How can I justify myself as a Magnate if I don't indulge myself?

After crying in Gu Heng's arms for a good while, Xu Hong stretched out her hand to touch Gu Heng's face and said, "You can't see clearly in the video, but you look even more handsome in person."

"Of course, your son has to be handsome!"

Seeing the deep crow's feet at the corner of his mother's eyes, Gu Heng couldn't help but reach out to smooth them away, but despite several attempts, they remained...

"Stop rubbing, once you get older, wrinkles are bound to appear. I'm already fifty, how can they be smoothed away just by rubbing?"

Just as Gu Heng was about to say something, his aunt suddenly came over and said, "Xiaoheng, call your friend down to have a meal as a thank you. It wasn't easy to bring you all the way back."

Gu Heng snorted in his heart at his aunt's words.

In the daytime, when she asked him to pick up Gu Xinran, she insisted on paying for the gas and tolls herself. Now that he had been brought back, suddenly she's not honoring the deal and says it wasn't easy to bring him back without mentioning anything about picking up Xinran...

Sometimes, he wondered how a couple like them managed to raise their niece so outstandingly?

Although he sneered inwardly, Gu Heng courteously said, "No need for them to come down. My friend said the toll and gas would total 300 yuan, you can just transfer that to me."

"What?!"

"300 yuan? Is your friend heartless or what? Charging 300 yuan just for a lift when it's on the way?"

As expected, the aunt's expression changed as soon as these words were spoken.

Now an adult herself, Gu Xinran knew about her mother's snobbishness and love for a bargain. Realizing that Gu Heng was teasing her, she quickly pulled at her mother's arm with some embarrassment and said, "Mom, stop talking.

Brother is joking with you. He bought that car himself, and he went specially from Hang City to Shanghai to pick me up."

As Gu Xinran's words fell, the entire family was stunned...

Gu Heng had bought a car?

If this statement had come from Gu Heng's own mouth, there would surely be someone contradicting it by now...

In their eyes, Gu Heng, who hadn't even gone to college and only worked menial jobs outside, couldn't earn much money. How could he afford a car?

But these words came from Gu Xinran, the most accomplished member of the Gu family in their hearts, and her credibility shot straight up to the MAX...

Gu Heng had initially planned to play around with his snobbish aunt for a bit longer, but since Xinran had already revealed that he bought the car, he decided not to pretend anymore and laid his cards on the table!

"Auntie, I was just joking with you. Do I look like someone who would fuss over your 300 yuan? Look at you, so anxious! You're an adult, yet you get excited over the smallest things."

After speaking, he didn't even glance at her now discolored face but turned instead to Xu Hong and Gu Jianguo and said, "Dad, mom, isn't this car beautiful?"

"Beautiful!"

"Very beautiful!"

The couple didn't understand much about cars, but thinking that their son had bought it filled them with pride.

Although cars are not that rare nowadays, that's only a relative term.

In Gu Heng's hometown area, it was only average for a few households to have a car. Any car driven back during the New Year made a statement! Their son was now capable, able to afford a car, and the couple was sweeter than if they had tasted honey.

"Xiaoheng, what car did you buy? You see, you could have at least mentioned it at home. Have you become so successful outside that you no longer recognize your family?"

Just as the parents were gleaming with joy, Gu Jiandang walked over with his big belly, pulled a pack of soft Zhonghua cigarettes from his pocket, handed one to his younger brother-in-law, then put the pack away again.

Looking at this uncle with a big beer belly, Gu Heng still wore a falsely cheerful expression.

Of his uncles and aunts, only his little aunt, whom he cherished, seemed like family to him. The rest were worth nothing to him.

Take the current moment, for instance. He gave a cigarette to his younger uncle without offering one to his own father. Did he not know that his dad smoked too?

This issue of sharing cigarettes might be trivial to some and not worth mentioning, but for others who took notice, it could be seen as disrespectful.

And indeed, Gu Heng was well aware that his uncle and younger uncle looked down on his father, Gu Jianguo.

After all, Gu Jiandang had been a village official for decades, which, in Gu Heng's eyes, meant nothing, but in the rural environment, a village official still carried some weight.

His younger uncle, Gu Jianjun, contracted the family's rice fields. Though the work was hard, he earned more than the average laborer.

Both considered themselves figures of importance in the village. How could they respect Gu Jianguo, a man with leg problems who could only rely on his carpentry skills to make a living?

His father? Kind-hearted was a polite way of putting it; spineless was less kind. He knew full well his brothers looked down on him, but he always kept his discomfort bottled up.

Yet people often respond to strength and back down from hardness. If Gu Jianguo had shown a bit of toughness and cut ties with the two families, they might have restrained themselves.

The more Gu Jianguo endured for the sake of brotherly harmony, the less respect he would garner from others.

As for Gu Heng...

He could endure personal grievances.

But he couldn't stand it when his father was disrespected. It didn't matter that he was richer now – even if he had been poor, he wouldn't have tolerated it!

With that thought, Gu Heng put on a fake smile again and said, "A Bentley, Uncle. You should know this car brand, right?"