Chapter 100

Chapter 100

In front of the entire family, Xie Qiyan princess-carried the barefoot Xia Wanzhi over to the sofa and sat her down.

The young couple sat side by side with their fingers interlaced, facing the family’s interrogation together.

With the way the two of them were acting, they looked as if they were united against a common enemy.

Xia Yongqing glanced at their tightly clasped hands, feeling a lump of frustration stuck in his chest.

His daughter had grown up. Now he finally understood what Richard must have felt back then, watching the precious daughter he had raised turn her elbow outward for another man.

Back then, he had never seen Xia Wanzhi defend Zhou Yu like this.

But that also proved one thing: only now had she truly opened her heart.

Xie Qiyan was just lucky. He had won his precious daughter’s affection.

“Why are you so nervous?” Xia Yongqing met Xia Wanzhi’s guarded gaze with annoyance, then sighed helplessly. “Relax. Since things have already reached this point, your grandfather and I aren’t so uncultured that we’d throw him out.”

Richard shot him a look. “Speak for yourself. Why drag me into it?”

Xia Yongqing: “…”

Fine. In the end, he was the only one left to play the villain.

The old man was a coward too.

If Xie Qiyan had only been Xie Qiyan, Old Richard might not have been so polite to him.

But Xie Qiyan was actually Mrs. York’s adopted grandson.

Xia Yongqing had only learned from Ms. Qiao Shu that Mrs. York had designated a very large portion of her assets to Xie Qiyan.

And the Becker Family had extensive business dealings with the York Family.

Xia Yongqing frowned, silently cursing Xie Qiyan’s absurdly good luck.

The man had so many buffs stacked on him.

Ms. Qiao Shu, on the other hand, looked kindly at the perfectly matched pair before her. The more she looked, the more suitable they seemed.

“Where were we just now? Go on,” Ms. Qiao Shu said gently.

Xia Wanzhi couldn’t help tightening her grip. She turned her head and glanced at Xie Qiyan.

When meeting the family, the questions were usually nothing more than one’s family background and personal situation. But this involved Xie Qiyan’s past, and with so many people present, Xia Wanzhi was worried he would find it difficult to speak.

“Don’t go too hard with the questions…” Xia Wanzhi cast Ms. Ross a pleading look, afraid that Xie Qiyan would be put on the spot again.

Rose smiled and gave her a reassuring look, signaling that everyone in the family knew their limits and would not truly make things difficult for Xie Qiyan.

Xie Qiyan curled his fingers around her hand and said calmly, “We were talking about my parents.”

Xia Wanzhi’s heart tightened, and she turned to stare at him.

He spoke slowly. “My mother was from Jiangnan. She had me in the first year she and Xie Tianqi fell in love. Before I turned five, the three of us were very happy.”

“But the year I turned five, he ran away.”

“Back then, the Old Master didn’t agree to him being with my mother. He gave up the Xie Family’s power and influence and lived with my mother in Nancheng. His household register was in the Old Master’s hands, so he had no way to legally marry my mother.”

“Because they never registered their marriage, I became an illegitimate child.”

If one were to ask whether Xie Tianqi had ever loved Yao Qin…

The answer was undoubtedly yes.

If he had not loved her, he would never have given up wealth and status to come to Nancheng and live an ordinary life with Yao Qin.

Xie Qiyan did not have many memories from before the age of five, but every scene he remembered was of a happy family of three.

He did not know why Xie Tianqi had abandoned him and his mother.

“After Xie Tianqi returned to the Xie Family, he married Hou Mengqiu. That year, my mother took me to the Xie Family. I don’t know what happened. I only know that it was the last time I ever saw her. After that, I became the eldest grandson of the Xie Family and continued being Xie Tianqi’s son.”

“When I was twelve, I was sent abroad. It wasn’t because the Old Master was planning ahead. It was because there was no longer any place for me in the Xie Family. The Old Master knew what my situation was and asked for my opinion beforehand, so going abroad was actually my own choice.” Xie Qiyan’s grip tightened involuntarily. After a brief pause, he continued, “After that, I lived in the UK. I only returned to the Xie Family this year.”

The air around them seemed to freeze. Everyone’s breathing grew heavier, especially Xia Yongqing’s. He had not expected Xie Qiyan to explain things in such detail.

Opening old wounds had never been their intention.

Xie Qiyan said it because he was willing to show them one hundred percent sincerity.

Richard and his wife did not know about all the matters within the Xie Family. Hearing this, they only felt that he had suffered.

But Xia Yongqing had always cared about it.

He cared that Xie Qiyan had suffered since childhood, and wondered whether, after growing up, he would resent the Xie Family. At the same time, he worried that Xie Qiyan might be hiding something twisted inside him.

The reason Xie Qiyan said all of this in front of so many people was because he hoped to gain Xia Yongqing’s approval.
He knew exactly what Xia Yongqing minded.

Xie Qiyan had crawled his way out of the mud. That was a fact he could never change. But he wanted Xia Yongqing to know that his feelings for Xia Wanzhi were clean, pure, and utterly sincere.

Xia Wanzhi felt a lump rise in her throat. Suddenly, she thought again of how badly he had been treated in the Xie Family when he was young, and her eyes couldn’t help but redden.

Only after saying all that did Xie Qiyan truly get to the point. “Xie Tianqi suffered a sudden heart attack and fell unconscious because his health was already poor to begin with. All I did was say a few fair words on my mother’s behalf. He was the one who grew so furious that it overwhelmed him and he fainted. If you want to say I’m the reason he ended up like this, I’ll accept it.”

“Everyone says Hou Mengqiu has gone mad, but in truth, she’s only pretending. My mother’s disappearance has something to do with her. She’s afraid the truth will come out, and afraid I’ll catch hold of evidence against her, so she even hid her own son away. I’m looking for him now. One day, I’ll have leverage over her.”

Xia Yongqing and Rose’s expressions turned extremely grave.

Before Xia Wanzhi arrived, Xie Qiyan had already explained who Xie Tianqi and Hou Mengqiu were, so Richard and Qiao Shu understood as well.

“As for Xie Corporation, it’s riddled with parasites from the inside out. I did indeed return to the country with my sights set on Xie Corporation, but that was also partly the Old Master’s intention.”

Everyone said Xie Qiyan had been parachuted in, that he fought his own father and uncles for power, resorting to every method imaginable, ruthless, cold-blooded, and arrogant.

But none of them had ever considered this: if Xie Qiyan had not come back, how could Xie Corporation have returned to glory so quickly?

The conversation that night was unbearably heavy.

Some things could not be explained clearly in just a few sentences. Qiao Shu made the decision to have Xie Qiyan stay and rest properly. As for everything else, they tacitly stopped asking even a single question.

Qiao Shu said, “He is a pitiful child, but he is also a child who stands tall and upright.”

Rose said as well, “Our Xiao Wanzi has good taste.”

The elderly and middle-aged men who had been subtly mocked for having poor taste kept their mouths shut and said nothing.

At two in the morning, the night was deep and still.

Xie Qiyan was staying overnight at the manor. Xia Wanzhi seized the opportunity, slipped out of her own room in the dark, and ran to Xie Qiyan’s room specifically to sleep with him and keep him company.

The moment she saw Xie Qiyan, her eyes reddened again.

Xie Qiyan let her in with helpless resignation, allowing her to leap onto him and cling to him like an octopus.

Xia Wanzhi felt sorry for him. He knew that.

After explaining his past to all the elders, he had been coaxing Xia Wanzhi the entire time. It had taken great effort to finally comfort her, only for the girl to take a shower, lie down in bed, and grow upset over it all over again, insisting she had to come keep him company.

“Ah, my Poor Little Xie.” Xia Wanzhi cupped his face, her eyes full of heartache as she looked at him. “I’m sorry. I used to bully you too.”

She had known that he had a hard time in the Xie Family.

But because their first meeting had ended unpleasantly, Xia Wanzhi’s pride had been hurt back then. Every time she saw him afterward, she couldn’t help picking a fight.

Fortunately, he was the type who knew how to fight back. Otherwise, she would have felt even guiltier.

Xie Qiyan laughed despite himself. “What does that little bit of bullying even count for?”

Back then, he had been the one in the wrong first.

He had suffered too much cold treatment in the Xie Family. Too many people looked at him with different eyes-disgust, pity, contempt…

He had thought Xia Wanzhi was the same.

That was why he had knocked over the milk she handed him.

And that was how the two of them became enemies.

He had actually wondered before: if he had not knocked over the milk Xia Wanzhi offered him back then, would they have become good friends after that day?

Xia Wanzhi still felt guilty. Then she thought of how unreasonable she had been that night, and of the things Ms. Ross had said. She took a deep breath, looked straight into his eyes, and said seriously, “Xie Qiyan, I want to understand you. I want to understand every little detail of your past. I want to know all of you, inside and out.”

“I’m ready. I want to enter your world and face the unknown future and everything from the past together with you. I want to find your mother with you.”

She was a little nervous, her lips slightly parted. After mustering herself for a while, she blurted out in one breath, “I want-”

Xie Qiyan covered her mouth with his hand, stopping the rest of her words.

He looked at her with a smile in his eyes. “I know. But those words should be said by me.”

Xia Wanzhi looked into his eyes, and what greeted her was his deeply emotional kiss.

What she had wanted to say was-

I want to give you a home.