Chapter 31 Chapter 31 What's Your Price?

Director Jiang, who was supposed to arrive in Qiwei City two days later, returned home early, and the Jiang residence, which had gradually fallen into silence, suddenly became busy again.

Jiang Yongting is a person who attaches great importance to rules.

The twins had no intention of going downstairs to greet him, but when they were standing at the window looking down, their eyes met Jiang Yongting's, so they couldn't make up some lame excuse about being asleep and not knowing he was back.

Jiang Ling followed Jiang Xun downstairs, and sneered at the busy servants, "The old man really knows how to make people suffer." Turning around the corner, she saw her father sitting upright in the living room.

Although Jiang Ling always called Jiang Yongting "old man" with some malice, in fact Jiang Yongting was not really that old.

A middle-aged man in a dark grey formal suit, with only slightly grey hair at the temples and a tired look on his face, was sitting on the sofa waiting for the servant to make him tea.

"Drinking tea in the middle of the night, aren't you afraid of staying awake until dawn?" Jiang Ling sneered softly.

"Jiang Xun, Jiang Ling."

The man on the sofa loosened his tie, leaned back with his teacup in hand, and tried his best to look like a relaxed and loving father.

But when the twins and Chen Luan walked into the living room, he frowned again.

"Put away the pheromones that are floating around. What does that look like?"

Jiang Yongting frowned and scolded softly.

"I'm in the susceptible period and can't put it away." Jiang Ling directly stepped onto the sofa opposite Jiang Yongting, rubbing against the sofa like a boneless person, and even raised her legs and folded her feet on the coffee table where Jiang Yongting's tea set was placed.

The attitude is extremely arrogant:

"Have you forgotten that our pheromones are stronger than normal?"

Jiang Xun sat next to Jiang Ling. Although he wasn't as presumptuous as Jiang Ling, there was no respect in his tone. "Ordinary inhibitors aren't very effective. This is all we can do. I hope Director Jiang will bear with me."

They are so distant that they don't seem like father and son.

Chen Luan, who was following behind, nodded slightly at Jiang Yongting: "Director Jiang."

But Jiang Yongting didn't even glance at Chen Luan and completely ignored him.

At this moment, he was taking the teacup handed to him by the maid, blowing on the tea leaves floating in the cup. He frowned and glanced at Jiang Ling's legs on the coffee table: "Jiang Ling, put your legs down. It's outrageous."

"I've already contacted the school. You can register directly after the exam. You don't have to worry about the scores."

Jiang Ling and Jiang Xun were arguing with Chen Luan.

"Why are you standing here? Aren't you tired of standing?" Jiang Ling grabbed Chen Luan's arm and pulled him to the edge of the sofa.

Jiang Xun pressed Chen Luan's shoulders and sat down.

"I'm talking to you!"

Jiang Yongting placed the teacup in his hand heavily on the coffee table, making a crisp "click" sound.

"Tsk, I'm not going." Jiang Ling, who had just pulled Chen Luan to sit down, impatiently threw away the pillow beside him and was about to leave: "Whoever you want to go can go. I need to rest."

"There's an exam tomorrow." Jiang Xun also moved.

"I'm not negotiating with you."

Strange pheromones swirled in the air, pressing towards Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling.

"Everyone, sit down quietly."

The two eighteen-year-olds, approaching their susceptible period, were caught off guard by the pheromones of a mature A-level alpha, and a sharp buzzing sounded in their heads.

The glands at the back of my neck immediately began to swell and burn.

Jiang Ling raised her hand to cover the back of her neck, staring at the man opposite her, a mocking smile on her lips: "Director Jiang is really arrogant. He even uses pheromones to attack his own son at home."

Jiang Xun looked at his father calmly, his face expressionless, his voice steady and calm: "You made this decision without considering our wishes. I don't accept it."

"It's not your turn to accept it or not."

Jiang Yongting folded his hands on the table, leaned back, and glared at his two disobedient sons. His tone was full of pressure that could not be refused, but after a moment he relaxed and softened his tone:

"I'm doing this for your own good. Just go ahead and sign up, and I'll pave the way for you."

"Pave the way?" Jiang Ling seemed to have heard something funny, so she curled her lips and looked into Jiang Yongting's eyes: "Pave the way for whom? Your political career?"

"Don't you need to worry about your grades? Ha." Jiang Ling sneered: "Do you need to worry about it?"

Jiang Xun almost sighed and laughed as he looked at his father: "Have you never even looked at our report cards?"

With Jiang Ling's grades, she is more than qualified to study at the Political Science and Law University that Jiang Yongting mentioned. Even if she works harder before the exam, it may not be impossible for her to enter several top universities including the Federal Military Academy.

As for Jiang Xun, he can pick anyone he wants.

Including federal military academies.

Jiang Yongting was stunned for a moment, then waved his hand: "It doesn't matter. Anyway, just be obedient, and I will arrange everything for you in the future. My children don't have to worry about which path to take in the future."

"There might be a party later. You can come with me. I'll take you to meet the two children from the Zhou and Yu families."

As his two sons' brows gradually furrowed, Jiang Yongting acted like an open-minded parent who respected their opinions: "You two can discuss who you want to be engaged to."

"Ha." Jiang Ling laughed out loud in anger, and even called him by his name:

"Jiang Yongting, are you crazy? Engaged to the Zhou family?"

Has he forgotten the embarrassing scene when Jiang Yongting went to the Zhou family to negotiate terms and gifts when his grandfather fell ill, but was thrown out of the door with his belongings?

When he and Jiang Xun were blocked in the alley by Zhou Jing and his men and beaten up, this man put on a fawning face and bowed and apologized to the Zhou family. Jiang Ling will never forget it in his life.

What does Jiang Yongting think of them as brothers now?

A tool to help him rise to the top?

However, right after Jiang Ling finished speaking, there was a loud bang.

A cup of boiling hot tea flew towards Jiang Ling's head.

The middle-aged man across from him slammed his hand on the table, raised his eyebrows, and shouted in a low voice: "Jiang Ling, who taught you to call your biological father by his first name?!"

Jiang Ling watched without blinking as the teacup hit his face, even with a bit of a vicious dog-like smile on his lips.

But in the next second, a bony hand took the cup steadily.

The steaming hot tea splashed onto the fingers and backs of the hands, which were white and almost transparent, and instantly turned a glaring red.

"Chen Luan! You——"

Jiang Ling, who had just gritted her teeth and had an expression that said, "Kill me if you dare," suddenly panicked visibly. She raised her hand and grabbed Chen Luan's wrist. Looking at the burn that was getting redder and redder, her breathing became heavier: "...hand."

Chen Luan just waved his hand and placed the teacup steadily on the coffee table.

"Director Jiang, isn't it a bit hasty to make such an arbitrary decision on a child's marriage?"

The atmosphere in the living room was almost frozen.

Even the servants lowered their eyes and stared at their toes, holding their breath and counting the patterns on the floor tiles under their feet.

Jiang Yongting just raised his eyelids and didn't even look at Chen Luan.

"Why are you still here?"

He looked away and raised his hand to let the servant pour tea: "This is the Jiang family, you have no right to speak. What I arrange for my son has nothing to do with you."

Although it was a spacious living room, it suddenly became quiet.

The air was squeezed as if it was stuffed into some narrow gap, making it gradually difficult to breathe.

"His father saved your life, and you signed an adoption agreement."

Jiang Xun applied the ice pack he had just asked someone to bring to the back of Chen Luan's hand, raised his light amber eyes, looked at his father, and his voice was as cold as ice.

However, Jiang Yongting just chuckled, as if he had heard something funny: "Ha, did I let him save me?"

"He's a security guard, that's his job. I brought bodyguards, but he came here to get killed."

"I've raised his son for so many years, providing him with good food, drink, and good schools. I've done my best, right?"

He held the teacup and squinted at his son: "Adoption agreement, haha. Jiang Xun, you are still too young."

"That's for outsiders to see. If I say he is, then he is. If I say he is not, then he will never be a member of the Jiang family."

"Jiang Xun, you are such a naive child. How can I trust you to take care of the Jiang family?"

“Oh, right—”

"Your name is Chen Luan, right?"

Jiang Yongting put the tea he had taken a sip of on the table.

"I heard you found a job at the military academy?"

"It's not bad for a beta to be able to achieve this level. It's worth all the books I paid for you to read."

"Just be obedient and don't interfere in matters that are not your business."

"I will still allow you to continue living in the Jiang family and call yourself the Jiang family's adopted son."

There was dead silence.

The moment the words fell, even the air in the living room became sticky, and the hands of the wall clock that kept spinning stopped. In a trance, there was even a sharp buzzing sound that was pressed into the eardrum like a needle.

Then he fell into a vacuum like death.

Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling looked at Jiang Yongting, their eyes seemed to be looking at one,

...a complete stranger.

They didn't know that their biological father, who was already lowly to begin with, could now be broken to such a level that it made them feel ashamed and their faces began to turn red.

It was like a precious leather bag filled with tattered cotton wool, which suddenly rotted away. Only then did they discover that the rotten cotton wool contained something even more smelly.

At this moment, Chen Luan felt like laughing.

Faced with Jiang Yongting's absurd argument, he felt no surprise at all.

So he actually laughed out loud.

It is particularly abrupt in a space where you can hear a pin drop.

"So Director Jiang, what you mean is—"

Chen Luan stepped on the water stains on the floor and walked to the middle-aged man sitting on the sofa. He leaned forward slightly and raised a mocking arc at the corner of his mouth:

"Is this all a human life is worth?"

There was an irrepressible irony in his cold grey eyes, and the look that was like staring at a clown suddenly made Jiang Yongting's face feel like it was on fire.

"He's just a civilian beta. As his son, you were able to attend an aristocratic school, get into a military academy, and get a good job. Shouldn't you be grateful to me?"

Jiang Yongting looked away, and after a moment he regained his arrogance and chuckled:

"If it weren't for the Jiang family, you would have rotted in a pigeon cage in the slums of Chenggang District for the rest of your life."

Chen Luan straightened up and glanced at Jiang Yongting with his eyes lowered: "Director Jiang."

Those gray eyes curved upward into a beautiful crescent moon, but there was a dark and cold feeling in the bottom of the eyes.

"I mean—"

"Is this all your life is worth?"

The young man's mouth curled up in a mocking manner, and he looked at the man with a cold, sharp gaze, as if he were looking at something disgusting and filthy. "That's really cheap."

"you--"

"Oh, right."

Chen Luan suddenly seemed to remember something, and like a magic trick, he took out a recorder that he had hidden somewhere, with its indicator light flashing blue.

He tilted his head and gave the man an interested smile:

"you say--"

"If these words were to reach the hands of beta equal rights activists, what would be the chances of Director Jiang being re-elected in the next referendum?"

"When did you record this?!" The man in front of him immediately darkened and reached out to grab the recorder from Chen Luan's hand: "Give it to me!"

Chen Luan dodged sideways nimbly and put his foot on the armrest of the sofa.

The leg muscles tensed for a moment—

“Sizzle——”

The sofa and Jiang Yongting, who was sitting on it, immediately slid several meters away.

Even due to inertia, his body couldn't help but lean forward and he almost fell to the ground.

"Jiang Yongting."

Chen Luan took two steps back and calmly looked at the man who was barely able to steady himself, his neck gradually turning red.

"People always have to pay the price for their words and actions."

"I never owe you anything."

"You owe Chen Duan a life."

"Ah, you just wanted me to thank you, right?"

Chen Luan supported his chin and suddenly seemed to remember something, and took out a coin from his pocket.

He leaned over with a smile, raised his hand and put the coin into the handkerchief pocket on the other man's chest. Then he stretched out his slender index finger and, under the middle-aged man's stiff gaze, pushed the coin into his pocket bit by bit. After that, he smoothed the wrinkle of his clothes in a good mood.

"Don't think it's too little."

"After all—"

Chen Luan stood up and stepped back, pulling a tissue from the tea table and carefully wiping his hands: "You're only worth this price."

"Director Jiang, you must remember this."

"Every breath you take is connected to that civilian beta you look down upon."

"And everything I have now never came from your charity."

"As for when I will send this recording out."

Chen Luan glanced at the other person, with the corner of his mouth raised: "It depends on my mood."

After Chen Luan finished speaking, he didn't give Jiang Yongting a chance to speak again and walked straight upstairs.

In the air where you could hear a pin drop, Chen Luan's cold voice floated down:

"I'll move."

"I will move my household registration out."

"My adoption relationship with the Jiang family is over."

"Only you treat this adopted son status as a precious treasure."

"To me, it's worthless."

"I hope Director Jiang will..."

Chen Luan stood lazily on the stairs, leaning against the handrail, flipping the recorder flexibly in his hands.

A mocking laugh filled the air:

"Smooth, smooth, profitable, profitable, smooth rise to the top."

The young man's figure disappeared around the corner upstairs.

Suddenly, there was a crackling sound of broken porcelain in the living room.

Jiang Yongting brushed away all the tea sets on the table, his hands shaking. "You! An ungrateful bastard! You've grown up and become more powerful, haven't you?"

"Do you think your two recordings can have any effect on me? You're dreaming!"

"I want to see what you can become without the Jiang family!"

He angrily took the coin out of his pocket and threw it to the ground with hatred, making a crisp clanging sound.

The voice was as clear as his self-esteem that had been crushed into shards of glass by Chen Luan.

But Chen Luan had long disappeared.

The poor man was too embarrassed to chase after her, so he could only stand there in a rage, his neck turning the color of liver due to the rage.

"Director Jiang, you really opened my eyes."

Jiang Xun stood up and looked up at his father. He tilted his head slightly and smiled a mocking smile that was exactly the same as Chen Luan's. "However, your description of yourself is quite accurate."

The tea splashed on the ground wet the boy's trouser legs.

He lowered his eyes and lifted his foot: "Tsk. So dirty."

Jiang Ling's performance was more direct.

He looked at the man standing there like an angry lion with great disgust: "Jiang Yongting, you are so shameless."

"If anyone wants to leave this house, it should be you, not Chen—"

With a crisp "pa" sound, the boy's voice stopped abruptly.

A burning sensation spread across my cheeks.

The man who had lost his power in front of a young man seemed to have found a way to reassert his authority, so he raised his hand and slapped him again.

But this time he failed to succeed, as the young man in front of him stopped him and threw him away.

Jiang Ling's tongue tip touched the slightly numb corner of his mouth, and he raised his eyes and continued to curl his lips towards his father who was already too angry to speak, revealing an even more provocative smile:

"Did I say something wrong?"

"When did you, Director Jiang, ever consider this place your home and yourself a father instead of a politician?"

"I don't need you to arrange my life."

Jiang Ling lowered the corner of her lips, and her suppressed emotions dyed dark golden pupils as she looked at her father with a piercing chill.

"I'm not a tool for you to manipulate."

"Jiang Yongting, you make me feel... ashamed."

"You can be your politician, but don't try to control my life."

Jiang Xun didn't look at Jiang Yongting again: "You've never done what a father should do, so there's no need to pretend that you're doing this for your own good."

"You know whose benefit this is for."

The middle-aged man standing next to the coffee table seemed to have been hit in the sore spot.

He trembled his lips and slammed the tabletop loudly, as if this could demonstrate his authority:

"I'm your father! Everything I do is for this family!"

"Marrying into the Zhou and Yu families will help the Jiang family rise to greater heights. How could I harm you? Don't be ungrateful!"

The two teenagers who had already stepped onto the stairs did not look back.

Only Jiang Xun's calm voice remained:

"The Jiang family you mentioned is just your career, it has nothing to do with me."

The sound of a heavy object falling to the ground in frustration could be heard again in the living room.

At this time, Chen Luan was sitting in the room, with the recorder spinning and flying in his hand.

In fact, there was no recording at all. There was no time to record it.

Just bluffing Jiang Yongting.

But seeing the servants carrying large and small bags of luggage into the main house, as if the master of the house was going to live there permanently, Chen Luan decided it would be better to move out.

Otherwise, he would have to see Jiang Yongting's face every day, and he was afraid that he would not be able to eat and become malnourished.

The other accounts can be settled slowly later.

He just glanced around the room and suddenly fell silent again.

The time he lived here was not actually very long, but it has already filled Chen Luan with many memories.

Apart from the things belonging to Chen Luan, there are traces of Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling everywhere.

Jiang Ling likes to lie on the sofa and play games.

Jiang Xun often stood in front of the cabinet filled with all kinds of small gadgets to help organize them.

Jiang Ling's coat, which she had thrown casually, was still lying on the back of the chair next to the desk.

On the bedside table was a half-finished book that Jiang Xun hadn't finished reading the last time he came over.

Oh, right.

There seem to be two emergency suppressants in the small storage box over there.

There was a light knock on the door. When Chen Luan came to his senses, he saw Jiang Ling standing at the door, appearing exceptionally silent.

Standing behind him was Jiang Xun, who was also silent.

"Hey, what's going on today? You actually learned to knock on my door when you entered my room?"

Chen Luan turned around, leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms and teased, his glassy gray eyes curved, seemingly no different from usual.

"Come in? What are you doing standing at the door? The floor in my room is hot."

But the two young men at the door did not move.

The room fell silent for a moment.

A moment later.

"sorry."

"Feel sorry."

“…”

Chen Luan was stunned for a moment, then blinked, lowered his eyes and curled the corners of his lips.

He stood up and slowly walked over to the two children who were standing at the door with their heads lowered, like stuffed dogs who had done something wrong.

The twins lowered their eyes, not daring to look at Chen Luan's expression.

Just the next second, I felt a warm touch on my head.

Chen Luan stroked his brothers' furry heads with a smile on his face and sighed softly, "Why do you look so guilty that you want to commit suicide right here? This has nothing to do with you."

Jiang Ling shook her head and pressed her lips into a straight line.

"I……"

His voice was stuck in his throat, like a ball of wet and cold cotton, but he couldn't say anything.

Jiang Xun behind him raised his eyes and looked at Chen Luan:

"If you want to do something, it's okay. Don't worry about us."

"He brought this upon himself."

But the next second, Jiang Xun's forehead was hit lightly by Chen Luan.

"What are you thinking? The recorder didn't even have time to record anything. I lied to him."

"If I really wanted to do something, it wouldn't be now."

Chen Luan leaned over and laughed:

"How was it? Wasn't the old man's expression just now funny?"

Jiang Xun: “…”

Jiang Ling: “…”

In fact, he really hoped that there was something in Chen Luan's recorder.

real.

"Okay, okay, be happy, ok?"

Chen Luan laughed, raised his arms and put his arms around his two younger brothers' shoulders, pulling them into his arms, and patted their heads gently: "Didn't you say you wanted to sleep over here with me? Go get some pillows?"

The clean and warm scent of the young man was like a soft cloud, gently supporting the two young alphas' falling emotions.

Jiang Ling's throat rolled, and he moved his lips, his voice low and a little hoarse:

"Chen Luan."

"Can you..."

Don't go.