CHAPTER 184: CHAPTER 184: LI QING’S IDENTITY EXPOSED

Lian Yingya’s pent-up sorrow and anger had reached a breaking point.

He was also a member of this family, so why, when he faced injustice outside, did he receive only criticism and reprimands from his parents?

Lian Yingya suddenly slammed the table and pointed accusatively at Lian Xiao’s nose, shouting, "I get bullied outside, and you don’t even ask questions before condemning me! What kind of useless father are you? You think you’re so great because you have some money? You think raising a successor for the Lian Family is enough? What about me?"

"How do you treat me? You only had two sons; can’t you treat us equally?"

"If this happened to my brother today, how would you two old fools react?"

"You would definitely try to investigate, to see if it was that woman’s fault!"

"But with me, you just assume I did it!"

"In your eyes, I’m just trash, right?"

The more Lian Yingya spoke, the angrier he became, feeling the urge to strike his parents.

It was these two hypocritical idiots who had ruined him!

No matter what he did, they always thought he wasn’t doing it right.

Lian Xiao and Tian Yun were first stunned by Lian Yingya’s agitated outburst, then angered by the challenge to their parental authority.

"Ever since you were a child, you’ve been fighting, skipping classes, and getting into relationships too early," Lian Xiao began, his voice rising. "You got a young girl pregnant, driving her to attempt suicide out of shame. Now, she can only spend her days in a wheelchair."

"How did you handle it back then? You claimed the girl seduced you. What’s the truth?"

Lian Xiao suddenly stood up and slapped Lian Yingya twice across the face.

"Look at the messes you’ve made in the past before you question why we don’t trust you!"

"What have you ever done to make us stand firmly by your side?"

"You brought an unknown woman and blew tens of millions at the Su Family Mall in one night, feeling proud of yourself, right?"

Lian Xiao was so angry he was almost breathless. If not for having such a capable son as Lian Yingting, he would have doubted his own genes, thinking he could only produce trash.

"It’s because you’re incompetent! You can’t even deal with some cheap woman from an ordinary family!" Lian Yingya roared back.

Those were just absurd things he did when he was young and reckless! Why couldn’t they just let it go?

Tian Yun looked at her younger son’s distorted face but, surprisingly, calmed down.

"Your father and I will investigate this matter thoroughly," she said. "If you’ve been slandered, we won’t let the slanderer get away with it. But if you did do it, don’t blame us for disregarding parental affection."

Lian Yingya scoffed. "Another good cop, bad cop routine? I’m sick of your tricks."

"You just despise me for tarnishing your reputation, right? Why the pretense?"

Lian Xiao retorted, "So you don’t think the shameful things you’ve done tarnish your reputation? Over the years, you’ve claimed to be painting, and we even invested money for you to learn. But what did you actually learn? You didn’t even grasp the basic knowledge or different schools of painting. Instead, you picked up all sorts of disreputable habits, engaging in so-called ’body art’ with others."

"It’s because you don’t appreciate it!"

"Whether we appreciate it or not is irrelevant. The entire market doesn’t appreciate you; don’t you realize there’s a problem with you?"

"Art is meant for the few; why should I care about the market?" Lian Yingya shot back.

"You don’t even know what art is! You can’t even stick to what you supposedly love. Apart from constantly shirking responsibility, what else can you do? Without the Lian Family, you would have been homeless long ago!"

Lian Yingya sneered. "So that’s your real intention, isn’t it? You find me an eyesore and are scheming to drive me out of the family!"

"So what if we are? You hate us to the core, don’t you? Are you allowed to hate us, but we can’t be disgusted by you?"

Lian Xiao was genuinely fed up with his younger son—a man in his thirties who could never calm down to deal with issues and always resorted to blaming others.

"I knew you didn’t like me! Fine! If you don’t like me, just give me one hundred million, and I’ll sever ties with you immediately!"

"When I make it big, I’ll make you all regret this!"

"I won’t give you a single cent! Get out!" Lian Xiao was seething.

Upstairs, Lian Yingting and Li Shen heard everything clearly.

Lian Yingting stood up, intending to go down and mediate, but Li Shen held him back.

"It’s already escalated to this point," Li Shen said softly. "Going down now won’t help. It will only anger Yingya further and make Father and Mother even more heartbroken."

Lian Yingting didn’t immediately counter or agree with her words; after thinking it over, he sat back down.

"Li Shen, thank you for reminding me."

Li Shen also breathed a sigh of relief. It was commendable that he was willing to take her advice and didn’t blame her for overstepping.

Lian Yingya stormed out, angrily slamming the door behind him.

Lian Xiao and Tian Yun were also deeply upset.

Lian Xiao exclaimed, "I really want to disown him!"

"Don’t be like that," Tian Yun interjected. "We need to solve the problem, not create new ones."

"For the Lian Family, Yingya is the biggest problem!" Lian Xiao insisted.

Lian Yingting and Li Shen came downstairs.

Li Shen asked someone to tidy up the living room, while Lian Yingting said to his parents, "Let’s ignore him for now and see what trouble he and his new girlfriend can stir up. When I was watching the video, the moment that young girl appeared, the woman didn’t offer any explanation at all. After being slapped, she just covered her face and said nothing. I reasonably suspect her face was injured, and she can’t show it in public."

"Cosmetic surgery?" Lian Xiao and Tian Yun exclaimed in unison, astonished. In their circle, a woman who had undergone cosmetic surgery was synonymous with a gold-digger and a drama queen.

"It’s just speculation," Lian Yingting continued. "Yingya just bought tens of millions worth of items to please her, which was the perfect time for her to make her presence known. Yet she barely spoke and kept her face covered the entire time. Her behavior is puzzling."

Lian Xiao said angrily, "We can’t bring a family-wrecking troublemaker into our home. Yingting, investigate that woman’s background."

"No problem."

「Imperial Garden.」

Early the next morning, during breakfast, Wu Shi placed a file folder in front of Fu Bing.

"What is this?" Fu Bing asked.

"Something you’ll find interesting," Wu Shi teased, keeping her in suspense.

Fu Bing quickly finished her breakfast and took the file folder into the study.

Wu Shi sauntered after her. Being tall and lanky, his every casual movement was strikingly attractive.

Xiaomei, her cheeks stuffed with food, stared with big, round eyes at Wu Shi’s retreating figure.

"Wu Shi must have been very handsome before," Xiaomei mumbled.

Jian Si, who had also stayed over, looked up at Xiaomei upon hearing this.

Xiaomei asked excitedly, "Have you seen what Wu Shi looked like before?"

"No," Jian Si lied casually.

"I feel like his family background isn’t bad," Xiaomei mused.

Of course, it isn’t bad. Jian Si thought. He’s from the Qin Family of Jiangcheng, after all. How bad could it be?

Xiaomei didn’t pursue the topic further. "Are we going to cause trouble for You Nie today?"

"We’ll wait for Bing’s instructions," Jian Si replied.

"Oh, okay." As soon as Xiaomei heard that her sister had plans, she waited obediently.

「Inside the study.」

After Fu Bing finished reading the contents of the file, her expression was quite expressive.

Wu Shi, arms crossed, watched her shifting expressions with amusement.

Fu Bing put down the file and looked at Wu Shi. For a moment, she couldn’t find the words to describe her current feelings.