(Typo Fix)

The Li Family wanted to put on a show, to prove their deep affection and willingness to take responsibility? Zhang Xianyang would give them that chance.

Author's note: Some readers previously asked why Zhang Xianyang and Zhang Muyang had different names. Consider this an explanation~~

Thanks to Demeter for the landmine ╭(╯3╰)╮

Chapter 26 (Typo Fix)

Zhang Xianyang claimed he was inviting numerous big shots to the Zhang Family Ancestral Residence to watch the Old Zhang Family worship their ancestors and catch a show, but obviously, that was just talk. According to clan rules, anyone without Old Zhang Family blood could not enter the Zhang Family Ancestral Shrine. Thus, when the time came, the big shots gathered together and, surrounded by their attendants, entered the Zhang Family Ancestral Residence. They sat patiently in the living room. Having received word in advance, Old Zhang the butler had the servants bring out tea, fruit, sunflower seeds, and peanuts. At that point, all the props for the show were in place. Shortly afterward, Zhang Xianyang, who had entered the ancestral shrine to worship his ancestors and bring out his mother's memorial tablet, followed behind his elders and brothers into the living room at an unhurried pace.

Li Cunzhou had originally thought Zhang Xianyang wanted him to repent before Zhang Hanmo's grave. He had indeed prepared a whole speech in his head. Yet, seeing the current scene and the huge crowd of onlookers around him, he could not say a word.

Zhang Xianyang carefully placed his mother's memorial tablet on the central altar in the living room. Turning to Li Cunzhou, he said, "If you have anything to say to my mother, say it now!"

Li Cunzhou opened his mouth, but nothing came out. In the end, he said awkwardly, "Yangyang, can we talk alone?"

Zhang Xianyang sneered and shook his head. "Didn't you want to repent? My mother spent her whole life being harmed by your sneaky behavior. Now that she's gone, you still refuse to apologize to her openly and honorably. So where exactly is your sincerity in repenting?"

Li Cunzhou was caught off guard by Zhang Xianyang's words and could not quite react.

The other big shots watching in the hall also began to chime in. "Exactly, exactly. Back when the Zhang Family's third young lady went to Yanjing, she was only eighteen. When she came back a year later, her belly was already showing. All these years, we never even knew who the child's father was. What you did was downright disgraceful."

"Yangyang is already sixteen this year. If you were going to keep hiding it, what were you doing coming to the Old District to find him?"

"I heard he only came to acknowledge his son because of the Old District redevelopment plan. There's profit in it, after all!"

"And he even brought his own sons with him. His intentions are clearly impure!"

Li Cunzhou was flushed red from everyone's taunts. Unable to resist, he raised his head and glanced at Zhang Xianyang, who still wore an indifferent expression. In a low voice, he said, "I wronged both you and your mother."

Zhang Xianyang walked to the side and sat down, crossing one leg over the other. "How did you wrong my mother?"

Li Cunzhou said quietly, "I shouldn't have fallen in love with your mother after I already had a family. I also shouldn't have ignored you for so many years—"

Zhang Xianyang looked over the two brothers standing behind Li Cunzhou and suddenly interrupted, "How old are these two sons of yours?"

Li Cunzhou froze, then blurted out, "Mobei is twenty-four, and Jiang Nan is seventeen."

Zhang Xianyang gave Li Jiangnan a meaningful glance and drawled, "Oh, one year older than me."

That confirmed it once again: Li Cunzhou had had an affair while his wife was pregnant.

The hall erupted in an uproar. Even Wang Zhaoyi, whose private life had always been a mess, could not help cursing, "What a piece of trash. I may love keeping mistresses, but when my wife was pregnant back then, even I stayed quiet for a year!"

The inexplicable pride in his words made Feng Daoxin, who sat above him, shoot him a glare. Wang Zhaoyi immediately fell silent.

Zhang Xianyang continued, "When did you find out I existed?"

Li Cunzhou glanced at Zhang Linmo and explained, "Sixteen years ago, Boss Zhang sent people to Yanjing to assassinate me. I followed the trail to the Old District and eventually learned your mother's identity and of your existence. At the time, I thought about bringing you back to Yanjing, but before the people I sent could even enter the Old District, Boss Zhang's men drove them back. It was my fault. If I had persisted, perhaps you wouldn't have spent sixteen years as an illegitimate child cast adrift outside."

The implication was that he had not deliberately abandoned his son. The enemy's power had simply been too great for him to overcome.

In his previous life, that single sentence had created a faint rift between Zhang Xianyang and his father. Especially after returning to the Kyoto Li Family and seeing their harmonious household, he had regretted coming back too late. But now, Zhang Xianyang treated Li Cunzhou's words as utter bullshit. He raised an eyebrow leisurely and corrected him, "You're the illegitimate child. Your whole family is made up of illegitimate children. I'm the Zhang Family's Third Young Master."

Before Li Cunzhou could react, Wang Zhaoyi, who had always had a filthy mouth, immediately cheered in support. "Third Young Master is right! The Third Young Master isn't an illegitimate child. You're the illegitimate father, and your whole family was born illegitimately."

After saying that, he deliberately glanced at the Third Elder, Wang Qi. The Wang Family's eldest son, Wang Ran, darkened as if made of iron. His eyes turned sharp as blades as he glared viciously at Wang Zhaoyi. Wang Zhaoyi casually whistled and turned his head away.

Zhang Xianyang gave a meaningful laugh and pressed on, "Why did you fall in love with my mother while your wife was pregnant, and hide the fact that you were married? Did you not know your responsibilities as a husband and father? Or did you think deceiving a girl who had just entered university into bearing your child was something glorious?"

Li Cunzhou pressed his lips together awkwardly, not knowing what to say. The current situation was vastly different from what he had imagined. He had not prepared himself, nor had he gathered the resolve, to repent and beg Zhang Hanmo for forgiveness in front of everyone. Now, he could only passively answer Zhang Xianyang's questions one by one. His words were dry and lifeless. No matter how hard he tried to whitewash things, the excuses and justifications in them remained painfully weak.

Zhang Xianyang ignored Li Cunzhou's dazed state and turned his attention to Li Mobei behind him. "When your father deceived my mother, you should have been seven or eight, right? You remember, don't you?"

Li Mobei did not answer. He merely stared silently at Zhang Xianyang, his gaze cold and his expression calm. Yet in his mind surfaced the image of his mother, driven nearly mad after learning of his father's betrayal; his mother, threatening death; his mother, threatening divorce; and finally, his mother, who had nearly miscarried from shock and excessive worry, then completely lost the ability to bear children after a premature and difficult delivery.

That year had been a disaster for both the Li Family and the Kyoto Zhang Family. A disaster neither family ever wanted to mention again.

Li Mobei fixed his gaze on the boy before him. His features were exquisite, his bearing flamboyant. Every gesture and movement radiated the arrogance and willfulness of someone raised in excessive indulgence. He was the source and trigger of that disaster, the stain and scandal his mother had desperately wanted to avoid. If possible, Li Mobei wished this person would never have appeared in his life. Yet now, they had to kneel and beg like groveling dogs, pleading for this boy's forgiveness and return, listening to his vulgar, shallow provocations and ridicule. All because the family backing this boy was the capital the Li Family needed to climb higher.

But who was supposed to repay the suffering and humiliation his mother had endured, or the disappointment and shame he had felt toward his father and family?

Zhang Xianyang stared back at Li Mobei without backing down. Suddenly, he broke into a smile. "I know what you're thinking. But wanting to be a whore while still trying to hang up a chastity plaque is pretty shameless too. I spent sixteen years in the Old District, living comfortably and gloriously. The moment you people showed up, you slapped the label of illegitimate child on me and made such a huge fuss that everyone in town knew about it. What for? Wasn't it just because you wanted a share of the Old District redevelopment project? Since you came looking for abuse for the sake of profit, don't pretend to be some pure white lotus."

As he spoke, Zhang Xianyang slowly straightened up and said disdainfully, "If you have any guts, turn around and go home. Stop pretending to be innocent here. The one who cheated while his wife was pregnant wasn't from our Old Zhang Family. The one who abandoned his own child wasn't from our Old Zhang Family. And the ones who came knocking now to get slapped in the face over a little profit definitely weren't from our Old Zhang Family either. Instead, our Old Zhang Family lost a young unmarried woman because of your scumbag father. My mother died at nineteen. I was the Third Young Master for sixteen years, then suddenly became a fatherless bastard. Who the fuck am I supposed to reason with?"

The more Zhang Xianyang spoke, the more agitated he became. Thinking of how, in his previous life, the Li Family had united to manipulate him into dealing with the Old Zhang Family and had actually succeeded, he angrily kicked a table leg. Even the sturdy leg of the dark-lacquered rosewood table could not withstand his gene-enhanced, furious blow. With a sharp crack, one leg of the square Eight Immortals table broke. The table tilted toward the broken leg, and the tea set on top came crashing down, shattering across the floor. The sound of broken cups and saucers rang exceptionally clear through the hall.

In an instant, everyone's eyes turned toward Zhang Xianyang.

"My rosewood Eight Immortals table from the Qianlong era, and my blue-and-white porcelain tea set from the Kangxi era!"

Zhang Xianyang stared blankly for a long while, then let out a pained wail. Turning around, he asked, "This happened because of your Li Family. Your Li Family will compensate me, right?"

"Enough!" Before Li Cunzhou could speak, Li Jiangnan, who could no longer endure it, abruptly rose to his feet. His expression was icy as he said, "I still have duties to attend to. I'm returning to Yanjing to report in."

Without even giving Li Cunzhou a glance, he turned and left.

Watching Li Jiangnan's furious retreating figure, the gathered big shots merely shrugged. Not one of them tried to stop him.

Li Cunzhou looked bitterly toward the outside of the hall. After a long silence, he turned back and sighed. "Yangyang, I wronged you."

Zhang Xianyang curled his lips mockingly and repeated, "You'll compensate me for this table and tea set, right?"

Li Cunzhou looked deeply at Zhang Xianyang and said firmly, "I will compensate you. From now on, I will make up for everything I did wrong."

Zhang Xianyang dismissed every promise Li Cunzhou made with contempt. Still, extortion was extortion. Having been raised in the underworld and possessing no moral principles, Zhang Xianyang absolutely did not have any idiotic, self-righteous notion of I don't want to see you, so I won't accept anything you give me. In his view, the Li Family owed the Old Zhang Family far too much. Leaving aside all the filthy things from his previous life, Zhang Hanmo's life alone, along with Zhang Xianyang's first sixteen years, was enough to keep the Li Family repaying for quite a while. Therefore, in this life, Zhang Xianyang would squeeze them whenever he could. He would strictly follow the policy that failing to take advantage was the same as suffering a loss.

With that thought, Zhang Xianyang waved Old Zhang the butler over and ordered, "Take this table, chairs, and tea set to an auction house for appraisal and notarization. Then tell Mr. Li the price. He'll compensate us."

Old Zhang the butler, struggling to suppress a smile, silently nodded and solemnly replied, "Yes!"

Author's note:

Chapter 27

Li Cunzhou had originally wanted to use the opportunity of repenting at Zhang Hanmo's grave to win Zhang Xianyang's favor. At the very least, he had hoped to earn his family a few goodwill points. Instead, he had performed terribly on the spot. Not only had Zhang Xianyang taunted him until father and sons became estranged, but his second son had returned to Yanjing in anger and resentment. He even had to pay compensation for an antique Qing Dynasty table, chairs, and porcelain.

That was not even the worst of it. Under Zhang Xianyang's design, the scandal of Li Cunzhou seducing an eighteen-year-old girl and getting her pregnant under the banner of "true love" while his lawful wife was pregnant had already spread throughout the Old District. The Li Family cared greatly about its reputation. This time, they had tried to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used to bait it. In an unfamiliar place, they did not even have a chance to defend themselves. They were utterly stifled. It could be said that the Li Family had suffered a crushing defeat in this confrontation.

After signing a compensation check for a considerable sum, the ill-fated Li Cunzhou was driven out of the Old Zhang Residence by Zhang Xianyang. He took Li Mobei, who had remained silent throughout, back to the hotel where they were staying in the Old District. Inside the guest room, Li Cunzhou had calmed down and carefully reviewed every setback he had suffered since entering the Old District. He increasingly felt that their previous plan had been far too wishful and unrealistic—the Kyoto Li Family and Zhang Family had calculated things well enough, but they had overlooked the Zhang Family's unique position in the Old District, as well as Zhang Xianyang's importance within the Old Zhang Family.