Silence.
The Su Family home was utterly silent.
Ever since Su Ye had turned and left without a trace of reluctance, everyone in the family had been stunned.
After a long while, Su Yang finally spoke, his voice uneasy.
"Su Ye really left? I'll go find him!"
"No!"
Xuanyuan Mingmou blurted it out, then frowned.
"Xiao Yang, don't spend time alone with him from now on. That boy is hostile toward you, and you don't know how to protect yourself. You'll get hurt."
Su Zhengdao took a step back and sank onto the sofa.
"That unfilial son... he really left?"
Su Mingyue snorted. "He's putting on an act. He stormed out without taking anything because he's waiting for us to go after him. If we bring him back now, he'll only get more smug!"
She could see through that kind of manipulation at a glance.
Who knew where he had learned such underhanded tricks? It was disgraceful!
Someone from the slums really was disgusting.
Only Su Xingchen walked over to the coffee table and looked at the black card.
"He said... there's only 368 yuan on this card?"
The Su Family's own son had only 368 yuan?
That wasn't even enough to cover a tip from her.
And Su Ye... was that really all he had received since returning to the family?
He hadn't even spent a cent?
Then how had he been living all this time?
Su Xingchen didn't touch the bank card. Instead, she picked up the necklace from the coffee table.
Click.
The clasp beneath the necklace sprang open, revealing a photograph tucked inside the pendant.
Su Xingchen's pupils contracted sharply.
The photograph hidden in the pendant was a family portrait.
In it, Su Zhengdao and Xuanyuan Mingmou sat at the front.
Between them, Su Yang beamed at the camera.
Behind the three of them stood the eldest sister, Su Taibai, the second sister, Su Mingyue, Su Xingchen herself, and their youngest sister, Xuanyuan Seventeen.
Young Su Ye stood cautiously at the very edge, yet he wore an open, unguarded smile.
Su Xingchen remembered.
When Su Ye had first been brought home, everyone had asked what he wanted. His only wish had been to take a family portrait.
Afterward, Su Xingchen had paid no attention to the portrait. To her, taking it had felt like completing a task.
She had never imagined Su Ye would carefully tuck it inside his necklace.
When Su Ye had first returned to the Su Family... she had thought of him as a boy from the slums, but she had also held some hope for him.
When had that hope turned into the disgust she felt now, into wishing he would disappear from the family at once?
Su Xingchen couldn't remember.
But...
If Su Ye had even left behind the necklace holding their family portrait, did that mean he...
The thought struck Su Xingchen, and she hurriedly looked toward a corner of the hall.
"Uncle Zhong, where is Su Ye's room? Where are his things?"
Su Mingyue, who had been comforting their mother, also turned toward the butler, Su Zhong, in the corner.
"Right, Uncle Zhong! Didn't that guy say he was leaving the Su Family? Then let him leave for good. Pack up all his things. When he can't survive out there and wants to come back, we'll throw them at him!"
In the corner, Su Zhong, who had witnessed everything, sighed inwardly and stepped forward.
"Master, Madam, young ladies... Young Master Su Ye lives in the basement. As for his things... he has nothing here."
What?!
The room fell silent again.
Su Xingchen's throat felt dry. "You mean... Su Ye has been living in the basement this whole time?"
The Su Family's own son, the child they had only found after eighteen years.
He lived in the basement?
It was absurd.
Yet Su Zhong nodded solemnly.
"Yes. When Young Master Su Ye first came home, we were going to prepare a master bedroom for him on the second floor. But then a few things happened... Later, there were no other rooms available, so we could only put him in the basement for the time being. Nothing changed after that."
Xuanyuan Mingmou suddenly remembered... When Su Ye had first returned, she had indeed wanted him to live on the second floor, closer to her and her husband.
But that day, something had gone wrong with Xiao Yang's training, and she had been too preoccupied to attend to Su Ye.
After that...
Xiao Yang was always being bullied by Su Ye. She had been too busy worrying about Xiao Yang, too disappointed and angry with Su Ye.
She had given even less thought to where Su Ye lived or how he was doing.
Remembering how Su Ye had just called her a hypocrite and said she had never cared about him, Xuanyuan Mingmou suddenly pressed a hand to her chest.
It felt as though something truly had left her.
Looking at the silent family, Su Zhong sighed inwardly once more.
In truth, the room on the second floor had already been prepared. But Young Master Su Yang had said it used to be his Break Room when he was little and that he couldn't bear to give it up...
They had tried several other rooms, but there was always some reason none of them would do. In the end, they had settled Young Master Su Ye in the basement, which had originally been used for storage.
The butler glanced at Su Yang's handsome, innocent face, then quietly looked away.
He had once tried to advise the master in private, but Su Zhengdao hadn't taken his words to heart. After that, Su Zhong stopped trying.
Yet the resolute figure of Young Master Su Ye as he left kept reminding Su Zhong of Su Zhengdao's back when he had marched into the Secret Realm without hesitation to stand guard over the region.
In truth, the one who resembled the master wasn't the cultivation prodigy Su Yang. It was Young Master Su Ye.
Su Xingchen took a deep breath.
"Take me there."
Soon, they arrived at the basement and entered Su Ye's room for the first time.
The Su Family was one of the wealthiest families around. Every room belonging to Su Xingchen and the others was spacious and luxurious.
Each included a bedroom, a study, and a training room. A single suite was far larger than an ordinary family's entire home.
And yet...
The room before them measured barely a dozen square meters.
Clutter took up more than half of it.
Su Ye had carefully stacked it all in neat piles, keeping the tiny room from looking too shabby.
In one corner were only a bed and a desk with a chair. Several open books and a cup of water sat on the desk.
There was nothing else.
Not even...
A single piece of clothing!
"He lived here?"
Su Xingchen could hardly believe her eyes.
She even turned to her mother, Xuanyuan Mingmou, in confusion.
"Mom, you never bought him any clothes? You didn't even get him a personal terminal?"
Xuanyuan Mingmou felt her face grow hot and instinctively avoided her daughter's gaze.
"I... I thought someone else had taken care of it."
Disbelief and disappointment filled Su Xingchen's eyes, along with a trace of doubt in herself.
Who in this family would have prepared those things for Su Ye?
Half a month ago, Su Ye had come to the Su Family alone, bringing nothing with him.
Half a month later, Su Ye had left the Su Family alone, taking nothing with him.
What had this family ever been to him?
Wait...
Did that mean Su Ye really had left?
But...
He was all alone. Where could he go?!
Before you continue