MCFEM C12

Chapter 12: This Was the First Time She Heard Gu Yang Speak of…

The Ying family’s old estate was actually quite close to where Gu Yang lived, but Liu Chaoyin and his wife had moved out to set up their own household long ago.

They said it was for the sake of enjoying a private life as a couple, but that was clearly just Liu Chaoyin’s excuse. Unlike his naïve, easily controlled lover, Ying Xueying’s parents were veterans forged through countless battles in the business world—people not easily deceived.

For someone like Liu Chaoyin, whose head was always full of crooked schemes, living under their watchful eyes naturally made everything inconvenient.

Yet today, the place Ying Jiayi invited Gu Yang to was precisely the Ying family’s old estate.

“It’s been ages since I came here,” Gu Yang remarked, scanning the grounds around him. “Last time must’ve been for your grandfather’s sixtieth birthday.”

“That was eight years ago,” Ying Jiayi said with a bitter little laugh. “Can you believe it? The last time I came here was the exact same occasion as you.”

“Huh? Why?” Gu Yang tilted his head.

Ying Jiayi took a deep breath. “Because of my father, who else… Forget it. Let’s go inside first.”

It had only been a few days since he last saw her, yet Ying Jiayi had changed completely. She was no longer the transparent, pampered rich girl she used to be; the aura around her had grown heavy, tempered.

“Isn’t this little Yang? Come to visit today?” Ying Xueying had been standing on the terrace, lost in thought. Her face was pale, her eyes still swollen and red, but when she saw her daughter arrive with a classmate, she quickly lifted a smile.

“Hello, Auntie,” Gu Yang greeted politely. “Jiayi invited me over.”

Even if he weren’t good at reading the room, the atmosphere here was thick enough to suffocate.

Wasn’t there a saying that family scandals should never be aired in public? So why had Ying Jiayi called him here?

Mother and daughter exchanged a glance. Meeting her mother’s confused eyes, Ying Jiayi shook her head slightly.

“The wind’s strong out here. Hurry in before you catch cold,” Liu Chaoyin called from the half-open doorway, beaming warmly.

But no one acknowledged him. With a cold expression, Ying Jiayi supported her mother and led her inside.

“Xueying, I want to talk to you, about your health…” His face unruffled, Liu Chaoyin murmured imploringly as his wife passed.

Ying Xueying hesitated as though she wanted to speak, but a look at her daughter’s icy expression made her lower her head and walk wordlessly into the house.

Neither mother nor daughter spared him a pause. Only Gu Yang, the last to enter, stopped before him for a few seconds.

It was an undisguised up-and-down stare. These past days had left Liu Chaoyin sleepless and disheveled, his face haggard, his beard unshaven.

A flash of revulsion crossed Gu Yang’s eyes.

Liu Chaoyin despised rich boys like Gu Yang, born with silver spoons in their mouths. They never had to worry about money—yet aside from luck in the womb, what did they really have over him?

In high school, he had fallen for the prettiest girl in the class. But she chose to date some rich kid instead. To him, the only reason that boy could beat him was because of money.

Later, maybe because of their premature romance, both the rich kid and the goddess stumbled badly in the college entrance exam. By contrast, he performed brilliantly.

He barely had time to savor his triumph before seeing news in class that the rich kid was heading abroad.

He nearly ground his teeth to powder. The joy of his own acceptance letter evaporated. Like a rat lurking in the shadows, he stalked that boy’s social media, post after post of foreign life proving that a failed exam hadn’t hindered him at all.

And in those posts, the girl he’d loved sometimes appeared. That gutted him further.

Driven by god knows what feelings, he impulsively applied for a one-year exchange program to that country he had never set foot in yet felt so familiar with.

Though tuition was free, rent and daily expenses strained him under exchange rates. He lived exhausted, shuttling between work and classes, with no time to “enjoy” life abroad.

But soon he realized—this had been the wisest decision of his life.

The Ying Group was a titan in hospitality, from five-star hotels to budget chains, with operations in many countries.

Even someone not born to business, like him, could sense that compared to the Yings’ empire, that rich boy’s family fortune was nothing.

Years later, when he rose in power and easily swallowed the rich boy’s family company, that became even clearer.

From the very first moment he laid eyes on Ying Xueying, he knew—

She was his Tower of Babel, the only ladder by which he could climb.

Inside the living room, Old Master Ying sat with his wife. He tossed a file onto the coffee table.

At the sight of those documents, Liu Chaoyin’s gaze darkened, though his face remained composed.

Gu Yang, with his two hundred degrees of nearsightedness and his habit of not wearing glasses, couldn’t make out the text. He leaned in a bit, but Ying Jiayi rose and handed all of it directly to him.

“This doesn’t seem very appropriate…” Gu Yang protested modestly, seeing the elders’ burning stares.

“Go on, look.” Ying Jiayi said calmly. “I asked you here to witness the scandal firsthand.”

Beneath her composure lurked a thread of madness. Gu Yang scanned the room—the solemn grandparents, the gaunt father, the dazed mother—and suddenly laughed.

At this moment, at least, he and Ying Jiayi resonated with each other.

He lowered his eyes to the documents.

They were proofs of share transfers, many changing hands multiple times, yet all ultimately landing under Liu Chaoyin’s name.

Relief flickered in Liu Chaoyin’s chest. The past days had been hell: his daughter’s sudden coldness, his wife’s retreat to her parents’ home in silence, the board questioning his every move.

So this was why.

Of course, with shares accumulating in his hands, he’d eventually be discovered. But he’d gambled.

No matter how much money he now earned—unimaginable sums compared to before—power always craved more. Being stuck between heights and depths was agony.

“Father, Mother—these were always meant as a gift for Xueying. Broken-up scraps of shares showed no sincerity, so I quietly collected them through the years.” A genteel smile returned to his face. That effortless charm that drew listeners. Ying Xueying’s expression wavered.

【Ying Jiayi discovered her father’s true colors before the college entrance exams. This part diverges from the story.】

【But this is better. She won’t suffer so much later. Does she know her mother’s cancer wasn’t by chance? That Liu Chaoyin had been tampering with her tonics for years?】

【And those annual medical reports—he secretly swapped them out. He’d long known of her cancer but kept silent, waiting for it to worsen. For a son-in-law to stoop so low… truly vile.】

“Enough.” Ying Jiayi cut him off. Her head throbbed fiercely. The cruelty of the truth left her in pieces.

She remembered so vividly: no matter how busy he was, her father always brewed tonics for her mother by hand. Proof of their loving marriage, she had thought. Now, it was all a joke.

She forced herself to look to her grandparents.

Liu Chaoyin stared in shock at his daughter—pampered, respectful all her life—now defying him.

Old Master Ying understood. As agreed with his granddaughter, he delivered the verdict: “Words are useless. My judgment is made.”

“The board will meet in a few days. The president’s seat must change hands.”

“Wait—Father, what have I done wrong? I’ve worked tirelessly for years. Even if I have no great merits, I’ve labored hard—” Liu Chaoyin rushed forward, but the bodyguards restrained him.

“And your marriage with Xueying… we must revisit it.”

“Father—” This time the cry came from both Liu Chaoyin and Ying Xueying. But Old Master Ying remained stern. “We had a thorough prenuptial agreement. You’ll leave with nothing. Focus on other matters instead.”

“In deference to years of ties, I’ll remind you: the group will charge you with embezzlement and more. Best hire a lawyer.”

At each word, Liu Chaoyin’s eyes reddened. He turned desperately to Ying Xueying, who dared not meet his gaze, looking instead at her parents, then her daughter.

“That’s enough for today. See him out.”

On Old Master Ying’s command, the guards dragged him away, ignoring his incoherent protests.

When the room finally stilled, the storm had passed. Ying Jiayi nudged Gu Yang lightly to excuse him.

Only then did Ying Xueying speak: “Father, Mother—how did it come to divorce? Chaoyin only…”

“Only secretly gathered shares for years?” the old matriarch said coldly. “Silent ambition? Was he planning a coup?”

“Xueying, your husband is not honest,” Old Master Ying declared.

“But how can you be so sure—”

“Mother, it wasn’t them. It was me.” Ying Jiayi’s weary voice cut in. “I’m certain. Absolutely certain.”

Her mother stared at her daughter, grown so much in one night, at a loss for words.

“It was your daughter who warned us of Liu Chaoyin’s schemes. She insisted on today’s confrontation, to confirm for herself. Once she did, she begged us to drive him from the Ying family.”

The old matriarch asked again: “Was it the Gu family who tipped you off?” She had been surprised when her granddaughter brought Gu Yang here, but she knew he wasn’t a reckless boy.

“I can’t say much more. But it’s true.” Ying Jiayi pushed herself up by the chairback, averting her eyes. “Please, check the tonics Liu gave my mother. There’s something wrong. It might reveal something crucial.”

She fled before her heart shattered completely.

On the terrace, Gu Yang leaned against the railing, fingers interlaced. Seeing her come, he asked, “Over?”

“Over? This is only the beginning.” Her voice was low. “Gu Yang.”

“Hm?”

Inside, she whispered a thank you. Whatever the reason, he had saved her from a miserable fate.

For now, things were still salvageable: her mother’s cancer was in the early stages, her grandfather still chairman with full authority to cut quickly.

“So, how was today’s scandal? Entertaining enough?” Maybe because it was Gu Yang, she even managed to joke.

“Not bad.”

His flat reaction spurred her to go on. “I knew it. You can’t believe in those fairytales about poor boys and rich girls.”

“If my mother hadn’t been studying in France back then, so stressed from the language barrier, she wouldn’t have opened up so easily to a fellow countryman.”

“Your parents met in France too?” Gu Yang’s expression turned odd. He muttered, “What kind of magic does that place have?”

“What do you mean ‘too’?” she asked instinctively.

“My parents. They met while studying abroad too. Love at first sight, so they married quickly.”

Ying Jiayi froze. This was the first time she had ever heard Gu Yang mention his parents.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about your mother.”

“She died too soon. She barely knew anyone here. Isn’t it normal?” Gu Yang’s tone was offhand, like narrating a story unrelated to himself.

But not entirely unheard of. Ying Jiayi recalled an old rumor—

That years ago, the Gu brothers had fallen out publicly over a woman, angering the family elders.

Later, the eldest Gu died in an accident, and that woman soon after as well.

“They said it was suicide, but surely there was more to it,” Ying Jiayi probed carefully, watching his face, her mind racing with the darkest conjectures of aristocratic secrets.

She shouldn’t have pressed this far. But Gu Yang was no ordinary mind.

One dared to ask. The other dared to answer.

“No, nothing complicated.” He smiled at her. “It really was suicide.”

“I saw it with my own eyes.”