“My foolish younger brother...”
The voice came from behind Xin Yanzheng.
The tone was entirely unfamiliar, yet the cadence and spirit behind it were hauntingly familiar to him.
It carried a careless malice and a condescending arrogance.
Xin Yanzheng froze, his entire body stiffening. Before he could even turn around, a hand with well-defined knuckles patted his shoulder gently.
The next moment, the world spun.
The corridor of the Investigation Bureau was gone, replaced by a dark, chaotic void.
The ground beneath his feet felt insubstantial, as if he were walking on clouds.
Xin Yanzheng turned his head to look beside him.
A man stood there.
He was a handsome, long-haired man with a faint non-human feel to him. Those deep eyes were currently looking at him with a playful, mocking smile.
This face bore not the slightest resemblance to the biological elder brother in his memories.
But...
Xin Yanzheng’s gaze scraped across the man’s face inch by inch.
The mocking curve of the lips, the slight lift of the eyebrows, the air of utter disdain for everything...
These subtle expressions were exactly the same as the “evil ghost” who had impersonated his brother all those years ago!
“It really... is you,” Xin Yanzheng said, his voice dry.
Even though he had long suspected it, he still felt a wave of dizziness when the truth was presented to him in such a shocking manner.
“How did you become like this?” Xin Yanzheng stared at Yue Shi.
“Where is my brother’s face? Did you go to Boss Pi to swap your skin?”
“This is the real me,” Yue Shi said faintly.
Before Xin Yanzheng could recover, Yue Shi took a proactive step forward, closing the distance. “I heard you’ve been looking for me?”
“We haven't seen each other in years. If you have questions, feel free to ask. After all, I was your ‘brother’ for over a month. Today, as old acquaintances reunite, I will tell you everything I know.”
His voice was ethereal and fleeting, and he deliberately emphasized the word “brother” with heavy irony.
Xin Yanzheng clenched his fists and took a deep breath, barely managing to steady his emotions. “Don't you feel any shame seeing me? Back then, Mother...”
“Oh? Are you trying to ask if your mother’s death had anything to do with me?” Yue Shi cut him off.
Xin Yanzheng’s expression became complicated. For some reason, he was actually afraid to hear the truth.
Watching him, Yue Shi suddenly broke into a smile. It was a pure, radiant smile, but the blatant malice behind it was almost tangible.
Then, Yue Shi’s thin lips parted, and he clearly and joyfully uttered two words:
“It did.”
Despite having anticipated it, hearing the unabashed confession with his own ears made Xin Yanzheng’s vision go dark.
“You aren't going to ask me something stupid like ‘Why did you do it?’, are you?” Yue Shi asked sarcastically.
“I actually regretted it back then—not sending you down together with your mother, that dead love-brain, for a family reunion.”
“You!” Xin Yanzheng shouted hoarsely, his blood rushing to his head in fury.
“Were we not good to you? Was Mother not good to you? She was clearly the first to realize you weren't my real brother! But she didn't say anything! She still pampered you and cared for you! How could you...!”
Slap!
A loud slap landed on Xin Yanzheng’s face, cutting off his sorrowful and indignant accusation.
One of Xin Yanzheng’s cheeks swelled and turned red, his ears ringing.
He clutched his face, momentarily stunned and in total disbelief. “You hit me? You used to be so reluctant to...”
Slap!
Yue Shi backhanded him with another slap, giving Xin Yanzheng a perfectly symmetrical red face.
He then grabbed Xin Yanzheng’s chin firmly, his face full of impatience. “Why are you still as stupid as ever? Being a bit stupid when you were young was considered cute and clumsily naive. But being this stupid as an adult is just repulsive.”
Yue Shi let go, as if he had touched something filthy. “Your mother was the first to recognize I wasn't Xin Mufeng, yet she chose to help me hide it. Do you want to guess why?”
Xin Yanzheng opened his mouth, wanting to say it was because of her kindness, because of her maternal love...
Yue Shi cut off his fantasy directly and sneered. “Do you actually think your mother was some great saint who tolerated my existence as a ‘ghost’?”
“Don't make me laugh. She only wanted to use my hand to get rid of your father’s other women and monopolize that scumbag father of yours!”
Xin Yanzheng felt as if he had been struck by lightning, momentarily speechless.
Yue Shi continued to use words to tear through his psychological defenses. “It seems you still have a bit of a brain left and haven't turned into a complete idiot; you remember what kind of person your mother was.”
“I thought that after your sister deliberately raised you to be a fool who only knew how to depend on her, you wouldn't have grown a single point of IQ in all these years.”
“You’re lying! Sister is the best sister in the world!” Xin Yanzheng reacted as if his sore spot had been touched, shouting back in agitation.
Yue Shi spoke in a mocking tone. “Yes, Xin Zhuixue was indeed your best sister—on the premise that you didn't compete with her for family assets or power, and didn't threaten her position.”
“She would pamper you like a pet, keeping you carefree and useless. Otherwise, what do you think she would have done? You would have been the first one she got rid of!”
Yue Shi paused, enjoying Xin Yanzheng’s breakdown before dropping an even heavier bombshell. “Also, why do you think your real brother, Xin Mufeng, got into a conflict back then and was almost beaten to death?”
Xin Yanzheng snapped his head up, his eyes filled with disbelief.
Yue Shi spoke the cruel truth. “Naturally, it was your dear sister Xin Zhuixue who meticulously planned it from behind the scenes!”
“Xin Mufeng had been PUA'd by her for years, but later he slowly began to escape her control and stood in opposition to her. How could she keep such an eyesore of a stumbling block around?”
Xin Yanzheng stumbled back a step, his face deathly pale.
Yue Shi’s words carried a convincing magic that constantly interfered with Xin Yanzheng’s mind. The warm memories of the past were being slashed open, one by one.
“It seems that in the years since they died, your memory has been constantly beautifying them, making you forget what they were actually like.”
“Your mother wanted to monopolize her husband and eliminate your father’s other women; your sister wanted to monopolize everything in the Xin family and take out all her competitors.”
“That’s why we got along so well at the beginning. With them helping me cover my tracks and providing all sorts of conveniences, I was able to kill so smoothly. Otherwise, do you think I could have turned the Xin family upside down all by myself?”
Yue Shi tore away all the fig leaves, laying the truth bare before Xin Yanzheng, refusing to let him escape.
Xin Yanzheng’s mind was in total chaos.
The home in his memory, that warm harbor—how much of it was real, and how much of it was a dream he had woven by beautifying the past to escape reality?
Every word from Yue Shi was like a heavy hammer, smashing through his layers of self-deception.
Xin Yanzheng’s aura withered slightly, his eyes flickering. Clearly, he didn't have a single clue—or rather, he had always had an inkling but had never dared or been willing to look deeper.
“So that was the cause of the Xin family’s destruction? The flourishing Xin family was brought down from the inside by the ambitions and schemes of the few of you?” Xin Yanzheng murmured.
Yue Shi looked at him as if he were an idiot. “Flourishing? You actually still think the Xin family was flourishing back then?”
“Hahaha! Are you still reminiscing about your old privileged life, dreaming of a family restoration? Did you really not notice the internal and external turmoil and the precarious state the Xin family was in during that time?”
He shook his head, his tone filled with contempt. “So stupid.”
“What do you mean?” Xin Yanzheng asked like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
“My meaning is simple.” Yue Shi stopped laughing.
“Back then, the Xin family was only a facade of prosperity; in reality, it was already teetering and on the verge of collapse.”
“That’s impossible!” Xin Yanzheng retorted immediately.
“The Xin family was at the height of its power back then! We had every chance to become a new transcendent family!”
“A transcendent family? Hahahaha!” Yue Shi broke into a piercing, eerie laugh once again.
“It seems you truly know nothing about the inside story. You thought your father was a powerful transcendent? Then guess how he was killed so easily by me?”
Xin Yanzheng stiffened his neck. “You’re an evil ghost! Who knows what kind of wicked abilities you have!”
Yue Shi rolled his eyes. “What are you pretending for? You should know better than anyone whether your father was a transcendent or not. After all, the supernatural power you use now is highly similar to your father’s.”
Xin Yanzheng seemed to think of something terrifying, and a look of horror appeared on his face.
Yue Shi pressed on. “Supernatural powers are not hereditary; that is an iron law. Yet you and your father possess almost identical abilities. My dear brother, do you really not have the slightest idea where that supernatural power came from?”
Xin Yanzheng looked at Yue Shi in horror, his voice trembling. “Was it... the statue?”
Yue Shi looked him up and down, observing his expression, and clicked his tongue in wonder. “It seems you really aren't clear on the secrets of the Xin family’s rise and their pearl farming.”
He stopped being cryptic and spoke plainly. “The Xin family rose too quickly and mastered the method of farming those special pearls. Countless eyes had been on you for a long time.”
“The reason those people didn't dare to act rashly was simply because they were wary of your father being a powerful transcendent who could control water, and the Xin family had a natural geographic advantage by the sea.”
“But to truly large organizations, your father’s strength wasn't even worth looking at.”
“Besides, have you never wondered? Aside from that one public performance where he triggered a small tsunami to establish his prestige, did your father ever use his supernatural power again?”
Without giving Xin Yanzheng time to think, Yue Shi revealed the answer. “Your father wasn't a transcendent at all. That tsunami he triggered was a total performance, a scam used to deter those who coveted your family.”
“His ability to trigger the tsunami relied entirely on the Sea God Statue in his hand!”
“To use the Sea God Statue, one needs to sacrifice and pray to it using their own direct bloodline. Only then will the Sea God respond.”
“You don't seem to remember that your half-siblings would always disappear every now and then.”
Xin Yanzheng felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. He vaguely remembered now—some siblings he wasn't familiar with would suddenly vanish, and no one ever explained where they went.
He questioned Yue Shi, “You were only in our house for a little over a month. How could you know so many secrets!”
Yue Shi said cruelly, “Naturally, your dear father told me himself.”
“Don't be fooled by his usual cold and dignified act. After a few rounds of torture, he confessed everything.”
“Many members of the Xin family knew about the sacrifices to the Sea God Statue at the time. Your siblings were driven to frantic internal strife because no one wanted to be the next sacrifice. Your father naturally wouldn't choose his talented children to die, but the ‘waste’ had only one fate.”
“The rise of the Xin family was a dance on the edge of a cliff from the very beginning. Too many people wanted the secret of the pearls, and eventually, your father couldn't withstand the pressure from all sides. He could only keep sacrificing, drinking poison to quench his thirst.”
“I wasn't the only one involved in the tragic deaths of your siblings. Your mother, your sister, and your father were all participants!”
“Your father had many women and many children for the sole purpose of using them as disposables. He loved no one; in his eyes, his wife and children were merely tools!”
“He used special means to entrance those women, making them utterly devoted to him. And your mother was the most fanatical of them all! She loved your father to a distorted, dehumanized degree! She could even personally send her own children to their deaths just to please your father.”
“Your sister Xin Zhuixue was indeed ambitious, but unfortunately, she was trapped in the whirlpool of family infighting and failed to see the fatal crisis coming from the outside.”
“Your sister used me as a blade and wanted to throw me away once she was done; your mother, after your father died, wanted to seek revenge on me like a lunatic. So, I just sent them on their way too. Cleaning up trash should always be thorough, shouldn't it?”
Xin Yanzheng stood there in a daze. Many things seemed different from his previous understanding.
Fragmented images flashed through his mind, and he couldn't tell if they were real or fake.
He couldn't distinguish them.
Was there something wrong with his memory?
Were all those warm and beautiful memories just his own delusions?
As Xin Yanzheng grew increasingly despondent, Yue Shi patted his shoulder gently, his gesture almost intimate. “Actually, you shouldn't hate me at all.”
Xin Yanzheng looked at Yue Shi blankly.
Yue Shi looked him in the eye. “If I hadn't arrived suddenly, your mother was already considering offering you up as a sacrifice to please your father. How could you have lived until today?”
“And think back carefully. Weren't you very happy back then? In your heart, you preferred the brother who could help you solve your problems over your sentimental real brother.”
“Back then, as long as you complained to me a little, the people who made you unhappy would have an accident the next day. At that time, you were enjoying yourself so much that you had long forgotten your real brother.”
“Your father is dead, your mother is dead, and your sister is dead. They’re all dead, which actually makes it easier for you to live. Don't you think so?”
Xin Yanzheng’s mind was in a mess, and for a moment, he actually felt that Yue Shi’s words made a lot of sense.
He thought of his mother’s and sister’s love for him, then thought of his mother’s fanaticism toward his father and his sister’s occasional ruthlessness...
His whole body shook violently.
Stop! He had to physically shut his brain down; he couldn't keep thinking about this!
The look in Xin Yanzheng’s eyes as he watched Yue Shi became complicated.
Yue Shi smiled radiantly, but his words were incredibly biting:
“Look at you. Don't blame me for saying you’re stupid. I only said a few words, and you’ve already forgotten your hatred. You even feel that your mother and sister deserved to die, don't you?”
“Your brain isn't even the size of a walnut. I imagine the Glory Association has done quite a bit of brainwashing on you over the years, and you haven't noticed a single problem, have you?”
Rate on N.U.
