Fu Qizhi’s attitude towards Mr Xu was naturally affected by this. While it was not to the extent of being subservient and servile, that he respected him was a given.

  Mr and Mrs Fu treasured that minor relationship between them and the Xu family a lot despite the fact that it was becoming increasingly irrelevant and more difficult for them to make use of.

  Still, due to the relationship between Fu Cheng and Xu Tingsheng, they still saw the Xu family as their greatest potential source of assistance in planning the future of their Fu family and Fu Cheng’s prospects.

  It was just their hopes here rested on Xu Tingsheng……

  A rather awkward-looking Fu Qizhi asked Mr Xu about the purpose of his visit.

  Mr Xu smiled and answered calmly, “I’m here to take in a goddaughter and bring her back home for the New Year.”


  “Huh?”


  Xu Tingsheng aside, everyone else was inevitably bemused. Could it be that……

  “Ms Fang, Fang Yunyao. You should know her too, right, Chief Fu?” Mr Xu did not beat around the bush as he turned towards Fang Yunyao and continued, “See, Ms Fang, pardon our thick skin, but Tingsheng’s Mum and I would like to take you as our goddaughter. I wonder if you would do us the honour of accepting?”


  Fang Yunyao felt dazed.

  Fu Cheng felt dazed.

  Mr and Mrs Fu felt dazed. They were certainly aware that Fang Yunyao had some ties with the Xu family. After all, the Xu family had gotten involved in that assault incident back then.

  Still, as they saw it, this should be because Fang Yunyao had been Xu Tingsheng’s teacher. It would have been the same had it been any other teacher as the Xu family would still have lent their aid.

  “So, the Xu family and Fang Yunyao……do the ties between them really amount to so much?” Mr and Mrs Fu were inwardly wondering.

  They did not know that when the Xu family had just started out back then, with Mr Xu having been framed and imprisoned and the Xu family pressed by hundreds of debtors close to the New Year, that girl, Fang Yunyao had taken all her accumulated savings and personally put them uncompromisingly in Xu Tingsheng’s hands at the most critical moment.

  This was a poor girl who still had to send money back to her family every month. For her to have accumulated such a sum of money, it would have been from painstakingly saving every dollar and cent she could on a daily basis. That money might be the dowry she had prepared for herself.

  At the time, from the looks of things, it had seemed virtually impossible for the Xu family to make a comeback. This entailed that they might well not be able to return her this sum of money in the future.

  Yet, she had still taken it out and given it to them.

  The Xu family’s way was: The gratitude of a drop of water, to be repaid with a gushing spring.

  Li Xiu, Happy Shoppers’ first manager who had accompanied them through these tough times, remained in the higher echelons as an influential employee no matter how big Happy Shoppers grew and how many talents it recruited.

  Wang Jinfang had applied for leave from his army camp and transferred eight thousand yuan to Xu Tingsheng upon hearing the news. He too had later joined Happy Shoppers after leaving the army.

  Having previously joked then that he was placing all his bets on the Xu family and lent a helping hand, Vice-Principal Lou and Mr Xu now addressed each other as brothers. There was probably only him in the whole of Libei who could still slam the table and glare at Mr Xu at present, yelling unreasonably that he would blow Happy Shoppers up……

  Because Fang Yunyao had suddenly left, Mr and Mrs Xu had been sighing regretfully these past two years as they did not know if they would have a chance to return the favour.

  And now, the time to return the favour had come.

  Because of Fang Yunyao herself, because of his son Xu Tingsheng, and maybe also because it was Fu Cheng, after receiving a call from Xu Tingsheng a few days ago, Mr Xu had discussed it with his wife and decided upon this solution.

  You disdain Fang Yunyao for being involved in that incident, afraid that her reputation in Libei will affect your Fu family? Well, I’ll use the name of Xu Jianliang in Libei to quell it. If anyone feels like they have a problem with that, they can come look for my Xu family.

  Where they were clearly in the right, he would like to see who dared talk nonsense.

  You disdain that a marriage with Fang Yunyao will hinder your Fu family from climbing higher? Well, I’ll tell you that if the Fu family manages to wed Fang Yunyao, that will truly be obtaining support from up high. Behind her lies the entire Xu family.

  Your son has a relationship with Tingsheng, but your son doesn’t have a relationship with me, Xu Jianliang……Fang Yunyao does, though.

  And that’s in no way worse than trying to get on the good side of a Deputy Mayor, right?

  Mr Xu would surely not be forceful and domineering and try to interfere directly. With his life experience, he knew that intervening in another family’s matters based on his strength was sure to evoke fury and resistance……

  He had not even mentioned things between Fang Yunyao and Fu Cheng at all, including the Fu family’s previous attitude towards Fang Yunyao.

  Still, he had adroitly averted the problem with just a few words, uprooting the fundamental basis for Mr and Mrs Fu’s resolute stance on Fang Yunyao.

  While some problems naturally still remained like their age gap and former student-teacher relationship, those were no longer so significant when otherwise entailed losing their son, Fu Cheng and their pitiful, adorable granddaughter Niannian, for good. There was assistance from the Xu family to look forward to as well……and Fang Yunyao herself was actually not bad, in truth.

  Mr and Mrs Fu began feeling rather hesitant, just that their pride prevented them from immediately caving in.

  “Uncle Fu, Auntie, look, don’t stand on ceremony! Sit down, I’ll make you some tea.” Xu Tingsheng enthusiastically struck while the iron was hot, successfully getting the two to sit down.

  Together, Xu Tingsheng and Little Xiang Ning prepared tea for Fu Cheng’s parents as well as his own.

  “Have some tea, Uncle. Have some tea, Auntie,” Xiang Ning said very politely and obediently, with Xu Tingsheng having intentionally gotten her to serve his parents tea.

  “Thanks. Xiang Ning should be in tenth grade now, right?” Mr Xu asked in a cordial manner.

  “Right,” Xiang Ning nodded, replying nervously, “I’ll be in university really soon, and then graduate.”


  While it might seem that there was no real link here, what the young girl wanted to express was actually very obvious. Just as Mr and Mrs Fu felt that Fang Yunyao was too old, Xiang Ning too feared that Mr and Mrs Xu might find her to be too young.

  Having recently witnessed the drama-ridden hardship in the relationship between Fang Yunyao and Fu Cheng, Little Xiang Ning’s sense of crisis skyrocketed.

  Mr Xu was taken aback slightly before he smiled and replied, “True.”


  To be honest, Mr and Mrs Xu did not really know what to think about their son’s little girlfriend who had suddenly popped out from nowhere. It was certain that she was pretty good as could be seen from the period of time Xu Tingsheng had been unconscious, and Mrs Xu did love her Fuxi bones. Her age, though……really left one feeling helpless.

  Mrs Xu, especially, wished that Xu Tingsheng could get married and produce some offspring as soon as he graduated from university, giving her some grandchildren while ensuring that the Xu family would have a successor to their vast businesses.

  If they had to wait for this young girl, how long would they have to wait, with how much time wasted away?

  “Uncle Xu, Auntie……by the way, I’d like to ask-Are you wanting of a godson, by any chance?” Huang Yaming shamelessly interjected, causing everyone to burst into peals of laughter.

  Everyone in the Xu family was very well acquainted with Huang Yaming.

  Mrs Xu exclaimed, “You, you’re getting more and more mischievous!”


  Placing Niannian on her knee, she smiled, saying to Fang Yunyao, “Look, Ms Fang……I’m carrying my granddaughter already.”


  By now, Fu Cheng and Fang Yunyao were no longer feeling perplexed. They understood why Mr and Mrs Xu had shown up all of a sudden and done such a thing.

  Fu Cheng recalled when Xu Tingsheng had told him that his parents would be coming to Yanzhou that night, patting him on the shoulder smilingly as he reassured him that everything would be fine……so he had already long since been working to resolve the problem.

  Fu Cheng nodded firmly towards Xu Tingsheng.

  As bros of two lifetimes, there was no need for words between them.

  Fang Yunyao was feeling much more emotional. As Fu Cheng and Xu Tingsheng were bros, it was really natural for them to share a close relationship. In contrast, she herself did not actually have all that deep a relationship with Mr and Mrs Xu, in truth.

  If the Xu family was repaying the favour from back then, what was being repaid was really far too great. It was an entire lifetime’s worth of kinship, love and concern from Libei’s Xu family.

  Having been trying hard to keep strong all this while, Fang Yunyao involuntarily teared.

  “What do you think, Ms Fang? Is that okay?” Mrs Xu gazed over and asked again.

  With tears in her eyes, Fang Yunyao nodded vigorously.

  “Isn’t it all fine then? What’re you crying for?” A smiling Mrs Xu waved her over, “Come, sit here.”


  Fang Yunyao obediently walked over and sat down beside Mrs Xu.

  Mrs Xu helped to dab away her tears and opened her bag, retrieving an intricate wooden box. She opened the box to reveal a smooth, lustrous jade bracelet.

  Not giving Fang Yunyao a chance to stand on ceremony and refuse the bracelet, Mrs Xu slotted it right onto her wrist.

  “From this day forth, you are the Xu family’s daughter.”