Chapter 208: The contract is genuine and valid

Xia Xi couldn't persuade her grandmother, so she had no choice but to agree.

Before leaving, she told Xia Xuan that if any stranger came looking for someone, she must never open the door casually.

Xia Xi drove the family car, pressing her lips tight all the way, forcibly suppressing her surging emotions, and she said softly to her grandmother: "When we get there, I'll go into the hotel first to check things out; you wait in the car. I'll report anything to you—does that sound okay?"

Grandma wore a short jacket, the car's air conditioning was on, but she still had her hands in her pockets, unable to believe that Peishan Grand Hotel really belonged to someone else, her mood steady: "Don't treat me like a child—I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice. If anything happens, I have more experience than you. You haven't even left the school gates; you're the child."

The tension in Xia Xi's nerves eased a little at her grandmother's words, and a faint smile tugged at the corner of her mouth: "No matter how experienced you are, you're old—you can't refuse to grow old."

Grandma also laughed, but after just two seconds she wiped the smile away and sighed: "Your father is no good. When he first messed around with that factory, I already felt something was off, but he insisted on doing it, and I'm really too old to stop him. Your mother is my only child; back then our life wasn't as good as now, I gave her everything I had, and later when we made big money I still gave her everything—she's never suffered hardship, her thinking is as simple as a child's. Your father just needs to coax her a little and she'll soften. I've always worried she'd get taken advantage of, so I've kept her close. For that, your father has often complained behind my back that I meddle too much—I know all that. I haven't spoiled your mother for nothing; she's very filial, always putting me first. These years our life has been fairly smooth. But in our old age, this kind of thing happened—it's just fate…"

Xia Xi wasn't the type to cry easily, but her grandmother's words made her eyes heat up.

Grandma had a strong opinion of Xia Chenggang; once she started talking she couldn't stop: "You think your mother had three kids for no reason? It's because your father wanted a son. If I hadn't fought hard to stop her, she'd have kept having children." Thinking of her well‑behaved, obedient three granddaughters, Grandma's resentment softened and her tone eased: "Everything has its downsides and upsides. Otherwise, where would I have gotten three granddaughters…"

Xia Xi raised her hand, wiped the corner of her eye with her fingertip, and smiled.

Not long after they stopped talking, Peishan Grand Hotel arrived.

Unlike the "polite and proper" scene Aunt Lin had described over the phone, a crowd blocked the main entrance, each person dressed in black, tall and burly, looking intimidating. Customers who came dared not go in and hurried away.

Xia Xi frowned, brought the car to a stop, was about to remind the old lady, but when she turned her head her grandmother had already opened the car door and stepped out. Xia Xi's heart tightened; she quickly locked the car and rushed over to support her: "Take it slow."

"Please move aside." Grandma put on a stern face and said to the black‑clad men blocking the way, "How can anyone do business when you're standing here? In broad daylight, I've never seen such unreasonableness!"

Seeing that the speaker was an old lady, the few black‑clad men didn't take it seriously, waving their hands to shoo her away: "Don't meddle, just hurry off…"

Xia Xi stepped forward to stand in front of her grandmother and said coldly, "This is our family's hotel. Who are you? Who sent you here to cause trouble?"

The black‑clad men glanced at the grandmother and granddaughter, stepped aside, and one of them ran inside to pass a word to their leader.

The man in charge was about forty, dressed in a suit but looking more like a local tycoon than an elite—he had a beer belly, his hair slicked shiny, and was picking his teeth with a toothpick. He had ordered a whole table of dishes by himself; at a glance they were all the hotel's signature dishes, the table full, each plate showing signs of having been touched.

After his subordinate finished speaking in his ear, he put one hand on the table edge, slowly turned, and recognized the white‑haired old lady as Jiangpeishan. Peishan Grand Hotel was named after her.

The man spat out the toothpick, stood, tugged at his collar, strode over to the old lady, bent slightly, put on a smile that seemed friendly, and asked, "Are you the owner of this hotel?" He asked it knowing the answer.

"The hotel's owner is currently my daughter; telling me is the same as telling her." The old lady's eyes were sharp, and she showed no fear.

"Let me introduce myself—I'm Wu Gengxin." The man still had a hint of a smile on his face, but his words were a refusal: "You're not the proper owner, so telling you is useless; you'd better have your daughter come over."

The customers who were dining in the hotel saw this, lost any desire to watch the spectacle, put down their chopsticks, paid, and left.

After the commotion, few customers remained in the public area.

Grandma brushed aside the irrelevant and asked Wu Gengxin one question: "You say Peishan Grand Hotel is yours—what exactly do you mean?"

She looked at the black‑clad men outside and added, "If you don't give me a reasonable explanation today, I'll have to call the police to seek justice."

Wu Gengxin heard that, gave a humorless chuckle, showed no fear, pressed his tongue against his jaw, nodded and said slowly, "Fine, go ahead and call the police—saves us from later misunderstandings where you'd accuse me of bullying an old person."

Saying that, he sat back down, legs spread, his leather shoes tapping the floor, lifted his chin to urge: "Hurry up and dial 110—what are you just standing there for?"

Grandma was furious, wanted to argue with him, but Xia Xi stopped her.

Xia Xi looked at the man leisurely eating cantaloupe with a fork and said in a calm voice, "You say the hotel is yours—you need to show proof; empty words won't convince anyone."

The man threw down his fork, which clinked against the white porcelain plate with a crisp "ding," then raised his hand to applaud her: "Well said."

He picked up a briefcase from the empty chair beside him, took out a document, opened it, and held it up to Xia Xi: "College students can read—open your eyes wide and see clearly: the signature and seal are perfect, it says Peishan Grand Hotel is transferred to me. Even if the police came, or even the Heavenly Sovereign himself, this contract is still genuine and valid."

Xia Xi reached out to take it for a closer look, but Wu Gengxin warily raised his hand so she couldn't touch it: "Hey, hey, you can look but not touch. If you tear it up, who am I supposed to reason with?"

Seeing that both grandmother and granddaughter looked incredulous, Wu Gengxin rubbed his chin and kindly told them: "This was sold to me by Xia Chenggang; I paid a big price, it's legal and compliant. Don't say I'm bullying people—seeing that you're all women, I won't use force, I'll give you a week. After a week I'll take over Peishan Grand Hotel; you'd better get things sorted quickly. If you come back next time still acting like this, I won't be so polite."

Wu Gengxin put the document back in his briefcase, pointed at the dishes on the table and smiled: "The food is really good—no wonder it's an old establishment." He glanced over the servers loitering in the hall and added, "If you still want to work here later, you can keep doing so; it won't be affected."

He tucked the briefcase under his arm, swaggered out, raised his hand and waved forward; the few black‑clad men blocking the door followed him.

The surroundings fell quiet, and Grandma collapsed without warning, caught by Xia Xi and Aunt Lin.

In the hospital smelling of disinfectant, Xia Xi's phone was dead, so she bought a power bank on the spot, paced the hallway with her brows furrowed, and called Xia Chenggang to ask about the hotel transfer.

The result was the same—she couldn't get through.

Xia Yue was handling injured‑worker matters in the same hospital when she heard Grandma had fainted; she asked for the ward number and rushed over. She was busy back and forth, hair disheveled, face sweaty, her jacket draped over her elbow, wearing a bluish‑gray sweater, her face almost the same color as the wool: "How is Grandma? What did the doctor say?"

Xia Xi stopped calling Xia Chenggang, tossed her phone onto the public bench against the wall, and said, "Fainting from emotional agitation and insufficient cerebral blood supply—she woke up soon after arriving at the hospital, just fell asleep again." She covered her forehead with one hand; after just a few hours she was already exhausted, regretting, "It's my fault—I should have insisted on stopping her from going to the hotel."

Xia Yue hugged her, stroked her back, and gently soothed: "It's not your fault; don't blame yourself."

"Sister." Xia Xi lifted her gaze to her, quite certain the contract in Wu Gengxin's hand was genuine: "Dad sold our family's hotel to a boss surnamed Wu. The hotel was passed from Grandma to Mom—how does Dad have the right to sell it?"

Xia Yue: "You never asked Mom?"

Xia Xi shook her head, another crease forming in her brow: "I didn't even dare tell Grandma about her fainting—she's in terrible shape, I was afraid she couldn't take it."