"You disrespectful child! You dare raise your voice at me, your elder?!" Elder Long Jufang was apoplectic with rage at Long Hui's attitude to him.
"I'm not a child anymore, Granduncle Jufang. I'm now an adult and have my own son who I intend to claim proudly in front of everyone!"
"You—"
"Enough!" Long Tengfei's authoritative voice was like thunder which stopped everyone and put them in their place.
He was very displeased at the elders. As a man who loved all of his children, he was opposed to the elders' discrimination against illegitimate children. It was laughable that they would be so critical when many of them also fathered their own illegitimate offspring. They thought that he, the head of the family, wouldn't know about their secrets? They were clearly underestimating him. However, he wasn't the kind of man to use illegitimate children to blackmail people to get them to do his bidding. For him, children were blessings, not weapons.
"Son, if you really want to make a public statement and claim Long Jun as your child, go ahead. I'll support you as the head of our Long family," Long Tengfei told his son, ignoring the elders' protests around him.
"Thank you, Father!" Long Hui was greatly relieved that his father approved of his decision.
"But be decisive about it and don't dawdle. Your sister is also suffering in this. The more time you take, the more her reputation will be damaged," Long Tengfei reminded him.
"Yes, Father. I'll do it right away."
Elder Long Meng scoffed. "Young Miss Xiulan is suffering? I don't believe that even for a second. I bet she's enjoying all the attention right now. Isn't that what she loves the most? The attention? She always gives us headaches. All she knows is to create scandal after scandal to shame our entire family! And because of her, another bastard child of our family will be exposed to the entire nation! I also heard that your bodyguard mistress is working for her now? Birds of a feather really do flock together! They will be the ones who'll cause irreparable damage to our family's noble name!"
Of course, his action and attitude angered the elders, especially Elder Long Jufang and Elder Long Meng. They complained to Long Tengfei.
Storming off without the family head's permission was a great affront to his authority, but Long Tengfei didn't take it personally. He understood his son's feelings and agreed to everything Long Hui said.
"Unbelievable! Xiulan is the greatest pride of our family and has amazing achievements?" Elder Long Jufang snorted. "Did he mean the three music techniques she accidentally invented? What's so great about them? That song she created is such a torture to listen to."
"Ah, you're absolutely right, Brother Jufang," Elder Long Meng sighed in agreement. "I get a bad headache every time I hear that dreadful song."
Long Tengfei narrowed his eyes at the elders mocking his daughter's accomplishments. He felt Yang Jiahui's gentle touches on his arm, trying to calm him down.
"I'm more surprised that Little Hui is defending Xiulan," Elder Long Jufang said. "What kind of poison Xiulan has been feeding him? I hear that they've been pretty close lately."
"Of course they are. They are brother and sister. They're both my children. They're family. Uncle Jufang, I'll appreciate it more if you stop creating discord among my children and our family," Long Tengfei told the elder in a warning tone.
Elder Long Jufang looked indignant, but he didn't retort. For someone like him who maintained an old-fashioned thinking, the family head shouldn't be disrespected without good reason. Long Tengfei was the undisputed family head. Even if Long Jufang was the elder between the two, their status within the family was completely different.
"Long Jun is my grandson. If my son wants to name him as his heir and if in the future, Long Jun proves himself to be capable in leading our entire family, then I have no problems with that. Legitimacy of birth is not the ultimate requirement to inherit the Long family's head position and business. Rather, it is ability. Long Hui is my heir, not because he's the eldest legitimate son, but because I deemed him to be the most capable of succeeding after me. If his illegitimate siblings prove themselves more capable than him, then I'll change my will and let them inherit instead."
"The same goes for my youngest daughter, Xiulan. But I don't think that she wants to work with Long Industries even if I name her as the heiress of the business."
"Get a hold of yourself, Tengfei! I beg you not to make such a frightening joke," Elder Long Jufang said. "Xiulan as heiress of Long Industries? Aiyo! Do you really want to end our Long family so badly? She'll waste away all of our fortune in a heartbeat as soon as she gets her hands on it."
The other elders also shuddered at the idea of their Young Miss Xiulan inheriting the family head position and the business. They imagined her as a big black hole swallowing all the family's wealth until nothing was left.
Long Tengfei wanted to tell everyone that giving the family business to his youngest daughter would probably be the smartest decision he could make for the entire family. After all, she was the student of the business legend Sir Lu Jianhong. They had no idea that his daughter was actually receiving direct tutelage from the business legend himself. It was just too bad that he couldn't sense any interest in her to become involved in the family business.
In addition to this, his daughter was also enrolled in the legendary school for geniuses, Cross Academy. He wanted to shout to the whole world how proud he was of his youngest daughter. And most importantly, to show these elders that the girl they were ridiculing was actually a genius and would ultimately become the most famous and most respected Long in the world.
What was more, once she married Jin Liwei, her status would immediately raise her up to the highest level within their circles' hierarchies. As the Madam of the Jin family, not a lot of people would dare disrespect her.
He wanted to reveal all of these but stopped himself. He didn't want to be the one to reveal the truth to everyone. It was difficult, but he needed to be patient and wait until his daughter made the revelation herself. Besides, he thought that it would be more fun to see the shocked expressions of the elders when they finally learned about his daughter's real abilities and secret status.
The gathering ended with many ruffled feathers. The elders were very unhappy about Long Tengfei's decision to allow Long Hui to publicly claim his illegitimate son.
The ones content with the current status quo just shrugged their shoulders and returned to their comfortable lives. The discontented ones were already busy making plans.