CHAPTER 225: CHAPTER 225: LI YUAN’S CHARACTER COLLAPSED

Qin Jinmo was startled by his mother’s actions.

His mother wasn’t the conventional image of a noblewoman. Though dressed in fine clothes, she carried an unyielding spirit, like wild grass, and possessed an almost feral tenacity. Qin Jinhai’s refusal to admit defeat came from her. No matter how many times he was defeated, he always managed to rise again.

Li Yuan finished cursing and stared fixedly at Qin Sheng’s face. His face hadn’t changed much, just grown even whiter. His eyes had lost their former carefree, candid expression. Those eyes were like two black holes, dark and chilling, striking fear into one’s heart.

Qin Sheng touched the red mark on his face. "You still have such a bad temper," he said.

Li Yuan shook her stinging hand, her gaze growing even colder. "Does it feel good watching your woman sleep with another man, watching your two sons call someone else ’Dad’? Seeing the surveillance footage of me speaking intimately with Qin Shuang, who’s impersonating you, don’t you feel a strong sense of identification?"

"What’s most disgusting about you, Qin Sheng, isn’t the sheer number of schemes you harbor, but your heartlessness. You wouldn’t even protect your own wife and children, leaving them to weather the storms alone."

"No, that’s wrong! You didn’t just fail to protect us; you *caused* our greatest hardships!"

"Qin Sheng, you should have been ashamed of yourself long ago!"

"What gives you the audacity to appear before us? What right do you have to question us? You’re the one truly entangled with the Qin Family, yet my children and I are the ones who have borne the brunt of it. With your intelligence, you couldn’t possibly have failed to find a balance."

"You only hid yourself away because you wanted to watch the spectacle, to see others struggle in darkness and pain. It made you feel like the master of their fates."

Li Yuan felt only sorrow. She had thought he was helpless, so she had trod carefully, not daring to provoke the fake Qin Sheng for fear the real one would be endangered. Only in the end did she discover that Qin Sheng had merely been treating them like lab rats. This realization was utterly sickening!

She could face hardship; she could calmly face the unknown. But she would not allow herself to be manipulated.

If Qin Jinhai hadn’t sent word that the person orchestrating everything was the real Qin Sheng, she would have continued to wait. She would have continued to employ cautious, indirect methods in her dealings with the Qin Family’s Clan Association. All these considerations had been for Qin Sheng’s sake. They had hoped he would remain completely unharmed, living in safety and peace.

But what was the result?

Tears welled in Li Yuan’s eyes. She proudly lifted her head, refusing to let them fall. This man before me isn’t worthy!

There was no hint of apology in Qin Sheng’s eyes. "Without my stepping aside, how could you and the two boys possibly have found the courage to face the subsequent difficulties? Especially Qin Jinhai. Isn’t his excellence a result of the trials I deliberately forged for him?"

"BAH!" Li Yuan raged. "Don’t you dare try to take credit for that! My sons are intelligent because they are naturally gifted and possess formidable willpower and spiritual power; it has nothing to do with you! Without you, their achievements would have been even greater. The trials you deliberately engineered forced them to waste precious time on internal conflict!"

"Now you’re willing to emerge and play the family card because you’ve realized the situation has spiraled beyond your expectations, and neither you nor your much-vaunted Clan Association can resolve the current predicament. If you could resolve it, you wouldn’t have shown up so meekly."

"The Su, Lai, Ren, and even Jian families, along with other competitors large and small, are all lunging at this critical juncture. No matter how capable you are, you can’t fend them all off alone."

"So, you’ve dropped the high-and-mighty facade you cultivated for years and come to us feigning weakness."

"Why should we help you?"

Li Yuan had said a great deal, the most she had spoken in years. These were the questions she had buried in her heart for many, many years.

The man I so carefully chose turned out to be utter scum! I regret that when I realized the man by my side wasn’t Qin Sheng, I didn’t immediately take the children and leave. Instead, I clung to illusions and waited with foolish expectations. It took over twenty years to prove that the man I chose was indeed scum. Damn it, I hate myself the most!

Finally, a crack appeared in Qin Sheng’s composure. "Don’t push your luck! Don’t think I can’t handle you!"

"How do you plan to deal with me? Kill me? Didn’t you order Qin Shuang to kill me? Are you too scared to do it yourself now? Afraid that if you kill me, you’ll lose any chance of getting Qin Jinmo and Qin Jinhai back on your side, right?"

"You had Qin Shuang try to kill me so you could pin the blame on her. Now, you have no one else to scapegoat!"

Qin Sheng rose and walked over to Li Yuan, his thin lips parting slightly. "What I once admired most about you was your brilliant mind. Those who didn’t understand you simply thought you were slow-witted; only those who truly got close could perceive your extraordinary qualities." Qin Sheng’s icy hand reached for Li Yuan’s face. "Your cleverness is repulsive."

Just as Qin Sheng’s hand was about to touch Li Yuan’s face, Qin Jinmo knocked it aside. "You abandoned her once; you have no right to touch her again!"

Qin Jinmo’s tone was uncharacteristically cold. His temperament was vastly different from Qin Jinhai’s. Qin Jinhai was an unsheathed sword, his brilliance unconcealed; Qin Jinmo was a flame hidden beneath an iceberg. Beneath his calm and self-possessed exterior lay a heart burning with solitary courage.

Qin Sheng said, "It seems I’ve been too lenient with you, making you all forget your place!"

"You’re the one who always underestimates others!" Qin Jinmo pulled Li Yuan behind him. "Let’s go back. Others will handle the rest."

’Handle’... such a word should never be used for one’s own family, Qin Jinmo thought, never imagining he would say it with such finality.

Qin Sheng watched their retreating figures, sneering. Dealing with me won’t be that easy.

「That night.」

The Qin Family Mansion caught fire. The blaze spread rapidly, scorching the entire mountain on which it stood. The luxurious, century-old mansion vanished in a sea of flames. After the fire was extinguished, only blackened, skeletal ruins remained. An entire mountain was razed, leaving only barren slopes.

The Qin Family became a trending topic online again, eliciting a wave of consternation.

Fu Bing also saw the news, but the fire at the Qin estate didn’t slow her down.

This fire at the Qin Family’s estate... it might just be their countermove. This blaze is enough to cast the Qin Family as victims and manipulate public opinion. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of media manipulation would recognize this tactic.

Regardless of the Qin Family’s past deeds, the destruction of their ancestral home by fire made them appear defeated in the public eye. One doesn’t pursue a cornered dog into a narrow alley; to do so is to court danger for oneself.

「For a time.」

A wave of sympathy for the Qin Family began to surface online.

Meanwhile, Qin Jinmo and Qin Zhiheng vanished from the internet, as if they had evaporated into thin air.

Qin Jinhai had his men guard all known secret passages of the Qin Family Mansion. They captured numerous figures in black, but Qin Sheng was not among them. He had these men thoroughly searched; none were disguised or had altered their appearances.

Qin Sheng couldn’t have perished so easily in the fire. After scheming behind the scenes for so many years, he wouldn’t just emerge to get himself killed. That wouldn’t be him.

However, with Qin Sheng having slipped into the general populace, it was like releasing a tiger back into the wild. He could reappear as anyone, anywhere.

Qin Jinhai was so angry he wanted to curse. He had never truly dealt with the real Qin Sheng before and had underestimated his cunning. Qin Sheng had deliberately shown himself only to orchestrate a complete disappearance. This time, he had vanished openly, in plain sight. And he had brazenly burned down his own stronghold! This tactic of his... it was just as ingeniously effective as his faked death!