The moment they saw Ling Yun, a flash of surprise went through the Jiang family members' faces — and after the surprise, unmistakable discomfort appeared in both Jiang Xiusu's and Jiang Jingcheng's eyes.
"Ling Yun — you're back?"
Through the awkwardness, Jiang Jingcheng stood up.
"Mm." Ling Yun didn't answer with words, just that single syllable. And then he didn't look at Jiang Jingcheng — the man he had called older brother for eighteen years. Instead, he fixed his gaze directly on Jiang Xiusu and Wu Meiyun's eyes. He wanted to know their position.
Ling Yun's stare was too pointed for Jiang Xiusu to ignore.
With a trace of discomfort, Jiang Xiusu looked at Ling Yun and then abruptly went stern. "How is it you come home without even calling out to your mother and father? Where are your manners?"
The words meant: he still acknowledges me.
Maybe he'd been overthinking it earlier. His parents hadn't meant to drive him away.
The watery haze in Ling Yun's eyes dissipated with that conclusion. At the same time, the exact same brilliant, swaggering smile he'd always worn spread back across his face. As long as his parents still claimed him — that was all that mattered. He'd been furious, heartbroken, and self-reproachful since learning the truth. But eighteen years of family love wasn't something you could simply cut away. He genuinely cared about the people he'd grown up with. They had given him eighteen carefree, happy years.
Eighteen years of being completely, unconditionally loved.
"Dad, Mom, Big Brother — I'm home." Ling Yun ignored the stranger sitting in the room with an expression that said I've won, and walked lightly toward the family.
"Good, good — welcome home."
Jiang Jingcheng moved to meet him and clapped him firmly on the shoulder.
He and his father had genuinely been taken completely off guard. They had had absolutely no idea their mother had gone ahead on her own and brought the long-lost child back. The moment he'd spotted Yang Qing in the house, he was just as stunned as his father. But what was done was done, and they couldn't exactly say something hurtful to the newly returned brother, so they'd defaulted to going along with it.
And then, as if their luck couldn't get any worse, barely a few minutes into this barely-acknowledged reunion, the very Ling Yun they'd supposedly driven away had walked back through the door — leaving them no chance for any explanation at all. Absolutely terrible timing.
In that instant, Jiang Jingcheng's goodwill toward the just-arrived Yang Qing evaporated entirely.
"Mom, I'm home." Ling Yun looked at Wu Meiyun, sitting pressed close to the stranger, and worked hard to hide the longing in his eyes.
"Ling… Ling Yun is home." Wu Meiyun was in a panicked mess right now. She couldn't even meet Ling Yun's eyes. She genuinely had not anticipated the two children meeting like this. She had assumed the proud, spirited Ling Yun had truly left the Jiang house — and Yang Qing had been calling her constantly, telling her how much he missed her, so in a moment of impulse she'd brought him home. She hadn't expected Ling Yun to walk back in.
If she'd known, she never would have done anything this foolish.
Look at this. A complete deadlock. Everyone was unbearably uncomfortable.
"Mom." Just as Wu Meiyun was about to say something more to Ling Yun, a small, awestruck, timid voice broke out — soft, but in the wide living room, it landed like a thunderclap.
"Yangyang — what is it?"
Yang Qing's hand gripped Wu Meiyun's arm tightly. The pinch of pain jolted her attention straight to Yang Qing.
One look at her biological son's malnourished face and she forgot everything else she had been about to say to Ling Yun.
Compared to the thoroughly well-developed Ling Yun in every way, her own child clearly needed her care and attention so much more.
"Yangyang, what is it — are you unwell, or —"
A stream of concerned words poured from Wu Meiyun's mouth, and the sight of it made Ling Yun's eyes go wet. In unguarded moments, a person's instincts never lied.
The bond he had with this family was never coming back. The mother in front of him was no longer the mother who had once devoted herself completely to him.
"Mom — is that the brother who was switched with me?" Yang Qing looked up at the handsome Ling Yun with a timid, shrinking expression, pulling his already-thin frame even smaller.
What the—? Where did this white lotus come from? The nerve.
The moment Yang Qing spoke, Ling Yun understood exactly what this person was. While his contempt rose, he also understood: his very presence was going to needle Jiang Xiusu and Wu Meiyun's hearts. Because comparison breeds pain. And the heart naturally favored its own.
Yikes. The white lotus is going for the jugular. White lotus confirmed.
"Yangyang — this is Ling Yun. And…" Wu Meiyun glanced at Ling Yun's bright, unrattled expression, then turned back to Yang Qing with a soothing murmur. "You can call him big brother if you'd like. From now on, we're all family. Don't be afraid of him — he's just like this. He doesn't mean anything by it."
She stroked Yang Qing's face with concern, eyes falling on the boy's rough skin, a flash of pain and regret crossing her expression.
All her fault for not raising the child properly. She'd wronged this boy so deeply.
Wu Meiyun's distress affected Jiang Xiusu in turn. After all, Yang Qing was his child too. The contrast between the boy's condition and Ling Yun's was genuinely stark. They owed this child so much.
Even as he felt dissatisfied with Yang Qing's meekness, Jiang Xiusu's guilt ran just as deep.
"Ling… Ling Yun big brother." Yang Qing was obedient — he addressed Ling Yun however Wu Meiyun told him to.
But Ling Yun had absolutely no desire to respond.
He still remembered the look in Yang Qing's eyes when he'd first walked in — that faint, barely-concealed smugness. Nothing like someone seeing him for the first time. Narrowing his eyes, Ling Yun studied Yang Qing from above.
Something was off about this person.
"Ling Yun — Yang Qing is calling you! Are you ignoring him? Do you think you're better than him?" Wu Meiyun's voice cut in, sharp with displeasure. Right now, she was like a mother animal protecting her young — tense, defensive, and suspicious of everything.
Seeing the fury and resentment on Wu Meiyun's face, Ling Yun felt like he'd swallowed something foul.
Oh no. The white lotus had played him.
"Mom, Ling Yun doesn't even know Yang Qing yet — shouldn't you introduce them first before anything else?" Jiang Jingcheng, who'd already taken a dislike to Yang Qing, naturally took Ling Yun's side.
Ling Yun shot Jiang Jingcheng a grateful look. The five percent shares had been worth it.
"Jingcheng. Yang Qing is your brother. Your real brother." Each word was enunciated with deliberate clarity. Wu Meiyun's maternal anxiety toward Yang Qing had crowded out every other consideration.
"Mom!"
Jiang Jingcheng was stunned that Wu Meiyun would say something like this in front of Ling Yun.
"Mom…" The word died in Ling Yun's throat. He knew this was the last time he would call Wu Meiyun that. He looked at her — at the suspicion and hostility toward him plain in her eyes — and his own eyes quickly filled with tears.
He was upset too, wasn't he?
It wasn't as if he'd asked to be switched at birth. But somehow, right now, everyone was looking at him as though he'd gotten away with the most enormous theft. Fine. He'd give everything back. He'd repay the debt of being raised.
"Ling Yun, go back to your room. I need to speak with your mother."
Jiang Xiusu's voice — and the fact that his manner toward Ling Yun had not noticeably changed — gave Ling Yun's shredded heart a tiny measure of comfort. He turned to face him.
"Dad…"
Even now, Jiang Xiusu hadn't abandoned him.
"Thud!"
Just as Ling Yun was about to do as Jiang Xiusu said and return to his room, Yang Qing, without warning, dropped to his knees in front of Wu Meiyun and wrapped his arms around her legs, sobbing. "Mom — it's all my fault. I shouldn't have come back to the Jiang family. I'm only making things difficult for everyone. I'll go — if I go, you won't have to struggle like this. You'll be a happy family again."
"Yangyang — Yangyang — my child — it's our fault, we're the ones who failed you — you mustn't blame yourself — this has always been your home — where would you go — you can't leave Mom again — don't say things that break Mom's heart — Mom can't take it, wuwu…"
Clutching Yang Qing, Wu Meiyun wept openly, every trace of the gracious society lady gone.
The white lotus is trying to force me out.
Ling Yun saw Yang Qing's true aim clearly. He was unwilling — but in the end, he let a brilliant, youthful smile break across his face. Fine. He'd leave. Without the Jiang name, he really had no right to stay.
"Meiyun!"
Jiang Xiusu watched his wife and Yang Qing clinging to each other and weeping, and while he was shocked, his frown deepened. As an adult, he could read Yang Qing's tactics plainly. Which was exactly why he felt so guilty toward Ling Yun — a child he'd loved for eighteen years.
"Xiusu! You want to drive me and my child to our deaths, don't you? Is that it — do you want a new wife?!"
Hearing Jiang Xiusu's warning, Wu Meiyun snapped her head up and glared at Ling Yun with red, swollen eyes full of raw hate.
"Meiyun — stop twisting things."
Seeing Wu Meiyun's unhinged expression, Jiang Xiusu swallowed every other word he'd been about to say.
"Mom — calm down, calm down, just breathe." Jiang Jingcheng was in a panic.
Looking at the family huddled together in their warmth and turmoil, Ling Yun felt his heart go cold as a vault. For the first time, he understood with absolute clarity exactly where he stood in this family — and that the trust without shared blood was, in the end, nearly impossible.
It was time to let go. What couldn't be forced wasn't worth forcing. The more he'd loved, the more completely he was done.
Eighteen years of family, dissolved without a trace — all because of a blood connection that wasn't there.
"Young Lord Ling. The Fourth Master invites you to come to the main house." Just as Ling Yun's heart turned to ash, the Jiang family's front door was pushed wide open, and Luo Hu returned with a full entourage of bodyguards in the doorway.
"Little Uncle?"
Ling Yun's eyes moved. And suddenly he was overwhelmed with grievance.
They all think they can pick on me because I have no one watching my back, do they? Fine. We'll see.
