Our Love Story: Hard to Guard Against the Sudden Love Strike-Chapter 499 - 475: Bird Business

Seeing his old friend reluctant to reveal the Thorne Family’s dowry, Old Master Grant leaned in and asked, "Then what betrothal gifts did the Forrester Family offer?"

Old Master Forrester glanced at his old friend, thinking, it seems you won’t rest until you dig out some information today, Grant.

Old Master Forrester smiled, shifted his gaze to the artificial lake in front of him, and casually said, "All told, it’s about two billion."

Old Master Grant was shocked: "That’s more than you offered when your son got married!"

Old Master Forrester chuckled, quite pleased, "Of course, I’m a hundred percent satisfied with this granddaughter-in-law! In the future, when she gives the Forrester Family an heir, I’ll reward her handsomely!"

Old Master Grant snorted, starting to stretch his old limbs, and said while stretching, "After all, your daughter-in-law’s family is wealthy in the South. When she got married back then, you gave them one hundred million in betrothal gifts, and they gave back two hundred million in dowry. But this time, with what you’ve given Quentin’s illegitimate daughter, she’s taken it all away, hasn’t she?"

Old Master Forrester said flatly, "She has taken it away."

Old Master Grant laughed even louder, "I heard the two kids haven’t registered for marriage yet? And you’ve already given the betrothal gifts? That illegitimate daughter is a lawyer by profession, you know. So, these betrothal gifts you gave have surely become her premarital property."

Old Master Forrester: "..."

Old Master Grant saw he didn’t respond, thinking he’d hit the mark, and grew even more smug: "Just a few million or some gold as a token would suffice, after all, it’s clear that she doesn’t have money for a dowry. If your grandson had found someone of equal social standing, your lavish gifts would be icing on the cake. But he picked an illegitimate daughter; then your gifts might as well have been thrown into this lake..."

Old Master Grant’s constant references to "illegitimate daughter" infuriated Old Master Forrester, whose face fell as he growled, "Grant, can you shut up? That’s the Forrester Family’s granddaughter-in-law you’re talking about, what’s with all this ’illegitimate daughter’ business?"

Seeing his friend get riled up, Old Master Grant then joyfully changed the subject.

In the past, when talking about Sienna Thornton with Old Master Forrester, he could restrain himself to give his friend some face, but Quentin’s recent excesses with the illegitimate daughter, throwing a grand party wasn’t enough, he even kicked Ian Grant back to her family.

Old Master Grant was irritated by these events and already didn’t want to hold back his dissatisfaction with Quentin’s illegitimate daughter, even with his decades-long friendship, he didn’t care for face anymore.

The more Quentin focused on that illegitimate daughter, the more upset the Grant Family became.

Old Master Forrester knew what Old Master Grant was thinking, he was too lazy to expose it, though he wasn’t happy inside.

Especially in such cold weather, people easily get irritable. Getting mocked between the lines by Old Master Grant just now, even if Old Master Forrester wasn’t a gossipy person, he surely had to respond, or he wouldn’t be able to eat lunch with such anger.

Deciding on a course of action, Old Master Forrester slowly responded, "Grant, I’ll tell you one thing—the Forrester Family profited by taking in this granddaughter-in-law."

In his initial anger, he wanted to tell Old Master Grant what the Thorne Family had given as dowry, but after hearing what Grant said earlier, he felt it was meaningless to mention, even if he did, Grant would still insist that the Thorne Family had given Sienna only a small portion, and most was left for the legitimate daughter, Mina Thorne.

After all, Old Master Grant surely thought his blood granddaughter was precious and beloved, which is human nature, so Old Master Forrester didn’t want to say more, saying more would only provoke greater dissatisfaction from Old Master Grant towards Sienna Thornton.

It meant nothing.

Old Master Forrester didn’t say more, but his sentence, "The Forrester Family profited by taking in this granddaughter-in-law," still gave Old Master Grant a hint, but no matter how much Old Master Grant questioned him, he only told Grant to go ask Quentin himself.

Old Master Grant wouldn’t dare question his son-in-law? If he dared, he wouldn’t need to come to Old Master Forrester to snoop around. And wanting to inquire, yet every word spoken with a humorous superiority, provoked dissatisfaction in Old Master Forrester, who didn’t disclose anything, instead causing him to utter a few retorts.

.

The two old friends couldn’t see eye to eye and were left in a sour mood, so Old Master Forrester simply took his birdcage back to the old house to warm up.

While hanging the birdcage in the inner courtyard, Simon Forrester came out from the East Wing. Seeing him holding the birdcage, he instantly guessed he’d gone out to meet Old Master Grant.

"Grandpa!" Simon shouted, walking over quickly and lowering his voice, "Did you go out and meet Grandpa Grant?"

"Yeah."

"Did he ask about yesterday’s betrothal gifts?"

"Mm."

Simon Forrester got anxious: "You told him?"

Old Master Forrester laughed, "You think your grandpa’s stupid? Why would I talk about that? I told him to ask his son-in-law himself. Their family affairs aren’t any of our business, are they?"

Hearing this, Simon relaxed and asked no more questions.

The bird in the cage flapped its wings, seemingly asking: If it’s not our business, then why did you take me out earlier?

-

Simon Forrester couldn’t stand staying at the old house for even a night. When the night was dark and the wind was high, he quietly packed his things and sneaked back to Sienna Thornton’s place.

Sienna Thornton, seeing him come again, couldn’t do much about it, she couldn’t very well throw him out. Melinda Linton and Auntie King, seeing the young couple in love, smiled and tacitly approved.

Those days, Sienna Thornton was also quite busy, needing to prepare wedding invitations and wedding cake vouchers to send to friends and family.

Simon Forrester helped her with the preparations.

On the long dining table were stacks of red invitation envelopes, printed gold-stamped invitations, and numerous cake vouchers. Simon and Sienna each took responsibility: one writing the cover of the invitation envelopes, the other placing the cake vouchers and invitations inside.

Simon Forrester’s handwriting was beautiful, vigorous, like it came from a calligraphy copybook.

Sienna Thornton, noticing, praised, "Wow, your handwriting is so beautiful, did you specially train for it?"

"Yeah, I practiced when I was young," Simon Forrester said, picking up the guest list previously drafted by Sienna and complaining, "Your handwriting is really ugly, I’ve never seen such hideous handwriting."

Sienna Thornton: "??? "

She pursed her lips speechlessly, glared at Simon, and huffed, "We were poor kids, where would we find the opportunity to practice calligraphy? Just being literate was a stroke of luck!"

Simon chuckled, lowering his head to write the guest names on the invitation envelopes, his attractive lips curving slightly, saying, "You really look like a top student everywhere, except for your handwriting, which looks like a grade schooler’s."

"As long as it’s legible, who cares about how good it looks?"

Simon Forrester replied casually, "Why don’t you go ask Old Man Thornton why handwriting should look good."

Quentin Thorne’s handwriting was also beautiful, Sienna had seen it. Little did he know his eldest daughter had such poor handwriting. Thinking of Quentin’s attention to detail, Sienna’s scalp tingled, terrified he’d make her practice calligraphy if he found out.

Sienna Thornton took the stack of invitation envelopes with guest names written by Simon and started stuffing the invitations, not wanting to continue the topic, she turned to Simon and asked, "Have you sent out all your invitations?"

"Yesterday, I sent them all."

Sienna Thornton was holding a "The Imperial Hotel" shopping card, and asked, "Your family also uses these cards for wedding cakes?"