At noon, while the four girls were in the courtyard making a fire to cook, Aunt Luo called Su Ran over for tea. Gazing at Xie Yiren, who was busy chopping vegetables, she cracked open a sunflower seed and said, "By the way, Su Ran, I’ve been so busy with my own affairs lately that I haven’t had the chance to get to know them. I only know what Yiren said about being adopted. Every time she brings it up, she gets very upset. Did something happen? Also, I just noticed she has a tattoo on her back?"
"It’s actually another tragic story. Yiren only recently found out that the person who killed her parents was the grandfather who raised her."
"Something like that happened?"
"It was a huge blow to her, and we haven’t brought it up since. We don’t want to reopen old wounds. After all, some pasts are just too painful, right? As for the tattoo on her back you mentioned, I can assure you, Yiren is a good girl. The reason she has a tattoo is that she’s from a small tribe in Miaojiang. Tattooing is part of their beliefs there..."
Su Ran’s face flushed as he said this, and he inwardly wished the ground would swallow him whole. He knew that Xie Yiren’s current situation was entirely his doing. However, she didn’t regret it, because she just wanted to be an ordinary girl and be with the person she loved. Losing her former status was actually a relief.
However, Su Ran naturally wouldn’t tell Aunt Luo all these details. After all, not even the other three girls used to know Xie Yiren’s true identity, so why should he be the one to just blurt out all her personal business?
"...I see. Some of the more traditional small tribes in Miaojiang do indeed practice tattooing. That poor child has really suffered. But enough of this. Let’s not talk about such unpleasant things. Come on, let’s go help with lunch so everyone can leave this afternoon and get back to their own business."
Aunt Luo couldn’t bring herself to reopen old wounds, and she wouldn’t ask about Xie Yiren’s past again. She had felt a similar pain herself. To this day, with her husband, son, and granddaughter all dead, she had no attachments left and saw no light in her life. Why would she want to make another girl who shared a similar plight suffer as well?
However...
Aunt Luo said with a beaming smile, "I’ve genuinely grown to like that little girl, Xie Yiren. If she were my granddaughter, I’d give her all my wealth."
A tycoon of Aunt Luo’s caliber never had to worry about property; she had more than enough. Moreover, her business portfolio was incredibly diverse. Her recent foray into entertainment capital was merely a hobby. Even Director Xiaogang had to respectfully address her as ’Aunt Luo’ when he saw her.
Her other businesses were mainly in essential public services: insurance, healthcare, telecommunications, and so on. All of them were industries intimately tied to the daily lives of the common people. It was the kind of setup where ordinary people woke up, worked hard to earn money, and then invested that money right back into Aunt Luo’s essential industries for a bit of security.
You could say that even if she did nothing all day, her account would still grow by tens of millions, or even a hundred million. A tycoon like that was beyond Su Ran’s ’nine tiers’ of wealth. She had jumped beyond them, occupying a ’tenth tier’ of her own—the absolute pinnacle. Moreover, she was the kind of shadowy mogul about whom almost no information could be found. All the legal representatives of her companies were just figureheads for the public to see while she pulled the strings from behind the scenes.
Reba had told Su Ran before that Aunt Luo had a lot of money; rumor had it she was worth over a hundred billion US Dollars.
Su Ran was astonished, but he could also understand. If this were in the past, he would have said without hesitation, ’There’s no way she has that much money! If she did, why isn’t she on the Forbes list? Impossible, absolutely impossible!’
Only now did he realize how narrow his perspective had been. The Forbes list was just for show; the truly wealthy were the ones not on it. There were certain people who couldn’t be on the Forbes list, like tycoons such as Aunt Luo. In fact, there were plenty of people in the country who, like him, possessed fortunes of over a hundred billion yet had not become the richest person in Asia.
If you know, you know.
’So what?’ Su Ran scoffed. He glanced at the hopeful look in Aunt Luo’s eyes and said offhandedly, "Yiren has a rich boyfriend, that’s enough. She doesn’t need to go adopting some grandma. She couldn’t care less."
Those words were enough to infuriate Aunt Luo. ’What the...’ She knew that if those words were said to anyone else, even an eighty-year-old man would have dropped to his knees without a second thought and shouted, "Grandma Shumin, your grandson bows to you! From now on, you’re my grandma, and I’m your grandson! When you die, your hundred-billion-dollar fortune will be all mine!"
Instead, she’d been completely shut down. And it was clearly a deliberate provocation from Su Ran. Aunt Luo was stubborn by nature, and now she was taking it seriously. She grabbed Su Ran’s arm.
"What are you grabbing me for? What, you really want to make Yiren your granddaughter? That would make me your grandson-in-law. Not happening. Give up on that idea."
Su Ran said decisively.
Aunt Luo looked at Su Ran, thought for a moment, then let out an "Oh" and laughed. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Su Ran, oh, Su Ran, you’re really something else. Using reverse psychology, are we? You know I’m quick-tempered, so you’re trying to provoke me into making Yiren my granddaughter. You think this old lady doesn’t see right through you?"
Su Ran covered his face and laughed. He had indeed been trying to provoke her. If she, in a fit of pique, went over and made Xie Yiren her granddaughter, Yiren’s future would be set instantly.
"No wonder Yiren said you have a lot of tricks up your sleeve. She was right. But don’t worry. I feel a connection with Yiren, and I like her. As long as I’m alive, I won’t let her be bullied. And even after I’m gone, I’ll make sure she’s well taken care of."
"Don’t worry, you won’t die that easily. You and I have a connection, too—we’re pen pals, remember? Live a few more years, and I’ll have Yiren give you a baby to look after."