Ch 71: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

The long-standing feud between the two families, brewing for four to five days, finally concluded with Liang Qianling continuing to live in the Song household.

The people in their circle watched as Song Yun openly brought his mistress and illegitimate child home, while the Liang family made no move to defend Liang Qianling. It became crystal clear—when the Liang family said they were cutting ties, they meant it.

Some ladies who had long disdained Liang Qianling sneered, saying, “The Liang family finally got rid of a huge trouble, leaving it to continue plaguing the Song family instead.”

Of course, no one had any sympathy for the Song family’s future.

While true love was rare among wealthy and aristocratic families, even couples who didn’t love each other maintained a certain decorum. Bringing an illegitimate child home was a line that, once crossed, invited nothing but contempt.

Not to mention, Song Yun didn’t just bring back his illegitimate child—he had Liang Qianling and his mistress live under the same roof, as if his family were the pinnacle of high society.

His family background hadn’t risen, yet he had perfectly mastered the art of keeping mistresses, as if he had studied under the best.

Moreover, rumors about the Song family’s private affairs had begun circulating. For instance, the ever-gentle and refined Song Yun was keeping a mistress outside while emotionally manipulating his wife at home.

Even calling him “ruthless” would be an understatement.

The Song family, whose reputation had never been stellar, was utterly ruined in Song Yun’s hands. In a way, he had truly fulfilled his own potential.

With the Liang family taking the lead, several other families also began targeting the Song family in business. In the coming years, perhaps even decades, the Song family’s status was bound to plummet.

—

While the upper circles of Nan City were busy gossiping about the Liang and Song families, a high-tech laboratory in the suburbs was shrouded in dead silence.

Standing in a row, four members of a pharmaceutical research team bore the brunt of Yu Zheng’s fury. Their faces were pale, and their hearts pounded with anxiety.

They didn’t dare lift their heads to look at their boss. After three years of effort and nearly a billion in funding, the project had once again failed. They were too ashamed to face him.

Yu Zheng suppressed his anger, slowly wiping his glasses with a cloth. His voice was unnaturally calm, as if he hadn’t just lost his temper.

“If Plan A doesn’t work, switch to Plan B. I want to see progress in three months.”

“U-understood!”

A moment later, Yu Zheng placed his gold-rimmed glasses back on the bridge of his nose, casting a cold glance at the four before him. His expression had already returned to its usual impassiveness. “Leave.”

The fact that Ren Qingqing’s failure had rendered the system’s marketplace useless was now an irreversible reality. Their only option was to develop the drug as soon as possible.

What puzzled Yu Zheng was that it wasn’t surprising for Ren Qingqing to suffer backlash from the system upon failing, but why had the system itself collapsed because of her failure?

At the time, he had suspected the presence of other system holders, so he had decisively severed his connection with the system Ren Qingqing carried.

If other system holders truly existed, some of his plans would need to change.

Seeing that Yu Zheng had calmed down, the four researchers secretly breathed a sigh of relief and quietly exited the lab. The last one out closed the door as lightly as possible.

Just as Yu Zhiyan arrived, he ran into the four leaving.

The research team stiffened at the sight of Yu Zhiyan. They weren’t exactly afraid of him, but they felt deeply unsettled in his presence.

Especially when they met his smiling, squinting eyes—goosebumps ran down their spines. They were terrified that, in the next second, he might pull out a knife and slash at them without warning.

A man who had been a test subject for experimental drugs day after day for ten years… Could he even still be considered human?

To them, Yu Zhiyan was no different from a monster.

Yu Zhiyan didn’t say anything, but seeing the fear on their faces, he could guess a few things. He casually swung the black leather cord in his hand and let out a light chuckle.

How many times had they failed now?

He had to admit, Yu Zheng was truly wealthy—squandering over a decade without bankrupting the family assets.

Having the project fail before the New Year wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. At the very least, this year, he wouldn’t have to curl up in a hospital bed, enduring the needle-like pain in his body while battling the mental fog brought on by the drugs. He wouldn’t have to stare out the window at the fireworks, waiting hopelessly for a phone call wishing him a happy new year.

Yu Zhiyan pulled open the door and knocked lightly on the inner side. His gaze lowered slightly, his expression respectful.

“Dad.”

Inside the lab, Yu Zheng was busy at his computer, handling investigations from Old Master Shen and other troublesome figures. Upon hearing the voice, he didn’t even lift his eyes.

His cold voice echoed through the room, lightly determining someone’s fate for the foreseeable future.

“You won’t be returning to No. 2 High when school resumes. Stay in the lab and cooperate with the medical team. You spent months there but brought back nothing useful about Ruan Cha—just a bunch of tails.”

Tails?

Yu Zhiyan was puzzled. Who was investigating?

Ruan Cha?

That seemed unlikely. Just looking at Ren Qingqing’s miserable downfall, it was clear Ruan Cha hadn’t been harmed. By all logic, Ruan Cha shouldn’t have linked him to Ren Qingqing.

A flood of speculations ran through Yu Zhiyan’s mind, but his face remained calm.

“Alright.”

Being able to attend a normal school for even a semester had already been a rare privilege. He couldn’t ask for too much. The more he got used to the light, the easier it was to get addicted, forgetting the persistence that had carried him this far.

Steadying his thoughts, Yu Zhiyan stated his reason for coming.

“I want to see—”

“Impossible.”

Yu Zheng didn’t pause his work, not even giving Yu Zhiyan the chance to finish. He didn’t bother explaining, nor did he provide an excuse. His response was as cold as if he weren’t addressing a person at all.

“Leave.”

Seeing this, Yu Zhiyan lowered his gaze, hiding the emotions in his eyes. Yet, he didn’t argue—he had long expected this answer.

—

Compared to the heavy atmosphere in the lab, the Liang household was much livelier.

Liang Cunjin stood on a stool, holding up a horizontal banner. He turned his head slightly and asked loudly,

“Is it straight?”

With the Lunar New Year approaching, everyone in the Liang family was busy with a thorough cleaning, making sure not a single corner was overlooked.

Some families preferred putting up Spring Festival couplets around the 28th of the last lunar month, but the Liang family had been spooked by the ominous jade bracelet and eerie happenings in the garden recently. Using their connections with Old Master Shen, they had acquired several charms for warding off bad luck. After placing those around the house, they decided to put up the Spring Festival decorations—couplets, “Fu” characters, and window paper cuttings—all at once, hoping to bring in some festive cheer and dispel any lingering misfortune.

Standing below, Ruan Cha tilted her head slightly, carefully examining the banner in Liang Cunjin’s hands. She cupped her hands around her mouth and called out instructions.

“A little to the left—lower your right hand—hey, hey, that’s too low! Move it up a bit more.”

“There, perfect! Second Brother, paste it!”

“Got it!”

Liang Cunjin clapped his hands and firmly pressed the banner onto the wall.

Once he safely climbed down from the stool, Ruan Cha gave him a big thumbs-up and praised him earnestly.

“Second Brother, your banner placement skills are amazing! It’s so perfectly straight—most people couldn’t do it this well!”

Hearing this, Liang Cunjin grinned and pinched Ruan Cha’s cheek, returning the compliment in a playful tone.

“It’s all thanks to our Cha Cha’s great direction! With our teamwork, no one can beat us!”

Feeling a bit left out, Ruan Zhengfei grumbled in dissatisfaction.

“Alright, alright, it’s just a banner. How perfectly straight can it really be? Cha Cha, hurry up! It’s time for our New Year’s gift exchange.”

The gift exchange was purely a Ruan family tradition. Every year before the Spring Festival, they would exchange carefully prepared presents with each other, calling it their way of “sharing good fortune.”

After hearing about it from Ruan Cha, Liang Cunjin had quickly spread the word to the rest of the family. Even Liang Cunhuai, who was still on his way back home, had been notified and had prepared gifts to hand out the moment he arrived.

Ruan Zhengfei had been eagerly looking forward to his daughter’s gift. A few days ago, he had seen Ruan Cha personally making a pair of cufflinks. Even though he never wore cufflinks, if Cha Cha made them herself, he would wear them every day!

From then on, whenever he met an acquaintance—especially Ye Zhi—he could show off by touching his cufflinks and proudly saying, “Cha Cha made these by hand!”

Ruan Zhengfei nudged Ruan Cha. “Cha Cha, you’re the youngest, so let’s see yours first!”

Hearing this, Ruan Cha didn’t hesitate and asked the housekeeper to help bring out a large box she had prepared in advance.

“I was a bit lazy this time,” she admitted, “so I prepared almost the same gift for everyone.”

Ruan Zhengfei: “???”

Did she make cufflinks for the whole family?

As she finished speaking, Ruan Cha lifted the lid of the box and first took out the gift she had prepared for Old Master Liang.

It turned out to be a handmade ceramic mug. The glossy glazed surface was painted with a chibi-style old man holding a cane. On the short-sleeved shirt he wore, the character “一” (one) was written.

After Old Master Liang accepted the gift, Ruan Cha beamed sweetly and said in a crisp voice, “Grandpa, Happy New Year! Wishing you health and happiness in the coming year!”

“Same to you, same to you! Thank you, Cha Cha.”

Old Master Liang’s smile was so wide that his eyes almost disappeared. He rarely received gifts from the younger generation, let alone a gift they had made by hand.

The moment he held the ceramic cup, he couldn’t put it down. He wanted to display it on his antique shelf immediately, unwilling to use it for drinking tea.

The remaining cups Ruan Cha took out all had chibi drawings of different family members, each uniquely tailored to highlight their features. Even Liang Cunjin and Liang Cunhuai, who were similar in age and gender, could be easily distinguished at a glance.

After all the cups were distributed, and blessings were exchanged, the family members were all smiles. Even the usually stern Liang Zongqi softened his expression.

For the first time in his life, he felt that his wife had been right all along—having a daughter really was more heartwarming than having sons.

When the eight cups were lined up on the coffee table, the whole family finally noticed the characters written on the clothes of the chibi figures.

Together, they formed a phrase: “A big family, happy and harmonious.”

All eight characters were present, representing each family member, including Ruan Cha herself and even Liang Cunhuai, who had yet to return. Not a single one was missing.

After laughing for a while, Old Master Liang’s eyes turned slightly red. As people grew older, wasn’t their greatest wish simply for the family to be happy, harmonious, and united?

Thinking about the chaos Liang Qianling had stirred up in the Song family, Old Master Liang sighed bitterly. It had been a long time since he had seen his late wife in his dreams—perhaps she was blaming him for failing to set their second son straight.

Meanwhile, Ruan Zhengfei, who received the cup with the character “合” (harmony) on it, was staring at the chibi version of himself holding a property deed with a conflicted expression.

Was he happy? Of course, he was! How could he not love a gift his daughter made with her own hands? But at the same time, he felt an itch in his heart, like a cat scratching at it. He held back for a while but ultimately couldn’t resist. Coughing lightly, he asked,

“Cha Cha, where are the cufflinks you made?”

Hearing this, Ruan Cha blinked in surprise, scratching her head as she replied, “The cufflinks were a birthday gift for Fu Chen. Dad, do you like cufflinks? Next time, I’ll see if I can find some pretty stones. If I do, I’ll make you a few pairs.”

To her, making a pair of cufflinks wasn’t something particularly noteworthy. Not to mention the birthday gift Fu Chen had given her—just during the last basketball game, Fu Chen had directly handed her the team’s only small gold medal.

She had spent plenty of idle time fiddling with that little gold medal ever since.

Ruan Zhengfei: !!!

That damn brat!