The capital city, the Qin family's old residence.
The large living room was completely silent. In the main seat sat an elderly man in his seventies with white hair and beard. Around him were a dozen or so people, some sitting and some standing. Upon closer inspection, one could see that they all looked more or less alike.
At this moment, their gazes were all fixed on the young man kneeling motionless in the center of the living room.
After a long pause, the old man in the main seat spoke in a deep voice: "Yu Lin, do you know how much the Qin family has lost because of you alone?"
Yu Lin finally blinked slowly, raised his head, and met the old man's gaze with neither arrogance nor servility.
Two days ago, he woke up at home with a blank mind. The only thing he remembered was that night in Buxian Village when he went to find Nan Xian, only to overhear her announcing to He Mingxiao that they had officially broken up...
Then, he suddenly lost consciousness.
He learned everything that had happened in the past few days from his assistant and was unable to recover for a long time.
His limited experience with the supernatural told him that he was probably possessed.
Otherwise, how can one explain having no recollection of doing so many things in the past few days?
The fire in Buxian Village made him even more uneasy.
He told Nan Xian about being possessed, wanting to know what had happened during the days he was unconscious. However, her reaction surprised him. After hearing his guess, she remained calm and told him to forget what happened in Buxian Village and pretend it never happened.
Yu Lin knew that Nan Xian must know something inside the story.
No matter how much he pressed her for details, Nan Xian refused to reveal a single word.
Soon, Yu Lin couldn't care less about these things anymore, because he was taken to the Qin family.
The Qin family is a representative of the capital's long-established powerful and influential families. Their family tradition is known for its "self-discipline, propriety, integrity, and uprightness," and they have achieved admirable success in every field.
But the reputation built up over generations was completely ruined by a single trending topic.
As a widely circulated saying goes: When you become successful and rich, you will find that you are surrounded by good people and there is not a single bad person.
Humans are extremely opportunistic and hypocritical creatures. When you are at the height of your success, they swarm around you like sharks smelling blood, and everyone chats with you with smiles, as if you were the best of friends. But as soon as you show signs of failure or setbacks, they immediately change their tune, and some even kick you when you're down, wishing they could crush you into the mud so you could never get up again.
When the Qin family got into trouble, there were quite a few people who took the opportunity to stir up trouble. Amidst the overwhelming discussions, rumors deliberately fabricated by others were mixed in and spread wider and wider, eventually even becoming the truth.
The Qin family's reputation was damaged. After the incident escalated, Xuanqin Group's stock price plummeted by more than 6% at the opening of the first trading day and closed down 4.9%, hitting a new low for the year. Its market value evaporated by 4 billion US dollars that day.
Unfortunately, the culprit, Qin Keli, had stepped down as president several years ago and had truly stopped interfering. He wandered around like a hermit. When the illegitimate child incident was exposed, he was abroad. The Qin family could do nothing about him, so they vented their anger on Yu Lin.
Even Old Master Qin, who valued Yu Lin the most, was greatly disappointed in him, and his attitude plummeted.
When Yu Lin was first brought back to the Qin family, Old Master Qin immediately recognized him as a rare talent, showing innate leadership qualities and maturity far beyond his years at a young age.
He didn't care about background or being an illegitimate child. As long as Yu Lin was outstanding enough, he could say he was the real dragon, and who would dare to refute him?
With this in mind, Old Master Qin was not in a hurry to reveal Yu Lin's existence.
He wanted him to leave the entertainment industry and get involved in the Qin family's affairs as soon as possible, but Yu Lin refused. The two sides were deadlocked, and finally, Old Master Qin relented, thinking that it would be good for him to gain experience and broaden his horizons in the entertainment industry.
The entertainment industry is a big melting pot, full of temptations and risks, but it is precisely this that can test Yu Lin's character. If he can't even pass this test, then he will lose the qualification to become the heir of the Qin family.
The only condition from Old Master Qin was that Yu Lin could do whatever he wanted before he turned 20, but after he turned 20, Yu Lin had to return to the Qin family.
Yu Lin agreed.
But now, everything has changed, the world has turned upside down.
"Uncle, you have no idea how vicious the online attacks against our family are! Some people are even saying that the fire was related to our family!" A rather plump woman tapped her phone screen with her bright red nail polish, saying sarcastically, "I heard a master say that illegitimate children are all jinxes, born evil stars! They bring misfortune to their mothers and fathers! Especially in a family like ours, once an illegitimate child appears, it's not just one person who will be harmed, it will bring misfortune to the entire family!"
The middle-aged man standing beside her frowned disapprovingly upon hearing this, but his tone held a hint of amusement, as if he were enjoying the drama: "Little sister, how can you say such things to a junior? Yu Lin's birth mother did die suddenly, and his older cousin has been devastated ever since, not even returning home for years. But what does that have to do with Yu Lin? Every episode of the variety show he's on has an accident, but maybe it's just a coincidence! Most of those self-proclaimed sages are frauds; don't be fooled!"
The plump woman glanced at him and scoffed, "Second brother, don't you dare disbelieve all this. Have you forgotten how the assassin my sister-in-law hired died that year? The way he looked...it was definitely not something a human could do—"
"Enough! Shut up!"
Old Master Qin slammed his hand on the table, causing the teacup to shake violently and spill tea onto the table, leaving a few dark stains.
The woman pursed her lips sheepishly and remained silent, but her face was full of schadenfreude as she looked at Yu Lin.
Old Master Qin's face was gloomy, his gaze falling on Yu Lin, who was kneeling motionless, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
"Yu Lin, do you know how much the Qin family has lost because of you alone?"
As those people pointed and whispered about him, Yu Lin kept his head slightly lowered, his eyes fixed on the floor tiles in front of his knees.
The marble-patterned floor tiles, polished smooth as a mirror by the maid, had a small, inconspicuous crack appear on one side, which seemed increasingly out of place the more you looked at it.
Upon hearing his name called, he slowly blinked, raised his head, and met the old man's gaze calmly and respectfully.
"Pfft—" He suddenly grinned, his amber eyes curving into a mocking smile. "Could it be that I chose to come into this world, that I wanted to be a bastard child who couldn't see the light of day?"
Upon hearing this, the man who had spoken earlier immediately rebuked, "How dare you speak to your grandfather like that! Didn't your mother teach you manners?!"
Yu Lin tilted his head and looked him up and down, finally fixing his gaze on his face with an expression that clearly said, "None of your business."
"My mother died a long time ago. Don't you all know better than anyone how she died?"
"A family that protects murderers, talking about rules here?" Yu Lin's gaze swept over everyone present, his eyes gradually turning cold, as if he were looking at a group of strangers.
"Don't you think it's ridiculous?"
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