Jiang Fei followed Lin Moli’s mother, Cui Ruzhu, out of the house. They didn’t stop in the living room but left the courtyard directly.
Walking behind her, Jiang Fei couldn’t help but touch his nose, feeling a bit amused. He thought to himself, “So this is it? Not giving me any chance at all, just whisking me out the door without a word?”
However, Jiang Fei was quite patient. He didn’t try to stop her or say anything; he just followed behind this overbearing, controlling potential mother-in-law.
To be honest, he had already anticipated today’s situation before he came. He knew that coming to Lin Moli’s house might result in this kind of treatment, and many people there probably wouldn’t think highly of him.
After all, before coming to Xidu, Lin Moli hadn’t mentioned a single word about her current life to her family. She hadn’t had the chance to tell them that she and Jiang Fei had started Jiang’s Pharmaceutical Company together, and that their monthly net profit was now in the tens of millions, with the potential to reach hundreds of millions in the future.
As for Jiang Fei himself, although Lin Moli had eagerly announced his identity, calling him the President of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Association and the number one TCM master both domestically and internationally, most of her family probably wouldn’t believe it. The main reason was his age—he was simply too young, which made his expertise in the field of TCM seem incredibly deceptive.
Even though several incidents had put him in the media spotlight, creating quite a stir, that attention was mostly limited to Sichuan Province. Outside of Sichuan, only people with a specific interest or those in the medical field would know about him.
And Xidu was not in Sichuan Province.
Moreover, Lin Moli’s family mostly consisted of people working in government agencies or in business. While they might see doctors regularly, their actual understanding of the medical field was limited. If Jiang Fei were some rising star in politics, even if he wasn’t from Xidu, these people would likely have heard of him.
Unfortunately, Jiang Fei wasn’t.
Even if some of them had heard the name Jiang Fei and knew about this young medical prodigy, without having seen his photo or remembering the details, they would never connect the man Lin Moli brought home with that renowned TCM master!
It’s like a famous celebrity whose name you’ve heard but whose face you don’t recognize suddenly appearing in your home—you simply wouldn’t make the connection.
Jiang Fei followed Lin Moli’s mother, and eventually, they both got into a car. It seemed that having a conversation required a bit of a journey.
Naturally, Lin Moli’s mother was driving, as it was her car. Jiang Fei sat in the passenger seat. Though he was very curious about what his formidable mother-in-law was up to, he kept his patience and didn’t speak.
Meeting the mother-in-law as a prospective son-in-law was a test Jiang Fei understood he had to endure. If he couldn’t even maintain this much composure, things would probably become even more troublesome later. He decided to handle whatever came his way, trusting that a path would appear when the time came. He’d just wait and see how things unfolded.
After all, this fierce, tigress-like mother-in-law wasn’t going to sell him off. Even if she was trying to send him away, he could simply get out of the car and come back to find Lin Moli.
Inside the car, his imposing, sharp-edged mother-in-law, Cui Ruzhu, remained silent, her face stern as she drove. Though Jiang Fei felt a slight pressure, it wasn’t overwhelming. With nothing else to do, he took the opportunity to subtly observe his future mother-in-law from the corner of his eye while also checking out her car.
Contrary to Jiang Fei’s expectations, Cui Ruzhu, coming from a prominent family like the Cui family, wasn’t driving a luxury car. It wasn’t even a mid-range vehicle—it was just a Santana. The only notable thing was the license plate. Anyone with discerning eyes could tell the owner of this Santana was not ordinary and certainly had significant connections.
In today’s popular terms, Jiang Fei’s future mother-in-law’s behavior was a form of true showing-off, like pretending to be weak while actually being formidable.
This was also reflected in the car’s interior and modifications.
Jiang Fei estimated that the cost of the interior and modifications alone was probably over ten times the price of the Santana itself!
“Does my future mother-in-law have a thing for low-key luxury and showing off? Then why is her demeanor so sharp and overbearing? Is she a conflicted Capricorn?” Jiang Fei mused to himself.
It wasn’t long. About five or six minutes after starting the car, the Santana stopped in front of a relatively upscale coffee shop. Getting out, Jiang Fei looked up at the coffee shop speechless. After all that trouble, driving all this way just to talk at a coffee shop?
What was the meaning of this? Was she so deeply immersed in a petty bourgeois mindset that she felt she couldn’t function without it?
Suppressing his inner complaints, Jiang Fei calmly followed Lin Moli’s mother inside.
The spot his future mother-in-law chose was a dimly lit area towards the back. After sitting down, Jiang Fei noticed that the coffee shop’s main clientele weren’t young people, but middle-aged women, mostly around thirty-five and above.
For instance, at a table about ten meters to their front-left, two customers were sitting. The pair looked somewhat similar to him and Cui Ruzhu—one was a woman in her forties, and the other was a pretty boy in his early twenties. Their relationship definitely wasn’t mother-in-law and son-in-law. Seeing the lovesick look on the woman’s face as she leaned against the young man, it was clearly a situation of a sugar mama and her kept man. And not the traditional older man with a younger woman, but the reverse.
Jiang Fei’s mouth twitched slightly. His future mother-in-law liked places like this? Well, she was divorced, so even if she came to such places, no one could really criticize her…
“One Blue Mountain,” Cui Ruzhu said flatly to the waiter. Then she looked at Jiang Fei and asked, “What about you?”
“I’ll have Blue Mountain too. I rarely drink coffee,” Jiang Fei said with a smile.
The waiter smiled and left to place the order, leaving Jiang Fei and Cui Ruzhu sitting face-to-face. At this moment, alone together and about to discuss serious matters, Cui Ruzhu’s gaze sharpened to its most intense peak. It was as if she wanted to stare Jiang Fei to death.
But Jiang Fei remained unfazed, maintaining a gentle smile. It was a bit like the saying: Let him be strong, like a gentle breeze over the hill; let him be tough, like the bright moon shining over the river. Cui Ruzhu’s sharp stare was completely ineffective.
After more than half a minute, Cui Ruzhu finally withdrew her intense gaze. She frowned at Jiang Fei, still maintaining her stern expression without speaking. Instead, she took a pack of ladies’ cigarettes and a lighter from her bag, lit one casually, and took a drag. “Do you smoke?” she asked.
Jiang Fei had smoked in college but hadn’t been a heavy smoker and had quit easily, so it had been a long time.
He shook his head. “No.”
Cui Ruzhu didn’t insist. After smoking half a cigarette, she finally spoke again. “Do you know why I didn’t talk to you at home and specifically brought you here?”
“No, I don’t,” Jiang Fei said.
He was genuinely curious. He still had no idea what his future mother-in-law was really up to.
Cui Ruzhu narrowed her eyes slightly and then said calmly, “Because I didn’t want those people at home to see or hear about my embarrassment. I, Cui Ruzhu, have been strong my whole life. I’ve excelled everywhere. Now, in this regard, I’m unavoidably going to lose face, and I just want to keep it from being a bigger spectacle. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Whoa!
Jiang Fei’s mouth twitched again.
This mother-in-law wasn’t just sharp-eyed and overbearing; her words were absolutely off the charts in terms of impact. If Jiang Fei weren’t an exceptional person with solid grounding and confidence, if any ordinary man were sitting in his place, he’d probably be blushing furiously, squirming in his seat, and ready to retreat in defeat, right?
Without any mincing of words, she was essentially saying: you’re not good enough for my daughter, you don’t even qualify to meet the family. If I don’t get rid of you quickly, you’ll make me look bad…
What man with any self-respect could tolerate such words?
At that moment, Jiang Fei felt a deep sympathy for Lin Moli’s father. He could also understand why her father had made the choices he did after advancing step by step in his official career.
If he hadn’t confirmed her identity beforehand, Jiang Fei would never have linked Cui Ruzhu to being Lin Moli’s mother.
Although Lin Moli had her own principles and a rather strong personality, she was definitely reasonable. Who would have thought her mother would be such an overbearing person?
Before Jiang Fei could answer, Cui Ruzhu flicked her cigarette ash and continued, “How long have you and Moli known each other? How did you meet?”
Jiang Fei gave a general account of how he and Lin Moli met—how the son of a wealthy benefactor from the Second Jin City Hospital had coveted her, how Jiang Fei had saved her, and how they gradually developed feelings for each other.
After hearing this, Cui Ruzhu didn’t frown, but a hint of disdain appeared in her eyes.
She found the old trope of a hero saving a damsel in distress clichéd. While it might be effective for some, it held no weight with her.
However, she didn’t comment on that and instead asked a very practical question: “So you’re saying both you and Moli were fired from the hospital, and now you’re running a small clinic?”
“The clinic is closed. I’ve opened a hospital now,” Jiang Fei answered truthfully.
“A hospital? How big?” Cui Ruzhu frowned slightly. Opening a hospital was no small feat.
“It’s not big yet. But it will expand next year,” Jiang Fei said, neither boasting nor belittling.
“You don’t need to tell me about expanding next year,” Cui Ruzhu said with a cold laugh. Her tone suddenly shifted, becoming suggestive. “Moli sold her house in Jin City. Where did her money go?”
This mother-in-law was truly sharp. She managed to deduce this question from just a few words.
“She used the money to partner with me in opening the hospital,” Jiang Fei answered honestly again.
Cui Ruzhu’s snort grew colder. “And how is the equity split?”
“Initially, Moli contributed capital, and I contributed my expertise. We split it sixty-forty,” Jiang Fei said without any shame, stating the facts.
“Sixty-forty? You sixty, Moli forty?” Cui Ruzhu’s eyebrows shot up, and she was visibly angry now.
From the start, she knew this guy wasn’t simple and that getting rid of him wouldn’t be easy. But she never imagined Jiang Fei would be so thick-skinned!
Her daughter had sold a house to help him start a medical practice. He hadn’t contributed a penny, yet he took the majority share? How shameless could a man be to do something like that?
What was even worse was that the guy didn’t seem ashamed of it—in fact, he seemed proud, telling her all this with a smile on his face.
Could your skin get any thicker?
“Yes,” Jiang Fei ‘shamelessly’ nodded.
“Fine. Very fine.” Cui Ruzhu stubbed out her cigarette, seeming to laugh in her anger. She didn’t even bother touching the coffee the waiter brought. Getting straight to the point, she said, “I’ll stop beating around the bush. I’ll be direct. You and Moli are not suited for each other. Break up. After you separate, I’ll compensate you. Moli’s forty percent share in your little company? Forget it. You can have it all.”
“Well… that’s certainly direct,” Jiang Fei said with a helpless smile. “But this decision should be made by Moli, shouldn’t it? You can’t make it for her, Auntie.”
“I am Moli’s mother. Why can’t I make this decision for her?” Cui Ruzhu said with a cold snort. “Let me be clear with you. After Moli returns to Xidu this time, she’s not going back to Jin City. I’ve already arranged the most suitable match for her. Someone who is worthy of her, who will treat her well, who is good for our Cui family, who comes from a compatible background, and who won’t make me lose face!”
“The most suitable? How suitable? A compatible background? How compatible?”
Cui Ruzhu was momentarily stunned, then said coldly, “More suitable than you. More compatible than you.”
Jiang Fei shook his head.
Initially, he had planned to use his sincerity and earnestness to move this strong-willed mother-in-law, to make her realize that he considered himself worthy of Lin Moli not because of status, power, money, or position, but because of his love for her.
But this mother-in-law was just too overbearing, too direct.
So direct that she wouldn’t even give him a chance to show his sincerity and love before eliminating him.
So Jiang Fei decided that facing such a direct mother-in-law, he should also be direct and skip the subtlety.
You want suitability and a compatible background?
I’m just worried you might end up feeling a bit embarrassed yourself.
Just as Jiang Fei was about to speak, a gentle voice tinged with surprise suddenly interrupted: “Auntie, you really are here. I heard Moli was back, and I was about to go see her. I was driving by and happened to see your car parked on the street. I thought you might be here, so I came in to check. I didn’t expect to actually find you.”
Both Jiang Fei and Cui Ruzhu turned their heads, drawn by the voice.
Jiang Fei’s brow furrowed slightly. Cui Ruzhu, who had just been sullen and displeased, suddenly brightened upon hearing this voice, a look of delight appearing on her face.
