Chapter 554 - 207: Acknowledging Kinship (Part 2)

Chapter 554: Chapter 207: Acknowledging Kinship (Part 2)

"The day my mother fell into the water, was that cousin on the boat?"

This question came from Chen Wanqing.

After asking, her delicate brows furrowed even tighter. She clearly couldn’t comprehend how someone would commit murder over a man.

Seeing this, Zhao Jing squeezed Chen Wanqing’s hand.

Their sleeves overlapped, hiding the contact beneath. But no one present was blind; from the gentle rise and fall of the fabric, it was obvious their hands were clasped together.

Everyone was happy to see the young couple so affectionate.

But at the mention of that dreadful person, everyone couldn’t help but feel a sense of disgust.

Xu Yanlin said, "That cousin was there too. The boat was small, so there were only six people on board. Besides the boatman, there was Yan Cheng, the cousin with her maid, and my aunt with her maid. My aunt’s maid saw her fall into the undercurrent and desperately tried to save her. She couldn’t save my aunt and was swept away herself. They had to search for miles downstream before her body was found."

"What about Yan Cheng? Didn’t he try to save her? And the cousin? What happened to them?"

"They were fine." As he said this, Xu Yanlin’s voice was laced with deep resentment.

"You may not know this, cousin, but that girl grew up in Jiangnan. Not only her, but even her maid were excellent swimmers."

At the critical moment, they stopped Yan Cheng from going in, and the two of them—mistress and maid—worked together to pull him to shore.

The three of them were safe. Even the boatman, with his superb skills, narrowly escaped disaster. Only my aunt and her loyal maid were lost. The maid’s body was found, but my aunt vanished without a trace.

"Since you suspected the cousin of foul play, did the family report it to the authorities?"

"Of course we did."

It was a major incident, so when the Xu family reported it, the Capital Governor’s office accepted the case immediately. However, the investigation ended with the cousin’s foster brother.

That foster brother took all the blame. He claimed that his young mistress and Yan Cheng were childhood sweethearts and that he couldn’t stand to see the young lady from the Xu family steal her man, so he acted ruthlessly.

He added that he regretted almost implicating his young mistress and the young master.

Anyone with eyes could see that wasn’t the truth, but this foster brother was truly vicious. Before the government could even torture him, he bit off his own tongue and died right there in the courtroom.

The investigation stalled there and was left unresolved.

How could the Xu family let it go?

They searched for more evidence but found nothing.

But the Xu family didn’t let the Chengyi Bo Mansion off easy.

The old master of the Chengyi Bo Mansion passed away, and Yan Cheng’s father, Yan Gao, was arrogant and overreaching, his ambition far exceeding his ability.

Much of the Yan family’s network was connected to the Xu family. With just a single look from the Xus, many people stopped giving the Yans any face.

As a result, even though Yan Cheng was a young prodigy, accomplished in both literature and martial arts, he is now merely a Sixth Rank official due to the Xu family’s suppression.

His stalled career made Yan Cheng gloomy and violent, and he gradually devolved into a sycophant.

The wife of Mr. Chengyi once came to our home and knelt, begging us to let them off the hook. But if we let them go, who would let our aunt go?

It’s been nearly twenty years. For our aunt, there has been no sign of her, dead or alive. My grandmother has been bedridden for two decades, her heart utterly broken.

As Xu Yanlin recounted this past, his tone was a mixture of grim satisfaction and anguish.

All because of one woman, two families who had been friends for generations tore each other apart, and neither found any peace.

That hateful woman was incredibly resourceful. Even after being sent away to a country estate, she still managed to bear Yan Cheng a son and a daughter. It’s ironic, really.

Fortunately, neither of her children turned out well. The daughter was raised to be arrogant, cunning, insecure, and gloomy. The son is as timid as a mouse; people could walk all over him and he wouldn’t dare to fight back.

What’s more, Yan Cheng suffered a backlash—he lost his ability to have more children. Those two are the only ones he’ll ever have.

It’s truly karma!

Chen Wanqing and the others were stunned silent after hearing how it all ended.

Xu Su Ying clutched her forehead. "They still haven’t separated after all this? I seriously suspect that blasted Yan Cheng and his cousin are the real male and female leads in a toxic, angsty romance, and I’m just the vicious supporting character."

Even though Chen Wanqing and Chen De’an were used to the nonsensical things their mother sometimes said, they were completely baffled this time. "Mother, what are ’male and female leads’? What’s a ’supporting character’? What do you mean?"

Obvious question marks hung over both of their faces. Xu Yanlin, in contrast, wasn’t surprised at all.

Instead, he said with calm certainty, "You must be my aunt. There’s no doubt. Father and Grandmother both said you always had many strange and wonderful ideas and would often say things they couldn’t understand. But once you explained them, they found your words to be insightful and very interesting."