Jun Yang’s good feeling from the surprise he gotten from Feng Qi slowly unraveled as he dragged his tired body home. This was because he was reminded of the problems that he had yet to deal with. Instead of a place where he rested his body, his home now became the representation of a huge responsibility that attempted to squeeze the life out of him.

Standing outside the gate, Jun Yang looked at the sprawling mansion with its wide acres of green lawn, its stony façade and the stone wall that surrounded it. Following his parent’s plan, one day, the home would be transferred to his name. With that knowledge in mind, it felt like someone had attached a million ton burden on Jun Yang’s shoulders.

The sense of levity that he obtained from his brief meeting with Feng Qi kept the young man standing upright or else he might have just collapsed right there before the gates of his home.

The old butler who was out watering the plant noticed the young master standing at the gates. He walked over to open the gates for him, “Welcome home, young master.”

Jun Yang nodded and strode past him to the door. The butler noticed the young man looked rather melancholy. In a way, the butler felt sorry for the young man. He was trapped inside this large house with no one to confide in. His parents, as good as an employer as they were, hardly qualified as wonderful parents. The butler knew they only had the young master’s good interest at heart but sometimes he wondered if they realized there was a better way of going about things. Being all business would only push the two generations further away from each other, he had stayed at the family long enough to understand that.

The help, especially those who had been employed at the family for a long time, like himself cared a lot about the young master because Jun Yang practically grew up in their eyes. However, there was always that gap between the employer and employee that could not be breached. The butler could only sigh and watch as Jun Yang walked into the large family home alone.

Jun Yang still had not made a decision when he returned home even though his meeting with Feng Qi had cleared his mind up a little. He did not think he should go completely against his parents’ wishes. As the Chinese idiom says, the child’s body belongs to his parents, every decision that he makes should be putting his parents first. That was the tradition that he should follow.

However, his talk with Feng Qi introduced to him another way of life, one that he did not absolutely disagree with and one that was convenient enough for him to use to convince himself of his first ever denial of his parents’ wishes.

It was unrealistic to expect Jun Yang to go for a full-on rebellion. Furthermore, most of the plan that they decided for him was still faraway in his future. Perhaps he could learn to love study and commerce.

To be fair, the engagement was also supposed to be something that was quite far down in his life. However, Pei Ling’s action earlier in the afternoon had brought it to the forefront. Jun Yang could learn to fall in love with or at least tolerate inheriting the family business but he was certain he was not going to enjoy getting married to Pei Ling. That was not something that he had envisioned for himself. Therefore, the young man zeroed in on this.

Other than that, it was his hope that if his parents were willing to compromise on this detail, perhaps the other plans could be discussed as well. Perhaps Jun Yang himself did not even realize this but he was slowly taking back his own future and the first step that he did was to challenge his imminent engagement to Pei Ling.

Since issue of family was his mother’s territory, Jun Yang moved to his mother’s drawing room. He found his mother sitting in the couch with a mountain of present piled up next to her.

These were the presents that Jun Yang’s friends and classmates had given him for his birthday. When he saw these presents, Jun Yang felt a certain way. All these presents were addressed to him but none of them was really meant for him.

His birthday was nothing more than an occasion for his friends’ parents to liaise with his own parents. Such was the connections between the rich and famous. In fact, Jun Yang had full confidence that none of his friends actually picked out the presents themselves, they were all decisions made by the parents. After all, the real purpose of sending these presents was not to wish Jun Yang a happy birthday but to curry favor with Jun Yang’s parents.

In other words, they were really sending the presents to the young master of the Jun family and not Jun Yang. This was why the presents were transported to Mrs. Jun’s room instead of Jun Yang’s room. The presents were supposed to impress Mrs. Jun and not Jun Yang.

Mrs. Jun had a list in her hands as she opened the presents one by one. She jotted down the type of present and their average price. This was so that in the future, when it came time for the birthday of the other young masters and ladies, Mrs. Jun could return the gesture by gifting something of equal or higher value.

Mrs. Jun was in the middle of sifting through another box of present when Jun Yang walked into the room. His mother smiled at him and tipped the box towards him, saying, “Look, Jun Yang, the young master of the Lin family has gifted you a diamond bracelet for your birthday. Isn’t it beautiful?”

The diamond bracelet caught the light and it glistened. Jun Yang frowned at it for a brief second before churning out a compliment that sounded more like an observation, “yes, mother, it is beautiful.”

Jun Yang was never one to wear gaudy accessories, and he was not that close to Lin Yu, the young master of the Lin family in question to warrant such an expensive gift. However, he did hear via his conversation with his father that Lin Yu’s father had been trying to seek cooperation with Jun family.