CHAPTER 39: CHAPTER 33: MAKE THINGS CLEAR

Lawrence Winters followed beside his mother, casually reminding, "Aunt, you should be careful and stay away from your precious son. In case he loses it again, you won’t be alone..."

Lillian Winters inadvertently moved a bit further away from Connor Wells after hearing this.

Connor Wells turned back, just in time to see his mom step back, making him even angrier. He shouted, "Who told you to have a second child! I said I didn’t want it! Didn’t any of you listen?!"

It seems there had been some "communication" at home, but sadly, neither Lillian Winters nor Max Wells took his words seriously.

But how could a family like theirs possibly heed a child’s words?

So, the couple casually had another child.

Nick Zeller stood by, frowning heavily at the scene.

He didn’t have the patience to deal with all the back-and-forth between Lucy Winters and Lillian Winters, so to avoid trouble, he decided to put things plainly from the start.

So, before Lillian Winters’s family left the room, Nick Zeller gave a heavy cough and said, "It’s good that everyone is here today, so I want to clear things up."

"I’ve already had a lawyer draft my testament."

The ears of everyone in the room immediately perked up. Even Gabrielle Winters and Lawrence Winters exchanged puzzled glances, clearly unaware of this.

Nick Zeller walked over to Gabrielle Winters and Lawrence Winters, continuing, "I’ve already accepted Lawrence as my disciple and plan to pass on my legacy to her."

"All of my assets will also be hers."

"Second Sister, Little Sister, just take care of your own kids; don’t bother worrying about me."

"In the future, Lawrence will take care of my old age and funeral, so you don’t have to worry."

Lillian Winters felt a pang in her chest and couldn’t help but shout, "Big Brother, aren’t you being too biased?! – Giving all your assets to Lawrence, do you even consider Second Sister and me as family?! How can you be so heartless!"

Max Wells was also surprised, but he was more experienced than Lillian Winters and thought to himself, it’s just a testament.

Since you’re not dead yet, changing the testament would only take a moment.

So he quickly shot Lillian Winters a glance, signaling her not to cause too much fuss to avoid leaving no room for maneuver later on.

Lillian Winters understood his meaning and had to suppress her anger, awkwardly changing her tone, "...Big Brother, if you’ve made all the arrangements, of course, we have no objections. But Lawrence..."

She scrutinized Lawrence Winters, "Lawrence is still just a girl, and if she has her own family in the future..."

Max Wells raised an eyebrow and quickly said, "Big Brother, right, if you take Lawrence as a disciple, she becomes a Heavenly Master. She can’t marry or have children either! Then the Winters family’s lineage would still be broken!"

Nick Zeller replied coldly, "That’s none of your concern. The matters of our Heavenly Masters are decided by the master. If I say she can marry, she can."

Max Wells: "..."

Fine, you’re ruthless.

He didn’t say more and gave Lillian Winters another glance.

Lillian Winters quickly approached, awkwardly smiling, "Then we won’t stay for New Year’s Eve dinner; we’re in a rush to take the kids to the hospital."

Connor Wells suddenly remembered something and loudly said, "Uncle! You haven’t given me my New Year’s money yet!"

Every year, the New Year’s money Nick Zeller gave was the biggest, and it was the main reason Connor Wells would at least come to Gabrielle Winters’s house to pay New Year’s greetings.

Nick Zeller chuckled and said, "New Year’s money, huh? Well, your dad hasn’t given it yet!"

Today, out of the four families, only Martin Saunders, Lucy Winters’s husband, had given New Year’s money to the kids.

Max Wells originally intended to use this opportunity to skip giving the New Year’s money, planning to leave once Connor Wells received the big envelope from Nick Zeller.

But he didn’t expect Nick Zeller to remember even this little detail.

He had to squeeze out a smile and took out two red envelopes from his pocket, giving one to Lawrence Winters and another to a kid.

Lawrence Winters accepted his red envelope and, smiling, handed it to Nick Zeller.

Nick Zeller swiftly passed it on to Connor Wells, smiling, "Here’s your New Year’s money from Uncle."

Connor Wells widened his eyes in surprise, "But this red envelope is the one dad just gave to my cousin! I don’t want it!"

There were only two hundred yuan inside, which he didn’t care for.

The envelope Nick Zeller gave was at least a thousand yuan, in recent years, it had been several thousand.

Trying to dismiss him with his dad’s envelope made him feel cheated!

Nick Zeller withdrew his hand and stuffed the envelope into Gabrielle Winters’s hand, smiling, "If you don’t want Uncle’s, how about Aunt’s?"

Gabrielle Winters understood, smiling, and stuffed the red envelope that Max Wells had given to Lawrence Winters into Connor Wells’s hand, saying, "This is from Aunt. If you don’t want it, there won’t be any this year!"

Connor Wells was even more shocked, "Aunt, this isn’t your red envelope!"

Gabrielle Winters smiled even more kindly, "Your dad gave it to your cousin, which makes it your cousin’s envelope."

"Your cousin was obedient, and gave it to me, so it’s my envelope."

"Then I giving it to you, what’s the problem?"

Gabrielle Winters spoke in a circle, like a set of Russian nesting dolls.

Connor Wells was utterly confused by her words, but instinctively understood that if they didn’t want it this year, there really wouldn’t be another chance...

He was furious, feeling it was all his mom’s fault, glared at her, and angrily left with Max Wells.

Lucy Winters immediately followed.

The three of them got into their own car, all feeling unhappy inside.

Max Wells started the car and drove towards the hospital, constantly pondering over the Winters family affairs.

After a while, he suddenly asked Lucy Winters, "Have you ever met your eldest brother-in-law?"

He had met and married Lucy Winters through a matchmaker. At that time, Gabrielle had already settled in River City, and Lawrence Winters was already a few years old.

Lucy Winters shook her head, her face stern, said, "I’ve never met him."

"My eldest sister is the smartest and most beautiful in our family, graduated from a prestigious university elsewhere."

"After graduation, she worked outside, but came back after a few years, still bringing Lawrence, saying she divorced her husband and couldn’t both work and look after the child alone outside, so she returned home to work."

Then she scoffed disdainfully, "See, what’s the use of a woman being pretty and well-educated? She still got dumped by a man..."

Her expression was both contemptuous and smug.

Max Wells chuckled, continued to ask, "And what about your parents, and your second sister? They haven’t seen your eldest brother-in-law either? Did your eldest sister get married without inviting you to the wedding?"

"What wedding?" Lucy Winters snorted, "When mom and dad were alive, they wouldn’t talk about it, saying they were afraid it would hurt my eldest sister."

"Actually, I heard mom and dad mention it once, they said my eldest sister and brother-in-law hadn’t been working long at the time, didn’t have much money, and weren’t planning to have a wedding, so they just registered their marriage, called it a ’bare marriage’."

"My sister had such good prospects, but I heard she didn’t ask for a penny as a bride price."

"You see, men are just that cheap."

"In the end, they got divorced not long after registering."

"If you don’t ask for anything, he feels you’re a burden and when he dumps you, there’s nothing holding him back, he can do it swiftly and neatly."

Max Wells glanced at her, quite agreeing with her, and said with emotion, "That’s true. If a big bride price was given, they would think twice when considering divorce. Otherwise, a large sum of money would be gone."

In River City, it’s customary that if the man initiates the divorce, the woman does not have to return the bride price.

Of course, if the woman is unfaithful, cuckolds the man, then the bride price must be returned upon divorce.

This is all without children involved, if there are children, it gets even more complicated.

Lucy Winters concluded, "So, if marriage is only about being together for love, it definitely won’t last."

"A marriage without any entanglement of interest is no different from living together."

Max Wells was quite surprised, "You really think very clearly."

"Of course, otherwise, with your affairs outside, if it were my sister, there would definitely be an uproar, and then she’d leave empty-handed, benefiting you and your mistresses. Do you think I’m that stupid?"

Max Wells laughed a couple of times, still denying, "Don’t listen to the gossip, what mistresses do I have?"

...

After Lucy Winters and her family left, the room felt much more spacious.

Connor Wells was rather overweight, taking up the space of two people alone.

Lucy Winters and Max Wells were also larger than the average person.

So their departure lightened the atmosphere in the room.

Nick Zeller clapped his hands, "Alright, we’ve still got the main courses to be served, everyone sit down, sit, don’t stand on ceremony."

Lillian Winters and Martin Saunders exchanged glances and gradually sat down.

Martin Saunders’ daughter quietly sat next to Lawrence Winters, wanting to say something but hesitated.

Lawrence Winters ignored her, watching as the private room door opened, and the restaurant manager led a team of waiters to serve the main courses.

There was freshly roasted sugar-brown duck.

Steamed big red hairy crabs tightly wrapped in a large white porcelain plate.

A large bowl of poached tiger prawns in a blue and white porcelain basin.

Everyone got a bowl of premium bird’s nest soup.

Finally, each person received a freshly steamed large lobster.

The restaurant manager smiled and introduced, "These are lobsters flown in from Australia, very fresh, limited in quantity, and only because Mr. Zeller is our restaurant’s senior VIP were we able to allocate these few. — Please enjoy."

After she left with her staff, Nick Zeller gave the three extra lobsters to Gabrielle Winters, Lawrence Winters, and Martin Saunders’ daughter.

The three of them each got to enjoy two steamed lobsters.

Gabrielle Winters didn’t particularly like seafood, so she pushed her one extra plate towards Nick Zeller, smiling, "Big brother, this one is for you, you and Lawrence both like this."