Before long, a loud slam echoed through the house as Lu Keran stormed downstairs, her face flushed with anger, her expression dark and agitated. Lu Shaoyan remained silent, simply watching.
Unable to hold back any longer, Lu Keran blurted out, “How could she… how could she do something like that?”
Liu Yun had claimed that Lu Keran was Lu Linyuan’s daughter, yet Lu Keran clearly didn’t believe it and kept pressing her with questions. Already shaken and frightened, Liu Yun finally broke under the pressure. Her voice trembled as she admitted that during that time, she had also slept with Zhou Ting.
Although she insisted that Lu Keran must be Lu Linyuan’s child, Lu Keran could feel it—her mother wasn’t certain at all.
That realization hit her like a blow, filling her with both fury and dread. If she wasn’t truly the Lu family’s young lady, she didn’t even dare imagine what kind of situation she would be thrown into. Forget the servants in the house—even the group of girls who used to revolve around her would surely mock her without mercy. She could already hear their laughter, sharp and cutting.
Lu Shaoyan let out a soft chuckle, his tone laced with mockery, “Who would’ve thought Madam Lu is the kind of woman who doesn’t even know who her child’s father is…” His gaze shifted to her as he continued, “Zhou Ting and your mother used my DNA for testing, yet they never tested yours. Seems like whether you are or not doesn’t matter to them.”
The sarcasm in his words was unmistakable. If it had been anyone else, Lu Keran would have already slapped them. But this was Lu Shaoyan. She didn’t dare. More importantly, she knew he was right.
A wave of resentment surged in her chest toward Liu Yun. How could her mother do something so shameless? And with a butler—a servant, of all people.
Memories surfaced unbidden. That bed in the house… the thought of Liu Yun and Zhou Ting entangled together made her stomach churn. Shame and disgust twisted inside her, leaving her breath unsteady.
She would become everyone’s laughingstock.
What hurt even more was Lu Shaoyan’s last remark. It made it sound as if, in Liu Yun and Zhou Ting’s eyes, she didn’t matter at all. Even whose child she was didn’t matter. That thought burrowed deep into her heart, turning her anger into something colder, heavier.
Seeing her increasingly unsettled expression, Lu Shaoyan spoke again, his tone unhurried, “It’s a family scandal. The servants will be ordered to keep their mouths shut. After all, Lu Linyuan still cares about his reputation.”
Lu Keran wasn’t a fool. She had heard of plenty of such filthy affairs in other wealthy families. These kinds of hidden scandals were everywhere, but there was no such thing as a secret that could stay buried forever.
She could already imagine it—people whispering behind her back, saying her mother was that kind of woman, and that she must be the same.
After all, she and her circle had done the same before, gossiping about others without restraint.
Her voice trembled as she asked, “Brother… what if I’m not… not Dad’s biological daughter?”
Her eyes lit up for a moment, but the light quickly dimmed. “Will Dad drive me out?”
“What are you afraid of?” Lu Shaoyan replied indifferently. “Even if you’re driven out, you can go back to the Liu family. Doesn’t the old madam of the Liu family like you? You’ll still be a young lady. You won’t lack money.”
“I don’t want that,” Lu Keran said, shaking her head. “Great-grandmother may like me, but my surname isn’t Liu. And with Mom like this… it’s humiliating. How am I supposed to face anyone in the future?”
In truth, money wasn’t what she cared about. At her age, she didn’t have a clear concept of wealth. Even if she left the Lu family, she would still live a life most people could only dream of.
Her father might not be her biological parent, but her mother was.
What she truly feared was being ridiculed, laughed at, and looked down upon.
Lu Shaoyan watched her anxious, restless state but had no intention of comforting her. Whether she was truly Lu Linyuan’s daughter didn’t matter to him at all. To her, it was a life-shattering revelation. To him, it was trivial.
He even had the leisure to add with a faint smile, “If you’re too embarrassed to face people, then just don’t have any shame.”
Lu Keran bit her lip, her eyes reddening with grievance. Despite the obvious mockery in his words, she didn’t dare retort, nor did she even dare glare at him.
That afternoon, the police arrived, accompanied by the Lu family’s chief legal counsel, Sun Ye.
Earlier, Lu Shaoyan had already received a call from Lu Qingyan. The good news was that Lu Linyuan had suffered a stroke, but he could still barely speak. The incident had dealt him a heavy blow—so heavy that it was hard to say whether it was good or bad.
Another matter was that Lu Linyuan had handed full authority over the company to Lu Qingyan.
As for Lu Shaoyan, Lu Linyuan hadn’t said anything directly. However, during his conversation with Sun Ye, he referred to him as “my son.”
To Lu Qingyan, that was a form of acknowledgment, even if Lu Linyuan clearly had no desire to dwell on this son of his. That complicated feeling was something she could roughly understand. Even she herself couldn’t sort out the tangled emotions in her heart after everything that had happened today.
With Sun Ye handling things, Lu Shaoyan barely needed to speak. His calm, composed demeanor drew several glances from the police officers.
But the nature of the case had already been decided. They were more like people sent to clean up the mess.
Before coming, Director Liu had already set the tone: the Lu family’s young master was mentally ill, the bodies should be taken away, and the case should be quickly closed without making a scene. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
After the police left, Sun Ye went alone to Liu Yun’s room. What they discussed remained unknown, but from the fact that a woman who came with Sun Ye was assigned to take full responsibility for Liu Yun’s care, Lu Shaoyan understood that Liu Yun was effectively placed under house arrest.
Everything would have to wait until Lu Linyuan’s condition either improved or worsened before a final decision could be made.
When Sun Ye came downstairs to bid farewell, Lu Shaoyan shook his hand. “Thank you for your trouble, Lawyer Sun.”
A flicker passed behind Sun Ye’s glasses before he smiled. “It’s what I should do, Young Master Lu.”
“Just call me Shaoyan,” Lu Shaoyan said casually.
Sun Ye nodded in agreement. He was indeed curious about Lu Shaoyan—after all, he had killed two people. From Lu Linyuan’s attitude and arrangements toward Liu Yun, Sun Ye could already guess a few things.
Naturally, he wouldn’t refuse Lu Shaoyan’s courtesy and friendliness.
Lu Linyuan’s condition wasn’t optimistic. Even if he pulled through this time, he would need a long period of recovery, not to mention his age. While it wasn’t as if the Lu family would immediately change leadership, as the only “son” of the family at present, it was still uncertain who would ultimately take control of the Lu Group.
What stood out most to Sun Ye was the complicated emotion Lu Linyuan displayed when asking him to resolve Lu Shaoyan’s “trouble.”
Whether he was a biological son or not didn’t seem so important anymore.
Of course, the Lu family still had three daughters. It was too early to say anything for certain.
After exchanging contact information, Sun Ye finally left.
Once everyone was gone, Lu Shaoyan let out a long breath and returned to his bedroom. Although he hadn’t lived there for three months, the room was spotless, not a speck of dust in sight.
He noticed that his bedsheets and covers had been replaced with the style he used before, though they were all brand new.
The female housekeeper, Liu Juan, had just arranged for the servants to change them.
All of his daily necessities had also been replaced—everything brand new, yet all in the brands he preferred, neatly arranged exactly where they belonged.
In this world, there were plenty of people who knew how to read the situation.