CHAPTER 745: CHAPTER 735 UNCLE JIANG CISHENG

Looking at the young man in front of him who had suddenly called him "Little Granduncle," and then explained his background somewhat incoherently, Jiang Cisheng sized him up again. "You’ve grown so tall!"

Jiang Lingxu: "...Yes, I just measured during the New Year. I’m six foot two."

As his gaze shifted, he met a pair of curious eyes looking at him.

These eyes were very clear, so clear that they seemed out of place on a face already marked by the years.

He tentatively called out, "Little Great-aunt?"

Xu Yin handed over a still-warm tea egg.

"No, no," Jiang Lingxu quickly pushed it back, raising the tea egg he had bought but hadn’t eaten yet. "I also bought one, haven’t eaten it yet."

Only then did Xu Yin relent from offering it again.

"Little Granduncle, let me help you with your suitcase."

Jiang Cisheng did not refuse and handed over the suitcase, grabbing the breakfast back in his other hand, which had never once let go of the person beside him.

"Did your parents come too?"

Jiang Lingxu nodded, then ’smack’ slapped his own forehead.

He had been so excited to see them that he forgot to say anything in the group chat.

Hurriedly, he took out his phone and, without time to type, sent a voice message, "Mom and Dad, I picked up Little Granduncle and Little Great-aunt!"

When Jiang Cisheng returned to the front of his apartment building, he saw his eldest niece, her eyes slightly red, waiting with her husband, who had some gray hair at his temples.

A thousand words converged into one long sigh, "It’s cold outside, come in first."

The door opened, and a wave of heat hit them in the face.

After being out for over ten days, the house hadn’t been ventilated, and there was a bit of a stale smell, but the people entering didn’t mind.

The first thing Jiang Wenhu said after entering was, "Uncle, I’ve dragged you into this."

Jiang Cisheng leisurely transferred the breakfast onto plates and bowls in the kitchen, placed them on the dining table for his wife to eat first, and only then led his niece’s family to sit on the sofa in the living room. "I heard a little from Lingxu on the way here. Don’t worry, speak slowly and in detail."

Jiang Wenhu was watching the young aunt peeling the tea egg diligently at the dining table.

Earlier outside, she had been wrapped up securely, but now that she had taken off her outer clothes indoors, one could easily see she looked younger than herself, quite innocent and carefree.

Her hair was also dark and thick, and her fingers peeling the tea egg clearly showed she hadn’t done much rough work over the years. Obviously, Uncle had taken good care of her.

Seeming to sense someone observing her, she looked up accurately and returned a gentle smile.

Jiang Wenhu was about to instinctively greet her, but she lowered her head again, continuing to carefully peel the tea egg in her hand.

It seemed normal, yet felt a little strange at the same time.

Only when she heard her uncle’s voice did she snap back to reality.

"Uncle, here’s what happened..."

Accompanied by the unbothered sound of someone eating nearby, Jiang Wenhu recounted the entire incident she had meticulously organized in her mind, including Jiang Wenjia’s current arrival in Mao City and her speculations about Jiang Wenjia’s intentions.

Jiang Cisheng quietly listened from start to finish, even boiling a pot of water for everyone to drink. It wasn’t until he heard that Jiang Wenjia might be planning to use his wife to blackmail him that his expression changed slightly.

Jiang Wenhu accepted the cup of water her uncle passed to her. "Uncle, why don’t you and Aunt come back with us to the Imperial City? That way, we’d be close enough to look after each other."

Seeing her uncle remain silent, Jiang Wenhu continued to persuade, "Really, after they came looking for us earlier this year, I specifically checked on Yue Sheng’s current business situation and it does seem close to bankruptcy. Otherwise, Jiang Wenjia and Jiang Peng wouldn’t cling so tightly at the faintest hint of hope. Based on my understanding of that father and daughter duo, they’re capable of doing anything to protect their company and money!"

Jiang Cisheng couldn’t suppress a cold laugh, "Indeed."

"Uncle?" Jiang Wenhu was momentarily stunned. Remembering her earlier suspicions, she hesitated but still asked, "Why did you suddenly leave Imperial City back then and come all the way to Mao City with Aunt?"

Jiang Cisheng took a sip of the lukewarm water, "Have you seen what Jiang Wenjia’s mother looks like now?"

"No, I haven’t. So far, only Jiang Wenjia has come with her husband and daughter to find me. Jiang Peng just made a phone call, and Hu Meimei has never appeared once."

"She probably weighs around three hundred pounds now. I imagine just leaving the house is a struggle for her, let alone having the energy to find you."

"Ah?"

Jiang Wenhu was genuinely stunned this time. The reason why Jiang Peng married Hu Meimei shortly after his mother’s death was because Hu Meimei was an actress at the time, beautiful with a great figure. Jiang Peng couldn’t resist and had Jiang Wenjia with her first, marrying her when she couldn’t hide the pregnancy.

Hu Meimei, three hundred pounds, she couldn’t reconcile this name with that weight.

"Uncle, how... how did you know...?"

Jiang Cisheng glanced at his grandnephew sitting obediently on a small stool, listening intently like a student in class, hesitating whether to recount the events of that year to such a young generation.

Jiang Runcheng, beside him, noticed his hesitation, "Uncle, Lingxu is old enough, you may as well tell it like it is."

"This matter actually starts from when I suggested reforms for Yue Sheng. I was in charge of the R&D department at the time and had developed a cosmeceutical with great efficacy for lightening spots and scars. I planned to take this opportunity to also improve the original products that were losing competitiveness, making that cosmeceutical a key product. But improvement required a large initial investment. We estimated that we would need to invest all the earnings from before and then borrow more. That’s when Jiang Peng and I had disagreements."

Jiang Wenhu didn’t spare any face for her father, "That miser would never agree to reinvest the money he earned. I bet he spent quite a bit on Hu Meimei during that time too."

Jiang Cisheng paused and continued, "We had a falling out, so I decided to go independent and develop that cosmeceutical on my own."

"Did Jiang Peng agree?"

Jiang Cisheng shook his head, "His plan was to sell the formula outright. I later learned Hu Meimei had been conned out of over ten million while on vacation abroad. He wanted to use the formula sale to cover that debt, and he even secretly found a buyer and negotiated a price behind my back."

Jiang Wenhu felt her fists clench involuntarily.

Using someone else’s hard work to plug the hole they created. She had underestimated that shameless couple!

"And then what happened?"

"I detected it in time and destroyed the formula and all the research products. They couldn’t sell them."

Jiang Wenhu finally let out a sigh of relief, but soon realized it was premature.

"But Hu Meimei became terrified by those debt collectors showing up every few days. Seeing that I wouldn’t hand over the formula to help her, she directly told them that I had a very valuable formula. If sold, it would more than cover her debt and leave some extra. A few days later, I was ambushed on my way back from inspecting the OEM factory."

The room fell silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Even the slow sipping of porridge in the background had stopped.

But Jiang Wenhu couldn’t even spare a glance at the dining table; her eyes were fixed on her uncle’s hand holding the glass teacup.

That hand seemed just like the one in her memory that taught her various little chemistry experiments, except on one finger, there was a circle that looked like the mark from wearing a ring for a long time. But upon closer inspection, the edges of that mark were uneven.

It looked very much like it had been broken and then stitched back together.

This thought flashed through her mind, and although she was sitting in a warm, centrally-heated room, she couldn’t suppress a shiver.

"Uncle, your finger?"