Chapter 176 - After she disappeared.

....

In a mansion at City H, where the headquarter of Fan Entertainment was based for the last two decades... 

"Xiyue, how's the preparation for the party?" Fan Chuan asked suddenly during their once-a-week family dinner. 

"Which one?" 

"The one after your uncle and aunt's death anniversary."

Fan Xiyue nodded. She was picking up a small piece of braised chicken for her young son when she replied to her father, "Oh, yeah. Everything is going well. Su Wei is going to ask someone to send out the invitation cards tomorrow. In addition to those in our sector, he would be inviting some big companies that are outside our sector as well, especially those that are based in Imperial City."

"Oh? Like?" Her mother, Yi Xia, asked. 

"I think he sent to Du Corporation,  Tan Toys International and..." 

Before she finished her sentence, her father stopped her. 

Fan Chuan then looked at his son-in-law. "Why? I can understand why you sent the invitation to Tan Toys International since they used a couple of our young artists in their advertis.e.m.e.nts before. But we have never cooperated with Du Corporation before." 

Su Wei smiled. "It's exactly because of that that I sent them the invitation. I figured that even if they have no intention of ever cooperating with us, it would still do more good than harm to us if we maintain a good relationship with them. After all, they are one of the top companies in this country, and now that we are moving into the Imperial City, it is even more important for us to socialize with people from the big companies over there. Besides..."

He glanced at his wife briefly, who was busy feeding their son, before looking back at his father-in-law as he continued, "I know how Mum and Yi Xia love to attend social gatherings. This would be a good way for us to ingrain ourselves in the mind of the top families in Imperial City."  

Moving the headquarter to Imperial City was his idea, and he knew how upset his wife was about this proposal. When the board of directors approved of his proposal, even though she did not mention it to him, he could tell that she was worried. 

After all, she grew up in this city, and all her friends were here as well. As such, he wanted to make her as comfortable as possible and to make her entrance into the upper society in Imperial City as smoothly as it could be. 

As for Fan Chuan, he was thinking about what his son-in-law was saying. He knew that Su Wei was a capable man. At the very least, Su Wei was more capable than him.  

After a while, he nodded and said, "That's a smart move. In the future, they might even consider using our artists for their product representations." 

Su Wei nodded. 

"Enough about work. What about Su Qi's school?" 

Fan Xiyue smiled and answered her mother's question. "We'll be homeschooling Xiao Qi until next year. We don't want him to join in the mid of the year. It'd be easier for him to make friends when he joins at the beginning of the year." 

Yi Xia frowned. "Is that a good idea? He's already seven years old. I heard from Mrs. Lee that you haven't brought Su Qi to join their kids in their weekly playdates."

"It's fine. Xiao Qi is not an extroverted child, so I don't want to stress him out unnecessarily," Fan Xiyue said as she looked at her son who was eating quietly. Su Qi never liked to talk much, and he preferred to be left alone most of the time. Playing with rambunctious children tired him out easily, and he always returned moodier than before he went.  

At first, she and her husband had been worried about him, especially since he barely talked to everyone, including them. However, when they brought him to a child psychiatrist, the psychiatrist said that Su Qi was just an introverted child. Since then, they had been leaving him alone instead of forcing him out to events. 

Bored, Fan Xiyue's younger brother, Fan Xichen, suddenly changed the topic of conversation by asking, "Anyway, I heard that Angela has a new boyfriend? How's he? Is he the same as her ex?"

Fan Xiyue chuckled. "Far away. He's more hardworking and dependable. You know him." 

"I do?" 

"He's Han Ye."  

"I don't remember being friends with someone with that name."

"Wait... Han Ye?" Yi Xia frowned as she thought out loud. "That name is very familiar. Where did I hear it before?" 

When she saw her mother thinking deeply about the name, Fan Xiyue immediately said, "He's Yuexue's husband." 

"Oh f*ck!" Fan Xichen cursed. 

PAP! 

"Ouch!" Fan Xichen cried out as he glared at his brother-in-law. "That hurt!" 

"Su Qi is here! Watch your mouth!" Su Wei snapped at Fan Xichen. He never liked coming back to Fan Mansion for dinner because of Fan Xichen who had the tendency to say foul words all the time.  

"So what? He's going to learn it sooner or later!" Fan Xichen rolled his eyes at Su Wei.  

"Listen to your brother-in-law!" Fan Chuan warned as he glared at his son. He always regretted giving birth to this pork bun 1 .

Wait!

That would be an insult to pork buns. At least pork buns could fill his stomach. This son of his only knew how to spend his money and sleeping with his artists. Fan Chuan had lost count of the times where he had to bail his son out of trouble.

Looking at his son who was now showing him a sad expression, Fan Chuan sighed deeply. 

If Fan Xichen had been more capable, even if only 10% more, then Fan Chuan would not have to hand over the company to his son-in-law, an outsider. 

"Fine!" Fan Xichen mumbled in dissatisfaction as he went back to eating.

"Does he know who Angela is?" Yi Xia asked after rolling her eyes at her son. She loved her son dearly, but he was too dumb to do anything well. That was why she had to make sure that he had enough to live out the rest of his life in peace.

Handing the position of CEO of Fan Entertainment to Su Wei was not her decision, but she understood her husband's reasoning. Under Fan Xichen's management, they might go bankrupt quickly. And Fan Xiyue was a girl, and they did not think that she was capable enough, or even cruel enough, to deal with the behind-the-scenes stuff that was prevalent in the entertainment sector.

Regardless of the fact that Su Wei's family came from old money, he himself was actually pretty capable. He managed a few artists before, and all of the artists under him eventually became top of their fields. In addition, he had been helping out with his family's companies since young, so he definitely had the experience when it came to negotiations and management of people.  

Hence, he was the best choice for now.   

"She said that he knew," Fan Xiyue said after a moment of hesitation. She was unsure what her parents would think. After all, they did not have good opinions of Han Ye. 

If it was not because of Angela Zhang's bad reputation among their circles of friends, she would not have supported her decision to be with Han Ye.   

"I've never liked that kid," Fan Chuan said while putting his chopsticks down. "Marrying him is Yuexue's biggest mistake. Look what it got her." 

"I'm more worried that he's going to come after us," Yi Xia said and turned to look at her husband. "Don't you remember how he used to bother us every weekend? After she disappeared." 

Everyone knew who "she" was; even Su Wei. Fan Wushuang's disappearance was something that people still talked about at gatherings and parties. There were all kinds of speculations that people made about her. 

Some were bad for the Fan Family, some were good... Some were just dumb. 

Fan Xichen slapped the table with a hand when he realized something. He then looked at his father and asked, "That little b*s..."

Looking at the cold expression on his brother-in-law's face, Fan Xichen cleared his throat before he continued, "Uhm... that brat came to our house every weekend and made a ruckus back then, didn't he? I remember it clearly now! It was so embarrassing when he came to my birthday party and called us a murderer! My friends made fun of me for weeks after that!"

Fan Chuan's expression darkened upon the mention of that. It was indeed very embarrassing.  

... This is a saying in Chinese. "Give birth to a bun/pig/pork bun would be better than give birth to you."

This is also my mother's favorite insult when I refused to clean my room.