Chapter 356: The Abandoned Godfather

The three of them chatted casually here, mostly about ordinary things, nothing of substance.

Apart from the topic of Fang Hong, the mother and daughter pair didn't bring up anything about themselves or Chen Jinfei, as if deliberately avoiding it.

Since they didn't bring it up, Fang Hong didn't feel right asking.

Liu Tianxian grabbed Fang Hong's hand and said to Liu Xiaoli and Chen Jinfei, "Mom, Godfather, we're going out for a stroll. You two chat."

"Go ahead, come back early." Liu Xiaoli nodded.

Chen Jinfei also nodded in response, not stopping them.

Watching the two figures walk away, Chen Jinfei sighed, "How's the character of this guardian you found for Xixi?"

"He can't exactly be called a gentleman, but his conduct is proper, he has principles, he knows his limits. That's what I appreciate about him."

Liu Xiaoli paused, then added, "And it wasn't me who found him either. Xixi found him herself. And he's not some 'guardian'—the two of them are in a genuine relationship."

Although she used to treat Fang Hong as her daughter's hired thug, now she sees him as a prospective son-in-law, so she no longer acknowledges the guardian relationship.

That would be treating a person like an object—use them and toss them whenever.

"Heh, isn't that exactly what you mother and daughter used to do? Use someone up and throw them away." Chen Jinfei said with cold mockery.

"Old Chen, if you insist on thinking that way, there's nothing I can do about it. But you need to understand, my daughter and I could have left completely, yet we never did—out of consideration for the bond between us." Liu Xiaoli spoke very gently, as if his behavior couldn't rile her up.

The same soft-spoken, refined manner as always.

"The so-called bond you speak of is abandoning me?" Chen Jinfei asked again.

"You know what the situation was like back then. What were my daughter and I supposed to do? Besides, you planted the seeds of that disaster yourself. If you hadn't pushed so hard, it wouldn't have blown up like that." Liu Xiaoli said.

"Heh, I pushed your daughter onto the international stage, and now you're blaming me for it!" Chen Jinfei felt deeply wronged, very unhappy inside.

He had given his all, put in the work, schemed and paved the way for Liu Tianxian the whole way, even gave people benefits—all to help Liu Tianxian rise to fame quickly. And now this woman was blaming him.

During The Return of the Condor Heroes, he had given Da Hu Zi shares in Red Star Fort.

It could be said that he was the most important hand behind Liu Tianxian's debut and rapid rise to fame—undeniable.

Even The Forbidden Kingdom was something he pushed for; he put in a great deal of effort. It's just that many things happened afterward that made him harbor resentment toward Liu Xiaoli.

"I'm not saying I'm blaming you. That matter can only be said to be something none of us anticipated. We all took ourselves too seriously—you especially took yourself too seriously, overestimated yourself, and that's what led to those consequences." Liu Xiaoli said.

At the time, the fuss over The Forbidden Kingdom was so huge that they all misjudged their own strength.

No foundation whatsoever, no ability to withstand risk—faced with setbacks, they scattered at the first breeze. Having money was useless.

Of course she was also very grateful to Chen Jinfei for his push all along. Without Chen Jinfei's efforts, Liu Tianxian wouldn't have landed the role in The Forbidden Kingdom.

One can only say every coin has two sides!

"Do you know what angers me the most?"

Chen Jinfei tapped the table, looking somewhat furious: "When I was at my most difficult, my most helpless, you mother and daughter actually chose to run off to Hong Kong. What do you take me for? Useful, then use me; useless, then toss me?"

"Given the situation back then, what were my daughter and I supposed to do? We had nowhere left to go. Besides going to Hong Kong, there was no other place." Liu Xiaoli looked at him.

At the time, Liu Tianxian could be said to have made enemies of everyone—she had offended Huayi, offended people, and basically no one in the domestic entertainment industry was casting her anymore.

She was in a state of tacit, coordinated blacklisting by everyone.

On top of that, the relentless abuse and scandal caused Liu Tianxian's resources to plummet straight down. She fell from her pedestal to become an ordinary starlet, and the whole person nearly broke down.

If they didn't seek a way out, were they supposed to sit and wait to die?

"You could have at least asked me! Didn't even ask, didn't even show a bit of concern—just dropped me and ran off to Hong Kong. I'm a person, not your lapdog." Chen Jinfei's voice couldn't help but rise a few notches. Just thinking about it made him angry—he had given so much.

Liu Xiaoli remained the same as ever, sighed and said: "Old Chen, after all these years, you should know my character. I could die for my daughter. For you, I can only say I'm sorry.

But you'll always be Xixi's godfather, half a father to her. That will never change."

At the time she could only cast Chen Jinfei aside to protect her daughter, because he had come under investigation for financial issues.

A star getting mixed up in that kind of incident is a very serious career-ending crisis—it would have destroyed her daughter's future.

People saying you have a "criminal" "dad"—that image would plummet. So she had no choice but to do what she did: cut Chen Jinfei loose.

Another reason was wanting to free her daughter from the "godfather" shadow—those people kept spinning smut about her daughter every day.

Seeing it made her feel deeply uncomfortable.

So under the influence of multiple psychological factors, she developed a mentality of wanting to break free from Chen Jinfei, to spare her daughter some of the smut.

It could be said Liu Xiaoli is a very rational person.

But all that is in the past now. Looking back, it's nothing much—mainly Chen Jinfei harbors a grudge.

"Easy for you to say." Chen Jinfei was still angry.

"Old Chen, if we truly didn't care about the bond, my daughter and I could have easily set up our own studio and gone solo. With Jade Rabbit's protection, we wouldn't have had to worry about outside harassment at all. But we didn't do that.

Xixi didn't want to do that either. She's a child who values bonds—she does acknowledge you as her godfather, and she's grateful to you." Liu Xiaoli's voice softened a bit.

Chen Jinfei fell silent. He also regarded Liu Tianxian as his own daughter, so he hadn't blamed her much for that incident.

Because at the time Liu Tianxian was still young, many decisions were made by him and Liu Xiaoli.

It was only after this godfather of hers fell on hard times that Liu Tianxian began slowly making her own decisions and growing up. One could say Chen Jinfei had protected her very well before.

As a "dad," he was quite dutiful—more dutiful than a real dad, anyone with eyes could see that, and it couldn't be denied. It's just that, how to put it, he wasn't her real "dad" after all, so the relationship fell a bit short. He felt abandoned, and the gap in his heart was huge.

In the previous life, this conflict even escalated. Liu Xiaoli used stick figures to curry favor with Huayi. That was around '15, '16, the peak period for Huayi, with a market cap reaching over 70 billion at its highest.

That kind of scale—the entire entertainment industry combined couldn't compare to Huayi. It was truly at its zenith.

But none of these things went through Chen Jinfei, and he got together with another woman and went public. The two sides just dug in out of spite.

In Chen Jinfei's mind, he had painstakingly raised a child, and now this child was going to leave him. He felt deeply unbalanced, feeling completely abandoned.

That feeling is very hard to bear.

Only in this life, with Fang Hong's existence, this conflict didn't escalate as much, because Liu Tianxian's acting career went very smoothly, without too much external pressure, and there was no need to change the status quo.

Fang Hong also didn't want Liu Tianxian to trade benefits for anything; he still let her maintain her independence.

So this played a moderating role.

Liu Tianxian went home, changed her clothes, grabbed two ice creams, and gave one to Fang Hong.

She wore oversized tea-colored sunglasses that glinted in the sunlight. She licked her ice cream, glanced at the man beside her, and said, "Why do you keep staring at me?"

"It's rare to see you in a skirt again. You look so good—I want to take another look. Next time I won't get to see it." Fang Hong said with a smile.

"Get lost." Liu Tianxian laughed and cursed.

She wore a white sleeveless dress, her two arms slender and fair, like tender green scallions.

The skirt's hem was pieced together like an umbrella skirt, not yet reaching her knees, her fair calves bare, and on her feet were black leather boots.

The whole person looked both noble and elegant—only those glasses were a bit too aggressive, but that too was part of her charm.

With noble air, aggressive air, and elegance, her style was one of a kind.

The two were walking outward at the moment. Liu Tianxian had brought Fang Hong to a scenic area, where the surroundings were beautiful, the trees and grass lush, with large stretches of green lawn and a small lake.

The two walked and wove along the forest path, sunlight filtering through the gaps in the leaves, scattering in specks across them.

Liu Tianxian looked at the ice cream in his hand: "Hey, what flavor is yours?"

"Strawberry, I think." Fang Hong took a bite.

"Then let me have a bite."

Liu Tianxian took a bite from the ice cream he held out to her: "Mm, tastier than mine."

"They're all the same." Fang Hong said.

"Not the same. Mine is chocolate, with a bit of bitterness." Liu Tianxian said.

"Then you eat mine, and I'll eat yours." Fang Hong looked at him.

Liu Tianxian swapped ice creams with him.

"Eating it like this is no fun. Let's do a crossed-arms bite." Fang Hong suggested.

"What crossed-arms bite?" Liu Tianxian didn't understand.

"Just like this."

Fang Hong took her hand, linking their arms together, the way one does when drinking the wedding-crossed-arms wine.

Liu Tianxian faced him and said with a smiling face: "Oh, wouldn't that make me your wife then."

"Then call me hubby." Fang Hong said.

"Not calling. That's way too simple." Liu Tianxian wasn't satisfied.

"There's also this way."

Fang Hong stepped closer, pressing against her body, his head at her neck, catching a pleasant faint fragrance, then his arm reached around the back of her neck in an embracing posture: "You do it too."

Liu Tianxian couldn't see his face and found it quite novel.

She imitated his posture, reaching around the back of his neck, and took a bite of ice cream: "Heh, it really works."

"This is called the big crossed-arms bite." Fang Hong said.

"Where on earth did you pick all this up?" Liu Tianxian said.

"No need to learn it. Never eaten pork, haven't you still seen a pig run?" Fang Hong said by her ear.

Liu Tianxian, seeing the "ceremony" was done, had just thought to pull apart, when her delicate body was held tight again by Fang Hong.

"Don't move, let me hold you for a while." Fang Hong felt the softness of her body.

"Aren't you hot?" Liu Tianxian said.

"Hot and I still want to hold you. Holding you is so warm, so happy, as if I owned the whole world." Fang Hong said softly.

Liu Tianxian smiled gently, also tightly embracing this man's body, smelling his scent, feeling his warmth, with a sense of warm familiarity.

This feeling made her at ease and content.

This story is purely made up, please do not match it to reality!!!

(End of this chapter)