Hu Xiaobei glanced at Lin Ya, chuckled, and said in a meaningful, low voice, "The reason it was this easy is because I had a benefactor lending me a hand! Otherwise, things really would’ve gotten a lot messier."

"A benefactor? Where’s this benefactor? How come I don’t see anyone at all!"

As she shot the question back, Lin Ya rose up on tiptoe and looked around everywhere.

But no matter how she looked, Lin Ya couldn’t see anyone else around here.

So of course, she couldn’t see that so‑called benefactor Hu Xiaobei was talking about!

Seeing that Lin Ya really was looking around, Hu Xiaobei’s eyelid twitched; he rubbed his nose with a wry smile.

Hu Xiaobei had discovered that Lin Ya was just like this—sometimes super smart, and sometimes unbelievably dense.

Just as he was feeling helpless about it, Hu Xiaobei saw Lin Ya look back at him!

He had just opened his mouth to say something when he heard Lin Ya urge him softly, "Xiaobei, say something already. Where on earth is this benefactor? I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find them!"

Hearing her press him again, Hu Xiaobei burst out laughing and said with focus in a low voice, "The benefactor is far away in the heavens and right in front of my eyes!"

"Right in front of your eyes?"

Seeing that she was still looking around, Hu Xiaobei sighed and spelled it out more directly: "My dear Sister Lin Ya, the benefactor I’m talking about is you! It’s all because of you that things were so easy to settle!"

"Because of me? I knew you were full of it. I haven’t even said a word from beginning to end—how could it possibly be because of me!"

After hearing what Hu Xiaobei said, Lin Ya shook her head hard!

In her eyes, Hu Xiaobei was totally exaggerating right now.

This whole thing really didn’t have the slightest bit of her contribution, because from start to finish, she hadn’t spoken at all.

Watching her shake her head, Hu Xiaobei smiled lightly and said again with certainty, "It really is because of you!"

"But I already said, I didn’t even say anything! So there’s no way I helped with anything!"

"You don’t need to talk. Just by standing in front of me, I feel like my whole body is full of strength!"

Hearing Hu Xiaobei speak in that slightly exaggerated way, she pressed her lips together and smiled, teasing softly, "Xiaobei, I hadn’t noticed before—you’ve really got a sweet tongue, huh!"

"There’s a lot you haven’t noticed yet!"

Hu Xiaobei smiled lightly...

Seeing how pleased with himself Hu Xiaobei looked, she rolled her eyes at him dramatically. "Say you’re fat and you start panting!"

While Hu Xiaobei and her were bantering like this, those elders still sitting over there drinking tea had already learned about what was happening on this side from their subordinates’ reports.

Once they knew, none of their expressions looked very good.

"What’s wrong with that Cao Meng? He just admitted defeat like that?"

"Exactly! This is practically losing face for the entire family!"

"That’s right!"

Right now they all felt that Cao Meng was completely spineless...

He had actually just yielded to Hu Xiaobei outright.

Hearing their furious complaints, the Great Elder frowned.

He didn’t rush to speak. With a gloomy expression, he poured himself a cup of water...

Once he was done pouring, he picked up the teacup and took a sip!

Before this, he’d thought this tea was quite good, but now he found the taste rather ordinary...

After venting their anger, they looked toward the Great Elder. "Great Elder, what should we do now?"

"Yeah!"

Right now they all felt at a complete loss!

They knew the Great Elder was much smarter than they were, so they wanted to ask him what exactly could be done now.

Hearing their anxious questions, the Great Elder said calmly, "Don’t panic. Things are already like this; getting worked up won’t help."

"We know panicking doesn’t help, but we just can’t help being anxious!"

"Yeah, it’s like our asses are on fire right now!"

Normally, they wouldn’t be this flustered, but this really wasn’t a normal situation...

Hearing them urge him again, the Great Elder let out a sigh!

He knew that getting them to calm down in a short time was going to be very, very hard.

Knowing that, he didn’t keep trying to persuade them. Instead, he rasped out, "This situation really is a bit troublesome, but it’s not like there’s no way to solve it. So I don’t think there’s any need for you to be so upset."

"There’s a way to solve it?"

Speaking up excitedly like that, they all looked at the Great Elder with great enthusiasm.

At this moment they truly admired him...

Because this Great Elder, who had stayed so calm the whole time, was obviously much stronger than they were.

Especially in terms of mindset.

Their own mental states had already blown up, while he was still composed and unruffled.

"Of course there’s a way to solve it!"

"Great Elder, since there’s a way, just tell us! Don’t keep us in suspense!"

"Yeah, yeah, if you don’t tell us soon we’re really going to die of anxiety!"

"That’s right!"

After giving them another look, the Great Elder said directly, "The solution I’ve thought of is to go find Hu Xiaobei right now and express our intention to pledge our allegiance."

"Pledge allegiance? We’re just going to submit like that?"

"That doesn’t sound very good!"

"Yeah!"

After hearing the Great Elder’s words, they all stared at him, dumbfounded.

Before this, they’d thought the Great Elder would come up with a very good idea, but in the end, the plan he offered left them speechless.

Already expecting them to reject it like this, the Great Elder remained completely calm.

"I know you think this is very humiliating, but at this stage, it’s the best plan we’ve got to solve all our problems."

"All our problems? What problems are we even facing?"

They scratched their heads.

They felt like they weren’t on the same wavelength as the Great Elder at all, because they simply didn’t understand what he was saying.

Giving them a glance, the Great Elder spoke evenly: "We’re facing a lot of problems right now. The biggest one is that our relationship with Cao Meng is nearly impossible to smooth over. You all understand that much, right?"

"Yes, we understand!"

They nodded lightly!

They knew that because they’d kept sitting on the fence before, they had definitely offended Cao Meng even more.

So he was surely nursing a deep hatred for all of them...

Seeing them nod, the Great Elder went on, "Now that this person called Hu Xiaobei has defeated Cao Meng, it’s very likely he’ll seize control of our entire family in the future. In that case, we have to go and make nice with Hu Xiaobei. At the very least, we need to make ourselves known to him, or we’ll be targeted later."

"You mean this Hu Xiaobei is going to move against us?"

"Is there no chance of that happening?"

"Well... there really is."

They thought it over and slowly nodded...

They knew the Great Elder’s reasoning made a lot of sense; right now they really did need to hurry up and at least get on his radar, or they probably would end up being targeted.

"Since you all agree, then let’s not waste any more time. Let’s go."

With that soft remark, the Great Elder drained the water in his cup in one gulp...