Chapter 300: Maintaining Purity

Fang Hong's words carried flattery, and also conveyed how important this matter was to him.

After all, she was an elder, and her tone carried a probing quality.

Liu Xiaoli didn't make things too hard for him either; she knew how important a career was to a man—without one, a man would seem pale and powerless.

She said, "What you say has some truth to it. I won't be the bad guy here, let me be straight with you. I'm not after your stuff or anything. I'm at this age, taking anything from you would be pointless. Everything I have is meant to be left to my daughter."

Fang Hong nodded—Liu Xiaoli's love for her daughter was something anyone who knew Liu Tianxian's family understood clearly; this couldn't be denied.

"I asked to chat with you just to see your attitude, to see how you handle things and what you think. You have ambition, you want status, you don't want to be controlled by others—I认同 this very much, and I appreciate it greatly. My daughter and I in this circle have suffered precisely because we couldn't control our own fate," Liu Xiaoli said.

She and her daughter had been in the circle for over a decade, had been sabotaged many times, and every time could only swallow the humiliation and bear it themselves.

So she had always认同 Fang Hong's way of thinking. If she hadn't认同 it, back when Fang Hong and Liu Tianxian had a falling out over the matter with Ceng Aizi—

Liu Xiaoli wouldn't have stood on Fang Hong's side and educated her daughter.

Liu Xiaoli then said, "It's just that you place too much weight on your career, treating it as your main goal. I'm afraid you'll neglect my daughter in the future."

So that was what all this was about. Fang Hong said, "What you mean is you want some assurance for your daughter?"

"I want an attitude. While we're at it, you talk, and tell me your thoughts about my daughter. Let me hear it," Liu Xiaoli said, expression calm.

"If I give you a bunch of empty words about attitude, you probably won't believe me. Let me put it this way: in this life I only care about two things—one is my current career, the other is Liu Tianxian. Without a career I have no footing; without Liu Tianxian, I've lost love."

Fang Hong said again, "You just said you and your daughter can't control your own fate in the entertainment circle. The way things are now is actually best for Liu Tianxian. If she gets too involved in capital matters, it won't do her any good—only harm."

Liu Xiaoli should be able to understand: her status wasn't suitable, those above wouldn't allow it, and the scheming and backstabbing of the capital circle wasn't something Liu Tianxian could handle.

Once you get involved with capital, you'll be dragged along to some degree—just like Jack Ma, who sometimes can't fully control what he does. Especially with the identity of a celebrity, everything you do gets magnified infinitely.

The way things are now is actually best—don't get involved, keep to yourself, and as long as you don't make any principled mistakes, Liu Tianxian will always be fine.

"I'm not saying this because I can't bear to part with anything. I could give her shares, let her into Jade Rabbit, but she just shouldn't be involved. Maintaining independence and purity—wouldn't that be good?" Fang Hong said.

Liu Xiaoli nodded—this thinking was fine.

Fang Hong added, "You might have some resentment over the matter with Zeng before, when I had you put up money and wanted to cut ties with Red Star Fort.

But you don't know what I was doing before—fighting with people, using underhanded tactics—and Tianxian would always lecture me, saying my methods should be honorable, that I should be upright as a person.

If I hadn't handled the Zeng matter that way, you wouldn't have been able to shield me from disaster. To keep your daughter happy, it wasn't easy for me either."

The latter part carried a note of grievance. Liu Xiaoli couldn't help but cover her mouth and smile, feeling this young man could be quite cute sometimes.

When he could have handled it himself with a single hand, he insisted on going around in such a big circle—just to please her daughter and have her step in front to take the hit.

She also knew her daughter had this flaw: she didn't bear grudges, wouldn't strike back when hit, wouldn't retaliate when cursed. And at the time, Zeng was still such a close friend.

"I don't blame you for that matter. What you did was right, no problem. Being able to balance both sides proves you put in the effort."

Liu Xiaoli added, "It's just that you draw the lines too clearly—separating Liu Tianxian from Red Star Fort, separating me from my daughter. You divide things too precisely, and that can hurt people's feelings."

That's the problem—you're you, Liu Tianxian is Liu Tianxian, your business is none of my concern, Liu Tianxian's business is my concern.???? That's the feeling it gives people.

Liu Xiaoli said again, "Have you ever considered that my daughter and Red Star Fort are one entity, and my daughter and I are also one entity? Helping Red Star Fort is helping my daughter; helping me is also helping my daughter."

These words left Fang Hong silent, head lowered in thought.

"Red Star Fort is her management company—it's essentially her home in the entertainment circle. I'm her mother, I'm also her harbor. When you draw such clear lines, you're inadvertently neglecting my daughter," Liu Xiaoli said plainly.

At this point, neither spoke further. The matter had basically been made clear. Liu Xiaoli wasn't after Fang Hong's things—she just wanted an attitude from him.

She wanted him to pay more attention to her daughter, to consider every aspect for her daughter.

He couldn't just focus on his career and divide everything so clearly and precisely.

At the core, as a mother, she just wanted the best for her daughter, hoping her daughter could be happy.

At her age, with only Liu Tianxian as her daughter, scheming for anything else was pointless.

"Auntie, I understand what you mean. I'll be mindful in the future," Fang Hong said, lifting his head.

"Good then. Don't take what I said to heart—I just wanted to hear your thoughts, to hear what you think about my daughter," Liu Xiaoli soothed.

This young man's thinking had no real issues. A man needs backbone, and her daughter maintaining purity—these were all fine.

He looked after himself, and also looked after her daughter.

"By the way, who else do you have at home?" Liu Xiaoli steered the conversation to family matters.

"There are still some relatives back in the hometown, but after my father passed and my mother went out to work, a lot of those ties faded. We don't keep in touch much," Fang Hong said.

"What about your mother's side? Her siblings, your maternal grandparents," Liu Xiaoli asked.

"My maternal grandparents have passed. My mother has a younger brother—she keeps in touch with him, but I haven't really been in touch," Fang Hong said.

Liu Xiaoli roughly understood—just like how after she and her ex-husband divorced, her daughter's feelings toward her father's side had also grown distant.

Let alone relatives who'd passed away—the father's side couldn't be relied on, only the mother's side could.

Actually, Fang Hong leaned toward his father's side of the family—after all, he bore the surname Fang. But his mother didn't care for his father's relatives.

She felt that when her husband passed away, his siblings hadn't helped, and had looked at her with colored eyes—looking down on her.

After her husband's death, she was quite sensitive.

But Fang Hong sided even more with his mother—if his mother didn't keep in touch, he didn't either. So there was some irreconcilable tension in the middle.

It wasn't that no relatives had reached out to him, but he was too lazy to deal with it, so it stayed that way.

"I understand. You'll stay here tonight, and tomorrow I'll have Xixi go home with you," Liu Xiaoli arranged.

This was an acknowledgment that the two should continue seeing each other, with the intention of taking the next step.

(End of this chapter)