Chapter 324 - 208: Quite Springy
At these words, the expression on Alister's face changed in an instant.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" He gave a dry laugh and sniffled. "Interesting. So the news that I'm the only biological child is finally going to come out? After all, my father wasn't exactly handsome."
"By the way," he said, eager to try, "do you think I have a shot at playing football?"
Li Wei sized him up from head to toe.
"Of course," he said. "You want to *be* the football?"
"Fack you," Alister Mellon said, not at all angry, but with a grin. "How did it feel to sleep with my beautiful niece? I see you have a girlfriend, right? Does she know about this?"
Li Wei's eyebrow twitched. He suddenly felt like there was something wrong with the man in front of him, as if he weren't entirely human.
He was just about to say something when he caught the sound of hurried high heels approaching them.
He first thought it was Elizabeth, but listening closely, the footsteps were much heavier.
Turning his head, he saw a mature blonde woman in her fifties, dressed in a well-fitting, dark, pinstriped suit, walking over quickly and cutting their conversation short.
She first politely shook Li Wei's hand. "Silvia Aester," she said with an elegant smile. "I'm the Chief Legal Counsel for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation."
"Wow," Li Wei said, shaking her hand. "A pleasure. I'm Li Wei."
"Liz often mentions you to us," she said, raising her champagne glass with a smile. "You're an incredible miracle, an absolute genius."
You don't slap a smiling face. Since Silvia was being so polite, Li Wei felt it wouldn't be appropriate to say anything more harsh to Alister.
"Thank you," he said, politely clinking glasses with Silvia. "Liz often mentions you all to me as well."
Hearing this, Alister immediately covered his mouth and simulated a series of farting noises.
"Fucking bullshit," he scoffed. "Everyone in this family either wants to fuck each other to death or be fucked to death by each other."
"Alister, come here for a moment," Silvia said, her eyebrows shooting up in anger. "There's something I need to talk to you about."
"Yes, Mommy," Alister said with a smile, giving a Boy Scout salute before kissing his companion's hand. "Go on, baby. If you decide to have sex with this handsome guy here, remember to call me midway through so I can listen in."
"Ew~" The smile on his companion's face stiffened. "Alister, what the hell are you talking about?"
"Bye-bye, Li Wei, I like you," Alister said, waving at Li Wei. "Let's grab a drink sometime."
Li Wei shook his head and drained the champagne from his glass.
Alister's companion gave Li Wei a helpless shrug, then scurried after Alister and Silvia as they disappeared.
'So many immortals, lined up like hemp stalks,' Li Wei mused to himself, watching Alister's retreating back.
"Oh, there you are!"
A voice called out, and Elizabeth walked over with light steps.
"I just ran into someone who called himself your uncle," Li Wei said, smiling as he clinked glasses with her. "Named Alister Mellon."
"Oh!" Elizabeth took a sip of champagne, her cheeks flushing slightly. "I hope he didn't say anything too offensive."
"Not at all," Li Wei said after a moment's thought. "What I said was probably much worse."
Elizabeth burst out laughing with a *pfft*, then immediately covered her mouth with her hand and coughed twice, "Ahem, ahem," to keep from losing her composure at the event.
"He's like a spoiled child," she said. "Always spouting nonsense."
"He was dragged away by a woman named Silvia," Li Wei said after thinking for a moment. "She said she's the Chief Legal Counsel for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Alister Mellon seemed to be quite afraid of her."
"Ah..." Elizabeth paused. "Yes, she's my grandfather's right-hand woman. Within the entire Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, her influence is basically in the top three."
"The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is not like the branch foundations that Charlie or I have," she said, taking another sip of champagne. "It's the largest and most asset-rich charitable foundation in the entire Mellon Family, controlling funds exceeding tens of billions of USD. It's the largest investor in the arts, humanities, and higher education in the United States of America."
"That does sound impressive." Li Wei nodded, a little stunned.
"Right?" Elizabeth said with a sigh. "That kind of power... it's truly something to aspire to."
She looked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and pointed it out to Li Wei. "Did you know? The legally required annual donation for every foundation is 5%. For a charitable foundation that manages tens of billions of USD, the annual required donation is over several billion USD."
"Who gets that money? Which art center gets funded? Which hospital, which university gets naming rights?" She tilted her head, counting on her fingers. "The underlying contracts and compliance reviews for all these grants have to go through Silvia."
"And the main reason Alister is so afraid of her," she paused, then continued, "is that Grandfather granted her the right to interpret the trust framework agreement. If she wanted to, she could legally freeze or restrict Alister's cash flow."
"She certainly sounds incredibly powerful," Li Wei nodded. "An annual donation of several billion USD is a truly astronomical figure."
"It is," Elizabeth lamented. "Unfortunately, none of this has much to do with me. The foundation will most likely end up in the hands of Charles Mellon's father, Timothy Mellon."
Li Wei remained noncommittal. After chatting with Elizabeth for a while, he brought up the matter of Julian:
"There should be some progress with Julian's situation this coming Monday," he said, casually glancing at the people around them.
"Mark is ready," he said, placing his champagne glass on a passing waiter's tray. "Before the end of the workday yesterday afternoon, he officially sent an anonymous tip to the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Damon. I'm sure Julian will be dealt with on Monday."
"So," he shrugged, "with a month and a half left until Christmas, I think Charles Mellon has already missed his window to make a move against our foundation."
Elizabeth's eyes lit up. She stared at Li Wei's profile, her heart suddenly racing, unsure of what to say.
In her mind, the measure of an excellent man wasn't how handsome he was, nor how much money he had, but his ability to solve problems.
For Elizabeth, who had grown up in such a family environment, Li Wei was now more handsome than all the other men in the world combined.
She gazed at his sharp jawline and Adam's apple, suddenly feeling an intense urge to kiss him hard.
'Too bad he's Anya's boyfriend.'
'But I came first,' she thought, feeling a little discouraged.
Just as Elizabeth's mind was racing, wondering how she could steal Li Wei away from Anya, a grating, flippant voice interjected once again, lingering like a persistent ghost.
"Looks like I might be interrupting a wonderfully romantic moment?"
Li Wei and Elizabeth turned around at the same time and saw a head peeking out from behind a nearby door, looking relaxed and comfortable.
Having captured their attention, Alister walked back over, holding a fresh martini and accompanied by his hot-bodied female companion.
He didn't look at all like someone who had just been dragged off and scolded by Silvia.
Elizabeth quickly composed herself and looked coolly at her nominal uncle.
"Uncle Alister," she said coldly, "Silvia finished your lesson so quickly."
"What? Oh, yes," he shrugged. "She said I was a bad boy, then spanked my ass in the bathroom while she jacked me off."
After saying this, he looked at the expressions on Li Wei's and Elizabeth's faces and suddenly laughed neurotically.
"What? Am I just kidding? Or maybe I'm not? After all, Silvia is a real cougar, isn't she?" He then wrapped his arm around the waist of the blonde woman beside him, pushing her forward slightly. "Come on, Liz, let me introduce you. This is Amanda."
Neither Elizabeth nor Li Wei had any impression of the woman before them.
Elizabeth gave a polite little nod, and just as she was about to offer a perfunctory "Pleased to meet you," Alister continued:
"Amanda is a top-tier call girl," Alister said, pinching Amanda's waist, which earned him a slap on the hand. "I'm almost in love with her. Isn't she just a little minx?"
The look of disgust on Elizabeth's face was almost impossible to hide. She took half a step closer to Li Wei, as if Alister were carrying some sort of contagious disease.
"Why are you telling me this? That's your private life," she said coldly.
"Don't be so cold, we're family, connected by blood." Alister leaned in with a grin and lowered his voice. "I was thinking, for the family Christmas dinner this December, what if I brought Chloe back and sat her next to old brother Timothy or Beatrice... What do you think? Would the old man get so angry he'd have a stroke on the spot and leave all his inheritance to me?"
"That's not funny, Alister," Elizabeth cut him off mercilessly, not even calling him 'uncle' this time. "If you want to piss off Grandfather, you can go drop your pants in his study yourself. Don't drag innocent people into it."
"Tsk, tsk, such a little puritan who can't take a joke. Just like your rigid old man," Alister muttered, pursing his lips.
"Speaking of the old man... Liz, do you know his whereabouts lately?" he asked nonchalantly. "How has he been?"
Elizabeth froze for a second. "Since when is it my place to inquire about Grandfather's whereabouts?"
"Oh," Alister said, as if suddenly understanding. "Alright then."
He downed the martini in his glass, casually shoved the empty glass into Amanda's hand, and then straightened the collar of his suit.
"Anyway, Liz," Alister said, spreading his arms slightly, "welcome back to the family after all these years."
Seeing his open arms, Elizabeth instinctively shrank back toward Li Wei, her rear end landing directly on the back of Li Wei's hand, which he was using to support himself.
'Pretty bouncy,' Li Wei suddenly thought.
Seeing Elizabeth's reaction, Alister immediately spun around and hugged the call girl, Amanda, pretending nothing had happened.
"Let's go, Amanda," he said, swaggering away with his arm around Amanda, whose face was stiff from smiling so much. "You'd better prepare well for this year's family dinner."
"He's really lost his mind."
Elizabeth shook her head.
Li Wei, however, felt there was a hidden meaning behind the question Alister had just asked. He watched Alister's disappearing back thoughtfully, saying nothing.