Kicking the fake young master flying

On his first day back with the Jiang family, Jiang Xun kicked out two front teeth of the fake young master who came to provoke him.

Bloody spit splattered across the marble floor. The two teeth rolled into a corner, leaving two thin trails of blood across the mirror-bright tiles.

Jiang Yu clutched his mouth and rolled across the floor, screaming shrilly enough to pierce the ceiling.

The lackeys around him all froze.

Most people, cornered at their door and called a bastard, would either curse back or swallow it. Not this guy-he kicked the offender flying!

Hands in his pockets, Jiang Xun leaned against the doorframe, tilted his head to glance at the howling figure on the floor, and curled his lips.

"He stuck his face out for me himself. It would've been rude not to reward such filial devotion with a kick."

Ever since Jiang Xun had been brought back to the Jiang family, the servants had been gossiping among themselves.

Kidnapped years ago and only just found in an orphanage, this young master had none of the bearing of someone from a wealthy family. He was more like a stray cat that would bristle and bite when pushed too far.

When Jiang Xun overheard those remarks, he was squatting in the second-floor corridor, eating an apple. He leaned over to glance downstairs.

The loose-tongued servants immediately fell silent and scattered.

Jiang Xun scoffed and bit into his apple with a crunch.

He had heard more than his share of nasty remarks growing up. To him, a few bits of gossip did not even amount to an itch.

He had grown up in the orphanage until he was seventeen.

The orphanage had only so many resources. Whoever had the hardest fists got an extra mouthful; whoever was ruthless enough escaped a beating.

When he was six, an older child stole his steamed bun. He bit straight into the child's little finger, drawing blood, and refused to let go. In the end, it took three teachers working together to pull him away.

After that, every child in the orphanage knew that the prettiest boy was also the most reckless fighter. They could provoke anyone but him.

But Jiang Xun was only one person, after all. Even the fiercest cat could not withstand a pack of stray dogs cornering it.

Some wanted to take advantage of him because he was pretty. Some wanted to teach him a lesson because he would not obey. Others simply disliked the sight of him.

After all, among a bunch of grubby little kids, Jiang Xun's pretty face stood out like a pearl dropped into a pile of coal.

Jiang Xun had won plenty of fights, and he had also been cornered and kicked plenty of times.

The worst time, five or six older children pinned him down on the playground and kicked him until five of his ribs broke. He never shed a single tear, gritting his teeth and swallowing the blood in his mouth.

Once his injuries healed, he went after them one by one to settle the score, sparing none of them.

When the paternity test report was placed before him, Jiang Xun's first reaction was that something was off.

A windfall like this should never have come to someone with his rotten luck. Heaven had never treated him like a beloved grandson, after all.

But the person who delivered the report wore a suit and polished shoes and respectfully told him that he was the Jiang family's young master who had been kidnapped years ago. The DNA match had been confirmed.

Only after arriving at the Jiang family's home did Jiang Xun discover that Heaven still was not treating him like a beloved grandson.

Barely ten minutes after he walked through the door, his stepmother, Liu Wanying, looked him up and down with undisguised contempt.

"So this is Jiang Xun. Why are you dressed so..." Liu Wanying trailed off. "Never mind. What matters is that you're back. You can learn our family's rules little by little."

"Your family's rules?" Jiang Xun sneered. "Ma'am, I'm afraid I can't learn those rules of yours."

"After all, you were still the mistress when you first walked through the Jiang family's door, weren't you? If we're going by who came first, shouldn't you kneel and offer my birth mother a stick of incense before you start teaching me?"

The smile on Liu Wanying's face shattered instantly.

But she was an old fox with decades of practice, after all. In an instant, she smoothed over that crack, sighed, and turned to leave.

Jiang Yu-the son Liu Wanying had brought along from her previous marriage-put on airs at home under the Jiang surname and kept coming up to Jiang Xun every few days.

At the dinner table, he made snide remarks about Jiang Xun smacking his lips while eating, then asked him in front of the whole family, "Are orphanages really as dirty as they look on TV? I heard loads of kids share one bed, and some even wet it. Is that true?"

Afterward, he even blinked, looking like an innocent child full of curiosity.

Liu Wanying gave him a reproachful pat, but there was no real rebuke in her voice. "Yu, don't ask things like that. Orphanages are all like that."

Jiang Xun wiped his mouth unhurriedly and looked at Jiang Yu's face, which was begging for a punch, the corners of his lips lifting slightly:

"It was pretty dirty, but definitely not as filthy as your mouth. You'd better keep it shut. Every time you open it, it reeks of shit."

The dinner table instantly fell silent.

Jiang Xun carried on eating, then returned leisurely to his room only after he had eaten and drunk his fill.

It was as though he had merely swatted a buzzing fly to death.

He looked untroubled on the surface, but he knew perfectly well-not a single person in this family genuinely welcomed him back.

His father had probably only found him for the sake of the Jiang family's reputation.

Word that a wealthy family's flesh and blood had been left out in the world would sound bad. Bringing his son back was merely a way to silence outsiders.

Of his two biological older brothers, the eldest, Jiang Huaixiao, was gloomy and taciturn. He had not so much as looked Jiang Xun in the eye since he entered the house.

His second brother, Jiang Yanchu, did take the initiative to speak to him, but beneath that little bit of polite concern was nothing but perfunctory attention. He would turn around and go fuss over Jiang Yu instead.

He served Jiang Yu food at meals and brought him milk tea when he went out. If Jiang Yu so much as frowned, he became more anxious than anyone.

The way he treasured Jiang Yu, cradling him in the palm of his hand, anyone who did not know better would have thought Jiang Yu was his actual blood brother.

In this family, Jiang Xun was someone no one needed.

But Jiang Xun had never been the sort to cry and beg people to like him. Since no one loved him, he would not love anyone either.

Since everyone treated him like a prickly troublemaker, he would only raise his spikes higher.

So that day, when Jiang Yu brought people to block his doorway and called him a bastard, Jiang Xun's shoe had already landed on his face before the words had finished leaving his mouth.

The kick was vicious and precise, stamping the tread of his sole straight onto Jiang Yu's front teeth.

Two teeth flew out amid bloody spit, bounced twice on the floor, and rolled into the corner.

Jiang Yu had been sent flying too and now rolled across the floor clutching his mouth, blood seeping between his fingers. The corridor was silent save for his wails.

When Liu Wanying returned, she wept prettily, tears streaming down her face, and held the bloodied Jiang Yu as she complained to Jiang Xun's father:

"Look at this child! He's only been back a few days, and he's already beaten Yu like this. Nothing like this has ever happened in our family... Changping, what are we going to do?"