As soon as Qing Yun drove back to the company, he heard his secretary come over to report: “President Gu, President Yan Yishen called and said there was a major matter that would affect the relationship between the Gu and Yan families that he wanted to discuss with you. And so please make sure to set aside some time for it.”

Yan Yishen wanted to find him? Qing Yun frowned, and only thought it was the matter about Gu Qing, so he replied: “Alright, help me reply to him, I’m free this afternoon.”

That afternoon, Yan Yishen really drove here in a rush from the capital.

As soon as he entered the parlour, and the moment he saw Qing Yun, he sighed in a strange tone: “President Gu, you have kept our Yan family in the dark for a very long time!”

“What do you mean by that, President Yan?” Qing Yun raised an eyebrow and asked him.

Upon seeing the young man sitting on the sofa, Yan Yishen instinctively clenched his jaw. He knew that Gu Cheng was extremely difficult to deal with, and one wrong move could cause him to stumble into his grasp. This made Yan Yishen, who had always had it easy, feel extremely embarrassed.

Especially after Gu Qing returned to the country, she frequently ran to the Gu home, making Yan Yishen suspect that Gu Cheng had some sort of irresistible charm.

Everything that had gone wrong in Yan Yishen’s life has been related to Gu Cheng, so he immediately rushed over the moment he caught hold of Gu Cheng’s handle.

‘If President Yan is referring to the matter of Gu Qing, then I’ll make it clear right now, today, Gu Qing is just an adopted daughter of the Gu family. She has no romantic ties to me, and our engagement has already been cancelled.”

Qing Yun picked up his teacup and took a sip of tea, completely ignoring Yan Yishen’s furious expression.

“Gu Qing? You know about this?” Hearing Gu Cheng’s words, Yan Yishen was subconsciously surprised. He never expected that Gu Cheng, who Gu Qing described as relentlessly pursuing her, would call off his engagement with Gu Qing so simply.

Then what was the point of Yan Yishen obtaining Gu Qing? She was just a woman that Gu Cheng didn’t want anymore.

Bu Yan Yishen thought of the important business he came here for, and suppressed all the thoughts that appeared in his heart. He sat down opposite Gu Cheng and said: “It’s not about that, President Gu, I’m not here to talk about the matter of Gu Qing. What I want to ask about is the child that your Gu family adopted, Gu Linhao.”

Hearing Gu Linhao’s name being mentioned, Qing Yun finally placed down his teacup. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he looked at Yan Yishen with an extremely menacing gaze.

Yan Yishen was stunned by Qing Yun’s look, but he still forced himself to say: “President Gu should know about Gu Linhao’s true identity, right? He is not surnamed Gu at all, but Yan! Back when Linhao was kidnapped, my Yan family spent a lot of effort to find him. It was such a huge commotion, your Gu family shouldn’t have not heard of it. However, why didn’t you send the child back to the Yan family after you found him, and instead adopted him?”

The day when Yan Linaho’s identity would be exposed would come sooner or later, Qing Yun also never thought of covering it up, but he didn’t expect the day to come so soon.

As Yan Linhao didn’t want to return to the Yan family, whenever the Gu and Yan clan had to discuss business matters, he always made excuses to avoid it. Qing Yun had originally wanted to wait for Yan Linhao to grow up first, and he would eventually come into contact with the Yan family. When that time comes, it also wouldn’t be too late for him to return to the Yan family and take back everything.

Qing Yun was completely caught off guard when the two people who paid for the kidnapping of Yan Linhao came to him all so confidently, interrogating him on why he didn’t return the child.

It was surprising how shameless this Yan family could be.

“I would like to clarify a few points,” Qing Yun said as he set down his teacup and looked at Yan Yishen with his obsidian-like eyes flashing with cold light. “First of all, I don’t meet the requirements to be an adoptive parent, and thus I have never actually adopted Linhao. Right now, he is still officially registered as an orphan. When your Yan family discovered that Yan Linhao went missing, did you search for him in orphanages across the country?”

“Secondly, regardless of whether it was for processing paperwork or enrolling in school, although his name is registered as Gu Linhao, I only changed his surname. I did not tamper with any of his information including his appearance. With your Yan family’s power, if you really wanted to find him, it would have been really easy.”

Yan Yishen was stunned by Qing Yun’s words. Yan Linhao’s incident was caused by him and his father. When they discovered that the child had disappeared, the patriarch1 of the family also passed away by then and the entire Yan family was in their hands. Who would still be in the mood to deal with Yan Linhao’s matter? The missing person notice was thus also taken down very quickly.

Now, they were just afraid that since Yan Linhao had grown up, he would be made use of by others with bad intentions. That was why they were in a hurry to take Yan Linhao back, just to keep him in the palms of their hands.

“It’s been ten years,” Qing Yun sighed, with a hint of emotion flashing in his eyes. “I have raised Linhao for ten years, while your Yan family has been quiet with no action at all. Even when I found out about Linhao’s identity later on, honestly speaking, do you think I would dare to hand over the child that I have been doting on for ten years to a family that doesn’t seem to have a lick of care for him?”

Qing Yun’s questions had effectively made Yan Yishen speechless. He never expected that the Gu family had not actually adopted Yan Linhao. After all, he had heard from Zhang Yun that Yan Linhao was living with the Gu family and was frequently seen at the Gu clan’s company. If they were not in an adopter-adoptee relationship, how could Gu Cheng be so good to Yan Linhao?

But this made the Yan family to be at a disadvantage, because as long as a child was registered as an orphan, the government would circulate their notices on a specific website, which gave their families another opportunity to find their lost child.

As long as they browsed the website annually, even ordinary families could almost always find their children if they had been registered at orphanages. Meanwhile, the Yan family with their vast resources failed to find Yan Linahao. If this news were to spread, wouldn’t they be inviting ridicule for no reason?

What made it more ridiculous was how Yan Yishen still pretended to care so much about Yan Linhao, making him seem extremely hypocritical in Gu Cheng’s eyes. 

“Then…… Does this mean President Gu is not going to give Linhao back to our Yan family?” Yan Yishen asked.

Yan Linhao was already 19 years old, if he was in other people’s hands, they wouldn’t bother if he lived penniless and destitute. But he just had to land in Gu Cheng’s hands, this was what Yan Yishen and his father worried about the most.

If Gu Cheng wanted to use Yan Linhao to bring down the Yan family,  who knows, maybe he could actually accomplish it.

“Give him back to you?” Qing Yun sneered and looked at Yan Yishen with a mocking expression that was hard to describe. “Linhao is not an object, how can there be a question of giving him back or not? But don’t worry, President Yan. I will let him go back, but let Yan Linhao go back as the heir of the Yan family.”

Qing Yun’s final words landed with a resounding thud, making Yan Yishen’s scalp go numb. If there was help from Gu Cheng, with Yan Linhao’s identity, then their Yan family…

Yan Yishen finally understood that Gu Cheng really doted on Yan Linhao like a son. He didn’t even hesitate to confront the Yan family head-on in order to ensure that Yan Linhao could take back what belonged to him.

Although he had achieved his goal of coming here, Yan Yishen’s mood turned completely sour. He left the parlour without saying goodbye to Qing Yun, his face cold.

""

He needed to notify his father as soon as possible because his father, Yan Zhengxing, had already headed to Yan Linhao’s school to look for him.

For the past ten years, not only did Gu Cheng not proactively inform them about Yan Linhao, but Yan Linhao who had already matured did not actively search for the Yan family either. Hence Yan Zhengxing suspected that there were some problems on the child Yan Linhao’s side, and so he went there himself.

Yan Linhao had just finished class when he heard his classmates calling him from the door: “Hao-ge, the principal is looking for you!”

Frowning, Yan Linhao walked out of the classroom and immediately saw Yan Zhengxing who was standing in front of the principal.

The man had already reached middle age, yet his facial features still remained the same as what Yan Linhao remembered from his childhood. He could recognise him quickly as his second uncle, but a gleam flickered in his eyes, instead feigning confusion as he asked: “The principal is looking for me? What for?”

“Linhao? Is it really you, Linhao?” Yan Zhengxin took two steps forward, inspecting the sharp features of the young man with a dominant aura.

He could finally understand how Zhang Yun confirmed Yan Linhao’s relationship to the Yan family at a glance, because Yan Linhao resembled his father so much that it was like both of them were carved from the same mould.

Although Yan Linhao had just become an adult not long ago, the aura he exuded already surpassed that of his father’s. This tall and robust youth stood leaning to one side, which was enough for him to have a presence like that of a fierce beast.

And those dark eyes gave people even more of a bone-chilling feeling.

Yan Zhengxing had originally thought that by bringing Yan Linhao, who had been stranded outside for many years, back home, he would have a soft persimmon that was easy to pinch. Now he knew that he had underestimated the situation.

Gu Cheng had raised Yan Linhao very well; Yan Linhao was calm and had good judgement, and he knew how to use his aura to suppress others. He had fully possessed all the qualities required to be the heir of a big company.

“Who are you?” Yan Linhao looked up at Yan Zhengxing, his expression completely unreadable.

Since the Yan family came to his doorstep, they must be here to take him away. The grudge, of being kidnapped by people hired by Yan Zhengxing and his son which caused his road of suffering and agony to start at such a young age, was still held by Yan Linhao.

But that didn’t mean he wanted to return to the Yan family. There were countless ways to take revenge, but his gege was irreplaceable.

If he returned to the Yan family, it would be easy for him to take back the entire family. However, that would mean Yan Linhao would have to establish himself, and he could no longer stick to Qing Yun and act cute around him as his little brother.

In Yan Linhao’s eyes, nothing was more important than the close relationship between him and Qing Yun.

Footnotes