"How did you know?" Chen Yuan’s hand, reaching for his teacup, froze in mid-air, his face etched with shock.
"Son, why would you think I *wouldn’t* know?"
"You didn’t have people following and watching me, did you?"
Chen Yuan froze.
The more he thought about it, the more terrified he became.
Given his biological father’s personality, it was definitely something he would do. No wonder he had suddenly agreed to let him work at Bauhinia Company and hadn’t asked too many questions. ’It turns out my life has been under his control all along.’
In reality, he was overthinking it.
It was a critical period of reform for Jiang Energy Company, and Jiang Zhengfeng had nowhere near enough time to plan something like that. His knowledge of Chen Yuan’s relationship came solely from that one trip to Lanjing.
He only knew bits and pieces.
"No. It’s easy to tell. Many of your daily actions give it away. Besides, Professor Fu told me some of it." Jiang Zhengfeng was calm, his eyes fixed on his precious son.
This showed that fathers and mothers have completely different attitudes toward their children’s relationships. In a way, Jiang Zhengfeng’s reaction was similar to Mr. Chen’s.
"From that time I went to him for something?"
"That’s not important."
Jiang Zhengfeng took a light sip of tea, awaiting Chen Yuan’s answer. A profound light hid in his eyes behind his glasses, his thoughts unreadable.
"It’s nothing..." Chen Yuan thought for a moment, then sighed. "I have nothing to hide. I am dating two girls right now. But, Dad... I’m not two-timing them. I’m not that kind of person."
"Go on."
"Okay, I know this might sound like I’m trying to have it both ways, but I only ended up dating these two girls after a series of complicated events. They’re twins, biological sisters..."
Upon hearing this,
the corner of Jiang Zhengfeng’s mouth twitched.
He already knew the details, of course, but hearing Chen Yuan say it out loud still made his vision suddenly go dark.
’This wouldn’t be a very respectable thing if word got out.’
"I’ve seen them. Those two girls are gorgeous. Pretty impressive, Yuan," the assistant chimed in at the right moment, trying to ease the tension.
"Impressive? What’s so impressive about it?!" Jiang Zhengfeng glared and lowered his voice. "I’ve said it before, I don’t object to you dating. But it should at least be a normal, healthy relationship. What is this supposed to be? Who would even believe it if you told them? Don’t act like it’s something to be proud of."
As his biological father, he’d had strong feelings about this for a long time but couldn’t say much to save face.
This time, he could finally speak his mind.
The last time he found out, he could have used a thousand different methods to break them up, but it would have certainly earned Chen Yuan’s resentment. He couldn’t afford to offend his own son, so he chose to turn a blind eye.
"When I was your age, I was working three jobs a week. Where would I have found the time to date, let alone make a mess of my personal relationships..."
"Wait, how is it a mess?" Chen Yuan’s brows furrowed tightly.
"Then you tell me. What do you want to do?" Jiang Zhengfeng held out his hand toward his assistant, his previously tense body leaning back again.
"You’re smoking again? Didn’t you quit?" the assistant asked, taken aback.
"Tsk, just go get them."
"’Can’t even talk...’"
The assistant pursed her lips in dissatisfaction, rolled her eyes, and walked with a TAP TAP sound to the cabinet behind them to get the cigarettes.
’Looks like this father and son are the same damn kind of person.’
’Stubborn, obsessed with saving face, and you can’t say a word against them.’
"Anyway, that’s the situation. I want to stay in Lanjing. I came to Kyoto to ask about my girlfriends’ family situation. Isn’t Chacha good at digging into people’s backgrounds?"
"And what do you plan to do once you find out?" Jiang Zhengfeng lit a cigarette, trying to soften his tone.
"I want... COUGH COUGH." Chen Yuan averted his gaze. "This is the situation. Listen to me, and don’t interrupt... I really like both of my girlfriends, and they’re very good to me. One was a professor at my university, and the other is a sweet and gentle girl. I don’t want to give up either of them."
"COUGH COUGH COUGH—"
"So I’m saying, is there some kind of perfect solution that would let me marry both of them?"
"COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH!"
The more Chen Yuan spoke, the more violently Jiang Zhengfeng coughed. He was like a half-clogged chimney, puffing out smoke in fits and starts, completely losing his usual composed and calm demeanor.
"Dad, why are you coughing so much?"
"Yuan," the assistant said, "I guess you could call that a different kind of devotion."
"Devotion my ass!" Jiang Zhengfeng suddenly roared. "Do you have any idea what their family does? Do you know anything about these sisters’ family situation?"
"No, that’s why I’m here to ask."
"Cha, you tell him."
Jiang Zhengfeng was clearly prepared for this, as if he’d been waiting for this day to come.
There were always things Chen Yuan couldn’t solve on his own, like the major affair of marriage.
Marriage was never just a happy matter of two people being in love. It was intrinsically linked to family and social background.
That was why Jiang Zhengfeng knew Chen Yuan would one day come clean about this.
At this moment, the assistant smiled and said gently, "I’ve already prepared it for you, Yuan. I’ll send you a file later. It has the details of the two sisters’ family situation and their personal histories—which schools they attended, their parents’ backgrounds..."
She patted Chen Yuan’s shoulder and said in a low voice, "The person you need to pay most attention to is the sisters’ mother. She’s the current chairman and CEO of Meiruxue Limited Company in Mingzhu City. Speaking of which, I have a bit of a connection to her—a former classmate of mine used to work for her. In our circles, Jiangg Ruxue is known as the ’Poisonous Widow.’ That’s not just some gossip people made up; it’s a very accurate description of her personality."
"The ’Poisonous’ part refers to how she’s unscrupulous when it comes to profits. Her company treats its employees harshly, and it’s common for them to break contracts and go back on deals with partners. The company is skilled at manipulating public opinion and putting on a show. They’ve had quite a few beauty treatment accidents over the years, all of which were covered up."
"And the ’Widow’ part isn’t false either. Before she even graduated from university, she got pregnant out of wedlock. She went to the Liu Family, an old family in the antique auction business, while heavily pregnant, causing a huge scandal in Mingzhu City’s social circle. The Jiangg Family was originally in manufacturing but had declined early on due to mismanagement. Jiangg Ruxue herself is very calculating. At nineteen, she already knew how to use her situation to her advantage. After purposefully marrying the Liu family’s younger son, she used the connections she made to enter the beauty industry, investing and transferring assets. That guy from the Liu family was a playboy. He settled down for a while after getting married but then met a new woman. Of course, Jiangg Ruxue wouldn’t stand for it. The story goes that after a huge fight with Jiangg Ruxue late one night, he stormed out of the house in his car and ended up dying in a crash."
"And so, your two girlfriends ended up in a single-parent household. There are frequent rumors that Jiangg Ruxue murdered her husband as part of a plan, because they had just signed a property agreement shortly before the accident... The Liu Family couldn’t win the custody battle for the twins, and their investigation into the cause of death came up with nothing. Instead, about six months later, Jiangg Ruxue turned around and sued the twins’ paternal grandparents, demanding to receive all of her late husband’s assets for the purpose of raising her daughters."
Chacha recounted all this lightly, her tone gentle, yet the story itself was tragic.
It’s just that Jiangg Ruxue’s story was incredibly dramatic, like a scene from a TV show.
But this was a true reflection of a part of high society. Reality is often more absurd than any script. For money, people will do anything—except maybe a math problem.
"...And that’s the gist of it."
After listening,
Chen Yuan took a deep breath, rendered somewhat speechless, his pupils contracting in shock.
An image of a woman immediately surfaced in his mind: her figure as she walked out of the hotel. Though she was no longer young, her face was still stunningly beautiful, and the years had only added to her infinite charm.
But he never would have imagined that beneath that exterior hid such a venomous, snake-like side.
’No wonder...’ It was only now that he understood. ’No wonder Jiangg Ruxue was so friendly and accommodating to him when they first met.’
’What wouldn’t a woman like that do?’
Beyond his shock, a faint sense of fear began to creep into Chen Yuan’s heart.
The two sisters had such pure and kind personalities. To think they grew up in such an environment, under the influence of such a terrifying mother, without being corrupted—in fact, they were even more like lotuses emerging unstained from the mud than the average person.
What an incredibly rare thing that was.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a miracle.
In truth, Chen Yuan didn’t know that the sisters’ personalities came from two sources. First, from their deceased father, who had provided them with a good family environment during the first few years of the marriage.
Jiangg Ruxue had also tried to play the role of a mother back then, but whether it was an act or genuine motherly love, no one knew.
Second, Jiangg Ning was precocious.
As the older sister, she shouldered a significant portion of the responsibility for raising Jiangg Yao. This was what prevented her easily influenced younger sister from becoming spoiled and arrogant. As the saying goes, the eldest sister is like a mother.
Both of these factors were indispensable.
"Son, you’re young right now. It’s normal to be hot-headed. I won’t deny that the girl, Jiangg Ning, is wonderful, with countless good qualities. But you need to think about the price Jiangg Ruxue will make you pay if you marry her. Even if it’s a price that I and your adoptive parents can afford, what will your future social circle think of you? And if you don’t care about that, what about this: if this future mother-in-law of yours finds out you’re dating both her daughters, won’t she skin you alive?"
As Jiang Zhengfeng spoke, he pulled a bag out from a drawer under the coffee table.
He sighed. "This is the surveillance footage from a few months ago, when Jiangg Ruxue hired someone to plant cameras in 1301 of Fengting District. I had Chacha find someone to bribe that person, and we basically destroyed all the links to the camera feeds. Otherwise, your every move with her two daughters would have been watched clearly. It was limited to that apartment, though. We discovered it because there was a hidden camera in the door lock. This wasn’t about spying on you."