On one winter afternoon, the six years old boy just done completing the jigsaw puzzle in his hands and with an excited smile on his face, he turned his head and called out, "Mommy, look."
Sunlight shines gently on a woman's body through a window and her long luster hair behind her shone beautifully like it was covered with sprinkle of gold dust. Hearing the voice, she stopped what she was doing and turned around.
The boy walked up to the woman and proudly showcasing his work, "I finished the jigsaw puzzle by myself, mommy."
The jigsaw puzzle was quite challenging for his age and it contain a hundred puzzles to be arrange correctly one by one. He managed to do it by himself thus he was so happy.
"Sinian is so awesome. You did a good job. Mommy's baby is so clever."
Hearing it, the boy smiled even wider.
However, the good atmosphere didn't last long. The door was suddenly kicked open and a man rushed in angrily, tearing apart the warmth in the room.
He didn't even look at the boy and walked straight towards the woman sitting on the table. Although his steps seemed unsteady accompany with the scent of alcohol, his speed didn't falter.
The man immediately throw away everything that was on the table including the jigsaw puzzle the boy just showed to his mother.
The puzzle fall down on the floor and falling apart.
He could see the man pinching the woman's neck and this caused the obedient boy to turn into a ferocious wolf cub in an instant and bit the man's leg.
With a scream, the man let go of the woman and instinctively raised his foot and kick the boy hard in the stomach. The boy was send flying across the room and crashed onto the wall.
He curled up in pain since the kick was too hard for a kid his age and size to bear.
"Sinian!" The woman exclaimed and was about to run towards the boy before the man grabbed her hair and pulled her back.
Painful wailing, dull sounds of fists accompanied by vulgar cursing words filling the room. The sun seemed to have lost its temperature.
"Mommy..." The boy struggled to stand up.
Ignoring the pain, he crawl towards the woman step by step and stretched out his hands. He knew it was futile and he was too weak to stop the man's atrocities.
"Stop beating mommy! Stop! I'm begging please!"
"Sinian, go! Go out," the woman stood in his direction as if to shield him from the man.
The man looked impatient, "Drag that little bastard away!"
"Young master, I will take you out first. It's a mess here," one of the servants didn't listen to what he was saying and immediately dragged him out.
Even when the door was closed, he could hear the screams and cries. The moment it became silent, the boy immediately broke free from the servant and enter the room.
The man just let him be and walked out. With a faked smile on his face like a refine scholar the man said, "Clean up and call the doctor."
The boy didn't hear anything after that and just looked at the woman panting on the floor with blood and bruises all over her body. If not because of the faint sound of breathing, he might have thought she had already died.
Gasp.
Zheng Roufeng was jolted awake due to the nightmare. It's been awhile since he dream of that event in his childhood thus he immediately looked around and just remembered that Jason was currently busy with his upcoming comeback.
Despite sleeping together everyday, Jason would wake up very early to go to broadcast stations or studios.
Zheng Roufeng felt his mood hit rock bottom.
Suddenly he heard his phone rang and it was from Adam which was rare thus he immediately pick it up, "What you want?"
"Bruh, chill. Just want to inform that Jason's Callian ads has been released and you can watch it all over social media and Callian's store. I'm confident Jason will really make it big this time. The reaction from the higher ups are all very positive."
Zheng Roufeng didn't say much. After ending the call, he decided to get ready to work.
While sitting in the car, he looked through social media and as Adam had expected, the reaction was great or maybe even better than any of them had expected.
••• Oh my God, please anyone tell me who is this male God. I'm in love.•••
••• Sister above, he's Jason Jung from Cronos. You're thank you.•••
•••Argh argh I just realised Jason is not a baby anymore. Our youngest looked so Daddy🔥🔥•••
•••D-daddy?! Oh wait I forgot my real daddy didn't come home after he went out to buy milk.•••
•••This is not only an eye candy, a cake or confectionery. This guy is the whole goddamn bakery. Please released more photos and videos.•••
•••Begging to see the behind the scene. The ads is too short.•••
Zheng Roufeng almost laughed when he saw the overly dramatic comments but he didn't mind them since all the comments were praising Jason and for him, he always wanted Jason to be like a star, shining brightly without any worries and always being admired by people.
His mood became slightly better.
"Master, do you want me to send lunch to Master Jung later?" The driver asked.
"Yes. Pack extra since he seemed to be too busy lately and he might stay in the studio until late at night later so prepare some snacks for him too."
"Yes, master. By the way, will you bring Master Jung to the banquet of the Gu family. If yes, I will book a set of suit for him."
Zheng Roufeng was silent for a moment. It's not like he wanted to hide Jason because he was embarrassed or anything. If possible, he wanted to show the world that Jason was his.
He just felt like he needed more time to secure his position and strength properly. He didn't want Jason to be targeted for just being his husband.
Zheng Roufeng caressed the ring on his finger. When he show Jason the ring, he could see the deep love in Jason's eyes became even deeper.
"No. I will attend the banquet with my assistant. Jason is busy so I don't want to bother him."
"Yes master."
While Jason was busy with his work, Zheng Roufeng decided to hasten what he was doing.
"Did you get any new information about the Gu family?"
"Yes. Currently patriarch Gu had fall sick but he insist to be at the banquet. His son that is most likely to be the heir is Gu Xinhai and Gu Xinhai also already chose his own successor early on which which is the eldest grandson Gu JinYang."
Listening to it, Zheng Roufeng didn't feel shocked since he already expected that much.
Gu Xinhai had the support from the Qi family which is his wife's natal family. With their support, unless Gu Xinhai is utterly useless and unredeemable, he definitely could easily become the next patriarch of Gu family.
Unlike him, his second brother Gu Xihuai didn't get much support from his wife's natal family which is the Zhang family that is slightly more prosperous than that Qi family in terms of their wealth and connection.
It was rumored, Gu Xihuai abused his wife until she became insane and she was put in a sanatorium to recuperate. He was lucky that the Zhang family didn't pressure him because of that but his future seemed bleak especially when his only son is currently being raised by the Zhang family.
It was obvious that they don't want their grandson to be harmed or influenced by such a scum but at the same time, they didn't do anything to Gu Xihuai either. They just let him be.
Even after when his wife was cured, she didn't live with him and live at the Zhang family mansion instead despite still legally married to him.
Zheng Roufeng couldn't help but snickered when he think about it. Common people always looked up to the upper echelons, dreaming about such an extravagant and noble like life. However, behind all the facades, always hidden very embarrassing deeds.
As long as those deeds were not made public, they would just turn a blind eye on it.
Just like what both the Gu and Zhang family did. They just shoved what happened under the rug and continue cooperating as if nothing happened.
"But things seem to change with the Zhang family isn't it?" Zheng Roufeng muttered but the driver could still hear him.
"Yes. The heir, Zhang Aiming slowly reduce the cooperation between the two family bit by bit and even his father Zhang Lan didn't seem to have much say about it."
Zheng Roufeng had met Zhang Aiming once and he had a good impression about him. Such an upright and sharp eyed man, would he really let the scum that harm her sister be? It was already generous if he didn't do too much damage.
"Send a message to Zhang Aiming and tell him that I want to cooperate with him for the new project."
"Yes master."
Around the same time, Jason already got the test result from the bones fragment they managed to secure.
The result: 0% match
"So both Jun Sooyoung and this unknown lady is not my mother. We're left with the last one. The one that was said to have given birth safely and went back happily with her baby," Jason said.
"Did they really just swapped the baby? Isn't it nonsensical?" Kim Raebin asked when he sensed Jason was in a bad mood.
The schedule was packed to the brim thus Jason was physically and mentally exhausted thus getting such a result would definitely not make him feel good in the slightest.
They were currently in front of the unknown woman's grave. Despite her not being Jason's mother, he decided to still pay his respect and put a bouquet of flowers on the grave.
The woman's name was Cai Yun and her record said it wasn't her first time getting pregnant. It was the second time.
She is from a really remote village and come to the small town, working as a surrogate for an infertile couple that want to have a baby.
"So that baby most probably being taken away by the one who paid her to get pregnant."
They already knew the record must have been altered slightly by someone and that someone most probably didn't want anyone to know that Jason is still alive but they have no guts to kill the innocent baby.
Jun Sooyoung who her baby had died signed the birth certificate and put Jason in an orphanage before going back to her home country.
If Jason didn't have the plot and system, it would be almost impossible to trace such a thing.
Later, they thought, Jason was most probably Cai Yun's son but it seems Cai Yun was just used as a diversion in case someone pick up the trails leading to Jun Sooyoung.
"Do you want to track down that baby? If we track Cai Yun's life history, we might find the traces of the couple and we can ask them about the third woman. They might know something about it," Kim Raebin suggested.
"Ok. Sigh, I thought being in an entertainment based plot might be easier but why is it so complicated? By the way, what is Bai Wehan up to now after he failed the audition."
"He managed to get casted in a movie."
"Sure enough, he's a protagonist. One setback after another won't hinder him much."
The moment they left the hospital ground, both of them could sense a group of people were observing them but since they didn't sense any malicious intent, they chose to just ignore it for the time being.
Before he even managed to take a nap for while in the car, someone unexpected suddenly called him.
"Hey Jason, can I ask for help?" Adam's voice sounds as enthusiastic as always.
"Depends," Jason didn't dare give a definitive answer since who knows what this guy might ask.
"It's actually nothing but my parents will host a banquet later for their 26th anniversary soon. So I'm inviting you to perform a song during the banquet. Is that ok with you or you might already have something in your schedule?"
"When is it?" Jason wasn't picky and he felt it was better to have good relationship with Adam and hi family.
"In three months. I want to surprise them. Roufeng told me you're also good at violin and piano."
Jason thought about it for awhile before he noticed something odd, "Adam, aren't you 32 this year so did your parents got married when you're six?"
"Haha, yes. Actually the current madam of my family is my father's second wife. My mother died due to cancer when I was two. I have a good relationship with my step-mother and half brother and I thought Roufeng already told you that?"
"No, he's too busy to bother talking about someone else's family. I already check, around that date, I'm free so I will do the performance."
"Thank you Jason. If you have any difficulty, you can ask me anytime anywhere. I will definitely come running at you as fast as light."
"Sure."
***********
Inside the Qi family mansion
"It's been a while since we all gather together isn't it?" Qi Shizen, the current patriarch of the Qi family said.
"Is there something wrong? Why are you summoning us? I already told you I'm not interested in the inheritance so just split it however you want," Qi Yuran said directly towards his older brother who was 15 years older than her.
Their father died a few months ago due to old age and also angered to death by Qi Yuran's stubbornness in getting a divorce and pursuing her passion in fashion design.
She also has someone she loved and wanted to marry to but her father objected thus they argue a lot.
Qi Yulin as the oldest remained silent. Unlike Qi Yuran, she wanted at least to have a portion of the inheritance and put it under her second son's name since she was confident her first son would one day inherit the Gu family thus she wanted her second son's life to have a bit more security.
"As the new patriarch, I will still give you some inheritance since you're still our Qi family members. Don't be stubborn Yuran. You need to remember that you have a son, Lucas. If Zhang Aiming remarried and has another son, Lucas will be set aside and what will he get later? So if you don't want it, just put it under your son's name."
Qi Yuran wanted to object but knowing that his brother meant only goodwill towards her, she reluctantly nodded her head.
"I don't think you call us here just to persuade Yuran to take her inheritance. What is it?" Qi Yulin who previously remained silent opened her mouth.
"Our Qi family only have a few members left. I only have one son and my wife can't get pregnant anymore. But my son didn't intend to marry a wife," Qi Shizen said.
"Then just arrange a few blind dates for him. It might take a while but he will soon find the one that suit his taste. Want me to help you with that?" Qi Yulin knew a lot of madams in the circle and it was easy for her to arrange such things.
As an evidence, her eldest son, Gu JinYang would be engaged to Su's family only daughter soon. Su family is a family that involved in finance and they owned one of the most famous bank chains in the country.
"No, he said he already has someone he likes and it is a man. He wants to marry a man, can you believe that? Then how can I get a grandson? Will our Qi family line ended just like that?"
Qi Shizen was the only son and have one older sister and one younger sister thus the one who continue the family name is him.
But his only son wanted to marry a man. How could he allow that.
Qi Yuran couldn't help but objected, "What year is it now? Our country already legalized same sex marriage and they can plan to have children through surrogacy. Please be more open minded, brother."
She has good relationship with her nephew Qi Cheng, thus she wanted him to be happy and not forced to marry someone he didn't want just like her.
Fortunately her former husband is an understanding and upright man.
"B-but..."
"Yuran is right, Shizen. Instead of worrying about the gender, why not you worry about the background of the man A-Cheng fancy. What if he is a not an upright lad that might misled ACheng and take advantage of our family. Low born people always greedy for something they shouldn't have," Qi Yulin said.
Qi Yuran didn't say much since she knew her eldest sister had always been more overbearing and stricter than her brother. If it wasn't because their father was partial and a misogynistic man, Qi Yulin most probably be a better heir than Qi Shizen.
Qi Shizen was fortunate Qi Yulin never intend to fight with him and focused on her two sons more. Even her husband didn't dare cross her.
