan Wei, and their children.
It just went to show that people tend to gather with like-minded individuals and associate with similar kinds.
Or perhaps, “Birds of a feather flock together.”
Xie Zeheng and Xie Miaomiao being together indicated they were cut from the same cloth.
Their children, having such “role models” as their parents, were influenced year after year and gradually became like them.
If there were someone with normal values and morals present, hearing Xie Miaomiao’s words, they would surely be so irritated they would slap her across the face.
To make excuses and sound so righteous about their actions.
To talk about abandoning their elderly father during his time of trouble as if it was a justified and inevitable decision.
One might think they did it for the old man and that he should not only forgive them but be grateful for their abandonment.
Xie Miaomiao truly showed a remarkable level of shamelessness.
If they really had reasons, they wouldn’t have ignored their father for ten years, practically wishing he didn’t exist.
And if their public declaration of severing ties with the old man had some justification, what about their previous denunciations?
The benefits they had enjoyed over the past decade had come about in this way.
This wasn’t just cold-heartedness; it was betrayal!
Old Master Xie, who had once doted on and cherished his children, had been stabbed in the back.
Anyone would find it unforgivable.
If this were forgiven, it would surely indicate something was seriously wrong with one’s judgment.
Yet Xie Miaomiao truly couldn’t come up with a way to make the old man accept them again.
They had already humbled themselves, even kneeling to apologize.
And they had done this several times.
Xie Miaomiao was running out of patience.
But the old man?
He remained as unyielding as ever.
Even during these times, they were ruthlessly expelled.
This showed just how hard and merciless the old man’s heart was.
So, Xie Miaomiao truly couldn’t think of any other solution.
At this moment, Fang Tong spoke up. “Mom, Uncle, do you think we could take action through Xu Jinning?”
Xie Zeheng and Xie Miaomiao both turned their attention to Fang Tong.
Fang Tong’s heart tightened, but she continued, “We’ve already been to Grandpa many times, and it’s clearly not working.”
“And Cousin Xie Ting’an…”
To be honest, Fang Tong had never spoken to Xie Ting’an; she had only seen him from afar.
But her intuition told her that this cousin was not easy to deal with.
Moreover, Xie Ting’an was now the only recognized heir of the Xie family by Grandpa, holding the vast Xie family estate and no longer needing to consider anyone else’s opinion.
Grandpa’s disapproval only benefited him, not harmed him.
So, the only target they could act on now was Xu Jinning.
The future mistress of the Xie family, recognized by Grandpa, and Xie Ting’an’s wife.
“If we could somehow make Xu Jinning go to Grandpa and Cousin to plead for us to return, do you think Grandpa and Cousin would agree?”
Fang Tong felt that given Grandpa and Cousin’s regard for Xu Jinning, they would definitely consider it.
“What? Are you suggesting I should beg a country girl?” Xie Miaomiao exclaimed in shock, her displeasure evident.
“Mom, do you want to return to the Xie family and reclaim what’s rightfully ours or not?” Fang Tong countered.
“What we need to do will be discussed once we’re back in the Xie family.”
“Once we return, that woman will be of no more use. It’ll be easy to find a way to drive her out of the Xie family then.”
