Chapter 118: Jinfu Group’s Special Board Meeting

Chapter 118: Jinfu Group’s Special Board Meeting

The woman who had thrown the door open and rushed a step out was around sixty, with some white in her hair, and very thin. It was Ma Huifang.

In truth she wasn’t sixty yet. She was the same age as Lu Guangnian. She looked older now because raising a child alone back then had worn her down too far.

Inside, a little girl was crying on the sofa. She was only a few years old. Her name was Ma Tingting, and she was Ma Jiawei’s daughter.

Beside the child sat a woman of about thirty, fairly pretty, somewhat fair and plump. This was Ma Jiawei’s wife, Tang Mei.

Little Ma Tingting had been frightened by her grandmother’s furious voice and had burst into tears.

Tang Mei soothed her quietly.

In the doorway of the master bedroom stood a man in home pajamas, tall and broad, in glasses, his features somewhat resembling Lu Guangnian’s. This was Lu Guangnian’s son, Ma Jiawei.

Ma Jiawei should have been at work. He was an executive at an IT company, working in technology, and overtime on weekends and holidays was normal for him. But for two days running he had taken leave. Yesterday it was because Lu Guangnian had come to make a scene at the door. Today it was because he was afraid Lu Guangnian would come again.

He had also sensed that his mother’s mood was very poor and wanted to stay home with her. It suited him to rest a little and take some of the pressure off work as well.

Sure enough, Lu Guangnian had come again.

After Ma Huifang rushed out and finished cursing him, her eyes went blank for the barest instant, because today’s Lu Guangnian felt different from the past few days.

She hadn’t been able to see all of him through the peephole. Now she could.

He had not only cut off that glossy boss’s hairstyle of his, he wasn’t wearing a suit either. Only a shirt and trousers, the cuffs rolled up a little. Even his belt wasn’t that crocodile-skin one stamped with a luxury logo.

The overall impression he gave Ma Huifang at first glance was… far more ordinary, and therefore far easier on the eye, far more approachable.

What she had loathed most these past few days was the face Lu Guangnian wore whenever he turned up at her door—the face of a nouveau riche throwing money at people.

“Don’t, don’t shout. Look, you’ve frightened our granddaughter into crying. Don’t shout…” Lu Guangnian said gently from outside.

“That’s my granddaughter, not yours. Stop with the ‘our’. If you have any shame left, then hurry up and get out! Never come here again!” Ma Huifang shouted, furious.

“Don’t, don’t. Look, I brought you something to eat…” He raised the plastic bag in his left hand. “Look—jianbing guozi. Back when the two of us had no money we always ate this. Didn’t you love—”

When Ma Huifang saw him lift the jianbing guozi, her eyes fixed on the bag and went blank again for an instant.

But she didn’t wait for him to finish.

She snatched the bag out of his hand and flung it away with a swing of her arm.

“I don’t want anything of yours. Get out!” She was very agitated.

“Can you hurry up and—” Inside, Ma Jiawei couldn’t hold back any longer. He shouted and started toward the door, as though he meant to warn Lu Guangnian about something.

“This has nothing to do with you!” Ma Huifang whipped her head around and scolded her son. “Did I tell you to come over? Did I tell you to get involved? Get back in your room!”

A shrew.

That was the impression she gave now, an unreasonable shrew.

She had never been that sort of woman, and she wasn’t truly a shrew now either. Life had changed her. Back then, raising a child alone had been hard enough; if she hadn’t made herself a little fierce, then as a woman without a man she would have been bullied—she and her son both.

Seeing Ma Huifang like this, Lu Guangnian genuinely ached.

His first love. The girl of those years whose smile was sweet, who had a character of her own, who had been willing to endure hardship with him, soft on the outside and firm…