"I haven't been to Europe before, what activities do you recommend?"

"I also find this skincare brand wondrous."

"Your skin is so good! Let’s meet up sometime and do facials together."

"I know that brand, it recently launched a…"

Li Jihua and his wife watched their daughter merrily chatting about this and that with Xu Jiaojiao, seemingly having forgotten the purpose of coming here. They looked at each other helplessly.

Li Jihua coughed twice. Receiving no response, he directly called out, "Lily."

"Yes? What’s the matter?" Li Li turned to look at her father.

"Have you forgotten about the task that your grandparents entrusted to you?"

Li Li blinked and suddenly remembered the important task at hand. She hurriedly fixed her expression and stared at Li Weiqi with a heart-wrenching look as she grumbled, "Say, Uncle, do you have a screw loose or something? Jiaojiao is such a great girl, yet you don’t like her and like her mother instead. There must be something wrong with your tastes, don’t you agree?"

Li Weiqi was speechless.

Sheng Jiaoyang chuckled. "Lily, I’m not sure if your uncle has a screw loose or not, but if you’re saying that there’s something wrong with his tastes just because he likes my mother, then I have to say that I totally disagree. In my eyes, my mother deserves the best, and she isn’t some commodity that should be judged by you all."

"I'm sorry, but my grandfather is still waiting in the hall, so my mother and I will leave first." Sheng Jiaoyang stood up.

Xu Qing had initially wanted to ask Jiaojiao where she’d found herself a grandfather because her grandfather had passed away a few years ago. However, she knew that her daughter must have her reasons, so she stood up obediently.

"Your grandfather is also here? Why didn’t you ask him to join us?" Li Jihua also stood up. Even though the other party had no powerful influences, it was basic manners to respect the old and cherish the young. He couldn’t possibly leave a pretext for gossip on this aspect.

"He’s my foster grandfather. Since you haven’t even met my closest relatives yet, he felt that it wasn’t appropriate to meet you first," Sheng Jiaoyang explained on her way out.

Since an elder was waiting outside, everyone followed Sheng Jiaoyang out to say hello. In any case, this was the appropriate thing to do.

"Grandfather~" Sheng Jiaoyang called out to Grandfather Yang, who was in the middle of drinking tea.

"You’re done already?" Grandfather Yang's eyes fell on Xu Qing, whose hand was held by Sheng Jiaoyang. At a glance, he could tell Jiaojiao's new mother was a guileless person whose thoughts were written all over her face.

Xu Qing also stole a glance at Grandfather Yang. She was very curious about Jiaojiao’s so-called foster grandfather. The amiable look on the elder’s face left her a favourable impression at first sight.

"Mr. Yang?" a cry of surprise sounded behind them.

Sheng Jiaoyang looked over and saw that it was Li Jihua.

Grandfather Yang looked at Li Jihua and smilingly said, "Xiao Li, it’s you."

"Grandfather, do you know each other?"

"Old Li of Genesis Glory Corporation and I have been friends for more than 20 years, and now the corporation is managed by Xiao Li," Grandfather Yang explained before turning to Li Jihua. He asked, "How are your parents doing?"

Li Jihua hurriedly replied, "They’re doing well, thank you."

"I can imagine. With a filial and promising son like you, Old Li can live in ease and comfort." Grandfather Yang nodded.

Li Jihua, who was about to return the same question, suddenly remembered that Grandfather Yang had just lost his beloved granddaughter and remained silent. However, no traces of sorrow were visible on the old man's face, so he didn’t know how to continue the conversation.

Grandfather Yang looked at the time. "It's almost dinnertime. Since we’re all well-acquainted, how about we have dinner together?"

There was no way Li Jihua would refuse such an offer.

Li Jihua and his family of three sat in one car and drove to the restaurant.

On the way, Li Li curiously asked, "Daddy, who’s that old man?"

"He’s one of our VIP clients and he’s known your grandfather for decades," Li Jihua answered.

"How strange, Uncle’s girlfriend comes from an ordinary family, so how did they become acquaintances with such a wealthy person? Besides, Xu Jiaojiao is also very strange. She’s nothing like her mother, and she knows a lot of things," Li Li evaluated the situation in puzzlement.

"It seems that Mr. Yang is very close to the mother-and-daughter pair. His granddaughter passed away just a few days ago, yet he contentedly came to see them today."

A thought suddenly flashed in Li Li’s mind and she asked, "Don’t tell me that Uncle's girlfriend is Mr. Yang's illegitimate daughter?!"

Li Jihua didn’t deny this conjecture. He was, in fact, also sceptical about this.

Meanwhile, in another car, Grandfather Yang was busy chatting with Li Weiqi.

"I’ve carried you before when you were young. After going around in circles, you’ve unexpectedly ended up with Jiaojiao’s mother!" Grandfather Yang exclaimed.

"Maybe it's fate!" Li Weiqi said with a smile.

"Since you’ve chosen to be with Jiaojiao's mother, you must treat her well in the future or else I’ll get even with you," Grandfather Yang warned.

Seeing someone she’d only met for the first time being so protective of her, Xu Qing was very touched. At the same time, she was also confused because there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world. She cast a glance at the smiling Jiaojiao, who was listening at the side and thought: Jiaojiao must know the reason.

As for Xu Qing's doubts, Sheng Jiaoyang didn’t explain anything and simply whispered, "I’ve found you a powerful backer! From now on, no one is qualified to nitpick about your family background."

When they arrived at the restaurant, they booked a deluxe private room.

Everyone was seated accordingly. Grandfather Yang sat in the middle with An Jing on the left and Sheng Jiaoyang on the right, while Xu Qing sat opposite them beside Li Weiqi. Next to Li Weiqi sat Li Jihua and his family of three.

"As I was busy with family matters lately, I didn’t know that Weiqi and Jiaojiao's mother was about to get married. They were fated to meet and ended up together. Before this, who would’ve thought that we’d become in-laws? I heard that the wedding date is set for the first of January, next year. It's already late November now, so it’s a bit rushed. However, since it was decided by the two of them, I’ll fully support them as an elder. Does the Li Family have any concerns?"

Grandfather Yang glanced at Li Jihua with the bearing of a parent.

Li Jihua didn't know what to say. He couldn't possibly say that he was the vanguard sent by his family to persuade his little brother to break up, right?

The day before he’d returned from abroad, his father had explicitly told him, "You must make your brother realise what a stupid choice he’s made. Regardless of their age gap, he should at least find a woman who’s well-matched in terms of social status or one from a scholarly family. He must be out of his mind to date such a low-class woman!"

His mother also stressed, "Don't let Weiqi bring that woman back! Even if we disregard her family background, that woman is a single mother! She’s already so old. Will she be able to bear children in the future? Even if she did get pregnant, it’ll be extremely dangerous!"

Because the two elders of the Li Family weren’t at ease, they’d asked Lily to go with Li Jihua and his wife. Sure enough, Lily had the sharpest tongue in their family! She’d nearly settled the issue after a few sentences, but who knew that Xu Jiaojiao would show up and disrupt their plan? Not only that, but she’d also brought along a powerful backer. How were they supposed to continue their plan of attack?!

"Grandfather, Uncle Weiqi’s family doesn't seem to like my mother!" Sheng Jiaoyang lazily complained.

"Oh? Is that so?" Grandfather Yang cooperatively replied.

A smile was contained in Sheng Jiaoyang’s eyes, but she pouted as she unhappily mumbled, "They probably dislike me since I was a child from a previous marriage…"

"How can they dislike you? You are the future heiress of FLY Corporation, and you don't even need them to provide for you in the future," Grandfather Yang played down his tone and remarked.

Hearing this, a hint of surprise flashed in An Jing's eyes. If he hadn't been by Grandfather Yang’s side all this while and saw how the old man was so eager to see Xu Jiaojiao, he would’ve thought that Xu Jiaojiao had done something to the other. But just a few days ago, Grandfather Yang said that he didn’t ever want to see Xu Jiaojiao again! Now he suddenly says that she’s the future heiress of FLY Corporation?

An Jing wasn’t the only one in shock. In fact, aside from Sheng Jiaoyang, everyone else was stunned upon hearing this.

Xu Qing didn’t know how grandiose FLY Corporation was, but since it was a corporation, it naturally had more than one company under its banners. Right from the start, she could also tell that the old man was excessively kind to her daughter. She just didn't expect that he would let Jiaojiao, someone completely unrelated to him, inherit his property. He treated her as if she were his own granddaughter.

Li Weiqi was dumbstruck. If that’s the case, then Jiaojiao would be much wealthier than him in the future.

As for Li Jihua’s family of three, they felt as if lightning had struck them and there were seemingly ten thousand horses stampeding in their hearts.

Fudge! How would they dare to continue persuading Li Weiqi to break up with Xu Qing?!

As Sheng Jiaoyang took in everyone's look of surprise, the corner of her mouth raised slightly. "If not, then perhaps they find that my mother is too old for Uncle Weiqi!"

"That shouldn’t be the case. An age gap doesn’t really matter when it comes to love. Besides, older women dating younger men is quite the norm nowadays. There are even couples with age differences of ten or twenty years," Grandfather Yang continued.

"If none of these reasons are valid, then why do I get the feeling that Uncle Weiqi's family dislike my mother? Uncle Weiqi, do you know why?" Sheng Jiaoyang turned to look at Li Weiqi.

Li Weiqi was dumbfounded. He knew the reason, of course, but how could he possibly say it out loud? If he did, he’d lose his future wife!

"Oops, I seem to have asked the wrong person." Sheng Qiaoyang slightly raised an eyebrow and stared at Li Jihua instead. "Uncle Li, you should have the most say in this matter."

You’re wrong, the one with the most say ought to be our esteemed father and mother…

Li Jihua was suffering silently, unable to disclose anything. I should let second younger brother handle these kinds of tasks in the future!

"As Grandfather has already said, their age difference doesn’t matter. If a man loves his woman, he will spoil his woman every day. In addition, in this era, where anything can happen, paying attention to materialistic factors is the least reliable. A billionaire may become broke in the next moment, and someone poor may suddenly become rich by inheriting property, winning a lottery, or some other factors."

Sheng Jiaoyang glanced at the several members of the Li Family and chuckled. "I’m clearly the latter."