Chapter 12: He Lian Is No Pushover

About half a minute later, Song Yuchu dragged Jiang Yu back up. Looking at the girl’s deathly pale face, he used a trembling hand to pick off the rotting leaves stuck to her forehead, acting as though he was terrified of breaking her.

“A-Yu, don’t touch anyone else, and don’t let anyone else touch you, okay?”

Song Yuchu gritted his teeth tightly, a glint of tears welling in his blood-red pupils: “A-Yu? Promise Brother, okay?”

Jiang Yu lifted her eyelids, opening her mouth in confusion: “…Okay.”

Song Yuchu’s brows knitted deeply into a twisted smile. Pulling her into his arms, he wished he could crush her fragile spine.

Tilted her head up, out of Song Yuchu’s line of sight, Jiang Yu stared intently at the dense, gray clouds above.

Yangcheng was always like this.

Enveloped in dreary dampness, with mist covering everything like a white shroud.

He Lian.

Take me to see the sunshine in Jinzhou.

The Song family’s old mansion was a prince’s estate left over from the Qing Dynasty. Although it had undergone numerous repairs, long years of being soaked in rainwater left a sour, decayed woody reek hanging in the air.

Song Xun cast a glance at his eldest brother in the main seat. Hearing footsteps, he turned around to see Song Yuchu walking in.

The young man had a cold, rigid expression, sitting down beside his father without uttering a word.

Song Qian: “Yuchu, why are your clothes wet?”

Song Yuchu replied indifferently: “It’s nothing.”

Not being his own son, Song Qian didn’t pay it much mind. He turned his head toward Song Jitang, who was holding her severely frightened son, her face filled with rage.

“Brother! If you ask me, we should just finish off Jiang Yu right now, throw her into that pond to keep Mom company, and be done with it! What’s the point of keeping this little cursed plague around when she does nothing but bring disaster to the Song family?!”

Hearing this, Song Yuchu narrowed his eyes.

Song Jitang was clearly driven mad by today’s events. At the thought that He Lian actually wanted to drown her precious son all over a lunatic, she burst into loud curses: “The Old Master’s will hasn’t been found after all this time anyway! No one outside knows that Jiang Yu is the heir. Killing her settles everything once and for all!”

Song Xueyan furrowed her brow. Jiang Yu certainly deserved to die, but she couldn’t die just yet.

Her final art exhibition before her retirement hadn’t been held yet.

She said, “Young Aunt, don’t be in such a rush. Jiang Yu still owes me two paintings.”

Song Jitang let out a scoff, filled with contempt.

What ‘Yangcheng’s most outstanding young artist’? What ‘genius painter’ in the crown prince’s mouth? It’s nothing more than a false reputation built on the scribbles of a lunatic! This dead girl really fancies herself a real artist.

“Tell me, where on earth did that will go?” Song Xun leaned back, clicking his tongue. “Fortunately, that will was never notarized. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have gotten a single scrap.”

Song Jitang: “The Old Master only saw Jiang Yu before he died. That lunatic can’t even read words, so it was probably lost. Why does this little bitch get to take all of the Song family’s property?!”

“She deserves to die just like her mother!”

Song Qian offered a half-smile: “Alright, don’t get so worked up every time Shuhe is mentioned.”

Song Jitang snapped up straight, her bright crimson fingernails digging into the wooden armrest: “How can I not be worked up?! What kind of thing was that Jiang Shuhe?! Just an adopted daughter! I am Dad’s biological daughter!”

“Brother, don’t play the good guy here. Back when Dad wanted to give her a quarter of everything, weren’t you unwilling too?”

Song Qian’s smile faded slightly, and he gestured at her with his eyes: “Yes, but putting her onto the bed of that lunatic from the Yan family—wasn’t that your idea?”

Song Jitang: “So what? The one who drugged her was Second Brother. The three of us siblings are all grasshoppers tied to the same string—who can wash themselves clean?”

Hearing this, Song Xun furrowed his brows in displeasure: “Alright, who could have expected that after Jiang Shuhe had been married out for so many years, the Old Master would still insist on leaving that quarter to her?”

As he spoke, he let out a devious, self-satisfied chuckle: “Thankfully, that guy named Yan had a broken head. As soon as I said Jiang Shuhe cheated on him, he didn’t even ask a question—he picked up a knife and chopped her to death on the spot. Ah, what mad devotion.”

Gagging in disgust, Song Jitang covered her nose. The memory of opening the door back then to find Yan Beian holding Jiang Shuhe’s already rotting corpse while chatting and laughing made her shudder uncontrollably.

He even scared his own biological daughter into a lunatic.

“What devotion? Yan Beian is just a madman—a big lunatic giving birth to a little lunatic,” she said. “Why couldn’t the old man understand our good intentions? Treating an adopted daughter like a treasure while brushing off his biological children. Even after learning the truth, he still wanted to leave all the money to Jiang Yu. Serves him right for being…”

Song Qian cut her off: “Alright, the dead are dead. Let’s not stand on the Old Master’s grave and talk about these things—it’s bad luck.”

Noticing that he seemed preoccupied, Song Xun leaned forward, guessing what it was: “What is it, Eldest Brother? Is there movement on the Jinzhou side again?”

Song Qian: “Not yet. That guy named Xie has been relatively quiet lately.”

He picked up his teacup, only to set it back down in irritation.

Aside from the He family, Jinzhou had three other top-tier financial conglomerates—Xie, Liang, and Shen—none of whom were easy to mess with.

The current heir of the Xie family, Xie Qingzhou, had somehow taken a liking to this mountain where the Old Master grew tea, insisting on leveling it to build some luxury resort.

Since last year, he had been applying pressure layer upon layer. Not only did he tamper with their tea sales channels, but he also brought in several batches of geological exploration experts, insisting that the mountains and waters here were a hundred times better than the arid land in Jinzhou.

They relied on this tea mountain to make a living.

Although the Old Master was the richest man in Yangcheng, how could a tiny place like this compare to Jinzhou? Xie Qingzhou simply wanted to play games with them using his pocket money, and no one could do anything about it.

“Brother, don’t worry too much.” Song Xun said with hidden meaning, “Looking across the entire Northern region, whose tea leaves taste better than the ones grown on our family’s peak? We can take our time thinking of a way.”

Song Jitang cast a glance at her niece and suddenly chimed in: “Hey, why not let Xueyan go? Doesn’t He Lian like her paintings? If she really becomes the young mistress of the He family in the future, let alone Xie Qingzhou, no one in the entire Jinzhou would dare touch our Song family! Xueyan, don’t you think so?”

Song Xueyan’s brow furrowed sharply.

She had often heard people say He Lian was a star of calamity, but she hadn’t believed it. Seeing the man’s ruthless brutality today, she didn’t dare indulge in wild fantasies anymore.

Given He Lian’s temper, being his woman might not end well. Besides, if she really got together with the crown prince, her inability to paint would be exposed sooner or later.

It was better to remain an artist, capitalize on her rising fame in Yangcheng over these few years, and quickly find a suitable young master from a prominent family to marry, securing a lifetime of comfort and ease.

Song Qian shared the same thought and immediately refuted his sister.

At the funeral last time, He Lian had acted like a gentleman, but at only their second meeting today, he revealed his true nature. Zhou Yun had nearly drowned—who would dare dream pipe dreams of delivering their daughter to He Lian?

They would probably only shorten her lifespan!

“Brother, you’re confused.” Not being her own daughter, Song Jitang didn’t feel a hint of heartache: “Are you still not clear on He Lian’s strength? He is the tyrant of Jinzhou! We can’t cut off such a high branch!”

Su Xuning, who hadn’t spoken the entire time, said displeasedly: “Jitang, did you watch last night’s military news?”

Song Jitang: “What news?”

Song Xun set down his teacup and took over: “Last night, ‘Sandworm’, an aggressive bandit organization on the Jinzhou border, approached the Wofo Gold Mine harvested by the He Corporation. Before they even got close, they clashed with the personnel at the fort. He Lian probably rushed back in a hurry because of this matter.”

Song Jitang widened her eyes: “Really? They fought with He Lian’s people?”

Su Xuning suppressed her terror: “Sister-in-law, do you think the Peacekeeping Union in He Lian’s hands is just for show, standing guard on the border just to freeload and eat for free?”

Song Jitang usually paid no attention to external affairs, only knowing that the He family was powerful. Looking up, she saw her eldest sister-in-law lowering her voice further toward her, sighing with lingering fear: “He Lian—he really kills people.”

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