Chapter 44: South Garden Part 2

Dai Yi propped her face in her hands, but said no more.

Dai Linxuan didn’t press and pulled out a sanitizing tissue to wipe his distinctively jointed fingers one by one. He lowered his eyes and sank into other thoughts.

It was a very ordinary action, but on Dai Linxuan, it was pleasing to the eye.

Dai Yi turned her gaze to Lai Li and suddenly asked, “Second Brother, what are your plans after Big Brother gets married?”

Being called out like that made Lai Li feel nauseous. He drank his soup expressionlessly. “No plans.”

“You can’t just follow Big Brother to his new home with Big Sis-in-law.” Dai Yi looked a bit troubled. “Once Big Brother marries, his energy will focus on his own little family. He and I at least have blood ties, but you…”

Dai Linxuan set down the tissue and raised his eyes to stop her. “Xiao Yi.”

As if she hadn’t heard, Dai Yi continued chattering away. “You don’t have the Dai surname, and you’re not on the same household registry as us. If Big Sis-in-law doesn’t like you one day, you won’t even have a legitimate reason to get close to Big Brother.”

Lai Li slowly narrowed his eyes.

Dai Yi’s eyes lit up. She clapped her hands. “I thought of a brilliant idea!”

Dai Linxuan’s eyelid twitched. He had just stood up when he heard Dai Yi excitedly say—

“Second Brother, why don’t you marry into the Dai Family and wed me? Then you’d be Big Brother’s brother-in-law! You could even change your surname to Dai. At least during holidays, we could eat at the same table… Oh my god, I’m such a genius!”

Dai Linxuan stumbled, caught by the chair leg. Fortunately, Lai Li grabbed his arm.

The eldest Miss Dai was thrilled. “What do you think of this idea?”

Lai Li’s face turned green. After a long moment, he squeezed out, “Did eating make you need to shit right away?”

“Big Brother’s such good upbringing didn’t pass to you at all?” Dai Yi tsked, quite regretful. “Someone like you could only be kept at home after marriage. Taking you out would lose face.”

Dai Linxuan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Xiao Yi, don’t mess around.”

Dai Yi sighed. “Isn’t this proposal good? I’m even humbling myself here.”

Lai Li set down his spoon and said with a fake smile, “Did that fifty thousand hit your account? It should have some interest by now. Why don’t you use it to check your brain at the Fifth Hospital—”

Dai Linxuan pressed his shoulder, interrupting the brewing war. “Go upstairs and rest.”

Lai Li stood up and left the dining room without looking back.

Only Dai Linxuan and Dai Yi remained in the dining room. The latter took a leisurely sip of soup. “I thought you’d ask me about Uncle.”

During the long holiday, Dai Linxuan had originally planned to have dinner with Dai Enming, but Dai Yi intercepted it, causing Dai Enming to stand him up temporarily. Later contacts were all evasions.

Dai Linxuan leaned lightly against a chair and looked at Dai Yi for a good while. “If I ask you, you won’t do anything else afterward?”

“I’m your blood sister. Sweet-talk me a few times, and maybe family affection will move me.” Dai Yi said in a complaining tone. “How do you know if you don’t try?”

Dai Linxuan stood and left. As he passed Dai Yi, he patted her shoulder lightly but said nothing.

Dai Yi didn’t turn back. She slowly finished her soup and looked at the table of unfinished dishes. “One after another, all with bird appetites.”

The auntie happened to come in and asked worriedly upon hearing, “Were the dishes not good today?”

Dai Yi picked up bites from each to taste and reassured her. “No, they’re delicious.”

They just had other choices.

…

“The Huo Family’s business wasn’t clean in the early years.” Jiang Qiujun stood by the window, gazing at the garden under the dim yellow lights. “I don’t plan to get involved with them. You should think twice as well.”

Dai Linxuan stood not too near or far. “It’s not like they haven’t cleaned up after all these years.”

Jiang Qiujun glanced back at him, somewhat surprised. “You know?”

“I’ve heard some rumors. The crackdowns from above these years—they wouldn’t dare go back to the old ways.” Dai Linxuan said unhurriedly. “I’ve checked that subsidiary. No issues. We’re just borrowing a path. We don’t have to merge inseparably with the Huo Family.”

“You didn’t seem to oppose much when the marriage came up today.” Jiang Qiujun’s expression was faint. “Once you’re married, whether we separate or not won’t be up to you.”

“It’s just expedience. If I openly oppose, Grandpa won’t feel at ease.” Dai Linxuan paused. “I have no intention of getting married.”

“…” Jiang Qiujun turned sideways, sizing up this child she hadn’t invested much energy in since birth. Suddenly, she asked one more thing. “Is it no plans to marry for now, or never at all?”

Dai Linxuan answered calmly and straightforwardly. “I won’t get married.”

Ordinary parents would scold or at least advise upon hearing this, but Jiang Qiujun just nodded, not even asking the reason.

As if suddenly thinking of something, she asked, “Why did you suddenly return to the country and take such an interest in the company?”

Dai Linxuan lowered his eyes and smiled faintly. “Does this need a reason?”

Jiang Qiujun walked to the sofa on one side and sat down. She crossed her fingers and rested them on her lap, then looked up and said, “Other people’s ambitions don’t need reasons, but you do.”

Dai Linxuan was slightly taken aback. “I don’t need one either.”

Jiang Qiujun looked at him for a moment before suddenly saying, “These past few days, I suddenly realized something—you didn’t just find out two years ago that you weren’t a legitimate son.”

“…” Dai Linxuan hadn’t expected her to bring this up so abruptly. His fingertips curled into his palm and pressed down. Those small, dense wounds had mostly healed, leaving only a few unremoved thorns that still ached faintly.

He walked around to the single-seater sofa opposite and sat down. “I—”

“You knew twelve years ago but only confronted me about it two years ago.” Jiang Qiujun calmly finished for him. “You stopped spending a single cent of the family’s money after turning eighteen, and you even sent Lai Li’s living expenses home on time. Back then, I thought you did it because you felt I didn’t like you and didn’t want to accept my ‘favors,’ with your strong personality and heavy sense of responsibility. Now that I think about it—you clearly knew back then that you weren’t Dai Enhao’s child.”

There wasn’t a trace of embarrassment or shame on Jiang Qiujun’s face. Her tone was calm and composed, as if having an affair during marriage wasn’t anything unspeakable.

“Yes…” Dai Linxuan’s gaze dropped slightly at the corners. “I only found out after Dad’s car accident.”

The father he had called for eighteen years had become a vegetable in a car crash. The grief and pain hadn’t even fully dissipated when Dai Linxuan suddenly discovered he was just an illegitimate child who couldn’t be brought into the open, yet he had rightfully taken on the role of the Dai family’s eldest son, enjoying all the privileges of a legitimate child for a full eighteen years.

The elders in their circle’s highest praise for Dai Linxuan was that he was upright and refined, but no one knew he was just a rat raised to look human. He thought he lived openly and honorably, but his birth had already doomed him to humble and sordid roots… It was somewhat ironic.

“You’ve had a strong sense of morality since you were young. Once you learned the truth, you naturally felt ashamed and couldn’t bear to enjoy these things that seemed to not belong to you, so you didn’t fight or grab for anything. You didn’t want any part of the Dai family.” Jiang Qiujun leaned back, propping her elbow on the sofa armrest and pressing her curved fingers against her temple, her brows and eyes slightly closing. “Perhaps you even thought of me as a despicable robber.”

Dai Linxuan gently closed his eyes, his fingertips pressing deeply into his palm, making those unremoved thorns dig in even deeper.

He couldn’t utter a single word of rebuttal for a full minute. Only his throat trembled imperceptibly.

But Jiang Qiujun seemed to have said it casually and didn’t care how Dai Linxuan viewed her. She slowly lifted her eyelids. “It’s equally difficult to turn an extremely virtuous person bad or an extremely wicked one good, so I’m very curious—what reason made you, who initially wanted to cut ties with the Dai family, start fighting and grabbing?”

She didn’t care much about this son, which didn’t mean she couldn’t make objective judgments. On the contrary, she understood Dai Linxuan’s character better than most. Knowing he was illegitimate yet still “seizing” resources that didn’t belong to him, and wanting to use the Huo family’s shady business despite hearing rumors… These weren’t things the old Dai Linxuan would do.

“People change,” Dai Linxuan said.

Jiang Qiujun looked at him for a moment. He had indeed changed a lot.

The old Dai Linxuan had been gentle and sincere. Now, he was still gentle, but no longer sincere—like he wore a human skin mask. At first glance, he seemed the same, but faintly, one could sense too many hidden thoughts beneath that mask.