Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

At Yang Xiaobo's age, a boy would never pay attention to his girlfriend's family background—just as back when he himself had dated Chen Shutang, it was a long time before he learned that Uncle Chen was Chen Shutang's father.

"Yeah, Shen Hua's family also has a detached little villa," Yang Xiaobo said. "Every time I walk her to the neighborhood, I don't dare go closer. Shen Hua's parents sometimes stand in front of the villa waiting for her to come home from school."

"And now you've finally got there in the end, haven't you?" Yang Hengye said.

Following Yang Xiaobo's directions, Yang Ce parked the car in front of a villa.

"Bro, this is the place." Yang Xiaobo pushed open the car door. "Thanks, big brother. You and sister-in-law can head back now."

"All right, I'll watch you go in. I'll leave after you're inside," Yang Yuting said with a nod.

After getting out of the car, Shen Hua rang the doorbell of the villa's courtyard gate. Before long the villa's door opened, and four people emerged and walked together toward the gate.

"Is that Xiaohua back?" a middle-aged woman called as she walked.

"Mom, it's me," Shen Hua answered.

"Xiaohua, you're home." Shen Hua's mother nodded. "Did that friend of yours come too?"

"He's here," Shen Hua said, then quickly gave Yang Xiaobo a hint. Yang Xiaobo caught on at once. "Hello, Uncle, Auntie."

The courtyard gate opened, and only then did Shen Hua and Yang Xiaobo see clearly who was there. Two of them were her parents; the other two she did not know—a middle-aged man, and beside him a young man about Shen Hua's age.

"Xiaohua, this is Uncle Liu," Shen Hua's father, Shen Zhiguo, introduced. "This is Uncle Liu's son, Liu Cha. He came to our house once when he was little."

Shen Hua naturally had no memory of it at all. She glanced at Uncle Liu and Liu Cha with some surprise and, out of politeness, said hello.

Shen Zhiguo was in fact rather helpless about the matter. At first he had opposed his daughter's early romance, but after half a semester he saw that her grades had not slipped in the least—rather, they had improved considerably—and the boy she was with had good grades too.

Shen Zhiguo was not an unenlightened man. He knew that at her age a girl tended to be rebellious, and that if he interfered by force, who knew what trouble might come of it. So he simply turned a blind eye.

But a few days ago, Shen Zhiguo had been put in a difficult position by an old friend of his—an old friend, more or less, since they had not seen each other for many years. This old friend was the man beside him now, the one surnamed Liu, Liu Chan.

Back when Shen Zhiguo was first starting his business, he and Liu Chan had been partners, and the two families had been on good terms. As it happened, their wives had become pregnant one after the other, giving birth to a girl and a boy respectively. So at a celebration banquet, Liu Chan proposed that their children be betrothed, and Shen Zhiguo, thinking it a fine idea, agreed.

In the blink of an eye several years passed, and the two went their separate ways—Shen Zhiguo started his own business, while Liu Chan went off to be an executive for someone else, and they fell out of touch. Later, Shen Zhiguo seized an opportunity, bought up a batch of grain, and made a fortune overnight. After that his grain and oil business grew larger and larger, and over the years he accumulated thirty or forty million in assets.

Liu Chan, however, had poor luck. Because the boss he followed got into trouble, the boss asked him to take the fall, promising him a splendid future after prison. Liu Chan gritted his teeth and served the sentence for his boss—just three years, he told himself, and he would grit his teeth and get through it. But before three years were up, the boss got into trouble again and ended up as his cellmate, and was sentenced to even longer—twenty years.

This time Liu Chan was struck dumb. The boss's company was seized, and when he got out he had nothing. Still, after his release, Shen Zhiguo, mindful of their old friendship, gave Liu Chan quite a bit of help. But the matter of the betrothal was never brought up again.

Later, Liu Chan found a job at the Wang Group's Century Heroic Wind Corporation. The boss at the time, Wang Pu, took a liking to Liu Chan for his willingness to endure hardship and his loyalty, and because he had been in prison and could handle certain shady matters, so he kept him on.

But he was never given any important post, because before long Wang Pu himself went to prison too. Liu Chan felt that his luck could not possibly be worse—his career had barely gotten off the ground when his boss got into trouble and landed in jail.

But what no one expected was that after the Wang Group's Century Xiongfeng conglomerate was restructured, Liu Chan was suddenly noticed by the new chairman, Guo Jianchao, and in an instant he was riding high again.

Guo Jianchao had always been a man who walked the line between light and shadow, and he happened to lack a man like Liu Chan who could handle the dirty work, so he took him on as a trusted confidant. And just like that, Liu Chan found himself rubbing shoulders with the top bosses of Songjiang—his status was no longer what it had once been.

At first, Shen Zhiguo had been happy for Liu Chan, but he never imagined that the man would grow more and more arrogant, looking down on everyone. Even Shen Zhiguo, who had once helped him in his hour of need, now found it painfully difficult to get him to do even the smallest favor.

But a few days ago, Liu Chan's son Liu Cha somehow got wind of the fact that the two families had once arranged a marriage, and he even went out of his way to visit Shen Hua's school to see what she looked like. And the moment he laid eyes on her, it was all over—Liu Cha told his father he wanted to revive the engagement.

Having spent several years in prison, Liu Chan felt he had not looked after his son properly, so he still took his son's wishes very much to heart. After turning it over in his mind, he reasoned that Shen Zhiguo was doing fairly well for himself in Songjiang, and that an alliance with his family would be no loss of face. So he called Shen Zhiguo and brought the matter up.

The moment Shen Zhiguo heard what Liu Chan was proposing, he was at a loss for how to respond. He knew his daughter's temperament well—never mind that she already had a boyfriend; even if she didn't, she would never casually take up with a man she didn't know.

To be continued

932. He Is One of the Yangs (Part Two)

932. He Is One of the Yangs (Part Two) After weighing the matter again and again, Shen Zhiguo came out and said that Shen Hua already had a boyfriend. But he never expected Liu Chan to reply with utter high-handedness: "So she has a boyfriend—what of it? Just break them up. You wouldn't deny the engagement we agreed on back then, would you?"

There was a faint whiff of threat in his words. Shen Zhiguo was furious, yet he could not afford to cross Liu Chan now, so with no other choice he agreed to let Liu Chan bring his son Liu Cha to meet his daughter Shen Hua.

However, Shen Zhiguo also told his daughter to bring along her young boyfriend—his aim being to make Liu Cha give up.

"Uncle Shen, this is a little token of my respect." Yang Xiaobo naturally had no idea who this Liu Chan and Liu Cha were, but a meeting gift was still something he had to give Shen Zhiguo.

"Ha ha, you didn't have to bring anything—coming is enough." Shen Zhiguo said the words, but he was nonetheless pleased; after all, it showed the respect Yang Xiaobo had for him.

Shen Zhiguo was just about to take the gifts from Yang Xiaobo's hands when Liu Cha, all smiles, stepped in front of him and snatched the things away: "Uncle Shen, let me carry those for you."

With a crash, the two bottles of liquor hit the ground and shattered to pieces.